Start-up Plaxo sketches out business plan [CNET News.com - The Net]

OK - so now we know.

Whenever I've received an invitation to join Plaxo or to update my profile info, I've used as an excuse - the nebulous answers that Plaxo has given in the past as to their business model.

Well I guess I'll have to find a different excuse now.

I actually like the business model - charge for more advanced features - but the only feature they mentioned in this article was "better customer support".  That actually sounds like a charge for support" business model.  HHmmm maybe they should talk to Dave Sifry about that.

But then again - they only want $20 a year.  Geesh.  It costs more to look at naked pictures.  I guess they think lots of people will sign-up - but if it's like any other service, they'll only convert 5%.

So what's 5% of 2M?  100k users.  Times $20 a year.  That $2M a year.

Geesh hasn't Plaxo raised like over $20M now - or something like that?

What's wrong with the math here?

I think this is like my 4th Scoble post today.  Love that 1,400 feed filtering for me you're doing Robert.  Now that Gates and Ballmer are paying attention to you - all smart bloggers will suck up to you - as I do.

But that doesn't mean that I care about the Microsoft oriented content that Channel9 produces.  Once Microsoft starts paying people to run around the open world - to produce the same sort of video content that I'd care about - I'll watch.  And participate too.

I'd love to get reports from Banbridge Island from Ted and Julie or from the swamps/lagoons of Redwood Shores from Don.  Joi's backyard in Chiba (near the airport) would be a great background (as the planes roar over our heads) and wherever Doc or Howard happen to be (in whatever airport they're stuck in) would also be fun.  Our world encompasses standing on the steps of the Supreme Court,  to sitting in a cafe in Paris with Alf Eaton - shipping RVW 1.0.  Then we'd cut to Chris Schmidt hitting the carriage return in his dorm room in Champaign-Urbana with another FOAF module - this time for WordPress.  Our world takes us to Ross Rader throwing a launch party for Blogware in Toronto to schmucks like me (hanging out at the swiming pool in our backyards in Walnut Creek, CA - spewing open propaganda from our fingertips - just trying to make a difference and make a buck to feed our familes and send our kids to college.

I'm so dam proud of Michael Moore right now - I just wanna scream.

But Microsoft content is like - like - like - like tar paper.  It gets on your hands and you can't get rid of it.  It's sticky, and there's just something chemically about it.

:-)

Udell checks out Channel9.

Jon Udell, on his InfoWorld blog, saw Ward Cunningham, inventor of the Wiki, show up on Channel9. It's nice to see the reactions of people to Channel9. Yesterday, Lenn and Jeff went riding around Microsoft with Eric Rudder. I can't wait to see what they learned.

More from Ward is coming.

Marc Canter: OK I admit it. I haven't spent hours in front of my machine watching Channel9. I hope Scoble doesn't hate me.

I don't hate you Marc, but most of my video clips are a couple of minutes long. And, you can subscribe to an RSS feed of just the videos, so you can pick out the ones that sound interesting and listen to those.

[Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger]

Man oh Man - am I glad I read this article.  This is my second tahnks to Robert this morning.

XML.com analyzes W3C's courtship of the Atom syndication group and format.

XML.com's Kendall Grant Clark: The courtship of Atom.

"As with every great romance, and most notable marriages, it's not entirely clear here who's courting whom."

[Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger]

Here how Kendcall's excellent artcile concludes.....I think I really like this guy!

The Semantic Web Gamble

Some people want to do advanced stuff with FOAF, and so they do it, and my mother can still have her weblog, with her auto-generated FOAF resource, and who really cares that she'll never give a damn about KR? People often say that FOAF is to the Semantic Web what home pages were to the Web. That's wrong; or, rather, that it's only half-right.

FOAF plus Atom (or FOAF plus your favorite RSS flavor) is to the Semantic Web what home pages were to the Web. A machine-readable description of a person, plus a machine-readable version of that person's web space, is enough Semantic Web for us to do really great things, whether or not the hard KR stuff ever amounts to anything at all. Atom has a shot to be FOAF's best friend, the two foundational vocabularies for a new Web. Letting Atom come to life within the W3C gives it a very good chance indeed. But even if I'm all wrong about this Semantic Web stuff, there is a world of good reasons why Atom and the W3C belong together.

back to Marc...

OK - so I'm not crazy. RDF/W3C - heavy hitter XML folks understand that Mom isn't going to store her FOAF file on her personal server.

They'll never be a semantic web until compromise and cooperation rules supreme.  RSS 2.0 has 75% of teh content and growing constantly everyday.  Why on earth woudl you wantt op fuck with that?

'Cause you're right technically?  'Cause your form of extensiblity is better than there's?  Get over it people.

Namespaces is a fine way to extend RSS 2.0.  Paulo and Matt have done it quite successfully.  I'm hoping that RVW can do the same.  And ESF too (maybe.)

In the mean time  I'll personally guarentee that any of these 'simple' XML namespaces that get plugged into RSS 2.0 ALSO flow through the ADVANCED better than sliced bread rdf way of doing things.

That means that the battle (or shall I say the cooperation) moves upstream - away from the protocols/plmbing aspects of syndication - to the schemas/details area where the new work is needed.

MP3-ringtone converter. There's a new app that will convert your MP3 to ringtones and the music industry is freaking out (despite the fact that phones like the P800, which can play an MP3 without any conversion as a ringtone, have been around for at least a year)

``It's problematic, because it has the potential to eviscerate the business model early in its development,'' said Ted Cohen, EMI Music's senior vice president of digital development and distribution.

Link (Thanks, Tom!) [Boing Boing]

My friend Ted brings up a good point - without money business models don't seem to work very good. 

But I gotta say this game ain't over with yet - and converting MP3s to Ringtones is exactly what we've been talking about.  I should be able to take my original music and customzie my (and my friends) mobile experience.  The music industry would love to stand in our way and prevent that from happening.

Here's another good Scoble post.  I am TOTALLY interested in contacting this guy.  I would NEVER have found out about this - if it wasn't for Robert and his 1,400+ feeds.  Thanks Robert.

Alex proposes RDF extensions to RSS to handle schedules.

Alex Kolesnichenko has a proposal for RSS 1.0 and Atom that is interesting -- he's trying to find a way to send schedule information down via syndication feeds.

Syndication experts? How is this approach? Is there a simpler way to do it?

[Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger]

Now we just gotta figure out which is a better approach - this or ESF?

 

This is why it's important that we have Robert Scoble on the inside at Microsoft.

Gillmor is on the radio, er net, now..

Steve Gillmor, of eWeek, has been busy. He's doing "the Gillmor gang" (audio panel discussion, part of Doug Kaye's awesome IT Conversations).

And he has an interview, published in eWeek, with Google's Evan Williams, where Evan made the controversal statement that Atom is RSS (that kicked off a few blogosphere comments, I'll let you do the Feedster searches). I like how Steve hints to Bill Gates, on his blog, that we should pay attention to Technorati. Hmmm, Steve, actually the guy you need to get to pay attention to Technorati is Christopher Payne. He's the guy who runs MSN Search.

[Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger]

Will somebody give this guy a break!

Off to Helsinki.

Last minute change in plans and I'm off to Helsinki for two days... too much travel...

[Joi Ito's Web]

I remember when Joi was running around teh world with high-level Sony execs.  Now it seems Nokia has his attention.

I sure as hell hope something comes of all his work and schleping.  Does that mean that you DO have something to do between June 4 and 10th now?  No Trieste?

Along the lines of my last entry.... Brent Simmons' and Adriaan Tijsseling's children shared a playground for some time, now, and today their parents taught them how to play well together. ecto's new 1.1.5 version allows users to add new feeds to NetNewsWire, while NetNewsWire in its 2.0 incarnation can be told to use ecto as the default weblog editor instead of the builtin one.

Thanks, Ado and Brent. [a preponderance of evidence - What Willis Wuz' Talkin' 'Bout]

Right on to Adriaan and Brent!

We need more cooperation liek this in our industry!

Yesterday's New York Times Op-Ed piece by Nicholas Kristof gave back handed support to Donald Rumsfeld not resigning as a result of our use of torture in Iraqi:

The person who charted the course into Iraq and who bears ultimate responsibility is not Mr. Rumsfeld but Mr. Bush - and his bosses will get a chance to fire him in November.

Now why would they do that? [101-365]

Anti-Bush film wins Cannes prize, in France, of course.

Anti-Bush film wins Cannes prize, in France, of course.

Via BBC News: Michael Moore's controversial anti-Bush documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 wins the Palme d'Or at Cannes, with a 15-minute standing ovation.

There are scenes from the movie here.

Not only do the French went against Bush during the War in Iraq, now they make Anti-Bush films win in Cannes... I wonder if I will be allowed to enter the US next time...[Loic Le Meur Blog]

Loic is one of teh nicest Frenchman I have ever met.  I told JY -when I met him at the Technorati devcon - my story of getting warm Coke in Cannes - and why I didn't understand the French.

"If I want my Coke cold - and I am the customer - then I should get it!"

But now that the French are doing all the right things - I may have to live with my warm Coke.  NOTE:  Actually I am trying to ween myself of my Coke addiction.  JUST SAY NO TO CARBS!