Martin Wells

Facebook goes from strength to strength, both in usefulness (in comparison to myspace especially) and in raw user numbers. But with the advent of f8 a few months back, Facebook is now showing it can be a home for a raft of new applications.

Like desktop operating systems did before it, Facebook is offering an operating environment that users find simple, safe and highly functional. I have easy sign-on, recommendations from friends, virus free and lots of social structure. It’s just that much easier… for the right application.

Unfortunately, that’s the kicker. Not all apps work. I don’t think we’ll be playing WOW inside facebook anytime soon. You can iframe apps, but you still have to exist within Facebook’s UI. So…

• Is Facebook an example of the ‘next’ platform for applications?
• Is Facebook going to get it right, or are they the precursor to something that does?
• Is Facebook’s API access to social data ultimately what becomes the platform?
• Is social meta-data the killer convenience of the next applications platform, or is there something else? (The rise of the lifestream perhaps?)

Let’s talk about it! Join the Tangler discussion.

[Thanks to BeFitt for the snazzy pic]

You’ll notice I’m starting to test embedding Tangler discussion with blog posts. Which sort of raises the question about the ultimate intention of Tangler and its fit with blogging.

Right now things are limited. Functionally there are some issues with posting from multiple sources at the same time (we’re working on that one). We also need to add some basic features, like:

• Infinite message scrolling – so only 100 or so messages are loaded (with more downloaded as you scroll down). Right now the topics fill up over time which will slow down the loading.
• RSS – this is not as easy as it sounds when you’re dealing with a real-time discussion system.
• Faster load times – we’re not too bad so far, but we’re going to work on a way to reduce load if you don’t actually join the discussion.
• Excerpts and linking – better support for the blog post to be presented as an excerpt in the Tangler post, with good linking between the two.

In the Tangler feedback group people have been asking about whether we intend to replace commenting. I like to think of it right now as an augment to commenting. Another way to contribute and interact with other readers.

Being a replacement for commenting is a more difficult thing to do, and I’m not even sure it’s ultimately the right thing to try and do (let’s not get into anonymous posts, trackbacks and inline scrolling). Right now we’re a great augment to comments. We’ll play around and see how that goes first.

Coming up soon is much tighter integration with blogging, including a wordpress plugin that auto-creates Tangler topics and adds the embed code to the bottom of the post. That’ll make it really easy to create a two-way relationship between a blog and a Tangle. Add in centralised tracking, a social structure, rss and an api and you have lots of possibilities, and a big messy tangle.

So tell me what you think, ironically by using the Tangler embed widget below.

It’s a sad day, but you heard it right… I’m giving up blogging.

Sort of…

I’ve switched to Tangler as a blogging platform. Crazy I know.

There’s some reasons why Tangler isn’t the best thing to use for blogging, but hey, neither is twitter. The reason I switched (and I know this is pretty biased) is it’s lightweight. I’ve been using twitter and noticed that the ease of posting really made a difference to whether I’d blog. Wordpress posting is clunky clunky clunky. Twitter shows that’s real.

I also found the structure made it hard to just throw up random thoughts. I wanted something lighter; I thought of twitter, but it was just a little too lite – I want conversation, I want to share pictures and video, and I want to make complete sentences without running out of characters.

This isn’t really about wordpress being bad, or twitter being… well… twitter. It’s about something that works better for a particular use case. I want to talk about stuff with people. I’m no sage. I’m not the expert. Blogging seems tuned towards a master-slave relationship between poster and reader. <booming echo on>”Hello down there inferior minions restricted to comment scraps I allow you.”

Tangler is incredibly easy to post. Comments become discussion. And the real-time nature makes it an online community, not a newspaper. And anybody can create a new topic; yep, that’s right, you can come in and create a post on my blog tangle. Got an issue with me. A question you think other readers might want to discuss. Go for it. Me casa, you casa.

So thus Marty’s Tangle was born.

http://www.tangler.com/group/5750

(Tangler is now in public beta, so you don’t need a login to view)

This is the first case (I think) of someone switching to Tangler for blogging, so I don’t expect things to be smooth (like there being no RSS feeds or trackbacks just yet). Keep giving me feedback as we go along. It’s not Tangler’s primary use case, but damned if tha’s gonna stop me.
(Photo by seawallrunne)

Web 2.0 entrepreneurs emerged from their rabbit holes last night to attend STIRR Sydney 2 in strength, and it went off with a bang.

Another great crowd, great atmosphere and above all, great fun.

Mick has posted all the details over at the Tangler blog, so I wont go into it here. But a big thanks to everyone who attended.

Thanks again to our sponsors: Omnidrive, TVP, Atlassian and Tangler. And a big thanks to Microsoft for pitching in with some great prizes.

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One week to go (as of yesterday) till we once again experience the chaotic simplicity that is the STIRR Sydney mixer.

Don’t forget to RSVP before the list closes.

All the presentation positions have been locked in:

Omnidrive – WebFS
Rave About It
dLook
3eep
Booking Angel

See you all on the night!

I was recently speaking at BarCamp Sydney (with Mike) about start-up lessons. Whilst it was pretty ad hoc (in the true BarCamp spirit) there were a few points I thought would be worthwhile covering here.

Since I’m as busy as Mick though, I’ll just cover them one at a time.

First one: In all the start-ups I see there seems to be a continuing unhealthy belief in two things that are best corrected right out of the gate:

1. Yes, somebody else has thought of your idea.
2. No, your idea is not special.

Trust me. Get over it.

Whilst it’s a bad idea to shout about your idea too early (I’ll talk about this more soon), you should have no fear that someone will steal it. The people who can help you are too busy doing something else, and the people who can’t really help you will try and steal it and fail miserably.

Trust me. Get over it.

The risk of actually losing something is far outweighed by the value you will get by just talking to people about your concept and pushing really hard for feedback.  And here’s the rub: the people who talk honestly and realistically about their products are the ones who succeed with it. The ones who keep it a secret whilst beavering away in the dark are almost certain to fail.

Trust me. Get over it.

Here’s an excellent quote which I saw posted in the Tangler Entrepreneurs group.

“Don’t worry about people stealing an idea. If it’s original, you will have to ram it down their throats.”

-Howard Aiken

I’m speaking on an AIMIA panel on Tuesday night (20/3) at the Shelbourne Hotel about  the future of TV. If you want to hear about the coming media war come along. You can register here.

When & Where
Tuesday, 20th March, 2007
The Shelbourne Hotel, Altitude Level, 200 Sussex Street, Sydney.

6.30pm for 7.00pm start.
7.30pm Your chance to ask Qs and then back to mingling
10:30pm bar is closed.

Others: Ian Gardiner, Tom Kendall, Phil Morle, Mark Pesce

Moderator: Scott Bradley-Pearce.

The last STIRR Sydney was so crazily fun, we thought we’d have to do it all over again, so I’m proud to announce:

STIRR Sydney 2

All the details are up on the wiki. Places are limited, so please be sure to RSVP.

And feel free to check in on the Tangler group to talk and meet everybody else who’s going. Email me for a Tangler invite if you don’t already have one.

We also have 2 spots left for companies wanting to demo there products. If you want your 15 megabytes of fame drop me a line.

In a desperate (might one say, sad) attempt at personal fame. Mick “take me I’m yours” Liubinskas has started his very own meme – What are you wearing? As soon as you get tagged you have to blog about what you’re wearing, so here goes:

I’m wearing a wool blend knitted black polo neck, a pair of loose fit black pants, black Italian leather shoes, an eye-patch and am stroking a fluffy white cat… ok ok, not really. I’m wearing boxers, jeans, a polo shirt, black leather shoes (no laces) a mercier watch, no jewelry — gosh I’m simple.

Your turn at being silly Craig, GI, Mike and Nik.

I did the math and based on current ratios and projected growth I can’t see why we won’t see Google at $1000 per share by the end the year (or latest early next year). It’s $440 now (after today’s correction). [I wonder when they'll split it]

That’s the hypey bit, and now for some perspective. Exxon makes as much profit ($19b) that Google does in revenue. And revenue wise Exxon does ~$400b. Exxon market cap $370b, Google market cap, $130b. Interesting ratio there.