Fast Company’s Co.Labs writes a great article on Why WordPress[.com] Gobbled Up This Scrappy iCloud Alternative.
Category Archives: Asides
Hunter Walk is Not Just a WordPress User, Now Also an Advisor to Automattic. Really excited to have him involved!
I was a weird kid.
I’d write and painstakingly edit endless paragraphs in which I’d riff on current events and major news items. Then I’d take a floppy disk to my local copy store where I’d print out the pages and bind them with card stock covers, before heading to the post office to mail the completed tome to just about everyone I knew.
Dave Pell: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Post Office.
I’m really excited about Simplenote for Android, better than any similar app I’ve seen on the platform.
Dave Pell on building the NextDraft platform. Spoiler: It’s WordPress, but a really cool implementation of it across a blog, iOS app, and newsletter. I wish more publishers worked the same way.
I spoke to Robin Hough at the Guardian about WordPress and Automattic’s mission to democratize publishing.
Bruce Schneier has a remarkably clear essay on Our Newfound Fear of Risk which could as easily be about corporations, finance, or relationships as it is about its chosen topic. It reminded me a lot of one of the better books I read this year, Antifragile by Nassim Taleb.
Jay Rosen (and Barry Eisler) on the surveillance state’s efforts to make journalism harder, slower, less secure. The gist: why would they destroy hard drives they know there are copies of, and detain couriers they know they’ll have to release?
Rachael Chong has an article on Fast Company Co.exist that includes my thoughts on giving, charity, and impact in the world.
I’m really excited about the launch of WordPress.com Connect. Yes Facebook et al offer similar APIs and have more users, but there are two key differences. First is Automattic is not an advertising-driven company, so our priorities around users are different than ones who are. Second is that these APIs are the basis for interacting with any element of an entire website hosted on WP.com or not, meaning themes, widgets, posts, content, CSS… any company that does something that ultimately ends up on a website should be looking at the APIs on developer.wordpress.com and pushing us where there isn’t one yet.
Bruce Schneier on The Public-Private Surveillance Partnership. Packed with good links as well.
The 2013 Emmy nominations have been announced and included among the nominees is the Lift-built AMC The Walking Dead StorySync, which is nominated in the Outstanding Interactive Program category.
Steve Denning writes convincingly on the crumbling myth of shareholder value as the primary driver of companies.
Naval describes the venture model while suggesting a way for firms to differentiate.
We help our customers but don’t tell them exactly how. Our core product is a commodity, yet we don’t disclose pricing. Even when we do, there are substantial hidden costs. It has to be bought in bulk, more than they want. We can take months to onboard a customer. We reject most of them but don’t actually give them a straight answer. They don’t get dedicated support. They don’t get to choose or replace their representative. We don’t commit to serve them in the future. We have hundreds of competitors with the same strategy. Now where’s my check?
I’ll be speaking three times this weekend: First Saturday at noon at Techweek Chicago, where I’ll be chatting with Bing’s Stefan Weitz. A few hours later at 4pm I’ll be at WordCamp Chicago doing a town hall. Then Sunday at 4pm I’ll be up with our Quebec friends at WordCamp Montreal doing another town hall. Then, I will sleep.
David Cowan writes as A Contrarian Futurist, with thoughts on wearable computing and cyber warfare.
WP Daily has a post that is interesting both for the dozens of pictures of WordPress cakes and confections from yesterday as well as a good roundup of posts about the 10th anniversary.
Michelle Atagana from Memeburn posted an interview we did when I was in South Africa: Matt Mullenweg on how open source is democratising the web.
The Wall Street Journal interviews Annise Parker on Houston and calls it “The Modern American Boomtown”. I think Houston is the most under-appreciated city in North America, as anyone who’s hung out with me for more than a few hours has heard me preach.
Wired has a great cover story on Audrey portfolio company SmartThings: In the Programmable World, All Our Objects Will Act as One.