Archive of TheNextWeb.org
Written on October 29, 2008 – 9:30 am
David Petherick, Contributing Editor, United Kingdom
The answer is 236. I’m one of 237 authors who have contributed to the publication ‘Age of Conversation 2 - Why don’t they get it?‘ and I’m very happy to announce that you can buy the book from 08:00 US EST today, 29th October 2008 here - http://www.lulu.com/ageofconversation. For those of you in the UK, that’s on sale from 12 Noon today, 13:00 in Netherlands, France, Spain etc.
The publication is a series of themed short essays, involving 237 marketing professionals who blog from 29 states throughout the USA, and from 14 other nations from Australia to the Ukraine. All contributed one page — 400 words — on the topic of “conversation”.
My contribution to ‘AOC2′ was a chapter entitled “You’re a facilitator, not a creative…” in the section of the book called ‘A New Brand of Creative’.
“I can think at about 1250 words per minute, but can only speak at about 250wpm. So I am five times more clever when I keep my mouth shut…” - David Petherick, writing in Age of Conversation 2
There are two important things to note: 1) You can get it in hardback, or in paperback or in e-book format and 2) All the proceeds go to the International children’s charity, Variety. Not one of the authors receives a complimentary copy - we have to buy ours too. The authors are aiming to raise $15,000 for the charity - if you order a copy, add your name below in the comments, and I’ll send you a special extra gift to say thanks.
So if you’d like an autographed or personalised copy, or a review copy - then buy it, ship it to me, and I’ll send it on - my contact details are here. It would be quite a feat to get all 237 authors to sign it - any ideas on how to do that ‘2.0 style’?
Full list of authors is here. Good old fashioned press release is here.
I hope you like that post!
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Written on September 17, 2008 – 11:47 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Amazee, the Switzerland-based collaboration service, has launched today. Co-founder Dania Gerhardt gave me a demo under a cup of coffee at the Web 2.0 Expo yesterday morning. Ever since then I’ve been suffering under an embargo, but now the time is here to get the word out.
Swiss conference tigers
Dania Gerhardt
Every conference I’ve attended since the last Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco has been enriched with the pleasure of meeting the Amazee power couple Gregory and Dania Gerhardt. Somehow, they manage to win tickets for gigs like Supernova, Next08, and both Web 2.0 Expo editions. Maybe it’s because they’re great company, good on stage, and real connectors.
Chihuahua owners for Tibet
Anyhow, between all the conferences, they’ve managed to build quite an interesting start-up. Dania and Gregory have created a platform for people to achieve goals and project together. Subjects can be “Lose fifty pounds in two months” or “Chihuahua owners for Tibet”. You meet people on Amazee not because you already know them or love the same band, no, you meet them because you have the same plans in life. That alone is a challenging starting point for a start-up. But wait, there’s more.
Drupal and Ajax
Drupal-based Amazee is a rather sophisticated site. Personal and project profiles, todo’s, schedule’s, a project magazine - all can be easily edited with the Ajax-based control panels. Although I can imagine that the control panel can be quite overwhelming for first time users. Especially the ones that are less web-savvy. And that’s exactly Amazee’s target group.
Cold hard cash
“We’re not aiming for the geeks”, Dania told me. She rather attracts “ordinary people”. Anybody who has a certain ideal can find co-workers on her community. Or sponsors. Although Amazee has a bit of sixties flavor surrounding it, the service can also help you to get some cold hard case to make your dreams come true. Dania showed me tree ways:
- Financial Sponsorship – Projects can request and accept direct donations via PayPal.
- Non-Financial Sponsoring – Projects can request help in the form of physical activities and supplies.
- Banner Advertising – Projects can sell banner ad space on their home pages and the revenues are shared between the project and Amazee. Sponsors can instantly upload their banner.
That’s what I love about this service. Dania and Gregory have created a world for Internet users to help each other making their dreams and ideals come true. Not just with moral support, but also with some euros. A good combination, if you’d ask me. The city of Chicago agrees with me, as Amazee has been signed up to provide the social platform which will back Chicago’s attempt to get the 2016 Olympic games to the Windy city.
Respect the web presence
The only thing I’m missing on Amazee so far is the integration with other services. I can’t import my project calendars in iCal, can’t automatically load my Flickr photos into the photo gallery, and can’t add any events to Upcoming, to name a few. When I talked to Gregory about this, he assured me they’re working on that, but that it’s also very hard for them to provide it. Sounds like this Swiss start-up needs another funding round for some extra developers. It will definitely be worth the investment.
Written on June 17, 2008 – 12:08 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
First speaker at the Supernova Conference was Clay Shirky - writer, consultant and adjunct professor at New York University. His field of interest is the influence of Internet technologies on our societies and economies. In his latest book “Here Comes Everybody” he wrote down all the things he’s sure about and saved this keynote for some uncertain thoughts. His main message: we should transform the STOP-focused collective action into START-focused collective action.
Flash mobs as a political tool
Shirky started with an example from Belarus. In 2006, some kids from this Eastern-Europe country organized a flash mob via Livejournal. They asked 10.000 people to come to the October Square in Minsk for some massive ice-cream eating action. Their president, old-fashioned dictator Alexander Lukashenko, isn’t really fond of civil action, so he has forbidden any group forming on the important square. During the flash mob, he sent a small army of secret police to arrest the kids with ice-creams. Despite these arrests, the flash mobbers had reached their goal. They wanted to show the world what life looks like in Belarus. “For them”, Shirky said, “Livejournal was a tool to make their political lives better.”
Why is there no online barn raising?
These kids from Belarus are not alone. Shirky showed that all over the world, people are using social network groups to protest against undesired actions. This emerging trend is interesting and it stimulates positive action, yet they’re only concerned with stopping things. Real world collaborative action is often all people starting, creating, or building things. Yet this kind of collaborative action doesn’t seem to work in the digital world. “Why is that”, Shirky asked, “Why isn’t there an online barn raising? (more…)
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The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show of, the future of the Web. (
