Hello world. It’s been an amazing experience writing this blog. I’ve met people from all over the world who have interesting ideas and fascinating companies. You’ve also given me tons of feedback about this blog and I’ve listened…

Recently, Michael Galpert told me to utilize full RSS feeds. The reason I couldn’t do so was technical (we had a glitch in the backend), but now, we’ve enabled them. HTML formatted and images! So, RSS is up and running fully. If you’ve not subscribed, here is the link. Thank you to Michael for the tip… and I know a lot of you wanted this as well.

Another change to this blog is going to be that the front page (where this is posted) is going to have between 0-2 postings a day, not many more…. I want to post thoughtful and intellectual postings to the blog instead of a multitude of random thoughts.

Introducing… Ramblings. After having my second espresso in my life (last night), I stayed up late and had the epiphany to create a tumblog for my random style posts. This will allow me a lot more flexibility without dilluting the front page of this blog. You’ll notice a new tab above the fold entitled “Thought Stream.” In the next 24 hours, I am going to change the name to “Ramblings,” but you get the point. Click the link and you’ll get to my tumblr page. The posts will vary from digital media and entrepreneurial ideas to random hockey/baseball and personal things.

Just wanted to introduce these changes as they were all products of listening to you, my readers. Thank you so much for your feedback and continued support of this blog!

Sherri and I ended up with 2 floor seats to the Genesis show last night because her brother had a few extra tix.  I had never seen Genesis before but had grown up around Phil Collins’ solo stuff because my mother loves him.

I hit some major traffic on the way to the show (coming from Westchester) but when I finally arrived, we went in and took our seats.  The set itself was huge - lots of backdrops and lights… certainly a performance.  The event staff blocked off seating behind the stage and on the corners, so I’d say the stadium was only at 70% capacity.

It was a solid show.  Most impressive to me was Phil and Chester playing a 5 minute drum duet at the end of the set.

Mark and Sherri loved the show and knew most of the music (if not all).  I knew about 3 songs which is usually the opposite when going to shows with Sherri.

There are not many acts that can play stadiums anymore, certainly not when they get into their later years.   Genesis is one of few bands which include U2, DMB, Madonna, Streisand and maybe one or two others that are able to pull  a Stadium tour off.  Keep on rocking.

Out in Chicago, Greg Verdino, a buddy of mine & Chief Strategy Officer at crayon delivered a powerful presentation to people who paid good money to listen to him.

Fortunately, Greg put his presentation on his blog this AM and I went through it quickly before my lunch meeting.  I’ve been thinking about the 46 slides in his deck and they are crafted beautifully and deliver a solid message:  stop speaking.

The presentation starts with market statistics (how unique) but even they are powerful: in 2006, $285 billion was spent on advertising.  That’s a lot of money, especially when introducing just over 32,000 products to the marketplace.

My favorite slides in his deck which reiterate what many of us have been saying for some time now:  if you think YOU or your consumers are in control, you are wrong.  No one is in control.  And most importantly, stop talking… and listen (slide 32).  Listening is one of the most important lessons in life… not just in marketing, but in life.

Message to brands [from me]:  If you have nothing to add to the conversation, don’t say it.  It can only hurt you.  When you have something relevant to say, people will listen… but you can’t speak 24/7.

My friend & colleague Morty passed me the URL of an interesting story about the 29-year old behind PlentyofFish.com. I had heard about PoF once or twice through some people who are dating, but other than that, it’s been off my radar screen.

Did you know that PoF is generating upwards of 1 billion pageviews/month, doing close to $5,000,000+ of yearly revenue, and there is one employee/owner/proprieter? Wow.

If you look at the website, it’s nothing special. Actually, it’s sort of hideous. PoF is not the first company to create a free dating website (absolutely no credit cards, etc)…

What’s his secret sauce? I’d surely love to know.

I was sitting in a meeting this week for a company that I’m advising and they were talking about Adobe AIR and the new integrated runtime environment opportunities that are now presented for their specific service/company. I felt about 10 minutes late to the party. AIR? What did that stand for? I knew of Adobe Apollo.

Yes, for those 10 minutes, I had no idea what they were discussing. A fish out of water. A string hanging off a guitar during a solo. Alright, you get the point. So, I started doing some research on this “AIR” and turns out that it IS Adobe Apollo, just another name for it.

AIR stands for Adobe Integrated Runtime. Per the official website:

Adobe® AIR™, formerly code-named Apollo, is a cross-operating system runtime that allows developers to use their existing web development skills to build and deploy rich Internet applications to the desktop.

Lots of possibilities for this platform. The number one possibility I’d like to see it enable/bring back? PointCast. If PointCast had launched utilizing the Adobe AIR platform, the technical hurdles that the developers faced in the 90s would have went away and PointCast may be the next new network. Who knows. I’d love to place a bet that a similar [PointCast] model will emerge soon utilizing this platform.

After going to Adobe’s website and reading about the platform, I downloaded my first app. I’ve been off Twitter for a few months now because the tweets got to be annoying and I disabled receiving messages to my mobile phone (I even removed the Twitter sidebar from my blog). I’ve had a few people ask me why I’m not Tweeting so I decided to give it another try… and using the AIR platform, I downloaded Tweetr.

Per Tweetr’s blurb on AIR’s showcase gallery:

Tweetr allows people using twitter.com to send and receive messages from their desktop in 140 characters or less. The client packs many pleasant surprises like automatic url shortening, 3D transitions, new version notifications and font size settings for complicated Asian languages. The latest version now allows the users to see user replies and direct messages. If you use twitter then Tweetr is one of the best desktop clients you can use for Mac and PC.

So I’m back in Twitter through Tweetr and will see how it all works out. I’ve already gotten some error codes in the App but all-in-all, works OK. If I’m still using it in 2 weeks, we know it has sticking power.

I’m truly interested in seeing the apps that come out which utilize AIR. The initial apps will be simple, but over time, they will become more rich and complex. And yes, I’m calling a PointCast type network to emerge in the next 3 years.

Spent the afternoon down at Cooper Union in Manhattan to listen to Amazon galavant about their Amazon Web Services suite/platform.  I chose to attend the event because I knew very little about the platform before today and wanted to increase my knowledge base.  I also had some friends attending (Michael, Nate, Jonah, Jason, Howard, and others) and wanted to network with other successful New York innovators/entrepreneurs.  I even had the chance to meet Esther Dyson in person.

Amazon certainly impressed me with the event.  The general population knows Amazon as a shopping mall (says Fred Wilson), but if you ‘long’ them, they may very well turn into the Web OS.  From online storage, on-demand computing, and their recent entry into payment services, Amazon could very well provide the facilities that a next-generation application needs to get off the ground.  Why would an entrepreneur chose to use this new platform?  Simple:  leverage the power and economy of scale of Amazon and pay severely reduced rates over other independent providers.

Now, for me, I’m skeptical although, cautiously optimistic.  I like it a lot.  Almost too much.  It’s one of those things where it’s almost too good to be true.  From an investment standpoint, would you want to see one of your portfolio companies putting all their eggs in one basket, a basket that is brand new and doesn’t offer an SLA at this point?  What happens if Amazon’s S3 (cloud) goes down and your files cannot be found.  What if the EC2 (computing) goes down and your processes do not get executed, thus, your service/business returns either incorrect or no data.

I’m sure there are plenty of companies (some expressed them today) experiencing growing pains with the AWS service, but the benefits may outweigh the issues.  There were a few companies that showcased their products and companies like Mogulus is powered solely by AWS.  Other than the front-end and administration areas, it’s backbone is AWS.

New York has a thriving digital media scene as evidence today.  The participants in the presentation were all NY based companies (though Cruxy has people all over) and it’s great to see the industry picking up.  As an entrepreneur and digital media guy, I really enjoyed learning about AWS and look forward to studying it further for possible uses in the future.

I was browsing the Internet this morning when I came across this website: Real Fake Watches.

Wow. Impressive. RealFakeWatches.com. They aren’t hiding a thing; and it’s aggressive and kitchy at the same time.

What do these guys do? They produce fake watches. Not the watches you’d expect to find on Canal Street ($5 Rolex), but esssentially, bracelets that look like watches. Interesting. They aren’t too cheap either, priced around 36 Euros.

Will this be a new fad? Lets see if they get covered by Luxist, PSFK, or other trend blogs.

Personally, I really like the name and corporate identity.

I’m heading to the Amazon Web Services Conference today in Cooper Union from 2-6pm.  Anyone else going and want to meet up?  Here is the link to the registration page (free)

Details (per their page):

Who should attend:

• Entrepreneurs, founders and leaders of start-up/early-stage companies, and venture capitalists

Reasons to attend:

• Understand how to integrate Amazon Web Services into your business
• Find ways to cut fixed infrastructure costs while increasing reliability and scalability
• Hear what VCs look for when investing in early stage companies
• Learn from successful start-ups about their use of Amazon Web Services
• Network with local VCs and start-ups from your area

When: Wednesday, September 26th, 2-7pm

• 2-5pm Presentations on Amazon Web Services, how to attract VCs, and how successful start-ups have built their business using AWS’ solutions
• 5-7pm Networking/ Cocktail Reception

Where: The Great Hall, Cooper Union, 7 East 7th Street, New York, NY, 10003 Map and Directions

I’m a huge fan of sports and happen to like game shows… so when Electronic Arts announced their upcoming game, GameShow, for whatever reason, I didn’t take notice. Not many people did. However, lets look at it as it’s pretty unique and cool.

First off, IGN reviews GameShow here. It’s a free to play, downloadable PC game, that a live moderator asks trivia questions in the form of streaming video, audio, and text. You get points for right/wrong questions and can win prizes and schwag from advertisers/sponsors. Initially, it’s sports themed and may have sports celebrities partaking as moderators, but I do not see why they can’t extend the product line into other areas.

There is a game that we like to play when visiting Peabody’s Bar in Saratoga Springs… NTN Trivia. I’m going to assume it’s similar in the questions area, but different as there is no social networking component to NTN. I’m sure GameShow will take advantage of avatars, social networks, etc.

I’m predicting that this title will do fairly well. Not sure how EA is going to provide a live moderator 24/7, but I’m sure they’ll figure something out.

Commercials take place on channels usually. Well, how about a channel solely dedicated to commercials?

MTV was for music as Firebrand is for commercials. Maybe CMN is a better name. Notice I didn’t write CTV (Commercial TV), but CMN stands for Commercial Media Network. If you just existed on television today, you’d die. You need to be everywhere, but that’s another posting and another argument.

Firebrand emerged at the MIXX expo during Advertising Week [this week] to announce their launch. Greg Verdino, a friend and an executive over at Crayon which helped the launch, blogged about this which drummed up my interest. If Seth Godin were reading, he’d say Greg sneezed and I got infected.

Firebrand is interesting. Apparently, it’s on a channel that I’ve never heard of (Ion?) that reaches ninety something million homes. According to Greg’s posting:

It’s a new, opt-in entertainment and marketing destination that gives consumers interactive access to their favorite brands, products and promotions.

Crayon, who is founded by Joseph Jaffe, the author of Life After the :30 Second Spot, takes an interesting position of bringing back the 30 second spot.

I’m curious to see how Firebrand does… do consumers want to watch television commercials? That’s a thesis that Firebrand will play out and ultimately, a lot of television networks are anxious as well.

They go live on October 22 with their mobile, television, and web versions being released at the same time. If you’re interested in seeing their video, check it out here.