The Vision I share with the folks at SharpCast got me blogging in the first place. Delivering fusion – web services and convergence – in a user centric way is where my heart is. Too bad SharpCast doesn’t really deliver on it’s own promise. At least not yet.

I’ve been following SharpCast for a while. They have managed to put together attractive investments - over $16.5 Million - before launching their first alpha application. Very impressive. I was also impressed with Gibu Thomas, their CEO, and his interesting and refreshing view on data synching and common languages. Share and access your data from anywhere at any time –without resorting to “file exchanges” – couldn’t agree with that more.

I was obviously intrigued when I read about their app going public this morning at TechCrunch. I immediately went to their site and downloaded the application. SharpCast chose to go “the client way” – a downloadable Windows client instead of a web based approach. A debatable approach? Maybe. Do we expect much out of 12 Megabytes of downloaded software? Absolutely.

The application itself is very mature technically, definitely for a first run, but not very intuitive. While the interface is simple, clean and even slick, it takes time to found your way to creating a new album and to sharing it. It currently offers two use cases – sharing of photos and of contacts. The contacts sharing option is not really ready yet (no contact collection and filtering, for example, which makes it kind of useless). The photo sharing feature looks like the intended killer penetration use case. It does look nice – classier then Picasa and much better then MSN, but still a bit too much of a “me too”. I opened my first album, imported a few photos and looked to access with my mobile. And here I found the real problem.

I searched and searched and could not find a hint on how to “share with my mobile”. anywhere! After 15 minutes I gave up and backtracked to the online help (I’m a man, I have to try the hell out first). Then it struck me! I must have a mobile client! And SharpCast offers one for – get this – Palm and Windows Mobile only!

Wait a minute! You just created all that noise, raised all that money, got me to download and install 12 Megabytes of software on my aging and moaning laptop…and you leave me hanging with a useless application? As a matter of fact, you offer a mobile solution for the fraction of mobile users that for some reason purchased a Palm or Window Mobile phone? How Not user centric is that?? This ain’t convergence!

So here goes guys – I own a RAZR! None of my friends or family member, or anyone I would like to share photos with, owns a Windows Mobile or a Palm! Check out SoonR – they offer WAP based sharing which WORKs on my phone. Maybe it doesn’t take $16M to build it, maybe it’s not that classy looking, maybe it has shortcomings, but it WORKS. I understand the approach behind a higher end application, but come on! Build a Java client or grant WAP access. Just give me something I can actually USE!

To me that’s a killer right there. I do have other reservations, though. Photo sharing and contact synching are too exhausted and saturated use cases. I wont even start counting the companies I know that offer similar services. It really takes a fresh approach to make it worth it. The client is too heavy and is available only for windows right now. I couldn’t tell if SharpCast is ready to deal with data transcoding – from media files to work documents – a key barrier before going mass market. Right now SharpCast is a niche service for traveling professionals and their applicative message is a bit overused. I’m not sure this is what they have in mind, but that’s where they are right now.

Now I have a lot of respect to the SharpCast fellas. This is also why I expect more. They clearly know how to build a company and how to develop a product, which is why I’ll come back for the next version. At my next visit I hope I’ll see they will have gotten the user centric and marketing angles right too.

      

I ran into Fo.rtuit.us on Techcrunch. In a nutshell, a service for meeting new people NOT based on typical matching algorithms but on random matching that you opt to accept …or not. A friends matching service based on serendipity.

Innocent match making service? I wonder…

Is Fo.rtuit.us  Fa.bulo.us?  OR  us.ele.ss? 

Does any simple, clean service deserve traction or do you actually have to try hard, build something complicated, find three barriers to entry and a viable business model to deserve a mention? And does Fo.rtuit.us meet the right criteria?

I call that “Actionable Brainstorming”. Build what you can and let people decide whether it’s useful or not. The basis of any brainstorming session is that you let any idea – as stupid or crazy as it may sound, out in the open. This is the only way unrelated hooks, mediocre or crazy ideas meld and mature to solutions that wouldn’t have been created if the ideas were censored to begin with.

Its not just about the ideas, but about the way they are carried out. If they are simple enough, flexible enough and harmless enough they will probably develop into something else, merge with other existing services or just fade away. The point is not to hold back because you never know.  I believe these type of products can create change, bring about innovation in much the same way as a well designed “heavy duty” idea.

A few months ago Michael Arrington covered i4giveu.com  - a web2.0 confession site. 
Is i4giveU  - Fa.bulo.us?  OR  us.ele.ss?  depends on who you ask, and many people criticized Michael for even giving it a mention on Techcrunch. I4giveU is another “actionable brainstorming” type of service. As I also know its founder (Alon) and even gave him a tip or two regarding how it should work – I know it was a quick set up, “walk the walk” and not just “talk the talk” type of idea. As with Fo.rtuit.us, I say bring it to light and let people decide.

Some, if not most, of “these” services will just fade away, others remain under the shade of the long tail and the rest will see more light under the ‘main stream bell’. The point is:

No one holds the keys to the “gateway” of good ideas except the public at large.

Fo.rtuit.us doesn’t strike me, but I can imagine a good take given its simple and clean philiophy. Who knows. We’ve all seen colossal ideas and projects fail only to prove that:
Time+Money+Many people+Detailed_design_+Big_corporate_name  does NOT EQUAL Success.

I personally will try simple services that I can register to in a second and use. Much more then yet another My Space clone or other Big mama.

      

I attended a Genesis Technology Vision event yesterday and was pleasantly intrigued. It was not the typical, stereo-typed VC day a working bee would expect, but a real, candid discussion about the role of mobile services and technology in a converging world. It did focus, naturally, on the innovation landscape and potential, which got me thinking again about the potential for new communications apps in a converging environment. I have managed to put together pretty substantiated opinions about the limitations of traditional communication apps (Email, IM, SMS, Voip) when it comes to convergence, but have not a clue about mobile blogging. Is it yet another buzz-hype or a real, uncovered need waiting for innovators to solve and prosper?

Let’s think this through for a minute. Blogging is not a trivial mobile app at all. I can actually think of totally different applications - one for writers and one for readers. I trust mobile browsing will become the dominant reading tool and therefore focus on mobile posting. Since the advantages of a PC are so dominant when it comes to “regular” posting, the natural use case would be a value add, complimentary one - basically capturing a spontaneous moment. That particular moment can be described textually, visually or both. It can justify a brand new post, add flavor to an existing post or simply comment on a previous one. Various editing tools seem to be required - Spell checking, tagging, previewing and simple editing of at least a subject line and a descriptive sentence.

Then, as a publisher, I’d like my readers to receive an indication about the mobile origin of a particular entry. After all, my mobile testing and photo capturing skills are not something to brag about.

And I haven’t even touched on the need to manage more then one blog at a time, comment on other people’s blogs, search for blogs, receive RSS alerts and so forth. It seems endless!

Equipped with enthusiasm I googled “mobile blogging applications“. and then “blogging from my mobile“. Nada. A pile of techie stuff. Actually I did find and click a sponsored link, Hblogger, which turned to be mobile blogging software for Palm devices. I took a moment to ponder the business logic behind creating such an application for Palm, and then it was time for help. I turned to my friend Alon who pointed me to three possible solutions - Pico, Shozu, and Flickr moblogging. Pico seemed like a sophisticated mobile posting app. It supposedly works with every XML RPC powered which basically means all modern blogs out there (are we actually supposed to know that term???). However the application is available for Symbian devices only and I own a Motorola RAZR. Ouch. I moved on to Shozu. Posting through Shozu is a bit of a trick since Shozu is a mobile picture sharing application, not mobile blogging. Since Shozu supports uploading to Flickr and since Flickr support direct posting to a blog, there is some transitive sense that according to my friend Alon does the trick. However, Shozu, despite having more clients then Pico do, still do not have an option for my RAZR.

Beat up but undeterred, I moved on to Flickr. Flickr has taken a simple route but one that actually works. If you are technically challenged like I am, here is a “simple” step by step guide:

1. Follow Flickr’s instructions and link your Flickr account to your blog. Cheat #1: don’t forget to add “xmlrtc” to your blog’s web address, 10 minutes of misery right there.

2. Flickr then generates a unique email address for you which will act as a posting proxy. You can receive your unique email address via email.

3. Add a Flickr contact to your mobile address book. Cheat #2: copy and paste the email address to a web sms application and send it to your mobile. Then use the phone to extract the email address from the SMS and save it as a new email contact, preferably a contact that starts with an “A”.

4. From that point on, anything you send to that address will be immediately posted as a new entry. Cheat #3, Flickr will use the picture file name as the entries subject, not very convenient. You need to remember to rename the picture before you post it.

I tried it. Got an entry with a weird subject I had to immediately go online and delete.

Now how ugly is that? Random subject, No editing, no formatting, no reviewing, “straight forward” activation and a very “intuitive” user experience. And we’re talking about the best one out there i could find after a couple of hours of search!

Unacceptable.

The big problem with the current state of mobile blogging is not lack of need. It is with quality. The flaws easily outweigh the benefits. No-one seems to have figured out how to really provide mobile blogging on a mobile device. No-one seems to have figured how users can feel comfortable with the expected results of their mobile actions. Bloggers are regular users, not gadget freaks, and they need to be approached as such. I believe an echo-system will be created, but it will require some fresh approaches and some macro level iterations, at least.

      

I love Mark Cuban. More importantly, I adore his attitude. Very NBA 2.0, definitely a primary factor in my support for Dallas taking it all this year. Most people I know associate Mark Cuban with Broadcast.com and with being an NBA “Badboy”, but he is also a great blogger (thanks Yaron for referring me). My favorite entry, so far, is called I’m a Whiner, in which Mark articulates about the underrated productive outcome of consistent whining: (more…)

      

Last night my young neighbor called me and asked to “come over and talk about a business”. Given the fact my neighbor always looked like the regular 19 year old skater I was surprisingly intrigued. “Sure” I replied casually – “why don’t you drop by at around 10pm. “And do you mind if I bring my business associate along?” he added. “ No problem” I said, even more curious now due to the development, “I’ll be happy to listen …and will be glad to help”. (more…)

      

I’ve been waiting for this one for a long time. My dear buddy Francois Depayras contributed the following entry. Besides being a true pro, Francois is also a great writer. If you feel critical about the butt-naked king, this one’s for you! I hope it’s a first of many more to come. Here goes:

“It is not without a tiny bit of nervousness that I write these lines… Indeed when my good friend Aner invited me to “say what’s on your mind, go for the jugular”, it was a mighty tall order.

Technically un-savvy, networkly a lemon, and protocolly inapt I though it difficult to write about such grandiose topics without sounding like an ass and way out of my tree-house. Then I realized that it would be once more in many times over, so what’s the biggy?

Ok then: MySpace sucks, their IM blows a bigger one. Skype wasn’t worth $4B – not by a mile. Digg is merely an Apple-centric Fark.com. Google hasn’t come up with something innovative in 18 months (sure, sure, prove me wrong…Google Earth, Google Map… Google Video – who’s interface was apparently designed by the same kids who run the special Olympics every year – there are some glimpse of hope… but I’m expecting more, sorry). And finally, Flickr, the ultimate Artiste wannabe who’s picture of the statue leaning against the sunset only matches the size of the photograph’s numerous penile picture, once you’ve accepted him as a friend. And please, let’s keep posting the “Wow… looks awesome” or “lol, you rock dude!” over and over again. The entertainment factor never dies. (more…)

      

I was 35 yesterday…the one liner: fantastic age, really, but one at which you begin making uxcuses…

Seriously, I had a great day. Tamar, my dear sister, got me the best birthday present - the official DeGardener T-shirt! For those interested, they retail for $19.99. Order online!

      

Confession: I never liked the Beatles (all my Beatles adoring friends - I love you, please forgive me).  I think they were an over-hyped, well marketed group with mediocre musical talent and shallow philosophy. Out of all four, John Lennon is the one I dislike the most. The classic example of a spoiled talented child that thinks too highly of his own importance, never takes responsibility over his own actions and goes wacko with money and fame. Paul McCartney has long ago cliche’ed his way to model citizenship and  billionaire-hood. Good for him, as long as I don’t have to listen to yet another hotel-piano-bar-worthy tune. George Harrison I actually liked a lot. Alone though. He was funny, talented, under appreciated, didn’t take himself too seriously and most importantly put together great work after the Beatles were (thankfully) done with. And Ringo,  oh Ringo….great name, great timing, great location. Good guy, lucky guy.

The trigger to this post is the “Apple vs. Apple” saga. Like most people, I appreciate Apple and it’s products but I’m not a Steve Jobs or Apple fanatic. Still, I don’t remember enjoying such ass-whooping in a while. Apple Corps has got some nerve! How dare they?! How greedy can they be?? Does anybody - Beatle fans, Paul McCartney, Apple Corps directors and attorneys - actually think that they have a claim to any iPod / Apple trademark or logo on claims of being ”a music product”? Do they actually expect us to believe that something that belongs to them was stolen? How disrespectful can they be to actual Beatle fans?

What I really fear is the growing cynicism with copyright abuse. Intellectual property laws have become the practice of greedy bullies  - practice that has zero to do with intellectual property. The whole idea is to protect and respect innovation  and creation. It has turned into an ambulance chasing contest. I hope this ruling is a precedent and that it preludes some winds of change.

A friend of mine sent me this O! news clip from YouTube entailing how John Lennon actually invented the iPod. Hilarious. Enjoy.

      

With deep anger I read about the continued attacks of spammers on the blue security website AFTER they shut down their anti-spamming business. It turns out that the spammers didn’t even want to give them a chance to post a farewell message.

On the 10th of May I wrote a post about the essence behind the fight of Blue Security (A.K.A – the Kong Fu Frog) against spammers. My basic rational drew an analogy from the cold war era – the Second Strike Doctrine. When the Soviet Union and the United States both realized no side could win a nuclear war (no matter if one side started an all out attack) the initial attack didn’t take place in the first place. This lead to the stale mate we all know as the cold war (or peace). (more…)

      

In an effort to accelerate user acquisition, specifically in the US and Canada, Skype has decided to make Skypeout free in those regions (instead of $.02 per minute, the price until today). For those not familiar, “Skypeout” is a term referring to all Skype calls that eventually reach a regular phone – mobile or landline – and not another computer.

This is the first serious attempt at making “real life regular calls” absolutely free of charge. While Skypeout is basically perceived as a “computer to phone” voice call, various features and plugins make it possible for users to squeeze the system for much more. For example, Skype conferencing makes it possible to conference two “regular phone numbers”, including your own, and facilitate a phone to phone conversation, just like a regular call you are used to making, only for free. Remote Skype extensions such as SoonR, Eqo and Iskoot release users of the burden of sitting in front of their computer as well. And these are just two “cheats” I was able to quickly come up with.

Free minutes, everyone. User centric? Maybe. I don’t like it though. Om Malik thinks it’s a good thing. I find it scary. (more…)

      

MySpace launched its Instant Messenger 2 days ago (MySpaceIM, download here) and marked yet another milestone in the recent resurrection of the IM market. If 3 years ago we were facing a stagnant, confused, walled gardened menu of 3 independent IM clients (AIM/ICQ, MSN, Y!), we now have 3 additional ones to choose from – MySpace, Google and Skype. Out of the latest additions, MySpace stands out as the farthest from the boat. I can imagine the so called rational process behind the decision to go with IM, after all the MySpace contact list is indeed a very valuable, unique, communication prone buddy list. But that’s where it ends. My hunch is that this time ego-trip and erroneous judgment prevailed over simple common sense. (more…)

      

This post is a reaction to one of the most amazing emails I ever received. My guess is that this email reached me by total fluke. These spammers do not know me as a Blue Security member (the anti-spam community http://www.bluesecurity.com/) …they just blasted to their normal 1 giziilion distribution list and I just happen to be in there.. Here’s a short extract to help you ‘get in the mood’:

(more…)

      

I am often asked about my own favorite blogs (in addition to Techcrunch and Mashable, of course). I am also often pinged about starting points - where to begin with mobile data, with web 2.0 and with internet software. I will do my best and share a modest contribution of my own favorites every week. My first take is with the professional blogs that made it to my own Netvibes home-tab.

1. Signum sine tinnitu - Guy Kawasaki, one of the original Apple employees, founder and CEO of Garage.com is responsible for this enlightening and entertaining blog. Guy makes writing look so easy it hurts. My personal favorites are the “top 10 lies” series - of Marketers, Engineers, Entrepreneurs and VCs.

2. Kelly’s Think Tank - I discovered Kelly Odel rather lately and I get excited each time he issues a new post. Kelly too has the gift of telling it simply. The blog deals with leadership and marketing and manages to convey complicated messages in a simple and fun way. My favorites are The Worlds Shortest Marketing Plan and The Worlds Shortest Marketing Plan 2.1

3. Sviolka’s Context - Time to put your serious hat on. Yes, John Sviolka’s writing does not necessarily translate to fluffy and simple reading, but it’s one of the most important blogs I encountered. Each posting can be a marketing textbook chapter. My own personal favorite - Marketing Remix.

4. O’Reilly’s Radar - Remember when guru meant “extremely professional” and not “he who talks about himself in 3rd person”? - O’reilly is a web 2.0+ guru, the old fashioned way. And if O’reilly is too detailed for you, then you should follow it even more closely.

5. Wap Review - No, it’s not just Wap. If you wish to stay updated on the web’s penetration to mobile data then WAP review maybe the best scanner for you.

      

Two important contributions to fusion are being noted these days. Interestingly, both are driven directly or indirectly by Skype.

SoonR are adding Skype to their basic service. For those of you who are not familiar with SoonR – Gil Rosen reviewed them as well as other Remote Access Services a while back here in Degardener. The idea behind adding Skype to SoonR is simple and smart. Once you use your mobile phone as a “remote access / remote control” to your PC, it makes all the sense in the world to use it as a Skype extension as well. I haven’t used it yet as it’s not available to the general public (Michael Arrington did), but I imagine the call itself is generated via Skypeout from the PC to both the destination and the callers mobile phone, which means Skypeout credits are required even if you’re calling a Skype user. (more…)

      

I am a bit schizophrenic when it comes to Triple play convergence. Triple play is the most rational conclusion of any long term analysis of the relevant markets. Be it Voice, Pictures, Video and Data or TV, Internet, Landline and Mobile – there is too much sense in their respective consolidation and integration. I, however, don’t see the quantum leap happening any time soon. I do see a long march of small steps that will take quite a few years to reach a critical “Triple Play” mass. Make no mistake, the march is very much on and all players should be in focused of their strategy board. But that’s true at the micro level. In the actual battlefield. The overall transition will take many years.

Here are the top 10 inhibitors I see:

1. User Need and Education – errr…who exactly needs it? Some people think it’s the most significant factor. Advocating the benefits of triple play will take generations in Hi-Tech years. My generation already has a difficult time making use of VOIP. Most of us do not have DVR or VOD, and if we do we use like we used our VCR. Most of us do not have smart phones (they are too clumsy, buggy and expensive), have never downloaded an application to a mobile device and have never looked for IP alternatives when it comes to mobile data or TV broadcasting. Significant early adopters, yes, but we all are still a long way from shore. (more…)