A report by Mashable that walks through data researched by Barracuda Networks Labs speaks volumes on what I call a new class of web user.  The fanatic, engaged early adopter. We (SiliconAngle labs) were storing and analyzing twitter up until July 2009 until the project moved over to Bing. The reported data from Mashable is pretty much on the money. Mashable reports: Barracuda Labs also analyzed Twitter’s growth over time, and the numbers are consistent with previous reports that show while Twitter grew like wildfire in early 2009, it has dramatically slowed down in recent months. Going back further to early 2008, the report estimates that the microblogging tool grew by just 0.31%. However, with the quick rise of media coverage

Gabe Rivera's Techmeme is the news reader of choice for much of the Silicon Valley tech-setters -- more so than Techcrunch because it has a much wider selection of articles. I often see Gabe at press events, he has a press pass like other journalists. But is he a journalist? After all, he doesn't write any of the stories that appear on Techmeme. It seems that the Austin based conference South By South-West (SXSW) doesn't think he's a journalist because it refused to give Gabe a press pass. Does SXSW think that Gabe's Techmeme is a simple news aggregator and therefore not media? Probably. But Gabe is not just a software engineer with a news algorithm and a server. He's better viewed as the editor-in-chief of Techmeme with a large staff o

People like to talk about disruption but sometimes some people misunderstand the power of disruptive technologies. I've had companies tell me: "Yes, we know we are in danger of disruption but we see it, we can adapt, we can change and take advantage of it." Good luck. Even when you can see the train wreck ahead. You will likely slam right into it. Disruptive technologies disrupt. Technologies are not called "disruptive" just for the sake of it. Niki Scevak, a serial entrepreneur, writing over at Bronte Media, has a nice analysis of AOL versus Yahoo. He says that AOL, under Tim Armstrong and his team, has a more realistic understanding of the advertising markets, and where things are headed. Carol Bartz, who I am

It is estimated that poor customer service has cost the Cable/Satellite Industry over $12 billion in lost revenues over the past year, ahead of the financial services industry with more than $10 billion in losses; which is startling considering Cable/Satellite companies project themselves as the future of home and business subscription services of all things information and entertainment. How can these companies survive with such a poor record of customer care?  Take the up and coming consumers, ages 27 – 43, who terminated services most frequently at 1 ½ times per year compared to older consumers. These consumers are the target audience that Cable/Telecom companies want the most due to their powerful (Triple Play) buying power. T

I really dislike non-disclosure agreements, but NDAs are a fact of life in the IT industry. Even folks like me that actively avoid NDAs sometimes have to sign the paperwork to gain access to people or information, and employers regularly require such an agreement as a condition of employment. I suspect most folks try to respect and uphold the agreements they do sign, but this doesn't stop slip-ups. So let me take a few minutes of your time to pass along my top five tips to avoid violating NDAs! 1 - Avoid signing NDAs The best way to avoid breaking an NDA is simply not to agree to one in the first place. Asking for a non-disclosure agreement is part of standard practice in business, but it's not always necessary. Politely ask if the NDA i

It seems that the New York Times agrees with my view that the Italian court ruling on Google hosting a video of a disabled boy being bullied, [Italian Decision Could Help Traditional Media Orgs], potentially benefits Italian prime minister and media magnate Silvio Berlusconi: Larger Threat Is Seen in Google Case - NYTimes.com In Italy, where Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi owns most private media and indirectly controls public media, there is a strong push to regulate the Internet more assertively than it is controlled elsewhere in Europe. Several measures are pending in Parliament here that seek to impose various controls on the Internet. Critics of Mr. Berlusconi say the measures go beyond routine copyright questions and are a

Loren Feldman, the publisher of 1938Media, a New York city based web site, has published the names of the companies that were the subject of 100 posts written by former TechCrunch writer Daniel Brusilovsky. [Unpaid Techcrunch Reporter Sacked For Bribe Attempt] Michael Arrington, the publisher of Techcrunch, said that Mr Brusilovsky was sacked because he requested a Macbook Air in exchange for writing a post about a company. [An Apology To Our Readers] Mr Brusilovsky said that he had not received any computers. Mr Feldman said he has direct knowledge that three companies on the list, did deals in exchange for coverage. Until this gets fully cleared up and aired out, every one of these companies, many irrelevant but others you might n

Wow. This looks like easy money. The Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) "the principal trade association for the software and content industries" is offering rewards of $500 to $1 million, to any whistleblowers that report companies for stealing content. The SIIA used to focus on software piracy. Through its Corporate Content Anti-Piracy (CCAP) Program, SIIA pursues cases of copyright infringement of members’ content that are taking place by or within an organization. This content includes text-based publications like articles in newspapers, magazines and newsletters, books – whether in traditional print or made available online. There is a massive amount of content being stolen by web sites every day

The New York Times published this on its 'Corrections' section: ...a Times reporter appears to have improperly appropriated wording and passages published by other news organizations. The reporter, Zachery Kouwe, reused language from The Wall Street Journal, Reuters and other sources without attribution or acknowledgment. The Times was alerted to the problem by editors at The Wall Street Journal. They pointed out extensive similarities between a Journal article, first published on The Journal's Web site... As John Furrier pointed out in a Tweet, bloggers reuse language in news stories all the time. They don't get into trouble because they attribute and they link back to the original. I've worked on newspapers and I can tell

Niki Scevak, over on Bronte Media has a knack for delving into financial numbers and coming up with a new angle on familiar stories. Here, he takes a look at the New York Times Company's recent financial quarter, which was generally considered good in that Internet advertising did not decline - the first time in more than a year. And the company beat analyst earnings estimates of 38 cents a share with earnings of 44 cents a share. But a closer look at the numbers reveals that About.com, which is a site that some people have compared to Demand Media, because it pays writers very little to produce content, was responsible for the majority of the improvement in the company's numbers. The important point here is that the New York Time's leas