Archive of thenextweb.com
Written on 16th June 2009
4 COMMENTS 
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur
This morning we enjoyed presentations from Tim O’Reilly and Jack Dorsey and many other Twitter influentials. After the break we got a chance to watch a panel discuss how Twitter influences the news industry.
The sessions was titled ‘Twitter as a News Gathering Tool’ and had the following participants:
Ann Curry (@AnnCurry) – News Anchor on NBC’s Today Show and host of Dateline NBC
Rick Sanchez (@ricksanchezcnn) – Host of the 3PM weekday edition of CNN Newsroom
Robert Scoble (@Scobleizer) – What does he do, really? Professional Twitter (ab)user maybe? ;-)
Ryan Osborn (@todayshow) – Producer, NBC Today Show
This panel was the first panel that brought real energy to the room here at 140conf. Sure, the other discussions were interesting too. But here, you could feel a certain tension and passion both in the panel and in the room. (more…)
Written on 12th June 2009
24 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
Today saw the launch of Building43, the latest project from tech evangelist and early adopter Robert Scoble. Over the three or so months of development, Scoble has managed to drum up a fair bit of buzz for the site – despite most people having no idea what Scoble had up his sleeve.
For one, as a follower of Scoble’s career, it feels like one of the first projects where he has been handed the reigns to control the direction and focus. Like everything Scoble’s done in the past, its web focused, however up until now, all he’s said is that Building 43 will be “a community for people passionate about the internet” and to be honest with you, I cringe a little every time I hear the phrase.
I want to make clear that I am an extremely big fan of Scoble’s, I think what he has done and continues to do for the internet and its geeky devotees is second to none. He has been, and despite what I’m about to say, continues to be an inspiration of mine – the web would be (more…)
Written on 28th April 2009
4 COMMENTS
Giovanni,
WWW megastar Robert Scoble has reached such popularity that he’s become a blogger who doesn’t need to ask anything of their blog design – irrespective of the fact that he’s been known to slate startups for their poor site designs(!)
As simple as a paleochristian architect reinventing roman epic temples and palaces, Scoble seems to have given up even to a standard Wordpress blog template, to better contemplate the truth(s) of the social web.
With the only support of the Sandbox theme, Robert is bravely standing up against herds of commenters, simply asking for a font different from Times New Roman:
“I wanted to see if it would have a major impact on traffic. It did not. [..] I wanted to see who would complain and who would praise it. Some complained that it was too unprofessional. Others complained it?s hard to read on high resolution monitors (the text goes all the way across the browser)”.
To tell the truth, I’m finding the approach rather innovative; focus on content and let the social networking sites do the rest. Maybe, for blogs, the widgets and clutter era has really begun to fade away. Whilst we realise Scoble’s just ‘in between’ site designs and is likely to soon return to ads and perfectly implemented sidebars, it’s interesting to consider the days of widgets and clutter gradually fading away.
And by the way, Robert, please don’t let them turn Times New Roman the new Comic Sans.
Written on 6th March 2009
26 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
*updated*
Blogger and tech evangelist megastar Robert Scoble (link to wikipedia entry) is leaving his full time post at FastCompany.tv.
Scoble joined FastCompany.tv a year ago and has released a series of quality interviews with many a tech entrepreneur/industry leader, some of which I will list below this post. According to Arrington at Techcrunch, Scoble will continue to write a column for the company but video interviews and alike are over.
Sadly, even tech megastars, and make no mistake about it – Scoble is one – aren’t left unaffected by the downturn in the economy either. The reason behind the departure seems to be that FastCompany.tv’s sponsor Seagate have decided against renewing their contract.
Apparently Scoble has a new project on the books, which I’m going to do my best to get some info on – if it’s the last thing I do. (more…)
Written on 29th February 2008
1 COMMENT
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
All you online identity experts out there, there’s a new kid on the block. It’s called RealMee, a service that allows people to set up a profile page ‘in seconds’. You can share contact details, add personal stuff such as the school you went to and display videos and widgets. What else is new? You might ask. Well, your blogger is here to tell you.
The service has one main advantage, somehow it makes sure that your page shows up in the top search results. Are they fooling Google? The FAQ says:
No, we are not. We play by the rules set by search engines. This means no cloaking, linkfarming and all those other geeky terms that describe ways of influencing search engines in prohibited ways. We know we cannot build a solid service based on lies. We simply make sure your personal website is found by search engines and the best way to help improve your own ranking is by linking to your own RealMee website from wherever you think it might be relevant, e.g. from your Facebook, LinkedIn, or MySpace profile.
I’ve tested it by searching for some folks from the – not so practical – RealMee index and the RealMee page was always on the first page.
This might not be that relevant for you, since I assume you’re a pretty web-savvy person. Otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this tech blog. You know how to get your blog to the top results. Yet for the less geeky crowd, this could be a handy way to manage their online identity. Now they can finally start to fight those drunk pictures that always show up on Google. And you know what? They owe it to Scoble, since the founders Ronald Carpentier and Hans Helms wrote this on their ‘About us‘ page:
One simple question from Robert Scoble got us thinking: “What if we could just post one post with all the stuff you’d want to appear in Google or Live Search or Yahoo for when people search for your name?” The need was clear. People need to control how they are found when people look for them online.
Written on 17th December 2007
19 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
The next revolution in mobile video is here! Qik makes it possible to broadcast live from your Nokia phone. Robert Scoble discovered this new way of video sharing and is raving about it on his blog: “Holy s**t. I can stream live video to you now from anywhere at anytime.” This is how he drives his car.
Besides filming during driving, Qik makes a lot of other interesting activities possible. Just imagine the influence this will have on citizen journalism. Instead of endlessly uploading the video, the new reporters can broadcast their news right-a-way.
And what will this mean for YouTube? If the larger audience will pick up this service, chances are high that almost all video content from camera phones will be published on Qik instead of YouTube.
Since I don’t own the right phone I haven’t been able to test it yet. I hereby challenge you, the Next Web visitor, to come up with an interesting live stream in the comments.
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