Time Magazine on Wikis

The newsweekly finally weighs in with a story on wikis. Mostly about Wikipedia, but it does devote some space to Eastwick client Socialtext:

"Inspired by Wikipedia, a Silicon Valley start-up called Socialtext has helped set up wikis at a hundred companies, including Nokia and Kodak. Business wikis are being used for project management, mission statements and cross-company collaborations. Instead of e-mailing a vital Word document to your co-workers—and creating confusion about which version is the most up-to-date—you can now literally all be on the same page: as a wiki Web page, the document automatically reflects all changes by team members. Socialtext CEO Ross Mayfield claims that accelerates project cycles 25%. 'A lot of people are afraid because they have to give up control over information', he says. 'But in the end, wikis foster trust'."

Deep Throat

And he waited for the age of the blog.

Can We All Get Along?

Posted an online interview today with John Hagel and John Seely Brown. Venue: Gelf, my third home (after thegoodseed and eastwikkers). Subject: Hagel and Brown's new book, The Only Sustainable Edge, a concise and intellectual how-to on globalization and collaboration.

POSTSCRIPT: one of the authors of the book, John Seely Brown, sits on the technical advisory board of an Eastwick client, Groxis.

Gelf on Delio -- Continued

See what our compadres at Gelf have written re: the latest in the Michelle Delio story.

Grokker Now Web-Enabled

See John Markoff's story in the New York Times, about Eastwick client Groxis. The Grokker tool, previously available only as a desktop software product, is now available in a free, Web-enabled version, powered by Yahoo!, with Yahoo! ad feeds.

Among other things, this is paving the way for a new approach -- collaborative search. For tools and tips on why and how to grok (it is best for deep search and research; don't think of it as simply search), we reccommed you check out the Grokker tour and community pages (both link from the home page). And be sure to check out the email function (you can send Grokker maps, a key aspect to its collaborative approach) and the "elevator pitch."

Craig's Dream of Citizen Journalism

More on Craig Newmark's thoughts on citizen journalism, this time for AP's Rachel Konrad:

Newmark hopes to develop a pool of "talented amateurs" who could investigate scandals, cover politics and promote the most important and credible stories. Articles would be published on Internet sites ranging from Craigslist to individual Web logs, or blogs.

Craigslist.org gets more than 4 million classified ads and 1 million forums postings each month, and Newmark _ who no longer runs it but remains one of three board members _ is often blamed for decimating classified advertising revenue at regional newspapers. But he says he has no desire to steal readers from mainstream media.

But he believes the reason why newspapers are losing circulation is that too many traditional journalists are willing to quote politicians and business executives even if they're blatantly lying _ merely for the sake of perceived objectivity. He'd prefer an "open source" model of journalism where legions of volunteers act as writers, assignment editors and fact checkers to challenge mainstream journalists.

Walt Mossberg on RSS

This ran on Thursday. A very thorough guide for the uninitiated.

USA Today/Churchill Event Bars Other Media

See Tom Foremski's post on this event, co-sponsored by one of Silicon Valley's preeminent speaking clubs. All press barred except for USA Today. Sounds like an "exclusive" to us.

Blogs and Small Business

Thanks to B.L. Ochman for pointing to this article in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Do Press Releases Matter?

If you care about this topic, check out the debate between Andy Lark and Stephen O'Grady here. My take: they do matter, but not in the way they might have years ago. With the efficient distribution of content on the Internet, the press release is useful as marketing content. Not nearly as credible as the news article -- or a blog post from a credible source -- but a well-written, well-distributed press release can help a company get the word out, improve search engine rankings, and generally build a presence on the Web. Is it the most effective vehicle? Not by a longshot. But it's just one of many tools, and one that is sometimes required (e.g., in situations where regulatory rules demand that the company follow standard practices in uniform disclosure).

Blogspotting Intellisync

Our client Intellisync gets the spotlight in a post today on the new Business Week blog. Theme: marketing collaboration on an international wiki.

VC News Treasure Hunt

Ross Mayfield at SocialText -- an Eastwick client -- has initiated an interesting online experiment. Check it out.

We're Back

Short break, but well-rested. Back online in the morning.