First, we were in on the whitehot Naked Conversations book launch party at Rancho Techcrunch on Friday. Today, four of our logos show up on Stabilo’s extended mashup of Web 2.0 logos. We’re not even serious about egorRSS, yet there it is. WeblogsWork, PodServe and SimpleTicket are also there. Now all we need is an interview on Geek Entertainment TV & the trifecta is complete.

Surely venture funding isn’t far behind. We’ll invite you to the crazydelicious launch party, of course.

Technorati Tags: bubble, logo2.0, podserve, simpleticket, techcrunch, techcrunch5, weblogs+work

Need capital for your break-out Web 2.0 business?  Don’t know where to start?  How about using Web 2.0 tools to raise money.  Start by setting up a blog – this is just a requirment.  Next record a three minute elevator pitch, sign up for a free PodServe account and then upload your mp3 into the Investment Pitch Podcast. 

The Investment Pitch Podcast has over 500 subscribers (mostly on iTunes) today.  By uploading your elevator pitch you can be sure lots of people will hear your pitch.  Who knows, you might even find an investor.  Good luck, start pitching!

The Big in Japan team came up with a couple new ideas for podcasting: public and social podcasts.  I created a public podcast for Shel Israel and Robert Scoble’s new book called "Naked Conversations Disucssion".  You can listen to the podcast (so far I am the only person who has uploaded an mp3) by grabbing the feed here.  You can add your own posts (assuming you sign up for a free account) by simply ‘adding a new show’ to the public podcast.  The podcast already has 316 subscribers so anyone (i.e. you) can insert their message into the podcast and get immediate traction (i.e. listeners).  Give is a shot and then let me know what you think.  Brian will be interviewing Shel Israel at the TechCrunch Naked Conversations party for the podcast tomorrow (make sure you check it out).  Here are the explainations:

• Public Podcasting: Anyone can join in (i.e. it is public) and add a show or episode to your public podcast. Pick a "long tail" topic or subject and let release your podcast into the wild and see what happens. Pick a "head of the tail" topic and watch it explode. Sort of like a public chat room. Public podcasts can be moderated, but why would you do that to yourself?
• Social podcasting: The concept is simple, it basically allows you to invite one or more people to join your podcasting effort. For example, had Lincoln and Douglas had access to our Social Podcasting service they could have each added shows or episodes for each of their speeches without the need to coordinate their activities. They would just upload their mp3 to PodServ and subscribers would receive each show or episode automatically. Or lets say you have a ten member book club located across the globe reading "long tail" books like Headhunting in the Solomon Islands. You can create a Social podcast for the club, inviting each member to upload their thoughts into the podcast. Each member would subscribe and by the end of the month (hopefully) everyone has read the book and listened to each others thoughts on it. Social podcasts can be either moderated or un-moderated.

I (Alex) wrote a blog post titled "Brian Drain for Austin" yesterday.  The gist was that companies were leaving Austin and relocating to other cities.  I started thinking about this last year when Ben Brown decided to move his Web 2.0 startup to San Francisco (acquired by C|Net).

I had read an article in the Dallas Business Journal that General Bandwidth was moving their offices from Austin to Dallas.  I weaved that into my larger idea and blogged about it.  This morning I got a call from General Bandwidth and they asked me to change my blog post.  They wanted to make it clear to their employees that they were not moving all operations to Dallas, just the HQ.  Evidently their Austin employees were getting concerned after reading my blog post.  I didn’t know that anyone even read my blog…

At the end of the day I think this is a good example of how easily it is to get the story partially wrong, but how easy it is for companies to get DIY media guys like me to fix it.  He called at 10:25AM and by 10:28 the post had been update/corrected.  How long will it take him to get the Dallas Business Journal to clarify their piece?  (their piece is actually very clear, but it is so long I suspect that most people get the same impression I got)

The top advertising blogger in the world, Steve Rubel, is moving to Edelman.  Here is a blurb from Steve’s blog:

After five years at CooperKatz, I felt it was time for me to take the next step in my evolution. So I am excited to announce that I will be joining Rick Murray’s team at Edelman (the world’s largest independent PR firm) on February 27 as a Senior Vice President. I will be working out of their New York office.

[via AdAge]

We’ve been using Plazes lately, which is a fun little location app. If we were more urban (and younger, let’s face it), we’d probably use Dodgeball, too. Location-based services are going to be big. Big, we tell you. (Instead of plastics, now you’d tell young Dustin that the future is about location.)
Steve Rubel posts news about a new feature at Topix — mapping where the contributions of bloggers are coming from. Coolio.

Technorati Tags: plazes, topix

Stowe Boyd fires with both barrels this morning, vamping off of Robert’s list of better blogging tips. Do go & read the whole thing. Snippets:

True Voice — The absolutely, indispensible, central core of all great blogs is authentic and empassioned writing, clearly expressing a consistent and value-based perspective. If you do not possess this, work hard to see how others do it, and emulate their techniques.

Throw Yourself Into Dialog — Do not write in a corner, looking at the walls. Most great posts are a response to the writing of others. You read something (as I read Robert’s post this morning), it sparks some thoughts, and you add to the thread. Then continue on: see if those involved in the thread respond to your addition to the discussion. Repeat.

The Big Idea — Every once in a while, work on one of those big posts, that outlines an idea that may have big implications. This could be asking a hard question, or debunking conventional wisdom, or defining the outlines of a new, emerging market. I recently introduced the Conversational Index, which led to a large cascade of commentary and thinking by others. In past years, I have been lucky enough to click that way with other notions, like last fall’s RSS Readering meme. This is a function of invention, and is hard to channel or predict. But the effect, even of just asking a really hard, important question, can be enormous.

Timing Matters — I am not suggesting blowing hot and cold on themes, but rather try to build on stories when they are still new and in people’s thoughts. I saw this post of Robert’s, and I am using it as a springboard to collate a bunch of my thoughts on the topic that he opened. If I had waited a week, a much smaller number of people would read it, because next week this will be one of last week’s hot themes. So timing matters.

Technorati Tags: 5ives, blogging+tips, robert+scoble, stowe+bowd

Hyperbole, sure, but we’re just following advice. As he goes off for a ski trip, Robert Scoble downloads everyone on how to grow blog traffic. & he should know. Here’s the short version of Robert’s tips:

• Write great headlines (in a syndicated world, your headlines are your calling card)
• Claim your blog on Technorati
• Be different (this one reminds us of advice Barry Hannah once gave a creative writing student: try to make yourself a more interesting person)
• Use eye candy (screen shots & pictures are pretty)
• Tag often & better
• Tell others about what you’ve written
• Make pals with other bloggers

Technorati Tags: robert scoble

Stephen Baker has a piece in yesterday’s BusinessWeek about big companies using blogging technology to improve their internal communications. Good stuff.

Not by a long shot. Instead of public blogs, think about blog technology. That’s the focus for many leading companies around the world. From McDonald’s (MCD) to Cannondale Bicycle, corporations are using the software to revamp internal communications, reach out to suppliers, and remake corporate Intranets.

Technorati Tags: businessweek, internal+communications, stephen+baker

Blake Burris (of CocoaRadio fame) did a podcast interview with us at Barcamp Dallas. We talk about why we think it’s important to do things like Barcamp, what Weblogs Work is about, and where we might take all this from here.

Listen to the podcast. (4.5 MB mp3)

Technorati Tags: barcamp, barcampdallas, blake burris, brian oberkirch, cocoaradio, Weblogs Work