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Open Letter to Fred Wilson

January 19, 2007 by Jim Parker in blogging, future, media, technology

Dear Fred,

In response to Widget Removal - Please Vote:

First off, I’ve been a big fan of yours for over a year now.  In that time, I have read every post you’ve made, I have linked at least a couple of times from my blog, and I have made several comments (some perhaps naïve).  I read you not because you are worth millions, nor because, necessarily, that other people link to you.  Rather, I read you because your writing is good, your perspective is fresh, your insight is intelligent, and you mostly march to the beat of your own drum.  So I have an aspiration just like the tramp in Think and Grow Rich:  I plan to do business with you one day (today is not that day, though).

Additionally, I am a web application developer by trade.
Given the above self-perceived notion of my authority, I consider myself an expert consumer of your blog and have a good understanding of the technical issues that you face with your widgets.

So here are my thoughts.

You are an influential blogger who desires to express yourself with the best of breed that web services companies have to offer via widgets.  You are aggregating your presence on the world wide web into a single easily reachable and easily consumable web site.  Anybody in the world who wants to understand who you are has free access to more information than I have of my own best friend.  This you achieve with the help of all the wonderful widgets.

In my opinion, this has incredible cultural significance.  You are helping to usher in a world where people are no longer afraid to share their personal details – a world where transparency is the norm instead of just the occasional pleasant surprise.

Thus, I vote for you to keep all of your widgets.
Furthermore, I implore you to ask different questions in dealing with the widgets issue.  Instead of asking what to remove, ask what can be done to make them do what you want them to (speed, look-and-feel, etc).

Technology brought you all of these wonderful tools and technology can make them all work the way you want.  You know that is true.  Settle for nothing less.

Sincerely,
Jim Parker

Comments (0)

Home Stretch

June 12, 2006 by Jim Parker in blogging

Uma and I are in the home stretch.  Our twins are coming somewhere around the first two weeks of July.  Thus, my “contribution” to the blogosphere will continue to be sporadic at best.

Nevertheless, there are all sorts of things going on these days.  And there are so many things I yet want to do!  I’ve got a nice list of blog topics, but not the time to develop them into good postings.

So, I will talk now about what troubles me the most:

How can it be that there are so many people writing about, developing, thinking, reading, participating, contributing to The New Media(s), yet when I discuss it with someone on the street, say a co-worker, I just get yawns.  Yawns!!!

Why does the prospect of greatness within our new communications tools bring yawns from the general public?  How can there be so many people that don’t understand what it means to blog?  Or how can people not see the value in microchunking content so that they can consume it in absolutely any way that they want.

When is all of this stuff going to enter the mainstream?

Of course, there is mainstream reporting of what’s going on in Web 2.0.  But few of those articles themselves do a good job of explaining why all of this is so important.  In other words, the mainstream reporting is not having a large impact on people.

So how do we go the last mile?  How do we move from products for early adopters to mature, mainstream, ubiquitous products?

It is inevitable.  But When???

Comments (2)

Are millions of people Wrong?

May 18, 2006 by Jim Parker in blogging

A comment via email from Sundar (an Indian Buddy of mine):

Please explain me blogging…
Who has got time…to let alone write it….but to read all those…I do not get it…with all the flood of content around in the web… why would people spend time to read blogs… I know it is just me… there are already thousands of people already absorbed in blogs…

Actually, it is 10’s of millions involved in blogging.

Anyhow, it’s all about one simple thing:  Contribution.  See my first post:   http://www.attentiongrab.com/?p=11
…or maybe it’s about two things…Contribution & Relationships…Oh yeah, relationships are key.

Your questions above are exactly what I was asking before I started a blog.  Why would somebody ever read what so and so (who may know nothing) has to say about so and so???  Who’s got the time to sift through the crap?  Why do people read this nonsense?

Yes, there is tons and tons of content all over the web.  But it’s not just about the content.  It’s about the person behind the content.  Nobody reads blogs just looking for content value.  People read blogs looking for people they like.

When I read something I really, really enjoy and respect and learn from, automatically, I consider the person writing the blog to be a good person…a person that I can relate to.  I might contact that person.  I might write a comment in their blog.  But the key thing is that I have formed a relationship with that person.  It is now a person that I could walk up to on a street and have a conversation with.

Here are some examples of interaction via blogging:

I just received a thank you from Danah Boyd.  Danah is quite a celebrity in the blogging world.  She’s been on National cable news as an expert talking head on Bill O’Reilly’s show.  And she’s sending me a thank you note for me sending her a music recommendation.  Obviously I will never meet Danah face to face (though I wouldn’t mind it).  She’s not my best friend.  She’s not even a friend, really.  Yet, we have a connection.  And yes, it is a small, minuscule, tiny connection.  But a connection is a connection.  Something is always better than nothing, right?

And…There’s this experienced VC guy in Manhattan (Union Square - 14th and Broadway) whom I am a big fan of.  I read all about his business and his perspective on technology in the US.  I also read about his family.  I look at their vacations in Seattle, Vale, hiking, biking, skiing.  I see his kid’s baseball games.  I hear the music he likes.  I know where his office is and I know one of his favorite places to have lunch in the summer time.  He’s opened up his entire life to the world.  And what that buys him and his family is familiarity.  That is, people all over the world are familiar with the family.  And familiarity opens doors.  When you know a lot about someone, it is easier to find something in common with that person.  When you find something in common with them, you can more easily relate and communicate with them………so………. Forget MySpace and Facebook.  Fred Wilson has created the ultimate social networking platform for families!  See http://avc.blogs.com .

So it’s not about reading and getting information.  It’s about building a relationship with someone you respect.  I can’t build a relationship with CNN.  But I can build a relationship with another blogger if I want to.  Blogging is much more than passive content.  It is a conversation.  Now that’s entertainment!

Thus, you can’t possibly understand blogging until you blog.  Blogging is not one-way old communication where you have a producer and a consumer.  It is interactive.  It is conversational.

Become a blogger.  Then you will understand.

And it’s easy to do.  You don’t have to worry about the fact that you’re not a world class writer (which obviously I am not).  You don’t have to be concerned if you don’t get more than 20 people reading  your blog.  All you have to worry about is getting one single reader/contributer - somebody who comes back often and leaves comments.

So how do you do it?  You simply write about what you like…or don’t like…or what you love…what makes you happy or sad…what’s important to you…what’s silly to you…just all about you.  Now you may think that nobody cares about such nonsense.  That is actually untrue.  People who know you will want to know more about you.  And when several people start paying attention others will start to notice.  Maybe even people  you don’t know.  Either way, people will read - they always do… just as long as you keep giving them something to come back for.  So give them more.  Lots more!

And encourage your friends to write blogs too.  Next thing you know, they’ll be asking you to comment on their blogs.  Ah-HAH!!!  You’ve just created a network.  Now you know what it means to blog.

There is nothing wrong with going out and grabbing some attention.  Please come back to Attention Grab and tell us how you did it.

Comments (4)

My Journalist Friend

May 17, 2006 by Jim Parker in blogging, friends

Thanks to Anton for announcing my blog on jcu92.org (Jim Parker Checks In ).  Anton is one of those friends that when you haven’t seen or talked to him in many, many years, when you finally talk to him, it is as though you had been talking to him every day for the past week.

That’s always nice.

Comments (0)

Dear AttentionGrab Blog

by Jim Parker in blogging

Dear AttentionGrab Blog,

Please pardon my absence.  But don’t get me wrong, I love having this blog.  I understand and accept that you have lofty ambitions for me.  Those are ambitions which I share and embrace.

I’ve just been busy with life.

jim

Comments (2)

Attention Grab Author

• Jim Parker
  I enjoy watching all of the changes in the world that are caused by us trying to figure out technology.
• Jim Parker