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Arrington and Sethi are Hatfield and McCoy

August 3, 2009 By 1 Comment

Dennis Howlett writes today about the lawsuit involving Sam Sethi and Mike Arrington and Interserve, Inc., als known in our wrold as TechCrunch.  As a disclosure I remember this riff vividly as my friend and partner Tris Hussey was involved in this problem and other friends, Marc Orchant and Oliver Starr were also part of the BlogNation.com which is peripherally part of the overall story.  I am not a huge fan of what took place in that business deal and I see what happened as unfortunate to my friends.

I won’t get into the merits of the case, nor will I try to discuss the legal issues as I had plenty of the legal world after working there for 22 years.  I do want to comment on the somewhat short sightedness I see on behalf of Mike Arrington and TechCrunch as it relates to the lawsuit.  I know that Mike Arrington is giving this lawsuit less than a nuisance value and sees no merit to the claims and perhaps wants it to carry it on for more page views (which of course I am adding to albeit a small amount). I’m afraid that this is just the beginning of something that will give Mr. Sethi more fuel for his feud and make this debacle continue.

Mike has stated that he will not participate in the litigation and that they will ignore it, not planning to subject himself to the litigation process in the UK.  I think that is not a bad strategy from a legal standpoint as it carries with it somewhat of a "no harm, no foul" consequence.  California Law does not really give much weight to the UK and its judgment, be it a default judgment or otherwise. I should note that a default judgment might have  less weight than a judgment on the merits, but I digress.  From a business standpoint, I think this might be a bad move.

According to Mike his legal costs could exceed £500,000, to win the case which the experts indicated should not have been a problem.  The court would then have awarded Mike his legal costs, but that is like squeezing blood from a turnip as I assume Sethi is not in a position to pay that type of money, given what I know of the Blog Nation debacle.  The part here that is troublesome is giving life or a breath or two of life to Sam Sethi and his continued efforts to gain the upper hand and make him appear to be in a better position in his case against Mike Arrington and TechCrunch.

In addition, now Arrington must watch how he works around having this judgment against him in the UK.  I am assuming at some point it may be necessary for him to do business there or to collect from advertisers there or to get money from the UK.  I am assuming that any funds due to him or his company from that jurisdiction can be attached or to some effect, garnished to satisfy the judgment.  He has already canceled to speak at an event he told the organizers he would be a part of and who knows how many other ventures he must cancel or at least not appear for in the UK.  I am not sure the limitation on satisfying judgments in the UK, but I can assure you that Sethi will be waiting at the opportunity to get his shot in to collect if only a dollar of the judgment.  The time to put this to bed is now.  The time to finish it is here.  If not, this could drag on for some time.  As I stated above, that could be what we are looking for from someone that wants to sensationalize it.

If you are a person that is owed money as a result of the Blog Nation debacle, it might provide fruitful to see if you can attach your own judgment to funds related to the Sethi’s judgment.  Who knows it might work.  It is by far more than you will get if you are waiting for an old paycheck to clear.

Photo above via CrunchNotes*

*I wanted to point out the labeled photo on CrunchNotes is "sethiissuchadick.jpg" :)   Classic.

Tags: Mike Arrington, , Sam Sethi, Tris Hussey, Oliver Starr, Marc Orchant,

Filed Under: Blogs and Law, Blogs and Politics, BTW, Media, Miscellaneous, Professional Blogging

How Is Your Handwriting?

August 1, 2009 By Leave a Comment

There is something to say about getting a handwritten note in the mail. It may go back to the day when I was a young boy and we actually walked a mile to get the mail and it was so rewarding just to find that you had a letter from someone.  My mother would read the letter as we walked back home.  Or it could be that it is special when someone takes the tie to sit down and labor out a thoughtful note and spend the money and time to make sure you get it.  Either way, it is an art I think that is slowly going away with new technology and how we can just update our status or send a quick typed out email with LOL typed into 6 times.

I decided I would sit down and do that this time as i had a special reason for thanking this person.  I pulled out my fourth pen amongst the crayons on the junk drawer before I finally found one that would mark a mark, and sat down with pen in hand and began to write.  Yes that type of "write".  I suddenly realized that I was way out of practice with writing.  I realized that I only write chicken scratched notes while on the phone with people, and it has bee months since I actually wrote a check. I am out of practice and not sure I can even read my own writing.

I decided I need to practice this a little more otherwise I can’t look my kids in the eye with a straight face when I scold them on their penmanship at school.  Who knows, perhaps they won’t actually have writing in schools anymore. They may have texting 101 or shorthand for mobile 101.  Sad.  Now the next problem I have is actually finding an address for someone that does include an @ symbol.

[Photo via Wikipedia]

Tags: , , , ,

Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Platforms, Business Blogging, Marketing, Miscellaneous, Services, Social Media

Drinking From The Paradise Firehose

May 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I always make fun of drinking from the "social media firehose." People always ask how I can possible follow nearly 8,000 people on Twitter, and read 10,000 RSS feeds a week, and on and on. I have developed the skill over time.  Being here in Hawaii is a lot like drinking from the Paradise Firehose.

Last night I was asked this question a number of times…"so what do you think so far?"

My response to that was usually a single word.  Awesome, super, crazy, beautiful, hot, an I coul dgo on and on at the number of superlatives I used to describe my experience so far here in the Hawaiian Islands.  I cannot begin to describe the breathtaking views I had last night as the sun set behind us and we had an opportunity to listen to the local culture unfold in front of us. I took a number of pictures that I will get loaded and if a picture is a 1000 words, they will all be superlatives. 

As I write this post at 4:00 a.m. in the morning, I am still seeing images and can smell the experience and even taste the things that I did last night with Chef Colin at te Rumfire.  Today we are off to another island (Kaui) and the rand Hyatt.  They have a huge benchmark to meet but somethng tells me that wont be too hard.

As a social media business aside, everyone here is Twitter crazy. Last night I explained Twitter to a large number of folks all wanted to find out how to get on and what to do when they do. It is a crazy ride we are having here and they are loving the idea of talking to everyone.  I think that if they could bring everyone here for a moment, they would.  I would just say that 140 characters is not going to do it for me.

Tags: HawaiiHTA, , , , Twitter, Kaui,

Filed Under: Business Blogging, Conferences/Trade Shows, Marketing, Media, Miscellaneous, RSS, Social Media

Firefox Beta 3: Will it cure the boat anchor memory leaks?

February 13, 2008 By Leave a Comment

firefox-wordmark-vertical I have been waiting for the newest release of Firefox as I understand it will help cure my memory woes with the boat anchor*.  I was glad to read on Techeme as reported by CNet News that Firefox has now come out with its latest version in beta.  I ran right over and downloaded the latest version before even thinking of the consequences.  Consequences?  Yeah its the new beta version and all of the extensions and add-ons and even client applications are no longer operable that I had installed.

I assume that companies are scrambling to make their toolbar applications work with this latest version.  I am not sure how hard it will be to update all of those companies like Stumbleupon or others that are no longer on my extensions but I hope they move quickly.  It is funny how we become accustomed to having things work.

The problems with the boat anchor?  Well, I’m sure that those troubles will continue until we have a burial at sea, but for the most part, the memory seems to work a little better. 

*What I like to call this joke of a laptop with little to no memory I am forced to use.

Filed Under: Announcements, Client Sites, Media, Miscellaneous, Services, Social Media, The Site

A New Fox In The Yahoo Hen House

February 13, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Silicon Alley Insider is discussing the fact that Fox News Corp. is trying to make a back door deal with Yahoo. In the words of my friend Dave Taylor, “so what?”  Apparently, Yahoo will do anything not to fall into the hands of Microsoft or do they actually realize this is inevitable and they are trying to make Microsoft hurt a little when they raise the stakes.

Mike Arrington goes into a little more detail about what the deal may entail as it relates to what money or assets would trade hands or at least be a part of the deal.

According to our source, the deal structure would spin off Fox Interactive Media (the primary asset is MySpace, but IGN, Scout Media, Photobucket, Fox Sports, AmericanIdol.com, Flektor, Ksolo; plus investments in Hulu, Simply Hired and Snocap are also assets of FIM) into Yahoo, along with a big cash injection from News Corp. and an unnamed private equity fund. The total investment would be valued at around $15 billion.

I’m really failing to see what the benefits are to the shareholders of Yahoo.  They after all are the decision makers here.  Besides a big dose of cash what are the shareholders really gaining as it values their stock?  MySpace may be a nice carrot, but not something Yahoo really needs.  I doubt Myspace has the momentum to pull Yahoo from its current slide.

My thought is that this is a deal that is really just going to make Microsoft really hurt when they write that check.  Yahoo wants a competing offer to make sure that Microsoft must raise its own offer.  I think that Yahoo sees the writing on the wall but is doing what they can to make sure they go out in blaze of glory.  Of course at this point with all of those 1,000 employees now looking outside Yahoo for jobs, glory is a relative term.

Filed Under: Blogonomics, Marketing, Media, Miscellaneous, Partnerships, Social Media

Resting Tech Companies Will Be A Memory

October 3, 2007 By 2 Comments

Last I night I spoke at a small group that showed up for the Social Media Club - Denver, monthly meetup hosted by the great people at Me.Dium. Following the meeting, we had an intimate dinner with some of the attendees and we were speaking about some of the news of the day and of the week involving Techmeme, and Technorati and about the changes we were seeing in the realm of those companies and others.  One thing that became apparent to me as we discussed the topics, tech companies that rest on their laurels or decide that they have made it to the top are destined for disaster.

technorati When Technorati first broke on to the scene, they had a vision for what they wanted to accomplish and had determination and drive to do this in their mission and goals.  It was apparent that their leader David Sifry was driving them to this success.  Technorati soon became the only game in town and the standard by which everyone found their news and information.  Sure there was other players that tried to run with them and compete, but for some reason they rose above the challenges and made Technorati the blog search tool of choice.  Then  something happened.  They became complacent and began to take a breather and rest.  They let their tool become inaccurate and not reliable.  They stopped coming up with innovative ideas, and the ideas they did have began to seem lackluster and without reason, i.e. WTF.  Then the real signs of problems began when David Sifry stepped down and took his leadership and vision for Technorati with him.  I do believe the company is at a crossroad and with the proper talent and vision can right the ship and become the powerhouse it once was.  I predict that unless they act quickly they will become that also ran that everyone thinks back on and wonders where are they now.

linkedin We also discussed companies like LinkedIn and and how they were the ultimate professional social network, and as I discussed in the  presentation of the evening they have turned into that old gray mare.  They have been eclipsed with the likes of Facebook as they represent only 14 million users while Facebook is now over 40 million users in just three short years and gaining steam.  Actually I read recently that Facebook has overcome Myspace as the most read website of the social networks.  This again is a situation where LinkedIn perhaps sat back and basked in the glory of being on top only to be completely blown away by their competition.  I do believe LinkedIn is a valuable service and they they too can rise to their glory of before, but in a recent move the writing may be on the wall of their demise as well.  Allowing photos to be added is not the type of thing that screams “we want to compete”.  That is surely not the bold move you want to show as innovation.

skype Companies such as the two I discuss above are not lonely in this pattern.  Many companies reach their goal only to then have spiraled downward and begin dying on the vine that is caused by not making new goals and not continuing to innovate.  We may very well be seeing the same pattern with Skype as their CEO now has stepped down and they too have fallen short once being the leader at the turn.  Will they be eclipsed by their competition?  Will they decide to innovate and be the best in their field again and be seen as the take charge leader?  Only time will tell and if they think they can take a rest and sit back and bask in the glow of their accomplishments they too will be a memory of the old days and soon forgotten as a leader.  There is no resting for you, and its time to think about an offensive.  There is always someone out there that wants to steal your thunder, and unless you take them on, you won’t remain atop the hill for long.

Filed Under: Marketing, Miscellaneous, Social Media

Social Networks Bring Families Together

July 9, 2007 By Leave a Comment

I was reading some of the Twitter entries I received from my friends when I ran across an entry from Jeremiah Owyang.  I enjoy reading his blog and he always comes up with some really cool links.  He said I should check out a new application for genealogy enthusiasts called Geni.com.GeniBeta  We talk so much here about how social media and social networks can help a business, we rarely speak about how it all can help a family become closer or how it can educate a person on their everyday life.

I have a huge mountain of notes about my family and my wife’s family that has been collecting dust in my office, so I decided I would give it a try.  I opened the app, and in no time I was adding names and information to our family tree.  14 hours later, I was beginning to see more John’s and Mary’s in our tree, and I may have married some that were not previously married and gave children to those that didn’t have any previous to my addition.  I looked up and I had added 579 profiles of people with birth dates, dates of death and other random information.  I discovered I had some really cool tidbits and other information that I am able to share with the rest of the family.  My wife’s tree actually goes back to the late 1600′s in Talbot County, Maryland.

Now comes the social networking part of the application.  Every time I add a profile, it gives me the ability to invite that person via email to join the network.  Now I know that most of the people I entered either are deceased or would not have a clue how to answer email, but for a number of family members, I was able to send them an invite to join in and begin their own branches of that family tree.  My Aunt was able to fill in some details and my brother’s wife was able to start her own branch and came up with a number of names herself.  This is acts like a quasi-wiki in that other family members can add information and tidbits about relatives from stories and information about our family history.

It also allows us to download pictures of family members and adds those to the profile page of every person entered.  Granted I may not have a picture of that sea Captain from Norway in 1895, but I do have a picture I can scan of my Great-Great Grandmother, that somehow made it into a copier and was sent around 15 years ago.  Technology is allowing us to share and do so much more online, and now I can share that information with family I have never met and have never before seen.  If they have an email and want to join in the family network, it will really bring us together.

 

Filed Under: Blog Tools, Findability, Marketing, Media, Miscellaneous, Services, Social Media

New Business Card “Just Google My Name” – Are you A Google Celebrity?

April 19, 2007 By 10 Comments

As I was watching live streaming via the Ustream.tv site of Robert Scoble, Chris Pirillo and Jeremiah Owyang, I saw a pattern of responses to the question, "Do you have a business card?"  Many of the responses were the same, "just Google my name and you will find me."  I heard this not only from the above named, but also in the background from people that were being interviewed or people introducing themselves. 

A quick look at the names Googled indeed showed that "Chris" was the number one search result for Chris Pirillo, "Robert" showed that he too was the number one search result, and finally "Jeremiah" was not number one but was ranked on the first page of results.

How is this possible?  It is a matter of the power of SEO and the power of how search works.  The power of blogging has made them Google celebrities.  These are not uncommon names, and in fact are pretty benign as I’m sure each of you know a Chris or a Robert.  I myself checked my own name "Jim" and of course my campaign to be first on Google came up very short.  Then I Googled my full name "Jim Turner", and lo and behold, I’m on page one here at One By One Media.  I have not been blogging nearly as long as the bloggers I name above, but I’m well on my way to capturing the new way of passing out business cards.  How about you?  Do you rank high in your search engine of choice?

Tags: Ustream.tv, , , , , , , ,  One By One Media

Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Consulting, Blog Mining, Blog Tools, Bloggers and Blogs, Blogging News, Blogs and PR, Business Blogging, Conferences/Trade Shows, Findability, Marketing, Media, Miscellaneous, Search Engine Optimization

The Evolution of Media Consumption

April 17, 2007 By 2 Comments

I was on a conference call with Eric Rice last night and reading feeds, and listening to Chris Pirillo’s live streaming and refreshing my Twitter page.  As you can tell, my media consumption is evolving into something that would make Orwell happy about “Big Brother”.  I have given “multitasking” a new definition, and my ADD has been fed like that flower in Little Shop Of Horrors.

Earlier in the day, I was meeting with my bookkeeper to go over the books for the last month and preparing for the next month, and I was listening to Jeremiah Owyang’s live feed through Ustream.tv, chatting with Robert Scoble, Jeremiah and others on the IRC chatroom under the stream, while talking on the phone with my mother, reading RSS feeds, chatting via Skype with my partner Tris about client issues, and emailing with my accountant as to how I would have to drive an hour North to sign my business tax return to get it on the mail.  The television I just had to have when we bought our new home, was sitting silent and cold in the other room.  I had a new mistress now and had traded her in for a new model.  Again, to some in my industry, this is another day at the office, yet for others, this is the equivalent of information overload that would cause a stroke in most normal humans.

My consumption of the media is changing as fast as the technology that drives it.  I am watching, reading, hearing, and providing news in ways that 10 years ago that would have never crossed my mind.  I had watched a white Bronco on 3 different channels in an airport, had watched Bernie Shaw describe the events that unfolded in the Gulf War, and other media hyped news events, but nothing like this.  I wonder as I sit and gather information about the shootings at Virginia Tech, how I will see the news in another 10 years.  The evolution of my media consumption might even have a new look in 6 months.

Tags: Eric Rice, , , Twitter, , , , Ustream.tv, , , , , , , ,

Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Consulting, Blog Mining, Blog Tools, Bloggers and Blogs, Blogging News, Conferences/Trade Shows, Findability, Marketing, Media, Miscellaneous, Partnerships

An Example of Web 2.0 at the Web 2.0 Conference

April 16, 2007 By Leave a Comment

This is very cool.  My partner Tris is live blogging this conference for the fine folks at Blog World Expo.  While I’m watching and keeping up with the event sessions as live blogged by Rick and Tris, I am able to watch it live streamed via Jeremiah Owyang’s Ustream.tv page.  In addition, I was able to talk to Rick Calvert the CEO of the Blog World Expo via a Skype chat.  I suppose if we wanted, he could actually have me on a Skype call and I could even participate and ask questions of the panel or of a speaker in a session.  Go over and watch the session.

Tags: , , Tris Hussey, , , Ustream.tv, Web 2.0 Conference, W2E,

Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Consulting, Blog Mining, Blog Platforms, Blog Tools, Bloggers and Blogs, Bloggers For Hire, Blogging News, Blogs and PR, Business Blogging, Conferences/Trade Shows, Corporate Blogs, Findability, Marketing, Media, Miscellaneous, Professional Blogging, Services
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