Technically Speaking

IBGS made an announcement this afternoon naming Paul O’Flaherty to their board of directors as their Director of IT. Here is a bit from the press release:

Effective April 1, 2008

Paul O’Flaherty owner of Your Web and co-founder of Bloomer.dk has accepted the position of IBGS Director of Information Technology. Mr O’Flaherty resides in Næstved, Denmark, will be in charge of developing and overseeing the managing of the IBGS internet operations.

Mr O’Flaherty has for the past 10 years developed his business, culminating in Your Web, a Web Design, Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Consulting Company. In 2007 Paul co-founded and oversees the day to day activities of Bloomer.dk, a social networking group for people in Denmark.

Technically Speaking, I think this is a wise move by IBGS to enhance their online marketing.

Quite interesting how a social network is now attracting all the top dogs even from what was one of the coolest places to work, Google. The real question is how long will this defection last, and what does Facebook offer to the cool top echelon of Google employees? One thing is for certain, Facebook has become a major place of employment for those wanting to work at the new cool place to work in the valley.

While they have created new jobs for those ex-Googlers that want to continue working at a company, many of the ex-Googlers have left to start their own startup. Funny thing is that Facebook has powered many a small company, mostly companies that have been formed around the openness of the Facebook development platform. So while only so many can work directly for Facebook, there are others like myself that have benefited from the growth of Facebook working at an ad network that launched last July that primarily was formed to help these developers monetize their new applications; or fb apps.

When we started we had no idea if the growth of the development platform would be as extraordinary as it has been. We have been along for the ride and our growth has been quite phenomenal from the inside looking out. Of course as I blogged earlier today on the official Lookery blog, we have had our sights on bigger social networks; even earlier than other ad networks would admit.

Technically Speaking, I think the wild Facebook ride will continue on through 2008 into 2009 and beyond. I just wonder how many more will go work for Facebook? I’m sure we will see some more big names make the eventual stop in for a desk at Facebook HQ.

While the music biz thinks that a taxation of everyone is the way to go, the backlash is quite evident. The music biz needs the slave musician in order to survive. The case in point is heard 1000 times over and more so these days by any smart band, you don’t need a label in order to make a living in the biz. Now even though 50 cent had the leverage of a big label, he too realizes that he can build his own fan base without a big label.

The key of course is how badly the musician wants to work in the new music biz vs the old “Please sign my band!” regime that dominated for many years. If you want slavery, sign a recording contract and watch your dreams tumble when you don’t meet the accountants bottom line. It’s not worth it. You can be free and record your own music and still distribute it, tour, merch – merch – merch your band – and keep all the proceedings for yourself.

Now we see that you can also build your own “mailing list” these days and have your fan base to yourself also. I think the new business model for the music biz requires a little work, but the tools are all there. The question you have to ask yourself is – do you want to do the legwork and use the tools, or would you rather succumb to music biz slavery?

Technically Speaking, if I was still an active musician in a band, I would do the first as the tools abound everywhere, and you don’t have to sign a slave contract in order to do what you want to do – play your music and tour the world.

When the NY Times finally acknowledges that there is something going on in the blogosphere, it must be mainstream. While I doubt highly that Mike nor Rafat shared much with this Times reporter writing about other writers, just enough to make a good Friday afternoon showdown in the valley via NY.

What I found interesting is that neither one admitted to building a blogging empire their own way. We are not blind, we see both groups, TechCrunch, Inc. and PaidContent, Inc., doing what they can to be at the top of the game. The funny thing is Mike is in ways like other bad guys we all love to hate. No matter how much you say “Boo!!!” Mike still rides off in the sunset daily with his cigar and his fine wine in hand.

People seem to forget that Mike started a little technology blog a couple years ago, and built the empire pretty much on his own with a few hired guns that made a name for themselves along the way. While some of them recently barfed at the thought of writing about another startup, others went on to bigger projects only to return to where they find the juice flowing again. The nice thing is that makes this blogging world even that much bigger.

My only advice, like I should be giving some, is that they need to strike in 2008 while the fire is hot. Establish a foothold like TechCrunch has already established. Other avenues are becoming more compelling to ignore. Live video has been the hot thing, and with people going over to platforms such as blog TV that makes it easy to start up your own show, who will be reading all the writing in 2009?

Technically Speaking I hope that someone is reading!

I guess the music industry is now finally waving the white flag. Well they actually have been waving it for years as the record industry never quite grasped the fact that 1999 wasn’t just about revolution and Napster sharing, it was about years of recording business slavery coming to an end.

Still there are artists that will continually be screwed and spit out by the industry. Case in point is one of my favorite bands of the past few years, Bullets & Octane. They got a deal by RCA who in turn basically did nothing for them, and subsequently drop them off in the ditch. The good news is the very talented frontman is saying “Screw it, I am a songwriter, and I’m writing new tunes!” Check out his site on MySpace, and support his efforts by purchasing his Vol 1 on iTunes.

Molly who is better known as DemoGirl questioned and received some digg page 1 love this afternoon. Her question or commentary rather was about startups and how stupid their sites are. One of the comments in the digg comment thread of doom was rather funny. He referred making his site a pain in the a$$ as a way to keep retards out. My reply of course was smart a$$ as usual, he and his 4 D&D buddies would make a killer startup – basically.

Technically Speaking, that’s it for a bit – surprised? laptop

Where else do you think I end up when I leave the STL for a short trip?

Fun in the sun is over, and back in the STL again since Tuesday. Even though I was enjoying some time away from the STL weather, I was still working a bit.

While the coverage today of my company Lookery reaching a billion ads served a month earlier than we predicted, it wouldn’t have happened if the team I work with wasn’t as dedicated as we are. Without all of us on this great team of 6 busting our collective asses every single day, we would have probably not reached our goal this quickly.

Now I still do receive press releases and information that I could blog daily, if I had the time and energy left to do so. There are a few items I want to cover before I disappear heads down as Lookery heads for 2 billion ads served or whatever goal we want to snatch from the mouth of our in awe doubters and onlookers.

First item: Planypus. These guys so rock. I received this news release a couple days ago, and Alex – back in the day, I probably would have been the first to report your news. Planypus mobile is now live. Now I have really been a supporter of Planypus for quite some time now. I know there are many out there who think it’s this service or that service that does it better.

Is that the reality, or is it that they haven’t given these guys from Chicago / Washington DC a real chance? Take a look for yourself because somebody is going to “get it”. This is the service that should be making the TechCrunch reviews and everyone should be putting them in the same leagues as some of the other (should I dare say laughable) competitors. When that somebody “figures it out”, it will be too late. Just like MySpace wasn’t worth a dime as a bridesmaid to Friendster a few years back, currently two cowboys are sitting pretty with million dollar bank accounts, while one guy tried bar ownership only to try to come back and …. I’ll leave that one alone.

Next Item: Blogged.com – seems to have my blog (yes the one you are reading) ranked in at a 9 out of 10 on their blogged scale. Quite interesting, as I guess they may be reading my back catalog of articles. As many of you know, I haven’t had the time to be one to play beat the clock anymore and get the story out first. As far as the site goes, it is well designed and is a good resource to find new blogs to read.

As we all know, and confirmed by an article I found on RWW, blogging has started to trend downward. Do I believe it’s time for a blogging union? Not at all. For me personally, blogging was just another way of me using it to step up to bigger and better things. I currently use other skills besides writing to entertain the readers, and that is fine.

It did however take blogging to get me here; or at least launch me on a path to where I wanted to be again. If I was still blogging full time, I’d definitely have branched out into the more interesting areas of live video blogging such as what my bud down in the Big D has been up to these days. I hear he has all sorts of radio show, and live blogging offers rolling in now.

Technically Speaking, I have probably taken up too much of your time and it’s actually time I finish up some work . alcohol rehab

Lookery (some of us) were there the past two days at GSP08 in sunny and warm San Diego, CA. While a couple of us were there, someone must stay home to keep working to get the business growing beyond our last July expectations.

Dave, who use to be the CTO of Compete, and Lookery’s CTO had a nice day earlier this past week – - – He was at home cranking out code in the Boston area this week, weather was probably nearly the same as my below picture of STL.

So you ask, “Rex, what about Lending Club?” — Have you been by the blog lately and seen our news roll? Our news roll looks like the “who’s who” of mainstream media. Check it out lately? The Washington Post, Time, Business Week, CNBC, Forbes, Fox Business, etc. I would say the Lending Club is on the right track.

I’m looking for some blogger(s) currently to do a bit of social media work. I’m nowhere near the iconic league of some bloggers, but I do have some work for dedicated people that can do the work. I’m looking for the following types of bloggers. Travel bloggers who want to check out a new site in closed beta. Must be well traveled and have seen a lot and can write some basic tips or recommend places. That is first and foremost on my list.

Next up – Blogger(s) that blog about, or know a good one you can refer to me, the following topics (all separate, but can crossover) – telemedicine/eHealth/remote vital sign monitoring – law enforcement/security/prison monitoring/asset recovery – sports/training/bio-monitoring – investments & stock-picks (would like to be a strong OTC type here, but all finance stock related is good).

If interested or are looking for some work – - Drop me a line today and tell me a bit about yourself and why you think you could do this job.

Now let’s finish up a with a picture. While a few of the people were enjoying San Diego, CA the past few days. The below is STL reality. Sigh. Winter in the STL – rain, rain, sleet, ice, sleet, snow, and today? 40 degrees!! Have no fear, I’ll be here March 12th – March 18th.

Technically Speaking, contrary to what you might hear in the aftermath of GSP08, no one talked to me, met me, or even saw me there. If they say they did, it must have been fake Rex Dixon. The real one was here in the STL, enjoying the mess that snow and winter weather causes. best buy