Month: July 2006

July 31, 2006

  • InfoQ Is Interesting

    This is part of our new “Interesting” feature “we announced in April” but then lost track of. If you have an “interesting” site you think we should feature let us know.

    Recently I asked Floyd Marinescu, CEO & Co-founder of C4media and founder of “InfoQ” to explain what makes his site interesting.

    One Degree: Who needs InfoQ?

    Professionals in the Enterprise Software Development community, including developers, architects, project managers, consultants, coaches, etc.

    One Degree: Why do they need you?

    InfoQ provides daily news and technical content for the Java, .NET, Ruby, SOA, and Agile communities written by domain experts (instead of non-technical journalists). InfoQ also connects the audience to each other via lively discussions associated with current news and content. For professionals in this space, InfoQ is the only resource available that allows them to track what’s going on across these communities in one place.

    One Degree: Why are you interesting?

    InfoQ is not just an online news community, it is also a technological showcase of what a modern online community can be. InifoQ uses the latest cutting-edge AJAX techniques to enhance the browsing experience — you can log in, post messages, and click through different sections of the site without page refreshes. You can personalize to which topics you want to follow on InfoQ and that personalization will change the content you see and also the content you get in your personalized RSS feed. In particular, very few sites are offering personalized individual feeds.

    One Degree: How do you make money?

    We sell online advertising to companies interested in reaching the audiences on our site. Our initial founding sponsors include IBM, Oracle, BEA, Symantec, Compuware, Cassatt, and Terracotta.

    One Degree: What is your mission?

    InfoQ’s primary mission is to contribute to the evolution of the communities we serve.

    One Degree: Who are you?

    I am InfoQ’s co-founder and also CEO of C4Media, the startup that exclusively publishes InfoQ. Before that, I created and managed TheServerSide.com Enterprise Java community for 5 years. TheServerSide became the largest Java community in the world with over 500,000 registered members.

    One Degree: Where are you?

    C4Media is incorporated in Canada and I live in Toronto. Our company, however, is a micro-national. We have 6 full-timers across Canada, the US, Romania, and China, as well as 7 part-time editors across Europe and the US.

    Originally published at www.onedegree.ca on July 31, 2006.

  • Eloqua Is Interesting

    This is part of our new “Interesting” feature “we announced in April” but then lost track of. If you have an “interesting” site you think we should feature let us know.

    Recently I asked Shawn DeSouza at “Eloqua” to explain what makes his company interesting.

    One Degree: Who needs you?

    Marketers at B2B organizations tasked with providing a continuous stream of high-quality leads to their sales force.

    One Degree: Why do they need you?

    In today’s competitive marketplace, marketers are under increased pressure to design and execute more effective marketing campaigns that generate revenue. Salespeople require a continuous flow of quality leads, and executives demand accountability in revenue terms. Marketers struggling to reach decision makers are shifting dollars from advertising to more direct and interactive tactics, using technology to improve results and accountability. They seek best practices in lead generation, development, qualification and distribution and tools that can transform isolated, random acts of marketing into coordinated, automated and measurable processes.

    One Degree: Why are you interesting?

    Eloqua provides the leading software platform for executing, automating and measuring effective business to business marketing programs. Eloqua’s product gives marketing and sales teams unprecedented visibility into prospect behavior, activity and interest throughout the entire sales process. It does this by integrating all the key components of the sales cycle together to create a seamless, automated and measurable process. Eloqua tightly links all outbound direct marketing activity — including direct mail and email, with trackable Web assets like corporate websites, web forms, landing pages and email. It applies event-based automation to turn manual processes into efficient processes. It explicitly ties marketing activity at the top of the sales funnel to sales information commonly found in CRM software like Siebel, Salesforce.com or Microsoft CRM. Eloqua makes marketing — particularly the ‘art’ of lead generation — a science that can be measured, optimized and understood by the sales organization.

    One Degree: How do you make money?

    Eloqua sells on-demand “software as a service” marketing automation products and services. Our customers chose Eloqua Conversion Suite to transform their marketing campaigns from art to science by building automated processes for lead acquisition, management, qualification, distribution and nurturing. In fiscal year 2005, the company reported 100 percent growth in revenue bookings. This growth momentum continued into Q1 2006, with Eloqua nearly tripling its bookings, posting a 158 percent gain over the same period in 2005.

    One Degree: What is your mission?

    Eloqua’s mission is to turn customer acquisition into a measurable and repeatable automated process.

    One Degree: Where are you?

    Eloqua Corporation is headquartered in Toronto with offices in London and throughout the United States.

     

    Originally published at www.onedegree.ca on July 31, 2006.

  • MVive Is Interesting

    This is part of our new “Interesting” feature “we announced in April” but then lost track of. If you have an “interesting” site you think we should feature let us know.

    I asked Al Sajoo, Vice President & CTO of “MVive Media Group” why MVive was interesting:

    One Degree: Who needs you?

    Everyone needs MVive — businesses who want to build relationships with their loyal customers while also gaining new customers; and consumers looking for exclusive deals and timely, meaningful communications with their favourite brands.

    One Degree: Why do they need you?

    Both businesses and consumers need us because we empower the consumer to control what is marketed to their mobile device while at the same time allowing businesses to go where traditional marketing does not. The power of the mobile phone lies in the need it has created to keep people constantly in touch with their world. This need is now driving the next marketing revolution as consumers and businesses also look to constantly stay in touch.

    One Degree: Why are you interesting?

    This mutual benefit to both businesses and consumers is what makes us so interesting. Companies no longer have to waste resources on creating and delivering unwanted marketing messages; and the consumer can conveniently request and access “wanted” marketing messages faster and more conveniently. MVive believes email marketing is about as good as cheap tires on a Ferrari. The Ferrari being the consumer holding tremendous value and extreme potential only to be insulted by the ridicules of spam. Marketing using MVive lacks spam or spam-style content. Businesses can not just simply send a message to every subscriber. Each message is specifically targeted to reflect value and relevance to that given consumer. What makes MVive interesting is the same as what makes MVive exciting — _technology_ — mobile technology that increases the business’ ROI while leaving the consumer in the driver’s seat in regards to what marketing they see.

    One Degree: How do you make money?

    MVive generates income from two separate services. The first, Mobile Conversion Service, is aimed at converting business email databases to permission-based mobile ready databases. The second, Moupon tm and Movite tm services, are aimed at offering text-based mobile coupons for use at over 500 retailers (and growing). MVive is a free service to consumers and guarantees zero charge for downloading Moupons on their cellular phone. Consumers can also receive these free coupons and offers automatically by subscribing to Movite, a mobile subscription that allows them to select which businesses they would like to automatically receive offers from. All income is generated from the businesses who choose to use our services. With that said, MVive makes these services using this new medium very affordable. Unlike other so-called mobile marketing systems, MVive doesn’t rely on renting high cost shortcodes.

    One Degree: What is your mission?

    Our mission is to bring forth a change in the electronic marketing medium by providing guaranteed delivery, and guaranteed viewing of relevant information by the right people. We want to provide an exceptional quality of service using a legitimate method of leveraging mobile devices for the common benefit of consumers and businesses.

    One Degree: Where are you?

    Geographically speaking, we are in Toronto. Theoretically speaking however, we are in the perfect place right now because businesses find our service “innovative and effective” while consumers find us to be “cool and useful”.

    Originally published at www.onedegree.ca on July 31, 2006.

July 26, 2006

  • Burton Cummings, eBay, Blogs, And A Good Cause

    Over-the-top fundraisers have been a long-standing tradition in Toronto but “Bridle Bash 2” happening this weekend looks like it may become legendary.

    Hosted in the backyard of a palatial Bridle Path estate and promising that “the best view of the show is in the pool” this intimate event (if a thousand people can be intimate) is raising funds for “Camp Oohigeas”.

    Folks at “my day job” have arranged for three pairs of tickets to be “auctioned off at eBay”. Given that the only other option for getting into this event is “buying a pair of Platinum tickets for $5,000” and the cause being supported is a worthy one, we hope that people will bid very generously. The primary way we’re getting the word out about this is via word of mouth and blogs. You may notice that, along with One Degree, Joey ‘Accordion Guy’ DeVilla “has picked up the cause” as has Mathew Ingram who mentioned Bridle Bash on “his blog” and at his day job, “the Globe and Mail”.

    If you are blogging and can spread the word, we’d appreciate it.

    Why mention this on One Degree? Well…

    1. I want those of you with bigger bank accounts than I to get in on the bidding.
    2. It’s a good cause.
    3. I find the use of the Net in promoting and to some extent managing this event very interesting.
    4. Us using blogs as the primary buzz builders for the final few pairs of tickets struck me as something you wouldn’t have seen even a year or two ago but it now seems perfectly natural.
    5. “My personal blog” has been sadly lacking in updates and as a result, traffic has sagged since I started doing most of my posting here.

    I find it hard to blog in multiple places and the fact that I needed to post here instead of on my personal blog was a new insight for me. Since One Degree is a topic-specific site, how do I get the message out without creating an “off-topic” category — something I’ve resisted for over a year?

    Follow the links, find out more and give some serious thought to what you are doing this weekend. You might end up with a story you’ll be telling for decades!

     

    Originally published at www.onedegree.ca on July 26, 2006.

July 25, 2006

  • Why Radiant Core Is Involved With Firefox

    Given recent news from “Radiant Core” I decided to ask Jay Goldman, the agency’s President, “1.5 Questions” about the Firefox win.

    One Degree: Jay, what impact do you expect your involvement with Firefox 2.0 will have on Radiant Core and do you feel that other companies can use Open Source project involvement to their advantage while helping the community?”

    Jay Goldman: It’s hard to imagine a better way to help the tech community than to contribute to an Open Source project, especially one that so strongly shares and embodies our beliefs. Working with “Mozilla”: has been an opportunity for us to collaborate with some of the people who are responsible for building the community that we get to enjoy and it continues to be an incredible privilege to be involved. I hope that “our contributions to the Firefox 2 release” will help to make the industry as a whole more aware of the value of good design and of continuous evolution and measured improvements rather than the need to make revolutionary changes with every release. There’s been a lot of talk lately about changing the way that software is built — from the old “release early/release often” saw to “37Signals’ Getting Real” — and I think there’s a lot of value in those statements. We’ve try to follow a similar approach in all the work we do for our clients, including the Firefox 2 theme. A lot of our time on the Fx2 release has been spent on the small details of what makes a good browser experience and I think it will show when people have a chance to try Beta 2 in a few weeks.

    Hopefully, it will also highlight the value in hiring Radiant Core to make those improvements! Participating in an Open Source project is a win-win situation for everyone involved — the contributors get the satisfaction of building (hopefully) great software, and the benefit of exposure at a level that is sometimes difficult to achieve in the Closed Source world. Although I don’t suggest that other companies get involved in the Firefox project for building default themes (Ha! Take that competitors!) — the Mozilla community is huge and filled with all kinds of exciting opportunities for people, be they designers, coders, documentation writers, or even volunteers to test things. And Mozilla is only one of the thousands of similar projects, all of whom are looking for hands and eyeballs. So you — yes, the person reading this on One Degree — get out there and do some good! And maybe plant a tree too (you can think of the environment as the ultimate Open Source project if it helps).

    Originally published at www.onedegree.ca on July 25, 2006.

July 23, 2006

  • The Internet Is A Series Tubes

    This Jon Stewart clip has been making the rounds for the last few weeks. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should:

    <video lost to link decay>

    Remind you of any client’s CEOs? 🙂

    “Here’s the dance mix” for your listening pleasure. This would be a lot funnier if the Ted Stevens being lampooned wasn’t “this Ted Stevens.” If you are in a position of power and say something profoundly boneheaded, know that in mere minutes the whole world will know (or at least “a quarter of a million people will try to make sure they do”).

     

    Originally published at www.onedegree.ca on July 23, 2006.

  • comingzune.com

    Word leaked out last week that Microsoft is working on an (ahem) “iPod killer” called Zune.

    I won’t bore you with the details — a quick search on Zune will get you MORE than enough on this classic piece of Microsoft FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt), but I did want to point out a really nice teaser site they’ve built called Coming Zune I think it’s the Regina Spektor song that made me want to link to the site. In fact, I liked Spektor’s “Us” so much that I just bought it from the iTunes Music Store.

    Originally published at www.onedegree.ca on July 23, 2006.

July 18, 2006

  • Should Your Website Display the CMA Logo?

    Traditionally many CMA (Canadian Marketing Association) members have included the CMA logo on their direct marketing materials. But companies have been slower to adopt the logo on their websites.

    The association recently sent a Member Briefing explaining the “Look for the Logo” program and pointing members to the new logos.

    CMA Members are encouraged to display the member logo on all their marketing communications, including their website, envelopes, flyers, inserts and in print and online advertisements. Program guidelines and materials, including a new interactive banner and button for member websites and e-marketing campaigns, can be downloaded from the CMA website.

    Their request got me thinking — should members use the logo on their sites and if so where? I’d be interested in hearing feedback on this.

    If you aren’t a CMA member company, why not? If you are a member, do you display the logo on your site? How did you decide on this strategy? Does your online use of the logo differ from your offline approach?

    Originally published at www.onedegree.ca on July 18, 2006.

  • iBegin Is Interesting

    This is part of our new “Interesting” feature “we announced in April” but then lost track of. If you have an “interesting” site you think we should feature let us know.

    Recently I asked Ahmed Farooq from “iBegin.com” to explain what makes his site interesting.

    One Degree: Who needs you?

    Anyone (in Toronto… for now) frustrated by local search.

    One Degree: Why do they need you?

    Simply because the current crop of local search sites (and Internet yellow pages) are rather craptastic. That’s right — I said crap.

    One Degree: Why are you interesting?

    We are completely self-funded, with no interest for external capital. There is no exit plan that comprises of a hopeful eye towards the usual suspects for a financially delicious buyout. We even have a philosophy that guides us. Local search with a mix of zen.

    One Degree: How do you make money?

    We do not right now. We are on target to become self-sufficient by 2007.

    One Degree: What is your mission?

    To do local search right. No need to jump around, looking for pictures, reviews, information. All in one place, backed by high-quality results.

    One Degree: Who are you?

    I’m not sure about that myself. Still on the path of self-discovery, so once I know, I will let you know 🙂 Strictly facts, we are a web development firm that owns a variety of websites. And we are firmly in the black.

    One Degree: Where are you?

    We are located in Toronto, feverishly working.

    Originally published at www.onedegree.ca on July 18, 2006.

July 12, 2006

  • Help Me Make The Net Ad Case

    Okay now that I’ve got my “online rules” rant off my chest I’m getting serious about putting together some compelling visuals for all our presentations.

    I’d like to add a few things to “the chart” and maybe do a Canadian version as well. I could use a bit of help with this. If you have any of the following, maybe you can send me a copy, or a link, or just add the data in the comments below):

    • If you quarterly IAB Canada stats I’ll do a Canuck version.
    • If anyone can source quarterly revenue from other marketing channels (in the US), I’ll be happy to create a new version of the chart so we can compare our growth to their stagnancy.
    • I’d love to get some old Forrester and Jupiter projections. I’d be very interested in seeing their online ad predictions from the 20th century to see how they did. My guess is that their wildly optimistic guesses are coming true.

    Send me what you got, make suggestions for other stuff we need and I’ll do my best to pull it together in a consistent format.

    Originally published at www.onedegree.ca on July 12, 2006.

  • 1 Red Paperclip + 1 Year = 1 House

    “Clipreneur” Kyle MacDonald did it!. Kyle (featured in a “Five Questions interview” here at One Degree) took exactly one year (and a heap of viral buzz) to turn one red paperclip into a house via 14 trades.

    Congrats to Kyle! Web analytics fans will be interested to know that I found out about this when we started seeing tons of search traffic coming on searches for Kyle’s name and the term “one red paperclip”.

    Originally published at www.onedegree.ca on July 12, 2006.

July 11, 2006

  • Internet Marketing Is The Place To Be

    Hello there Internet Marketer! Do you find that you get kidded about your passion for all things online? Do the other marketers in the office call you “cyber-this” and “e-that” followed by a condescending sniff? If so, take heart, those complacent know-it-alls NEVER get to see charts that look like this:

    <image lost due to link decay>

    Holy crap! In ten years we went from NO industry to a US$4 BILLION PER QUARTER industry! Do you feel like things are going to slow down? I feel like we’re just getting going. Please feel free to use this chart in your next presentation when you need to make a case for Internet advertising being here to stay. Hell, it’s not here to stay — it’s taking over the party! Stick it in PowerPoint and put it up on the big screen. Make the TV guys and the DMers salivate. Let’s face it — it’s time for us to quit accepting our second-class status as fair and proper. Time for a seat at the big people’s table if you don’t already have it. If your company is not seriously into making the Net the center of your company’s marketing strategy, quit. Stop wasting your time and find a company that gets it.

    Originally published at www.onedegree.ca on July 11, 2006.

July 9, 2006

  • A Quarter of One Degree Visitors Use Firefox

    If your site doesn’t work in “Firefox” you might be causing more misery for your visitors than you imagine, particularly if you care about marketers, tech folk, early adopters, and influencers. Those in the know are much more likely to be using Firefox as their default browser when compared to the general North American population where Firefox use is “estimated” at less than 10% penetration.

    Here’s how One Degree users breakdown:

    <image lost to link decay>

    The “Other” is a mishmash of various flavors of Opera, Safari, and Netscape. No sign of “Flock” yet — maybe it calls itself Mozilla?

    Originally published at www.onedegree.ca on July 9, 2006.