Big Day for Bloggers

Been out at meetings most of the day, and am not able to give you much analysis now, but there were two items related to bloggers that I really wanted to share, albeit quickly.

First, Om Malik. Today, Om went public with the news that he's leaving the mothership, Business 2.0 (sort of), and will make a go off his own brand - which is about as good as it gets in the tech/telecom blogosphere. As Om explains, he'll still write for Business 2.0, but he's got some seed funding to get his own venture going. It's all in his post - really a great story. I'm certainly on the bandwagon behind GigaOM Inc, and see lots of upside to where things could go.

At this time, all I want to add is that if want you an indication of how much support Om has behind him, just look at all the "best wishes" comments on his posting. It goes on and on. I mention this with a smile, as Om was here in Toronto last month at the Mesh Web 2.0 conference. One of the things that resonated most for me during his opening talk was that the comments are the best indicator of how you're blog is doing. I'm with Om - it's not the content that matters - it's the conversation and dialog that the blog inspires. The blogger provides the context, and sets the stage for the exchange of ideas. From his posting today, there's no doubt he's got a following.

There's definitely a trend happening here, as two other high profile bloggers - Microsoft's Robert Scoble and Riya's Tara Hunt just did the same thing. Mark Evans has a nice post about this from yesterday.


Second, Jeff Pulver. This isn't really a blogging story, but Jeff is certainly an A-list blogger, and he had a great day as well. Jeff had a full feature profile in today's WSJ. It's a great read, and provides a lot of insight about what makes Jeff tick and some history about his various ventures.

Most importantly, is the focus on Internet-based video. Jeff is focusing a lot of his business activity around this area, and his future conferences will have more emphasis on this as well. There's a link to the article on his posting, and if it expires by the time you read this, at least he's highlighted the details there.

As Jeff notes, the story was in the works for almost a year, and I suspect one reason why it's running now is Jeff's history with Vonage. In the aftermath of their IPO, the video angle has some relevance in terms being something that could help Vonage succeed in such a competitive market.