Mark Evans

Twitter’s Success: It’s the Ecosystem

After spending far too many hours last week looking at Wordpress themes and plugins, it got me thinking that what makes Wordpress such a great blogging platform is the ecosystem that has exploded around it.

There are 10s of thousands of places where you get information about how to use Wordpress, and 10s of thousands of people happily created themes and plugins - many of them for free, although donations always welcome. So while Wordpress (the platform) is terrific (Note: WP 2.5 needs some tweaks), Wordpress is the leading platform because, in part, of the ecosystem that supports, nurtures, enhances and promotes it.

Although it’s early days, the same phenomena is starting to happen with Twitter. Although it’s difficult to pin down the actual number of Twitter users, there is no doubt Twitter is attracting a growing number of developers who are creating some really interesting and useful applications using the Twitter API. These applications make Twitter more interesting, and extend its usefulness beyond just writing and reading 140-character messages.

Here’s a few Twitter applications that have caught my attention recently:

- Summize: a search tool to discover people, keywords, conversations and trends. If you’re in public/media relations or a community position, Summize is a great way to quickly identify if anything is happening in your world.

- Twubble: a tool expand the number of people you follow. It works by searching through your followers, and selecting other people whom you may want to follow.

- Twistori: a “social experiment”, Twistori pulls messages from Twitter, and then publishes them anonymously using a river-of-news concept.

- Thwirl: a Twitter desktop client with the ability to operate multiple Twitter accounts, as well as Friendfeed.

- TwitterStats: a tool for all you stat junkies out there.

- TwitPic: A place where you can share your photos on Twitter.

Depending on how you want to use Twitter, it’s becoming increasing easy to tap the ecosystem to get whatever you want out of it - be it a way to find interesting content, tracking conversations and trends, or simply seeing what other people are writing about.

It’s the ecosystem that will propel Twitter from cool tool embraced most by techies into a mainstream medium. The more ways people can use Twitter, the more appealing it will become. It would be great if Twitter would create a centralized destination to find all the tools and services being created - sort of like Wordpress.com

Perhaps the most important element is whether Twitter itself can thrive and survive so the ecosystem can grow along with it. With no business model (yet!), Twitter has to raise some more venture capital to give it more time to figure out a way to make money, or find someone (Facebook, Microsoft, Google?) willing to buy it some outrageous amount of money.

Technorati Tags: Twhirl, Twitter, Wordpress

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Attention, Digital Peasants: the iPhone is Coming

So, it’s been nearly a year since the iPhone was breathlessly unveiled. And in that time, it has become a smash hit…..but not in Canada.

Why? Because Canadians (aka digital peasants) can’t buy an iPhone in Canada because none of the carriers sell them.

But wait! There’s hope for us who live without. Rogers plans to introduce the iPhone to Canada….”later this year”.

Yes, we will be getting the iPhone but, in a cruel twist, our only GSM carrier won’t tell us when. Here’s a statement from wireless domo Ted Rogers.

“We’re thrilled to announce that we have a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Canada later this year. We can’t tell you any more about it right now, but stay tuned.”

How should we react? Excited that it’s coming? Disappointed we still have to wait an indeterminable amount of time? Pissed that we still don’t have the iPhone?

One more thing: as much as we all want to get excited about the iPhone, let’s see what kind of data packages that ARPU-happy Rogers offers.

This news must be big because it’s topping Techmeme and the coverage includes 9to5Mac, ZDNet and Engadget have all stories on it.

Update: AT&T is apparently going to sell the 3G version of the iPhone for $199 with a two-year plan. I wonder if Rogers is willing to match those kind of prices?

Technorati Tags: Apple, iPhone, Rogers

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Does Length Suddenly Matter?

Here’s an observation that’s completely unscientific but, nevertheless, interesting.

At a time when Twitter - and its 140-character messages - is becoming all the rage (at least within the high-tech community, according to Kara Swisher), posts by some of the leading bloggers (TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb, Silicon Valley Insider, et al appear to be getting a lot longer. RWW, for example, now has a “Continue reading” link at the bottom of every post rather than providing the entire text.

It’s a competitive landscape so perhaps the focus on length is being driven by the need to provide more details and analysis. This, of course, assumes that people have the time to read longer stories at a time when more people are spending an increasing amount of time trying to keep up with e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed, etc.

There’s clearly a delicate balancing going on as longer posts become a competitive tool because quantity/volume still seems to matter. As much as being comprehensive is important, being first and being seen as offering extensive coverage is still seen as a strategic necessity.

If longer posts are going to become a blog staple, then blogs may have little choice but to evolve into online newspapers with “front pages” that feature five or six stories, as well as sections (e.g. Analysis, Startups, Venture Capital, etc.)

Technorati Tags: Blogs, GigaOm, ReadWriteWeb, TechCrunch

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Akoha Raises $1.9M

More encouraging news from the Canadian tech start-up scene with Akoha raising $1.9-million in angel financing. (TechCrunch love can be found here.)

Congrats to Austin Hill, Alex Eberts and the Akoha team. Akoha’s investors include:

Investors include some of Canada’s most prominent business and technology leaders, including:

• David Chamandy, co-founder, Lavalife;
• John Bromley, Benefic Group.;
• Jean-Sebastien Cournoyer, entrepreneur-in-residence, Vantage Point Venture Partners;
• Ron Dembo, founder, Zerofootprint.net and Algorithmics;
• Jake Eberts, film producer;
• Alan Gershenfeld, managing partner, E-Line Ventures, director at Games for Change;
• John Meeks, managing partner, TA Associates Private Equity, London;
• Reg Weiser, founder, Positron;
• Jonathan Wener, Chairman & Founder, Canderel Group;
• Robert Montgomery, founder, Achilles Media;
• Chris Emergui, founder and president, BAM Strategy;
• Montreal Start Up

Akoha’s financing comes on the heels of the launch of Tripharbor.com, an online cruise start-up headed up by my friend, Stuart MacDonald.

Technorati Tags: Austin Hill, Akoha

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Atta Go, Twitter!

According to CNet, which is citing the infamous and notorious “source familiar with”, Twitter is close to raising $15-million to $20-million.

All I have to say is “Nice work, Twitter!”

It’s good to know that it’s still possible to raise gobs of venture capital on the basis of eyeballs/users as opposed to a business plan/revenue. It’s heartening that potential still counts as much as reality. And, gee willikers, it’s good to see the bubble that concerns so many people hasn’t burst yet.

Seriously, good for Twitter. You’ve got a service that’s being enthusiastically embraced by a growing number of people, and a thriving ecosystem more than happy to support it.

It’s difficult to turn around these days without seeing yet another Twitter-related service or, for that matter, someone else following your Twitter feed (even if many of them are pesky, evil spammers).

Twitter is a phenomena - much like Facebook was/is. We’re in the middle of a social networking revolution where the rules and, clearly, business plans are still being established. So what not strike when the iron is hot? Why not get what you can when you can if you’ve got investors willing to give you some dough-re-me?

Twitter may discover the business model that will convert users into revenue but it’s the belle of the ball right now so if someone wants to dance, let them!

More: Speaking of notorious, Sarah Lacy (aka Mark Zuckerberg’s Friend) is on the Twitter story. Mind you, she wonders why everyone is so excited and/or why a Twitter financing would be news. No argument here given Twitter’s lack of revenue and need for cash.

Update: TechCrunch reports that Twitter’s financing would give a value of $60-million to $150-million.

Bonus: Sexy chart of the Day:

Technorati Tags: Twitter

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Hard to Believe But…

1. The White Pages was delivered to my house yesterday. Who uses the White Pages anymore other than as a door stop?

2. Someone send me an invitation to be their friend on Pownce. First one I’ve seen in months!

3. The NYT has jumped on the iPhone is going to knock off the Blackberry story, which has been BusinessWeek’s baby for months.

Until the number show otherwise, these stories remind me of the children’s story in which Chicken Little is worried the sky is falling. The premise is possible but there aren’t many signs, it’s happening. Nevertheless, it makes for a good story given RIM’s dominance and the iPhone’s sexiness. Here’s a typical quote you’ll find in all of these RIM-iPhone stories:

“The vultures are circling,” says Roger L. Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates, a research firm in Wayland, Mass. “There is this sense that the R.I.M. franchise is under assault.”

Who’s to suggest there won’t be more than room for RIM and the iPhone, which is apparently coming to Canada in the next month or so? If smart phones are becoming all the rage, perhaps the market for people who want wireless devices that deliver e-mail, music, the Web, etc. will dramatically expand.

One more question: if RIM is vulnerable to competition, why hasn’t any of Nokia’s much-vaunted devices such as the N95 made major inroads in North America?

Technorati Tags: Blackberry, iPhone, Pownce

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The Weekly Wrap

A weekly wrap of the week that was on MET:

Highlights:

- The week started with an unveiling of sorts as my brother, Sean, and I talked about how we had been writing and trying to attract an audience to another blog, Four Reasons Why. Truth be told, it difficult to gain a following on the blogosphere unless you’re producing great content, you’re focused on a particular niche, and/or you’re lucky enough to catch the wind in your sails.

- The mesh meetup was a great success with more than 100 people coming out on a Monday night to socialize. It just goes to show again that as much as tech people love to e-mail, IM, Twitter, etc., there’s a huge appetite to get together in person. meshU starting to gain momentum as more people recognize the strong line-up of speakers.

- My friend and co-mesh gang member, Stuart MacDonald, launched his new online cruising start-up, Tripharbour.com. mesh@sea only a matter of time!

- Is the iPhone finally coming to Canada? The Toronto Star reports Rogers could be coming out in May/June as part of a campaign focusing on touch screen phones. Truth be told, I’ll believe it when I see it given it’s been a year since the iPhone was launched. Canada is a digital peasant!

Most popular posts:

- Who’s Going to Say the “P” Word, looking at how aggregation services such as Friendfeed are really social networking portals. Yes, portals are back.

- Talking to Disqus: A Q&A with Disqus co-founder Daniel Ha

- Communications 101: How to Communicate Better: A post written in April 2007 that for some strange reason keeps attracting traffic, probably because it’s the number one result on Google if you search for “how to communicate”. I got to figure out a way to monetize this baby! Hello, Skype?

New Theme

- As a Canadian, I really liked the red and white theme done by Headset Options but it was time for a change. The new theme is called “Statement” by Jai Nischal Verma (aka BlogohBlog), a Wordpress blogger and really good designer. Next WP project: giving the header some sizzle.

Mystery of the week

- a sudden 20% drop in Feedburner subscribers after steady growth over the past three months. Maybe many people are doing some RSS spring cleaning!

Here, Beta, Beta

- Betas in the “must check out pile”: Evernote, Fav.or,it, Presdo, Toluu. Betas checked out but given a quick pass: The Filter (not intuitive, couldn’t see the benefits), Alert Thingy (bad interface, not user-friendly, the hype is killing it).

Technorati Tags: Beta, Blogging, mesh, meshU, Wordpress

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Open for Business: Tripharbor

The entrepreneurial adventures of my friend, Stuart MacDonald, have taken a really exciting turn with the much-anticipated launch of Tripharbor.com (Tripharbour for all of us Canadians!)

Known for months as “Project X” while being developed, Tripharbor is a place where can research and book cruises, as well as connect with other cruising aficionados - and there are a growing number of them out there. Stuart was kind enough to give a bunch of us a sneak peek last week, and Tripharbor is really impressive!

Here’s how Tripharbor describes itself:

We want Tripharbor to be the sort of place where people can get all the information they could ever need to learn about and plan really great cruises. Where they can meet other cruise vacationers and join a community of cruise fans, get the skinny on the various cruise lines and destinations, share opinions, and generally make the cruise planning experience just about a million times better.

My only cruising experience was taking the Queen Elizabeth II from France to New York when I was 12-years-old but from what I can tell, cruising has changed dramatically and it’s a fast-growing market appealing a wide variety of demographics and interests.

I’m not sure I can convince the-one-who-rules (aka my lovely, sweet and kind wife) to actually take a cruise but I’m stoked about Tripharbor. I’m excited Stuart is doing something entrepreneurial that he’s passionate about, and I’m excited to see a Canadian start-up launch with bold ambitions to really disrupt how an industry operates.

Go, Tripharbor, Go!

P.S. Stuart, when can we expect the initial mesh cruise?

Technorati Tags: mesh, Stuart MacDonald, Tripharbor

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Yahoo Wants its Groove Back

Yahoo is a fascinating story these days.

On one hand, it’s the subject of a hostile takeover bid from Microsoft that may or may not happen depending on which way the wind is blowing, each company’s most recent financial performance (Yahoo - okay; Microsoft - great), how Jerry Yang and/or Steve Ballmer feel when they get of bed in the morning, etc.

In the meantime, Yahoo is furiously working to give itself a corporate makeover. All of a sudden, it’s unveiled a new social strategy where it will become a friendly and open platform - in addition to offering content and services to millions of consumers.

It’s an ambitious strategy and the bold moves that everyone was expected from Yang when he took over as CEO, and promised dramatic changes in 100 days.

From here, there are two questions:

1. Is it too late?

Why now as opposed to a year ago when the idea of a Microsoft takeover was mere speculation. What has prompted Yahoo to get bullish strategically and embrace some of the key trends (openness, portability, etc.).

2. Does it matter?

One of Yahoo’s biggest problems is it allowed itself to get stale. Whether it was complacency and bad management decisions, Yahoo became a super tanker unable to move quickly strategically, rather than a flexible online player able to take advantage of key trends. Yahoo tried to address this situation by acquiring some interesting start-ups but then essentially ignored the start-ups it had brought into the fold.

In the process, Yahoo lost serious ground to competitors. A few examples: Yahoo Search is a distant second behind Google; Yahoo Mail is having a hard time competing against GMail and Live.com/Hotmail, and Yahoo is having such a difficult time in the ad business, it’s turning to Google for help. From a personal perspective, I rarely use Yahoo services with the exception of Yahoo Finance, del.icio.us and Flickr.

What’s interesting about Yahoo, however, is it has some terrific online properties that aren’t doing as well as they should. Whether it’s Yahoo staying independent or Microsoft taking over, the key question is whether Yahoo can get its groove back.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Yahoo

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Who’s Going to Say the “P” Word?

It has been interesting to watch aggregation become a hot trend among the digerati as new players such as Friendfriend strive to provide people with ways to more easily manage all of their social networking activities.

In simple terms, it’s based on the concept of one-stop shopping. Why visit a number of different places (blogs, del.icio.us, RSS readers, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) if you can go to a single place to do and get it all. The digerati love the concept because their online lives are becoming more complex and difficult to manage as they add more tools into the daily mix.

For all the talk about aggregation, the word that is not being mentioned (or even whispered!) is “portal”. Think about it, what Friendfeed, Twhirl, etc. are really creating are social networking portals.

Of course, no one wants to say “portal” because it’s a dirty word associated with the dot-com boom of the late-1990s. Back then, portals (Yahoo, AOL, etc.) were all the rage because it was thought people would spend all their time on a single Web site if it offered everything they could possibly want. For some people, portals worked but many people strayed away from the one-stop shopping concept for a variety of reasons, including the fact there was not enough customization.

This led to the emergence of Portal 2.0 with personalized portals such as Pageflakes, Netvibes and iGoogle. Although far from perfect, these players gave people the ability to build their own portal pages using a variety of sources. Of these players, Netvibes (which I plan to play around with again) continues to show the most potential, especially since the recent launch of its Ginger upgrade.

We are now in the middle of Portal 3.0 where customization moves from content, RSS feeds, etc. to social networking services. There is a race happening to see who can become the social networking portal. Friendfeed has the most momentum while Twhirl and others are scrambling to keep pace.

In theory, social networking portals make sense so people can monitor their digital lives but the question is whether enough people will use multiple social networks to justify using a social networking portal. As Facebook users, for example, migrate to Twitter, do they really want a service to monitor Facebook and Twitter, or simple a Twitter service?

In any event, the portal is back whether you want to admit it or not.

Update: Speaking of Twitter, TechCrunch suggests that “a flip or flop proposition” given it has no discernible business plan yet, and appears to be running out of money.

Technorati Tags: FriendFeed, Netvibes, Portals, Twhirl, Twitter

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