Friday, March 31, 2006

Startup School, April 29, Stanford University. 

I've been following the mixup over Scoble's meeting at Amazon, from a distance. The guy from Amazon apparently asked Scoble to cut the bullshit and tell him why he should be interested in blogs. If I had been there I would have said that blogging is now an expected channel of communication with at least some customers, with developers and the press. Amazon has customers, and presumably wants more. And they have a developer pitch too, and they have stories they want to communicate to the press. So if some of the people you want to reach like to receive information via RSS and blogs, why would you not want to provide it? To me, asking why you should use blogs is like asking why you should answer the phone. It might be a customer, a developer who wants to use your services, or a reporter who wants to write about the company. Your competitors answer the phone, so you should too.  

Dennis Forbes: Interesting Facts About Domain Names. 

Jason Calicanis says he's "ripping off" my style, which is totally okay, and I especially appreciate that he credits me. Perhaps he should use an outliner to write his blog? That could make him even more prolific. 

One of my many mottos of the past is "Only steal from the best." When you use someone else's idea that's the ultimate sign of respect. But it's important to say who you're stealing from, because they're the best, right?