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Hey Utah, Where are the Tech Bloggers?

Posted on October 24, 2009 by jessestay

utah silhoutte I’ve discussed before that Utah (the state I live in) has a PR problem when it comes to Technology. We have some amazing businesses that have come out of Utah, but they all get snatched up, bought, and Utah continues to be a state not seen for its tech contributions. The truth is there are a ton out here, but no one knows about it. Today I’m not sure if you were aware, but Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google visited Utah and spoke at an annual Utah Technology Council event. I came across a video on local station Fox 13 KSTU’s website today where a press event happened with pressing questions towards Eric Schmidt.

What struck me is that the meeting consisted of Schmidt, 2 very conservative Senators from Utah (Hatch and Bennett – we know who he voted for last election – he ended the meeting calling them his “two favorite Senators”), and nothing but very fancily dressed top-notch media organizations. No tech bloggers. No one specifically from the tech world to report the event and ask the questions that really matter. What’s funny is that a lot of the room probably didn’t even understand a word Schmidt said – they were simply there to ask questions. If this were Silicon Valley that room would have been full of tech bloggers. They would have been the first to report on the event.

I want to know why I didn’t get an invite, or Matt Asay, or Phil Windley, or other tech bloggers from Utah weren’t invited to this event. At the same time I’m wondering who the other Tech Bloggers are in Utah. Utah has a lot of marketing bloggers, a lot of Mommy-bloggers (like Dooce), yet from what I can see there are very few tech bloggers trying to write original, regular, and interesting content for their readers. I visited Facebook a few weeks ago, and one of the first questions I was asked by those there was, “aren’t you like the only tech blogger in Utah?” I was a bit embarrassed by this question on behalf of Utah – there should be more people think of. Immediately I shared the people I knew, but frankly there just aren’t that many here. I want to change that perception.

I want to issue a challenge to my fellow geeks and technology enthusiasts in Utah. You don’t have to be a programmer or a developer or know the bits and pieces of architecture surrounding technology. You simply have to have a love and a passion for technology and learning about technology and learning what is new in the technology world. If this is you, I want you to start writing about it. Get out there and write something – spend half an hour a day, or if that’s too much, start by once a week, and build up as you are able to, but most importantly I want you to start writing and keep writing.

Any one of you can build an audience. This goes for those in and out of Utah. Specifically for Utah I need you to start writing and sharing with the world things like this. For Utah technology to be seen by the world we need more tech bloggers. Are you a Utah-based tech blogger? I want to know who you are. I want to help share your content and get other people reading your content. Of course, the same goes for anyone in any other state that reads this – I believe in those that are passionate about technology, and every one of you deserve to be heard. I’m really sad that no bloggers (that I’m aware of) were invited to this event.

Hopefully if you are in Utah or know someone in Utah that writes a Tech blog or wants to you can share this with your friends. I want to see more people blogging and less people Tweeting out there, especially if you’re in Utah.

Annoyances: My BlogWorld (Coke) Drinking Game

Posted on October 17, 2009 by jessestay

I’ve spent the last 3 days at BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada, and being the good Mormon I am I’ve pulled out my Coke or Pepsi and I played a little drinking game. Maybe it’s because my Excedrin hasn’t kicked in yet, but I’m quite simply annoyed by several things so if you notice me on a sugar-high while at the conference that’s why. Hopefully you picked your beverage of choice and were able to join me. Here were the rules:

1. “Twitter” – every time I heard the word “Twitter”, I took a sip of my Coke. Let’s face it – this is BlogWorld Expo, not TwitterWorld Expo. I think every single presentation I’ve been to has mentioned Twitter in some way. No blogging. No microblogging. Actually, I’m not even sure I heard the word Facebook at the expo (except by myself in the panel I was on, in which I was quickly flamed for thinking it was a good conversations platform, oh, and Mari Smith’s presentation which was all about Facebook). Come on guys – Twitter is not the entire blogging world – it has its place, but it should complement your blog, not replace it. We should be talking about the fact that people are leaving their blogs and losing the previous quality of blogging and switching to Twitter, not the fact that Twitter is a quality platform replacing blogs. Or, what about the simple concept of “microblogging” – Twitter did not sponsor this conference (nor do they have representation in any form) at all. Why not talk about Laconi.ca, or some of the things Automattic or SixApart are doing int he microblogging space? Why not PubsubHubbub or rssCloud? Drink.

2. “Scoble” – I love Robert to death – check the last few articles on this blog and you’ll probably see quite a few good mentions of him. He’s also a good friend. However I’m sick of him being the only blogger people ever mention here. How about mentioning some of the things up-and-coming bloggers are doing, and how pitching a large group of them can often be a more effective technique in pitching bloggers than pitching TechCrunch or Mashable or Readwrite Web? Robert Scoble’s awesome, but there are so many other things to talk about as well. Drink.

3. “Louis Gray” – Last year it was Robert Scoble. This year it’s Louis Gray. Louis is one of my best friends as you can probably tell from some of my tweets, and our families are good friends with each other. If you’re not following him, you should (as I mentioned earlier here). However, again, let’s stop the fanboyism at these conferences. Yes, these guys have influence, but they’re all normal people like you and me. Maybe it’s deserved, but I’m just tired of hearing the same names in every panel or presentation I attend. Drink.

4. “What party are you going to?” – Every day I’ve been here that’s been the topic of conversation. Yeah, Vegas is fun, but BlogWorld has brought bloggers who had no fun in College to the city and they all-of-the-sudden go into “I’m back in College” mode again. It’s like a 4-day frat-party the week BlogWorld is in town, and I’m tired of attending these parties where all they talk about is Twitter and everyone is drunk or gambling. Is this really fun? Maybe I’m missing out on something. (Oh, and why do we call these “Twitter” parties at “Blog” World???) Drink.

5. “iPhone” – Okay, I’m guilty of this as well, but it’s still driving me crazy. Everyone at this place has an iPhone! I kind of feel bad for the Android or the Pre or the Blackberry phones out there. I’m sure they feel a little left out. And when we go places, it’s all about, “let’s check into FourSquare” or “What Twitter Client are you using on your iPhone?” Maybe I’m just a little out of place as a software developer that thinks the Android is cool (when my contract is up I’ll be getting an Android phone). Drink.

6. “FourSquare” – Yes, my last annoyance. People are obsessed with it here! Who’s Mayor of the Expo? Who’s Mayor of the Hilton? Who’s Mayor of the elevator in the Paris. I’ve tried to keep up but I just can’t! Please stop – you’re making me hyper! Drink.

Wanna Launch Something at BlogWorld? Pitch Louis Gray (Here’s Why)

Posted on October 15, 2009 by jessestay

The inside joke at BlogWorld is that while the entire blogosphere is at BlogWorld Expo in Vegas partying and learning about blogging, the entire Blogosphere goes silent. This year, that silence is even more deafening as ReadWriteWeb is running their Real-time Summit in San Francisco and any of the remaining bloggers are there, “tweeting” away the events of the week. Robert Scoble even joked, “There is NOTHING more boring than a blog about blogging. Well, except one thing: a blog about a blogging conference. So, see ya on Twitter!” This is a nightmare for anyone trying to pitch a blogger this week and get any serious attention towards their product at such an ironic time. I have one tip: Pitch Louis Gray.

Yesterday Louis Gray wrote an inspiring post titled, “Hey Bloggers, Step Away from the Twitter for a Second… and Blog“. In the post he talked about this very phenomena and the fact that the blogosphere actually does go silent. He’s right!

In the meantime, Louis has cranked out a total of 3 blog posts since just last night and as I sit next to him at @drew’s cancer panel he is cranking out even more blog posts about various web topics and the panels he is attending. This is a man who wants, and likes to write! If there’s anyone you should be pitching this week it should be him, because you will actually get a real write up, instead of a 140 character Tweet.

Expect to see more blog posts from me as well this week – this whole “Tweeting” BWE09 is unproductive and unfruitful. I’ve got some really cool announcements I’m sitting on – stay tuned! Are there any other bloggers you see spending more time blogging and less-time partying and “tweeting” this week?

Dave Winer to Bring Realtime RSS to Millions via WordPress.com?

Posted on September 7, 2009 by jessestay

Today in a very inconspicuous post by Dave Winer, he demonstrated that his new real-time RSS protocol, rssCloud, could very soon be available to the millions of blogs, real-time on WordPress.com. Dave Winer, who played perhaps the most significant role in defining the RSS standard and the subsequent RSS 2.0 standard through which most blogs are read today, is taking the long-known extension to the RSS protocol to the masses with some sort of relationship he has built with Automattic, the owners of WordPress.com.

rssCloud vs. PubSub Hubbub

rssCloud was defined in its early form in 2001 as a solution to provide a “next step” for RSS to get instantaneous updates from blogs or websites wishing to push information immediately to readers. The readers weren’t quite ready for the standard at the time (see the Guitar Scene in Back to the Future), so it sat stale until this year when real-time updates again came to front and center for getting and retrieving massive amounts of information as they happen through sites like Twitter. Dave Winer says he adapted it in order to provide a better, more open microblogging solution that works outside and independent of Twitter.

Here’s how Winer explains it works:

1. The Writer gets an idea.

2. He or she enters it into the authoring tool, saves, it goes to a file, a feed.

3. The authoring software sends an Update ping to the Cloud (which is just a bit of software running on EC2).

4. The Cloud checks to see if anyone is subscribing to the Writer, and finds that indeed the Aggregator is.

5. He updated! says the Cloud to the Aggregator.

6. The aggregator then reads the feed, finds the new stuff and informs the Reader.

After less than a second the Aggregator has the update and the user is reading the content, real-time.

Pubsub Hubbub works similar. With this protocol, you have a “hub”, rather than the cloud, and the content provider pings the “hub” for every new post. The reader can then request to be notified by the hub (or hubs) if there is any new data. Google has taken the initiative on this particular protocol and is utilizing FeedBurner as their initial hub. The protocol is also designed for mostly blogs, rather than microblogs, which seems to be the space which Winer is targeting with rssCloud.

What’s the difference? Quite honestly I’m trying to figure that out myself. It would seem that the major differences are that a) with rssCloud, feeds expire after 24 hours, so aggregators need to make at least one call a day to notify the Cloud that they want to be notified. This has the advantage in that the Cloud doesn’t have to continue pinging even when aggregators aren’t there, but also increases the number of calls an aggregator must make.

The other difference is that Dave Winer is an individual developer while Google is a big company. If you ask me that doesn’t matter much due to the fact that these are both open protocols and both seek to decentralize the control of our data. Google’s response is disconcerting though where they seem to try and discredit Winer’s protocol. The more of these protocols the better (also see the OpenMicroblogging protocol). However, it is very appealing to see an individual developer, the inventor of RSS, so-to-say, take a protocol that has been around much longer and adapt it to work with modern standards. I want to see Dave succeed, but I hope they all work together. This is a space everyone benefits, despite the competition. Keep in mind that Dave isn’t the only guy behind this protocol either – there is an entire governing board that manages this standard.
Competition for Twitter?

So with this potential development, what does this mean for WordPress? First, millions of blogs will now instantly be real-time in the same way Twitter is real-time. Second, where Dave Winer wants rssCloud to be targeted towards the micro blogging space this could very well mean WordPress could be looking at something in that area to compete with Twitter. I predicted this at the beginning of this year, remember?

Here’s what I see happening: Automattic will utilize its BuddyPress and P2 platforms to create a decentralized microblogging platform that utilizes rssCloud to provide real-time updates. Wordpress.com will be extended to enable “mini-blogs” which accompany your existing blog and provide real time status updates anyone can subscribe to. Clients like Seesmic, TweetDeck, and PeopleBrowsr will utilize the rssCloud protocol as Aggregators and allow you to view all this data in one place in ways you could never do before.

Dave Winer’s demonstration today is HUGE news for the blogging world and decentralized micro-blogging. I can’t wait to see what happens.

UPDATE: You can download the WordPress plugin for rssCloud here. StayNAlive.com is now officially one of the first rssCloud-enabled blogs on the internet.

This post was posted at Exactly 9:36pm MST

Posted on September 4, 2009 by jessestay

Okay, not exactly my shortest post ever, but this post is to demonstrate that posting to your blog is just as real-time, if not more, than Twitter.

Hey Utah, You Have a Tech PR Problem

Posted on July 30, 2009 by jessestay

Laptop Megaphone Those like myself that live in Utah know there is a thriving tech startup community here. From early startups like Omniture, Freeservers, and Wordperfect, to newer ventures like SocialToo, TweetBeep, TodaysMama.com, FusionIO, i.TV (previously number 1 in the iTunes app store), and FamilyLink (the makers of the Facebook App, We’re Related, one of the top 5 apps on Facebook) there’s no shortage of innovation in the Tech community in Utah. Add to that some very talented investors like Bryce Roberts, co-founder of O’Reilly AlphaTech ventures, Peterson Partners, and the entire Sorenson Capital and vast array of angel investors and private equity options available, there’s no shortage of innovation and capital to support that innovation. Unfortunately though, money and innovation are only part of the equation. A company needs eyes. It is extremely difficult to grow a tech company without the attention of Silicon Valley and the technorati out there. So why is it that we so rarely see Utah companies in TechCrunch, or Mashable, or Gizmodo, or ReadWriteWeb even?

What amazes me is the vast amount of attention Boulder, Colorado startups get. I think they know how to generate news, because the main “incubator” for lack of a better term) of those companies is Tech Stars, and Tech Stars has an amazing success rate at cranking out fairly successful companies in relatively short amount of time. But I really don’t think Utah has any shortage of tech startups in similar timeframes when compared to Boulder. In fact, our startups in many ways have shaped the internet (University of Utah was one of the first 4 nodes of the internet, after all). On FriendFeed, I compiled a list of all the tech startups that either started in Utah and are now flourishing, or that are brand new and working to get off the ground that I could think of – this is what I came up with:

Omniture

Freeservers.com

Mozy

BackCountry.com

SocialToo.com

JibberJobber.com

Doba.com

FamilyLink.com (creators of the We’re Related app on Facebook)

Generations Networks (formerly Ancestry.com)

Wordperfect

Bungee Labs

FusionIO (where Steve Wozniak currently works)

PerfectSearch

TodaysMama.com

OurStory.com

Zagg, Inc. (makers of the Invisible Shield products, also keepers of one of the largest iPhone app directories)

Kynetx

Sorenson Media

BlueHost

i.TV

Move Networks

TweetBeep

Of course, that list is just off the top of my head – there are many more that I’m sure will come up in the comments. I look at this list of companies, and I look at the bustling activity of jam-packed rooms full of people at iPhone dev garages, Social Media developers garages, Tweetups, Social Media Club meetings, Launchups and more, why in the world is Utah having such a hard time getting into the tech Press of Silicon Valley? Utah has a serious tech PR problem, and I’d like to help fix it if I can.

So why the PR problem? Well, for one, correct me if I’m totally wrong here, but I’m not aware of many Tech bloggers in the area visible in the Silicon Valley scene, with over 1,000 subscribers that can get the word out easily. I’m aware of three right now, please correct me if I’ve missed you: Matt Asay, Phil Windley, and myself. Are there any more? I think this could change if more people in Utah focused on technology in their blogging. I’ve noticed a trend in Utah recently of many bloggers completely giving up on that, and it’s depressing, personally.

Secondly, of those 3 bloggers (sorry Matt and Phil – you’re going to hate me after this, I know), we’re not getting pitched by Utah companies. The majority of my blog audience right now, as you can see, are Silicon Valley, and states outside of Utah. Chances are that if you’re reading this you’re not even in Utah, and I think that’s sad, personally. Utah has a huge opportunity to get the bias of their local tech bloggers, which in turn could lead to TechCrunch mentions, TechMeme exposure and more, and they’re not even taking advantage of it. If you run an Open Source company, you should be pitching Matt Asay to write about you in his Open Road blog on CNet. Phil Windley is also very interested in that (as am I, occasionally), along with interesting startups and people for his IT Conversations podcast. If you’re building a social, real-time, or otherwise just plain cool tech startup you should be pitching me to write either here or on LouisGray.com, where I occasionally write.

picture-8

The darker states represent the higher traffic areas to StayNAlive.com

If you run a tech startup in Utah, money is hard to come by these days. Exposure is easier than you think though. If you’re hiring an expensive PR company to do this for you, you’re doing it wrong. You should start by pitching locally, then if that doesn’t work (sorry, like an investor, bloggers have to turn down pitches as well), get on Twitter, build an audience, and most importantly, start your own blog. If you ever want any advice in doing that please don’t hesitate to contact me.

There are hundreds, if not thousands of new startups in Utah right now. I don’t know who you are. There are hundreds of tech bloggers in the area, I’m sure, which can easily build an audience and help these startups. I don’t know who you are. I’m not sharing this to boast of my own subscribers, but rather to offer a call for help. Utah, let’s work together to let Silicon Valley know we’re out here. I think if we do it right, we could, and should, very well be considered the next “Boulder” of the MountainWest. How can I help Silicon Valley know more about you?

If you live in Utah, or run a business in Utah, let’s retweet this around so we can help each other out. Please be sure to share it with your friends.

Why Kara Swisher is More Wrong About Wronger

Posted on June 2, 2009 by jessestay

nails-on-chalkboard1-7468757 Slow news day? Let’s let aside the whole “Web 3.0” vs. “2010 Web” Debate. They’re all just terms after all, right? Let’s focus on something a little more important, like the fact that an established journalist like Kara Swisher can’t use correct grammar in her titles. Let’s look at the definition of “Wronger”:

“One who wrongs someone; One who commits a wrong; Comparative form of wrong: more wrong”

Keep in mind that the only definition of “wronger” provided by Google was that one, by Wiktionary.com, something many would hardly consider a credible dictionary. However in this case, even their definition states Kara is completely wrong on this matter.

What’s the deal with bloggers, journalists, and marketers feeling it’s okay all-of-the-sudden to relax their use of grammar? These guys all have editors that check their work, and I wouldn’t hesitate to think they have all had much more English training than I have. I mean, even Apple’s doing it – what’s with the whole “Funner” theme? Does that terminology make it sound “more fun”? To me, it just makes them look stupid.

I hope Kara’s use was just tongue-in-cheek, but let’s stop this practice. It’s simply wrong.

Mention Bloggers’ Names, Get Traffic

Posted on March 3, 2009 by jessestay

friends_front That title sounds too much like a get-rich-quick scheme. But let’s face it, as bloggers, number of readers and traffic is important to us. Regardless of whether it’s to get money or just allow you a voice to share knowledge (the reason this blog was created), traffic plays a big part in that.

Here’s a simple trick to get you at least some traffic. I do admit it’s a little selfish, but it’s win-win so I don’t see the harm. I’m going to give away a little secret (and I hope Louis doesn’t mind me sharing). Louis Gray and myself both bookmark each link back to our blogs on Delicious. Louis taught this to me as a neat trick to keep track of the coverage a blog gets around the web. You’ll notice you can click “Coverage” on LouisGray.com right now and see all the mentions of his blog. Mine can be found here. I also do the same for SocialToo.

Here’s the benefit to you: Those links get populated on FriendFeed, more people see them, comment on them, their friends see them, comment, and the process goes on. I see mentions on these shares by Louis (and myself) all the time thanking him for sharing, but in reality, they made that share inevitable. It’s simple, mention our blogs and we share them with our friends whether we or you like it or not. 🙂

I thought this technique used to track our blogs’ coverage could benefit you as well. In addition, just mentioning a blogger’s name or linking to their blog at least gets their attention because they get notifications through trackbacks, even if they don’t re-share it or post to delicious. Bloggers, regardless of who they are, all have a little bit of ego in them. The most successful ones like to know who is talking about them, and track that regularly. Want a blogger’s attention? Link to them.

Regarding tracking coverage through Delicious, do you do this for your blog? Do you know any other bloggers that use this technique?

Get Ready to be Punk’d Utah

Posted on January 16, 2009 by jessestay

Saturday morning, starting at 9am, Ashton Kutcher, in partnership with Digg.com and Revision3’s Kevin Rose will be doing a production, streamed over the live streaming service, Qik, all day for 24 hours right here in Utah. The idea is to get major blogging personalities such as VentureBeat’s Tech Blogger Matt Marshall, along with other personalities such as Video Game Blogger, CJ Peters, as well as Geek Entertainment TV’s Irina Slutsky, and Non-Society’s Geekette, Meghan Asha, to do crazy tasks while at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City Utah. Interestingly, they have picked bloggers from San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and other locations, but ironically no big bloggers from Utah were selected. Ashton and Kevin, you know we can compete as well as the rest!

With Matt Marshall in the crowd, he will probably be the most familiar with early-adopter technologies and the audience of this blog since that is what they cover, so it will be interesting to see how he and his partner, Shira Lazar, will do in the contest. Ashton Kutcher, via his Twitter account, is asking for suggestions on what you would like the contestants to do, so hopefully Utah can represent. Regardless of what happens, I fully expect the entire contest to be one big punk on Utah Saturday so beware of what you see as these bloggers fight to do anything to win this reality competition tomorrow. You can watch the competition live, over Qik at the website http://www.24hoursatsundance.com. Prepare to be Punk’d.

Matt and Shira, we’re rooting for you.

Photo courtesy Matt Olson