Don Thorson - Marketing 2.0

Digital Lifestyle Aggregators (DLAs)

Dig into the world of DLAs and the road leads to Marc Canter. A DLA is one of those things you wouldn't want to try to explain to your mom but if your profession has you anywhere near creating specifications for next generation applications, you'd better get in this game. Here are some DLA characteristics as described by Marc (which I first found via Om's synopsis on the same topic):

- integrated environment - bringing together lots of things in one place

- aggregated information - from all over the place

- highly customizable - which modules, what look and feel and what UI

- all supporting open standards to create an inter-connected meshed web

You can see the obvious relationship between these attributes and how people like Joseph Smarr and Google are describing OpenSocial, (which is a related title wave that will also hit in 2008). The opening up of applications and communities is inevitable and it will quickly become standard practice. The notion of losing access to core information as I move from one community to another or one app to another is antiquated. There is core information and connections that I never want to be detached from. In fact, I want my applications to be "intelligently" linked from the activity I'm doing and the community I'm doing it with or for. I don't only want access to information across communities and activities, I want dynamic interaction that contributes in real time to my understanding of a topic and advances the quality of my interaction with the community I'm involved with. Plaxo Pulse is making a run at this, but it's still in it's infancy.Walls between applications and communities are simply artifacts, probably of a shrink-wrap software mentality or business models that need to "own eyeballs".

All this goes hand-in hand with Doc Searl's presentation at this years Le Web in Paris , where he says on Slide 16 " Herding people into walled gardens and guessing about what makes them social will seem as absurd as it actually is"

At Ribbit, being rooted in telephony, we are awake to the losing proposition of "walled-gardens" because we are convinced that this will be the demise of traditional phone companies. Ironically, it could also be the downfall of traditional software and web application companies if they don't quickly embrace the concept of the living web.

Identity 2.0

Today I had the pleasure of meeting with Dick Hardt  Founder and CEO of Sxip Identity . As many of you 2.0 aficionados already know, Dick is a thought leader in this new and soon to become very important space. Greatly simplified, Dicks company is tackling the problem of figuring out the good guys from the bad in the world of  email an web communities. Think of it as a credit rating for non-financial considerations. Dick introduces the topic in one of the better  presentations I've ever seen. Check it out.

We are just beginning to think about Identity 2.0. Many companies are now providing the tools and / or environments for people to be someone other than who they really are.  This might be done for privacy reasons or entertainment reasons but it might also be done with malicious intent.  If you are one of the companies creating anonymous meeting places - and you want those places to be safe and welcoming, you are going to need screening, confirmation, validation and reporting mechanisms. Dick's company is looking at how to do just that.

 

What Is Jajah?

There are two ways to talk about Jajah, Jajah today and Jajah tomorrow. Both versions are off the charts, in terms of their "cool factor".

Jajah today: Jajah is a simple, elegant 2.o app that lets you make "regular" phone calls, anywhere  on the planet - either for free or for very, little money, depending on where you are calling. What you do: you go to our website, enter your own phone number, enter the phone number of who you want to call, then press the "call" button.

After you hit "call" , your phone will ring, your friends phone will ring - you both answer and you talk. You've basically instructed our server to make two local calls - which is one of the reasons it's so cheap.

For you Skype Types out there - With Jajah, there is NO download, NO Software, NO Headsets, NO Hassle. With Jajah you are making a regular call, just dialing it from our 2.0 app.

To get up to speed fast about Jajah, check us out on YouTube (Newscasts and "How To's"). Very informative.

Jajah Tomorrow:  We are still playing around with the language, "Voice 2.0", "Hybrid Telephony" ? Here is what we know. The way you think about voice communication is about to dramatically change. Sounds crazy, but it's not. The telephone industry has a lot of good things to offer (phones work) but it's staged for big time disruption. Not unlike the music industry, it is very resistant to changing its behaviors - leaving it completely exposed to innovative start-ups (like us) who will bring high value , and very cool solutions to everyday consumers - at a fraction of the price, and in a fraction of the time.

Embedded Telephony - Today , most of us think in terms of  "pick up the phone, dial, talk". But Jajah sees a world where calls are not device or telephone centric. Already today, Jajah lets you make a regular phone call directly from within applications, like Outlook and Firefox - just click the number on the  browser page or in the address book, and Jajah connects your call. Often for free. No Kidding. This stuff actually works.

"OOOPS! I Did It Again".

Ooops. I did it again - took a real job, that is. This time it's Jajah - one of the coolest companies on the planet. As a result, I haven't found the time to blog since, wow, April 29th. Here's the short version:

I send Guy Kawasaki a note, telling him what I've learned about global branding via social networking. He sends me a note about Jajah - a company he's blogged about. I'm looking for a company that needs to go global fast and Jajah's looking for someone with a passion to do it.

A few interviews on Sand Hill Road with the founders and investors and I'm signed up as the VP of Global Marketing and on a plane to Vienna,  Austria (where Jajah was founded) to get to down to work.

Week One:  Go to work. Meet key players.
Week Two: Off To Europe and Israel (the engineering team is in Tel Aviv)
Week Three: Plan a Big Announcement (PR / Blogosphere)
Week Four: Announce "Free Global Calling" - U.S.
Week Five:  (4th of July) Announce Free Global Calling - Europe.
Week Six:  Begin to work on Infrastructure / Team / Planning.

Any one of those weeks above is a complete, lengthy blog entry. I'll try to get back to speed in following weeks.