« August 2006 | Main | October 2006 »
September 14, 2006
Linked In's Hollywood Deal!
Dear Michael ,
ABC Television’s hit reality television show, The Bachelor, is searching for its next star. After viewing your profile on LinkedIn, the casting producer has selected you as a potential candidate.
ABC is using LinkedIn to find its next Bachelor because this time around, they’re looking for an accomplished professional. LinkedIn is about your professional life instead of your personal life, so we don’t know if your marital or relationship status qualifies you for the show. However, your professional profile fits the bill.
If you think you’d make a great “Bachelor,” please let me know by reply (XXX@linkedin.com) and I will contact you regarding next steps. LinkedIn respects your privacy and will not release your contact information, so you must reply to the email above for us to pass you along as a candidate.
If you know anyone else that would make a great “Bachelor”, feel free to let us know about them – ABC will pay a $5,000 reward for
Posted by Michael Jones at 02:14 PM | Comments (0)
September 13, 2006
@ Carson in San Francisco on Wednesday
If you are around - drop me an email!
Posted by Michael Jones at 09:32 PM | Comments (0)
September 11, 2006
Thanks August Capital!
I had a fun night at the August Capital mixer on Thursday - seemed like a repeat of the TechCrunch party - only with people dressed a bit nicer and and slightly better food.
I took Kelly from Dandelife as a guest - trying to expose a bit of soCal to the noCal tech scene.. He posted his opinion on it here..
Other than the normal stuff - it was great to bump into everyone. Loved hearing things like "We really missed out on your deal" - : ) - maybe next time. And good to hear Jeff finally got a new car - that old 3 series he drove as aggressive as any Parisian but frankly something faster might fit his style better!
Posted by Michael Jones at 05:23 AM | Comments (0)
September 06, 2006
Illegal Features on Legal Sites
Initially when we worked with MySpace for hosting and distribution of MySpace Music - the concept was simple, allow a band to upload their songs - allow users to play them securely.
Now it is all so much more complicated. The labels are asking for 50% of all advertising on media players and working to put themselves (and license solutions) between social networks and their users with massive restrictions on audio playback. While you could argue MySpace became big off of illegal music playback (just as YouTube is with "illegal (?)" video playback) you begin to wonder is it in the best interest of your social network to build illegally with the hopes of getting big, bought then have to deal with the labels on media distribution - or dealing with it upfront and potentially creating a inferior product?
Posted by Michael Jones at 11:55 PM | Comments (0)
September 01, 2006
Thinking about Interoperability
I often bring myself back to the days of Prodigy mail not talking to AOL mail, and then I think about IM. Ironically the challenge AOL and Prodigy faced previously when deciding to interop mail is the same challenge mail faces today - MySpace as many have pointed out gains substantial page views from forcing users into their web-based mail clients - as do many other social networks. Will these communities be forced to go the same path as AOL in the long run? Or allow out of website mail access to better their user experience - yet lower their ad views?
Userplane has built a business on creating private IM networks within social spaces - we spend a lot of time thinking about connecting those spaces. There is no question what is best for users - a presence system that allows them to be "online" in all their favorite places and receive messages and alerts - consolidated into a single application or experience.
So its time to interop - we all know the change is coming. Userplane is a network of bridges - holding no namespace of its own - yet monetizing others and sharing back that revenue. The value can be the network not only the namespace...
Posted by Michael Jones at 02:51 PM | Comments (0)