Andrew Lark

A New C/Net

C/Net has long been one of my first reads. There is a new C/Net on the way. Take a look at this very cool beta site.

What is really cool is the center section in which stories are ranked in terms of the conversation - based on comments. This is a fantastic idea. Those that are participating in the news, get to set the editorial flow.

Also love the scroll through treatment of the mast area. Idea. Also like how they have moved away from the traditional industry segmentation navigation. And a new, Media 2.0 news section. That's smart.

This is a vastly improved version of an important news site. Anyway, I'll keep looking and sharing views.

So, what do you think?

Hip & Zen Blog

Worker Bees have a cool new blog - Hip & Zen. Nice job Elisa...

PR Week Gets New Look & RSS

Like the new look and feel - and RSS at last. As I sat in my office looking at a foot-high stack of decidedly un-environmentally friendly magazines it struck me that I could do without them all given the publishers themselves would embrace the web fully.

When I resubscribed to AdAge over the weekend I got the option to pay a little more for the digital print edition - that's the print edition in digital format. I had to download Zinio to be able to read it. I really like this idea. It's enormously compelling.

Simplicity = Goodness

Most communicators struggle to pull together strong presentations for and with their excutives. But for a few, the effort to drive simplicity is more than often nuked by executives that would rather push more content onto slides than listen to good counsel.

Steve Jobs not only listens, he is in a league of his own. Take a look at this terrific view of his recent Nano preso. It is a text book case-study in how a presentation should be... Zen like.

Open Source Analysis...

James has an interesting post inspired by Armadgeddon (a great read for any AR professional). While I think they (Armadgeddon) are probably placing a little too much emphasis on Insystek naming Gartner as a partner, the point James makes that:

Categories are breaking down like tundra. That is why you have to go with the flow. Can the major analyst firms afford to do that, though? RedMonk can. Macehiter Ward Dutton can. Quocirca can. If you work for an independent analyst firm and agree with any of this why don't you leave a comment.

James then goes on to point to the "mass amateurization" that is underpinning this... The term "mass amateurization" is a terrible one in my book - if only because it frames those not engaged as professionals. However, information and dialog is increasibgly getting open sourced by folks who aren't paid to do analysis. They are using participatory technologies to drive their own knowledge into the public domain. Traditionally the value of this commentary was diminished in that it was  single voice. Now it tends to be informed by a collective.

Some of the big analyst firms get this, some don't. But so long as CIOs and VCs continue to place so much emphasis on "Magic Qadrants" (and believe me, there is a fair degree of magic involved), the big analysts will continue to weild enormous power.

Like James I love Clay Shirky's writings and thinking. One thing is clear to me though, and that is a huge amount is assumed in relation to the intelligence and time of the buyer. Most have lots of one, but not both. Or are lacking on both counts. Thus, they turn to the magic quadrant and conventional analysis. This points to one of the key benefits of the large analyst firm - information utility. I'm not talking quality, just utility - which often replaces quality in most decision making.

And this is where James' point hits home. Now we have technology which is fusing information, dialog and utility. All of which is going to make for a very interesting period of time.

Handbook For Bloggers...

Have scanned through this and enjoyed the read. Love the notion of "reporters without borders" as a descriptor for bloggers... and a movement. Rebecca says it well...

The Handbook for Bloggers is for people who want to be serious participants in the emergent online global conversation: How to set up a quality, credible blog. How to get it noticed. And.. if you’re in a country where there government might not like what you’re saying, how to avoid getting in trouble when you by-pass the information gatekeepers and talk directly to the world.

Julien writes in his introduction to the booklet:

Blogging is a powerful tool of freedom of expression that has enthused millions of ordinary people. Passive consumers of information have become energetic participants in a new kind of journalism - what US blog pioneer Dan Gillmor calls “grassroots journalism… by the people, for the people” (see chapter on “What ethics should bloggers have?”).

Bloggers are often the only real journalists in countries where the mainstream media is censored or under pressure. Only they provide independent news, at the risk of displeasing the government and sometimes courting arrest. Plenty of bloggers have been hounded or thrown in prison. One of the contributors to this handbook, Arash Sigarchi, was sentenced to 14 years in jail for posting several messages online that criticised the Iranian regime. His story illustrates how some bloggers see what they do as a duty and a necessity, not just a hobby. They feel they are the eyes and ears of thousands of other Internet users.

The Next Big Thing

"What are you doing?" This is about one of the most popular questions I get asked. The simple answer is that I continue to manage a portfolio of interests with a real focus on...

The Big Deal...
A month or so ago I decided to join a really exciting start-up here in the Valley as chief marketing officer. LogLogic is to systems data what Google is to the web. We capture 100% of log data from any device - networking, storage, server, application (industry or homegrown) - and enable it to be stored, reported and alerted on. Unlike homegrown log management or niche security event managment solutions, we're enterprise-class (think scaleable; thousands of devices, 50,000 messages per second, 10,000+ reports...) and arrive in your data center in an easy to install appliance. Think 10 minute install, 10 seconds to reporting. I'm having a blast and we're growing like cazy. (and yes, I know we need a new web site, RSS, a blog and all that good stuff...)

Alongside that I'm also working away on:

The Lark Group...
... continues to flourish. I'm still leading it as we operate in stealth mode (if there is such a thing). What is interesting is our clients are more non-tech enterprises (manufacturing), travel, financial services and consumer companies. They appear to be embracing blogging and other participatory technologies at a really fast rate. We have a range of commercial blog projects underway that will debut over the next year - of of which are really, really exciting.

No. 8 Ventures....
I continue to be a director of N0. 8 ventures, New Zealand's leading venture capital firm focused on technology and bio-tech. We're weil into our second fund and participating in great companies such as Esphion, Argent, SurveyLab and VCU. I love the time get to spend here and also the companies I get to spend it with. Thanks to Jenny for her support, mentoring and insights...

... and if that wasn't enough...
I'm chairperson of the New Zealand Trade & Enterprise's US technology beachhead. And I write for Corante as often as I can. And I'm trying to be a great dad to my gorgeous little buddy, Sophia...

This is all a little rich...

This is a reasonably off-topic post... I'm watching the Google copyright fracas with interest. Let me first state that I am clueless on most things legal in this area so this isn't a legal viewpoint.

I have however watched in amazement at how Google, in the interests of the people of course, has repackaged news content while enriching their own revenue stream... The relationship between news organizations and Google has always struck me as reasonably symbiotic...

Google News points to news site while in the process representing some it's copyrighted material --> news site benefits from traffic and profile --> Google gets some review from clicks and the like --> news org relents due to benefit of traffic, and who wants to piss off the search Gorilla anyway...

The difference between this and books is that the symbiotic relationship is much less clear. OK, seeing the book might tickle my fancy to spur me to shop for a copy. But not really. Amazon and BN already do a pretty good job of that. And if I want to search for a book I can use any number of legitimate library search engines.

The silent voice in all this is Amazon - the company most likely to be harmed by this. I definitely see the utility in me searching a book on Google and then getting 5 places to shop for it with low prices, and maybe even a link to my local library. But boy would that screw with Amazon.

At the end of the day, why should an individuals copyrighted content be paraded about, driving Google's revenue even higher without their permission - or participation in the revenue stream. Wouldn't Google have been smarter to invite publishers and writers to participate - and share the revenue with them? To which Google says this:

"The use we make of all the books we scan through the Library Project is fully consistent with both the fair use doctrine under U.S. copyright law and the principles underlying copyright law itself, which allow everything from parodies to excerpts in book reviews. We regret that this group chose to sue us over a program that will make millions of books more discoverable to the world -- especially since any copyright holder can exclude their books from the program. What's more, many of Google Print's chief beneficiaries will be authors whose backlist, out of print and lightly marketed new titles will be suggested to countless readers who wouldn't have found them otherwise."

To which I say, don't insult us... If this is the case, just focus on books no longer protected, or writers who agree with you. Invite them to participate.

And, if Google book search works as Susan describes, why do it at all. Sounds pretty useless to me. I guess, like me, the Authors Guild suspects something bigger to be afoot. Afterall, Google isn't just scanning one page and the cover. So they are creating much, much more that a simple index card. This isn't the first time the issue has flared up. And, it will keep coming-up until the issue of fair use is resolved.

If you want to play in the participatory era, you need to invite people to participate - and provide them with a mechanism for doing so. Scanning in other folks protected content - and in the process creating massive differentiation and revenue from that content strikes me as just, well, illegal.

Apple Supports Video Podcasting

This is pretty cool. Love it. A precursor of big things to come...

Software To Kill Press Releases...

How incredibly dumb. Maybe a new category of software: PRWare? It's got to be a spoof right?

"ShuTup 1.0, which is launching this week, is aimed at security professionals, IT administrators, journalists, and editors. These markets suffer crushing volumes of e-mail in the wake of the threat-du-jour."

Apparently they have a "patent pending pitch detection" engine. This is just too funny to be taken seriously:

"The heart of ShuTup 1.0 is its patent-pending 'pitch detection engine.' It combines a variety of techniques to spot self-aggrandizing speech, including deep BS inspection, application-level annoying behavior analysis, and kernel-of-truth-based assessment. The product is available immediately."

Gee, I wonder of any of these seriously bright IT guys have ever thought about creating a rule that just puts all content containing the word press release into the Junk folder... But hey, why use existing features in existing products when you can buy new stuff...

Morgan's also got more on this one...