Our own Matt Podboy is attending the OnHollywood Conference in LA the next few days. Usually, LA and Matt make an interesting combination.

You can follow his real-time commentary on Twitter.

Many thanks to the friends of Voce who attended our CES shindig at Jet Nightclub in the Mirage Monday night. (It also was a birthday bash for New York Yankee Jason Giambi, but who knew!) We had a great crew of people – folks from Yahoo!, Fujitsu, Belkin, HP, TMZ.com, Sony Playstation, Dolby, WSJ, Barron’s, ZiffDavis and more. It was fun to hang out for a while and make some fruitful connections together off the show floor. The Merc’s coverage of this year’s CES party scene, which quoted Voce President Rich Cline, described it best! Jet was a mad-house (the photos say it all), but the music was great, the dance floor was hopping, and everyone had a good time. It echoed the same vibe and energy that CES brings to Las Vegas each year. Now, we just hope that everyone got some sleep, found their voice and made it to their early-morning meetings. Viva Las Vegas!

Technorati Tags: ces, jet nightclub, jet nightclub, party, voce communications

Shasta Venture’s Jason Pressman brings a hands-on perspective to Sand Hill Road, having rolled up his sleeves as the fourth employee of Walmart.com, where he spent five years driving strategy, biz dev and operations. The company - founded in January 2000 and backed by Accel Partners - was sold back to Wal-Mart Stores in July 2001. Before Walmart.com, Pressman focused on services and software investments at Selby Venture Partners.

Today, as a Shasta principal, Jason sits on a four-person team that oversees investments in early-age technology companies in networking, semiconductors, communications equipment, software, and “certainly very heavily in internet services.”

Voce recently sat with Jason to talk about Web 2.0 from the perspective of a venture capitalist.

How would you define Web 2.0? 
It’s such a broadly used term, and means so many things to so many people. To me, Web 2.0 is about user-generated content, it’s about Ajax and specifically applications that have substantially more usability than previous versions of the web, because you don’t have to refresh the page. And that sort of subtle point is very important, in that it makes the applications far more usable - it effectively makes a web application work like a desktop application.

(Additionally),Web 2.0 and the advent of user-generated content, and blogging in particular, really does allow there to be even narrower content windows.

And the last thing I’d say Web 2.0 is about, which to me is perhaps the most fundamentally different thing - that I think most people have not really grasped — is the breaking apart of the application from the user interface. So Ajax and RSS really allow you to take content and use it in other applications other than the application it was initially intended for. That means that, when you look at things like mash-ups and RSS readers that allow you to get content in different places, you’re effectively taking something from one place and using it somewhere else.

That’s a pretty disruptive trend. And I think that, to me, what’s exciting about Web 2.0 is looking for entrepreneurs who are thinking about what that disruptive trend means and how you capitalize on it to build the next generation of great web businesses.

What is the most exciting example right now of company that’s successfully breaking apart the application and the user interface?
One of our portfolio companies, Flock, is a really good example. What they’ve done is innovate on the browser, and they’ve provided the ability to look at photos, for example, in the browser, that are residing in other parts of the web. That’s just one simple example of a very powerful way that you create a more holistic user experience, from one that historically was more siloed and segmented. Another good example, which is not a portfolio company of ours, is Zillow. When you go to Zillow, and you interact there and play with their application - which basically helps you estimate the price of a home - it’s pulling data from a whole bunch of different sources, the MLS, the tax records, etc., and aggregating it, using mapping information that comes from another source, and pulling it all together into an application that (Zillow) is managing. That’s a a pretty powerful way to bring data together into a compelling user experience that really wasn’t possible in Web 1.0.

When someone comes to you and claims they’re “Web 2.0,” are you skeptical or are your ears perked up?

I feel like I get quite a few plans and emails where people will say, “Introduction to So-and-So, A Web 2.0 Company. . .”

Do you think it’s overused, or that it has lost meaning?

I don’t think that the term is well-defined. I don’t know that it’s overused, but I would say that it is used frequently with broad meanings, and therefore there’s a fair amount of ambiguity. Frankly, the way I defined is the way that I define it. . .not necessarily the way that others define it.

When I see a business that’s described as Web 2.0, I’m enthusiastic about it. . .because if it means what it means to me, which is an entrepreneur who’s actively thinking about how to actively build something that capitalizes on these disruptive trends. . .that’s exciting. And so no, I definitely don’t approach it with skepticism, I approach it with enthusiasm and an open mind.

That said, I do think that in some instances the venture community has become a little overly-enthusiastic with regard to web businesses in general, and I wouldn’t say that’s Web 2.0 businesses, I would just say web and consumer businesses. And that’s meant that we’ve seen an awful lot of companies funded - more companies than have been funded over the last few years - and more capital going into those companies, at higher valuations. And I don’t know that we’re necessarily seeing the outcomes of the other side. We’re not necessarily seeing lots of standalone companies.

But (Shasta is) absolutely actively looking at continuing to invest in web businesses and Web 2.0 businesses, and we fundamentally believe in them. We actually feel that our backgrounds. . .really position us well to help understand these businesses, and to help figure out how to effectively build them.

So you expressed that VCs in general have perhaps become a little overly-enthusiastic. When did that start?

I think that it started in early 2005, and sort of has continued since then. I don’t know that there was a clear inflection point, but to me it was probably around the end of 2004, the beginning of 2005.

What do you think triggered it?

I don’t know. There was the Google IPO and there were a couple of bigger acquisitions. There was a lot of enthusiasm around the Flickr acquisition, but that was a small acquisition. One of those things - or some combination of those events — started it, and then it continued to be fed by the acquisition of MySpace, the acquisition of some of the shopping comparison engines, and then some of the smaller acquisitions like OddPost, Upcoming.org, Weblogs, Inc. But I don’t know - it’s a good question and I’ve thought about it a lot.

So how does PR and communication tie into this mix?

They are critical components in making companies successful. I think that companies sometimes will engage in PR or communications or begin working with a PR firm or getting a prominent blogger to write about them before they’re really ready for prime time, before they’re ready to garner the attention. I’d say in the “new world,” the way that effective PR and communications is done is fairly different from the way it’s been done in the past. In the past, as you well know, it was more about getting to the right channels, getting to the right markets, getting to the right conferences, and while those things are still important, there’s a whole new world out there - the blogosphere - that’s accessed in a much different way.

Technorati Tags: jason pressman, shasta ventures, Silicon Valley, Startups, venture capital, web2.0

What do you call a small band of militant primates promoting goods and services one person and one community at a time? Exactly.



At the risk of sounding like some borish writer with too much time on his hands, let’s at least set the record straight.



Gorilla = A large primate living in seclusion. Remarkable species to be appreciated from a distance. Close encounters can results in loss of limbs and severe injury (see: larry ellison)



Guerrilla = A small band of militants acting independently of any organization or ethos. This group can both liberate and annihilate all at once (see: byte and switch editorial staff)



Guerilla = An emerging gaggle of marketers who need a dictionary or a style guide

– RC

Technorati Tags: Marketing, PR

On Friday, some folks from the Voce Nation attended PRSA’s "blockbuster luncheon event" at the Santa Clara Marriott. The PRSA did a great job bringing in media heavyweights Don Clark, John Markoff, and Susan Goldberg (Fred Vogelstein cancelled at the last minute due to a "dental emergency", huh?) to talk to a room full of flacks. Louise Kehoe, formerly of FT, moderated the event.

The mighty triumvirate shared reporting war stories and some of their favorite interviews from years past. One nit I had with the event was the Q&A from the floor. I’ve been to a few of these events now and it seems like we’re asking the same questions every time. Let’s think of something new people. We’re all smart and we read these papers daily, right? Why are we asking Don Clark what he’s interested in reporting? - end rant -

Anyway, here are a few snippets I found interesting:

When Don and John aren’t reading eachother’s periodicals, they’re perusing pubs from across the pond like The Register and The Inquirer.net.

Markoff reads Valleywag.

A couple big news items have dropped on Don Clark’s birthday. Can you name the date? Hint: Oracle’s hostile takeover of PeopleSoft began on Don’s special day a couple years back. Don, I hope you’re ready for the swarm of "happy birthday - hey are you interested in hearing about…" pitch emails you’re going to get this year as a result of Friday’s luncheon.

"Digg has replaced Slashdot" - John Markoff. He’s not alone.

"We’re not being encouraged to blog" - Don Clark.

Maybe next year, Don?

–Michael Moeschler

The Society for New
Communications Research a new international, non-profit think tank, was
announced today. The group is dedicated to providing a forum for research and
education and a resource on the theoretical and practical implications
surrounding new communications methodologies, tools and technologies.

From the announcement press
release:

“The Society will study the impact
of emerging modes of communication such as blogs, wikis, RSS, podcasts,
videocasts, collaborative tools and the growing phenomena of participatory
communications and their effect on traditional media, marketing, public
relations and advertising, as well as their broader impact on business,
politics, entertainment, culture, education, religion and society at large.”

“Activities will include the
development of in-depth research studies, white papers, case studies, best
practices and standards; industry education, the publication of the Journal
of New Communications Research and an annual research symposium and awards
program.”

 
Voce is proud to have
two members of our staff on board:

—Mike Manuel, Voce client supervisor and Digital Advocacy
strategist 

—Matthew Podboy, Voce co-founder and client supervisor

Voce Nation’s own Matthew Podboy and Tim Johnson authored
an article
for the Global
PR Blog Week 2.0 that provides recommendations for deploying online
communications campaigns. The article, "7
Tips for Deploying an Online Communications Program," was selected as an editor’s choice.

Earlier this week one of our clients, Peerflix, announced general availability of its product and debuted new features at DEMOfall.  I thought I would just take a second to write a little about how the Peerflix blog fit into the overall success of this launch as a communication tool.

Over the past year, the Peerflix team has been working closely with a community of early adopters to fine-tune the service and understand the needs of movie enthusiasts. One of the key ways the team listened to (and spoke with) its community of users was through its Peerblog.

Each month, the Peerflix team puts together a basic editorial calendar, leaving room for any issue-driven or opportunistic posts that might surface. Most staff members contribute to the blog, and everybody stays up-to-speed on its content and the comment threads via RSS.  In fact, comments have been very important to the success of the blog because they allow the company to engage directly with its users and share information that not just one but many people can benefit from.

Using Peerblog as a way to communicate with users has allowed Peerflix to improve its product, cultivate a community and really showcase the people and the personality behind the company. Now that this week’s launch is behind us, I think the Peerblog will be even more important to the success of the ongoing communications program and more critical to making Peerflix an exceptional service!

– Kari Curto

As a Santa Clara University student in the heart of Silicon Valley, typically it is “expected” that you graduate with a basic understanding of the technology market either in a business sense or hands-on IT sense.  Case studies, group discussions, and internships both in and out of the classroom, aid in furthering the tech background of students in order to prepare them for the possibility of a career in the Bay Area. So looking back, I like to think that I started my career at Voce with a decent amount of technology experience.

After working at Logitech and now Voce, I consider myself in the “thick of it all” and I can safely say no education is ever enough, this industry moves at the pace of light it seems.  In the world of technology communications consulting, we see companies buy others, merge, go out of business, products and solutions come and go, and trends pass by at warp speed. 

At first glance, technology may not seem like the most glamorous communications field to enter  compared to industries such as sports, fashion, and music. However - the way I look at it, it’s THE most fast paced and forever changing industry to be a part of, which makes it very interesting.

As computers and electronics advance, social and political changes occur as technology improvements lead to a change in the way people go about their daily routines. For example, consumers no longer need to go to Safeway to buy groceries, instead they can order them online. The movies we watch now have incredible digital effects that make us feel like we are a part of the film itself.  Wireless streaming media inventions bring video, photos, information anywhere, anytime in color, sound and picture.

Technology affects everything we do and as a technology communications specialist, I have an opportunity to help tell these stories and bring the changes to people who will use them for the better.  A large part of my job is to look for the every-day pieces of the business that appeal to consumers and IT buyers - like how enterprise software enables me to monitor incoming flights to ensure that I pick my boyfriend up from the airport on time - find the angle that will make a good story and interest people in learning more about the technology.

During my time at Voce, I have learned more than I did in all four years of college.  And I’m pleased I can say I am taking a part in an industry. The nerves are still there, but at least each day brings something new, and I look forward to the challenges of taking a company’s vision and story to the right people to make a difference.

– Elizabeth Reid