Black Web 2.0

As I prepare my presentation for the Urban Network Annual Summit, I cant help but to ponder about all the critics and analyst who keep saying the music industry is dead, this that and the other. But yet there are clear indications (no not Apple) that money can, and will be made. Look at Harry Fox, the agency reportedly paid out more in revenue this year, which shows that music publishing is growing. Concert tickets sales have goon through the roof, And Bacardi disclosed a partnership with Groove Armada, the latest post-major tie-up. (more…)

Though getting to the conference and back was a pain for me once I was there I had a blast (minus the cold/allergies/what-ever-the-heck-is-going-around that hit me). Notably there were visibly a lot more Blacks at this years SxSWi then in previous years. Definitely a good look. The “Where are all the Black Tech Bloggers” panel went off smoothly and got quite interesting throughout the 60 minute duration. There were appearances by Anil Dash, and editor from Boing Boing among others. Oh, and your boy Loren Feldman made it as well, he had a lot to say but wasn’t really sayin nothin. On a positive note it was wonderful to see how many people were interested in the panel, some of the points/questions raised were: (more…)

Legendary Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist Guy Kawasaki Kicked off Day two Keynote with a joke accusing Steve Ballmer being a racist, according to Guy, it must be the only reason why Steve didn’t hire him at Microsoft in 87’ when he applied, and thus why he ended up at Apple (and did ok for himself as well).

Guy popped the question everyone wanted to hear, why do you want to buy Yahoo? Steve says it’s quite simple, he thinks Microsoft has worked really hard to make it clear that they have real commitment, real aspiration, and real tenacity about being a serious player in the online search and advertising space. He says quote”Advertising on the internet is big, and advertising online will be the next SUPER BIG THING, there’s no question about that”, and “SEARCH” is the killer advertising application.

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MIX08 got off with a BIG BANG today with what looked like a full house (roughly 900-1200 people in the keynote). Ray Ozzie kicked off the event and shared his vision for how Web developers and designers can deliver seamless rich media experiences across web applications, rich desktop clients and mobile devices with the HUB strategy.

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