Disruption Tour --- Run To Survive

RSS is how the news flows

Wednesday, August 26, 2009 by Dave Winer.

http://www.scripting.com/stories/2009/08/26/rssIsHowTheNewsFlows.html

To Sam Diaz who says RSS was "a good idea at the time but there are better ways now," I have many things to say.  

1. People confuse RSS with Google Reader. Let's be clear that there's a difference. Google Reader is an application that reads RSS-formatted data. There are many other applications that read and write RSS. 

2. I think Google Reader was, on the whole, a good thing. It's probably the best reader of its variety. You have to go find the new stuff in Google Reader. I prefer a reader that finds the new stuff for me, and presents it in reverse chronologic order. This is known as a river of news reader.  

3. Diaz more or less says that's his preference too. Interesting. 

4. My newspaper doesn't tell me how many articles I haven't read going back to the date of my birth. I bet it would be in the millions. Why should I care. This was the worst idea ever in news readers. 

5. The core problem -- so many programmers who write RSS software are not themselves news junkies. If they were they'd know when they got it wrong. News is about what's new! Show me the newest stuff first. Sorry to all the articles I didn't read, maybe in the next lifetime. 

6. He may not use a RSS reader, but the news is still getting to him through RSS.  

7. If all the RSS on the planet were all of a sudden to stop updating (key point) the news would stop flowing. Any news guy or gal who thinks they could get by without RSS -- think this through a bit more. We all love the Internet, but don't shut off your gas and electric because your computer and router wouldn't work without electricity. Same with RSS and news. RSS is how the news flows, whether you see it or not. If not RSS, something exactly like RSS.  

8. The Internet is layered. New technology comes on line building on tech that already existed. RSS was like that. It built on XML and HTTP, which built on text and TCP/IP. The new things that Diaz likes so much, in exactly the same way, build on RSS.  

9. When news authors don't understand how technology evolves, they propagate incorrect notions to everyone else, including would-be inventors, who have to figure it out for themselves, and then convince investors and partners they know what they're doing -- when they just read in ZDNet that things don't evolve at all. So Mr. Diaz does us all a disservice.  

10. I object when technology writers tell the story of technology incorrectly. People say I should just be happy to see my name in the story, or in this case something that I fathered. No deal. I want the accurate story out there. I want people to understand how technology really works, because that's central to users being empowered by it, instead of being controlled by it.  

Bonus: Marshall Kirkpatrick, my partner in the Bad Hair Day podcast (tomorrow 7PM Pacific) has his own excellent rebuttal to the Diaz piece. 

The Facebook Exodus

Fred Wilson sekingalpha.com

The NY Times Magazine has a short piece this weekend called The Facebook Exodus. In it the author, Virginia Heffernan, cites a number of anecdotes about people quitting Facebook. I am sure there are people quitting Facebook.

But the most recent comScore numbers tell another story (click to enlarge).

In the month of July 2009, almost 370 million people worldwide visited Facebook, up 155% from July 2008. Facebook is a global juggernaut. It is the fourth most popular website in the world after Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), and Yahoo! (YHOO).

This reminds me of all the Twitter Quitter stories I've read. People do quit Twitter. A lot of them. But here are the July comScore numbers for Twitter (click to enlarge).

In the month of July 2009, about 52mm people worldwide visited Twitter, up 1880% over July 2008 and Twitter is the 47th most popular website in the world according to comScore.

Here's the deal, churn is part of online media, particularly social media. People come and go. Some stick around, some don't. These stories about quitters are true of course, but they miss the big picture. More and more people are using these services every day.

Of course, Facebook and Twitter and every other web service out there should pay a lot of attention to why people are quitting their services and address those issues. The best services reduce churn over time. I don't know the exact numbers, but when we first invested in Twitter, it seemed like only 10% of first time users stuck around. Now that number is much higher and is one of the reasons why the service is growing faster.

So when you read these quitter stories, take them with a grain of salt. And make sure to look at the bigger picture at the same time. It may look very different.

Competing with the singleminded

by Seth Godin

I was talking with a few executives from one of the biggest technology companies in Europe, and they were explaining how their hands were tied in moving forward on the internet. They were doing the best they could under the circumstances, of course, but there were units in their organization that needed to be protected, prices that needed to be supported, sacred cows that couldn't be touched. After all, they argued, how could they wipe out their current business just to succeed online?

This conversation happens every single day at organizations large and small. You want to do the new thing, but of course you must do it in a measured, rational way.

Which is great, unless your competition doesn't agree.

When you have someone who is willing to accomplish A without worrying about B and C, they will almost always defeat you in accomplishing A. Online, of course, this often leads to doom, since there are many organizations that are willing to get big at the expense of revenue, or writers willing to be noticed at the expense of ethics or reputation. But in the short run, the singleminded have a fantastic advantage. And sometimes, their singleminded focus on accomplishing just that one thing (whatever it is) pushes them through the Dip far ahead of you and then yes, they make a ton of money and you've lost forever.

Newspapers, magazines, TV stations, hardware companies, real estate brokers, travel agents, bookstores, insurance agents, art galleries and five hundred other industries need to think hard about this before it's too late.

Stop Email Churn...Build Better Customer Relationships

Stop email churn why not put a shoppesimple TransactionalRSS icon on your email preference or opt out page.

Why not link to the ShoppeSimple icon in your email unsubscribe area?

Increase the number of TransactionalRSS subscribers by putting a ShoppeSimple icon in all of your transactional trigger based emails.

Put a TransactionalRSS subscriber capture within your Privacy Policy. Why not let your consumer know you what them to control their privacy

Include a ShoppeSimple subscriber icon in all your welcome and thank you emails

Include the ShoppeSimple TransactionalRSS feed in the address box of your consumers browser

Use the ShoppeSimple's Real-time Analytical package to determine when is the best time to send out your TransactionalRSS feeds

More info? on ShoppeSimple check out RSSCheck.com

A call out to Newspaper Advertising Executives...Is your ad revenue in decline?

TO: Newspaper Advertising Executives

If you would like to reverse the decline in your newspaper ad revenues why not partner with Shoppesimple.net

Join the very first of its kind TransactionalRSS feed marketing portal and you will receive transaction fees on every sale that is associated with your traffic. For more details...call 612.349.2740 or email info@rsschecl.com

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Newspaper ad sales shrank by 29 percent in the second quarter, a hit executives blame on both the recession and Web advertising's encroachment on print ad spending. They hope ad sales might buck back up during the holidays, but even if the recession abates soon, newspapers will still likely feel the pinch from Web ad sales that don't pay as well as print and the continuing decline of classified ads. source: Newspaper Association of America

Take a sneak peak...shoppesimple.net

RSSCheck announces the release of a sneak peek of the first TransactionalRSS Feed Portal for consumers and merchants. The site launches in 45 days or October 2009. We are giving a peek behind the curtain for comment and review. Please leave comments on this post.

Merchants will control their digital merchandise which they can not do in the affiliate channel. They also gain access to consumers who are interested in their offers multiple times a day 365 days a year.

Consumers stay anonymous, control their data and preselect merchants and the offers they want to receive. When it is time to change merchants and offers consumers are in total control of their permissions and preferences. 

To learn more check out Shoppesimple.net and RSSCheck.com

Old Media Should Take a Cue from Radio Days

Video Killed the Radio Star
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWtHEmVjVw8

The Wall Street Journal talks about how radio subsidized TV in the early days but after a critical mass was hit eyeballs migrated almost instantly. A parallel for me is to see old media companies (notably newspapers) just loose one chunk of its revenue after another.  All the while RSSCheck and ShoppeSimple provide the new new media way to monetize a merchants/Advertiers social media assets with just a cut,  paste and one click. To learn more about ShoppeSimple check out RSSCheck.com

Direct Marketing Circulation Stats

Co-op database firm Abacus recently released a study of direct marketing circulation that shows mail volume for the first quarter of 2009 decreased 19 percent vs. last year's first quarter. While both housefile and prospecting circ were down — 13 percent and 28 percent, respectively — a higher percentage of circ shifted to housefile, the report revealed.
Consider the following: In the first quarter of 2007, 54 percent of circ was devoted to housefile. That percentage swelled to 61 percent in the first quarter of 2008 and 65 percent in this year's first quarter.

Social Media Revolution

At RSSCheck Shoppesimple's our TransactionalRSS SaaS technology helps merchants monetize their social media markets with one simple cut, paste and click.  This video on YouTube regarding social media revolution is something I thought you would enjoy viewing....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8

If you are interested to learn how we can help make money from your social media interactions connect with us at RSSCheck.com.

CHART OF THE DAY: Smartphone Sales To Beat PC Sales By 2011 (AAPL, MSFT)

Dan Frommer| Silconalleyinsider.com

Here's why PC giants like Apple, Dell, Microsoft, and everyone else all want a piece of the smartphone market: By the end of 2011, worldwide smartphone sales will pass worldwide PC sales, RBC analyst Mike Abramsky estimates, approaching 400 million annual shipments of each.

http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-smartphone-sales-to-beat-pc-sales-by-2011-2009-8