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Columbia prof David Rogers moderated this series of short standing interviews with Chris Tolles, a marketer for Topix; John Hiler, cofounder and CEO of Xanga; and Craig Newmark, a customer service rep and founder of Craig's List.
Their topic? The impact of online marketing and consumer-generated content on brands -- new opportunities and threats.
Sites to See
What matters
These are the organizations represented by panelists in this session, as well as other resources they recommended.
- Topix
- I receive news alerts from Topix every day. You can get a segmented collection of headlines based on your ZIP code, as well as titles.
- DMOZ
- Before there was Topix, there was DMOZ, a grassroots project in which volunteers collaborated to index and organize the web.
- Xanga
- The blog network began as a reviews site, but the content of the reviews led Xanga's leaders to open up what people could write about -- and how.
- Craig's List
- You should know what this is by now. (Smile!)
Issues to Be Aware of
Topics to think about
These are some of the things that the speakers brought up as areas worth considering
- Network Neutrality
- The Wikipedia entry gives a good overview of the topic, and links to relevant entries
- Institute for the Advanced Study of Information Warfare
- While this site primarily addresses the military and security aspects of infowar, there may be some content of interest to business people and "civilians."
- Libel Online
- In addition to this site, this guide may also be useful.
- Bloggers' FAQ on Adult Material
- Addresses some of the legal issues about obscenity -- courtesy of the EFF
An Exciting Insight
Thank you, John Hiler
John may have had the most insightful comment so far today. He remarked that he doesn't so much see himself as an executive at Xanga, but as an unelected public official."You've got to manage your approval rating," he said. "Do your constituents like you? If your approval rating drops 30%, you've got to make some changes."
Also, I'm not sure whether this came from John or Craig, but someone said something about people being the mayors of the companies they run -- looking at their projects as mini-municipalities. Cool concept!
Quotes of Note
Courtesy Chris Tolles
"You need to trust the community not to be evil all of the time. We want the light spicy swear word. We don't want the string of profanity." One Book You Need to Read
The title du jour
A couple of the speakers in this session mentioned this book. Might be worth checking out!
The Wisdom of Crowds
Amazon Price: $10.17 (as of 05/16/2008)
Used Price: $8.05
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