EightBlack.

Click To Play

We were pleased to be a part of the first “official” Wordpress gig in Melbourne. Organised by a self confessed Wordcamp uber geek, James Farmer from Edublogs and Incsub fame.

Actually, we had the easy part.All we had to do was pay for the drinks, contribute towards the venue and throw in a couple of iPod Nano’s (congratulations to the 2 winners by the way).

Ok, I’ll admit the filming wasn’t up to standard - but hey, what do you expect on a warm Saturday afternoon down by the water at Victoria Dock.

This session featured Alex Shiels from Automattic. I’ll load up the slides as soon as I receive them, so check back soon. Alex is one serious code head, respected globally by the Automattic folks and the larger Wordpress community. It’s worth 30 odd minutes of your time to watch Alex’s presentation.

Let me know what you think.

Up next is the session from Darren Rowse, Australia’s number one blogger.

Click To Play

Ok, this is the last of the video series from Blogworld Expo. The hard disk space on my Mac is about to run out! And my digital camera is exhausted. The session, titled “Going Global With New Media” was presented by Des Walsh (an Aussie) and Rich Brooks (A US based internet marketing consultant).

For those of you who were there, I edited out the start - where Des and Rich were mucking around with Second Life and they couldn’t quite get the demo to work. Frankly, I can’t get my head around Second Life. To be honest, I have enough trouble with my first life to worry about another one.

There were some interesting questions from the audience, and the whole one hour 20 minute presentation was more like a group of friends sitting around having a dinner party conversation. Which was a whole lot better. Except for the fact that we weren’t drunk.

I was intrigued by a question from the enigmatic Scott Allen. He asked “Since we’re talking about global, what do the non Americans in the room think of they way Americans do business”. Or something close to that.

I pulled out the question in a separate clip.

Click To Play

I bit my lip. You have to remember that I’m married to an American and I learned long ago that if I wanted to have any sort of sex life at all, I had better be careful of what I say about the “mother land” and the gun slinging Texan of a President. Actually, my wife thinks he’s a buffoon, but let’s not go there.

(Now look what’s happened, I’ve just committed the cardinal sin. Blog etiquette says that you’re not supposed to talk about sex or politics and I’ve just mentioned both in the same paragraph).

Anyway.

Des Walsh is a fountain of knowledge and Rich clearly knows his stuff. It was interesting to note that before their presentation in Vegas, neither Rich nor Des had actually met, forcing them to depend on the technologies that were at the very centre of their presentation to this audience.

Des had also just presented at AdTech China, along with Corporate Blogging Guru, Debbie Weil.

This was a good session to immerse yourself in. It’s worth watching the video in its entirety. It’s solid in content and Des and Rich presented well together.

Let me know what you think. And more on Des Walsh here and Rich Brooks here and here.

Click To Play

This was session one from Blogworld Expo and a good place to start for those “new” to blogging. Led by Andy Wibbels and Jen McClure, the pair gave a very solid overview into blogging, with the Q&A session probably the most helpful. For those used to the new medium, the concepts covered may have been “basic”, but by the end of hour plus discussion, no one walked away empty handed.

Wibbels has authored many books on blogging, most notably “Blog Wild, A Guide For Small Business Blogging” and consults to a wide range of corporate clients.

McClure works for a non profit and it’s interesting to see just how many in the non profit sector have jumped aboard the blog train. Her bio states,

Jennifer McClure is the executive director of the Society for New Communications Research, a global, nonprofit 501(c)(3) think tank dedicated to the advanced study of new communications tools, technologies and emerging modes of communication, and their effect on traditional media, professional communications, business and society. Her 20-year career includes work in all facets of professional communications, including market and media research, journalism and publishing, PR and marketing consultation. She is also the co-founder and producer of New Communications Forum.

I always find it interesting to see what platform the experts use. In this case, Wibbels uses Wordpress and McClure is a Typepad fan. One thing is for sure, and validated by the people I spoke to at Blogworld is that once you’ve started using a certain platform, it is very hard to change.

A lot of people probably thought Blogworld was about a whole heap of super geeks hanging out, talking one’s and zero’s. The refreshing part of it was that while true, you could talk to people who quickly made you lose the will to live, there were folks like Wibbels and McClure who gave a down to earth, in plain english overview of the whole blogging scene, the pitfalls, the benefits, how to get started and how to keep going.

If you attended Business Blogging 101 and then Debbie Weil’s session with a very strong panel from “corporate”, you will have learned what you needed to in order to get started, and more importantly, how to sell the whole concept of blogging internally.

Click To Play

Here’s Avinash’s presentation at Blogworld Expo - with the the PDF of the presentation here as well. Anybody who has anything to do with a blog, or even a static website should watch this entire session.I regard Avinash as the world’s leading authority on web analytics. So does Google - hence the role he has there as “Analytics Evangelist”.Avinash is a pleasure to work with, a pleasure to watch and 110% pure energy, enthusiasm and content.

(For those of you who have noticed, I’ve moved all our feature length videos to Blip.tv). It seems to be working fine. I’d be keen to see how you rate the picture and audio quality.

Click To Play

I don’t think people should under-estimate what Matt has achieved. And at the ripe old age of 23, it makes you wonder what else he’s got left up his sleeve.Wordpress is a remarkable, open source platform that is as easy to use as sending an email. In many ways, it has revolutionised the push button publishing industry. This is the entire video from Blogworld Expo last week in Las Vegas.

Ed Sussman from Fast Company did the interviewing. It was a good session, with Ed providing the right tempo for the hour long chat. This interview is one of three that will be transcribed. Let me know what you think.

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.

If you have anything to do with marketing online, and unless you’ve been hiding under a rock - you no doubt will have heard of Joel Comm.

He’s one smart bastard. And he clearly has the midas touch.

Joel’s latest creation has taken the web literally by storm. The Next Internet Millionaire is a very successful adaptation of the proven TV reality series. And after talking with Joel, it sounds like it was no mean feat to execute. In fact, it sounded like a nightmare. The logistics must have been astonishing. Over 300 auditions, a full size production and camera crew, a 9000 square foot warehouse, multiple sets etc. The list goes on.

It’s this effort and attention to detail that sets Joel apart from a lot of the “snake oil” salespeople that exist in the online marketing world. He’s all about content. And delivery.

The thing that struck me about Joel is that he knows how to build online businesses that are “saleable”. Ones that have clear exit strategies and ones which don’t depend on the sole efforts of the lone “guru”.

His background includes writing a gaming site that was eventually sold to Yahoo! and then renamed “Yahoo Games”. He then went on to write a New York Times best seller with “The Adsense Code”.

And now The Next Internet Millionaire.

One thing is for sure. Joel has impeccable instinct when it comes to the online space. He’s a good guy to know. A better marketer you will not find. And like I said at the beginning, one very, very, smart bastard.

More about him here.