I have been working my way through IT Conversations – I burn them to MP3 and listen to them in my car – seems efficient to me, but most people think I am a geek for doing it.
Anyway a couple of absolute gems:

Dan Bricklin “People pay to communicate with those they care about.”
That’s the technology business in 9 words. He cites people talking on cell phones about the most mundane things vs. the failure of Mmode type content.

And related thought from Joi Ito – he rambles so I paraphrase - Blogging is a set of standards for easily creating, publishing, syndicating and sharing micro-content (today text and pictures, later music and movies). Micro-content is produced by consumers who pay to share. This stands in stark contrast to mainstream content producers who mass produce, distribute and charge money. The importance of blogging is misunderstood because businesses always overestimate consumer’s desire to consume commercial content and underestimate people’s desire to share and communicate.

Thought I would share that.

I attended VLAB Tuesday night. The topic was Digital Hollywood, a very well worn road, where I spent the early part of my start-up career. I had one good take away. The presenting company, Gracenote, is another example of a Mark Leslie business axiom, great companies labor in obscurity for years only to become overnight successes when the market turns. There is no substitute for building up IP, technology and a product that works. GraceNote started in the late 1998 out of work done in the mid-90’s. Nearly 10 years later the market turns and they are booming. This is the history of sustainable companies in Silicon Valley. I guess it does not make good copy, which is why you don’t read about it in business publications.

IndexedForever is written by Mark Carlson, co-founder and CEO of SimpleFeed, Inc. The opinions expressed are here are his and may or may not represent the opinions of his employer.

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