EightBlack.

Something’s up at the digital congolmerate that’s been spreading like the ebola virus. Or more to the point, buying up companies globally like Imelda Marcos at a shoe sale.

Today, the ASX was advised that one of their Director’s was resigning. That’s no big deal. The deck chairs are always being moved around at public companies. Except this change could signal the start of something.

You see, the Director in question who threw in the towel was David Smithers, an ex partner and previous Chairman of PriceWaterhouseCoopers, a not too shabby accounting and professional services firm. He also used to be the President of the Australian Institute of Accountants. Oh, and also on the board of Rabobank.

Now I know that there are always 2 sides to the story, but I’d love to hear Mr. Smithers side first. Someone with his experience, wisdom and threshold for corporate pain doesn’t just call it quits after 90 days.

Something stinks.

The stock price for the once revered digital darling is now below the initial offer price - and is sitting at 0.95 cents. At it’s high last year, Bluefreeway peaked at just over $2.40.

I’m sure there’s been some interesting dinner conversation tonite between a lot of people, whose companies were acquired by Bluefreeway recently, with many deals done via equity in the new venture and on the basis of a ever promising stock price.

Emotion always trumps over the facts and reality.

This is one story that’s going to be watched by many. Personally, and it is only my humble opinion (and predicition for 2008) - that Bluefreeway will not be alive by the end of the year.

Hopefully, I’m wrong.

On the drive into work this morning, news on the radio mentioned that one of our main broadcasters, Network 7, was banning all staff from accessing the social networking site - Facebook. (Pictured above is Channel 7 Head Honcho Kerry Stokes). He’s clearly got unresolved issues with his parents by the look on his face.

Anyway.

In this day and age, draconian measures like this are just plain dumb. The line from management is that they want their staff focussed on other things. What a crock.

Clearly a case of old media, not knowing how to handle new media. Treating employees like naughty school kids is about as useful as telling either Britney Spears or her promisicuous sister the benefits of birth control.

*Image courtesy ABC

I get Mahalo. (I think).

I get Facebook. MySpace. And any other “social networking” site out there.

I get Google Apps. I get Android. I get Ning.

In fact, I get (but perhaps don’t agree with) most “Web 2.0″ properties. I get why Google is prepared to spend a Saudi King’s ransom on wireless spectrum.

But here’s what I don’t get.

Twitter and Second Life.

Let’s take one at a time.

Let’s talk about Twitter. Now I know it’s caused a stir in the digital world and has become something of a darling within the social networking hemisphere with countless imitators popping up everywhere but I just, for the life of me, can’t get my head around it.

Maybe I’m too old. Maybe 41 is the wrong age in this industry.

Anyway.

Twitter refers to itself as a “micro-blogging” site where, by using what is essentially a text based interface capped at 140 characters, you tell people what you are doing every waking minute of the day. You can do it via the web. Via your mobile. Anywhere you are connected.

Here’s what my Twitter account looks like.

You could probably assume a couple of things looking at this.

One is that I’m a Twitter loser and don’t have many friends. In which case, you’d be right. The other is that my friends on Twitter are losers and need to get a life. Which is probably also true.

I get the whole communicating via SMS thing. Three years ago, we built an SMS gateway for a telco client. It’s still in use today and they have, quite honestly spent a small fortune on this, for which I am eternally grateful. And there is no better way, in this day and age to communicate with a large group of people instantly than SMS. Forget email. Forget calling. SMS wins hands down. Everytime.

What I just don’t get is rattling on about what I’m doing every bloomin’ minute of the goddam day. I mean, my own family don’t care what I do, so why would my friends?

Take for instance the writing of this blog post. I’m sitting in a trendy pub, glass of wine in hand, listening to the thing called “life” going on around me, while connected to the internet, writing this. Now some would argue, you ARE a loser, sitting on your own in a pub, the week before Xmas, looking into the screen of you MacBook.

Perhaps.

But the last thing I want to do is tell my virtual Web 2.0 friends what I’m doing. Hell, I’m grateful for the peace and quiet. No email. Can’t hear the damn phone over the desperate “touch rugby” wankers trying to pick up drunk women. Just peace and quiet in a sort of noisy Thursday night, Prahran pub type of way.

Those Melbournians who read this will understand. Those of you who are in the US, will just have to imagine your favourite bar, with the Cornhuskers playing Texas A&M the on the big screen. Same women. Same drunk “touch rugby” wankers or their equivalent.

Or something like that.

Look, if I have a screw loose, then email me and tell me. No doubt, my 7 year old son gets Twitter. But I don’t. So there.

Right then. Let’s move on to Second Life.

Look, all I’ll say is that I have enough trouble coping with my first life than to worry about a second one. This is one gig I clearly don’t understand. Maybe don’t even want to.

You go into the site, take on the persona of someone else, interract with other people who do the same and use the word “avatar” a lot. Whatever the hell that means. If you ask me, it reminds me of marriage. Ok, that’s a bit cyncial. And I hope my wife doesn’t read this. Strewth!

Here’s the official description of the site:

The insane part to all this is that people buy and trade just about everything, from real estate to cars to commodities, in their own currency, called “Linden dollars”, which apparently can be converted into US dollars at a Nigerian Currency Exchange booth at your local flea market.

Madness!

In a year where Google got stronger and bigger, Yahoo! got smaller and more confused, Facebook became the overnight $15 billion dollar darling, and the VC’s got smarter and ran away, some things still continued to perplex even the most rational of people.

That’s Second Life. And that’s normal in this digital day and age.

As 2007 draws to a close, maybe it’s time to look back and reflect at what the internet has created. The sad thing is this. Perhaps only 20% of business really gets it. One things for sure. Digital properties like Twitter and Second Life might last and they might not. One thing is certain though. They’ve ruined every textbook case study out there about creating niche markets .

Which promises for an exciting year ahead, don’t you think?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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.

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.

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.