EightBlack.

My disclaimer right up front with this post is that I’m an Aussie, so my understanding and appreciation of American sports is limited. I know Mark Cuban first and foremost as a prolific and outspoken blogger, and not the even more (apparently), loud and obnoxious owner of the Dallas Mavericks. (How some guy parts with $285 million for a basketball team in Texas which is made up of tall skinny blokes who run around and play basketball is beyond me. But hey, it’s his money).

Given that 50% of the audience who reads my humble blog reside in the US, let me digress for a minute.

I remember when I used to live in the states, being exposed to the passion that is College football so I do have some appreciation for how Americans love their sports.

I lived in Omaha (okay, laugh if you will) and as soon as we moved into our new house, a very large guy came to the door with a 12-gauge shotgun and a Cornhuskers sweatshirt and some beer holders. Apparently, in Nebraska, that’s how you welcome people to the neighborhood.

I sort of didn’t argue. I welcomed him in and then thought, “Oh christ, he’s going to want a beer now and the last thing I want to do is drink a Bud Light with guy holding a small canon”. I wasn’t scared of getting shot. My wife has threatened to shoot me many times. What I was fearful of was inhaling something called a Bud Light - which is sort of like drinking stale cats pee filtered through a jockstrap.

He then said both the gun and Cornhuskers stuff were mine to keep. I sort of got the impression that if I wanted to root for another team, that really wasn’t an option. Which it wasn’t.

I became good friends with my new neighbour and once when we were out driving, I asked him “Hey Jay, what’s all the fuss about Tom Osborne”. Tom Osborne, for the visually impaired, used to be the coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Apparently, in the Nebraska version of the bible, when it refers to the “Good Lord”, it actually refers to Osborne, and not the other guy. I continued. “Hey Jay, what if I walked into that bar over there and yelled out at the top of my voice….”Tom Osborne has sex with goats!”".

He didn’t smile. He just turned to me and said…”Well, if you did make it out alive and without being shot 22 times while running for the door, you’d survive just long enough until someone called Billy Bob or Thelma tied you to the back of a pick up and drove you all the way to Iowa”.

Holy cow, how the hell did we end up talking about Tom Osborne, sex and goats.

Sorry. I digressed.

Anyway, back to Mark Cuban. His closing speech at Blogworld, in front of a packed house of over 1000 people would have made his PR agency proud. I thought he spoke exceptionally well. He’s likeable, he can handle a crowd, he know’s his technology stuff and he speaks his mind. As soon as he finished, the questions came thick and fast and would have kept going until they turned off the lights (which they nearly had to do).

When I say “likeable”, I mean that in a cheeky, roguish sort of way. Cuban would be the guy your wife would worry about you being out late with - because at the very least, a lot of alcohol, strippers, tequila shots, more strippers and the odd bar fight would definitely be involved. And that’d be before the night really got started.

Mind you, this is the second time in the last month that I have heard 2 billionaires talk to roughly the same size audience. The first was John Doerr (who was amazing). And now Cuban. It makes me think that being a billionaire can’t be all that bad.

Cuban has been blogging since 2003 and during that time, has generated both a groundswell of support for his cause (and rants) and an army of hatred against his beloved basketball team, his ability to dance (or lack of) and everything else in between. Cuban was a recent finalist on the US version of “Dancing With The Stars”. His partner was Aussie Kym Johnson. I never saw it but you can just tell that him not making it past the 4th week really urked him.

If you look at any of his recent blog posts, the guy gets an absolute boatload of responses and comments. We’re talkin’ three or four hundred sometime. Per post.

One thing is for sure - he hates losing. At anything. He’d be tough to work for because the same demands he’d put on himself, would probably be placed on you. But this is an unfair assumption that I’m just making up. He might be a sane, rational, likeable, generous boss.

Hollywood makes movies about guys like Cuban. He’s all American. He thinks he’s indestructible. And he’s incredibly popular - either positively or negatively.

One thing is undisputable. The guy knows how to blog.

The video above is around an hour and fifteen. Just do me a favour though. If you’re going to sit down and watch it with a drink, please, please, grab anything but a Bud Light. Enjoy.

Des is a fellow Aussie. And we reckon that out of the 1000 odd attendees at Blogworld, there were only 4 Aussies in the audience. One apparently is a permanent resident, so that technically doesn’t count. Actually, it was also rumoured that he now lives in Des Moine, which sort of says it all really. Ok, I made that bit up.

Anyway, Des is a breath of fresh air in the technology space. He’s passionate, knowledgeable and definitely older than 23! Which makes me feel better after seeing Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook and Matt Mullenweg from Wordpress, who incidentally, are both 23.

I’m not even holding the fact that Des lives on the Gold Coast against him. He obviously has his reasons for living there - which make no sense to a Melbournian like me.

Des writes a blog (in fact a couple), but his Thinking Home Business blog is ranked as the 33rd most popular blog in Australia, according to The Top 100 Aussie Blog Index.

If you need to hire a consultant to teach your organisation about Social Media, then Des is your man. Companies like AMP in Australia already have.

I’ll let the video do the talking. I wish all guru’s were this passionate about their chosen field. And with Avinash, you know it’s genuine. No wonder Google are walking over broken glass trying to get him to come on board full time.

He’s the real deal. And one of a handful left.

Update: Here’s a hard copy of his presentation . I taped the session as well (54 minutes long), and worth every minute. It’ll be up on Google Video shortly. Make that Blip.tv

When you see Matt Mullenweg, the likeable and confident founding developer of Wordpress, you’d swear he was well into his 30’s. The annoying thing is that he’s just 23.

I don’t know about you, but when I was 23, I wasn’t thinking about world domination. I was just grateful that I’d lost my virginity.

But clearly, young guys like Matt and Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook aren’t normal. Hey, they make the founders of Google look old. They make guys like me look ancient.

I had lunch yesterday with some folks from Six Apart - the guys behind Moveable Type and Typepad (the other blogging software). I’m going to try and interview them before I leave here this weekend.

Wordpress is clearly the market leader - and apparently the preferred option for most bloggers. This blog, for instance, is written using Wordpress. I think it’s a cinch to use. And I have the patience of a 4 year old.

I taped all 50 minutes or so of this session, but only posted the first 10. I’ll load the rest to Google Video - given that YouTube still limits you to 10 minute clips.

If you want the link to the full session, just drop me a note. And I’m keen to chat with Matt before I go - given that we’re sponsoring Wordcamp in Melbourne next weekend.

Interviewing Marc made me feel a lot better. For one, he’s about my age. And second, his background is not too different from mine in the sense that he started out his career working for a Madison Ave Ad Agency.

(Small trivia point - my very first job was with Ogilvy & Mather Advertising).

I met Marc via Alex Mandossian and we hung out in Sydney for a few days when Marc was on one of his juggernaut trips. Marc is considered by many to be the online PR guru, which he is. He’s also successfully made the transition from the offline world to the online world and works with some very large corporates in the PR space.

He’s a true content provider. And one very good operator. More about him here.

For a guy who’s just pulled together what is the largest gathering of “bloggers”, Dave is one cool cat.

I met Dave about 6 months ago in Chicago at an internet gig and was so impressed with his actual presentation and his approach to blogging, that I asked if he did any private consulting.

Thankfully for me, he did. And about a month later, I flew back to the US to his home town of Boulder, Colorado. Dave was an exceptional host and provided me with a lot of sound advice on how to optimise our own blog.

He sort of mentioned off the cuff back then that he was organising “Blogworld”. I thought cool. But then quickly dismissed it. Although something told me that I should attend.

When you actually see what is unfolding here in Vegas, you quickly realise that Dave has done an amazing job. He’s corralled together industry leading talent and content. People like Mark Cuban, Matt Mullenweg, Richard Jalichandra, Michael Arrington and more.

Not to mention being physically able to put more than 2,000 bums on seats. And in a city as distracting as Vegas. I know from personal experience just how tough that is.

In many respects, Dave is the father of blogging. He makes a very comfortable, very full time living from his own online efforts. And when you meet Dave in person, the annoying thing is that he makes it look easy.

Which it aint. But it is worth it.

I had fun doing this - despite the noisy background.

I just sat through a very good session on Corporate Blogging (see previous post) and on the panel was Paula Berg and Brian Lusk from Southwest Airlines.

You’d expect a company like Southwest to be able to pull this off (launching a blog). It’s their culture. Spend just 5 minutes with Paula and you’ll understand why. She’s full of energy. A more committed team you will not find.

The Southwest Airlines blog is here. They’re even giving away prizes when you stop by their booth at the Expo part of Blogworld and leave a comment on their blog.

If a company the size of Southwest (33,000 some odd employees) who carry 97 million passengers a year - that’s 3 times the size of Qantas, can successfully launch a blog and have a team of 30 staff, all of whom have full time jobs within the company, contribute and engage with their audience, then no one has an excuse. That doesn’t mean all companies should blog. There are some who definitely shouldn’t.

Southwest’s culture ensured the launch of their blog 18 months ago was going to be a success right out of the gate. I think it’s a courageous move, especially in something as fickle as air travel. I can just imagine if United or Northwest Airlines started a blog. There wouldn’t be servers big enough to handle the comments!

And to finish, these video’s are taking me less than 10 mins to download off my camera, edit and publish to YouTube. All with the amazing new iMovie application and a wireless connection. There’s only one way to do video online. And that way is Apple.

Session title: Corporate and CEO Blogging.

Moderated by Debbie Weil: Panelists (Paula Berg-Southwest Airlines, John Earnhardt-Cisco, Pete Johnson-HP, Jennifer Cisney-Kodak & Brian Lusk-Southwest Airlines)

Kodak Blog - A Thousand Words, hosted off site. About regular people who work in the company and who love photography. This blog been up for over a year. Maybe have 50-60 contributors within the company. Don’t edit anything unless glaring spelling error.

HP - Pete Johnson. Refers himself as the panel’s “Lone Techie guy”. HP blogs are here. There are more than 50! Most common question he gets “Can you fix my printer?” Debbie raised a good point about maybe HP needs to have a blog titled “Canyoufixmyprinter.com” blog. Mmmm! Good idea. I love wireless and I love GoDaddy.

Cisco - John Earnhardt, responsible for one of Ciscos Government blogs. 20 initiatives as a company in 2007. Cisco identified bloggers within the company who could go out and participate in the blogosphere and engage in the conversation about the topics Cisco were interested in.

Southwest Airlines - Blog Boy and Blog Girl (Brian Lusk and Paula Berg). They knew a conversation was going on about Southwest so the company decided that they wanted to be able to participate in that conversation, and to perhaps, control it to an extent. Company is known for it’s transparency.

First blog went up in April 2006, and Southwest have a blogging team of about 30 employees from all walks from within the company (ie Pilots, baggage handlers, back office folks, senior management). Things they learned - major time commitment. Seen a huge media benefit from the blog - 70% of the media look to the blogosphere for content. Went into this with pure intentions. Become a virtual focus group, passionate feedback, both good and bad. Could not get this feedback from any forced focus group.

Blog is completely moderated (which I totally agree with). Concerned with Intellectual Property when they started the blog. They will post extremely negative comments. Very little they won’t publish.

They’ll tie in major press releases with their blog (smart).

SUMMARY:

More and more US corporate’s are taking to the blogosphere. Debbie Weil keeps referring to this space as “the revolution”. Which I think it is. Static websites are dead and blogs are definitely here to stay. All panelists agreed that in order for a company blog to survive (or even get off the ground), it requires an internal evangelist. This is a critical point. Brian from Southwest also made a good point in saying that some companies shouldn’t blog. Which is true. A blog won’t fix a bad culture within a company.

This was a good session. Refreshing. To the point. And surprising insight from people who clearly love working for their companies and see the real, tangible benefits from blogging. Bravo.

Well, this is one of 13 interviews I hope to be able to bring you live from Blogworld Expo here in Vegas. And Debbie was a real pro - so thanks right up front Debbie for doing this on the fly and in tough surroundings.

Sorry about the background noise in the video folks - I’ll work on the location tomorrow.

This is a big gig - around 2,000 people from all over (Australia, UK, Spain, obviously the entire US etc).

Debbie is regarded as the “go to” person in the corporate blogging space and her book is a must read for any serious business wanting to launch a blog or refine their message. She consults to the Fortune 500, is widely travelled and offers a degree of wisdom in a sometimes “too geeky for our own good” space.

I enjoyed the brief chat with her. And I hope to learn more from experts like Debbie in the future. Who knows, we may even convince her to fly down under and talk to some of our larger corporates. Heaven knows, they need it.

Debbie’s blog is here and don’t forget her book - which is here (and she even lets you download the first chapter free, which is very cool).

Thanks Debbie for letting me put you on the spot. Much appreciated.

Well, an interesting start to this trip, the 9th I’ve made to the US across the Pacific this year. I knew it wasn’t going well when the Customs & Immigrations officer starting giving me the 3rd degree not long after I landed.

You know when you get off a plane in the US - the thing you dread most is the long trek to Immigration and then the wait. It’s a bit of a chook raffle - because you’re not sure if 3 planes from China just landed at the same time or 30. I’ve been in queues for hours. The sort of queues that make you start to lose the will to live.

Thankfully, yesterday - the United flight was the only flight to unload. I thought it would be a cinch. Perfect. The queue was minimal. You then pick the Immigration guy who looks least likely to shoot you.

Anyway, then the ball breaking started.

“Why do you come to the US so often?”

“Where are you staying?”

“Show me your return ticket”

“What sort of business are you in?”

Look, I’d like to think I’ve got this travel thing down ok by now. I rarely carry itineraries (after all, I obviously made the flight didn’t I?), I don’t print off hotel confirmations and I only ever buy etickets. So, all my travel history is a click away. I know where to find it if I need it. I trust the internet.

But that didn’t go over to well with Office Kim, from the US Government.

I learned long ago to stop using the “Do you know who I am?” routine. It rarely works. Actually, it never has. But I felt a lot better when I said it.

“Follow me…..”

So, to cut a long story short - I had a very animated conversation with much arm waving in a small room, with another Customs Agent. I did manage to actually leave the customs hall, but not after much chiding by the US government. Get a green card and save yourself the trouble next time, was essentially the crux of their message. They were perplexed as to how I had managed to convince a US citizen (ie my wife) to marry me and why hadn’t I gotten off my lazy arse to apply for residency.

Anyway.

On my connecting flight to Vegas, I drank 2 bloody mary’s (minus the tomato juice) to calm my nerves.

Right then, back to what I started to post about. Day one at Blogworld Expo.

I’m listening to Andy Wibbels and Jen McClure, whose session is titled “Business Blogging 101″. The organisers at Blogworld are allowing me to tape the session, so if I can work out how to edit the footage today and post it to YouTube, I will.

There’s some good content in the session - especially if you’re new to blogging. Like Technorati is tracking 110 million blogs daily, that 120,000 new blogs arrive on the scene each and every day (obviously a lot of people with unresolved issues with their parents out there), one third of all blogs are in English, one third in Japanese and the rest in other languages.

Just wait until the sleeping giant - China wakes up to this. The Chinese Government and their censors will no doubt have different views to the blogosphere and I bet there are some very concerned government officials watching the medium.

Jen and Andy worked well together in this session, the session was informal and already, there is a chasm in the audience between those who really know this space and those who are just getting started, which is really the whole point.

Marc Harty is sitting across the room and I’ve already run into Des Walsh, so the day is off to a good start. Both are speaking at the gig.

I heard on the grapevine that close to 2,000 people are attending over the next 3 days. Well done to the organisers. No mean feat.