Building43 – what is it?

In short, Building43 is designed to help people optimise the use of “social media” and new technology, for the development of their business.  With so many businesses and organisations using the Internet as if it was still the 1990′s, there’s definitely a real need for more high quality information.

Building43 encourages community involvement and people are asked to contribute; via Twitter, FriendFeed etc.  The site will also feature video interviews with leading Internet figures and ‘thought leaders.’  Scoble kicks things off with a bang, by interviewing FaceBook’s Mark Zuckerberg!

If you are in business and you want to learn how to leverage what the Internet and new media has to offer, you really should take a look at Building 43.

Here’s an in-depth summary of  what Building 43 is all about.

Scoble and rackspace

Why rackspace? According to the scobleizer blog and this interview with Michael Arrington at techcrunch, Scobel’s decision to work for rackspace was driven by two things. Firstly, he says it’s because he was massively impressed when he visited their offices last year. Secondly, the fact that he will be setting up an interesting project, called “building 43.”

Scoble and building 43

According to the building 43 project’s holding page, building 43 is going to be “a place for people fanatical about the Internet.”

Scoble told techcrunch:

..our content will be available via Creative Commons so you can use our videos or photos or other media on your own sites. You can cut it up, edit it, or claim it as your own. Second, Building 43 is not a place. It’s not a website. It’s a distributed community and you’ll engage with Building 43 on your favorite social network. No need to visit http://www.building43.com at all. Plus, we’ll have new videos that you can interact with via technology like that available on 12seconds.tv and seesmic.com so you can post your own video tips or techniques or demos.

Why Scoble chose the name Building 43

I was chatting with Scoble on FriendFeed last week about building 43 – though had no idea at the time why he was so interested in it.  According to his blog, the name comes from a building at Google, which contains Google’s master plan and the offices of “several of Google’s founders.”  Apparently (and a little weirdly) Microsoft ALSO had a building 43 when Scoble worked there.  I am thinking of getting one too!

Building 43 is just a holding page at the moment. The project sounds extremely interesting and an ideal outlet for Scoble’s ability to produce an insane amount of cross platform content.  As soon as some more details become available, you will find them here.

Scoble’s next gig?

All the time Scoble’s spent with his buddy, marketing legend Seth Godin, has really paid off!  If you want to know what Scoble’s planning next….. you’re going to have to wait until his announcement at SXSW!  This is a typical Scoble play – and part of the reason he can attract $1million contracts!

I have received a lot of flack in the past, for openly voicing my appreciation for Scoble’s work. I don’t always agree with him – but I respect his opinion and knowledge. As soon as I find out what’s next for Scoble, you will read it here!

In the past couple of weeks, Veronica’s follower numbers have almost doubled.  As Veronica fronts a number of tech shows, including Tekzilla and Qore (for Sony’s PS3 Network), these followers are potential viewers.  As such, they are of high value for advertisers / sponsors of her shows.

Here’s a selection of the very heated, very public row between Veronica and Robert on FriendFeed.

Veronica Belmont

I’m on the list, and I certainly don’t have $10,000 to give anyone. Do you think I somehow bribed them, Robert? Hmm?

Rober Scoble

I am not on the list. Neither is @leolaporte. We both had more followers than you did (and more than many on the list). Now I am wondering.

Veronica Belmont

HAH! This is the funniest thing I’ve heard all day. Are you really just that bored this afternoon to accuse people of spending money to be on a suggested users list? #1 As Chris says, who the frak cares. #2 Do you honestly think someone like me or iJustine have that kind of money? #3 Wow, man, I thought we were cool.

Robert Scoble

I do not know why Veronica is on the list and not @leolaporte so now I am wondering what is going on and no one can prove money and gifts did not get exchanged.

Veronica Belmont

Robert, your inflammatory remarks and accusations (and they are that, no matter how many times you tell us to READ CAREFULLY) come off as really childish and insulting. If you have an issue with a feature of Twitter, there are better ways of pointing it out than accusing people who considered you acquaintances, if not pals.

Robert Scoble

Veronica: you did receive a gift. Advertising is sold by 1,000 viewers. Ask Ryan how much 1,000 people are worth. You did NOT earn that gift by any objective measure.

Twitter needs to listen

Scoble makes a good point about the way Twitter has selected who gets onto that recommended list.  It’s not based on popularity; or he and Leo Laporte would indeed have been on the list as they were both ranked higher than her and are better known.

Whether anyone has paid money is (in my opinion) pretty unlikely, but the process is based too much on the buddy network.  This sucks and needs to be fixed.  Calling out Veronica Belmont in this very public way is GREAT for bringing the problem to people’s attention, but it’s not the kind of thing I would associate with Veronica. The reason she reacted like she did, is because she’s the last person who would do anything like that.

It’s not ‘just’ Scoble that’s annoyed.  The LA Times wrote this.

What do you think?

Should there even be a suggested follower list on Twitter and if so, should there be a better way to decide who gets listed there? Let us know!

Kevin Rose is missing something

Kevin Rose did a guest post on techcrunch, in which he gives us his “10 tips for increasing your twitter followers.“  The list has received a ton of negative comments. Why?  Because somehow, he failed to mention that the main reason he’s got 88,000 followers, is that he’s the guy behind digg.com and Rev3.

None of what he has suggested, would get you or me anywhere close to the follower number he has.

I’m guessing that techcrunch founder Michael Arrington (Michael, you’re a genius), must have known that Rose was about to make a total tool of himself and turn the post viral. The post also inspired Robert Scoble to point out that Rose was ignoring the obvious!

Scoble’s alternative top ten twitter tips!

1. Survive a plane crash and Tweet it.
2. Get arrested and tweet from jail.
3. Have sex with someone famous and tweet that.
4. Start a famous company. Profitability not required.
5. Have Leo Laporte mention you on his show (worked for my son).
6. Have Mike Arrington tell you you’re addicted (worked for me).
7. Unfollow all your followers. Follow them back. Block them. Then unfollow them. (Worked for Loren Feldman).
8. Get into a movie.
9. Direct a movie.
10. Take pictures with MC Hammer at a TechCrunch party.

I think the number 4 on that list is a direct swipe at Rose; who’s Internet empire has proven far less effective at generating profits, than it has at generating twitter followers.

Twitter following is what counts

Of course, Rose is focused exclusively on getting people to follow him. However, as Scoble has pointed out on many occasions (and I agree) – the thing to focus on with twitter is NOT who follows YOU (which you can’t control) but who YOU follow, (which you can.)

Scoble’s point?

Robert gives examples to prove his point; including video game blogging and the success Gary Vaynerchuk has enjoyed with his blog’s video. I believe that for certain types of blog, video is extremely effective.  Gary Vaynerchuk is a showman, a performer – and he benefits from video the same way he would benefit from TV.  Equally, gaming is a very visual medium and again, it works better with video.

The problem with video blogging? Very few people do it right!

I don’t believe that video blogging is a good fit for the vast majority of bloggers. Why? Because so few people seem to be able to do it right!  Not everyone looks as good on camera as iJustine or has the production skills that Cali Lewis and Neil had, when they started geekbrief.  That’s why we see so many naff videos on YouTube; with people who have no presentation skills, talking over an audio buzz into a cheap webcam. Who knows if their content’s any good – the video’s so poor that no one sticks around long enough to find out!

Traditional blogging is fairer!

However, with traditional blogging, anyone with interesting, valuable content and a nicely designed theme, can give a polished account of themselves.  If they also understand the basics of SEO, they can gradually develop a valuable, significant readership too.

Bandwidth issues?

As Leo Laporte has pointed out on many occasions recently, with many ISP’s now capping customer’s bandwidth usage, some people are already starting to think before they download video.  Yes, even with the lower capped packages, there should be enough bandwidth available – but it has started to get some people thinking about how much data they download.  This is not a huge deal at the moment, but it’s worth considering.

Mix it up

Fortunately, we don’t have to make the choice between video blogging or text blogging.  Many blogs make use of both with GREAT success – often linking to 3rd party video content.

For me, the beauty of traditional blogging is that it allows all of us to get our content out there in a fairer way.  The average person couldn’t hope to produce a better quality video report than CNN – But they might write a post that’s every bit as valuable or compelling!

Twitter: Love it or hate it, everyone seems to be on Twitter right now.  One of the things people often come to this blog for, is to find the Twitter name of someone I mention in an article.  So, if you would like to follow Patrick Norton, Leo Laporte or Robert Scoble etc on Twitter, their Twitter names are listed below.

Here they are (in no particular order):

Om Malik – Twitter @Om
Garnett Lee – Twitter @garnettlee
Lance Ulanoff – Twitter @lanceulanoff
John C Dvorak – Twitter @therealdvorak
Loyd Case – Twitter @loydcase
Scott Asnault – Twitter @scottmode
Patrick Norton – Twitter @patricknorton
Jason Cross – Twitter @jasoncross00
Veronica Belmont – Twitter @veronica
Cali Lewis – Twitter @calilewis
Robert Scoble – Twitter @scobleizer
Leo Laporte – Twitter @leolaporte
And me – Twitter @thetechnewsblog

Hope that helps!

“Go away – go back to Digg!”
Robert Scoble’s message to those who are ruining blogs

So, The Scobleizer wants us to go back to the way things were in 2003; when there were only intelligent, decent people commenting in blogs and when blogs were filled with intelligent debate…

HANG ON!
I have only been writing thetechnewsblog for a few months, but I have been a blog contributor for many years and I have no recollection of the ‘perfect past’ Robert is referring to.  I have a massive amount of respect for Robert Scoble and I LOVE his work – but in my opinion, he’s wrong on that one!

For as long as there have been online forums and before that, news groups, there have been ‘comment trolls’.  The flame wars of the 1990′s in various usenet groups were HUGE – we just used to call the comment trolls ‘Flamers’.  Same people, same shit – different name.

LEAVE SCOBLE ALONE!
The fact that Robert is so successful, means people will always want to ‘have a go’ at him.  He is a big target – and one of those rare ‘tech celebrities’ – who ALWAYS always takes the time to reply to people who contact him.  Whilst some tech cebebrities (like Natali Del Conte), will do anything to avoid speaking to their listeners / readers – Scoble is totally approachable – and he draws a lot of flack as a result.

SCOBLE WAS RIGHT
Robert made some very good points in his interview.  He is right that only the most motivated people ever comment in a blog – and that these are often the people with the biggest axe to grind!  He was also right that the use of anonymous posting to blogs does give cowards a screen, behind which they can insult people / companies.

Robert also makes a good point – that topics are not covered in any depth any more.  A subject can be a MASSIVE story one day and dropped like a stone the next!  We used to chew over stuff for weeks / months a decade ago!

Finally, I am watching with interest as Robert; “removes the assholes” from his blog.  As such, you may not see me posting there any more (just kidding!)

The Scobleizer – http://scobleizer.com

Here’s what Robert told me:
1. Robert is NOT joining Revision3! He is still very much with Fast Company, they are just doing a show together!

2. As I blogged yesterday, the new show will be at workfast.tv and not, as has been widely reported fastwork.tv!

3. The new show will run for 30 minutes and will come out once a week.

4. Robert and Shel Israel will co-host the show, which will be all about ‘the future of work.’

5. The first guest is the guy who runs PARC, (where Ethernet was invented apparently)

6. The show is planned to be broadcast ‘live’ and will include comments from Twitter, Friendfeed, Skype etc.

7. The first show should be out in the first week of June, but the exact time and date are still being worked on.

Thanks to Robert for sharing this with me
The Tech News Blog is just 4 day’s old, so it’s extremely generous for him to personally give me this information, so that I can share it with you.

UPDATE – What does John C Dvorak think?
He told me when he thought Scoble wasn’t listening!! Read here (really funny!)

UPDATE
A few hours ago on Twitter, Robert said that the new show is going to be called Fastwork.tv – though ( and here’s a mini-scoop) in a later forum post, he said that was an error and the new show will actually be called Workfast.tv

I’m guessing from the title that it’s going to be linked to his work with Fastcompany.tv?

Interesting stuff – but when does Scoble plan on sleeping?