Newsletters vs Web sites vs Facebook vs Twitter
OK so Robert Scoble published his first newsletter today via Constant Contact.
I can’t find a link to the newsletter cause Constant Contact doesn’t necessarily WANT me to look at the newsletter on the web. They want me to STAY in email.
This reminds me of Facebook wanting me to STAY in Facebook and (of course) Twitter wanting me to STAY in Twitter.
Notice a pattern here?
Robert is utilizing a newsletter as a new channel for getting his voice out — as he’s realized that staying inside of Facebook — keeps him inside the Facebook walled garden.
Newsletters send out emails — and EVERYONE can read an email — right? They don’t have to go into Facebook to get content.
But I can’t find a link to said newsletter — so I can’t properly annotate and comment on it — here.
I can — at least — grab a screen shot of it…..
Robert Scoble is one of those evangelical, cheerleader types who creates pieces which inspire folks to innovate, try new things — and take risks as entrepreneurs.
Robert has been a pioneer in this area — and nowadays — its a dam trend.
Robert’s recent newsletter displays his “pivot” as a Media mogul by focusing on Redg Snodgrass, Wearable World and a host of other insidery rants about Wearables, Context and the future.
As I was trying to figure out how to “feel” about said verbiage — something jumped out which is helping me clarify my feelings — and write this piece.
My friend Robert Scoble is a genius at promoting and evangelizing technology of the future. But its important to remember that Millennials in SF do this kind of shit to be hip. What is considered hip in SF NOW will maybe become hip five YEARS from now and become relevant for “the rest of us.”
This futuristic-is-hip kind of attitude permeates Silicon Valley and SF in general. I especially notice this — as I took six years “off” from this echo chamber nonsense — and have recently returned.
What I’ve found is that my wonderful, dear home town of SF has turned into the world’s leading hype machine — making even Hollywood at its height seem like a small town newspaper.
Technology LEADS the world forward. Unicorn wealth, logorithmic growth and viral memes show the world how it’s done in SF. Everybody knows about VCs, Ellen Pao and Robert Scoble taking two months off — for personal reasons.
An startup ecosystem has emerged and its based upon all the wrong things.
Rackspace and a host of other companies feed off of that ecosystem. Hackathons revel in coders staying up all night long. Incubators brag about their latest classes. Entire web sites are dedicated to helping folks identify “Product Hunts” which helps startups get their new products “to market.”
Is this what technology is all about? Building cred by staying up all night long? It’s as if kids today think they can jump start their life, gets lots of REAL life experience and forgo real growth and learning — by pulling LOTS of all-nighters! Wow.
Well hell yah — pulling all nighters forces you to grow — but its also based upon bullshit. Real growth means learning and listening and most importantly — respecting the mistakes and patterns that have happened before you.
All of that (of course) is lost in ageism.
One of my favorite things to listen to nowadays is a 40 year old complaining about ageism. If only they realized that 15 years ago — they were pulling that same ageism shit on ME. But now it’s happening to THEM!
I’ve known Robert along time and have been interviewed by him throughout the oughts (“00's.)
Here’s me and Robert in my backyard when I lived in Walnut Creek. He’s shooting an interview of me — and it was live streamed up to the cloud. Never recorded on his hand held video camera.
Robert was using a new technology called Kyte.
Kyte LOST the video Robert shot at my house that day. I have NO video documentation of my “fence pitch” becuase of that. Is that Robert’s fault? Of course not.
It’s MY fault.
I relied upon the assumption that Kyte would properly store and enable Robert and I to retrieve that recording.
I assumed that new technology would work. It didn’t.
And most importantly — the “old” Marc Canter assumed that by participating in bleeding edge tech — that I was part of the coolio crowd, insiders who live in Silicon Valley, forge new frontiers and figure out where the future is headed.
Robert and I also participated in one of the first “live streaming” events on a bus headed to Vegas one CES. Here’s me singing Opera with Robert, Dan Farber, Loic Lemeur, and a bunch of others.
We were so coolio, so hip, so futuristic. We were streaming video — via the web — while barreling down the hi-way — headed to Vegas. Mogulus was the technology provider for this event.
I may have been singing Opera but what I DO remember -was that the streaming didn’t really work.
So here we are all enamored of IoT and Wearables.
We’ve got us another new shiny toy to “go on about” and Redg Snodgrass is telling us that his Millennial employees want to “wear” their technology.
Well I’m sorry — I’m gonna call Redg and Robert on that bullshit.
Wearing your technology don’t work.
The Apple Watch sucks — even though Apple has spent almost as much money pushing in a month than they did pushing the iPhone 6 in five months.
Why does Apple have to spend so much?
Cause the Apple Watch will be PUSHED down people’s throats. Not cause it’s anti-biotics they need.
Because its vitamins they THINK they want to have.
That’s the difference.
IMHO
