Sam On Software

Boxing Day Cricket Test Pakistan Vs Australia December 2009

i have a theory, all my own, that this is the most important site for the future of the internet over the next 5 years :

http://www.getmicrophone.com/

Microphone access in flash! What the web is missing is voice communication. I think in 10 years you will go to a website and be able to talk to the other people on the same page. skype on the web. Everywhere.

I mean imagine you have a problem. IIS is serving pages strangely, you google search and find a page where somone has posted a similar problem, you see 4 other people are on the page. Wouldnt it me mega useful to talk to them.

This is only one use case of course, surely there are so many more.

Aren’t their going to be adhoc voice chat rooms springing up wherever people with a common interest gather.

If voice communication does take off on the web that will require a whole bunch of other tools for seaching and organising the voice communication content. And where in fact will the content be stored ? Will it be stored at all

Shawn’s eyes steadied and his hand leaped across the desk latching onto Jason’s throat. “Say it again Calacanis, say it one more time”. Nothing. Shawn’s grip tightened and Jason’s face started to redden. “FFFFFUUUUUUU”….

Ok that didn’t happen, at least if it did they are keeping the footage from us, meanies.

What did happen is internet agent provocateur and long time Jimmy Wales and Mark Burnett fan boy* Jason Calacanis sat down with his Mahalo crew and guest Shawn Gold to talk technology and business.

Jason introduced Shawn and gave a quick run down on his career to date. Newscorp, at least 5 startups.
Impressive.

Throughout the show Shawn sat with a relaxed slump. His sleeves rolled up, head hanging low. He comes across more of the straight shooter than the smooth business man but as with many marketing people who present this way there is always a slight suspicion that things are more cultivated than they seem.

In this case, perhaps not.

The best thing about listening to Calacanis is that in the space of a few minutes you can hear over-the-top bluster, heroic grandiosity, touching insecurity and incredibly insightful easily understood analysis of the tech world.

If the show was a menu it would look like the restaurant had decided to specialise in traditional Greek tempura diced lemon pizza. And made it work.

My favorite part of the This Week In Startups is when Jason, the crew and the guest discuss a business idea or question with a caller. It’s fascinating to see off-the-cuff real time responses.

The first caller appeared very early in show 33, around the 15 minute mark. Travis J Fisher from Lacrose Westconsin wanted to know whether he should start his own business straight out of college or go and work for someone else first.

I was surprised at Jason’s response, he essentially talked about the plusses and minuses of both possibilities. While his advice was sound I would have preferred to hear him go a little stronger on the start-your-own option.

Maybe it’s a personal thing, I didn’t get the cahunas to quit my day job and strike it out on my own until 6 months ago, at age 30. Looking back there was plenty of pressure to follow the normal path into the working-world. A few more Calacanis type figures saying “screw that knuckle-head, make a startup” might have made a difference.

But I digress.

Shawn gave us some of the low down on what it was like selling advertising for Weblogs Inc. He recalled that blogs were hot and you could sell advertising even if the blog didn’t have huge numbers by selling the “influencing the influencers” aspect.

It would have been good to hear Shawn go into more nuts-and-bolts detail of how he hustles to sell. He mentioned the tactic of calling a potential client early in the morning or late in the afternoon, when the personal assistant was unlikely to be there but the decision maker probably would.

Storming the castle gate when the guards are out feeding the chickens so to speak. Or something like that. He didn’t actually mention chickens specifically, but you know what I mean.

Another caller described his idea for a “Mahalo but specifically for translators”. The pitch was good but the revenue model wasn’t clear enough for Jason and Shawn.

Episode 33 contained some of the usual cracks about the production crew not playing music at the right spot or angling the camera as Jason would like. Today we were told that the ‘B Team’ was running things.

The B team did a good job as far as I’m concerned, things were not noticeably less smooth than usual.

Tyler chimed in with a few insights throughout the episode. Tyler while in theory the straight man of the comedy duo has a quiet thoughtfulness about him.

One can only hope there will be a special episode where Tyler and big Jase swap seats. You can almost hear it, ‘Insights from Jaaaason’.

Shawn went on to discuss his latest venture. An electronic invitation / card delivery service specializing in high quality, great looking designs. The sort of service you might use for a wedding or a fashionable party.

Facebook came in for a ‘big serve’ to use an Australian expression. It’s recent and past privacy missteps were described as passing from mere mistake to major ineptitude. Calacanis saw hubris on the part of wunderkind Mark Zuckerberg as being at least partly responsible.

This episode, as usual, was great entertainment. Of course I’ve only touched the surface of what was discussed in the two and a half hour show.

If you’re interested in technology and business I recommend you check out “This week in Startups”.

They ain’t no donkeys, they are crushing it.

* come on Jason, we know what’s really going on here, we see the love.