IT doesn't matter

I was reminded of Nicholas Carr's now-famous Harvard Business Review article today reading a blog from a VC who remains a die-hard believer in enterprise software. Carr's most daunting claim was that IT has become a commodity input, irrelevant as a source of strategic advantage. While many in the IT and software industry have commented on the maturation of the software industry citing consolidation and eventual death of the software enterprise business, many others are insightful enough to mark this period as perhaps a line in the sand for the industry. A line marked by a period of black art, hard-manual labor, heroic feats of intervention to keep systems up and running, all at a price that has exponentially grown and kept slightly in check (artificially, at least) by offshoring. . . to a wave of new innovation driven by the power of the internet, long tail marketing, and perhaps a move to transition software into a more industrial discipline than could never have been conceived before by the likes of mainstream vendors like Oracle, IBM, Microsoft, SAP or Symantec. More later. . .

Comments from the blogosphere

I guestimate 95% of the blogs I’ve seen (this is conservative, it may be 99%) veer ‘off topic’ and the host simply pops out a random blog on something completely different. Sometimes the host will preface the off topic with an apology about feeling the need to express something. There was this gut feeling. And this blog is just sitting here ready to take it, and they throw all reason aside and go for it. Your disclaimer, right under the FutureShock Chronicles Title, is an honest description of what blogs were designed to be. On topic is for Web 1.0 static sites. Blogs sound like what they are, thought graffiti.

Good work. Holy cow I really like what I just wrote to you. Hmm, I am going to post this on my blog.

Barney Moran

Blogging, splogging and more

"...Growth in the numbers of personal blogs tracked by Technorati continues to grow briskly as well as corporate blogs. While the doubling of the blogosphere has slowed a bit (every 236 days or so), interest in blogging remains considerable. About 55% of all blogs are active, which means that they have been updated at least once in the last 3 months."

The integration of blogs and traditional media sites on the web continues. Technorati has put together the top 100 sites that make up "The short head" (as opposed to "the long tail"), which is still predominantly made up of traditional media sites, like The New York Times, Yahoo! News, CNN, and MSNBC.

By the time you reach the top 5000, blogs have essentially taken over, with very few well-funded mainstream media sites listed." For the full monty of graphics and analysis, check out the full report.

So far, there is no tracking of splogs that portent the death of blogs as a reliable source of information.

However the real "raw data" comes from the Sun MicroSystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz blog. . . here's an edited version:

One Small Step for the Blogosphere...

I've been an officer of a public company for a while, and I've had access to confidential information for a good while longer. And I'm used to holding my tongue on issues that'd be deemed material to Sun's financial performance. Like a pending acquisition or big sale, or data related to how our quarter's going. In a public company, there are very strict laws surrounding how information's disclosed.

So a couple years ago, when I first started blogging, I and our illustrious general counsel were far less worried about what I was saying, than where I was saying it. For example, I couldn't use my blog to announce our quarterly performance, or disclose a material transaction. I had to use a press release, or a conference call (with a telephone operator, no less!).

Why?

A regulation known as "Reg FD," or Regulation Fair Disclosure - which attempts to ensure no one audience gets preferential access to material non-public information. It's a great concept, designed to prevent selective disclosure, or actions that might advantage one investor over another.

Unfortunately, Reg FD doesn't recognize the internet, or a blog, as the exclusive vehicle through which the public can be fairly informed. In order to be deemed compliant, if we have material news to disclose, we have to hold an anachronistic telephonic conference call, or issue an equivalently anachronistic press release, so that the (not so anachronistic) Wall Street Journal can disseminate the news. I would argue that none of those routes are as accessible to the general public as a this blog, or Sun's web site. Our blogs don't require a subscription, or even registration, and are available to anyone, across the globe, with an internet connection. Simultaneously.

Now we happen to have a like-minded Chairman at the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the 'SEC'), Christopher Cox. So Mike and I sent along a rather formal note last week, requesting a clarification to Reg FD, one that would permit our (and everyone else) using the internet (eg, a company blog or web site) to release material information. Without a press release or operator assisted conference call. We are, after all, the primary source of such material information - there's no point in going through an intermediary if what we're after is fair disclosure and full transparency. Let the light shine in, don't buy a flashlight.

We've had enough interaction with the Chairman (and read enough of his writings) to know he understands the utility of the internet to inform investors - but until we see a formal revision or clarification to FD, we'll still be limiting what we disclose via blogs and the internet. And consuming trees with press releases. Which can't, in the long run, be all that desirable.

But we'll take it one step at a time...

Minority Report and precogs

I came across a newco that has a very interesting approach.

Think back to the movie "Minority Report." It's the year 2054 and Washington DC has not had a single murder take place in 9 years. Why has the country's homicide capital become a safe haven for its citizens? The Pre-Crime Department was established under its mentor, Director Lamar Burgess, and, with his chief detective, John Anderton, assisting, has harnessed the precognitive powers of three genetic mutants (the "Pre-Cogs") to stop murder before it happens in the long-anticipated Steven Spielberg/Tom Cruise science fiction thriller, "Minority Report."

Now, fast rewind to 2007 - leveraging scientific research and insights into how the human brain processes stimuli like ads and marketing messages, and using new technology advances in dense-array EEG brain-scanning, eye tracking, and autonomous nervous system measurement, scientists are able to create a window into both conscious and pre-conscious responses to ads and messaging. The newco has developed metrics that directly measure attention, likeability, familiarity, and memorability without reliance on self-reporting. These findings will be aggregated into the world's largest database of neurological correlates of advertising effectiveness. The premise of the business model is that it may be possible with this data to radically improve advertising ROI by integrating neurological insights into every ad campaign and media spend decision.

More later. . . as a major software company is willing to pilot this platform to steer their clients to better position their banner ads.

Roll over GOOG - AdSense is dead meat

Update: A little tidbit came across my newsfeed this morning . . .

AOL has agreed to acquire Tacoda Inc., a New York-based provider of behaviorally-targeted online advertising solutions. The deal is reported to be worth nearly $300 million. Tacoda had raised around $31 million in VC funding since 2001, from firms like Union Square Ventures, Masthead Venture Partners and Rho Ventures.