hubbub

Santa Issues a Social Media Press Release

Yes, he's a sure candidate for Advertising With Character.  And I just learned that he has posted a social media press release.   His elves?  Maggie Fox and the gang at Social Media Group.   Unfair advantage:  they are closer to Santa's corporate HQ than any of their competitors.

Zoho Looks Like Google

Is it just me, or does Zoho look too much like Google? Talking 'bout look and feel....

Google/Salesforce.com Alliance

Holy!

Go Coghead

Coghead, the DIY applications company, just closed a series B round, with $8 miilion from American Capital, El Dorado Ventures, and SAP Ventures.

The red-hot (or is it orange) startup is a former client of mine, back in the days when I worked for Eastwick (when was that?). Anyway, I got the good news just a while ago, after posting about the new Eastwick group blog.

Congrats to Paul, Greg and the rest of the Coghead team.

Mainstream Meme Tracker?

This weekend, I learned about an excellent weekly resource from the Project for Excellence in Journalism:

The PEJ’s News Coverage Index, which will be released every Tuesday, is an ongoing study of the news agenda of a wide swath of the American press, measuring the topics covered in 48 different outlets from five sectors of the American media. The Index is an attempt to provide an empirical look at what the media are and aren't covering, the trajectories of major stories and differences among news platforms. We believe it is the largest continuing study of the media agenda ever attempted.

Reminds me of meme trackers like Memeorandum, but simpler, mainstream, (and not interactive). I'll be looking at the meming of life -- the good and the bad -- in a couple of weeks, and this comes just in time.

Yahoo! Snatches Mybloglog.com

While most of the tech world waits to see if Apple will announce a music phone today, Yahoo! grabbed the early headlines with news that it will be acquiring Mybloglog.com. Yahoo! continues to build its social media portfolio, despite end-of-year criticism that the company has lost focus.

Digital Healthcare

See John Bell's recent post about health portals and health-search engines. I agree that 2007 might be a "big year for digital healthcare." At Hubbub, we're advising a new company that will enter the market early in the year, and we will be closely watching how this market develops.

Healthcare continues to be one of the most fragmented and disorganized markets in the global economy. Lots of room for innovation, and you gotta believe that the Internet can wring out some of the inefficiencies.

Abbey Corps Follows Video Boom

From Dave Winer -- Andrew Baron (Rocketboom fame) and Jeff Pulver have started a new studio group called Abbey Corps. Presumably they will compete with businesses like PodShow, PodTech, etc., but co-opetition (hate the word, love the concept) is also likely. Unclear what Abbey Corps will be doing exactly, but video -- as we've been saying -- is getting bigger and bigger, and even little ole hubbub is entering the biz in 2007.

Not much info available on Abbey Corps yet (they have a three-word Web site). But Baron announced the news on his blog:

One thing that I kind of like about Rocketboom is that I have never done any press releases. I also dont have an email list; Until now, I've always just fielded the incoming. I'm not against that kind of outreach, it's just interesting that there has never been any.

Well all of that is about to change.

I'm going to post some news on my blog! :)

I'll post it in pieces over the next several days. I'm calling it blog post suspense.

And so, since Rocketboom began, the biggest most important step of my independent career has been made.

Clue #1

Jeff Pulver and I have co-founded a new studio network.

And so begins Abbey Corps.

My next clue will reveal which other shows are a part of the studio and then I will go on to explain why I believe it's a much better business than Podshow or Podtech.

Onward and Upward.

Nine People You Can Call Free on Christmas

Hubbub client JAJAH has an offer that's hard to refuse -- on Christmas Day, they will pick up the tab for any phone call between the 80 countries in Zones 1, 2 and 3.   Quite a few people are excited about this offer, but many, I suspect, are still trying to decide who to call.  Here are a few suggestions:

9.  The prodigal son.  Got someone in the family who can't ever make it home for the holidays?  Call him on Christmas, and JAJAH will foot the bill.

8.  The prodigal parents.  So, they decided not to make the trip to San Jose this year because the weather is too good in Key West?  Don't punish them overtly -- call them (they'll feel guilty enough), and let JAJAH even the score.

7.  Your boss.  Did you get a voicemail from your boss on Christmas Day, begging (demanding) you to return to the office to work on an emergency project?  Call her back, on JAJAH, and let her know you are not available, "but Merry Christmas just the same."

6.  Your next client.  Did you get a voicemail, email, IM, or text message from a prospective client, asking if you can mount a last-minute assault on the Computer Electronics Show in early January (happened to me a few years ago)?  I won't tell you what to say (my four-year-old son reads this blog), but if you call your client back within any of the 80 countries, JAJAH will pick up the tab.

5.  Your destination.  Stuck at the airport -- say, in Key West -- because the weather isn't so great after all, and your plane won't arrive on time for Christmas?  No problem if you are on Wi-Fi or have JAJAH Mobile (and are calling in Zones 1 and 2).

4.  The White House.  1600 Pennsylvania Avenue gets lots of calls on Christmas, from critics and well-wishers alike.  Don't pay for the call -- be different.   You may confuse the switchboard operator when he picks up the line (the first words he will hear are "please wait as JAJAH connects your call") but be sure to say Merry Christmas.

3.  Santa.  Alas, the North Pole is not in Zones 1, 2, or 3.  But if you know someone just aching to play the part, and he lives somewhere within Zones 1, 2, and 3 ....

2.  eBay.  After buying Skype, eBay CEO Meg Whitman famously predicted that telephony -- someday -- will be free.  Call eBay, and thank the operator for inspiring JAJAH to pick up where Skype has left off.

1.  The whole gang.  The prodigal son in New York City, the prodigal parents in Florida, the vacationing grandparents in Paris, "Santa" in Puerto Rico, your boss who just watched that movie and wants to make apologies to your family -- guess what, you can connect them all (up to 10 people) via conference calling on Christmas. And, yes, the call will be free.  Maybe they won't all pick up -- perhaps "Santa" has fallen out of favor -- but as is true with most presents on Christmas, it's the thought that counts.

Socialtext Unplugged: "There's no such thing as 'always on'"

"There is no such thing as 'always on'," says client/partner Ross Mayfield. Earlier today, Ross announced Socialtext Unplugged, a smart offline wiki solution for the "sometimes connected user." A few details:

Developed in collaboration with UK-based Osmosoft, Socialtext Unplugged continues Socialtext's commitment to making Enterprise 2.0 tools practical by making them accessible and adaptive to the way people actually work....

Socialtext Unplugged was created using Socialtext's Wiki Web Services and Osmosoft's open source TiddlyWiki Ajax application. TiddlyWiki is a resuable personal Web notebook that thousands of users rely on to record, organize and share their information. The combined Socialtext/TiddlyWiki product enables users to make changes to their wiki pages when not connected to a network. Later, when connected to the Internet, those pages can be synched back to the origination server.