for W3c validation

John Battelle, who runs Federated Media Publishing and is enamored with blogs (he runs SearchBlog), search, and media, gave a Superb keynote presentation. My notes are below-

I thought it was interesting that Battelle mentioned that Web 2.0 was partly due to the notion that people started creating companies based on passion rather than commerce (amazing what happens when passion becomes apparent in your job!).

He talked a bit about being in the third wave of tech and culture. Digitize the back-office, digitize the front-office, and now digitizing customers. The command line is now a common language (real words typed into a search box) rather than a programming language such as DOS in the 1980’s.

Web 2.0 principles

• the web is a platform
• the architecture of participation – also known as user content or collective intelligence
• lightweight business models
• innovation in assembly
• the long tail – economic possibilities that didn’t exist before
• SEARCH RULES – driver of web 2.0 businesses, a turning point in marketing, and a new reality for all forms of traditional business

Other notes of interest to me-

• It’s amazing to think about how far customer acquisition costs have fallen. Think about intent over content.
• Marketing has become a dialogue.
• Where did someone come from?
• Content is once again king, and the landing page is queen
• Conversation over dictation
• New tools, new research/planning, new thinking about media buying, new (and highly iterative) creative, from the approach to the payoff after the “envelope opening” moment
• new forms of ROI
• Marketing into media into conversation

Federated Media Stats:

• 100 sites
• 750 mm ad impression/month
• sales force of 15
• engineering staff of 4
• author services staff of 4
• nearly 1500 active advertisers

Robert Scoble asked the question, “If you were a entrepreneur trying to start a blog and want to be a FM client, what type of blog would you start?” The short answer is “a blog with a great voice.”

What technology is cool and upcoming in his mind? Two come to his mind. 1) VOX from SixApart and 2) a platform that uses a mash-up approach to create a better search using RSS.

VERY cool demo of the Federated Media platform.