Master of 500 Hats

SDForum + Dave McClure = SIGs, geeks, fun

  SDForum & Dave McClure = SIGs, Geeks, Fun :) 

i started attending SDForum SIG meetings sometime around '93 i think; primarily the Visual Basic SIG and Windows SIG. 

in '95 i took over running the Client / Server SIG, and in '96-97 i co-chaired the Internet SIG with Janice Carter (Janice helped teach me the very important lesson that it's incredibly helpful to run a SIG with at least 1 other person... Janice rocks).

in '98 i founded & co-chaired the E-Commerce SIG (which later became the Web Services SIG) with help from several other folks (primarily Molly Pengra), and in 2000 i founded & co-chaired the Venture Finance SIG with Kevin Hartz, just in time for the dot-com crash ;)

After taking a hiatus from running SIGs while i was at PayPal from 2001-2004, this fall i started another new one: the Search SIG, which i'm currently co-chairing with Jeff Clavier.

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Running SIGs can be a lot of work, but it's also a lot of fun.  You get to learn a lot about a subject of interest, you get to meet some incredible speaker and a bunch of geeks who share the same passions, and occasionally you may even get 15 seconds or so of minor fame (though not much fortune, since SIGs are run by volunteers).  Tip: don't do it for the fame or the money.

onboard unitus

  Unitus Board Meeting, Utah (Nov 2005)

pretty terrific group of people at Unitus, both on the board & the staff.  they're doing incredible work, and it really is an honor to be part of the Unitus team.

if you'd like to find out more about Unitus, please visit the Unitus website or Unitus blog. 

You can also click here to contribute to Unitus.  It's worth every penny, and you will make a big difference.

GoogleBase: It's ALIVE!

   GoogleBase is ALIVE.... Raarrrrrrrr!  (fire, *bad*.)

more about  getting to first base with Google by Bindu Reddy.

Get Off Your Local Max

           Seth Godin asks:

      Q: how do i get from

<----------------- here

                 to here?
                      |
                      |
                      |
                      |
                      |
                      V

and a followup here:

There are two mistakes that satisfied Local Max folks make:
  1. believing that they can get to the next Max in a linear, pain-free way, and
  2. believing that the best way to get there is with brute force. More products more salespeople more ads more buildings more staff...

In fact, the opposite is true.

The more you help your little team, the harder it will be for them to find the new Max.

The bet isn't the scary one that involves all your money or your full-time job. The bet is the scary one that involves intellectual risks and going way outside your safety zone to see what happens when you disrupt the status quo.

 

John Battelle @ the Search SIG

Originally uploaded by michaelarrington.

nice shot of Mr. Battelle at the November SDForum Silicon Valley Search SIG... that's also our Search SIG blog in the background.

taken from the cheap seats by michael arrington of TechCrunch and CrunchNotes

tags: searchsig johnbattelle sdforum

richard is diggin' digg

Is digg.com the new Slashdot?

article by Richard MacManus:

The two services have more in common than not - just take a look at the techie and geeky headlines on each. But the fact that digg uses the wisdom of the crowds to determine relevancy, is a step further than Slashdot with its wizard-like editors [read more...]

John Battelle's Search: What a Long Strange Trip it's Been (11/10, Mt View)

 

Here's the lineup:
- John Battelle, the Web 2.0 ringmaster
- his new book: 'The Search' (get your copy autographed!)
- a retrospective on 10 years of search in Silicon Valley
- the future of search with 4 new vertical search startups
   (Truveo, Trulia, Healthline, & SimplyHired)

sheesh... what more could you ask for?

come check it out Thursday, November 11th @ the SDForum Silicon Valley Search SIG.

this month's meeting will be at the Microsoft campus, Bldg #1 in Mountain View.
(links & directions on the Search SIG blog -- please pre-register... we're expecting a full house)

JumpTheShark Camp

... it just happened.

Happy 10th, Dr. Ralph :)

Dr. Ralph Wilson (aka 'Dr. EBiz') is celebrating the 10th anniversary of Web Marketing Today.  I thought i'd drop him a blog post & a link or two, and thank him for all the helpful education he's provided to me over the past 3-4 years (mostly while i was at PayPal running the PayPal Developer Network program there).

Through his website & emails, Ralph has provide a ton of education for me on subjects including email marketing, shopping carts, search engines & search engine marketing, landing pages & conversion optimization, affiliate tools, payment processing, e-commerce systems, etc, etc... the list goes on and on.

Congrats Ralph... and thanks for all the tips ;)

tags: WebMarketingToday  InternetMarketing Dr.Ralph