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Mark Evans

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Web 2.0

Interesting Concept: Paying for Web Services

TechCrunch’s M.G. Siegler had an interesting post looking at the online Web service that he pays to use (Pandora, Tweetie, Flickr), and those he’d pay to use if needed (Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed, GMail, Digg, YouTube and Instapaper).
What a novel concept; actually paying for online tools that you find useful and valuable. At a time when [...]

The Perils and Dangers of Obligation

Renny Gleeson made a three-minute appearance (see the video below) at TED in February that captured one of the biggest challenges facing the digerati.
What Gleeson thrust into the spotlight is the “culture of availability” - the concept that mobile technology is making us available nearly all the time. This availability creates the expectation that [...]

Businesses with Businesses Models?

Earlier this week, I did a post looking at how it’s fundamental for online businesses to have a product/service that people want to purchase - as opposed to building something popular that people aren’t willing to buy. I cited companies such as Freshbooks, Rypple and Sysomos.
What I’m curious about is other online companies that are [...]

Without a Strong Foundation, You’re Doomed

One of the things I’ve noticed over the past four months as a consulting has been how social media is regarded by some companies an economic salvation.
There’s this belief that social media and the way the tools can leverage online marketing, communications and sales efforts has the power to magically attract more customers and drive [...]

Who’s Got Skype Fever?

Let’s face it, the IPO market is dead.
But an exception to the rule could be Skype, which eBay plans to spin off through an IPO during the first half of 2010.
Granted, a year is a long time and there’s no certainty the economic climate will be any better than it is today. But Skype has [...]

mesh Moments

With mesh ‘09 coming to a conclusion, it’s been great to get some sleep, play some hockey, spend time with family and reflect on the mesh that was.
Here are some of my personal highlights:
- The keynote by Jessica Jackley was inspiring. As important, she is one of the nicest and most enthusiastic people that I’ve [...]

mesh ‘09 Notes

Some random thoughts and observations from the first morning of mesh:
1. Mike Masnick is one of the smartest and most insightful people when it comes to what’s happening with the digital economy. He also shows more slides - 487 - than any other presenter I’ve seen.
2. Jessica Jackley, who founded Kiva.org, is an inspiring individual. [...]

mesh Schedule Goes Live!

Since we started mesh in 2006, content can always been king.
Behind the scenes, we spend hours exploring ideas for keynotes, panels and workshops. We have animated discussions, healthy arguments, good-natured banter and lots of laughs. It’s a process that takes time because we want mesh to feature issues and trends that are current, relevant and [...]

meshU Schedule Goes Live

With less than four weeks to go before meshU and mesh, we’ve published the schedule for meshU. We’re really excited about the speakers coming to offer their insight and thoughts about design, development and management.
Tickets for meshU are selling briskly, and you can register here.

Technorati Tags: mesh, meshU

Does Bell Canada Have a Social Media Strategy?

Last week, Bell Canada delighted and subsequently enraged the blogosphere and Twitterrati by bringing Twitter via SMS back to Canada, and then telling people it was going to charge them 15 cents a Tweet for the privilege.
It was a public relations and social media disaster that forced Bell to quickly backtrack.
In hindsight, the most [...]

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