Article written by Dutch problogger Ernst-Jan Pfauth

At The Next Web, Chris Sacca came up with a brilliant metaphor that you should keep in mind whenever you’re tweeting and blogging.

There are 700 people in this room. If you were standing on stage, you would be quite nervous: shaking a bit, maybe with a dry throat. When having such a large audience, you will sure try to entertain or inspire them. We tend to forget that we have a large audience on Twitter too. So before you tweet ask yourself: am I providing value? Will it put a smile on someones face? Am I expanding someones horizon? Otherwise, don’t write it.

There are lots of ‘how to twitter’ posts on the web but I guess this is the one everyone should read first…

Chris Sacca at The Next Web Conference. Photo Flickr / Anne Helmond

About the author: Ernst-Jan used to be the editor in chief of The Next Web. He’s currently blogging for Dutch quality newspaper nrc.next.

Original title and link for this post: Chris Sacca: how you should use Twitter

Written by Casper Oppenhuis de Jong

The World Economic Forum (WEF) is like a tweet-up with the Scobles, Kawasakis and Calacanises of the real world. This annual get-together in the Swiss Alps brings together the sassiest elite of business, politics, journalism and intelligentsia to talk about the world’s most pressing issues.

Experienced journalist & blogger Thomas Crampton reported this week that the WEF (hosted in Davos, Switzerland: therefore often referred to as Davos) will use a refreshing new social media strategy to gain attention. He had the chance to interview Matthias Luefkens, the man behind the 2.0 activities of the WEF.

A glance at WEF’s wiki shows us this:

All plenary debates from Davos are also available on YouTube, pictures are available for free at Flickr and the key quotes are available on Twitter. In 2007 the Forum opened pages on social media platforms such as MySpace and Facebook. At the Annual Meeting 2009 the Forum invites the general public to participate in the Davos Debates on YouTube allowing one user to attend the Annual Meeting in person. In 2008 the Davos Question on YouTube allowed YouTube users to interact with the world leaders gathered in Davos who were encouraged to reply from a YouTube Video Corner at the congress centre. In 2008 press conferences are live streamed on Qik and Mogulus allowing anyone to put questions to the speakers. In 2006 and 2007 selected participants were interviewed in, and the closing session was streamed into, Reuters’ auditorium in Second Life.

These services in itself are nothing new in the tech community. But the fact that a conference like Davos – with the biggest players in the world – chooses to embrace these social media services seems like a major step. Plus, every soul with a camera and access to YouTube now has a shot at joining the lads and birds in the Alps!
Answer one of these questions and you’re in:

• Are you confident that global growth will be restored in 2009?
• Will the environment lose out to the economy in 2009?
• Will the Obama administration improve the state of the world in 2009?
• Should company executives have a code of ethics similar to doctors and lawyers?

Is this finally Politics & International Relations 2.0.1?

Original title and link for this post: Kofi, Rupert and Bono on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook

Written by Nicolas Mertens

What is the maximum period for a beta stage? Can you stay in beta forever if you want to? What are the downsides and the benefits for an eternal beta stage?

These questions arose when my mother saw me using Gmail. After explaining to her that this is like an online version of Outlook she got quite interested. So she could have her email at home as well as in the office? Without downgrading on features? That is something she must have! Up and until then she actually consulted her inbox through a free webmail service from her provider, but whenever she sent a reply she printed out a copy… she held these in a map called “webmail sent items”, because those mails sent didn’t reappear in her outbox at home.

A long, but funny, introduction for getting my mother into web2.0! But it seemed I had underestimated her. While I was still having fun about her printouts, my smile quickly disappeared when she nailed it with the following question:

When is this coming out of beta stage?

I was stunned, I didn’t know. And she was right on the money! When I told her I have been using this for about four years (2004), the tables had turned. She thought it was funny how I could use Gmail for personal and business use while Google had no reason to ensure my mailing was in safe hands. No obligations whatsoever.

Along with the IMAP function and Google Docs introduction a lot of users started using GMAIL as their professional inbox. Able to send out mails from their name@company.com address, it made their lifes much easier. But email is so important to companies nowadays that they back it up on their own servers. Not with Gmail though, it is stored safely on the Google-servers…

You think?

After reading the Terms of Service of Gmail, I noticed that they could never, under any circumstances, be held responsible for data loss… They can even change their whole service without having to notify you. For example, their “unlimited” storage that they always used as an eyecatcher. They are allowed to set a fixed upper limit at any time, whenever they feel like doing so.

In the end I believe Gmail is a great service, that really changed the way email worked for me. Fact is that there is a real threat for companies, small or big, who already started using Google’s mail. Or Docs and Calendar for that matter!

So, again, how long can you keep something in beta stage?

Original title and link for this post: Beta Forever?

Written by Tyson Crosbie

The truth just sounds different. I heard that saying once when in grade school, I don’t know why but it always stuck with me.

The social game on Twitter

Lately on twitter I am starting to get a lot of noise from social gamers. These are the people who think that having the most followers is the key to online fame and or fortune. They probably read Chris Brogan’s blog religiously and implement every strategy that can be automated, duplicated or easily implemented. Unfortunately by doing this they are missing the entire point.

The noise I am talking about specifically in this blog post are the automated responses to new follows. They usually read something like: “Thanks for the follow! I look forward to your tweets! Check out my URL.” Besides being generic and lazy these automatic messages just wreak of the old school advertising numbers game. It rings false to me and I usually choose not to follow or unfollow the owners of this noise.

Demand truth in advertising

I believe we are selling ourselves all the time, and we are buying with our time from those who demand it. Getting what we want when we want is the key to all the things we talk about in Social Media. Relevancy, authenticity, accountability.

In a world that is increasingly on demand and unique to each audience member, it is only relevancy that will rule the day. The days of noise inserted for the masses between the content that we want to consume are waning. Truth in advertising will happen when the advertisements are as valuable to me as the content I am watching, reading or consuming. I hope it will become indistinguishable from the content.

We will likely never get away from the numbers game, it is an important part of being human and social. We want to believe that we are connected to each other and share a common experience. Accountability however, speaks to a personal responsibility in choosing your own content. The more you choose to manage your personal experience the more you will attract a positive one. This way I think the numbers will take care of themselves.

My content filter

Personally, I prefer truth over automation, personal connections over the most connections, accountability over laziness and community over empire. These preferences just feel better than the alternative and I believe that is my truth.

What is your content filter built out of, what is true to you?

Original title and link for this post: Stop social gaming on Twitter for an Authentic Community

Written by Polle de Maagt

You might know Tweetdeck, one of the preferred Twitter desktop apps for hardcore Twitterazi, besides gems like Twhirl and Twitterific. I love Tweetdeck’s customizable multi-column no-nonsense interface and quick Twitter servicedesk (@tweetdeck) in case of problems.

At the recent Adobe MAX conference I was surprised to see (on Twitter of course) that Mr. Tweetdeck himself, Iain Dodsworth, was also attending the conference. I was lucky enough to be able to drag him out of one of the many MAX sessions to talk with him about Tweetdeck, Adobe AIR, communities and Tweetdeck’s future.

Beyond the one column

For all of you that missed it: TweetDeck is a twitter dashboard, an Adobe AIR (“It’s just the quickest way to go cross-platform”) desktop application that is currently in public beta and uses multiple columns, group functionality and embeds services like Twitscoop and Twitpic in a clean interface. “The Twitter eco system in a dashboard”, like Iain puts it. The app launched in april 2008 and usage exploded since then. “I just created Tweetdeck because I was following 70 people and missed tweets of my friends. Over time I would even follow more and more people and didn’t like the one-column interface of the twitter apps that were around”.

TweetDeck enables users to split their main feed (All Tweets) into topic or group specific columns allowing a broader overview of tweets. The default columns can contain All Tweets from your timeline, @replies directed to you and direct messages. The GROUP, SEARCH and REPLIES buttons then allow the user to make up additional columns populated from the live tweet information. Once created these additional columns will automatically update allowing the user to keep track of a twitter threads far easier.

New features coming up

And there will be more, as Iain lays out. The first features that will be added are an iPhone app, tweet-syncing accross multiple installs and your iPhone and multi-account functionality. There will also be a User Interface update, which will include a new and easier way to arrange an re-arrange columns, a new mini-column feature (smaller columns), and the possibility to customize fonts, styles and notifications.

Practically all new features are driven by demand of the large Tweetdeck Uservoice community. “I’m not making the decisions, the community does. If you got a good idea and can drum up 10 votes there must be something to your idea.”

Later, other services (Friendfeed if Iain listen’s to the community once again) will be added. Other, more radical, features are currently under wraps but promise to dramatically increase the uptake of TweetDeck and give the users more control on the included functionality.

Business model

Iain has a fulltime job pumping out new features and maintaining the Tweetdeck community. So, where is he getting his money? “Actually it is totally self-funded right now which makes him extremely gratefull for spontanious user donations “It’s fantastic when people donate and some of them even donate more than once. Tweetdeck is really community-driven and community-funded”. And what about funding or other business models? “There is future, but I really can’t talk about it right now. But I promise I get back to you on that”.

More on Tweetdeck at tweetdeck.com. Tweetdeck feature ideas? Add them at the Tweetdeck Uservoice and/or twitter account @tweetdeck

Original title and link for this post: Tweetdeck to become the no. 1 Twitter desktop app?

Written by Josh Chandler

Meltmail.com highlights an important feature missing from many web based and desktop-based email clients; a way to create disposable email messaging.

Personally, it did make me wonder why a company would step up and present such a solution. A temporary email address that redirects in essence is quite good however I want this to be permanent so I can always send mail to it. One solution I think matches this is Enterto.com. The key difference is that Enterto forces you to sign up for an @enterto.com email address. Besides that the technology behind Enterto is more impressive then Meltmail.

It is safe to assume you do not want to be receiving any information to your inbox on this after the initial email you have been waiting for. One question I have is if you are using a two part double confirmation system which takes a while to send out the emails, what will happen to the email address? Will it return emails back to your original address? If so wouldn’t that just defeat the goal of email forwarding?

Meltmail does offer a couple of options on how long to keep email redirecting for. They will keep redirecting mail for 3, 6, 12, or 24 hours.

Will it really work? To me the thought of a time sensitive email address is quite interesting but I simply question the system’s integrity in certain situations. Does the concept of “melting mail” appeal to you, or should we have a solutions such as Enterto providing us with temporary email addresses to eliminate unneeded email?

Original title and link for this post: Meltmail.com: Temporary Email Forwarding

Written by Patrick Cushing (who included our blog as the first one up, thanks ;-) EJP)

A few weeks back, I wanted to realize the global interconnectivity of the web startup industry. As the global financial system crumbled for its lack of transparency, I wanted a better picture of the global web startup system and where it was going. So far, I’ve covered the Middle Eastern and Asian startup sites on Enter Venture. Now, let’s visit the top startup sites coming out of Europe.

1. The Next Web

First up is The Next Web — of course! The Next Web covers anything and everything related to the future of the web, no matter where it comes from. That said, the team is largely European (largely Dutch) so their coverage gives generous play to European startups. Posts run the gamut from startup reviews, reactions, and general industry news including a recent reaction to Jason Calacanis, a Romanian music site review, the Pope on Twitter, and some great advice for entrepreneurs in this economy.

2. Arctic Startups

Arctic Startup reviews internet and mobile startups from Nordic and Baltic countries, and they’re one of my favorites on this list. The site has a great, cool blue design that is unique but still evocative of TechCrunch. I appreciate the honest way they present new startups, with a description of both the strengths AND the weaknesses of the company / application.

3. alarm:clock euro

alarm:clock euro, like it’s American counterpart alarm:clock, reports on the comings and goings of VC money in Europe with a focus on funding rounds and buy outs. Each post comes with a description of the startup, the amount they’ve been funded for, and (the interesting part) a few thoughts about why they think the investment is a good or bad one.

4. TechCrunch UK

TechCrunch UK is TechCrunch for startups in the UK . (I’m assuming people know what TechCrunch is.) Amazingly, it appears as if its entirely written by one guy, Mike Butcher. Here’s hoping he gets that star intern he’s looking for.

5. TechCrunch France

TechCrunch France covers the French startups scene as well as translates and re-posts a portion of TechCrunch’s original posts.

6. Startup 2.0

Startup 2.0 is a pan-European startup contest that took place last May (and presumably, will be held again). Voting takes place online for a chance to win ad space in TechCrunch, a Microsoft software pack, and Sun hardware. Personally, I would have expected a better prize than with something closer to what VenCorps offers.

7. Altaide Valley

Altaide Valley is another blog focusing on the connections between France and Silicon Valley. The blog is owned and operated by Altaide, a French strategic technology firm.

And yeah, like their tagline “Birding France and Silicon Valley” suggests, all the articles are written in English.

8. Tigerprises

Toivo Tanavsuu’s TigerPrises covers Estonian startups and general technology trends in the Baltics, particularly mobile. Toivo also writes for Arctic Startup and the blog you’re looking at right now.

9. Startupbin

Startupbin covers web startups in Finland. Timo Paloheimo is another blogger from Arctic Startup, and he’s also created Google minus Google — a Google search site without Google sites in the results.

And here are two more

Other European startup sites worth noting are SwissStartups.com and SomBiz (a Finnish, invitation-only Web 2.0 entrepreneur network). If you know of any other startup sites that I’m missing (especially non-English sites), please let me know in the comments!

Original title and link for this post: 11 great resources for European start-up news

Written by Paul Vereijken

It sure isn’t surprising that social networks like LinkedIn are adding new users by the second thanks to the credit crunch. But read this: social network MeettheBoss.com says it has attracted 25.000 active members within two months. And those users sure aren’t the average LinkedIn member. They are senior and top executives at large financial firms.

According to their website and an article in the International Herald Tribune, it looks like MeettheBoss.com wants to become the number one network and forum for executives at company’s like Barclays, Goldman Sachs and ING.

Not just connecting

Registered MeettheBoss.com users can participate in discussions about the crisis, but also about how web 2.0 technology could be implemented in products and services. These big boys can also use (peer-to-peer) video conferencing, IM, e-mail and sms to interact and – of course – connect with other members. At MeettheBoss.tv members can watch interviews with industry hotshots and thought-leaders.

Exclusive network

The Bristol, England, based network is founded by Spencer Green, chairman of publisher and event organiser GDS International that owns MeettheBoss.com. The network was launched in September ’08 when they invited their first 20.000 members. To keep the network exclusive it intends to close its doors at 50.000 members.

Closed doors

I wish I could check if everything MeettheBoss.com promises is true. But to become a member of the network you have to be a senior or top executive. So if you’re working as a developer, web 2.0 consultant or if you’re an entrepreneur that probably means this network keeps its doors closed for you. And for journalists like me too.

Have a peak

Or wouldn’t they? Of course I tried to get in and I filled in the forms to create an account. Surprisingly I got in.

I couldn’t check out everything the network has to offer. Still I got more than just a peek. I was able to login at MeettheBoss.tv and check out some interviews with experts in the financial market. After a few clicks I was scanning the discussions between members talking mostly about the crisis. But when I tried to connect with other members the network just returned error messages telling me my account wasn’t approved yet. Damn.

Original title and link for this post: MeettheBoss.com: LinkedIn for the big boys

This is a guest post written by Scott Rafer, CEO of Lookery

Scott Rafer

Silicon Valley has been painfully instructive in the last month. It’s now clear that many bloggers are no better than the MSM in terms of “If it bleeds, it leads.” As a community, web startups need leadership, focus, and goals. To hear that message from one of the big names in venture capital, apparently one needs to fly to New York. Instead, the Valley is delivering grimy voyeurism from ‘A-list bloggers’ or transient opportunism from VCs seeking to negotiate better inside deals with their portfolio companies over the next six months.

We are certainly in a Buyers’ Market for startup equity right now, but it will end predictably. It will end so predictably that I’m going to the crazy thing and make a specific prediction in writing. To wit,
Without additional, catastrophic interference, early-stage startups will start to enjoy a Sellers’ Market with angel investors and VCs by the middle of Q4 2009. In other words, the combination of the natural maturation and consolidation of Web2 and the current banking crisis will only cause a one-year “winter.”

I’m clearly guessing — but not without basis.

Calling the Top

Starting in late 2004, I was running around telling people to be out of the markets and in cash by March 2008. My specific reasoning was “about six months before the Republican National Convention,” which was at least as wrong as it was right. I simply figured that the GOP would stop at nothing to stay in office [√], and the Republicans usually persecute bit-driven businesses like IT and Entertainment in favor of atom-driven businesses like Autos, Telecom services, and Petrochemical.

My more general reasoning was that IT boom-and-bust cycles have been between 8 to 11 years long since the early 1960s. March 2008 was exactly 8 years from the top of the last IT cycle, i.e. the DotCom boom. However, this cycle was marginally the shortest ever, and I called the Web2 Top w_a_y too close for my own comfort.

I don’t believe in exact market timing and was hoping my March 2008 deadline was a bit before the Top, but it was actually after. GOOG and NASDAQ both hit their highs around November 1, 2007, and the Bebo-AOL deal was announced on March 13, 2008. That deal felt late and overpriced at the time, and it probably still will with the passage of time.

Calling the Bottom

Nobody seems to remember it well, but the dotcom community was clearly climbing out of its Bust in Q3 2001, less than 18 months after the DotCom Top. Wi-Fi and blogging, the harbingers of Web2, were well into their early adopter phase. That quarter, Oren Michels and I launched WiFinder on stage at Demo. We got off to a great start PR-wise too, largely by pitching Glenn Fleischman and the bloggers who already owned the public discourse on Wi-Fi.

Of course, WiFinder launched September 5, 2001, six days before the world-beyond-tech shut down for a while. Even that extension into “nuclear winter” as people call it, was eighteen months or less. Friendster launched March 2002 and the first bulge of Web2 startups had been founded by spring 2003 and had little trouble finding angel investment. O’Reilly coined the term “Web2″ in Spring 2004 to describe what he saw as an existent, emerging sector.

Large shocks extend the tech down cycle, but not for very long. 9/11 extended the post-dotcom Buyers’ Market by eighteen months. I’m betting the banking-shock extension is twelve. The Top was almost exactly a year ago, and Sellers’ Market start to re-emerge around this time next year.

Separating the Cycles

Any number of credible people will make the above statements, but then they come to very different conclusions. In these panicky times, many experts are unnecessarily and unreasonably conflating unlike economic cycles. When you make that error, it looks like web startups will take as long to recover as global banking. That’s not the way it works.

IT startups don’t run on credit, and they don’t correlate directly the GDP. IT startup recovery leads GDP recovery significantly. We don’t behave like big tech companies such as GOOG, YHOO, ORCL, MSFT, etc. who need to care a lot about the state of the overall economy. Their revenue is driven by big corporate spending. Ours normally isn’t. That’s one of the reasons the big guys are late to the pick up the latest technologies. Two guys in a garage with a new way to share music, or even startups at Twitter’s scale, don’t care at all. Facebook and Automattic, where I have a few shares, are in an interesting middle-state from this point of view. If they manage the transition a tenth as well as Google did during the Dotcom Bust, they will be huge wins.

The Buyers’ Market for startup equity is never more than a quarter of the overall cycle, and it’s normally more like a sixth. Early-stage investors won’t wait for the economy or housing or banking to recover. A bunch of rich people are frantic right now because their personal portfolios are getting hit. However, pretty soon they’ll remember that those portfolios only exist because they paid a startup to give away web-based email, sold AKAM at $300/share or some other highly speculative IT-investing activity.

At that moment, they’ll move back from fear to greed and start competing with each other to speculate — on us.

Original title and link for this post: The Sellers’ Market for Startup Investing will Restart in ~12 Months

Written by Jeff Herring – The Article Marketing Guy and 7TipsArticleSecrets.com

Article marketing has recession-proofed my online businesses. Now I know that is a big claim, and lots of people are talking about how to recession-proof your business right now.

Read on to discover how to really do it with Article Marketing and the article-a-day strategy.

Here are 7 ways an article-a-day can recession-proof your business:

1. Extend your reach

I like to call my articles my “international evergreen article agents.” My articles allow me to reach all over the world into many markets that I could not have reached in any other way. And they are evergreen, which means they are out there forever, delivering good information with links back to my websites and blogs. For example, just one article I has published online in August of 2005 still receives an average of 1500 unique views each month. And once you learn how to do it the right way, is is free.

2. Unlimited content

One of the things you must have on the internet is content, and lots of it. When you write an article a day, you create an unlimited stream of regular content. While most online entrepreneurs are worried about where their next content is coming from, you are creating
content everyday.

3. Repurposing

When you create an article a day, you have arrived in repurposing heaven. You can take just one article and turn it into multiple marketing messages such as a blog post, a teleseminar, ebooks, ecourses, and so much more. Repurposing leads to…

4. Even more content

Your content creation does not stop with your article creation. When you repurpose your articles into multiple marketing messages, you are creating even more content. The more content you have, the greater web presence you can create. I’m getting ahead of myself though, because that is number five.

5. Create a massive web presence

When you have a storehouse of content and turn it into multiple marketing messages, you are then able to create a massive web presence. What is the advantage of a massive web presence? Prospects find you everywhere, and you begin to be seen as the go-to-person in your niche. And remember this:

A massive web presence is not created in a day, A massive web presence is created a little bit everyday.

6. Ups your expert-ability

I define your “expert-ability” as your perceived expert status in the mind of your prospect. When you are creating article content just about everyday you will quickly be seen as an expert in your field. Even better, you come to be seen as THE go-to-expert in your
niche.

7. Rapid product creation

Another thing you need to be successful on the Internet in any economy is many products, or what can be called an information empire. As an article writer and article marketer, you have the keys to your own information empire kingdom. You can quickly repurpose your articles into teleseminars, ebooks, ecourse, DVDs, and many other information products.

And to get started with your article-a-day campaign, you can claim your free instant access to my 7 Tips Article Writing Template when you go to 7TipsArticleTemplate.com.

Original title and link for this post: Seven ways an article a day keeps recession away

Written by Mircea Goia

Although the World Wide Web was invented in Europe (Tim Berners-Lee – CERN), the Internet was growing faster on the other side of the ocean (ARPAnet – USA). The innovation in our industry still comes mainly from the US, but Europe is catching up.

Web 2.0 events throughout Europe

Web 2.0 represents the new wave of Internet companies and technologies born after the dotcom bubble which crippled the Internet around year 2000. It’s origins are found in the USA, but is has been spreading around the world (hopefully, the recent financial crisis won’t affect it too much). Social networking, AJAX, sharing, user-generated, community, video, collaboration, folksonomies, Internet as a platform…all these terms are the mantra of the new Web 2.0 companies.

In the upcoming series of Web 2.0 articles, I want to explore the Web 2.0 events throughout Europe. It will be like an inventory of Web 2.0 festivals, conferences, un-conferences, and awards. I encourage people from different countries to write about their events here as well.

Let’s start with Romania

I’m starting with Romania (since I am Romanian), a country of 21 million inhabitants and an important market in Eastern Europe. Since my last article on ReadWriteWeb about Web 2.0 startups, things have been changing in Romania.

Now, a year or so later, I can see a jump in Web 2.0 applications and ideas originating in Romania – culminating in one startup becoming a finalist of Seedcamp: uberVU. Seedcamp is Europe’s hottest startup conference, held in London every year, and can be seen as the European equivalent of Techcrunch 50 or DEMO.

Webstock

Following the model of Seedcamp and Techcrunch 50, a new non-traditional conference took shape: Webstock (paraphrasing ‘69 Woodstock music festival).

In some ways, Webstock is more like a Web 2.0 festival than a startup conference. They call it an “unconference” because it’s not like a traditional conference where only certain people are allowed to speak). A real startup conference is Netcamp, which I will cover in another article.

Webstock started earlier this year with the selection of Web 2.0 projects (already launched, betas, private betas – all at least one month old) which will be presented in the final gala. The project needs to have at least one Web 2.0 component (they used the Wikipedia definition) and it needs to be created by Romanian companies or Romanian citizens (Romanian-foreign partnerships are accepted too).

The selection is made by media journalists and online specialists, and the projects are categorized as follows:

• Publishing (including Photography)
• Utility
• Viral
• Social Networking
• User Generated Content
• Video & Audio
• Company & Brand Blogs
• Blogging Campaigns
• Digital Storage
• Content Aggregation

The final gala (a full-day event) will be held in Bucharest on October 3, 2008 at the Howard Johnson hotel. About 400 people will attend. Registration is required, however, it is now closed. The entire event will be broadcasted live on their website and large media representatives will be accredited at that time.

Webstock will have well-known Romanian speakers-panelists (although everyone can speak, since it’s an unconference) like Cristian Manafu (Evensys), Bobby Voicu (Yahoo), Vlad Stan (Seed Money), Marius Deak (Green Pixel), Sergiu Biris (Trilulilu) and others. Three international panelists were also invited: Stephanie Jackson (Senior Director, Online Services, Vodafone Romania), Maxim Schram (Founder, RedesignMe) and Andrew Shorten (Platform Evangelist, Adobe Systems). Investors will be attending, and the winners will have a chance to get in touch with them to hopefully obtain funding (Vlad Stan – Seed Money and Daniel Enache – 1000 Tiny Tigers).

I hope that Webstock will be very successful and that it will turn into a regular event.

Original title and link for this post: European Web 2.0 Events: Webstock in Romania

Written by Luca Fracassi

Italy is certainly not the first country you think of when it comes to web technologies. This post will not argue the contrary, but it will try to explain a little bit about the Italian web scene.

That’s so six years ago

Internet usage in Italy is extremely low compared to most other developed economies. The penetration rate was only 36 percent in 2007. The Italians that use the web still see it mainly as a communication/information tool. The most visited websites include news sites and blogs.

E-commerce is rising, but still far from the average. In 2007 e-commerce represented 0.49% of retail sales, while this figure is around 6% in the UK, the top performer in Europe. Take a look at the Internet Book Shop to see a clear example of how young this market still is. IBS is the top e-commerce site in Italy with over 1.3 million uniques per month in 2007 and with €30 million turnover. The site’s graphics and layout are horrible by current standards, but there’s a simple explanation for this: the site hasn’t changed in the past 6 years! For a country known for its design and style this is outrageous, we can and should do better than this.

Computer lessons on the chalkboard

There are several reasons for the slow growth of the web in Italy, but I can certainly mention some major ones:

• Slow deployment of broadband
  Only 8.7 million families (37% of the total) have an ADSL connection in 2008!
• Low IT-alphabetization
  I hope things have improved since I was young (I am only 30), but I doubt it. I went through five years of high school and never had a computer lesson or even saw a computer. The first computer lesson I had was at University (1998) and the teacher was explaining us how a PC worked (cpu, hard-disk, memory, etc), all on the chalkboard!
• Culture & habits
  Italians still spend a lot of time watching television, though the younger generations are more aligned to the European/western standards and are spending more and more time online. Generally speaking Italian society is still very much run by very “wise” people and that means there’s a huge disconnection between the new technologies and the ruling class. This can also be seen by the low investments made by companies in the web industry.

There are some exceptions

Though they’re not brilliant, the Italian web scene has some interesting cases. I will mention a few good ones.

Beppegrillo.it
Beppegrillo.it is probably the best known Italian blog (ranking #20 on Technorati). This comedian has understood the power of the web and is fully exploiting it. Through his blog he managed to gather 50,000 people in a square for a demonstration last year. Not bad…

Beppegrillo.it demonstration

Babelgum
A free Internet TV platform supported by advertising, Babelgum offers professionally produced programming on-demand. Babelgum is a creation of Silvio Scaglia, former founder and CEO of FASTWEB a major italian cable television-internet provider.

Crosscast-system.com
This is another video startup that aims at competing with the likes of Joost. A good review with screenshots can be found at WebTvWire. Not sure what they will manage to do in the long run, but seems very promising…

Big potential

The Italian market is largely underdeveloped which, in my opinion, leads to a simple conclusion: huge opportunities. Sooner or later, the Italian market will catch up with the rest of the world and, given the population (60 million people), it has a big potential.

Personally, I believe that the web can bring bring a positive disruptive change to the Italian market, a market that is too often dominated by “dodgy” practices. There’s still time to enter this market, you just need to get the ingredients right. For example: get some decent graphics and you will already have a competitive advantage!

If you know some interesting Italian startups. just drop me a line. It’s time to show internationally what the Italian web scene can produce…

Original title and link for this post: Italy’s undeveloped web market has a wealth of opportunities

Written by Mircea Goia

It seems it’s the end of the road for Entrecard…or maybe not. It depends on who is buying it and what it does after that, since the site is listed on sale on Sitepoint Marketplace since September 25.

Entrecard was basically founded as a traffic exchange service for bloggers (English language only). It launched 11 months ago and now it has about 20,000 blogs in its network delivering about 80 million impressions a month. The core product is the widget network, which serves 125×125 advertising across 56 vertical channels in the blogosphere. They also developed a Firefox toolbar used by our bloggers/publishers to visit other sites, purchase advertising, and pack the power of the site into the browser. This toolbar is used by 7000 bloggers so they claim.

According to Sitepoint’s post Entrecard has about 85,000 unique visitors a month (growing at a rate of 18%/month – no marketing) and 3,25 million pageviews/month. But Compete.com shows something else.

Entrecard has over 1 million visitors a month – and that’s only from USA. Now, I wonder who’s right, knowing that Compete or Alexa numbers are not that accurate.

The 11th hour

Entrecard founder Graham Langdon mentions the reason he sells on Sitepoint:

I am selling because I have come to a stalemate. Entrecard is growing fast, but I do not have the resources to put behind it. I recently met extensively with Venture Capitalists who were going to make a 700k seed investment and a 2-5m follow on Series A investment in 6 months. The deal fell through in the 11th hour, right before the terms sheet, because they lost faith in my ability to execute the plan after a series of tests in which I did not know I was being tested. The valuation we were discussing was 8 million. We were going to open a headquarters, hire 10 people, and go straight to the top. Then it fell apart, and after getting my hopes up, I just haven’t been able to get back on my feet. I’m a wreck and feeling like a failure to come so close only to drop it due to my idiocy.
I also received an Angel investment several months ago at a valuation of $500,000. The network has more than tripled in size since I received that small investment. Month after month the growth rate just increases.

The sale price is a minimum $100,000 and the bid ends soon. Any takers? (auction ends in 16 hours after the time of writing this article)

Publicity stunt?

I am not sure why the founder couldn’t find another investor for the site. I mean, if Compete is correct, some investors have to be interested. Maybe Langdon should give it another chance and not have his hopes ruined after one failure (although he has family problems as well, says his blog). He also founded the Million Dollar Wiki project (buy a wiki page for $100), an Alex Tew’s MillionDollarHomepage copycat. He obviously knows how to work the media, so this could be a publicity stunt (saying to sell the site, media talks, he gets a publicity boost and then he changes his mind).

Graham managed to make $123,000 from MillionDollarWiki so far and he wanted also to sell this site on Sitepoint to finance his new project, Entrecard. But it seems he wasn’t lucky. The price he wanted wasn’t met so probably he didn’t sell.

Update: I just spoke with Langdon and he told me he changed his mind and won’t sell. That’s good because Entrecard has a future and he should be the one who should fullfill it. I always agreed that who started something (a company in this case) should finish it (head it to success). Hopefully, he will be up to this task and I wish him all the best.

Original title and link for this post: Entrecard.com, to sell or not to sell

This is a guest post by Dutch New Media student Edial Dekker

In 1986 Richard Stallman wrote his famous manifesto ‘The Free Software Definition’. It was later published by the Free Software Foundation. The text defines free software – free as in the ‘free as in freedom’ sense. The canonical lines of the text became the cornerstones of the GNU Project (later Linux). Today, the manifesto has been published in 39 languages. Open source isn’t new, it became viable when the first computer-like machine came down on earth.

Stallman wrote an impressive politically charged artwork of propositions and highly influential ideas about how free software should and could look like. Today, open source is, maybe more than ever, used as a very powerful political tool. Open-source has become a mean to become a serious competitor of large corporations like Microsoft, Apple and other giants. Led by Google and Mozilla, open source applications are a serious force to be reckoned with.

Chrome is a recent example of Google trying to make sure the competitors do not grow to large and competition is still on. Stallman formulated it this way:

‘The paradigm of competition is a race: by rewarding the winner, we encourage everyone to run faster. When capitalism really works this way, it does a good job; but its defenders are wrong in assuming it always works this way. If the runners forget why the reward is offered and become intent on winning, no matter how, they may find other strategies—such as, attacking other runners. If the runners get into a fist fight, they will all finish late.’

Obviously, getting a large piece of pie, or the whole pie for that matter, gives you a lot of advantages when you try to control other businesses. And even when you are not making enough money to keep your head up, going open source is a good way to strike back. No wonder Yahoo was celebrated for going opening up her search platform (BOSS), and no wonder Reddit is back on track and with many cool offspring’s every day.

Open source has become THE tool to fight the giants that can otherwise be very difficult to challenge. While the popularity of open source applications is growing by the minute, large corporations, who are trying to protect their monopolization, are losing ground every day. Google uses Chrome and Android to achieve this.

When will there be a serious open source search engine that will challenge Google?

Original title and link for this post: How open-source became an important pion in controlling market shares

This is a guest post by Kilian Valkhof, co-organizer of Fronteers

The web is divided, there are people that adhere to the international standards and have their websites work in all browsers, and cowboy coders, called that way because they ‘code without rules’. Unfortunately, cowboy coders far outnumber real web developers. It’s time to change that.

Fronteers is the dutch branch organization for front-end developers (the people that write CSS, HTML, JavaScript and AJAX) and the first of it’s kind internationally. It was set up last year in September and is run completely by volunteers. Within a year, they already have around 120 members, a figure that continues to grow.

Why is this good? Members of Fronteers are actively working on making their websites better, and making them work for more people. A wholly different world from the “it works in my browser”-excuses of old. As more people start working like this, the web will become better for everyone.

That is why Fronteers is organizing a two day conference on the 11th and 12th of September. With a heavy focus on CSS and JavaScript, it’s sure to be of interest for anyone working with the web. During those two days, industry heavyweights such as Dean Edwards, Andy Clarke, Bert Bos (W3C), Christian Heilmann (Yahoo!) and Stuart Langridge (Lugradio) will talk about topics ranging from Maintainable CSS to JavaScript closures and from the CSS box-model to the HTML5 video elements.

As is the case in so many professions, there is not just one good way to build websites. That’s why the conference also has a secondary track where there will be in-depth discussions on topics such as CSS, SEO, and Accessibility. A perfect opportunity to ask Christian Heilmann of Yahoo! about their website, or the makers of the Dutch Web Accessibility Guidelines about said guidelines.

Of interest to many web workers will also be a presentation held by Pete LePage. LePage is a member of the Microsoft Internet Explorer team and currently works on their new browser, Internet Explorer 8. The presentation is said to provide insight into the browsers’ improvements that are yet to come.

The two-day conference costs 250 euros. Members of the Fronteers organization get a discount. For more information about the congress, visit the congress website.

Original title and link for this post: The Antidote for Cowboy Coding

This is a guest post by Charlie van de Kerkhof from the Ministry of Web Development

When you’re talking about German start-ups, you’re talking about Berlin. The city is booming. There are cheap offices and a bunch of angel investors of which one might help you to get that so-wanted lead investment. I learned this optimistic lesson at the TechCrunch UK/Twidox meetup yesterday. Mike Butcher had left London to find out how it feels to say ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ and to meet 15 startups – all eager to promote their business. These are my personal highlights:

Undersigned and Chris from Hiogi

Hiogi – the community answers your questions

Hiogi is a mobile search service that is based on a knowledge community. You can ask anything via Twitter, SMS or email and receive an answer on your mobile. I’ve tried it and ask for the best pizza place near Senerfelderplatz. Within 10 minutes I had my answer and I must admit, it was a very good pizza. Hiogi has just released an open API which gives you acces to the latest questions and answers that were posted. Not surprisingly, these guys have received funding this year and won a couple of prices.

Hobnox – platform for professionals from the creative industry

Hobnox is an online music and video platform where users can watch, connect, collaborate and create. The Next Web has already written about this in May 2008. They are now busy with the community feature of their product where you can download and upload the music to the site and share it with friends.

Jimdo – a personal website for everyone

Jimdo is an online website builder. You can create your own JimdoFree-Page and add several modules to it – like a blog, guest book, photo gallery, etc. The team is now working on adding social modules like Open Social widgets. Jimdo is based in Hamburg and received the first round funding earlier this year. By the way, one of their most important competitors is Webnode, who presented on The Next Web conference.

Hobnox stand

Nimbuzz – call for free with mobile voip

Nimbuzz provides a mobile/PC app that connects cellphone and PC users. The Next Web has covered the launch of their latest mobile application last May. They’re now in the second financing round and working with almost 70 people in three different locations. How fast can you grow?!

Aka.aki – trace down your friends with Bluetooth

Aka.aki is basically a mobile social community application. You can download an app on your mobile and then connect to other aka.aki friends through Bluetooth (works well up to a 20 meters distance). You can send aka.aki messages to them and check their profile. On the web you can track anything you did and to who you were connected in the last couple of weeks. They started last year with eight people and went live this April. Since then they have grown to 16 people and are currently closing their first round of funding.

Check out some more photos on Deutsche Start-ups

Original title and link for this post: Enough for the Berliner jokes, here are my five favorite start-ups from the TechCrunch meet-up

This is a guest post by mobile marketeer Peter Evers

After Russell Beattie’s post about the end of Mowser, a mobile transcoder, last Monday, a lot of bloggers reacted fiercely on his controversial viewpoints about the end of the mobile web. As a mobile marketing professional I feel kind of obliged to write about my view on the future of the mobile web.

Let’s start with a short recap about what happened this week. On Monday Russell Beattie, founder of Mowser, an application that transcodes normal websites to mobile websites, announced that Mowser has stopped. In this very personal article Russell came up with different reasons for the end of Mowser, such as lack of funding and personal debts but mostly Russell’s lack of confidence in the future of the mobile web. Russell states:

…I don’t actually believe in the ‘Mobile Web’ anymore, and therefore am less inclined to spend time and effort in a market I think is limited at best, and dying at worst. I’m talking specifically about sites that are geared 100% towards mobile phones and have little to no PC web presence. Two years ago I was convinced that the mobile web would continue to evolve in the West to mimic what was happening in countries like Japan and Korea, but it hasn’t happened, and now I’m sure it isn’t going to. In other words, I think anyone currently developing sites using XHTML-MP markup, no Javascript, geared towards cellular connections and two inch screens are simply wasting their time, and I’m tired of wasting my time…

With this kind of powerful expressions, the commotion he caused in the blogosphere doesn’t come as a surprise. Almost every mobile blog I’m subscribed to wrote about it. Especially the articles at MobHappy, MobileMarketingWatch and mocoNews.net were worth reading, But what is Russell actually saying? If you read his text carefully you might have understood that the thing he isn’t confident about is browsing mobile-only websites on two-inch screens.

I can say that I don’t believe in mobile-only websites with no or little PC presence too. If a website is only visible on a phone and not or hardly available on a PC, people probably will not know about its presence. The reasons are that I don’t think mobile search is widely used and I guess that mobile-only sites will not start their own mobile advertising campaigns to gain visitors. Besides, if the site is found, people will not bookmark it or subscribe to it, simply because people don’t bookmark or subscribe to sites on their phone. So how will a mobile-only website ever gain readers? The only way is that people simply remember their URL and spontaneously visit the site once in a while.

Though I have to make one exception. If a mobile-only website supports a mobile application that is installed on the phone, it might have its right to exist. But still, the application will be central and the mobile website will be play a secundary role.

The situation changes when the screen gets bigger and the technology gets more advanced. Smartphone and iPhone users will probably bookmark more and even subscribe to their favorite sites. These phones can even give you the ‘real thing’, but that’s where my doubts come in. Whenever I acces the real internet on a smartphone or iPhone it simply takes too long. The connection speed is just not fast enough. And although I’m not a mobile technician, I think it will take a couple of years before cellular data connections are comparable to the PC internet connection we’re used to nowadays. A mobile website as an extension for a regular website is a proper solution for this problem. It gives you the same information without much hassle and a minimal waiting time. The only thing that’s different is the minimal experience, but your experience will be much worse when you’ll have to wait twenty seconds after every click on a regular website accessed from a phone. That’s why I decided to install Alex King’s Wordpress Mobile Plug-in on my personal blog. It looks a lot less flashy on a phone, but is fully accessible, readable and loads faster than the full version.

In the aftermath of Russell’s article I also read an interesting article by Alexander van Elsas, titled “Forget about mobile web browsing, think interaction!” which kind of explains the whole point made by Alexander. Alexander writes:

…I have never really believed in a mobile web. But I also believe that current mobile thinking is often dominated by two things, technical capabilities and bringing web services to the mobile. But these things aren’t of any value to me. (…) When it comes to using a mobile phone I have different needs. Needs that aren’t exactly the same as I have on the web, sitting behind a computer. The mobile phone is by all means my remote control of life. It is primarily an interaction device. I call and SMS with it. I also take pictures, upload them, and sometimes I use it for e-mail. The only time I use it for web browsing is when I need to pass some time…

I agree that the mobile phone is primarily an interaction device and that the mobile web should allow even more interaction than the regular web already does. The mobile web should efficiently interact with the typical interaction functionalities that our phone offers us. But to become widely used by people such as our mothers (isn’t she always the one we keep in mind whenever we develop something?), I think it’s important that there’s a certain transition period. In this period it’s better to copy the old and well-known than start with a whole new thing.

It also happened when TV became popular. The earliest television content was made out of plays, straight from the theatre. The earliest websites were static like newspapers and the earliest mobile internet sites are like regular websites. In all these cases the specific features of the new medium came in after a transition period. I think people need this period to become familiar with a new medium. They need to understand the new logic first to integrate the new medium in their daily life. Advertisers mostly react on statistics, and great statistics will only come with wide usage. So this transition period is also necessary to convince advertisers of the power of the new medium. As we are innovators, new media professionals like to skip this period because we already know how the new medium can fulfill its potential. But I think we can’t.

Original title and link for this post: The mobile web will stay with us for a while

This is a guest post by Dagan Cohen, he’s the curator of PRE

Lets face it: we live in a fast economy, where the hunger for the ‘next big thing’ is so strong web entrepreneurs tend to minimize risk by copying and mashing up proved concepts. Although we wouldn’t like to admit it, the pressure of the marketplace narrows our vision and makes it hard for the industry to come with truly new ideas.

So, where to look for fresh ideas? Arguably the best place to start is where creative people can develop their ideas away from pressure of the market. Places like universities, art schools, small-scale research labs and small companies committed to creative experiment.

PRE shows a selection of projects by Dutch students and young artists who are driven by the new possibilities of the web and the digital realm. PRE celebrates the phase before an idea becomes a business concept. In this ‘green phase’ ideas are rough and vulnerable. They can be easily killed when the rules of the market are applied too rigidly.

Though some ideas immediately show a market potential – they just need a little push, others are more ambivalent and need to be looked at by different people from different angles to reveal their true purpose. That purpose is not necessarily a marketable product or service. It can be an autonomous art piece which purpose it is to make us think and reflect. It can be a conversation starter, or a stepping-stone for another idea.

The great thing about rough, ambivalent ideas is that they trigger us to finish or alter them. To add or change something so they’ll become better. At least in our minds. That’s why it’s important to get those ideas out of ‘the greenery’ into the open. And what place is more suitable for that purpose than the Next Web Conference?

Attendees of the conference can be inspired by the ‘premonitions’ of artist and students; the young creatives can profit from the knowledge and wisdom of industry professionals. After all: there’s no ‘Next’ without ‘Pre’. PRE is hosted by Draftfcb.

Projects shown on PRE

AR + RFID Lab – KABK (art academy The Hague)

AR+RFID Lab is a collaboration initiative of the Royal Academy of Art (KABK) in The Hague, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) and local companies in creative industry focusing on the development of innovative applications of emerging ubiquitous computing technologies in the field of art and design. The AR+RFID Lab works on projects based on Augmented Reality (AR) and Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) technologies.

There are two main types of AR: 1.via a head-set and 2: handheld AR.
1. Via our headset, our “AR glasses” we see virtual images added to our own view of the world. This headset is optical see-through: meaning we can see the world around us, but we also see things others don’t see! The others can join the AR experience by watching a beamer that shows what the one with the headset on, sees. The virtual objects and environments we see ‘extra’, as ghost images in the real world, are created with 3D programmes.. We take, so to say, objects out of the computer screen and put them in the real world.

2. Handheld AR is an experience in which we can see a 3-D image, triggered by a 2-D marker. This type of AR will soon be hot, widespread, and then,: common, because it reveals extra info only for those who can translate the 2-D marker in a 3-D reality!

In the Next Web-setting we will only show real time 2-D to 3-D converters, because we are to busy with our AR-headset tea, due our participation in Milano, the Salone the Mobile.

Mijn naam is Haas (My name is Hare) – Sanneke Prins, Douwe Sjoerd Boschman and Berend Weij

Mijn naam is Haas is a serious game concept for young children (age 4 to 6) developed at an art academy in the Netherlands. It is an interactive, animated story system that gives children the opportunity to create little powerful stories by making little (line) drawings within the miraculous universe of the character Haas.
The game rewards children for their inventiveness. While playing, children will learn and develop vocabulary, story comprehension and IT-skills in a playful
environment. Extensive tests at primary schools show incredible results, especially toddlers with a language delay are increasing their language skills significantly.

Mijn naam Haas is being developed by a group of students who o graduated last year at the HKU/ KMT (academy for art and media technology) in Hilversum.

The NewsWell – Ralph Das

The NewsWell is a social RSS news reading application which runs on a so-called multi-touch table. The provided multi-touch or multi-point interaction enables the user to use gesture like touch input to scale, rotate or move news items floating by. It also enables users to share, discuss and explore news on a very different, and far more intuitive way. The intended use for this application ranges from city cafes to international business centers. The NewsWell is the first multi-touch lifestyle application open to the public on a daily basis in the centre of Amsterdam. The multi-touch tables and the NewsWell application Ralph build, are part of the exposition “Redefining the Space”, which is currently held at SOCO Amsterdam.

Ralph Das graduated last year from HKU/KMT (academy for art and media technology) in Hilversum and is currently developing social multi touch applications.

Project E – Postmachina

Project E is a set of products (prototypes) consisting of wearable/mobile brandable devices. They have the ability to connect users to each other, as well as new or existing services, like social networks. The products create a bridge between the virtual and physical world, and are designed for natural, gesture-based operation.

Postmachina is company founded by students who graduated last year at the HKU/ KMT
(academy for art and media technology) in Hilversum

Tune-in TV – Edward van der Veen & Roy Frencken

Tune In TV is an Interactive Television Application (demo). It offers the viewer a sociable and intuitive ITV viewing experience through an Electronic Program Guide fed by a friends network and interests.
Tune In TV works with an adaptive interface that allows the user to decide the level of interactivity he/ she wants, the interface adapts to the viewers needs. It is possible to interact in a passive and lean back way with the help of the Tune In TV pool. With the use of a remote control with motion detection capability, the viewer can navigate in an intuitive way through the 3D menu.

Spamology – Irad Lee

Spamology is an audiovisual representation of word frequencies in spam e-mail messages. The work is based on analysis of a private archive of spam messages which were collected during 10 years (1998-2007), containing up to 2,000,000 emails originated from various parts of the world.
Spamology is a part of ongoing research examining the nature of spam as a digital-cultural phenomenon. The project aims at visualizingthe links and interrelationships between the contents of spam, the user/individual and the society, by revealing patterns in spamwhich may reflect cultural and social trends, behaviors and variations

Irad Lee is a student at KABK (art academy The Hague)

SPECTRUM

The Spectrum platform sets audiotours free, releasing them out of their traditional controlled physical environment of museums and city archives. Instead, everyone is able to contribute their own view on culture and of course listen to and watch contributions from peers or experts in a smooth, intuitive environment, on their own computer.

The platform forms a foundation for any specific implementation, such as for instance ‘Nachtgeluiden‘ (Nocturnal Sounds), an initiative by the Museum Night Amsterdam, bringing content from museums in Amsterdam to people’s homes and democratizing it.

TYPETOOL

TypeTool is a free software tool that creates a realtime text layout. The filters in TypeTool allow you to work with longer pieces of text or short titles. Use TypeTool to create live visuals in VJ shows, for subtitles and titles at live events or anything else.

Grrr medialab is a interactive design studio based in Amsterdam

White Blackout – Niels Schrader

The short film ‘White Blackout’ splits the projector’s light into its original color values and translates their numerical patterns into a virtual sunrise.
Based on a color spectrum of 256 levels of gray, every pixel of an image has a brightness value ranging from 0 to 255, with white being defined as 255 and black equaling 0. Although ‘White Blackout’ is in fact only displayed in black and white, the missing grey shades of dawn light re-emerge as the three-digits number 255 appears actually brighter on the monitor than the one-digit number 0.
‘White Blackout’ should be seen as a critical comment on the contemporary media façade by revealing it’s technical source

The film will be shown in the main conference hall. Music by Sister Love

Who organizes PRE?

DRAFTFCB, Sponsor and host

Draftfcb is a new breed agency

Highly creative but devoid of lines.

Above the line, below the line, on-line, off-line, conventional vertical reporting lines, horizontal waiting lines. In fact, completely outside the lines of traditional thinking.

A full marketing communication agency designed to build our clients’ businesses by focusing on consumer behavior.

And coming up with ideas that drive that behavior in the most creative ways.

Our objective is simple. To offer total integration that is effective and efficient and optimizes consumer behavioral insights to drive results.

It’s about understanding the most optimal way of connecting with the consumer at the right time, in the right place with the most compelling message.

Utilizing and help developing the web to reach and engage consumers in the best possible way, is one of the spearheads in Draffcb’s growth strategy

Dagan Cohen, Curator

Dagan Cohen studied art at the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, worked as visual artist and creative entrepreneur – was co-founder of the Supper Club Amsterdam – before joining Saatchi and Saatchi The Netherlands in 1995 as art director. Dagan has been creative director of Saatchi interactive (1996), Lintas interactive (1998), Lowe Digital/ Ozlo (2000), Lowe Live (2002) and Draft (2004) before becoming creative director of Draftfcb in 2006. Dagan won several ADCN (Art Directors Club Netherlands) Awards, Esprix’s (Dutch Direct Awards) and recently a Cannes Cyber Lion. He teaches interaction design at the Rietveld Academy and speakes on matters concerning branding & interaction.

Original title and link for this post: PRE: The Next Web through the eyes of young artists and students

This is a guest post by Stefan Fountain from Dutch start-up Soocial.

By now most will have read about the Zuckerberg revolt (video here, and more), the release of Clickpass, and all the other big news. Yet I noticed something equally remarkable at the SXSW conference in Texas last week.

Building Portable Social Networks Panel – with Jeremy Keith, Chris Messina, Leslie Chicoine, Joseph Smarr, David Recordon

My impression of SXSW has been generally very good, the quality of the panels outstanding, yet the most important part of visiting this conference was – surprise! – meeting people. Walking around and having conversations with the likes of JavaScript heroes John Resig (jQuery), Thomas Fuchs (script.aculo.us), Sam Stephenson (Prototype), Chris Messina (OAuth evangelist), Simon Willison (OpenID evangelist). At parties I met people from Google, Microsoft or Yahoo! in various stages of intoxication. I even got some quick peeks at Billy Bob Thornton and Moby.

It wasn’t until the last day at the closing party when I was talking to a hard-to-understand German that I realized something. This was the first European I had spoken to. We met the great guys from Brighton-based Clearleft and quite a few other British guys, but where were the main-land Europeans? Perhaps I missed them, yet I’m judging from the panels, parties we went to and after speaking to over a hundred people. The statistics support my theory. My contact at SXSW confirms that 3 percent of the attendees came from the European mainland. Although the statistics on traffics to sxsw.com probably don’t say much, cumulative European visits is around 16 percent.

For what is arguably the most important tech event of the year, is the lack of European involvement a sign of something greater? Is it the current political climate, lack of European startups, overkill of our collective chauvinism or <enter any far-fetched reason here>? I don’t know, but what I do think it’s important to be present either to influence someone’s views, or to be influenced and inspired yourself.

So I would encourage European startups and established companies to head over to SXSW next year as it is well worth the money, jet lag, the occasional loud Americans, fat food and other pre-conceptions largely encountered on this trip. I think it’s time we head over the pond to learn, meet and share our own wealth of knowledge.

Original title and link for this post: SXSW: Where were the Europeans?

This is guest post by Reinout H.M. te Brake, Group Strategist for the Spill Group Holding

Google has acquired online address book, Plaxo in a “sub-$200m offer”, according to a blog on tech news site Wired. The site claims that Plaxo has accepted an offer and that the “purchasing company is most likely search engine Google.” The report has sparked various other online rumors, and follows a month of speculation about a major takeover bid. This followed a New York Times report at the beginning of January, which said Plaxo had hired investment bank, Revolution Partners, to handle a forthcoming deal.

Plaxo’s Chief Platform Architect Joseph Smarr

Silicon Valley gossip site, Valleywag, posted a report responding to the Google acquisition rumors claiming that the deal was completed due to good relations between Google’s social-network strategist Brad Fitzpatrick and Plaxo’s Chief Platform Architect Joseph Smarr. However a separate Valleywag report claims that cable operator, Comcast, may be bidding for Plaxo. Meanwhile CNet dismisses the Google rumor as “unlikely.”

In January it was strongly rumored that Facebook were seeking to buy Plaxo, also for $200m, yet this never materialized. A week earlier, the New York Times claimed Plaxo was due to auction itself for some $100m, with investment bankers recruited to handle the deal. Meanwhile, tech site, Techcrunch, this week cited a Silicon Valley insider as saying “Plaxo has been desperately, desperately, desperately trying to sell.”

Mountain View-based Plaxo started in 2002 as an online address book service, but recently shifted its focus to social networking with the launch of Plaxo Pulse. This tool acts as a social network aggregator, providing Facebook-style news feeds when users’ friends update their profiles on sites such as Twitter, Digg, and MySpace. In January Plaxo joined Facebook and Google as part of the Dataportability Group, a body which is working on projects designed to let users of social networks to transfer data from one network to another.

So, who is up to speed here and can give me details!?

Original title and link for this post: Who is saying what about Google acquiring Plaxo