Calacanis

After retiring from blogging five weeks ago, today hi-tech entrepreneur Jason Calacanis posted a blog post reiterating that he is retired from blogging. In the post, he states that signing up for his email list is a more personal way of communicating compared with blogging and corresponding through comments: No one else sees these words–they [...]

I know I blog a lot about ThisNext here but mostly about "stuff" I keep the work stuff off of this blog BUT today was a particularly thrilling so I must share ...We had a pretty kick ass meeting today, which Jason Calacanis was a part of. In the meeting one of my fabulous ideas was crowned "Best Idea of the Day" so I got a prize :) What was that prize you ask? No, not Christian Louboutin shoes (that would have been nice) instead I got the next best thing -- a ride in the Tesla.I mean who am I to pass up a ride in a fast car, so I hopped in the car to claim my prize. Ummm, that car is FAST! Fast like a roller coaster fast. Fast as in "I might have pissed my pants" fast (I didn't, really ... don't go spreading rumors).It was a fun ride.Oh and when I say fun what I really mean is it's fu

As mentioned in an earlier post, Jason Calacanis criticizes social media optimization (SMO) while working Digg at the same time. A few days ago I noticed that he again criticized SEO/SMO in his blog: People are coming up to ask questions and the guy keeps saying “well you have to do social work on digg and reddit, but it’s complicated and we need to talk about it.” During the panel he said “it’s complicated, we should talk about it after the panel.” I’m sure folks will come to his office and he’ll say “it’s complicated, sign this contract and we can start working on it.” I also noticed that Mahalo is doing heavy social media optimization on Twitter.com. Here are a couple of screenshots: Mahalo.com has created many twitter.com user accounts: Each account seems to automatically update when new content is added to Mahalo: Jason Calacanis wrote: I’ve seen a half dozen SEO-related panels over the year and it’s

I remembered reading a blog post by Jason Calacanis about how social media optimization is BS: PSS - This whole gaming of digg/Netscape/MySpace is being called SMO–social media optimization. That’s the worst thing I’ve ever heard of. Anyone who hires an SMO firm is an idiot. The whole point of social media is TO BE REAL NOT FAKE!!! Just be yourself and participate… that’s all it takes (and note, participation is not just putting in your own links, it’s voting/commenting on/submitting other people’s content too!). [highlight added by me] Check this out: Here is a Digg user named Sh2010—a friend of Jason McCabe Calacanis and Mark Jeffrey (Mahalo CTO) among other Mahalo employees who are on Digg. Here is a screenshot of some of Sh2010’s 19 submissions: It looks like 16 of the 19 Digg submissions are Mahalo pages, and one more of the 19 Digg submissions is about how to review Mahalo pages. Jason Calacanis wrote about how “participat

In probably one of the more silly things, the flame war between Jason Calacanis and Dave Winer heated up this morning with Techmeme following along the many blogs warping out and taking sites like a war against the Borg and the Federation. While both sides make good points, the thing about blogging, and the thing about opinion, even if it is backed up with fact is that we are making a statement, we then back up our statements with many people saying the same thing that support our statement, then we all go out for a beer to two. Unless you are Linux or Microsoft fan boys, they just have fun spinning everything in to a flame war no, even if there are calls for peace across no mans land. So, depending on how you feel about Mahalo, and user assisted search, then that will really determine which side you are going to take. Did Mahalo let everyone down? Or is it still working out the problems and gains in fits and starts. In the longer run will Mahalo even matter, or is Ms. Dewey tons coo

I'll be on Calacanis tonight with a slew of other special guests. It will be 3am here so I will do my best to be lively. Special guests include Jay Adelson (Digg CEO),Kent Nichols (AskANinja), Robert Scoble, Steve Gillmor, and Loren Feldman (1938 Media) . To join the show go to Operator 11 at 7pm PST and go the "Now Playing" section and click on the "Get In Now" button.

Have you ever wondered why some bloggers have become so well known why other bloggers just can't seem to make the cut? The answer in many cases is link baiting. What is link baiting?From Wikipedia:Link bait is any content or feature within a website that somehow baits viewers to place links to it from other websites. Attempts to create link bait are frequently employed in the overall task of search engine optimization. The most common form of Link bait I see among well known bloggers is what Wikipedia calls the "Evil Hook". That is saying something unpopular, mean, highly controversial or just flat wrong to yield a lot of attention. Jason Calacanis is an absolute master at this practice, and you can see the same practice among other Baiters like TechCrunch and Valleywag. Jason knows what he does and he flaunts it. To that I say more power to him.The reason that I bring this up is that there is value in link baiting and I think it is a traffic building strategy that our Posties should

Have you ever wondered why some bloggers have become so well known why other bloggers just can't seem to make the cut? The answer in many cases is link baiting. What is link baiting?From Wikipedia:Link bait is any content or feature within a website that somehow baits viewers to place links to it from other websites. Attempts to create link bait are frequently employed in the overall task of search engine optimization. The most common form of Link bait I see among well known bloggers is what Wikipedia calls the "Evil Hook". That is saying something unpopular, mean, highly controversial or just flat wrong to yield a lot of attention. Jason Calacanis is an absolute master at this practice, and you can see the same practice among other Baiters like TechCrunch and Valleywag. Jason knows what he does and he flaunts it. To that I say more power to him. Jason is proud to be a baiter, not that many people would stand up and shout that from the mountains.The reason that I bring this up is that

The interview with Jason Calacanis yesterday went better than expected. He asked some tough questions but ultimately I think was reasonable and balanced. In the end I think we both gained some respect for each other and some insight into what drives us.There is a surprise ending to this podcast that is well worth the lengthy (and at times heated) debate. If there was any doubt in your mind about my commitment to the Posties or this company I dare say it should exist no longer. I love our Posties, especially the ones I have met in person.As a primer to the main event here is a video I made the night before.

I made a post a few days ago about my Golden Donkey award. I mentioned that in the back of my head I have about 20 Golden Donkeys I have given away to people who have attacked PayPerPost unfairly. What I didn't mention is that 15 of the 20 awards go to the biggest Donkey of all, Jason Calacanis.Time and time again Jason has climbed upon his stacks of money and jumped upon his high horse, declaring PayPerPost and the other companies that have followed our lead "evil". Apparently he can't find anything better to talk about on his blog or in his keynote speeches. He sounds more like a doomsday preacher than an entrepreneur.Just because it scares Jason and Jason doesn't understand why PayPerPost works doesn't mean it is evil. Paid search scared people too. They called it evil, they said it would ruin the Internet. Last time I checked Google and Overture are doing ok. If those entrepreneurs would have listened to naysayers like Jason that multi-billion dollar industry wouldn't exist.C