Some of us are going to Copenhagen today: reboot8 is coming up. openBC will sponsor the event and Bill speaks on Thursday about "The Future of Social Networking".

Don´t miss it, since we will announce there a great initiative challenge!

See also the reboot-Group on openBC. Here, you can see who is attending, what they do, send them a private message introducing yourself, share info etc. The full works.

The funny thing of reboot this year is, that the program was on the Internet two days before the conference starts. I guess Thomas had a lot of traffic on his website in between :-D

Well, since everybody is talking about “that-phase-of-the-web-that-shall-happen-before-web-3.0", we´re taking the good old train to travel to Copenhagen. On board joining us Stowe Boyd, who jumped over the pond to speak at reboot plus saying hello to openBC.

I bought my number already. But I wont tell you how much I´ve invested :). 

Since some days, half of our team is still guessing what´s behind this picture. If you know it, leave a guess on openblog.

If you know what´s behind my number, go ahead and take a guess. Good luck!

[May 30 11:52pm 213 paintings sold]

Tadaaa....Our Red Herring Award arrived yesterday, together with a private note from Michael Felber, saying sorry for the delay. For everyone who missed this hilarious story, click here.

Nifty little feature from Sala [aharef] found via Robert. Just type in your website or blog url and see your tags popping around like confetti.

click here if you can´t resist to test it

openBC

Web 2.o is about user generated content, and this content is owned by the user, not by a single company, organisation or person. Nevertheless, Tom Raftery got an unpleasant mail.

One of these events - the upcoming Web 2.0 half-day conference is the target of a cease and desist letter (below) from the legal team of O’Reilly publishers. Basically O’Reilly are claiming to have applied for a trademark for the term “Web 2.0″ and therefore IT@Cork can’t use the term for its conference. Apparantly use of the term “Web 2.0″ is a “flagrant violation” of their trademark rights!

Click Toms blog for more information. One of the comments just recently said...

Why not invoke your predilection for Monty Python and call it “that-phase-of-the-web-that-shall-happen-before-web-3.0"

Sold!

"A partnership or merger between eBay and Yahoo is the most strategically feasible," a report authored by analyst Imran Khan and the JPMorgan Chase Internet team said on Monday. I think it's very clear that somehting in this area will happen. We have somehow an oligopoly in the internet: Looking at the most visited sites its obvoius: Yahoo!, Google, Ebay, MSN and the asian players like Sina or Sohu. Who will merge? Who will win in the end? Is Amazon already out? A merger of Ebay and Yahoo would make sense. Still, they would not have a great social software site, yet.

This is pretty darn good and we´ve wrenched our heads since Bill uploaded it on Flickr inviting us to take a guess and win some pocket money. Sigh, it´s not easy but nobody told so. ;-)

Just leave your guess as a comment!

[click banner]

[click chapter one] [click chapter two] [click background]

...in interview with Lars Hinrichs.

Q: How do you measure success?
We generally base our success on the success users are experiencing with openBC. And this is reflected in users’ level of activity and satisfaction: over 70% of members have been active on openBC in the past 30 days. We are recording almost 200 million page impressions every month. The churn rate is extremely low at around 1%.

Q: How does the premium service model work?
We have a one-size-fits-all premium membership model, which is simple to understand and simple to use. There is a standard rate applied in all countries – which is a lot of money in China.

Q: Do you think advertising can work on free sites like MySpace and Facebook?
Yes, but only because users don’t pay a membership fee on these sites. We are opposed to advertising on openBC. All social software providers have access to a lot of information about their users – and openBC could be seen in theory as a huge database storing detailed data about a highly active, professional target group. A dream for advertisers and something that would turn out to be very lucrative for us.

But we will definitely not be going down this road. Targeted advertising would go against everything that openBC stands for: We respect our members’ privacy and data security. We have built up a unique level of trust with our users in this way and would never consider placing this trust in jeopardy.

Advantage for both sides? Will a PR company use information, opinions and shared content - delivered hot off the press from a search engine - for community´s sake?

I´ve read the offical statement of technorati and of course of Edelman as well. And still many question marks are left.

"[...]Both of these developments are testimony to the incredible changes to media, marketing and communication that blogosphere is bringing about--- and to the increasing global reach of these developments.[...]"

The Edelman Trust Barometer states in the summary:

"[...]Blogs also serve as communities where information, links, opinions, videos, audio files, photos and other forms of media are easily and frequently shared, where elaboration can be offered, disagreements can be aired, and comments can be posted. Together, this collective conversation is called the Blogosphere, and it’s one of the fastest growing areas of new content on the Internet.[...]"

Let´s keep track of the development.

This is what our British members said about it in our last international survey "communication and networking on the Internet".

[click image]

[our American members said]

Once again I am in traveling America. There are so many good companies and people in the valley it is really amazing. Funny enough we met Martin Varsavsky at the airport, he was traveling in the same Airplane to San Francisco. I really want Wifi on the BA long houl flights and a plazes integration on openBC.

On the other side there are so many stupid Web2.0 investments recently done, that it really feels like 1999. For everyone who is currently writing a Web2.0 businessplan, please include the latest Buzzwords.

[click]

I am not sure. I am r-e-a-l-l-y not sure...

[link] A 30-minute kissing session may suppress the body's allergic reaction to pollen, providing welcome relief from hay fever, a new study suggests.

Scientists based at the Satou hospital in Japan found that kissing worked by relaxing the body and reducing the production of histamine – a chemical that the body produces in response to pollen, causing the sneezing, runny noses and streaming eyes that characterise hay fever attacks.

Our current internal top5 Kleenex-ranking:

1. Hay-fever, hay-fever, hay-fever!
2. Hay-fever plus cross sensitivity
3. Bad cold
4. Bronchities
5. Runny noses
...  Leni ate them

openBC has just recently introduces the new RSS Feeds. Pageflakes has made use of it as one of the first. You can setup your own personalized start page at Pageflakes and edit your openBC RSS Feed according to your own preference within a few seconds. That way, you will always be up to date on who has clicked on your openBC profile recently. As soon as openBC introduces further RSS Feed features, Pageflakes will add them right away. Setup your own start page today - it's free.

Bob said

This picture was made 'live' during last May's OpenBC Amsterdam meeting by Christa Logman. openBC says: Christa, we love it!

Many thanks to my great friend Mehul for tipping me off to the new "Trends" feature from Google which allows you to work out what people are searching for and compare the volumes of searches with US news articles.

I was obviously delighted by this result as it is nice to be sought after :-)

Well actually "our" award, but the title was too good to pass up!

It´s hilarious. When Lars came back from Paris this morning he didn´t bring with him anything other than a good story: Some other Red Herring winner must have taken our award home Red Herring told us.

We´re laughing tears here, but hey our showcase looks empty and sad now.

If anybody have seen our award or is reading this: Keep it!

So, we may not have one the Red Herring Award, but because we are nice people here, we're going to give away a one year membership to openBC for one lucky reader of openBLOG.

All you have is guess, "who run away with our red herring"?

[click chapter one] [click background]

...in interview with Lars Hinrichs.

Q: How does the business model work? How does it differ from Facebook or MySpace?
We have a very simple business model costing €5.95 per month and enabling users to benefit from extended features such as the power search, seeing who has visited their profile, contacting people outside of the openBC network and organising many events per month, to name just a few.

We differ from our competitors with respect to the fact that we do not concentrate on the fee to attract paying members. We are interested in attracting members by providing highly effective and secure networking features that are being constantly refined and upgraded and offer our users value for money and ROI. Our recent second international survey “Communication and networking on the Internet” reported that 16% of our members are experiencing business success from their online networking activities. All of our users are profiting from the site – not just specific user groups such as headhunters.

Q: How many users do you have?
Over 1 million – a figure that is growing by about 10% per month. That’s a faster rate than our competitors.

Q: How many of them pay?
A huge number of our users are paying members. Compared to other business social software sites, we make more revenue with a fewer total number of members.

Q: Can you say how fast the site is growing?
We are expanding at speed all around the globe, and especially in Europe and Asia. Our fastest-growing market is currently China.

...coming soon: chapter III.

[...]Some companies have jumped into crowded fields, but we looked for a special twist that might give them an edge. Germany’s OpenBC, for example, barged into social networking by focusing on businesses and charging customers for service. With just two rounds of funding, the company’s CEO says OpenBC is in the black and investment bankers are knocking at the door.

[click list] [click article]

I am very proud to announce that openBC has been selected as one of the Red Herring top 100 companies in Europe. 

That means I'll  be traveling to Paris tomorrow to the Red Herring Venture Market Europe Conference. Here I'll be presenting openBC to gathered CEOs from technology's most exciting companies in the EMEA region. It will be a great opportunity to share insights on the future of innovation and the entrepreneurial journey.

Meanwhile the openBC team are all very pleased to be named as one of "Europe's most promising companies" - it has provided a tremendous boost for us to build on this momentum as we continue to grow our share in global markets.

The Computer Bed

(Thanks Make Blog!)

Source WSJ.com

Pundits Discuss the Internet's Future
May 5, 2006

In the past 10 years the Internet has emerged as a global network that enables instant communications and borderless commerce. The popularity of blogs and the roll out of high-speed wireless connections have already begun to reshape the Web, but what will the Internet look like a decade from now? The Wall Street Journal Online invited Web pioneer Vint Cerf and tech pundit Esther Dyson to discuss what they expect in the next 10 years. Mr. Cerf envisions an interplanetary network, while Ms. Dyson ponders a loss of privacy and an information glut. Their conversation, carried out by email, is below. [click article]

At the time of release, this  article could be viewed without registration or subscription. Contact me, if WSJ changed it.

Yes, it´s us!

Skype is working with several Web community services including Six Apart, the San Francisco-based blogging software maker, as a way for bloggers to create an interactive way for their audiences to hold open conversations online. It is working with OpenVC, a European business networking site, and Bebo.com, a dating network site popular with British youth.

Read the whole story.

This is what our American members said about it in our last international survey "communication and networking on the Internet".

[click image]

Blogtalk-Marathon in less than 4 hours - I am really  sorry but this blogtalk is in German. Since it would take a hell of work to translate what I´ve said in interview with Achim, aka "Weltherrscher", I rather keep it as it is.

For everyone not speaking German at all, I don´t wont to keep you in the dark about what we´ve  discussed for about 3 hours. Topics have been so far:

• working mum - boone or bane?
• social software and networking
• advantage and disadvantage of megatainment in Berlins´ bathrooms
• state and future of the bloggersphere
• why openBC is happy to have openblog
• and what would have happened if former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder would have started to blog ("Dearest Doris")...

Today is bank holiday in Germany and I had some time to browse here and there on the Internet, and made what a surprise a quick pit stop at openblog archive. Whilst rereading this article I had a mini epihany: Why not answer the questions of this businessweek article from openBCs´perspective? There´s a chance that some of you want to know how openBC broke through. :)

So I took my chance to grab a relaxed Lars and interview him for you. I´ll blog his answers over the next few days to make it easier to read. Stay tuned!

How openBC Broke Through
openBC has almost reached the grand old age of two and a half, and has firmly established itself amongst the big boys in the professional networking world, with over a million active users and counting. Like its US-based siblings, its target group is broad, encompassing professionals of all ages and industries.

openBC’s business model is also based on a subscription service and firmly refuses to yield to advertising offers, despite advertisers being keen to tap in to the site’s high-potential user group. openBC is catching up fast, outstripping its competitors in terms of both growth rate and profitability.

Q: Why is social networking taking off right now?
Lars: There are an ever-growing number of people around the world who recognise the potential for connecting, exchanging and doing business with others over the net. Technology is enhancing by the day, enabling ever more ways to interact and stay connected online. And there are an increasing number of online users willing to pay for the added benefits provided by this social software. Online dating companies paved the way for this trend, proving the demand for digital service providers that bring people together. Relationships at work are changing and networks are becoming more important by the day, enabling professionals to manage and meet these new challenges.

Q: Are you folks making money?
Lars: We’ve been cash-flow positive since month 3 and have been earning money since day 1. We’ve taken care to learn from the lessons of the new economy. We made our business model clear to users from the start. We also observed how job advertising on many other networks had not really worked. Our business model has proved successful and other providers have since followed suit, charging users a fee to be able to contact other users.

Q: So you won’t be raising more money?
Lars: We were already net profitable before we received venture capital last year and are continuing to expand internationally on a daily basis, with acquisitions being made such as First Tuesday Zurich.

to be continued...

Technorati turns over a new leaf keeping an eye on posts by language, tags and categories. You don´t have to be a rocket scientist to know that the blogosphere is multilingual, and deeply international. What really blows my mind is that Japanese climbed the olymp of "posts by language" with English and Chinese hot on the heels. Portuguese, Dutch and German where bottom of the league. Sigh.., shell we switch language on openblog?!

Something that may come as a surprise (at least to the English-speaking world) is that English isn't the biggest language of the blogosphere. In fact, English isn't even the primary language of one third of all posts that Technorati tracks anymore.

Another interesting finding is that the Chinese blogosphere, which grew significantly in 2004 and 2005 (launches of MSN Spaces in Chinese, Bokee.com saw a peak of 25% of all posts in Chinese in November 2005) seems to be slowing down somewhat this year.