One of the best business quotes I can remember comes from the founder of McDonalds. Everyone would say, Wow, isn’t it great to be the best in the fast food business? He responded by saying: No, we’re not in the fast food business. We’re in the real estate business. Everyone failed to realize that McDonalds owns tons of real estate that is much more valuable than the fries and hamburgers they sell.So I started to think what business is Publictivity really in?

The Software Business?

Not really. Yes, we sell software, and it makes us money, but it’s not what our company is really providing. The software is the delivery method for what we do best.

The Technology Business?

Nope. The technology helps us make great software. Without great technology like PHP and Mac OSX we couldn’t make Publictivity.

So what business are we in?

We’re in the therapy business. We make your lives easier. We take what pains you and what you hate, and give you a real solution for it. We’re a drug that makes you happy. Go with us, and we make things a lot happier and nicer. Wasting a lot of time on something, and ready to throw your chair across the room (Steve Balmer this is for you.)? If so, just use our software, we’ll make that go away. We’re starting to look at our long term goals, and the underlying formula for Publictivity is simple: We get rid of pain that businesses have. You can call us Dr. Feelgood.

[tags] publictivity, web 2.0, software, microsoft, php, apple, mac os x, therapy [/tags]

That’s right, consider this your last minute reminder that you can’t ignore :-).  Miami is having its first Barcamp ever at the University of Miami.  The event is going to have a great turnout, and have some very interesting demos from the likes of Scrapblog, Imified, and theGorb.  The link to the Wiki is below so you can add yourself and get any information. A Big thank you to Kim and Alex for helping organize the event. Hope to see you all there.

BarCamp Miami Wiki
[tags] barcamp, umiami, south florida, barcamp miami, scrapblog, thegorb, imified, web 2.0, publictivity [/tags]

So, I figured I’d publicly address everyone and let the world know just where we are right now with everything:

• The Product- Expect a Beta at the VERY end of The Month to a Few Select Firms that we can really hammer things out with. Expect a public release at the end of March, possibly early April.
• When can you see the product?- We’ll be publicly debuting Publictivity on March 7th, 2007 at the Web 2.0 event for the MIT Enterprise Forum of South Florida.  I’ll be on a panel afterwards with Carlos from Scrapblog, Leonard from theGorb, Pete from Multiply, and Jason from CareerMetaSearch. We’ll also be debuting a preview video of the product the next morning or that evening after the event.
• Things we have left to do internally- Help Desk and Support, Fix a Lot of bugs and get the UI perfect, move over the production servers, iron out the launch sales and marketing strategy, and a whole lot more.  The next 60 days are not going to be easy at all. This week, I’m focusing on perfecting the presentations I’ll be giving over the next few months along with going with a colocation provider.
• What you can expect- A mindblowing product.  Trust me, you will not be disappointed.
• Unboxing pictures- Expect a couple of unboxing pictures of our servers.  Youll be surprised what we’re using

[tags] publictivity, web 2.0, status update, public relations, launch, mit enterprise forum, scrapblog, multiply, thegorb, careermetasearch [/tags]

The conference is going around on techmeme.

10:30: Alberto Ibarague, Donna Shalala, Craig Newmark, John Zogby, Sheryl Tucker, Cristi Hegranes, and Jason Ponten on stage currently. This is a great panel. We’re starting to talk about identiy, community, and social media growing up.

10:32: introductions just took place. starting to talk about cool and interesting technologies.

10:34: Cool technologies (being updated):

• Augmented reality
• Death of print. ie- eink. It’s a form factor change
• Splashcast.
• Blinxx (very cool company, their PR Rep is an amazingly chill person)
• Eduvision

10:41: Talking about media democracy now.

10:44: BIG POINT: Future of community and journalism is based on a question of access.

10:46: Some survey results about the conference. 27% of the public are satisfied with media vs. 72% with the media elite.

10:50: Craig Newmark talking. Technology is a means to an end. Talks about Martin Luther as a “blogger” and the decentralization of power

10:56: Donna Shalala talking about past experiences. Talks about the developing worlds need for media distribution. Education is key for usability and filtering information. Hopefully more than one source will be used for information.

11:01: Impact of Skoll, Omidyar, Gates, and Buffet are important. Moving from charity to funding.

11:07: Definition of community is changing all the time. It has to.

11:32: Old media just got pwned. Theyre in denial.
[tags] wemedia, miami, craig newmark, craigslist, donna shalala, umiami, university of miami [/tags]

Great panel on the funding

1:46: Scott Rafer (MyBlogLog, Tons of Things), Jeff Taylor (Founder of Monster and Eons…big time), Chris Versace (Agile Equity), and Bryan o Mailey (Battery Ventures)

1:48: Rafer talking about little money to do mybloglog. It’s spread from silicon valley to everywhere. News. Reuters talking about their focus on things that benefit them

1:53: Jeff Taylor talking about funding for Eons. Talks about spending a billion to build the monster brand. 2 options, let the baby boomers die off the internet or keep them online.

2:04: Talking about strategic investors vs traditional investors. Very true. Money is the common denominator in venture investing. The strategic investing or who the partner is, matter. 30 million dollar exit just doesn’t cut it.

2:10: Craigs List asked if there will be a craigs list for news. Response: Not from us. Says the ducks outside look cool.

2:17: Someone just said shit, oh no, were all offended. just kidding. lawl. Talking about making news free using the crowdsource model.

2:24: Talking about friendster getting overtaken by myspace. denton and blogging. New ad network in 2012.

2:29: Basic advice: make your charts go up and to the right and youre fine.

2:56: Great panelists. The panel strayed off focus a little bit/ didn’t answer the questions directly enough.
2:31: ad model is broken. I don’t think so!

2:42: small company, great revenues, could explode. PaidContent, Perez Hilton.

2:47: No one pays for Winzip. Ad supported since no one pays for it.

[tags] jeff taylor, monster, my bloglog, scott rafer, reuters, funding, wemedia, venture capital, miami, conference, we media miami [/tags]

Just had a great lunch. I actually grabbed a snack at the Wendy’s on campus here at UMiami. Everyone was talking, participating, and having a great time. Second Life and Reuters were demoing some cool things as well. Sat down with Shel Israel, who is an amazingly nice guy. He’s been doing awesome things for Scrapblog and Carlos. Also did our first video interview for Publictivity with Podtech and Jeremiah, which will come out right around when we announce ourselves. Talked about social media in PR, the social media release, and the state of PR. Oh, and talked about Publictivity. The funding panel should be going on soon as well.  I’ll be participating, don’t worry.

[tags] wemedia, miami, wemedia miami, podtech, shel israel, lunch, publictivity, web 2.0 [/tags]

9:38: Introduction finished. Showing Where’s the Love community video. Random acts of media across the world. Set to the music of Where’s the Love by the black Eyed Peas and Justin Timberlake. Great photo collage showing some very interesting pictures filled with different emotions.

9:41: Shel Israel, Lisa Stone, Ian Rowe, Rich Skernta, and Jan Schaffer just took the stage. video finishing up.

9:46: Introductions taking place. Shel talking about Global Neighborhoods, his new book. Basis of the book: Geography is irrelevant. People are connecting around communities that matter to them. ie- hummingbirds.

9:50: Ian rowe introduced. Oversees the engaging issues for the MTV generation. MTV’s business is changing. Believes in the benefit of rewarding the youth for good. This is very important to me personally. We have the tools to change the world, and MTV can do this.

9:52: Rich Skernta from topix introduced. A few people speak to a large market.

9:56: Jan Schaffer talks about citizen journalism entering the passion space. This is big. To me, passion is the driving force of anything, especially entrepreneurship and the community. We just don’t see this anymore with journalists. Stories are a fusion of news and schmooze, unlike journalists that tell the full story.

10:01: Lisa Stone, the head of the BlogHer Network is introduced. I met Lisa last night. Her vision with BlogHer is awesome, and a much needed network of content. 60 editors in BlogHer… impressive. Niche networks, niche anything is the future.

10:04: Talking about connecting people locally to form a national conversation is brought up as a question from the community.

10:08: In Zimbabwe, only dialup access, 30 minutes to connect on the cell phone. Zimbabwe needs a method to deploy connectivity, but the government is crushing it. ie- Government fears the people. The community member speaking really shows us how privleged we are.

10:10: Dorian from MediaBistro speaking as a community participant. MediaBistro is a community online and offline. 700,000 members too. Eduardo houser, who is in the business of media distribution talking. Talks about product development and community. This is big. His company is DailyMe. He talks about the importance of new media distribution as well. Craig Newmark just got here as well. I’m waiting to talk to Scott Rafer, since mybloglog has errupted with spam. notice the free iphone members.

10:18: Shel talks about his experience with Naked Conversations on how his Grandmother was a librarian and couldn’t believe that he wrote the book without ever going to a library. Little mic error occurs.

10:21: New definitons of community brought up with Ian from MTV. The old definition was lots of people viewing one central item. Talks about balancing the business model for top down and down to top. Questions opened to the floor. I may ask one…

11:08: A-Ha moments from the crowd (credit the big screen:

• profileration of jorunalsits v profileration of sources Our real challenge is to bring sources together so journalists can add values
• people and connections- bringing them together to communicate with each other. Talk about how the audience talks to each other
• How are we going to create a vast social network where people can consume news? We currently lack the technological and other infrastructure to do that?
• One thing that big organizations still provide is an element of trust in the information that is delivered.  Can’t say that about all sources.
• Importat thing is not who is reading it, but who is creating a framework for enegagement and participation. Who si producing new output? It’s a platofrm for ptomotion not consumption.
• Not just about journalism, but its about information.
• We is a really hard idea.

[tags] wemedia, wemedia miami, miami, community, shel israel, lisa stone, blogher, media bistro, topix [/tags]

Just sat down at the WeMedia Conference. People are still registering, networking, talking,etc.,etc. The hardest part is connecting to the UM Wifi for everyone as guests. Some of the most successful and smartest people in the the tech industry are baffled and shuffling around. The event should begin in 30 minutes or so. This is going to be a great event. Scrapblog is demoing their product today as well. Tech Crunch had a great post on them last night. Jeremiah Owyang is liveblogging the event as well. Sitting next to Michelle, a fellowship winner, along with Carlos Garcia, CEO of Scrapblog. The Storer Auditorium is the same place we’ll be debuting Publictivity for the first time on March 7th. Oh, that’s right, an announcement:

Publictivity will be giving the first public demo and look on March 7th, 2007 at 7 PM at The MIT Enterprise Forum Web 2.0 Event. The Location is the University of Miami Storer Auditorium. More details to follow.

[tags] wemedia, miami, wemedia miami, 2007, publictivity, blogging, conference [/tags]