Speakers in the News »

7/07/06
JIMMY WALES

Jimmy Wales has announced the birth of Campaign Wikia, a site which hopes to bring the Wikipedia ethic to the world of politics (thereby liberating this pursuit from the big-money tyranny of broadcast media). In his mission statement, he explains the motivation for this venture: "I am launching today a new Wikia website aimed at being a central meeting ground for people on all sides of the political spectrum who think that it is time for politics to become more participatory, and more intelligent. This website, Campaigns Wikia, has the goal of bringing together people from diverse political perspectives who may not share much else, but who share the idea that they would rather see democratic politics be about engaging with the serious ideas of intelligent opponents, about activating and motivating ordinary people to get involved and really care about politics beyond the television soundbites. . . .We can turn this into the first beginnings of what is to come. This can be the start of the era of net-driven participatory politics. And it does not matter if you are on the right, on the left, moderate or extreme, socialist or libertarian. Whoever you are, and whatever you believe, you can share with me my sincere desire that the process start to be about substance and thought, rather than style and image." Wales was part of the Keynote Interview at the 2006 SXSW Interactive Festival, chatting with Craigslist founder Craig Newmark about people-powered content.

10:44am CST | +

7/06/06
AMANDA CONGDON

Analysts have noted that yesterday's public breakup of the business partnership between Rocketboom's Andrew Michael Baron and on-air personality Amanda Congdon underscores a general lack of business savvy amongst leaders of the Web 2.0 revolution. True enough. And, true enough, this spat is probably going to get uglier before it goes away. Reacting to Baron's explanation that the former anchor of this show has moved to Los Angeles to pursue other projects, Congdon responds on her blog: "It's not true. I'm presently living with my parents in Connecticut until I can get back on my feet. . . . I had hoped to keep things civil, and thought my video message to the Rocketboom viewers was very neutral. I felt the need to communicate with the RB audience, without getting into the nitty-gritty of 'he said, she said.' Dirty laundry is not attractive. That said, ALL the facts, at this point, based on Andrew's actions, need to be presented." Back when they were still a team, Baron and Congdon delivered a presentation titled "Democratization of the Moving Image" panel at the 2006 SXSW Interactive Festival.

10:44am CST | +

7/05/06
HEATHER ARMSTRONG

Information Week defines "Accidental Tech Entrepreneurs" as people who turn their hobbies into their full-time livelihoods. A story in the June 30 issue of this publication profiles several such individuals, including SXSW alums Heather Armstrong, Ben Trott, Mena Trott and Joshua Schachter. Of Armstrong (aka Dooce), the magazine notes: "A few short years ago, starting a Web business required a huge investment. Now the tools are cheap or free, essential to keeping the family biz in the black. Heather worked for a Los Angeles company that was founded by the crown prince of Dubai--this wasn't the place she was fired from, but another job. 'They spent millions of dollars developing their own content management system, and in the two years that I was there, they didn't get a tenth of the traffic of what my site is doing.' Dooce gets 45,000 to 65,000 unique visitors on weekdays, about half that on weekend days." Armstrong was part of the keynote conversation (with Jason Kottke) at the 2006 SXSW Interactive Festival.