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Have you noticed that we aren't writers any more? Or filmmakers, or video producers, or even musicians or cartoonists? We're content-creators . Way too often, I hear Web folks talk about "content" as some kind of undifferentiated commodity: " Yep, figger we're gonna need ten, maybe twelve kilos o' content for that page. You got a bulk discount ?" Back a cargo truck up to the content silo, fill her up and you've got yourself a website. Sponsor But there's actually something interesting about the term - once I get past my visions of container ships laden with content, plying the seven seas. It's a way of dismissing the value of individual creativity, sure. But it can also be a way of capturing the idea that so many of us now communicate in different media, and that digital technology has gone a long way toward democratizing personal expression. How about you? When you hear "content", do you think of the lorem ipsum that fills in the space between the revenue-generating ads... or something else? More Noise to Signal. Discuss
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Cartoon: The Winter of Our Dis-content
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As we profiled in our Never Mind the Valley series last month, New York is increasing its stronghold on the east coast startup scene. The city's rich media and international business ecosystems make it the perfect launch pad for startups looking to leverage these markets. One other reason the city has seen successful growth of entrepreneurship is the holding company Betaworks , which shows no signs of slowing after raising $20 million from Intel, AOL, RRE Ventures and several others. Sponsor It is a little harder to place a label on Betaworks compared to other similar entities that some would call incubators. The important thing to know is that Betaworks considers itself a holding company and will not only invest in companies but will hold and operate some of them as well. Having previously raised $8 million in 2008, the company has put their money to good use; Betaworks' history includes helping start companies like Bit.ly and Chartbeat , while investing in other real-time Web apps like Tweetdeck , and helping in the sale of others like Summize, which was acquired by Twitter in 2008. Needless to say, the company seems to know which horses to bet on, which is likely the reason why several corporations and investors teamed up to refresh their capital. Along with Intel, AOL and RRE, investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Softbank and The New York Times Company all contributed to help Betaworks keep moving forward. The real-time Web is a trend we've been following very closely at ReadWriteWeb as evidenced by last fall's Real-Time Web Summit . For startups in this space, especially those on the east coast, Betaworks is a great resource and potential investor. The new funds will not only go toward helping bolster their already impressive list of companies, but also to bringing fresh new companies on board. As with the recent $750 million raised by Battery Ventures , the large collaborative investment in Betaworks is another solid indicator of returning venture capital dollars after a lackluster 2009. Discuss
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Intel, AOL, Others Help Betaworks Round Up $20M
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To keep up with the growth of cloud computing and virtualization, networks keep evolving. But unlike Twitter's Trending Topics, IT budgets don't scale up. In fact one of the major initiatives in many IT shops is creatively reduce their own expense. To get to a scalable cloud infrastructure where costs are contained, it sounds like the network industry is going to see a time where a "Linux" arrives on the scene. An open source alternative to building networks may disrupt the networking landscape and give network admins an open source network operating system. Sponsor Virtualization: It's in the Network Too Distributing workload across machines, storage, and environments has required networks to be smarter than ever. Now, the network needs to be intelligent enough to not only route traffic both a bridge and a toll-gate, but to also provision and de-provision all aspects of the environment at a moments notice. Providers like Rackspace are in the business of using the network to optimize the performance of the entire data center. To be effective in keeping up with dynamic system provisioning, technical teams need access to all tiers of the computing environment to reduce operations overhead. In their innovation for efficiency, hosting providers, such as Amazon Web Services and Rackspace start to create new patterns - including ones in the core of the network - to get their job done. Network operating systems that are open, like Extreme XOS enable large scale hosting providers to look deeper into networking gear and start to tune it themselves. And enterprises may follow this trend. Servers Don't Sleep at Night, but Applications and Admins Do For a long time, networks have been used to detect the peers and devices. Many of us use the nearly ubiquitous DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), which is the the thing that automatically assigns IP addresses to a PC when plugging into the network. In an analogy, there is a need for a "super DHCP" is needed that can keep up with the highly virtualized cloud infrastructure per virtual instance. To do this, engineers look deeper to find efficiencies in how the network talks to the hardware and software for the virtual machines. A good example of benefit for this is where a resource has peak loads during the day. Due to natural usage, the applications compute power is not utilized during the night. Using monitoring and provisioning tools, the network can de-provision the extra hardware and offer it to another service. This "freeing up" allocation saves power and money. This is a simple example of where virtual data center solutions are being innovated in the industry to figure out how to further timeshare the computing resources. The network has the ability to help manage the scale down to the moment is enabled by it's reach to everything over IP (Internet Protocol). The Open Network Wins, Developers Rule Extreme Networks is betting IT leaders that have become very familiar with Linux and open source Hypervisors like XEN want to tweak the network. For the data center manager that wants to go into the core network engines innovate, there comes a need for APIs, SDKS, and open access libraries. Extreme's openness is in the form of web services, many offered that are offered as XML or CLI scripting that allow integrate tools into the core of the network via XML, and configure edge ports for security and VOIP access as dynamic provisioning. The company offers a code workbench of its own to download widgets to plug into the network. Designed for the open source developer, it shares the familiar pattern that presides in open source community for application frameworks and operating systems code sharing. Shown in the diagram, Extreme's network offers real-time provisioning of code widgets in the network. Play Nice: the Networks Worse Enemy May be Success Will the network evolve to see an open source player that drives change in pricing and value? In the rush to enable new efficiencies we wonder if this is an Apple A-HA moment in the making. The question seems to be can the giants in the space balance the fine line of better end-to-end experience of managing the environment and whether vendors do it best. If we follow the Apple example of industry success, and end-to-end play for the network may be in the cards. Last month, Juniper announced it has created a new business group and commitment to an Junos ecosystem. Juniper has made a big move towards open source innovation in it's recent re-branding and at least to one analyst, John Furrier from Silicon Angle, seems to be suggesting that Juniper Judo'sing Cisco, like Google did with Open and Microsoft . That probably doesn't feel the least bit nice to the market leader, especially when Cisco is priming it's engines for changing the Internet forever. Cisco Open IOS in 2007 a model towards compartmentalizing and opening IOS, as part of it's overall movement into a more software based organization.With the complex series of network enhancements and feature sets, it will be interesting to see how Cisco views "open" vs. "customizable" and where the control lives for network management and up-time. When visiting the Cisco IOS website today, we see the standard license and no clear mention of open source licensing. Cisco strikes the balance between open and controlled in it's a approach to defining what an open network is and where networks will be encapsulated as services. We wonder if Cisco deliver the capabilities to pull more traffic into it's end-to-end range, while open networking APIs rise as part of the network service stack. With this market, it's likely both. At very least, open networking has a role in determining the fate of the network and where territories are being defined. The Cloud is a Network of Services The cloud is defining a world where service orientation rules - both the software and physical layers. And, it is breaking the rules of workload distribution, where network topologies are changing. The requirements of connecting the layer 2 and layer 3 networks, as well as IT leaders that are building solutions for mass scaling (enterprises or service providers) are evolving and being driven by an ability to be efficient at the workload level. Extreme Networks Technical Brief, Dynamic Network Virtualization Overview , explains the value of plug and play network components in today's topology. "By leveraging Extreme Networks® ExtremeXOS®, a modular, edge-to-core operating system, and our extensibility frame-work including Universal Port Scripting and an XML interface, Extreme Networks is able to tightly integrate the switching network with the virtualization environment to create a virtualization-aware network fabric that automates the network-level virtualization required in next generation data center and cloud computing environments. This unique functionality enables Extreme Networks to provide seamless support of virtualization capabilities across the various hypervisor platforms, including Citrix ZEN, Microsoft and VMware. The highly integrated solution allows the Extreme Networks solutions to trigger responses to virtualization moves as they happen in the network by virtue of a tightly integrated XML-based network management framework." Extreme, and now Juniper, are moving in the direction of offering IT administrators control points in networks and protocols to optimize it opens the market. It looks promising to give administrators vendor leverage in buying services without vendor lock, or waiting for feature releases from the vendor. And, it mirrors the open-source movement in bringing communities together to solve problems and build compatible services. Open APIs may define the cloud's network of the future for large hosting providers. We wonder if for the enterprise. Photo credit: opensourceway Discuss
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Network as a Service: Open Source Enables Efficient Cloud Hosting
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For entrepreneurs trying to form a startup, one of the first challenges they face that persists throughout the businesses life is how to find and keep talented partners and employees. From finding that first co-founder to finding the prolific programmers to fill your ranks later down the line, talent acquisition is always a major step in any business. Just look at some of the deals that have gone down in the Valley; Facebook didn't buy FriendFeed for their technology, that deal was mostly about getting FriendFeed's talented employees on the Facebook team. Sponsor A new book from author David Russo, 17 Rules Successful Companies Use to Attract and Keep Top Talent: Why Engaged Employees Are Your Greatest Sustainable Advantage , seeks to make this process more clear for businesses. Russo is the CEO of Eno River Associates, Inc., which is a consulting service that helps business executives build better team relationships. Their portfolio of clients includes American Express, Johnson & Johnson, and the CIA. With his new book, Russo outlines the key strategies he has learned over the years as a consultant and human resources executive that has helped him and others create winning teams. The book doesn't waste any time getting into its 17 rules; after a brief introduction the entirety of the book consists of one chapter per rule. The rules cover a broad base of topics, including the more straightforward rule #4, "Provide Ample and Appropriate Resources," to the more abstract rule #12, "Understand Human Capital." One of the key rules that sticks out to me is #3, "Cultivate Leadership, Not Management, and Know the Difference!" "Whereas managers administrate, leaders have the power to influence, to motivate, even inspire, and those are distinctly different traits," writes Russo. "Indeed, true leadership is the ability to display attributes that make people want to follow." Russo points out that leaders need to have passion, vision, and energy, as well as recognize that each employee has value to the success of the business. He likens this value to a tight end in a football game running "a crisp pattern" and distracting the defense despite knowing before the play that he's not going to be the ball carrier. Another rule which will likely strike a chord with the startup culture is #10, "Make Room for Fun in the Workplace (Nurture Lightheatedness/Levity)." Anyone who has seen the popular workplace movie "Office Space" knows what a bland work environment can do to employees spirits, but I don't think we have to worry about startups not having enough fun on the job. Aside from being passionate about the job they're doing, most startup employees are probably used to everyday being "casual Friday" and taking a brain break in a game room. Granted, not every experience is like this, but we all know that many startups are a very relaxed environment, which Russo says is very important for attracting skilled employees and keeping them happy. Other important rules Russo includes on his list include knowing how and when to "cheerlead," acknowledging and rewarding efforts and contributions, and the lastly, telling the truth. While this book isn't aimed directly at startups, young entrepreneurs looking to lead their team to success should certainly take a look at this book. One of reasons I would suggest it is that at times, young entrepreneurs who have little or no workplace experience are suddenly thrust into a CEO role. If your company takes off, you might be in charge of a lot of people very quickly, and this book will certainly help keep them happy. Disclosure: A review copy of 17 Rules was provided to ReadWriteWeb by Pearson Education, Inc. Photo by Flickr user madebytess . Discuss
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Weekend Reading: 17 Rules by David Russo
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Forget building your own iPhone app, you can now build your own mobile social network! Two companies - Shoutem and Socialight - are offering platforms that allow anyone to design, develop and launch their very own social networks for mobile devices. Although neither service will likely lead to the next creation of the next Twitter or Foursquare, the tools they offer are perfect for design a niche site for a select group of users. Whether it's a closed network for you and your friends, a fan-based network for celebrating a favorite TV show, a one-time use network for a particular conference or event or even something designed for use within a particular company, these services have you covered. Sponsor We've already seen social network DIY services take off on the desktop, mainly due to Ning and their niche network building tools. That same concept can now be reproduced on the mobile platform thanks to Shoutem and Socialight . Shoutem: Niche Networks for Communities Having recently exited its beta testing phase, Shoutem's globally available service lets users easily create private mobile social networks without needing programming and development skills. With their platform, anyone can control the access and the design of their network and launch it as a mobile application for the iPhone, Blackberry and soon, Android. Shoutem recommends using their product to build specialist niche sites for sports fans, clubs and events. Already, some companies have launched their own small networks using the service. NFL Shouts, for example, lets game fans communicate with each other during football season. Ranch and Rodeo, meanwhile, connects an international audience to a destination site where fans can interact. Socialight: Better for Brands, Businesses...and Mom? The other company to recently launch something in this space is Socialight . With their new Socialight Community Platform, anyone can create networks which are accessible via the web, a WAP site or an iPhone app. The company seems to have more of an enterprise focus than Shoutem, noting how their tools have helped "companies and brands" create their own apps. However, the tools Socialight provides can be used by anyone, even individuals...even your mom as explained in this video on Vimeo . Not Just Mobile, Location-Based What's interesting about both launches is their focus on location-based services. In Socialight's case, they offer tools for sharing geo-tagged photos and other location-based community content, all of which can be viewed on a map interface. From the mobile application, users can upload and share anything - whether that's a photo, video or text - and have it posted to the network. Shoutem does much of the same thing with tools that enable file and photo uploads. They also target their app to local communities like colleges, cities, restaurants, bars and clubs. Why Niche Networks for Mobile? Considering that there are already several popular mobile social networks out there, including Brightkite , Loopt , Gowalla and Foursquare to name a few, you may wonder why people would need to join yet another. The answer to that question is two-fold. One difference is access. These niche networks can be closed communities for just a select group of people working on an invite-only system. The second difference between those publicly available services and the ones designed with these new toolkits is that they are laser-focused on a single purpose. You may not want to spam up your Twitter account where you promote your business to discuss things related to your local book club for example, but you could easily do so via a niche network. But perhaps an even better example involves how local businesses could use these tools in building apps for their customers. On Socialight's homepage , they're currently featuring "Socialight Concierge," a toolkit for the hotel and tourism industry which lets companies create "curated concierge experiences" where "guests access location-based information about restaurants, shops, and places to visit, together with city tours and historical points of interest, all in a branded environment." The richness of this mobile application goes far beyond anything we've seen with the simplified DIY mobile app building tools . These are no mere informational apps, they're comprehensive networks where some content is managed by the business, but the real value comes from the customers socializing within the community. You can start building your own network today on Shoutem here or Socialight here. Discuss
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2 Services for DIY Mobile Social Networks
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