To say that Twitter.com is anything short of a web phenomenon wouldn’t be doing it justice. It seems that everyone is on it and twittering non-stop. For those of you who have yet to discover it, Twitter is a simple system that lets you and your friends’ link to each other through the site and then enables mass-text messaging or IMing to your linked circle of friends. The format is short 140 characters per post so the communication is machine gun fast.

The reason for my post is to answer a question just posed by Jason Calacanis:

I now have 1,015 followers. Wow… wtfrack do you people want from me!??!?! (serious quesiton: tell me what to twit!) 10 minutes ago from web

It’s an interesting question in the fast evolving world of Twitter. Originally the service started out as a way to keep track of your close friends. To know if Bob was at Starbucks or Pete’s was enough for me when Twittering with friends. But now that Internet thought leaders like Jason, Robert Scoble, Chris Pirillo and others are all accepting “followers” I think the rules have changed. Even though I’ve met all the guys at various conferences etc I can’t claim to include them in my close circle of friends. In my opinion the Twitter landscape has evolved to a multilevel format. Even thought Jason, Robert and Chris are all down to earth friendly guys I think they need to recognize that most of us “follow” them on Twitter for insight and information. I want them to talk about tech, report from shows, give me insight into the Internet culture, share observations on Web 2.0,and use Twitter in a way that includes me in the conversation.

I think its ok for you guys to use twitter for more that updates on the Lakers, where you’re eating etc. Bottom line…..keep the fire hose on - Twitter is a fun ride.

This is the second time this month I’ve seen a print publication close down. Intelligent Enterprise a BtoB technology publication owned by CMP made the Febrary issue their last one in print. They announced that they plan to continue online but at last count the site seemed to have less than 8 advertisers.

Yesterday morning MediaSurvey broke the story that InfoWorld Magazine would stop printing effective Monday morning. The story was picked up at ValleyWag and the San Francisco Chronicle. The rumor is that the employees weren’t even in the loop.

Matt McAlister a past employee of the magazine has a real solid post with lots of links etc.

I’m not surprised to see that various print publications are struggling to stay afloat in the Web 2.0 world. But what continues to astonish me is the level of arrogance the big publishing companies exhibit when making these decisions. When Intelligent Enterprise switched to the web they supported the move by not keeping Dave Stoddard on the team. He is one of the most respected and liked editors in that publications community. How do they hope to move forward without the leadership that got them to the dance?

Lets look at the move Infoworld is making, how do you change your business model, switch mediums on your advertisers and do it all without being at least a little transparent? Don’t any of these executives read the web? You can’t just declare your an Internet publication without having a culture, a team and a knowledgable client base to support it.

I filed this one under Worst Practices because it’s not how you jump the chasm to Web 2.0.

I will be an attendee at this years Gnomedex conference in August out in wonderful Seattle. Seats are very limited so act fast if you want to attend one of the best Internet technolgy events of the year.

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I had several versions of the title for this post rolling around in my head. Several contained not so nice words to describe how flat out stupid Viacom is. If you haven’t heard the news, after working on a deal with YouTube to license content that fell apart. They then demanded that over 100,000 pieces of video be removed from the online service many of which had been viewed over 100,000 times by the YouTube audience. (by the way some of the content wasn’t even Viacom content) I understand that Viacom has the right to do this under copyright laws. I am a publisher too and I have from time to time protected my intellectual property rights.

But…..
Suing YouTube for a billion dollars is just plain short sighted and as I mentioned above STUPID. The amount of viewership, exposure and PR they received from this outlet far out weights any revenue loss that occurred. This action could cause a landslide of suits against YouTube and could in the end cripple the service but in doing so it will negatively affect Viacom and the shows it produces.

The executives at Viacom should take a little bit of the revenue they are so focused on protecting and head on down to the local store and buy themselves a clue or better yet a copy of The Cluetrain Manifesto.

Idiots!

Business 2.0 magazine has named its top 25 startups to watch. The Web 2.0 landscape is getting crowded and many companies are feeling the presure of performance demanded by their VC backers. The list is pretty interesting, as John Dvorak likes to say more often than not these lists are made up in about an hour while 2 or 3 editors sit around during lunch chatting about what their favorites are. The list makes for a nice reference and should be interesting to revisit in a year to see who is left.

Check it out here.

A great post found over at the ProBlogger site outlines why people leave feeds behind. Its an interesting look into the habits of blog readers and why they unsubscribe from sites/feeds they have been reading. I recommend the site as a good resource its written by Darren Rowse and has a ton of great content. I subscribe to his feed and can attest to the fact that Darren doesn’t make any of the mistakes in this aticle.

• Too many posts (the post levels are too overwhelming)
• Infrequent Posting (or the blog is effectively dead)
• Partial Excerpts Feeds
• Blog Changes Focus (too much off topic posting)
• Too many posts that I see elsewhere (Redundant, Repeated or Recycled News)
• Uninteresting Content
• Irrelevant Content
• The Blogger’s Ego - Too much self promotion
• Low Quality Content
• Too many posts that are too long

Read the rest of the article here

It’s and interesting question and more companies are asking just that everyday. Christopher Carfi, CEO and co-founder of Cerado has written a must read article titled “Prerequisites For Business-Driven Web 2.0 Efforts”. I highly recommend it.