Category Archives: behavior

The useful convergence of data

I have only one prediction for 2008. I think we’re finally about to see the useful combination of the 4 W’s – Who, What, Where, and When. Marc Davis has done some interesting research in this area at Yahoo!, and … Continue reading

Posted in behavior, community, data, design, future, ideas, identity, innovation, local, marketing, personalization, programmableweb, recommendations, semanticweb, social, theory, trends | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

The Internet’s secret sauce: surfacing coincidence

What is it that makes my favorite online services so compelling? I’m talking about the whole family of services that includes Dopplr, Wesabe, Twitter, Flickr, and del.icio.us among others. I find it interesting that people don’t generally refer to any … Continue reading

Posted in behavior, community, creativity, data, delicious, design, dopplr, edge, flickr, future, ideas, innovation, internet, models, network effects, platform, programmableweb, recommendations, social media, strategy, transparency, trends, twitter, visualization, web services, wesabe | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

The problem with being popular (part 2)

One of the more interesting sciences, in my mind, is how information relevance is both determined, surfaced and then evolved. In Fred Wilson’s recent Cautionary Techmeme Tale he argues that making news popular takes away its social context and therefore … Continue reading

Posted in attention, behavior, community, culture, media, peer production, personalization, recommendations, social media, theory, trends, yahoo | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

The business of network effects

The Internet platform business has some unique challenges. It’s very tempting to adopt known models to make sense of it, like the PC business, for example, and think of the Internet platform like an operating system. The similarities are hard … Continue reading

Posted in advertising, behavior, dareobasanjo, data, development, future, ideas, identity, innovation, jasonkottke, marketing, media, models, network, network effects, nick carr, participation, peer production, personalization, platform, recommendations, semanticweb, social media, strategy, trends | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Gatekeepers need to stop calling themselves gatekeepers

Time business columnist Justin Fox questioned the success of the new media methods in a recent post “The reign of the enthusiasts“. He suggests the algorithms that proudly surface the deep dark corners of the Internet are actually just self-referential … Continue reading

Posted in behavior, blogging, google, mainstream media, media, msm, publishing, recommendations, search, socialmedia, socialsearch, success, trends | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Membership has its privileges

Mark Glaser asks his readers this week to submit the answer to the following question: “What would motivate you to contribute to a citizen media site?” I can’t imagine that anyone is going to be able to answer that question … Continue reading

Posted in attention, behavior, citizenjournalism, collaboration, community, culture, digg, ideas, marketing, media, participation, peer production, socialmedia, socialnetworks, startup, strategy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

For my wishlist: a start page that learns

I had the pleasure of joining Rex Hammock for drinks last night in Potrero Hill while he was here for Macworld Expo. Rex is tuned in to some interesting aspects of the online world, particularly through his site SmallBusiness.com which … Continue reading

Posted in behavior, funny, personalization, recommendations, rex hammock, rss, smallbusiness.com, start pages, wiki | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

The breakthrough that is MyBlogLog

There’s something very uncomfortable about seeing your face appear on another web site while you’re visiting it. That’s exactly why I think MyBlogLog is going to be a really big deal. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens now that … Continue reading

Posted in attention, behavior, email, future, history, identity, innovation, meme, mybloglog, socialmedia, socialnetworks, startup, yahoo | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Top 5 new business ideas

The month of lists has begun, so I decided to rank the business ideas from the last year that could or should be a big deal in the next year. Most of these ideas and companies have actually been around … Continue reading

Posted in answers, apis, attention, behavior, development, future, ideas, identity, innovation, interestingness, last.fm, leadership, models, social media, startup, strategy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments