Week In Review - Sunday 19 August 2007

I have been on semi vacation, and haven’t commented on the world wagging by much this week. But this Week In Review idea may be a permanent thing.

CEO Change = Sea Change?

The stepping aside of Dave Sifry and John Furrier from their CEO roles in Technorati and Podtech, respectively, has been discussed widely. Some view these transitions microeconomically, some as indicators of larger trends in the tech world.

Arrington at Techcruch suggests that Sifry’s leaving, and the layoff of eight others, is more about Google ending the ‘Technorati search party’ — where Technorati’s tag pages were showing up high in Google searches — than some watershed in the industry as a whole. Om Malik agrees, Steven Baker used the news as an opportunity to show that Google is much, much better that Technorati and Sphere at blog search, and Pete Cashmore suggests it’s time to get back to basics if Technorati is to survive in a world dominated by Google search.

I wonder what does ‘getting back to basics’ mean for Technorati? The links between blogs — which they use for much of their dataset — is already the true province of Google, and they have no chance of competing there. They have a great asset, handed to them freely by the blogosphere, in the form of a huge warehouse of tags, pointed at by millions of blog posts. Lamentably, current management seems incapable of exploiting this asset to do something important for people. But others — Google for example — are the ones delivering value based on those tags, then Technorati doesn’t really ‘have’ anything. After all, the actual tagging takes place in all posts, and even though every tag includes a URL pointing to ‘www.technorati.com/tags’ that URL prefix could be completely ignored. Google could turn around tomorrow — or anyone else — and create an alternative tagspace to Technorati’s. Other companies, like MyBlogLog, jumped into the area of social networking around blogging — which would have been a natural thing for Technorati to do. Likewise, meme tracking a la Techmeme would be a natural thing to see from Technorati. But the company has been consumed with fiddling with the bugs in its core technology, and new offerings like ‘WTF’ have been bombs. There seem to me to be a variety of ways that tagspaces can be exploited that Technorati is not taking advantage of:

[from The Future Of Social Networks 15 June 2006]

Sponsored aggregation — with a universe expanding into a billion tagspaces, every company could be sponsoring an aggregation of the best material on their defining topics. Canon, for example, could sponsor the leading aggregation of information on digital cameras, culled from hundreds or thousands of correspondents, who might be writing in personal blogs or within increasingly open social networks. These “plazas”, as I call them, will become a great way for companies to support communities of interest, and tap into the collective thinking about their products and their application. Candidly, I am amazed that so few platforms to support plazas have emerged, and I am likewise surprised that Technorati and other systems that define tagspaces have not tapped into this multi-billion dollar opportunity. This will soon turn around, and meme trackers (like Techmeme and Tailrank), social content aggregration systems (like The Personal Bee), and indexing/tag systems (like Technorati) will all be competing to be the leading plazas for tens of millions of products competing in millions of niches.

So, I believe the real failure at Technorati is not execution, nor lack of cash: it is a lack of vision.

Jason Calacanis takes a macro view of all these CEO changes:

[from Did I Just Hear A Pop? (Or A Mini Pop?)]

[…]

Technorati *laid-off* eight people today. I have not seen a LAYOFF situation since 2002 I think. This is significant because Technorati didn’t say restructuring. They said we don’t need these positions and we can’t afford them. Dave says in his post, in fact, that they are scaling the business in line with their revenue. Why would you scale a growing business to revenue!?!? Why not keep scaling it up!??! Oh, right… the market is changing… which leads me to my next point:

There are a bunch of Web 2.0 companies on the road raising second rounds and I gotta thing that there is not enough VC interest in funding them all. We’ve started a lot of experiments over the past two years, and any time you get loose like this and try a lot of stuff a lot of stuff fails. Again, Henry Blodget commented on this and i just read it AFTER writing my post…. I guess we have the same scars.

Will we see thousands of layoffs? Nope. But we will see a lot of folks tighten their belts and move from dream and build mode to control costs and make a profit mode. That’s not a bad thing, but it will certainly change the climate.

That being said, what do I know… I’ve lived through three cycle sessions so far: down to up (95 to 2001), up to down 2001 to 2003, and down to up (2003 to 2007). Frankly, I’ve got a huge scar across my belly from that last “up to down” cycle so I’m conservative. I keep thinking… “i’ve seen this before and I’m going to be ready this time!” Perhaps that’s a waste of time and I should be more aggressive…. however, the folks who I witnessed getting over aggressive went flying over the cliff last time.

Maybe, Jason. There is no doubt that a cooling in the bond frenzy will have a roll over effect with VCs, but I believe that there is still enough high risk money available for new ventures, however, VCs may start being less willing to continue to fund long established plays like Technorati or Podtech that seem to be lost in the weeds.

Update: 4:47pm — Found some thoughts from Fred Wilson on the topic, specifically responding to Jason Calacanis:

[from The Ugly Adolescent Stage]

What we are seeing in web 2.0 are growing pains. Most of these web 2.0 companies were started in ‘04, ‘05, and ‘06 and they’ve now grown into companies with lots of employees, lots of invested capital, and lots of promise. And it’s time to start showing something for all that investment and promise. Some will do that easily. They are the straight A students who succeed effortlessly. Others will struggle. They are the kids that need help and attention and love. And some will just fold the tent and go home. Thankfully I don’t have a kids analogy for that kind of company.

Yesterday we saw Dave Sifry step down as CEO of Technorati. Technorati has been around a long time. They’ve had a lot of promise. I sill use the service every day. But it’s clear that Technorati is one of those kids who drive you crazy. Why isn’t the service more reliable? Why is it harder to use after the recent revisions? Why do I wish someone would build a better mousetrap? Dave and the rest of the Technorati board is probably doing the right thing in looking for a new leader. That’s the most common prescription for ugly adolescence.

But I don’t think throwing out the founder and bringing in a new leader to run the business is a cure for ugly adolescence. I think you just have to go through this stage regardless of who is running the business. You have face the doubts, you have to admit that some of the things you’ve done were wrong, you often have to cut back the ambition and focus on the little things that are working. That takes leadership. If the founder and the team around him/her can provide that leadership, that’s best. If it takes someone new, then you better be sure you found the right person. Because the one thing that will turn ugly adolescence into something much worse is a new leader who is a bust.

Buried In The Comments

Really interesting interchange with Robert Scoble in the comments on Try To Make It Real Compared To What: Scoble and Kaplan Going At It, with Ethan Kaplan joining in. This was an outgrowth of Kaplan’s remarks on Gnomedex being a bit too much of a self-congratulatory love fest for technoid A listers, and Scoble’s ad hominem attack on Kaplan: instead of discussing Kaplan’s points, Robert attacks Kaplan for not coming out against the rap scene’s ‘Stop Snitching’ movement, asserting that Kaplan’s supposed employer, Warner, supports the movement:

When I saw Microsoft doing evil I spoke out against it. Here:

http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2005/04/23.html#a9919

This resulted in Ballmer (Microsoft’s CEO) changing his mind and that bill passed within a year (it hadn’t to that point).

What evil have you pointed out in your employer’s behavior?

Posted by: Robert Scoble | August 12, 2007 at 09:17 PM

Robert -

I don’t have an employer.

My point is that you are conflating two very different and unrelated things: Ethan’s comments about the conference, which you don’t really dig into at all, and Warner’s supposed support for the ‘Don’t Snitch’ meme in the hip hop world, which you also don’t dig into.

Can you please write a blog post where you actually discuss the issues? Because your trick of slapping two things together as a way to attack the individual without actually discussing the issues looks like you’re are a fledgling politician. Considering a run for Congress?

Posted by: Stowe Boyd | August 12, 2007 at 09:34 PM

Stowe: would you work for a company like Warner? Would you accept the kind of trash they distribute? Would you attack other people for their misdeads while working there and accepting this kind of behavior?

Getting back to Ethan’s point. Calacanis gave a commercial pitch at Gnomedex and Dave called him on it. I didn’t like what Calacanis did either and called him on it on Twitter DURING the talk, not after.

Go back and read my Twitters and then let’s have a conversation.

Could Gnomedex be better? Certainly, but I wasn’t involved in its editorial. Chris didn’t take my advice either and I certainly could throw lots of barbs his way.

Instead of doing that I’ve decided to work on my own editorial and get people onto my shows that I’m proud of. Someone like this teacher of the year. Elliot Soloway. He taught Larry Page and really is working to improve the world. http://www.kyte.tv/channels/view.html?uri=channels/6118/41579#uri,channels/6118/41579

I’d rather talk about how to improve the world. But I am bothered by people who point out the twigs in other people’s eyes without noticing the logs in their own.

Posted by: Robert Scoble | August 12, 2007 at 09:53 PM

Robert -

I read your twitters. Ethan suggested more than content recommendations for a future Gnomedex.

Re: Warner — What is your issue, specifically? Can you spell it out for me, instead of the vague innuendo about Warner being implicated in a 60 Minutes show? What, specifically, have they done that you are concerned about? Spell out your position, because you haven’t yet. And I don’t mean your position that he needs to attack Warner or quit his job. I mean why you agree with 60 Minutes, or do you?

I am not attacking what you are doing at Podtech. Do you think that Ethan’s ‘blowhards’ comment was directed at you, specifically?

Posted by: Stowe Boyd | August 12, 2007 at 10:04 PM

Ethan has called me a blowhard before and repeated that claim in my comment area. So, yes.

I DO agree with 60 Minutes. They showed how musicians are pushing a culture of “no snitching.” I find that culture to be vile. You need to watch the videos if we’re to have a conversation about that. Then we can move onto that topic if you wish to engage.

Posted by: Robert Scoble | August 12, 2007 at 10:19 PM

Robert -

My point is that the two things are *unrelated*, but let’s by all means have that conversation. Perhaps we should get Ethan involved, as well.

I don’t think ‘Don’t Snitch’ is “vile” per se. It’s a cultural response to systematic and biased aggression by police. In a suburban, everything-is-fair-in-American worldview it seems completely wrong. but not from the perspective of Black people. Remember, of course, that I am not Black. This is just as much an outsider’s perspective as your is. I have just come to different conclusions.

Posted by: Stowe Boyd | August 12, 2007 at 10:30 PM

it’s not a black only thing as made clear by someone in my comments.

But that’s beside the point. Should big international companies profit off of distribution of vile ideas? If it were my company, no.

Posted by: Robert Scoble | August 12, 2007 at 11:07 PM

Robert: you chose to ignore the fact that no artists on the label I work for were mentioned in that report on 60 minutes. Kind of a fact that you choose to ignore? What on WBR is “vile”? Fleetwood Mac?

Posted by: Ethan | August 12, 2007 at 11:14 PM

There’s more at Scobleizer for those interested.

New Connections This Week

• Ayelet Noff, Blonde 2.0, whose Survey on Social Networks Worldwide led me to write Social Networks And The New Tribalism. She followed up with Web 2.0 And The New Tribalism:
  

  
  Like Boyd, I also believe that social networks represent our new form of allegiance. We are entering an era of virtual, borderless connections where geography, nationality, or religion are no longer the primary dividers. Connections are now based on deeper personal elements such as: Traits, habits, views, and hobbies. Due to differences in these elements, just like in the past, not all tribes will get along. Each one of us will choose the tribe(s) where he feels most “at home”, with the people that he relates to the most, and pledge allegiance to that community. There will be some people who, as Boyd writes, will view this new tribalism as being in conflict with their other allegiances. These persons have always existed throughout time and have always tried to keep the “masses from rebellion”. For the rest of us, let’s enjoy all the privileges and advantages that this new tribalism brings us by allowing us to forge strong communities based on our own personalities (or inner selves) and not based on what country or religion we were born into.

• Through Blonde 2.0, I also came across An de Jonghe, who actually undertook the social network research. She blogs in English here, and has a Ning network here.

Mailbag

• Timebridge — a meeting scheduler integrated with Google Calendar and Outlook — enters beta.
• Zoho Viewer — just upload a doc, and share the URL with others: they can view online without downloading. A very long list of supported doc types.
• Preezo — a web-based presentation tool goes into beta. As far as I can tell, there is no way to import existing presentations, but the ap looks pretty neat. More to follow.