Scoble’s Building 43. Underwhelming but not without ambition.

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…)

building43, robert scoble, scoble, scobleizer

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Fill in the blanks, track your alias on Usernamecheck.com

Written on 27th October 2008                                                                                                              9 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

Until two weeks ago, you’d regularly find articles of Robin Wauters on The Next Web Blog. The last post the next web enthusiast & Plugg organizer wrote, was titled Matt Mullenweg snaps up PollDaddy. The next day, Michael Arrington snapped up Robin Wauters. Yes, our Belgian editor got promoted to TechCrunch. Goodbye, farewell and trackback!

Well, yesterday I received the first trackback from Wauters, now it’s my time to return the favor. Not just because he’s a great guy, but mostly because he discovered a cool tool: Usernamecheck.com.

It took me or two or three usernames before I realized it’s better to have one. Not just because it’s easier to remember, but also for personal branding matters. So I chose “dutchproblogger”. I’m sure you have an alias as well: Usernamecheck allows you to see whether that nickname is still available on 68 services.

According to TechCrunch commenters, the service isn’t functioning perfectly, yet you’ll get the idea anyhow.

As you can see, I suck at registering with the right username, some are more fanatic about it:

So be ahead of the “asswipes” out there and fill in the blanks, a.s.a.p.!

Michael Arrington, personal branding, Robin Wauters, scobleizer, TechCrunch, username, usernamecheck.com

9 Comments »