I've previously written that my next book will be about Web 2.0 companies and an increasing amount of my attention has been going in that direction. I'm approaching this second book differently than the first. With Naked Conversations, Robert and I began with a few conclusions already determined: blogging is good for business, nearly all businesses should embrace it. We also concluded that blogging, a tool was part of a much bigger thing, which we called the Conversational Era.
Now, I've come to understand that blogging is a power tool of a revolution that has been named poorly. Web 2.0 implies, it is a geeky thing, to be launched like software used to be launched, That it implies .1, .2, .3 versions will follow.
But all that aside, Web 2.0 represents a powerful mix of changes:
- You can start a Web 2.0 company with very little money and from almost any spot on Earth where there is connection. What does that mean for today's tech centers? How do startups manage when they have en people located in six countries as one I recently chatted does?
- The cost of marketing, business development, packaging, distribution, marketing, recruitment, collaboration and research have all dramatically and rapidly changed. This fact, as Doc Searls has pointed out to me, was stated wonderfully in Thomas Friedman's "The World is Flat." But Friedman only looked at big, established global enterprises. The real story is probably best told with the little startups that Friedman never examined. That's where disruption really takes place. Web 2.0 opens the doors for start ups all over the world, in places we've never imagined to take hold, prosper and perhaps even endure. I have talked at length with Rick Segal on this subject and the next book is more likely than not, an attempt to find out more about what significant changes portend to be occurring out at the edge of the technology world, rather than in the snugness and occasional smugness of Silicon Valley where I reside.
- The assets of being a big company are not what they used to be. Yet they remain formidable. But there are thousands of Web 2.0 companies who have somehow emerged onto the radar screen. There are many more to come. only a handful f these will have a future worth mentioning in the arms of any one of the dozen companies likely to acquire Web 2.0 startups. I am interested in one the big picture is here. How do the largest companies transform, when the world becomes their ad hoc outsourced R&D lab? Who are the companies forming now, who are not out for a quick flip, but wish to build something enduring. Are Six Apart and Technorati past the point where an acquisition is possible? What do these companies look like ten years hence? For that matter, what happens to today's Godzillas? There are probably 30-50 companies implementing some new aspect of search. Each has the potential to take a little chip out of Google. But what happens moving forward? How many chips will it take to make Google vulnerable?
- What will the world look like when the Internet becomes its core marketplace?
- What is the longterm impact of global communities? Is Charlene Li right? Are we reaching the point where Internet-based companies are making even government irrelevant?
There are way too many questions. I will not be able to answer them in one, 80,000-word, 270-page book. So this site will increasingly be a forum for venting these ideas. I have started to interview companies that I think show the potential for enduring. I have started interviewing people who might be able to offer insights into the big picture of what is going on these days.
This book will also not be as rushed as the previous book. I'm going to ake my time fishing around on the topic. And I'll be publishing interviews as they come up. When or even if they are included in the next book remains to be seen. You folks out there in part will determine what the final book is about and who should be included in it.
I'm definitely looking for cases studies. I am not interested in being the first to write about a new company at launch. I am more interested in seeing a case of a story that shows incredible success in new ways. Some of my past clients such as Riya, Krugle and Foldera (provided they revitalize their stagnant blog) are likely candidates because they became so prominent through non-traditional means. My current client Sharpcast is also a candidate, provided they achieve the adoption rate they deserve to achieve. Gibu Thomas, co-founder & CEO has been posting up a storm lately and he's showing talent.
I will continue to cover business and blogging at this site and I will continue to speak and consult on business and blogging. The Web 2.0 book is in the grunt stages, where I just want to start gathering insight and understanding f the big picture and its implications to people in work and at leisure.
You'll also start seeing some more personal stuff here as well. I ave been unable to keep my ItSeemstoMe blog going the way I've hoped. Serving three blogs is harder than I thought it would be. The third, Conferenza, is a collaborative effort to cover tech sector conferences and will continue to serve in that light.
Anyway, it's good to be back again. I feel refreshed and expect to have a prolific few days of blogging to catch up with my personal backlog.
