I am at the fb change-athon event which I (from Bay area fb meetup) helped organize it with Waleed of Weekend appds.
Its a developer nirvana! Breakfast, lunch and dinner served with a room full of fb developers sharing their questions, experience and tips to make the most of migrating to the new profile.
Waleed gave a cool presentation about his experience migrating his App to Facebook
He has posted his entire presentation on his blog selfdebugging.com
Waleed did an awesome job and it was a very interactive with lot of Q&A.
Here is part1 which is the basic outline of all the changes to focus on to migrate to the new profile. (I had done a post from fb Garage 08 with user's Q&A summarizing Facebook's presentation of the new profile launch here). This one is real developers with their real experience migrating to the new profile.
He did a part2 which walked through with real code on step by step guidance on migrating to new profile. The Q&A brought up new tips and techniques and some frustration of what didn't work for some developers. I'll update here after I get these two videos up.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
Social Conversations takes grassroots shape at SocialMediaCamp SF today
I am a believer of grassroots events which propel brands and cut through crap to help us learn what is really happening in any realm of tech space. This is an evolving movement affecting marketing and user generation for brands, similar to how open source impacted software industry.
I am old enough to have started in online marketing with the linkexchange in 95 to portal co-branded deals as traffic drivers to SEO and SEM thru the 2000s and now onto Social Conversations.
So I am here, blogging live from SocialMediaCampSF, I just was lucky to be able to join this amazing energy of grassroots entrepreneurial social media architects.
This is a BarCamp style event where the topic was created on the fly this morning by all attendees.
Chris Heur who founded Social Media Club has spearheaded it and am pleased to report its very well organized, theres lot of good presentations and wonderful hallway conversations.
What I mean by Social Conversation
Microblogs like twitter, friendfeed which makes social browsing bringing all our online activities together for a community of people to follow others and engage in a conversation by comments and a simple google style UI to add a "like" to link an item to our feed.
Ok, I am a huge friendfeed fan, but what I love is they have so many widgets and APIs to seamlessly adapt friendfeed into your online life, its such a natural way to have a social conversation, without stopping to think about it.
Summize was just bought by twitter.
Disqus allows integrating of your comments across the web, similar to mybloglog but for dicsussions.
Some presentations I am seeing and liking here today below includes another social conversation or social browsing tool.
1pm: I saw a demo of Yoona by their evangelist Kevin.
Yoona is a sponsor of this socialmediacamp and they showed a demo. Compared to friendfeed to show socialbrowsing with a Firefox plugin. I'll try it out and update my comments here. Its a young, promising looking startup.
1.30: David Cohn is presenting spot.us crowd funding for journalism.
It is kiva style community funded citizen journalism. This looks very very promising. Dave is so sincere in his presentation.
Summary - users fund $10 or so to consolidate funds to pay a journalist to get a story, all driven by local community. He has started with a grant from Knight Foundation and he is testing it in Bay Area first. He has checks and balance in place to provide validated real content and took good Q&A.
update: 3pm: Qik Live streaming by Qik's Rishi and Daniel
http://qik.com/video/130494
This is a product demo of QIk live video , nice. Daniel did a live Qik of the room and it was funny we could see our audience live as he moved his hands to talk at http://qik.com/appleuniverse. Good quality video.
I am old enough to have started in online marketing with the linkexchange in 95 to portal co-branded deals as traffic drivers to SEO and SEM thru the 2000s and now onto Social Conversations.
So I am here, blogging live from SocialMediaCampSF, I just was lucky to be able to join this amazing energy of grassroots entrepreneurial social media architects.
This is a BarCamp style event where the topic was created on the fly this morning by all attendees.
Chris Heur who founded Social Media Club has spearheaded it and am pleased to report its very well organized, theres lot of good presentations and wonderful hallway conversations.
What I mean by Social Conversation
Microblogs like twitter, friendfeed which makes social browsing bringing all our online activities together for a community of people to follow others and engage in a conversation by comments and a simple google style UI to add a "like" to link an item to our feed.
Ok, I am a huge friendfeed fan, but what I love is they have so many widgets and APIs to seamlessly adapt friendfeed into your online life, its such a natural way to have a social conversation, without stopping to think about it.
Summize was just bought by twitter.
Disqus allows integrating of your comments across the web, similar to mybloglog but for dicsussions.
Some presentations I am seeing and liking here today below includes another social conversation or social browsing tool.
1pm: I saw a demo of Yoona by their evangelist Kevin.
Yoona is a sponsor of this socialmediacamp and they showed a demo. Compared to friendfeed to show socialbrowsing with a Firefox plugin. I'll try it out and update my comments here. Its a young, promising looking startup.
1.30: David Cohn is presenting spot.us crowd funding for journalism.
It is kiva style community funded citizen journalism. This looks very very promising. Dave is so sincere in his presentation.
Summary - users fund $10 or so to consolidate funds to pay a journalist to get a story, all driven by local community. He has started with a grant from Knight Foundation and he is testing it in Bay Area first. He has checks and balance in place to provide validated real content and took good Q&A.
update: 3pm: Qik Live streaming by Qik's Rishi and Daniel
http://qik.com/video/130494
This is a product demo of QIk live video , nice. Daniel did a live Qik of the room and it was funny we could see our audience live as he moved his hands to talk at http://qik.com/appleuniverse. Good quality video.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Dash's GPS Industry's First Over-the-air Software Update
Its an exciting day today at work at Dash Navigation and my customer's world of Dash Drivers as Dash kept its promise to improve software and add features with an over the air software update to its first Internet Connected GPS "Dash Express".
I am not kidding when I say, I know of customers taking day off to experience the GPS industry's first ever over-the-air wireless software update and try the new features of MyRoute, Search Along Route and improvements of FasterFind and improved performance and new UI.
EVERYONE is talking about it - Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, CrunchGear,VentureBeat, Crave, JK on the Run, NaviGadget, GPS Review and GPS Tracklog ...
As someone immersed in customer conversations at the grass roots level daily, I want to thank our customers who spoke to us and led us to prioritize and bring them just what they wanted next.
Thank You! You Rock!
I am not kidding when I say, I know of customers taking day off to experience the GPS industry's first ever over-the-air wireless software update and try the new features of MyRoute, Search Along Route and improvements of FasterFind and improved performance and new UI.
EVERYONE is talking about it - Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, CrunchGear,VentureBeat, Crave, JK on the Run, NaviGadget, GPS Review and GPS Tracklog ...
As someone immersed in customer conversations at the grass roots level daily, I want to thank our customers who spoke to us and led us to prioritize and bring them just what they wanted next.
Thank You! You Rock!
Monday, June 23, 2008
The Feed Wars - Friendfeed vs Facebook
I am someone who has consolidated all my net activity on facebook. Every worthwhile site has a facebook app - twitter, wordpress blog etc.
Then came friendfeed. I was introduced to it as a simple facebook app and I could integrate everything worthwhile outside of facebook world to follow friends and find feeds of their activities, interests.
Private vs Public Social Graph: The main difference is that friendfeed is a public world of everything thats open for all to see from the people I follow or the friends who follow me. Facebook is my private world of pictures and comments shared by my circle of friends thats not archived for the world to randomly read.
Seinfeld of the Internet: Friendfeed has become the first site to pull me out of facebook to read random twitter feeds and multimedia digged or bookmarked or commented or shared on flickr or youtube - like a reality tv show in short bursts . Someone called Friendfeed the Seinfeld of the Internet (ping me if you know who said that). But its more than TV, you have control on when you flip channels and read feeds of friends or surf through the tinyurls of links your friends want you to read or get engrossed in a discussion of comments (a lot by Robert Scoble) as if you crashed into a cocktail party discussion about a random topic.
The problem is many of my friends on facebook are on friendfeed. They use twitter to say where they are, facebook status doesn't do it for many. My real dilemma came when I had to decide on where I should post an album of pictures after my facebook meetup. Flickr makes it public for the world. Facebook pictures add a personal angle as my friends acknowledge they saw it by tagging it. Same for videos, youtube is my favorite and I have a channel and followers., but facebook video manages support for all size and formats of videos and friends can tag. I chose to defer the problem and continue to use both with sometimes redundant efforts and friendfeed app feed showing redundant feeds of pictures on flickr while my friends on facebook have already seen the pictures on my minfeed.
Enter Facebook's minifeed imports:
Today I noticed Facebook has a simple "import" option in mini-feeds on a profile. And guess what? We have the choice of importing actions from our public sites onto our minifeed.
One first look this could bring the friendfeed functionality inside facebook feeds, but since we all see what our social graphs show, I think friendfeed is entrenched and its hard to expect my friends to adopt the minifeed as their discussion community with comments. Facebook will have to do more to make this import of minifeed (wish it had a better name than that) to be visible to the world and not lost in my minifeed.
On a different note, this import of minifeed could be facebook's attempt to make the profile page an engaging piece of facebook and allow "profile surfing" as is available on bebo.
Choice is good, but this is not enough to take me away from facebook or friendfeed. This could be fun for us as users if friendfeed survives as a standalone company, else this becomes a smart move by facebook to build friendfeed functionality before Google or MS buys friendfeed.
What do you think?
Then came friendfeed. I was introduced to it as a simple facebook app and I could integrate everything worthwhile outside of facebook world to follow friends and find feeds of their activities, interests.
Private vs Public Social Graph: The main difference is that friendfeed is a public world of everything thats open for all to see from the people I follow or the friends who follow me. Facebook is my private world of pictures and comments shared by my circle of friends thats not archived for the world to randomly read.
Seinfeld of the Internet: Friendfeed has become the first site to pull me out of facebook to read random twitter feeds and multimedia digged or bookmarked or commented or shared on flickr or youtube - like a reality tv show in short bursts . Someone called Friendfeed the Seinfeld of the Internet (ping me if you know who said that). But its more than TV, you have control on when you flip channels and read feeds of friends or surf through the tinyurls of links your friends want you to read or get engrossed in a discussion of comments (a lot by Robert Scoble) as if you crashed into a cocktail party discussion about a random topic.
The problem is many of my friends on facebook are on friendfeed. They use twitter to say where they are, facebook status doesn't do it for many. My real dilemma came when I had to decide on where I should post an album of pictures after my facebook meetup. Flickr makes it public for the world. Facebook pictures add a personal angle as my friends acknowledge they saw it by tagging it. Same for videos, youtube is my favorite and I have a channel and followers., but facebook video manages support for all size and formats of videos and friends can tag. I chose to defer the problem and continue to use both with sometimes redundant efforts and friendfeed app feed showing redundant feeds of pictures on flickr while my friends on facebook have already seen the pictures on my minfeed.
Enter Facebook's minifeed imports:
Today I noticed Facebook has a simple "import" option in mini-feeds on a profile. And guess what? We have the choice of importing actions from our public sites onto our minifeed.
One first look this could bring the friendfeed functionality inside facebook feeds, but since we all see what our social graphs show, I think friendfeed is entrenched and its hard to expect my friends to adopt the minifeed as their discussion community with comments. Facebook will have to do more to make this import of minifeed (wish it had a better name than that) to be visible to the world and not lost in my minifeed.On a different note, this import of minifeed could be facebook's attempt to make the profile page an engaging piece of facebook and allow "profile surfing" as is available on bebo.
Choice is good, but this is not enough to take me away from facebook or friendfeed. This could be fun for us as users if friendfeed survives as a standalone company, else this becomes a smart move by facebook to build friendfeed functionality before Google or MS buys friendfeed.
What do you think?
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
DEMO Party SF Rocked
DEMO Party in SF rocked! ok, it was crowded, very crowded with 600 people! Thanks to Ramu of Qik, I managed to capture live videostream of parts of the event in a single click from a N95.
Rafe Needleman shared his nostalgia of how he was involved in the early days in 89 with Steward Alsop and had a demo story about being a repeat demo alum.
Brian Solis you rock! No one can capture more meaningful pictures and get them up faster on flickr on time Brian lets his pictures narrate who was there. I took some pictures, but mostly it was a blur of lot of people excited about DEMO.
Many had been there many times, some PR folks had taken companies to DEMO, some newcomers wanted to go there soon! Its phenomenal on how Chris Shipley goes around the globe and spots the winner companies and provides the fertile launch pad to succeed.
The beauty of the party was many many interesting conversations. I caught some on video as DEMO Stories that I am collecting for DEMO's facebook fan page. Ping me if we you have a demo story, the goal is to share our Demo experience on facebook and start some interesting conversations, you never know, something good will come out of it!
Rafe Needleman shared his nostalgia of how he was involved in the early days in 89 with Steward Alsop and had a demo story about being a repeat demo alum.
Brian Solis you rock! No one can capture more meaningful pictures and get them up faster on flickr on time Brian lets his pictures narrate who was there. I took some pictures, but mostly it was a blur of lot of people excited about DEMO.
Many had been there many times, some PR folks had taken companies to DEMO, some newcomers wanted to go there soon! Its phenomenal on how Chris Shipley goes around the globe and spots the winner companies and provides the fertile launch pad to succeed.
The beauty of the party was many many interesting conversations. I caught some on video as DEMO Stories that I am collecting for DEMO's facebook fan page. Ping me if we you have a demo story, the goal is to share our Demo experience on facebook and start some interesting conversations, you never know, something good will come out of it!
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
DEMO Party tonite! Yay!
I am working on a project called "DEMO Stories" collecting real DEMO conference experience of alums to help new entrepreneurs. This goes on the DEMO Facebook Fan page. We have video interviews of Woody Benson and Julie O'Grady and podcasts in a yodio file there.
I am a DEMO alum from 2000 and have since taken two companies to DEMO, one as VP Marketing in Fall07, and another as startup advisor in DEMO08 . I blogged about last year's DEMO party.
Tonite is the 2008 DEMO Alum party in San Francisco! 600 people have signed up. You can follow DEMOtweets or watchout for the Qik live video streaming I plan to do for you!
If you are at the party and have a DEMO story as an entrepreneur, VC or Corporate Development person, I'd love to chat with you.
We have couple interns in Boston and Bay Area and can always add more if you want to do some DEMO story interviews anywhere in the world.
See you tonite.
I am a DEMO alum from 2000 and have since taken two companies to DEMO, one as VP Marketing in Fall07, and another as startup advisor in DEMO08 . I blogged about last year's DEMO party.
Tonite is the 2008 DEMO Alum party in San Francisco! 600 people have signed up. You can follow DEMOtweets or watchout for the Qik live video streaming I plan to do for you!
If you are at the party and have a DEMO story as an entrepreneur, VC or Corporate Development person, I'd love to chat with you.
We have couple interns in Boston and Bay Area and can always add more if you want to do some DEMO story interviews anywhere in the world.
See you tonite.
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Facebook Platform is OpenSourced
We all heard Dave Morin at the fb garage last week. Facebook has opened its platform as open source quietly in its own way here.
It is a lisenced under Common Public Attribution License (CPAL), which follows the Mozilla Public License (MPL) with the addition of allowing web services.
What does this mean for the developers?
Over the weekend I played with Bebo and wanted to understand the comparison with Facebook platform to see if Bay Area Facebook Meetup would like to see a bebo demo about Facebook migration. Interesting enough I connected with my facebook friends on bebo and haven't heard back from anyone who logged back into bebo. Ok Dave McClure is busy with GSP East, what is everyone's excuse?
I wonder what is the impact for Bebo which has the same Facebook platform lisenced which is not opensourced, right after Bebo's aquisition by AOL. Is this another influence on Facebook's decision to opensource the platform?
What do you think as a developer? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
It is a lisenced under Common Public Attribution License (CPAL), which follows the Mozilla Public License (MPL) with the addition of allowing web services.
What does this mean for the developers?
- This is facebook's response to Google's opensocial?
- Facebook has 400K developers while Opensocial has been expanding with an industry wide support with developers trying it but waiting for better than beta quality from Opensocial platform. This move by Facebook deters developers from moving to Opensocial because they can now contribute to the platform and improve it to their own choice.
- Choice is good and this makes life interesting for developers. myspace is likely to adapt its platform to Facebook style to get fb developers faster.
- One subtle point that goes un-noticed in any analysis I've seen so far is that the lisense has been expanded to include Web services. This is the most interesting piece. This is in line with Facebook's promise of Facebook Connect whereby they plan to open up the social graph to allow access from any web service. This is the bigger step in the Social Media war with Facebook Connect being Facebook's response to Google's FriendConnect and everyone comparing Facebook Connect to FriendFeed etc.
Over the weekend I played with Bebo and wanted to understand the comparison with Facebook platform to see if Bay Area Facebook Meetup would like to see a bebo demo about Facebook migration. Interesting enough I connected with my facebook friends on bebo and haven't heard back from anyone who logged back into bebo. Ok Dave McClure is busy with GSP East, what is everyone's excuse?
I wonder what is the impact for Bebo which has the same Facebook platform lisenced which is not opensourced, right after Bebo's aquisition by AOL. Is this another influence on Facebook's decision to opensource the platform?
What do you think as a developer? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Facebook Garage08 Platformaversary - complete Q&A as I heard it
Yday evening, May 29th, 600 of us lined up in Palo Alto outside Aquaris Theater for the 1 year anniversary of facebook platform. Caitline O'Farrell pulled off an awesome garage seamlessly again this year!
Ben Ling of Facebook presented a review of the first year of the platform 400K developers from 160 countries in 1 year! And from the audience, its going on strong!
This was followed by a video of the 1 yr anniversary by facebook team here
New Facebook Profile Page
The bulk of the evening was spent, facebook style on really sharing their excitement for the new profile page changes planned and getting feedback from users and listening to them.
Dave Morin gave a presentation about the new profile page. Youtube will not allow large videos and restricts formats, here is the video on facebook!
My Summary:
The entire platform team was there and listened and answered questions. I thought I got it when I saw the presentation and demo, but the audience had real good questions. I've tried to capture all Q&A, pl ping me if something is amiss!
Q. Waleed started the first question about box profile. Is the box like the canvas page?
Yes but no flash auto play allowed in the box (waleed help fix this, there was more to your q&a)
Q. Jesse Stay asked: Can we comment on the feeds we see in a friends' profile.
No.
My comments: I've refrained from an analysis and to present the Q&A as I saw it for the benefit of fb fans everywhere who couldn't join us. However, this question brings about the general sentiment that users are looking at this new feed as similar to friendfeed. I think commenting on a friend's profile would be cool. We could always do so with a wall post, so why not allow it in context of each feed item? - imho.
Q. Any limits to number of tabs?
6 tabs UI wise is the limit. Additional apps will be added to a drop down menu. User will have the option to re-order the tabs to their choice.
Q.Any change to App directory?
None.
Q. What explicit integration points does app developer has without asking user for explicit permission?
Apps can publish stories. User needs to give permission to add app to profile box and Tabs.
Q. Support for apps developed with Flash in feed dialog?
Adding flash info to short stories is coming.
Feed form - is in the works, not yet ready. A flash developer can use FBJX bridge and do feed forms for now.
Q.Any plans to redesign profile on iphone?
Not at this time
Q. Today wall attachments allow us to give free gifts (or other app interaction) to a user who has not added an apps from a user who has added the app. Will this change?
Yes, it will work only for combination of users who both have the app.
Q.Where will facebook ads be in the new profile?
TBD
Q. Aggregate of feeds?
Ari Steinberg came up specially to explain the profile and news feeds. (I am missing something here, my don't have much, pl help if you heard this question)
Q. Tabs limited to Canvas URL, can there be different URL from server for rest of the App action? (Missed this one too)
Q.How will pages, groups be displayed in the new profile page?
They will fit in the info tab. Groups and Page layout will be made to match the new profile layout later. Way to add apps to pages remains the same.
Q. (my Question) How much work is it for a developer an average app to migrate to the new profile page? What happens if they did no change to an App?
The new profile offers lot of opportunities for the developer to create content thats part of the new profile for engaging apps. If you do nothing canvas page will remain the same, you app will be bucketed into the tab for user to decide if they want to keep it, and you'll lose all other benefits of user decision points to create visibility in their profile page.
(I want to hear from real developers who have let behind first few apps and moved on to newer fb apps on their actual experience on this one)
Q. Can one app add to a user's profile box, boxes, info section, tab etc.?
Profile box and boxes are multually exclusive, rest all can be added with user's permission.
Q. Whats new with feeds, we have mini feeds and news feed now, is it totally different, is mini feed gone in the new profile?
yes
Q. What is the roll-out schedule?
Developers should start getting their apps ready for the new profile page. Users will have a beta opt-in period to try the new profile and give feedback. Then old profile will be eventually discontinued and everyone will be rolled into new profile
Q. Because of App add removal, does this mean an app developer can email users?
Yes, only with user's permission. It will be another option to ask for user permission by app.
Q. Last Question by Dave McClure - When can 3rd party Apps message into the news feed of a user who has not installed the app?
It is already happening now.
After the Q&A we went to the happy hour at Blue Chalk cafe!
Bay Area facebook Meetup folks: Is there any interest in covering this topic in our upcoming meetup? Just post on our fan page wall here
Also, help me clean any omissions or inaccuracies in the Q&A. And do try the sandbox of the new profile here http://www.new.facebook.com/
Ben Ling of Facebook presented a review of the first year of the platform 400K developers from 160 countries in 1 year! And from the audience, its going on strong!
This was followed by a video of the 1 yr anniversary by facebook team here
New Facebook Profile Page
The bulk of the evening was spent, facebook style on really sharing their excitement for the new profile page changes planned and getting feedback from users and listening to them.
Dave Morin gave a presentation about the new profile page. Youtube will not allow large videos and restricts formats, here is the video on facebook!
My Summary:
- The new profile page is going to be a totally different look and feel with tabs for everything.
- It takes the base philosoply of facebook treating apps as keeping the platform fresh and allows users engagement with apps to produce new content on their profile.
- A new feeds item is going to allow feed notification of profile items to show what a user's friends are upto beyond the current news feed. Feels like a comparison to friendfeed, but for everything facebook only, including apps on facebook. This is the coolest feature!
- Apps don't have to be installed and this means work for the developer with opportunity to win with engaging apps as each engagement can showcase content on the profile
The entire platform team was there and listened and answered questions. I thought I got it when I saw the presentation and demo, but the audience had real good questions. I've tried to capture all Q&A, pl ping me if something is amiss!
Q. Waleed started the first question about box profile. Is the box like the canvas page?
Yes but no flash auto play allowed in the box (waleed help fix this, there was more to your q&a)
Q. Jesse Stay asked: Can we comment on the feeds we see in a friends' profile.
No.
My comments: I've refrained from an analysis and to present the Q&A as I saw it for the benefit of fb fans everywhere who couldn't join us. However, this question brings about the general sentiment that users are looking at this new feed as similar to friendfeed. I think commenting on a friend's profile would be cool. We could always do so with a wall post, so why not allow it in context of each feed item? - imho.
Q. Any limits to number of tabs?
6 tabs UI wise is the limit. Additional apps will be added to a drop down menu. User will have the option to re-order the tabs to their choice.
Q.Any change to App directory?
None.
Q. What explicit integration points does app developer has without asking user for explicit permission?
Apps can publish stories. User needs to give permission to add app to profile box and Tabs.
Q. Support for apps developed with Flash in feed dialog?
Adding flash info to short stories is coming.
Feed form - is in the works, not yet ready. A flash developer can use FBJX bridge and do feed forms for now.
Q.Any plans to redesign profile on iphone?
Not at this time
Q. Today wall attachments allow us to give free gifts (or other app interaction) to a user who has not added an apps from a user who has added the app. Will this change?
Yes, it will work only for combination of users who both have the app.
Q.Where will facebook ads be in the new profile?
TBD
Q. Aggregate of feeds?
Ari Steinberg came up specially to explain the profile and news feeds. (I am missing something here, my don't have much, pl help if you heard this question)
Q. Tabs limited to Canvas URL, can there be different URL from server for rest of the App action? (Missed this one too)
Q.How will pages, groups be displayed in the new profile page?
They will fit in the info tab. Groups and Page layout will be made to match the new profile layout later. Way to add apps to pages remains the same.
Q. (my Question) How much work is it for a developer an average app to migrate to the new profile page? What happens if they did no change to an App?
The new profile offers lot of opportunities for the developer to create content thats part of the new profile for engaging apps. If you do nothing canvas page will remain the same, you app will be bucketed into the tab for user to decide if they want to keep it, and you'll lose all other benefits of user decision points to create visibility in their profile page.
(I want to hear from real developers who have let behind first few apps and moved on to newer fb apps on their actual experience on this one)
Q. Can one app add to a user's profile box, boxes, info section, tab etc.?
Profile box and boxes are multually exclusive, rest all can be added with user's permission.
Q. Whats new with feeds, we have mini feeds and news feed now, is it totally different, is mini feed gone in the new profile?
- mini feed is old and won't exist in new profile.
- Profile feed is the narrative of the owner of the profile. It includes wall and apps inside it.
- News feed will show show a user's friends are doing.
- Publisher is an upgraded wall attachment and goes to profile feed by user.
yes
Q. What is the roll-out schedule?
Developers should start getting their apps ready for the new profile page. Users will have a beta opt-in period to try the new profile and give feedback. Then old profile will be eventually discontinued and everyone will be rolled into new profile
Q. Because of App add removal, does this mean an app developer can email users?
Yes, only with user's permission. It will be another option to ask for user permission by app.
Q. Last Question by Dave McClure - When can 3rd party Apps message into the news feed of a user who has not installed the app?
It is already happening now.
After the Q&A we went to the happy hour at Blue Chalk cafe!
Bay Area facebook Meetup folks: Is there any interest in covering this topic in our upcoming meetup? Just post on our fan page wall here
Also, help me clean any omissions or inaccuracies in the Q&A. And do try the sandbox of the new profile here http://www.new.facebook.com/
Friday, May 16, 2008
TIECON08 - Mike Speiser's keynote on startup execution
I am blogging live from TIECON08 in Santa Clara listening to Mike Speiser
I admire Mike Speiser because I relate to his approach of defining the startup process with an Engg approach. I heard him from a TIECON07 panel last year as an entrepreneur and am amazed that now as a a VC, he has the same advice, with the same passion and clarity.
He founded Bix, raised $7M, spent $700 when he sold to Yahoo, now he is joining Sutter Hill Ventures.
I am going to upload a video of part of his presentation, will do better justice to his passionate advice for entrepreneurs! (will update here once it is ready)
Update: Mike's presentation(pdf) with his notes are at his blog here.
My summary: I've taken 3 key points and as I sit listening to Mike, I remember many entrepreneurs I know who are in early stages building out their startup either from my blog readers or my mentorees from MIT VMS program and everyone of his advice is so true and profound.
1. Iterate, Iterate and find your real product
This is not about speed but about finding the real product-market match that creates revenues. He was making a subtle reference to this other point. The key is not about building technology for the sake of technology or a product thats productizing of your technology by a product manager, but finding a product that generates real revenues with market validation for it.
2. Do not do marketing before your product is ready
As a marketing person and entrepreneur, I find the need to add a clarification here.
Marketing for new entrepreneurs, especially engineers includes everything other than engineering design and development.
I think Mike refers to spending time/focus/money to reach users/customers with outbound marketing efforts like a launch event, PR, speaking engagements, conference exhibits etc.
This does not mean you build a product in vacuum, but you as the entrepreneur need to spend time understanding your customer, reaching them and listening to their feedback to adapt your product to iterate to what really generates money directly or scaling excitement of consumers that can be monetized.
This implies for Web businesses (or facebook app based businesses) that you need to build metrics by which you understand your real user behavior and you have to be super aggressive in reaching variety of customers who would pay.
You iterate here as much as the product and be ready for the chaos of change and hire the early team that can survive, appreciate your approach and help you succeed in adapting to customers.
3. Recruit the best VC
This is another gem of wisdom here. Focus on building product, finding market validation that scales, then go find the best VC.
Do not select a VC only based on giving out less equity but find the best VC who can help you scale your business, aligned with your long-term vision.
I admire Mike Speiser because I relate to his approach of defining the startup process with an Engg approach. I heard him from a TIECON07 panel last year as an entrepreneur and am amazed that now as a a VC, he has the same advice, with the same passion and clarity.
He founded Bix, raised $7M, spent $700 when he sold to Yahoo, now he is joining Sutter Hill Ventures.
I am going to upload a video of part of his presentation, will do better justice to his passionate advice for entrepreneurs! (will update here once it is ready)
Update: Mike's presentation(pdf) with his notes are at his blog here.
My summary: I've taken 3 key points and as I sit listening to Mike, I remember many entrepreneurs I know who are in early stages building out their startup either from my blog readers or my mentorees from MIT VMS program and everyone of his advice is so true and profound.
1. Iterate, Iterate and find your real product
This is not about speed but about finding the real product-market match that creates revenues. He was making a subtle reference to this other point. The key is not about building technology for the sake of technology or a product thats productizing of your technology by a product manager, but finding a product that generates real revenues with market validation for it.
2. Do not do marketing before your product is ready
As a marketing person and entrepreneur, I find the need to add a clarification here.
Marketing for new entrepreneurs, especially engineers includes everything other than engineering design and development.
I think Mike refers to spending time/focus/money to reach users/customers with outbound marketing efforts like a launch event, PR, speaking engagements, conference exhibits etc.
This does not mean you build a product in vacuum, but you as the entrepreneur need to spend time understanding your customer, reaching them and listening to their feedback to adapt your product to iterate to what really generates money directly or scaling excitement of consumers that can be monetized.
This implies for Web businesses (or facebook app based businesses) that you need to build metrics by which you understand your real user behavior and you have to be super aggressive in reaching variety of customers who would pay.
You iterate here as much as the product and be ready for the chaos of change and hire the early team that can survive, appreciate your approach and help you succeed in adapting to customers.
3. Recruit the best VC
This is another gem of wisdom here. Focus on building product, finding market validation that scales, then go find the best VC.
Do not select a VC only based on giving out less equity but find the best VC who can help you scale your business, aligned with your long-term vision.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Startup energy and entrepreneurship in local geek events - check techcocktail and startupriot
Its been my dream see all local entrepreneurs, angels and startup geeks all over the country connected without losing their local flavors to demystify the startup process for new entrepreneurs!
I came across the Atlanta yenta when I connected with Sanjay Parekh who started Startup Drinks as a world-wide phenomenon from Atlanta, an energetic entrepreneur and fellow angel investor. Sanjay is head down focused on organizing StartupRiot, a cool one day event with 70 entrepreneurs presenting in Altanta on May 19th 2008.
Today I located the Chicago Yenta, and the search process made my day!
During the search I learned that we in the valley tend to rely on upcoming.org for our events, events seem to find me on Facebook, and from my east coast past and as an organizer of the Bay Area Facebook Meetup, I tend to lookup meetup.com for every special interest group.
Chicago is ahead of everyone in sharing events. Techcocktail is on twitter. Techcocktail is the first to bring total transparency and sharing the excitement of the conference planning live on twitter, not just during the event for live micro-blogging.
I found Jason Rexilius from an old ChicagoBarcamp wiki and he led me to find out about Techcocktail conference and follow up mixer event. There is a huge Techcocktail conference coming up on May 29th in Chicago, I am sure its worth the drive or flying to get to it if you can make it.
Techcocktail is a mixer event started by Chicago locals Frank Gruber of SOMEWHAT FRANK blog and SOMEWHAT FRANK TV and Eric Olson, founder of Feedburner and blogger at Olson’s Observations.
All of you in Boston, DC, Chicago and Denver, look for Techcocktail in your local area Its amazing startup energy! Tom Sherman maintains a calendar of events in Chicago at Windy Bits ha, local thinking in the name of the windy city!
Footnote: I cannot shake this thought out of my head after Web2.0 Expo, after hearing AOL, Y! and everyone announce open APIs.
Are we getting ready for the next phase of the Web and like Open source movement changed the face of software development, the barcamps, and techcocktails and startup dinners are scaling up the existing SuperHappyDevhouses, developer garages and Code-a-thons to build a huge wave of localized developer and geek networks to create an interwoven web with a new layer of product and services not even imaginable today!
Anyone there who shares the same vision, I'd love to hear from you!
I came across the Atlanta yenta when I connected with Sanjay Parekh who started Startup Drinks as a world-wide phenomenon from Atlanta, an energetic entrepreneur and fellow angel investor. Sanjay is head down focused on organizing StartupRiot, a cool one day event with 70 entrepreneurs presenting in Altanta on May 19th 2008.
Today I located the Chicago Yenta, and the search process made my day!
During the search I learned that we in the valley tend to rely on upcoming.org for our events, events seem to find me on Facebook, and from my east coast past and as an organizer of the Bay Area Facebook Meetup, I tend to lookup meetup.com for every special interest group.
Chicago is ahead of everyone in sharing events. Techcocktail is on twitter. Techcocktail is the first to bring total transparency and sharing the excitement of the conference planning live on twitter, not just during the event for live micro-blogging.
I found Jason Rexilius from an old ChicagoBarcamp wiki and he led me to find out about Techcocktail conference and follow up mixer event. There is a huge Techcocktail conference coming up on May 29th in Chicago, I am sure its worth the drive or flying to get to it if you can make it.
Techcocktail is a mixer event started by Chicago locals Frank Gruber of SOMEWHAT FRANK blog and SOMEWHAT FRANK TV and Eric Olson, founder of Feedburner and blogger at Olson’s Observations.
All of you in Boston, DC, Chicago and Denver, look for Techcocktail in your local area Its amazing startup energy! Tom Sherman maintains a calendar of events in Chicago at Windy Bits ha, local thinking in the name of the windy city!
Footnote: I cannot shake this thought out of my head after Web2.0 Expo, after hearing AOL, Y! and everyone announce open APIs.
Are we getting ready for the next phase of the Web and like Open source movement changed the face of software development, the barcamps, and techcocktails and startup dinners are scaling up the existing SuperHappyDevhouses, developer garages and Code-a-thons to build a huge wave of localized developer and geek networks to create an interwoven web with a new layer of product and services not even imaginable today!
Anyone there who shares the same vision, I'd love to hear from you!
Monday, April 28, 2008
Web2.0 Expo Roundup -my own video interview collection
I have covered the keynotes with blogging here ! The main theme was opening of their platforms from Y! Mozilla Firefox for mobile and AOL opening up AIM. AOL is no the most open platform on the web and if you are a developer or entrepreneur you cannot miss it.
Sun's Jonathan shared his vision for Sun and Marc Andresson for Ning. Dan Lyons, aka Fake Steve Jobs was the most entertaining funny session buried with smart insights in his keynote.
Here is a roundup I did talking to people as I walked the Expo hall. Of course, I carried my Dash Express GPS and people shared their excitement for it!
Watch this to hear web2.0 feedback from Dan Lyons, aka Fake Steve jobs, Naveed Anwar, Director AOL Developers Platform and many more users.
Sun's Jonathan shared his vision for Sun and Marc Andresson for Ning. Dan Lyons, aka Fake Steve Jobs was the most entertaining funny session buried with smart insights in his keynote.
Here is a roundup I did talking to people as I walked the Expo hall. Of course, I carried my Dash Express GPS and people shared their excitement for it!
Watch this to hear web2.0 feedback from Dan Lyons, aka Fake Steve jobs, Naveed Anwar, Director AOL Developers Platform and many more users.
Friday, April 25, 2008
At web2.0 Expo SF Keynote Jonathan Schwartz of Sun in conversation with Tim O'Reilly
I am blogging live from Web2.0 Expo SF today!
Its interesting how we can see how many people are registered for each event on crowdwine, ahead of the actual event. Think of connecting with like-minded people at a conference!
Jennifer Pahlka (CMP) and Brady Forrest (O'Reilly Media, Inc.) are setting the stage with details on where we can provide feedback libe on twitter etc.
A Conversation with Jonathan Schwartz (Sun Microsystems), Tim O'Reilly (O'Reilly Media, Inc.) is happening now!
294 attendees signed up ahead of time, 1000+ are in the room.
I am taking video of part of the presentation, will upload and youtube and link here, I can do better justice to this conversation.
They are talking about Sun using blogs, MySQL purchase, Greening of Data infrastructure (eg Niagara platform which went to $1B run rate in 18mo) .... Jonathan is smart and knows where is taking Sun and has a clear pulse of where the market is going and is confident to influence it by blogging and creating a context where other people can think the way he wants the world to be.
Tim wants us to twitter @timoreilly your questions right now!
Its interesting how we can see how many people are registered for each event on crowdwine, ahead of the actual event. Think of connecting with like-minded people at a conference!
Jennifer Pahlka (CMP) and Brady Forrest (O'Reilly Media, Inc.) are setting the stage with details on where we can provide feedback libe on twitter etc.
A Conversation with Jonathan Schwartz (Sun Microsystems), Tim O'Reilly (O'Reilly Media, Inc.) is happening now!
294 attendees signed up ahead of time, 1000+ are in the room.
I am taking video of part of the presentation, will upload and youtube and link here, I can do better justice to this conversation.
They are talking about Sun using blogs, MySQL purchase, Greening of Data infrastructure (eg Niagara platform which went to $1B run rate in 18mo) .... Jonathan is smart and knows where is taking Sun and has a clear pulse of where the market is going and is confident to influence it by blogging and creating a context where other people can think the way he wants the world to be.
Tim wants us to twitter @timoreilly your questions right now!
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Yahoo CTO Ari Balogh talks about opening Yahoo at Web2.0 Expo SF
It was a good vision and a good presentation. Yahoo announced opening up Search Monkey for Developers as the first step.
I had blogged last Oct about my dream for the Social Email Graph (SEG) and particularly how its a low hanging fruit for Yahoo!
Wow! Yahoo can lead the market to open up search and email, won't that be cool!
I had blogged last Oct about my dream for the Social Email Graph (SEG) and particularly how its a low hanging fruit for Yahoo!
Wow! Yahoo can lead the market to open up search and email, won't that be cool!
What MySpace Knows by Steve Pearman (MySpace)
Web 2.0 Expo has these 5 minute segments on "What a company knows". I am live blogging the Myspace 5 min segment.
Steve Pearman started as a Product Manager then head of Products and now SVP of Product Strategy at Myspace. He shared stats on scale of Myspace.
Steve was personable and very sincere and did justice to his 5 minutes. Looks like Myspace is serious about listening to users and managing spam, we need to watch out!
Summary:
Privacy, Spam controlled from developers and users are the major user concerns.
On what lessons learned from community building on myspace:
Steve Pearman started as a Product Manager then head of Products and now SVP of Product Strategy at Myspace. He shared stats on scale of Myspace.
Steve was personable and very sincere and did justice to his 5 minutes. Looks like Myspace is serious about listening to users and managing spam, we need to watch out!
Summary:
Privacy, Spam controlled from developers and users are the major user concerns.
On what lessons learned from community building on myspace:
- Vibrant communities allow for self expression
- Operating community is difficult and more difficult by scale
- Live and die by goodwill and participation of community, never as good as them.
- Listen to community. How?
- Community tells you indirectly - 10Bil structured public data, millions of comments, directly users tell Tom.
- Major changes, Tom posts blog and gets user feedback.
- Check your ego at the door.
Web2.0 Keynote A Conversation with Marc Andreessen
I am blogging live from Web2.0 Expo SF.
I caught some of Marc Andreessen's keynote structured as a conversation with John Battelle .
Marc was pitching for Ning here are some highlights of his conversation:
Questions: Audience had questions about Bill Gates, Browsers today , role of academian in innovation and transitioning to industry etc all bringing back nostalgia of Marc and how he was responsible for Netscape and creating the Web evolution.
This is the first time I got to see Marc live and he was smart and articulate but was clearly media trained and focused on promoting Ning.
I caught some of Marc Andreessen's keynote structured as a conversation with John Battelle .
Marc was pitching for Ning here are some highlights of his conversation:
- He summarized it as a platform, open with interoperable data, part of Opensocial
- Growth of 1 Million users/day and 1000s of networks added/day.
- He compared with Facebook and made it sound like a past on how they built social networks and Ning was the future. It sure helps justify Ning's valuation to be built upon Facebook model
- Ning has been validated Valley style by their recent round of funding.
- Marc seems to have made a comment that Ning's funding was for an upcoming economic downtime. He explained this very articulately.
Questions: Audience had questions about Bill Gates, Browsers today , role of academian in innovation and transitioning to industry etc all bringing back nostalgia of Marc and how he was responsible for Netscape and creating the Web evolution.
This is the first time I got to see Marc live and he was smart and articulate but was clearly media trained and focused on promoting Ning.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Are you in SF city for Web 2.0 Expo, here is the party list
I cannot believe its Web.20 time of the year! It is Web2.0 Expo in San Francisco 22-25, 2008.
Last year I was relatively new in the valley and went to Web2.0 and spent bulk of my time at Web2Open, the barcamp event inside Web2.0 (see business week's mention of my talk here). I honestly believe Tara Hunt who organized this barcamp segment deserves more credit but missed the business week reporter!
Robert Scoble at Web2.0 Expo SFO from sujam on Vimeo.
I was in the valley and was excited to meet Arrington, Scoble and Om Malik and blogged their panels live and did mini live videocasts.
We've seen a whole bunch of web2.0 companies last year. Next week, we will be hearing from a lot more new ones we cannot live without!
Dash, the first Internet connected GPS is going to be there this year, at a keynote to tell you "What Dash Knows". It will be a great place to come see a real Dash Express if you are thinking about getting one or compare notes with other Dash drivers if you used your Dash to beat the traffic to the city and to get to the various parties on time.
The real fun is the endless list of parties which Juhani has graciously compiled for us to choose from!
Another fun site to check is this one where you can schedule to connect with others at Web2.0
See you there!
Last year I was relatively new in the valley and went to Web2.0 and spent bulk of my time at Web2Open, the barcamp event inside Web2.0 (see business week's mention of my talk here). I honestly believe Tara Hunt who organized this barcamp segment deserves more credit but missed the business week reporter!
Robert Scoble at Web2.0 Expo SFO from sujam on Vimeo.
I was in the valley and was excited to meet Arrington, Scoble and Om Malik and blogged their panels live and did mini live videocasts.
We've seen a whole bunch of web2.0 companies last year. Next week, we will be hearing from a lot more new ones we cannot live without!
Dash, the first Internet connected GPS is going to be there this year, at a keynote to tell you "What Dash Knows". It will be a great place to come see a real Dash Express if you are thinking about getting one or compare notes with other Dash drivers if you used your Dash to beat the traffic to the city and to get to the various parties on time.
The real fun is the endless list of parties which Juhani has graciously compiled for us to choose from!
Another fun site to check is this one where you can schedule to connect with others at Web2.0
See you there!
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Jason Calacanis Promotes a Dash Contest on twitter and Ustream.tv
I am so thrilled to be part of the Dash team and everyone knows I am Social media fan.
Its exciting when a friend called now to say buzz has broken out online on Digg, twitter and ustream and as I write this Jason is asking for youtube video and ratings there too - all about an awesome product I help market - The Dash Express the new internet connected GPS
Its awesome when someone who is a fan of the product becomes an evangelist and starts marketing for you! Here is a real customer video of Dash I found on youtube!
Classic social media, now you know why I am so crazy about it.
read more | digg story
Its exciting when a friend called now to say buzz has broken out online on Digg, twitter and ustream and as I write this Jason is asking for youtube video and ratings there too - all about an awesome product I help market - The Dash Express the new internet connected GPS
Its awesome when someone who is a fan of the product becomes an evangelist and starts marketing for you! Here is a real customer video of Dash I found on youtube!
Classic social media, now you know why I am so crazy about it.
read more | digg story
Monday, April 14, 2008
Bay Area Facebook Meetup Mar 2008 Event Blog
It's long due! Here is a summary of the Mar Meetup. See you at our next meetup @ AOL on Wed 4/16.
It was crazy fun with 200 people in a 150 people space, very interactive, lot of learning, good networking ...
Thanks to Nick for the pictures from the event!
I moderated a panel of experts about the 3 S' of success.
What is involved in Scaling, Social Graphing for Viral Play and Spreading to other platforms with similar success.
* Jia Shen, Rock You, the largest App network inside Facebook with 1/2 of Fb users served by Rock You.
* Siqi Chen, of Friends for Sale App which is the hottest viral play on facebook
* Nick Gerekines, of Y! Delicious and Author of "Building Facebook Applications" by O'Reilly Publications
* Kevin Chou, CEO of Water Cooler, the largest sports and entertainment community inside Facebook, Myspace
* Markus Weichselbaum was our surprise addition, of TheBroth, a top 10 App network with 26 Apps, visiting us from Australia.
Thanks to Vishy for the videos, he has more on qik.
(Does anyone have a good sound recording of the event, especially the part where Jia Shen discussed viral plays and A/B testing, please let me know.)
Thanks to Abbas Zaidi for excellent time management to MCed the Lightning Demos of Facebook entrepreneurs. Demoes included: (pl feel free to post your App URL in the comment and I'll update it here when I get a chance)
1. Jing Chen, Richard and Charles - Developer Analytics (http://www.developeranalytics.com), a cool developer community and analytics site helping fb developers with virality and app engagement.
2. Waleed Abdulla of Weekend Apps showed his new "Blogs I Read" app.
3. Dan Carroll and Sara Buckwitz presented social recommendation API -- SoMR. http://www.somr.org/
4. George Deglin "courses" app has been working with Fb since F8 launch. He shared his insights about his other education related Apps.
5. Yong Su Kim - Askpedia, an ebay like knowledge marketplace where users can pay for the best answer from the community. This is an example of an existing business launching a fb app, good example to see if fb is an additional outreach or user acquisition channel.
6. Pikipages by Tony Zuccarino (I love this one, its an amazing example of cool web technology + facebook
7. Patrick Boyle - My Home Thingi, has a nice easter hunt builtin :)
8. Holly Liu Watercooler (http://www.watercooler-inc.com) an online entertainment and sports communities inside your favorite social networks: Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, and Friendster.
9. Derek Dukes demoed Dipity App which allows you to create a social timeline, wow, what imagination to create new apps fitting in the social graph.
10. Dave Nielsen demoed Bracketmadness, an online supplement game to NCAA mens basketball tournament.
12. Ryan Merket will showcase an SpinVox (www.spinvox.com), an example of integration of fb with other web2.0 sites using cell network.
13. Ann Shin will demo Mashed Life App.
14. Mark Slater will show Listage and his demo is focused on "friends list"
Live Event Streaming: Wadiwallah.com, a a platform for the community side of the Silicon Valley and The Siliconstani sponsored live video streaming of the event.
It was crazy fun with 200 people in a 150 people space, very interactive, lot of learning, good networking ...
Thanks to Nick for the pictures from the event!
I moderated a panel of experts about the 3 S' of success.
What is involved in Scaling, Social Graphing for Viral Play and Spreading to other platforms with similar success.
* Jia Shen, Rock You, the largest App network inside Facebook with 1/2 of Fb users served by Rock You.
* Siqi Chen, of Friends for Sale App which is the hottest viral play on facebook
* Nick Gerekines, of Y! Delicious and Author of "Building Facebook Applications" by O'Reilly Publications
* Kevin Chou, CEO of Water Cooler, the largest sports and entertainment community inside Facebook, Myspace
* Markus Weichselbaum was our surprise addition, of TheBroth, a top 10 App network with 26 Apps, visiting us from Australia.
Thanks to Vishy for the videos, he has more on qik.
(Does anyone have a good sound recording of the event, especially the part where Jia Shen discussed viral plays and A/B testing, please let me know.)
Thanks to Abbas Zaidi for excellent time management to MCed the Lightning Demos of Facebook entrepreneurs. Demoes included: (pl feel free to post your App URL in the comment and I'll update it here when I get a chance)
1. Jing Chen, Richard and Charles - Developer Analytics (http://www.developeranalytics.com), a cool developer community and analytics site helping fb developers with virality and app engagement.
2. Waleed Abdulla of Weekend Apps showed his new "Blogs I Read" app.
3. Dan Carroll and Sara Buckwitz presented social recommendation API -- SoMR. http://www.somr.org/
4. George Deglin "courses" app has been working with Fb since F8 launch. He shared his insights about his other education related Apps.
5. Yong Su Kim - Askpedia, an ebay like knowledge marketplace where users can pay for the best answer from the community. This is an example of an existing business launching a fb app, good example to see if fb is an additional outreach or user acquisition channel.
6. Pikipages by Tony Zuccarino (I love this one, its an amazing example of cool web technology + facebook
7. Patrick Boyle - My Home Thingi, has a nice easter hunt builtin :)
8. Holly Liu Watercooler (http://www.watercooler-inc.com) an online entertainment and sports communities inside your favorite social networks: Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, and Friendster.
9. Derek Dukes demoed Dipity App which allows you to create a social timeline, wow, what imagination to create new apps fitting in the social graph.
10. Dave Nielsen demoed Bracketmadness, an online supplement game to NCAA mens basketball tournament.
12. Ryan Merket will showcase an SpinVox (www.spinvox.com), an example of integration of fb with other web2.0 sites using cell network.
13. Ann Shin will demo Mashed Life App.
14. Mark Slater will show Listage and his demo is focused on "friends list"
Live Event Streaming: Wadiwallah.com, a a platform for the community side of the Silicon Valley and The Siliconstani sponsored live video streaming of the event.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Product Management for Facebook Economy for P-Camp
I am planning to present this topic at p-camp, the barcamp for product managers at Yahoo Sunnyvale tomorrow (Sat Mar 15th).
My definition of Facebook Economy: I see it as the social networking world and the open platform play that Facebook initiated that has created a thriving economy of new facebook apps, businesses trying to reach users by extending their web product with a facebook app and the ecosystem of other platforms like Opensocial and APIs everywhere which was created because of the success of Facebook Platform.
I am finding that its an exhaustive topic so I am going to limit it to Facebook primarily at tomorrow's session.
Whats common in Product Management in all Facebook Economy is the mindset. Some would call it Web2.0, but show me an example that exemplifies all the points below except facebook.
The Facebook Economy Mindset:
I plan to cover the 101 of Product Management as it applies to facebook apps.
My definition of Facebook Economy: I see it as the social networking world and the open platform play that Facebook initiated that has created a thriving economy of new facebook apps, businesses trying to reach users by extending their web product with a facebook app and the ecosystem of other platforms like Opensocial and APIs everywhere which was created because of the success of Facebook Platform.
I am finding that its an exhaustive topic so I am going to limit it to Facebook primarily at tomorrow's session.
Whats common in Product Management in all Facebook Economy is the mindset. Some would call it Web2.0, but show me an example that exemplifies all the points below except facebook.
The Facebook Economy Mindset:
- Customer believes to be in charge
- Customer communicates with other customers independent of company, this becomes part of product in the case of user generated content and user's social experience
- Total Transparency
- Shorter product life cycles leading to Agile development
- APIs and platforms from everyone - Y!, AOL, Google, Dash as a new way of extending your product roadmap and doing market assessment at the same time
I plan to cover the 101 of Product Management as it applies to facebook apps.
- Define the Product - Customer Definition, Roles and Responsibilites - use cases
- Develop Product Requirements - PRD and MRD
- Market Assessment, A/B Testing vs Multi-Variant Analysis
- Product Phases and Decisions- A phase gate development strategy
- Managing the Product Roadmap
- Launch Plans
Thursday, March 13, 2008
The Lesson from Sarah Lacy-Mark.Z SWSX interview twitter uproar
Sarah lacy and her interview of Mark.Z is all over the blogosphere. I don't believe in linking to prominent posts and write unless I have a sincere passion or point of view worth of you readers time.
I wasn't there at SWSX. I trust Dave McClure's honest and quick summaries and he represents the audience geek's view well. Arrington seems to want to bring some balance and decency to the topic with his post. Brian Solis does the best job of providing a neutral decent post.
I am a little biased here as I am a Sarah Lacy fan and everyone knows I am crazy about Facebook not just as an active user but for Mark.Z's vision and execution to bring our real world social networks to flow through facebook creating a new paradim shift in marketing, advertising, online content, community play and how we evolve as a species with the next generation of the Internet.
I see this event as a strategic inflection point in the maturing of the live web, though everyone may not agree its for the better.
What is ironic is that SWSX grew twitter to a phenomenon and SWSX was for college students for not just geeks, but young geeks who went to party with each other. This year Twitter has reciprocated the favor and elevated SWSX to a notable conference with enough pageviews and web referrals!
Lets get out of taking sides and acknowledge that this mobbing on twitter and blogs is a testimonial to the power of social media to let people speak their minds and gang up in numbers virtually, however we maybe divided on whether it was right or not!
Companies started taking bloggers seriously after Apple lost 40% in 3 hours. Sarah herself referred to the audience ganging up against her as "mob like Digg" which is a episode where users ganged up to speak their mind to control Digg content.
Sarah in all fairness seems to have done her homework well in preparation for the interview. She is not any old media business writer, she is someone who has lived the transition to social media with transparency in her response to her fans. She was transparent in her approach to reply at her own fan's page on facebook last night.
I see this event taking regular conferences to unconference BarCamp mode where audience want to run the show! This is the beginning of users on twitter or blogosphere ganging up any product or service one way or the other to truly let companies focus on the consumers.
I wasn't there at SWSX. I trust Dave McClure's honest and quick summaries and he represents the audience geek's view well. Arrington seems to want to bring some balance and decency to the topic with his post. Brian Solis does the best job of providing a neutral decent post.
I am a little biased here as I am a Sarah Lacy fan and everyone knows I am crazy about Facebook not just as an active user but for Mark.Z's vision and execution to bring our real world social networks to flow through facebook creating a new paradim shift in marketing, advertising, online content, community play and how we evolve as a species with the next generation of the Internet.
I see this event as a strategic inflection point in the maturing of the live web, though everyone may not agree its for the better.
What is ironic is that SWSX grew twitter to a phenomenon and SWSX was for college students for not just geeks, but young geeks who went to party with each other. This year Twitter has reciprocated the favor and elevated SWSX to a notable conference with enough pageviews and web referrals!
Lets get out of taking sides and acknowledge that this mobbing on twitter and blogs is a testimonial to the power of social media to let people speak their minds and gang up in numbers virtually, however we maybe divided on whether it was right or not!
Companies started taking bloggers seriously after Apple lost 40% in 3 hours. Sarah herself referred to the audience ganging up against her as "mob like Digg" which is a episode where users ganged up to speak their mind to control Digg content.
Sarah in all fairness seems to have done her homework well in preparation for the interview. She is not any old media business writer, she is someone who has lived the transition to social media with transparency in her response to her fans. She was transparent in her approach to reply at her own fan's page on facebook last night.
I see this event taking regular conferences to unconference BarCamp mode where audience want to run the show! This is the beginning of users on twitter or blogosphere ganging up any product or service one way or the other to truly let companies focus on the consumers.
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