Innovation/Strategy/The Narrative

Among other random news, Six Apart spins off Livejournal

Posted on by charlie

I was in California this week and stopped by, as usual, to say hello at Six Apart.

Lots of things have happened since I last saw them, some that I knew already, and some that I didn’t, and some new items that were interesting.

In the ‘already knew’ was Ben and Mena’s new family member. Cute little one, already fashion conscious, matching outfits with Mom. Another one was the new CEO, Chris Alden (I didn’t get to meet him this time, nor did I get to catch up with the previous one).

In the ‘didn’t know’ was the spinning off of LiveJournal. I remember when they bought LiveJournal, oh so many years ago. Along with the purchase of LiveJournal came Brad Fitzpatrick, who (‘already knew’) has recently moved to Google and is likely influential in the OpenSocial work going on there. I wonder who from the original LiveJournal team is still around, and how Brad’s departure influenced this spin-off. In any case, Six Apart has a very challenging product line, so I believe them when they say it was spun off to improve the product portfolio (and return Six Apart to its roots).

Another ‘didn’t know’ was Moveable Type going open source, properly. I seem to recall them mentioning this a while back. Well, now it’s there. Though, I am not sure what that means for MT or Six Apart.

In the ‘didn’t know, but interesting’ is that David Recordon works (is back) at Six Apart. David is the key guy in the development of OpenID. In the 15 minutes we chatted, we realized that there was more for us to discuss. I hope I can haul him out to Finland to enlighten the folks I work with. OpenID is a piece in the current developments that are set to transform social networking and the way we build social networking services.

I like to follow Six Apart because I worked so closely with them in my Lifeblog days and they introduced me (and still are) to so many important Web movers and shakers. Also, when we first started talking with them in the start of 2004, they were a cautious and small company in a very obscure area. In the first year we worked with them, they grew rapidly, defined the Web news of the day, and went from a small start up to a bold new player in the Web.

And, with some of the news above, I think Six Apart has grown up to be a mature Web company, no longer a start-up. They have a strong valuation, a stable workforce, and are spinning off products. But, for me, the real indicator of maturity is that one can start finding people who worked at Six Apart and have moved on to do great things and now proudly count Six Apart as part of their pedigree.

Wow.

Innovation

Cool eco-savvy phone from Nokia, the Nokia 3110 Evolve

Posted on by charlie

Folks, I don’t usually gush about gadgets, but this one makes me happy. It’s a phone that was built in a way quite different from other phones, ‘incorporating environmentally friendly innovations’:

  • bio-material covers, unpainted and less fossil fuels to produce (50% renewable materials)
  • sales box made of 60% recycled materials
  • intelligent charger that turns off when charging is done

And it’s a basically good phone.

Way to go.

Looking forward to laying my hands on one.

And a few comments from an environmental site.

Announcements/Innovation

A few changes from my side

Posted on by charlie

I’m leaving the Ovi team and shifting to the new Social Media relations group in Markets, Communications. The official start date has not been set since I have a few things I need to wrap up here on Oviland, but, barring any wild lightning strikes out of the blue, it will happen in January or February.

Just to be clear, I am not leaving because of any disappointment with the way Ovi.com has been developing. Indeed, the Ovi team is amazing, and I have done and learned quite a bit with them and have no problem working with them. Also, the direction of Ovi, and Ovi.com in particular (which I strongly influenced), is on the right track.

But, Ovi.com is a demanding mistress and she’s worn me down. I just need a little life-work balance and this next gig, hopefully, is of a different scale and scope that should give me some more control over what and where and how I do things.

This is a good time to shift, too. Ovi.com has hit its first iteration (we’re in internal beta). We’ve been well received by analysts and press and are looking to go before the real critics – the users. Also, the Ovi team is going through some new arrangements and some fresh blood is joining.

As for this new gig, this is very much in line with things I did before starting Ovi. I will be leading external social media activities, engaging with social media leaders and commentators. I will also be building and driving (as Editor-in-Chief, as it were) Nokia’s social media ‘hub’ (for want of a better term).

Social media outreach was what I did in my Lifeblog days (the first team to do such in Nokia) and this is a great evolution from those days, this time with more resources, more support from the company, and from a higher perch. And the field has evolved in those years and I think there is potential for some innovation in this space, something my mix of publishing, social media, and service design might help me bring forth.

I am sure we will have some great discussions around this.

Strategy/The Narrative

Anyone have social graphs from Twitter?

Posted on by charlie

I would love to see the stats on the numbers of direct, @, and general twits mapped against the total followed and followers per Twitter user.

I think the tighter connections are in the direct messages, then the @ messages. I think these messages reveal who are the closer ties in followed and follower lists.

Would be interesting to know percentage of private twitterers, also (and mobile and such, too).

Yeah, wondering a lot about how social networks map across Twitter.

Next time I per chance bump into Ev, I’ll ask. But, there are some of you who know him or will see him sooner than I. Indeed, I think he’s at Le Web, so maybe you could ask him there and let me know!

The Narrative

Do you like apples? Them’s a lot of apples

Posted on by charlie

One thing I like to point out regarding the mobile space is the scale of things. Here we have numbers (below) on just one device from Nokia. And it’s one of the high-end pricey ones, too.

But that pales in comparison to the Nokia 1100, of which Nokia sold over 200 million since 2003.

Link: Nokia sold nearly 4 million N95 as end of Q3 2007:

Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, CEO at Nokia revealed this morning during a Nokia investors day that the company has already sold almost 4 million units of its Nokia N95 Smartphone at the end of the third quarter 2007.

The Narrative

Bookplates in the modern world

Posted on by charlie

Some friends and I were talking about bookplates (see link below to definition). My friend’s father had one, full of personal symbolism, on a few very old and noble books.

We then discussed how bookplates might seem a bit hollow in this day of paperbacks or hardcovers that come and go.

True, I said, books have a very different value these days compared to only 50 years ago where books were revered and kept in a family for a long time. But, then again, these bookplates could be made smaller, into sort of travel stickers. Then wherever the book went (for I think books should not be sitting on bookshelves, but need to be read and loved) people could put their own logo-sticker-coats of arms of the book to indicate a traveling book.

Kinda gives the book a life of their own (analog spime, anyone?).

Link Bookplate – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

A bookplate, also known as ex-librīs [Latin, "from the books of…"], is usually a small print or decorative label pasted into a book, often on the inside front cover, to indicate its owner. Simple typographical bookplates are termed ‘booklabels’.

Innovation/Science/Strategy/The Narrative

Book by Craig Venter – A Life Decoded: My Genome: My Life

Posted on by charlie

Well, I was wondering when someone would write a book about Venter (who deserves a Nobel, a few times over).

Turns out he wrote one himself. I think I gotta get me a copy.

I found out about this book through an article on him in Salon that my wife sent me. I haven’t read the article, but will on my long trip tomorrow.

Link: Amazon.com: A Life Decoded: My Genome: My Life: Books: J. Craig Venter:

A great deal has been written about Venter as the head of Celera, the private research company that won a race with the National Institutes of Health’s Human Genome Project to sequence the human genome. His role in this historic accomplishment has been both vilified and praised. Now, in a clumsily written autobiography, Venter offers his side of the story, portraying himself as the eternal underdog, fighting for truth and attempting to make scientific discoveries solely to help others. (Publishers Weekly).

Uncategorized

links for 2007-12-07

Posted on by charlie