ALLIED by Jeneane Sessum

November 14, 2007

Building Our Businesses on the Back of Google

Yours Truly was interviewed for a Computerworld article (also see PC World or Infoworld) on problems with lost gmail. I'm not sure whether I'm glad or sad I wasn't the only one to have experienced the devastating loss of my inbox mail, or the only one bugged by Google's shoulder-shrug response.

It's a good article--give it a read. (I've bolded the most important parts [[cough]] below.)

Be sure you're prepared -- at least emotionally -- for this kind of loss before you leave the desktop behind. And if you figure out HOW to be prepared, please let me know.

---------

Disappearing Gmail messages baffle users

There is a growing stream stream of Gmail users who regularly report losing some, many, or all of their messages without a clue as to why

Juan Carlos Perez (IDG News Service) 15/11/2007 12:20:38

When Jeneane Sessum logged into her Gmail account on the afternoon of October 27, she was greeted with a horrifying sight: an empty inbox.

A Gmail user since 2004, Sessum, a social media consultant and writer in Atlanta, had thousands of messages there, enough to use up almost 30 percent of her allotted storage space.

Since Gmail is her primary work and personal e-mail service, Sessum lost many important messages, including some she needed at that moment for a project.

Days earlier in Chicago, Jessica Squazzo, a writer and editor, accessed Gmail and stared at her computer screen in disbelief: All messages from 2007 had disappeared from her inbox.

Sessum and Squazzo are just two of a small but steady stream of Gmail users who regularly report losing some, many, or all of their messages without a clue as to why.

It seems that hardly a week goes by without at least several users reporting this problem on discussion boards, such as the official Gmail Help forum.

Asked to comment about multiple lost-message reports in 11 different threads created in September and October in the Gmail Help forum, a Google spokesman declined to address any of the specific situations, citing privacy reasons.

However, he did emphasize that, as far as Google is concerned, "most issues like this are a result of phishing attacks or compromised passwords -- or sometimes simply messages mistakenly deleted or marked as spam -- not a data corruption issue."

That explanation makes little sense to savvy and experienced Internet users like Sessum and Squazzo, who are aware of phishing scams and know better than to reply to suspicious messages -- let alone include in them confidential, sensitive information, such as passwords. In addition, they say they are the only ones with access to their respective accounts.

Moreover, both Sessum and Squazzo, interviewed separately via e-mail, question why a malicious hacker would go through the trouble of trying to access someone's e-mail account in order to delete messages, instead of acting stealthily to harvest information they could exploit, like credit card numbers.

"If someone had hacked into my account, why would they have just erased some of my e-mail and not all? The fact that precisely all my e-mail from 2007 -- and no earlier mail -- was wiped out leads me to still conclude that it must have been some technical error on Gmail's servers, whether they want to admit that or not," said Squazzo, who has used Gmail for personal communications since 2005.

In the case of Sessum, while the inbox was empty, she still had copies of messages she had sent in the "All Mail" file of her account, along with saved transcripts of instant messaging chats she had conducted using Google Talk.

For the sake of comparison, a review of discussion forums for users of Yahoo Mail and Windows Live Hotmail reveals far fewer reports of lost or disappearing inbox messages than for Gmail, even though those rival services have larger user bases.

Matt Cain, a Gartner vice president and lead e-mail analyst, hasn't investigated reports of lost messages in Gmail, but said the problem hasn't been observed as a common one in Yahoo Mail or Hotmail, both of which have traditionally enjoyed a high degree of data integrity in their message repositories.

"I can't validate [that this is a problem with Gmail] but if it's true, it's coming at an unfortunate time for Google, because the company is aggressively pushing into the enterprise e-mail space," Cain said, referring to the Gmail component of the Google Apps hosted collaboration and communication application suite, designed for organizations of all sizes, including large ones with its Premier edition.

A review of the Gmail Help forum reveals that reports of lost messages have become more common in the past year, with a higher volume of complaints occurring since July.

Another user who encountered this problem was Gary S. Moore of Fort Worth, Texas, who had used Gmail without problems for two years until one day last month, when he noticed all his archived messages had vanished from his account, including more than 100 photos.

In Greenwood, Missouri, Monroe Johnson was also affected, when a portion of his stored messages disappeared in October. Johnson, like Sessum and Squazzo, doesn't believe an error on his part or a compromised account might be to blame.

"I doubt it. I have been working with computers since 1997," Johnson said via e-mail. He's the only one who has access to his account, he said.

Like other interviewed users who contacted Google seeking help and technical support, Sessum only received a canned reply saying Google had determined that her problem wasn't due to a technical issue with Google systems and that she should change her Gmail password.

"I guess they are insinuating someone bothered to break into my Gmail account with the express purpose of deleting my incoming mail, while deciding to leave my chats and sent mail. Not likely," she said.

Sessum, who also uses the hosted Google Docs applications and other Google services, expected a more helpful answer from the company, considering the extent of her data loss.

"In many respects, I'm building my small business on the back of Google. And I believe that's what Google wants us to do. So it's imperative that they provide at least a little support when something goes wrong," said Sessum, who hosts her blog on Google's Blogger service.

Although consumer Webmail services such as Gmail are generally free, the user expectation is that the data stored in them will not be corrupted, Gartner's Cain said.

In fact, one of Gmail's innovations when it was introduced in April 2004 was the size of its inbox -- 1G byte, huge by the standards at that time -- so that users wouldn't have to bother deleting messages if they didn't want to.

Google didn't deliver POP3 support for Gmail until November 2004, and didn't offer IMAP support until late last month. POP3 and IMAP are protocols that let users download e-mail messages from servers to desktop PC software.

There doesn't seem to be a pattern to the reports of lost Gmail messages, as the problem has hit users with a variety of PCs, operating systems and browsers, according to interviews and discussion forum messages.

For example, Sessum uses a Mac computer and the Firefox browser, and doesn't synchronize her Gmail account with a desktop e-mail software. Meanwhile, Johnson accesses Gmail from a Windows Vista PC and downloads the messages to his computer, although he keeps copies of them on the Google servers.

Sessum, echoing other users, is hoping Google will look deeper into this problem of disappearing e-mail messages. Its users deserve a better explanation, she said.

"Google's back-end support function is MIA. You can't find a number to call. You have to tap our personal network of friends to find a name and a way in through the back door, do a dance and rub a stone for good luck, and hope that someone will help," she said.

It's also in Google's best interest to beef up this support part of its business, because even users who don't pay Google for services or software contribute significantly to the company's success, she said.

"Google makes it easier for us to collaborate, work, and publish. We provide the content, the searches, the clicks, and the destinations for those clicks. It's a win-win. Until you lose something important -- like all your data," she said.

A sampling of recent threads in the Gmail Help forum devoted to lost messages follows:

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November 13, 2007

I'm In. Support the WGA on Black Tuesday.

It won't help much
cuz I'm no robin williams
no julia louise dryfus
no seinfeld
no letterman no leno
but omgwtfbbq
I gotta stand
with the word people.

Show your support for the WGA.

---

November 12, 2007

Not to Burst Your Bubble

Tough times now, Tougher times ahead.

Talk of Worst Recession Since the 1930s
By DAN DORFMAN
November 12, 2007

After what Los Angeles money manager Arnold Silver called "a brutal three days," the question is: What now for the market?

A Wall Street superstar this year who runs Balestra Capital Partners, Jim Melcher, says he's "worried about a recession. Not a normal one, but a very bad one. The worst since the 1930s. I expect we'll see clear signs of it in six months with a dramatic slowdown in the gross domestic product."

Balestra Capital, a $350 million New York hedge fund, was up 3% for the past three market sessions, when the Dow Jones Industrials, spearheaded by widespread declines in financial stocks and fears of more billion-dollar-plus asset write-downs, tumbled more than 677 points, or about 4.5%. The Nasdaq fared worse, skidding about 7%, triggered by across-the-board declines in those fast-stepping technology stocks.

Balestra has increased in value by 175% so far this year, Mr. Melcher tells me. A 9-year-old fund, it has posted compounded annual growth of about 30% since its inception.

Mr. Melcher, a market bear, had some pretty discouraging words. "What I think is not good for the country, but good for me." he says. His basic advice to the country's roughly 80 million stock players: Run for the hills — the worst is far from over. An investor's stock portfolio now, he believes, should be only about half of what it might normally be.

With the housing market in a state of collapse — and he says he believes it is far from over — Mr. Melcher argues that average homeowners will not be able to withstand the kind of recession he sees, given the added burdens of rising energy and food costs, and continued deterioration in the credit markets.

Noting that consumption is already slowing, Mr. Melcher figures sharply rising unemployment is inevitable. Another of his worries is that central banks around the globe, America's included, are debasing their currencies, which is setting the stage for a new round of higher inflation. Our bear figures the next six to 12 months will be awful for investors as the market goes down "pretty substantially." His frightening outlook calls for an additional 20% to 30% decline from current levels. A drop of that magnitude would put the Dow down in a range of roughly 9,100 to 10,400

iCard Candy

November 11, 2007

one more for RB

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOYZ!

A Veteran's Day "Happy Birthday" to two of my favorite Net Vets:

Chris Locke, aka RageBoy, who turns the big SIX OH MY GOD.

And JP Rangaswami, who turns the big FITTY CENT.

For the men who have everything, I really wanted to get you one (or two as it were) of these. However, as it also were, a vacheron-constantin is not currently in my budget.

Who am I kidding the thread on the band is not currently in my budget.

And so instead, I do what any beer-budget-blogger would do, which is post a fancy picture of the gift they'd like to send if they were someone else--someone probably too busy and stinking rich to be spending time blogging.

So with that, I send my gratitude, love, and wish that you have a great TIME on your birthdays.

----

First of all,

wash your freaking HANDS.

the WHAT blogs?

Shelley, Mike, Gary, Denise, Michael, Halley, and Tom, did you know they call the warbloggers "Milbloggers" now? Just making sure you guys stay up to date on the terms the kids are using these days.

We are showing our age.

I think I am going to change the name Blawgers to NoReallyWereHereToHelpggers.

---

November 10, 2007

THE DEVIL YOU KNOW In Tags

it's all relative ----->RB's the devil you know

The pain is gone. The real bad pain I had five years ago, 2002, 2003. When 2004 rolled around I thought OK, this must be enough. Two years is enough, right? C'mon. Well you can put me out. Put me out. I fell asleep watching the movie I grabbed tonight. The Way of the Gun. I love Benicio del Toro. I woke up and thought: the pain is gone. Five years later, five and a half. Not really gone, but gone enough. The thrill too, but that's the price you pay. I thought well it's Friday night, nowhere to be tomorrow. I could make another cup of coffee. I could write.

Put me out of mis-er-y. Yeah hipshake snap it's the brand new me. Up on the stage like I never was, guitar slung low in case I need a chord. Talking to the mike as it comes to me. Like that. Or maybe... yeah, maybe more like this. Pathological mourning, what rhymes with that? I was always big on nomenclature. Every word in its place and a place in every word. Some forever not for better. Three years, four. Not supposed to last that long. If I can just hold on I thought, till the screaming stops. But I knew all the time I wasn't screaming. I was thinking one day I'll write it. Get it in, get it on, get it down the way it really was. Get it over with. Here's a chord right now. All casual like. Just saying.

So what's this? One day you wake up and you're a lounge act? If only you could have been what I dreamed you were. And you say no, that's wrong, that's not the way it goes, you were just projecting. And I say what, were you born yesterday? Of course I was projecting. Can't dance, too wet to plow. What else is there to do here? Are you scared? And you say are you high? We're all scared. But it's my mike tonight, my chords, my world. I thought one day I'd say I thought you'd like who I thought you were. It was a hell of a dream.

Eventually you do get over it though, huh? Nothing left to prove, to hold onto, to mourn. I thought I'd maybe have some sort of breakthrough, catharsis, but it wasn't like that. After a while blue turns to gray. So many lines I wish I'd written. I miss the anger most sometimes, the white-hot grandiosity of survival as revenge, like balling you up against a wall in a dark alley, your skirt hiked up, your heels askew, breath coming hot, my teeth at your neck. All I ever wanted was to push you over the edge. Another chord here. Offhand, diminished, as if I cared.

Somewhere I still hear the screaming. But it's farther away now, down the canyon, someone else. Moonrise, morning star. Those things are really there, you know. I wasn't just imagining. You realize it finally stops because you erase it. Sand down the sharp edges first, the broken jagged parts sticking into your heart. The image blurs a bit, flickers. Hell, you can't hold it anyway. That's the whole point. It would be quicker if you could just admit it didn't matter. Why hang onto these illusions? Why not get some other ones instead? Why are you so invested in this she said. And me thinking how can you miss someone so bad you never even knew? Hello, hello... distant ship smoke etc, nothing comfortable about it. Probably because I did it straight no chaser. My way way more Vicious than Sinatra. So I like his voice, she said, so what. The final fuck you moment.

I woke up halfway through the movie. The pain is gone I was thinking, the first line of something. Only a familiar ache where the agony was. It's a kind of gratitude, don't get me wrong. A kind of almost joy. That those who have not found their breath may find it. Echoes of bodhisattva best wishes rattling around in a can. Old dog fully up to his old tricks. A chord for you here, a flash of lightning in a summer cloud. All stolen, all tinker bricolage. The fiddler now steps to the road, pennywhistles from high windows, something about Juarez. You can't feel it and say it at the same time, that's the problem. Or maybe you can. But that was my problem. Too close to the flame, the strings too hot to touch. Let me stand.

Next to your fire nothing burned so bright. But I knew that was bullshit even then. You were nothing that I didn't make you. Love me for who I am you said, sort of, maybe would have said had it occurred to you. But who you were seemed so much less than who you might have been. I can understand fear. I can understand confusion. Betrayal though, that's something else. Cowardice. Look into my eyes, read my lips: screw forgiveness. You only get the one chance to step up. Illusion or not, here I come. You have to believe it's worth the candle.

Pathological is just a more social way of saying too intense. The candle is worth too much. The candle is burning at both ends. The wind is freshening. The moon is rising through the clouds. You know this could go on forever if you don't let go. But you also know that if you do let go, that's the end of forever. Which happens anyway soon enough. I took a ride on you is all, long as I could make it last. And I thought one day I'd tell you what it was like, how it felt to lose everything. Here I am one day tonight, dropping guitar chords down a well, writing lyrics inside upside down around the beat, the bend, the riverrun past Eve and Adam, baby. Can't you hear me knockin? Nothing to recant.

Not One Fucking Thing is Miscellaneous

I thought one day I'd say I thought you'd like who I thought you were.............

THE DEVIL YOU KNOW - RB

The pain is gone. The real bad pain I had five years ago, 2002, 2003. When 2004 rolled around I thought OK, this must be enough. Two years is enough, right? C'mon. Well you can put me out. Put me out. I fell asleep watching the movie I grabbed tonight. The Way of the Gun. I love Benicio del Toro. I woke up and thought: the pain is gone. Five years later, five and a half. Not really gone, but gone enough. The thrill too, but that's the price you pay. I thought well it's Friday night, nowhere to be tomorrow. I could make another cup of coffee. I could write.

Put me out of mis-er-y. Yeah hipshake snap it's the brand new me. Up on the stage like I never was, guitar slung low in case I need a chord. Talking to the mike as it comes to me. Like that. Or maybe... yeah, maybe more like this. Pathological mourning, what rhymes with that? I was always big on nomenclature. Every word in its place and a place in every word. Some forever not for better. Three years, four. Not supposed to last that long. If I can just hold on I thought, till the screaming stops. But I knew all the time I wasn't screaming. I was thinking one day I'll write it. Get it in, get it on, get it down the way it really happened. Get it over. Here's a chord right now. All casual like. Just saying.

So what's this? One day you wake up and you're a lounge act? If only you could have been what I dreamed you were. And you say no, that's wrong, that's not the way it goes, you were just projecting. And I say what, were you born yesterday? Of course I was projecting. Can't dance, too wet to plow. What else is there to do here? Are you scared? And you say are you high? We're all scared. But it's my mike tonight, my chords, my world. I thought one day I'd say I thought you'd like who I thought you were. It was a hell of a dream.

---->MORE.

the other side of the coin...

I was involved in an incident on ze internets sometime back (seems like just yesterday) in which I was deemed an asshole for what was ultimately my human inability to pay apt attention to too many things at once, including things I was supposedly involved in but gave only a cursory rat's ass about.

Not to compare the Beatles to Jesus here, but I actually feel for Om (who is in pain) and Mike (who's job is not to confirm speakers for a conference) for taking a beating about not showing up at a blogging conference because one of them was not well and the other had no concrete plans to be there. Emails exchanged are not a confirmation. If I were booking either one of these guys for a conference, I'd have more than a few back-and-forths before I'd stamp them on the agenda.

There may be a great bunch of things unknown here, but the thing I do know is that a woman vlogger stepped in to fill the spot on the panel, and I don't know her, but as expected, the typical 'she was much hotter/easier on the eye/cuter/sexier' than Arrington or Malik has begun in earnest. I wonder if she actually contributed anything to the conversation?

Not that THAT matters at a blogging conference.

---

----

So sorry, Denise...

Your Grandma Urzi ounds like an amazing woman. Now I know where you get it from.

I love her pictures.

Thinking about you.

--

November 07, 2007

stinking wall won't budge

Wake Me in Another Hundred Years

“Once every hundred years media changes," declared wonderalmostman Mark Zuckerberg at the Facebook Social Advertising Event in New York City. Apparently we're still waiting, at least from what I'm reading about Facebook's not-so-landmark platform for big brands to bore you where you came to avoid them.

I'm with Nick, who would probably join me at the clinic for an immunization against the "Infect me, I'm yours" brand (new) virus that's about to spread like the plague across online social spaces.

Facebook had a chance to get a clue to do away with traditional broadcast-model advertising, to truly put participants in charge of how they deal with the companies who want in their pants sooo badly, to instruct corporations who don't know how to do things any differently just how to DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY. And Facebook failed.

The same old brand pushers -- Sprite sips and all -- will be showing up on Facebook, led by the Biggest of All Brands--the Kings of Soda (can big pharma be far behind?). Prepare to be intertained!

In a marketing sense, social networks are comprised of Gonzo-Marketing-Styled micromarkets, where people gather around things that interest them NOT in 'predictable consumer ways,' but in ways where the 'i kissed a boy in kindergarten' group means something to you, even if that something is LYAO. Facebook COULD have been the virtual liaison between people gathered around areas of interest and related products and services, where the PEOPLE are the conversation, and the CORPORATION listens, and pays for the privilege.

But I don't think that's how it's going to be on Facebook. Not given this release about Leading Brands leading the way into advertising there:

The Coca-Cola Company will feature its Sprite brand on a new Facebook Page and will invite users to add an application to their account called “Sprite Sips.” People will be able to create, configure and interact with an animated Sprite Sips character. For consumers in the United States, the experience can be enhanced by entering a PIN code found under the cap of every 20 oz. bottle of Sprite to unlock special features and accessories. The Sprite Sips character provides a means for interacting with friends on Facebook. In addition, Sprite will create a new Facebook Page for Sprite Sips and will run a series of Social Ads that leverage Facebook’s natural viral communications to spread the application across its user base.

Great. The Webkins of Cola. Let the intertainment begin.

I guess we can hope that our grandkids, or theirs, who will be around in another hundred years will get to enjoy a MEANINGFUL change in what it means to be a "consumer," otherwise known as a person. 'Cause it ain't happening this time around.

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November 06, 2007

Look for the Union Label!

Let me just start out by sayng, not. work. safe.

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Trifecta - Quadrupla!! The Cluetrain Stopped at DeFrag

Four of my favoritest people of the internets were together in one place yesterday--and in earth tones, besides!

My old good friends Doc, David, and Chris, joined by my newer good friend JP Rangaswami, stood on the same terrain at Eric Norlin's Defrag 07 conference in Denver.

JP verifies that the Cluetrainers are NOT a single person posing as three-and-a-half people. He actually rounded them up for a photo op AND got his copy of Cluetrain signed by all three Internet thought readers...uh leaders (something I've wanted to do since 2000).

I'm thinking mugs? Totes? Placemats?

----

Are Enough People Flushing Vicodin Down the Toilet that We Really Need to Throw Away Unused Pills in Cat Poop?

#1.) The term "Unused" Vicodin is infringing on oxymoron territory.

#2) You gotta be kidding me.

#3) I'm volunteering to work "take-back" day.

Once, patients were told to flush old drugs down the toilet. No more _ do not flush unless you have one of the few prescriptions that the Food and Drug Administration specifically labels for flushing.
That's because antibiotics, hormones and other drugs are being found in waterways, raising worrisome questions about potential health and environmental effects. Already, studies have linked hormone exposure to fish abnormalities. Germs exposed to antibiotics in the environment may become more drug-resistant.
Some communities set aside "take-back" days to return leftover doses to pharmacies or other collection sites for hazardous-waste incineration. The Environmental Protection Agency recently funded a novel pilot program by the University of Maine to see if consumers will mail back unused drugs _ a program that local officials estimate could cull up to 1.5 tons of medications.

Here in Atlanta, we have no water, so flushing is probably as safe as cat-littering. Personally, I'm waiting for "benzo burn day."

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November 05, 2007

BIRTHDAYS!!!

allied turned 6 yesterday. can you belieee that?

happy birthday to backup brain -- turning 8 today!

tis the bday season for the class of 01-02. keep your eye out for more blogelders reflecting on the last so many years.

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November 04, 2007

beating peta

You probably don't know,
but if you do know,
or if you don't know but would like to know,
and you still believe in BLOGROLLS,
if you wouldn't mind blogrolling this new blog,
well then I'd like to introduce you to The Pet Timez,
brainchild of two blogging offspring
from two of your favorite mommy bloggers: thee and madame levy.

Our daughters, Maeve (from france) and Jenna (from amerika) have started a blog about pets, animals, and all things hairy. It's like realtime blog penpals writing about the stuff they care about--generally with four legs.

Enjoy. Support. Giggle.

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Pass on the Pasta, Bring on the Burger

As a card carrying member of the New Media, I, from time to time, get books in the mail to review. I've started saying SURE to press releases offering books I think might be useful. I call this the cheapskate's guide to Holiday shopping!

I recently received The Diet Detective's Calorie Bargain Bible, by Charles Stuart Platkin to review. I have to say, the little 400+ page book is FULL of calorie counts for just about every food under the sun, including fast food joints, holiday meals, supermarket options, and more.

Meals with all the calories you should eat in a day include Ruby Tuesday's Colossal Burger (1,943 calories). You'd think the Fresh Chicken and Broccoli Pasta would be healthy, but it weighs in with 2,061 calories-- what the average person should eat in an entire day.

With more than a thousand calorie 'bargains', Platkin's book is a handy resource for getting the best calorie bang for your buck.

---

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November 03, 2007

web 1.0 companies that are still delivering get an immediate 10 trillion dollars - good news for blogrolling.com!

frank lolcat paynter and jeneane solve the challenges of web 2.0 using social software from google.com.

from g-chat, sat eve:

Frank: my face is all asymetrical too
me: i think it's endemic
Frank: one eye is on the end of my nose
me: me too
my brain is in my butt too
Frank: and my left ear is where my eye should be
me: i thought so
it's all so complicated
Frank: very
me: let's just start again
Frank: first we have to get people to keep blogrolling
me: right
YES
what's WRONG with people
(they don't take care of their pets either)
Frank: surfing is inconvenient if you have to keep hitting the back button
they dissect their pets and they trash their blogrolls
me: amen
Frank: my dog is now a counter-surfing crime dog
me: stumbleupon will sell for like 9 trillion dollars
but fucking blogrolls are free
idiots
Frank: she goes after chocolate
me: she's smart
Frank: exactly about stumbleupon
and that's why the monitizers are trying to influence us away
me: i think web 1.0 tools that are still around - like haloscan and YACCS (no support anymore but still works) and blogrolling.com should automatically get 10 trillion dollars
just for putting up with all the assholes coming after them
get like a pass to disney or something
Frank: I think they should bulldoze oreilly whq and re-plant the orchard there in Sebastopol
it was a nice place before they wigged out technophiles moved in
me: yeah
what you say
Frank: and silicon valley
replant the walnut trees and shit
get scoble out of there
me: blogrolling.com valley
rename it
Frank: rename it web 1.0 valley
me: call it like trees and stuff valley
Frank: Gilroy used to be the garlic capital of the world
me: garlic valley
Frank: now it's all subdivisions and shit
zackly
me: people probably dissecting frogs
Frank: and there was artichoke valley
me: not taking care of their pets
worried about their assymmetricality
Frank: wonder how many of those they still grow?
me: frogs?
Frank: wonder if frogs have all their eyes on one side of their headds
like halibuts

Options
Pop-out

# Star this chat
# Go off the record
# Block Frank
Frank Paynter

Dissecting Frogs, Pets, Asymmetricality, & Itchy Eyes: A Minute with Jenna

User Generated Companies

You know i'm no fan of the web 2.0 nomenclature, wherein resides my least favorite 'user-generated content'. However, the UGC thang has caught on--that dog CAN hunt it appears. We have gone from being consumers (think pacman) to users (think heroine) in what seems to be a blink of the eye. It all means the same things: we are the targeted.

One thing, though, is that as producers, we are generating stuff. Like entire companies. In my line of work, I have to confess, it makes me smile when an ordinary user becomes an all-of-a-sudden, web20-CEO-founder-speaker-thought-leader. Few months ago the guy liked catching and gutting fish. Now he's the ceo of a well-funded social network called fishpals. Okay so I'm exaggerating. But not buy much.

The thing that makes web 2.o palatable is that regular people who like to do regular things -- goofballs like you and me -- are building companies around stuff they like to do. Now this happened the first time around SORT OF, but during the dot-com days, you remember, it was all about e-commerce. How do I sell you shit without you having to leave your chair. And on the B2B side, it was supply chain optimization really: how do we get shit to and from each other cheaper/faster/better using les internetz.

So, yeah, it's a bubble. Sure it's a bubble. But at least we get to play around with stuff. We have user generated users (friends of friends of friends trying other friends' products/services) and user generated companies (companies started by people formerly known as users) creating a service for every possible hobby/passion/want/need/wish.

Fascinating how it can be so interesting and so damn annoying at the same time.

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