Some Things to Consider When Negotiating Against Those Venture Capital Barbarians At The Gate
Topic: 3) Ventures

A little tongue in cheek I guess. A post by Brad Feld (VC at Mobius) followed by a post by Jeff Nolan (VC at SAP Ventures) triggered me to write this post about term sheets. Having worked mostly on the operating company (seller) side of things, I thought it would be interesting to note a few perspectives on terms and negotiating from a side other than the VC side of the table. Here are a few thoughts:

1) Valuing an "investment" depends somewhat on the other things in your "portfolio". An investment (whether taking money or giving money) cannot be looked at in isolation of what else you hold. As an example, home owner's insurance is worthless to someone who does not also have a home. The insurance is a hedge investment that goes up when you lose the home though. Now for the entrepreneur, the value a VC brings (e.g., complementary connections, partners, or expertise) to the table should also be factored in beyond price they value your company at. Look at what assets you have (e.g., current people on your team pre-funding). I recall (hopefully correctly) that Mena Trott (at Six Apart) blogged about how Sequoia Capital's money was the "best" even though it was not necessarily best from a pre-money valuation perspective. Now some will say there is an age old saying that "Money talks, _____ walks" (ask mom or dad about this one if you don't know what I'm referring to). Nevertheless, go through the thought process of not just looking at price.

2) Consider using lawyers as a part of good cop/bad cop tactics during negotiations. I've worked with counsel from firms like Piper Rudnick, Greenberg Traurig, Jenkins & Gilchrist, and others - lawyers are smart. Though they can be expensive and extent of use should be weighed by stage of investment and company specifics (vs. using a company godfather, experienced friends, or management's own experience, say), lawyers can help you effectively wade through mechanics of term sheets, stock purchase agreements, amendments to articles, investors rights, etc. Sometimes you can get the lawyers to draft bad cop memos (or play bad cop roles) for you to respond to VCs on legal docs while you stategize, value the terms from your perspective, and play good cop.

3) Be able to "name the game". A key to negotiating is being able to understand the game being played. Playing some games require greater understanding of mechanics. The term sheet and the subsequent legal docs (if a term sheet is executed) are areas where mechanics can be hairy than the "average bear". Unfortunately, entrepreneurs tend not to negotiate legal docs every day. Lawyers and VCs, on the other hand, do. Plus, market terms change over time (even within a period of a few months). In any case, utilize the Internet, books, and informal networks to gather as much baseline info as you can. Brad Feld looks like he has some good upcoming posts on the subject of term sheets.

As a closing thought, to start to get familiar with the general idea of term sheets, the AllBusiness website has a vanilla short form agreement and long form agreement on the web (not the only source and not necessarily the best source but instantly accessible and another data point for you).

Steve Shu
Managing Director
S4 Management Group
Email: sshu@s4management.com
Web: http://www.s4management.com

Will Be Interesting to Watch the Pluck Corp. Venture (Software Like TiVo for the Web)
Topic: 6) Technology

I was reviewing 3Q'04 Texas venture capital financings in the software space and ran across an Austin-based company called Pluck, a company dedicated to making it easier to find and manage information online. Founded in 2003, Pluck received a recent Series B round of $8.5 million. Investors to-date are well-known VC firms: Austin Ventures and Mayfield.

Pluck markets itself as follows:

"What TiVo did for television, Pluck is doing for the web. Pluck is an Internet command center that takes the web to a whole new level.

No matter how you use the web today, you can do it better with Pluck. Searching? Better. Shopping? Better. Browsing? Better. News? Way better.

Seamlessly integrated with Internet Explorer, Pluck retrieves, organizes, and automatically delivers your favorite web stuff in a single-view. Pluck lets you browse multiple sites at once, share stories and folders with anyone, and it even finds things when you are not online. Pluck also organizes and stores all your Web information so you can access it from anywhere."

Given that 1) further advances of Internet Explorer have seemingly stopped, 2) the Firefox browser is making advances both in reality and in mindshare regarding both security and new features, 3) Pluck's product seems to be offered only on the IE platform to date, and 4) there may only be tens of thousands of users (before opening, note PDF file) right now, it will be interesting to see what plays out product development-wise over the next year. I like Pluck's concept of better organization. Too bad IE advances have for all purposes ceased - I have already said goodbye to IE and hello to Firefox.

For those still using IE, the Pluck software is currently *free*. Go ahead and download it.

Note to self: Revisit Pluck progress over the next 12 to 18 months as it uses Series B monies.

Steve Shu
Managing Director
S4 Management Group
Email: sshu@s4management.com
Web: http://www.s4management.com

A 10-Year Old "Angel" Recognizes Signs of Tsunami and Saves Lives
Topic: 4) A Random Walk
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1179413,00050003.htm

2005: The Spyware-Spam Wars Continue (Enter Microsoft)
Topic: 6) Technology
Despite CAN-SPAM legislation, I sure got more email spam in 2004 than any other year in my life. Spam got so bad that even some of my spam filters broke.


On the spyware front, it looks like the public has also been losing this war. As summed up in a PC World article, "In April, Internet service provider EarthLink and Webroot Software released the results of a survey of over 1 million Internet-connected computers that found an average of almost 28 spyware programs running on each computer. More serious, Trojan horse or system monitoring programs were found on more than 30 percent of all systems scanned, raising fears of identity theft, according to the companies."


Perhaps a concern in the workplace ... perhaps only a concern at home. Episode 2 (to take place begining in 2005), however, has Microsoft entering the anti-spyware game with recent acquisition of Giant Company Software. Sometime this January, Microsoft is expected to release a free evaluation version of anti-spyware software. I view this move as Christmas in January for PC users. I don't think the average person can tell whether anti-spyware software comes from reputable sources. A spyware offering from Microsoft will be recognized though.


Whether we ultimately win the war ... unfortunately we may have to wait for Episode 3 of the trilogy. Hold on to your hats. Episode 2 may be a dark one a la George Lucas style.


Update (January 1, 2005):
Enter Arnold ... Asta la vista, Baby


Steve Shu
Managing Director
S4 Management Group
Email: sshu@s4management.com
Web: http://www.s4management.com

Asia Tsunami Footage in Beach Bar (Via Blog Entry)
Topic: 4) A Random Walk
I guess it's still hard to find much tsunami video footage on traditional news websites. I get essentially all of my news from people and the Internet (not TV). Here's some footage I found via a blog entry. Note: Windows Media format.

Located via: http://xo.typepad.com/blog/2004/12/amazing_tsunami.html

Update (Jan. 2, 2005):
This is a terrible tragedy beyond comprehension. For those still seeking information, here is one of the best sources of consolidated and comprehensive information I have run across: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake.

A Weblog Dress Rehearsal
Topic: 6) Technology
Just like a preview opening of a restaurant where friends and family can come to eat for free, experience all of the glitches, enjoy rough service, etc. ... well if you found this weblog entry, you are hereby invited to a new CIO blog that I will be authoring for on software technologies. The blog is part of the Creative Weblogging network of blogs, a UK-based company. Come on in through the backdoor not available elsewhere! (Note that the permanent CIO Weblog links may change once I get completely rolling in 2005.)


Update:
New link at http://www.cio-weblog.com.


Steve Shu
Managing Director
S4 Management Group
Email: sshu@s4management.com
Web: http://www.s4management.com

More Glamour Than Cash With No Guilt And No Guesswork ... The Gift of The Gift Card!
Topic: 4) A Random Walk
Still having trouble thinking of a gift for the holidays? Yesterday the Christian Science Monitor interviewed my wife (Dr. Suzanne Shu) about the growth of gift certificate purchases. One would think that since gift certificates aren't fungible like dollars that there would be no rationale for their existence (applying pure economics theory). The positives for purchasing gift certificates are clearly there ... including glamour and providing the recipient a way to circumvent guilt of buying things. Make sure you read the fine print associated with gift certificates though. I'm still sore about the Chili's card mentioned in this article.


Steve Shu
Managing Director
S4 Management Group
Email: sshu@s4management.com
Web: http://www.s4management.com

New Study By PRTM in CFO Magazine Paints Bleak Picture for General Capex Trend But Reflects Optimism for Best-of-Breed Companies
Topic: 4) A Random Walk
December's issue of CFO magazine references in detail a study by my alma mater, Pittiglio Rabin Todd and McGrath (PRTM). I never knew Amram Shapiro when I was with The Firm, but Amram's reputation was great and preceded him.


What can I say? The CFO article is a great one to look at more closely. Here are some of my quick takeaways from CFO magazine's report on the PRTM study:
- Some of the largest companies in the world have cut back capital investment expenditures (Capex) substantially *in spite of* healthy increases in revenue.
- The Capex trend does not look like it is going to reverse soon.
- The hold back will, in turn, hold back the global economies.
- When segmenting out top performers (i.e., best-of-breed companies), results show that capital expenditures can be increased without affecting the bottom-line adversely.
- Key is integrating R&D and Capex (e.g., operations and product development) processes.


Steve Shu
Managing Director
S4 Management Group
Email: sshu@s4management.com
Web: http://www.s4management.com

Entrust e-Card Gives New Meaning to Having a Safe Holidays
Topic: 4) A Random Walk
The world is not safe enough. No longer does Frosty the Snowman have simple issues like evading greedy magicians after his magical hat. In today's scary world of malware, spyware, worms, phishing, and Trojan horse attacks to steal people's login information to online banking ... well Frosty has new issues to deal with. John Heltzel sent to me the following e-Holiday card, brought to us by Entrust, a security software provider.


While recent contextual advertising innovations by companies like Google, Kanoodle, and Quigo are clearly up and coming, I thought the branding associated with having a straight-up, cynical yet humorous, and timely e-Card was pretty clever.


Steve Shu
Managing Director
S4 Management Group
Email: sshu@s4management.com
Web: http://www.s4management.com

Revisiting "The Blogging Iceberg"
Topic: 4) A Random Walk
Just more than a year ago (October 2003), Jeffrey Henning (COO and CTO, Perseus Development Corp.) wrote the influential article on "The Blogging Iceberg".


There are some that have indicated that Henning's research is flawed in that it does not address this, that, and the other thing. Yet others that criticize the research may have misunderstood Henning's use of statistics terminology. I lean towards the perspective that Henning's research was on target and that the scope of the research and limitations had been clearly cited in the original release.


That said, what is interesting to reflect upon as we draw to the end of 2004 is how the picture portrayed in "The Blogging Iceberg" has changed.


On the one hand, it appears unlikely that the hosted blogosphere will have grown to more than 10 million by the end of this month. Nevertheless, the blogosphere is clearly growing very rapidly as cited by sources like David Sifry of Technorati.


On the other hand, Henning's observation of nanoaudiences has begun to take shape in other areas. Numerous blogging authors are starting to point out the increased formation of microbrands. Although Henning refers to nanoaudiences in the context of small blog audiences consisting of family, friends, etc., the concept of microbrands stems directly from the nanoaudience concept. Microbrand blogs have developed identities analogous to niche magazines like Cigar Aficionado or Modern Drummer. In any case, I suspect the nano-micro-thing will continue to play out given sheer economies and that blogging may have an oversupply of authors right now.


On the demographics front, things didn't change that much in 2004, and I don't expect the blogger makeup on US soil to change all that much in 2005. That said, blogging technologies are going to be much more widely available given 2004 happenings such as Microsoft's entry with MSN Spaces and venture capital financing of Six Apart and Technorati, to name a few events. Who would have known that "blog" was going to be the #1 searched word and added to the dictionary?


Although Henning's research did not cover sociological impacts, it probably would have been difficult back in 2003 to predict that blogging would have created such a polarization effect with people. As evidenced by the massive split in the election results, I think that users are beginning to become more acutely aware of the power of a blog author to get a polarized readership (i.e., there are either those that love you or hate you). As companies begin to grapple with corporate blog policies and use of blogging as an informal marketing channel, it will be interesting to see how the polarization effect (if even mildly inherent to the beast) can affect customer acquisition and retention strategies.


2004 has been a year of blog activity for sure. For 2005, I personally expect to author a little more on the software markets. More details and experimentation to come.


Steve Shu
Managing Director
S4 Management Group
Email: sshu@s4management.com
Web: http://www.s4management.com

The Print Publishing, Open Source, and Blogging Crossroads ... the Blogozine!
Topic: 4) A Random Walk
Remember Tony Perkins, who brought us the Red Herring magazine? He's at it again. A new, quarterly magazine will go into circulation in early 2005. The magazine (coined a "blogozine") will draw heavily from blog material initially published at the AlwaysOn Web site.


Steve Shu
Managing Director
S4 Management Group
Email: sshu@s4management.com
Web: http://www.s4management.com

Interesting Research on Email Use and Patterns of Communication and Relationships By Leaders in the Community
Topic: 4) A Random Walk
While researching information on Internet traffic patterns, I ran across the following research by Dr. Alaina Kanfer, National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: "It's A Thin World: The Association Between Email Use and Patterns of Communication and Relationships". The survey and research included 424 community leaders whose communication patterns were tracked over a week each.


In her the closing section of her paper, Dr. Kanfer writes (I have added bracketed terms to ease casual reading):
"The statistics presented above portray a "thin world" -- one in which the communication networks of email users are geographically more spread out than those of non-email users and they include more work-related [unique communication contacts] and strangers but fewer [unique communication contacts]with whom they have personal communications. Email users also have fewer friends to provide strong emotional support, and communicate with fewer co-participants in organizations, which suggests a decreased involvement in volunteer and local community work. Moreover, email users have more communications, but spend no more time communicating with each of their [unique communication contacts], have more brief relationships and decreased percent of communication partners in their immediate family. While some of these differences disappear when age and education are controlled for, note that the email users are relatively young and educated acting as early adopters of new communication technologies in their personal as well as work lives. These early adopters may be setting the standards for general email use. Thus, email use in a thin world seems to facilitate communication patterns and distributions of [unique communication contacts] that are increasingly important in a competitive global economy."


I think that is it is important to note that Dr. Kanfer measures the closeness of relationships along several dimensions used in the organizational and social sciences (brackets added as before):
1) Average minutes of communication per [unique communication contact]
2) Average number of communications per [unique communication contact]
3) Average duration of relationship [with contacts of person]
4) Percent of [contacts] who live inside county[/nearby]
5) Percent of [contacts] with personal communications


Steve Shu
Managing Director
S4 Management Group
Email: sshu@s4management.com
Web: http://www.s4management.com

Learning from Lost Deals and the Concept of the Dutch Uncle
Topic: 1) General Management
Today I lost a freelance consulting deal to another consultant. Of course I'm disappointed, but once a deal is lost, it is lost.


I think the most important things to do after a lost deal are to identify learnings with respect to your company's product offering and sales processes and to preserve prospect relationships.


In this case, the consulting opportunity was to provide an operational assessment and to recommend what should be done with backoffice service operations in terms of improving workflow (e.g., eliminating rework, improving service-level performance with customers). Company prospect was a growth-phase company (post Series C institutional financing - backers that I would have aspired to include in my "marketing network" at some point). Additional facts include that the service operation recently underwent a substantial staff reduction based on recommendation from a previous management consultant. Standard management tradeoffs between design for quality versus design for throughput applied for this project.


My proposal was the first submitted and underwent two to three drafts and rounds of feedback between the client and I. Things seemed to be on track with both project scope and price, but my spider sense started to tingle when a week or two elapsed and the prospect invited another consultant into the picture for a proposal.


A week and a half later I was delivered the news by the contact that brokered me into the opportunity. Bad news, Steve. Contract will be awarded to another consultant.


My price was 37% higher than the competition. Additionally, the work was proposed to be completed earlier by the other consultant by a week or so. Now I am not clear the proposals were comparing apples to apples, but at this point this is water under the bridge. Although I will try to get some additional lost deal information, I understand that there may have been some concern that personality-wise I would have been perceived as being brought in to replace the regional management (as this is what happened recently with the CIO of the organization). Additionally, the competition's price was lower. Early timeframe for project completion may have also been a factor, but I cannot definitively say yet.


It is not my intent to try to appeal any of these points to the prospect, but I think there could have been opportunities to try and make adjustments. For example, we could have tried to align the discussions and allay any chemistry fears by bringing in the regional management into the discussions with me before inking a contract.


Now I am not going to go into all of my learnings here, however, I think it is useful to consider a concept I learned in Ford Harding's book, "Rain Making: The Professional's Guide to Attracting New Clients". You need to ask as many people as possible (client prospects included) to be straight-up with you. No silverlining. Why did I lose the deal? This is the concept of getting the prospect to talk to you like a Dutch uncle. To quote a passage from Harding's book, "The person who talks to you like a Dutch uncle does it for your own good ... At its worst ... [problems are] like a cheating spouse; friends know but don't tell you about it. "


Steve Shu
Managing Director
S4 Management Group
Email: sshu@s4management.com
Web: http://www.s4management.com

Interesting Post by Paul Allen (Managing Partner, Infobase Ventures) On Entrepreneurship Mentoring
Topic: 3) Ventures
Interesting post by Paul Allen (Managing Partner, Infobase Ventures) for getting on top of things as an entrepreneur. Although the intent of the post, as Paul writes, is to raise the bar for entrpreneurs contacting Paul for advice, his post seems like a good reference for entrepreneurs in general because it contains some very, very specific things one can do to address the broader considerations that affect an entrepreneur's viability.


Paul Allen mentions using things like LinkedIn (a networking tool) and getting endorsements. He cites using QuickBooks online to be able to discuss financials. He also mentions using free, publically available SEC info for competitive information. He mentions all of this in a nice list format. Find out the list of ten steps to getting to Paul Allen for mentoring (here). His list of specifics is great because entrepreneurs need to establish as much leverage as they can with low $$ at times. Paul's list is pretty state-of-the-art too. Services like LinkedIn and QuickBooks Onlne Edition are probably not more than 1-2 years old but are great resources for bootstrappers and early-stage companies.


(And I will publically admit for the record that I have never heard of Paul's 8th step regarding Alexa rankings. I will have to check Paul's recommendation out.)


Steve Shu
Managing Director
S4 Management Group
Email: sshu@s4management.com
Web: http://www.s4management.com

Entrepreneurship Defined By Orientation As Opposed to Size
Topic: 1) General Management
Discussions with a number of dissatisfied folks that I know in the telcom space and within larger companies motivated me to write this entry. I debated whether I should include in the Early-Stage Ventures thread, but then I realized the angle I wanted to take was geared towards people in both small and large organizations.


To simplify the purposes of this discussion (and cutting a number of corners), there are two definitions:
1) Entrepreneurship Defined As A Small Business: starting or working for a company that is distinguished by limitations in size or age more than other attributes (< X people, < $Y in revenue, < $Z in valuation, < A years in age, etc.)
2) Entrepreneurship Defined As An Orientation: working and taking calculated risks to maximize the value of assets available as opposed to overprotecting assets and avoiding risks (trustee orientation/tendency).


Why is this important? If you believe in the Entrepreneurship Defined As An Orientation model, one should then look for entrepreneurial opportunities with whatever company you are working for (large or small). In larger companies, this may mean setting true personal goals with one's manager (as opposed to going through customary motions that may be required by the company's bureaucracy), communicating risks one wants to take (along with the calculated downsides and potential upsides), looking for opportunities to help people both within and outside of the organization, and not getting discouraged when things fail or when ideas get rejected. There's the old saying that "one needs to break a few eggs to make an omelet."


In any case, I think these are important things to consider. As cited by Harvard Business School (HBS) professor Dr. John P. Kotler in his book, "The New Rules" (1995) where he surveyed a portion of the HBS Class of '74, entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs are more alike than they are different. Dr. Kotler does cite four areas where the biggest exceptions bear out: independence, propensity to work hard, need for autonomy, and need for security. If find it interesting to note that biggest difference seemed to be in the area of security. For entrepreneurs, only 2% needed security where for non-entrepreneurs the figure was 18%. This is a 9X difference and should not be treated lightly by those in large companies looking for a change or regretting changes that they had not made to strike out on one's own.


The grass is not always greener on the other side. As an influential figure once said, "Judge me by my size do you? ... You should not." (Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back). The Force lies within and about you.


Steve Shu
Managing Director
S4 Management Group
Email: sshu@s4management.com
Web: http://www.s4management.com

Applying Concepts of Personality Typing in Everyday Business ... Also, Extroverts Are Not Bloggers?
Topic: 1) General Management
As a management consultant and general management practitioner, I find it useful to apply concepts stemming from personality typing to everyday business and sales communications. I typically apply a subset of the personality typing framework known as Myers-Briggs typing (more detail here).


In the Myers-Briggs typology, there are 4 dimensions of classification, although I will only address one here. It is the (E)xtrovert versus (I)ntrovert designation. The common misconception of these classifications stems from fact that in everyday use of the English language, extroverts are thought of as "social butterflies" and whereas introverts are though of as people who crawl into holes when approached by other life forms.


Not so. In Myers-Briggs, the E versus I designation refers to how people are energized and *how people process information*. There are many examples of people that are social butterflies but test strongly as introverts under the Myers-Briggs system. These I-type social butterflies are exhausted after networking at parties whereas the E-type social butterflies are dying for more after a party.


So you may ask why does any of this matter? A corollary is that extrovert types, since they are energized externally, process information out in the open. The thought process is literally in front of their faces as you talk with them. They think out loud. They sometimes say things they regret because the thought process is out in the open. They do not process written information very well. Their thought process and brain is literally outside of their head when they communicate. They may say, "let's talk this though" or they may just want to brainstorm in real-time as opposed to exchanging information via email. On the other end of the spectrum, introvert types have a thought process that tends to be internal. When you speak with these people, they tend not to think out loud. You can see such people internally taking the information inside their head while they think about something. They may even need to get back to you and/or see written information before responding to you.


Most management consultants and business managers tend to test as "ENTJ" types. The E refers to extrovert. That said, not all of these people are E-types. Not all of the workers in an organization are E-types either. It is important to look for indicators or even float trial balloons to see what type of person it is that you are dealing with and adapt one's communication style to the target. It may mean using more phone calls and face-to-face with certain people. It may mean more written information with others. It may require different sales closing techniques. It should also be noted that the Myers-Briggs typing does not mean one will always behave a certain way. The classifications are just natural tendencies, and how a person behaves day-to-day may be situational.


Now you may ask how does this relate to blogging? As an ENTJ-type that tests borderline on the E/I dimension, I think I have an interesting perspective here because I consciously try to use a very balanced communication style. I personally feel that blogging, while it encourages networking, is a technology that is biased towards introverts and discriminates against extroverts. This even includes consideration of moblogging (mobile blogging) and other augmentation mechanisms currently in the market. The fact that everything is generally written down in blogs leads me to this hypothesis.


So if blogging is to reach its full potential in the business and management consulting areas, it seems likely that some consideration will need to be made about the impedance mismatch.


Steve Shu
Managing Director
S4 Management Group
Email: sshu@s4management.com
Web: http://www.s4management.com

Tribute to John McEnroe: Performance Variability Happens With Even The Greats ... You Cannot Be Serious!
Topic: 4) A Random Walk
CNN reports that John McEnroe's talk show is being cancelled after barely six months.


Now I've never watched his show, but John McEnroe is smart, colorful, and entertaining. Aside from antics early on in his tennis career, I have really identified with him: plays tennis left-handed, uses an all-court strategy, has natural athletic abilities, has played vintage Maxply Fort Dunlop racquets, followed players like Rod Laver, got bored with the age of modern tennis because of a lack of characters on the circuit, made significant steps toward personal and family improvement latter in life, and loves to play rock-and-roll (sure he plays guitar and I play the drums, but we both like Patti Smyth and Van Halen ... that's the only difference, right?).


Some other *small* accomplishments of John (from the McEnroe Show website):
A #1 New York Times' Best Seller, "You Cannot Be Serious"
7 Grand Slam Singles Championships
3 Wimbledon Singles Championships
4 U.S. Open Singles Championships
5 U.S. Davis Cup Championships
10 Grand Slam Doubles Championships
5 Wimbledon Doubles Championships
4 U.S. Open Doubles Championships
1 French Open Mixed Doubles Championships
7 Masters Doubles Championships
154 ATP Tour Singles and Doubles Titles
36 Champions Tour Titles
NCAA Singles Champion at Stanford University
1999 Induction in the International Tennis Hall of Fame
2000 Davis Cup Captain


John is a world-renowned sportscaster, and he has been *** #1 *** for much of his life. His unique persona even served as inspriation for the role of the American chess master in the musical Chess. His book is probably the only autobiography that I ever read outside of the ones forced on me back in high school. But John will now have the following credit as well:
[ranking] 833rd out of 834 shows that aired on all of cable television in the period from 6 a.m. Monday through 3 a.m. Tuesday. "McEnroe" beat only the Food Network's "How to Boil Water." (source)


All I can say is that John McEnroe is still an inspiration to me. Being #833 of #834 after being #1 in many other areas just goes to show that even proven greats can have underperforming ventures.


John, I'll jam with you any day.


Steve Shu
Managing Director
S4 Management Group
Email: sshu@s4management.com
Web: http://www.s4management.com

Firefox Browser is Only Slightly Hotter Than Ashlee Simpson
I'm not sure who my audience is on this post, but I think academics, drummers, and Ashlee Simpson followers might like this one. At least I got a kick out of it. In any case, the graph below was generated using BlogPulse tools. Now there about 5 millionish blogs out there (give or take some ... about the same order of magnitude as the population of Dallas or Chicago). You can basically poll to see what percentage of blogs contained a particular term in a longitudinal view (i.e., over a period of time). Instant event study-like research for academics! Didn't research whether there is selection bias or not in terms of the blog platforms polled by BlogPulse, but it is kind of a cool tool.

Anyway, I find it pretty interesting that the blog market is a mostly efficient market in terms of reporting news (I did not graphically superimpose dates of actual events, but it looks about right). You can see bumps related to the Saturday Night Live/drummer miscue/Ashlee Simpson event and also the new Firefox browser news. I also find it interesting that Firefox had a higher spike than Ashlee Simpson. That's pretty sad for us with technical bents to us.

If you run a Ashlee Simpson vs. a Becker-Posner query, well Ashlee wins hands down here.

Updated: Of course, here's a Kerry-Bush-Ashlee runoff to put things into an even greater perspective ...

Steve Shu
Managing Director
S4 Management Group
Email: sshu@s4management.com
Web: http://www.s4management.com

Blog is the #1 Word for 2004
Topic: 4) A Random Walk
The top 10 words of the year based on searches of Merriam-Webster Web sites are:

1. blog
2. incumbent
3. electoral
4. insurgent
5. hurricane
6. cicada
7. peloton
8. partisan
9. sovereignty
10. defenestration

Source: Merriam-Webster

See more detail as reported at CNN. Note that the term "blog" will even been added to the dictionary in 2005. I think I may need to go back to school for at least 2 of the other words ...
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/11/30/words.of.the.year.reut/index.html

I hereby invoke the common law trademark rules for the "Blog Aside" (tm) marks and designations. Not to be confused with the term "blogicide" I might add. Anyways let's face it - blog properties just went up in value.


Steve Shu
Managing Director
S4 Management Group
Email: sshu@s4management.com
Web: http://www.s4management.com

Musings on Blog Searching, Blogging, and Bulletin Boards
Topic: 4) A Random Walk
Haven't quite got down the reading, posting, and browsing aspect of blogs down yet to my liking. Even though my investigations to date indicate that the searching, directory, blogging, social networking, caching, and grid computing spaces are converging, the workflow is pretty inefficient for me. Even simple browser bookmarking for me is getting out of hand.

Now as for stuff that *does* simplify my life, if you haven't tried the Findory site, check it out. In a nutshell Gregory Linden, founder of Findory and a key person formerly involved with personalization features at Amazon.com, has created an offering that personalizes the process of searching blogs through the use of adaptive learning. The platform tracks and learns what you like to read (through browser cookie technology). Then it organizes info in that way for you. What I like. No install. No new browsers. Just rock-and-roll and go. My style all-the-way.

To me, tailored searching is a great thing. Why? Because it draws personally relevant and timely network information flow to me. I use networks as an important part of my learning process because I am involved in a broad set of activities and can't be an expert in every area. For one thing, figuring out which channel to open for information can sometimes be tough because of the number of options. Findory is becoming sort of like Star Trek's Number One to me ... I can just turn to it and say "Open a channel" and "Make it so".

Now changing the subject a little bit, I wanted to comment on putting things back into the network. I find blogging useful, but I was originally surprised to find that the commenting format in blog environments was different from that on bulletin boards. Blogs don't make back-and-forth easy. Bulletin boards do. It is practically impossible to track the back and forth that goes in the commenting section of a blog. This hampers any useful dialogue that might grow out of the original blog post. Perhaps the desired effect. Perhaps not at other times. Problem is, as far as I can tell, there's no option in blogging to take the conversation to a bulletin board environment (e.g., a LinkedIn plug-in, Google scratch space, intelligent eGroups link or whatever). The situation that winds up happening is that everyone meets up in hyperspace, but there's no virtual Starbucks to link up for coffee and take the conversation further. Where's my instant e-Latte when I need it?

Updated: I was told that I should have said "cyberspace" not "hyperspace". Ah well. Tomato - tomata ...


Steve Shu
Managing Director
S4 Management Group
Email: sshu@s4management.com
Web: http://www.s4management.com