Via Journalsticks:  After relaunching their website last week, Essence magazine laid off its web team today citing budgetary reasons.

“They told us it was downsizing,” says one Essence employee. “We’re very confused. We worked so hard for the relaunch.”

Another insider tells J’sticks: “This is normal practice. Companies relaunch with new [site] schemes that allow them to do more with less, then they cut staff.”

In addition to letting go of the web team, Essence also let go of 4 Editors. Emil Wilbekin remains on staff as the Deputy Editor.

Story developing…

Updated 3:18pm: We are getting reports of about 10 were laid off, one was a Beauty Assistant for both print and digital, no word if she is included in the count for the layoffs in print.

Updated: 3:40pm: 4 cuts from Essence staff include: Fashion Assistant,Work & Wealth Assistant, one of 3 deputy editors and a special projects director who’s been with the magazine since the 70s.

I spend easily 50% of my time reading about technology startups. Watching them get funded, seeing what business models take off and reading the stories of how they went from idea to executed company.  There are so many new technology companies being created everyday. Some fail, some succeed but the great part is that people are taking the chance to create something. One of the things that frustrates me is the lack of African Americans creating technology-based start-ups. Before people start jumping at me saying, “What are your talking about I’m a Black tech entrepreneur?!”

You have to admit that even if you are one or know one, there are not enough of them.   And I don’t buy the argument that we can’t because we have shown creativity and innovation in almost everything we do. When I was running GlobalGrind I was fortunate enough to go to places like Facebook and meet employees from well-known startups like Ning and Digg. What I was always impressed with was the environment of creativity that existed among these people and how everyone there was keenly focused on solving problems. Yes, they were all making money but you could quickly tell that was only part of the value proposition for them. I would always say to myself that if more minority teens knew that there are places to work like Facebook and other startups, and more importantly they can create companies just like this, they would line up around the block to learn how to do it. So what is it? Why in this age of opportunity does Black Web 2.0  have maybe 2 startups to cover a week while sites like Techcrunch cover about 10 a day?

I believe we have to change the value proposition of urban youth. We need to help them understand how great the opportunities are and how much easier it is to start your own company than they think. When I speak to teens at events I usually ask them if they knew that there was a guy who, using free software, in his dorm room created something and he is now worth more than P-Diddy, Jay-Z, and Russell Simmons combined. People rarely guess that I’m talking about Mark Zuckerberg and that he did that in about 5 years.  But after that remark I usually have their attention.

Being a pro athlete or an entertainer is great but the odds are extremely high for people to have careers in those fields. But that is who they see and the problem is that our youth don’t see people they can identify with in technology entrepreneurial roles so they don’t believe it is in the realm of possibility for them. Yes, they love to use Facebook but they never think that they can create the next Facebook. So I ask the question what can we do to change their value proposition. Let’s talk about any ideas people have and start working to making this become reality for our youth.  I would love to hear your thoughts.

Here are some good articles to read:
Youth Use Entrepreneurship as a Pathway to Success

Teen Tips for Entrepreneurship

Lesson Plans for Young Entrepreneurs

As of late we’ve seen so many traditional Black/Urban Media companies either redesign as blogs, create blog properties as part of their holdings, or transform their content channels into blogs.  In nearly every case that I’ve seen this happen not one company has been able to knock it out of the park.  In many cases they merely bunt it. Cases in point…

Vibe relaunching as a blog

Essence.com’s latest redesign

BlackVoices building up their stable of blogs that mirror content channels (BVonStyle,BVonSports, BVonMoney, etc.)

Interactive One adding blogs to their holdings and then tacking those properties on the BlackPlanet.com domain

You get the picture.

Surely blogs have some kind of undeniable allure.  In some cases they are guilty pleasures.  In Media they are the new kids on the block that some love to hate while others embrace.  In mainstream media there is M&A activity in the blogosphere.  Media companies don’t necessarily feel the need to recreate the wheel, challenge what already exists, or create their own.  Long term that would take too much time and resources.  They simply either take a strategic investment or acquire.

My biggest question and concern is why doesn’t this same activity happen in Black Media.  Instead of resulting to the typical “crabs in a barrel” answer I’m genuinely curious to find out what is missing in our economy that we have yet to see this type of activity in recent times.  Especially when Essence is feeling the backlash of their community on their new redesign, Black Voices’ traffic despite trying to incorporate blogs is in a huge slump, and of all Interactive One’s properties Black Planet still out shines many of their properties by light years.  If these companies wanted to diversify their portfolio by adding blogs or appeal to a young audience by “acting” like a blog wouldn’t it make more sense just to acquire a blog that is aligned with your brand and what you are trying to build?  You wouldn’t have to start from scratch, the traffic would already be there, and 9 times out of 10 the overhead would be ridiculously low….lower than the staff that is needed to “act” like a blog.  I know it is a recession but M&A activity isn’t necessarily down.  Sure it is no free for all but it is alive in a smarter and more strategic way.

What kind of economy are we creating if independent media doesn’t happen on some sort of liquidity event?  This needs to at least be an option and at most serve as an example of possibilities.  Not to mention strategically it makes more sense to acquire rather than wait for independent media to seek investment from an IAC, MSNBC, and the like or bootstrap their way to the top.  Then they really become your competitors…head on.

Last week a fresh political scandal hit the streets of Washington, DC, when a document listing dozens of investigations of Congressional leaders was leaked to the Washington Post. Such a leak would normally be a huge breach of confidence and trust toward those involved in the investigations. However, it appears one of the investigators themselves is to blame for the leak, because a confidential document listing details of multiple investigations was found on an unsecure file sharing site.

Washington is keeping a close eye on the investigation list, and with good reason, but from a technological perspective, I hope people are looking into how this document got out in the first place. According to the Post, the file “became available on file-sharing networks because of a junior staff member’s use of the software while working from home.”  In a shock to no one, that staffer was fired immediately, and Congressional leaders are looking into exactly how this happened to prevent it from happening again.

This story puts file sharing in the news in a scary way. Telecommuting could take a big hit if employers aren’t confident that their staff can work remotely while still protecting company information–if Congress can’t do it, how can private businesses? I think its safe to venture, however, that most workplaces (including Congress) have not given their staffs enough real training or education on how to protect information, online or otherwise. Employers seem to prefer draconian IT measures, like blocking social networks or personal email accounts, than more training.

Employees who do work offsite can be trapped by unintended problems. Have you noticed how VPN access always seems to work in the office, but never works once you leave? I can remember emailing documents to myself more than a few times to get around using systems that almost never worked well, and when I got back to the office, IT never seemed to have a solution, so I created my own. Luckily the information I worked with wasn’t confidential, but I know people who did the same things with much more sensitive data.

I’d like to assume this Congressional staff member knew what could happen using a peer-to-peer site for confidential information. But considering people don’t know how to create secure passwords for email and banking accounts or how to make posts on Facebook private, its totally possible they had no idea. According to the Post, House administration rules say that staff who take work home “must protect the confidentiality of sensitive information” from unauthorized disclosure.

In a culture where people are expected to work 24/7, of course people are going to log on from home. What employers need is to find ways to educate employees on how to do that safely. Today security breaches are happening everywhere, from internal lapses almost as often as from outside hacks. A statement issued by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader John Boehner, reported that “We are working diligently to provide the highest level of data security for the House in order to ensure that the operations of House offices are secure from unauthorized access.” Let’s hope that data security includes more staff training, on the Hill and around the country.

It’s that  time of the year again, where we have to remember to change the time on our clocks (stoves, car dashes, alarm clocks, watches).  On Sunday at 2:00 a.m., we’re to “fall back” and revert our clocks to Standard Time, which means we gain an hour. Wooo hooo!

Web Exhibits has some interesting content on Daylight Saving Time and Standard Time that contains timetables and even charts global time changes. And it is chock-filled with some other trivia about Daylight Saving Time.

Last week theRoot.com published The Root 100 a list of 100 emerging black leaders nationally and globally. The list includes ten individuals who are making their mark in the areas of technology, new media and advocacy in closing the “digital divide.” They are:

• Cheryl Contee, Blogger/co-CEO, Fission Strategy

• Dean Garfield, President, Information Technology Industry Council

• Sheldon Gilbert, Founder/CEO, Proclivity Systems

• Timothy B. Jones, CEO, Buzzient, Inc.

• Shireen Mitchell, Founder/Executive Director, Digital Sisters, Inc.

• James Rucker, co-Founder, ColorofChange.org

• Seth Schiesel, Technology Journalist, The New York Times

• Naomi Tempies, Founder, M-Ubuntu Learning Project

• Baratunde Thurston, co-Founder (w/ Cheryl Contee), Jack & Jill Politics

• Denmark West, Executive V-P, Operations, MTV Global Digital Networks

Congratulations from Black Web 2.0!

I decided to make the trek out to Berkeley to check out this year’s Startup School (and to let it serve as a serious peptalk–it’s working).  Startup School has been held since 2006 by the folks behind Y Combinator, a venture capital firm that specializes in funding early stage startups.  Teams can raise up to $20,000 and get advice from and connections to some of the top folks in startups.

Speakers this year were: Paul Graham, the founder of Y Combinator; Chris Anderson, the editor of Wired and author; Jason Fried, founder of 37 Signals; Tony Hsieh, CEO at Zappos; Greg McAdoo, partner at Sequoia Capital; Biz Stone & Ev Williams, founders at Twitter; Paul Bucheit, founder of FriendFeed and creator of Gmail; Mitch Kapor, founder of Lotus and creator of Lotus 1-2-3; and Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook.

Paul Graham (Founder of Y Combinator)

Paul Graham started off the morning rehashing his list from the essay What Startups Are Really Like.

Greg McAdoo (Partner at Sequoia Capital)

McAdoo showed up as the lone VC in the group of presenters and gave practical advice on getting users and pitching VCs.

• Prefers personal introductions rather than pitches out of the blue.  He recommended contacting the founders of companies he’s funded and asking them to introduce you to him.  Left the audience with email address (mcadoo at sequoiacap dot com), however.
• Do your research on who you raise money from (due diligence goes both ways).
• Focus on disruptive market opportunities.  ”The cost of penetrating an incumbent market is higher during a recession.”
• Sequoia wants big markets.  They’ve funded the likes of Apple, Cisco, Google, PayPal, and the list goes on.

Jason Fried (Founder at 37 Signals)

I’m personally biased  toward thinking a lot of Jason’s talk since I identify with most of the stuff he’s already said elsewhere. First off, contrary to the whole idea of Y Combinator, Jason’s a fan of self-funding startups. He highlighted two differences between bootstrapped companies and funded companies, i.e., a bootstrapped company looks to make money while a funded company looks to spend money. Furthermore, Jason says being a bootstrapped company helps you get used to making money in the first place. It’s a skill. On that note, Fried said, “The more you practice, the less difficult it will be.”

More high points:

• “Planning is guessing, so then you can take it a little less seriously.”  He’s never been a fan of business plans or extensive design documents.
• “Software has no edges–software is not affected by physics. Nothing pushes back and it will start expanding over time. We (developers) need to be the edges. Keep things out of your software.”  This goes back to 37 Signals’s book, Getting Real–specifically, Start with No (Make features work hard to be implemented).
• “You can’t make just one thing: everything you make has a by-product.” 37 Signals has made a juicy side business out of selling what they know and most of the time that content comes straight from their blog. He gave the example of sawdust and how it used to be a waste product. Now, it makes up plywood and the bedding for guinea pig cages. Everything has a by-product. Monetizing that stuff goes back to making money and how “the more you practice, the less difficult it will be.”
• “USEFUL > Innovative”  Don’t put something out just because it’s cool, but really doesn’t add any value.
• “Someone anointing you to be successful is bullsh-t!” Explains why he didn’t take investment in 37 Signals until much later in the game.
• “Failure is not a rite of passage.”  You don’t necessarily have to fail.  Fried goes on further to say that, “What you learn from your mistakes is not as valuable as what you learn from your successes.”  Whether we’re talking about life or startups, I think he’s both right and wrong, i.e., my time in college is littered with failures that I learned more from and now appreciate more than if I’d been successful in those same situations.  Each case is different.
• On pricing, he asks the simple question, “Would I pay for it?”  That doesn’t help fully determine the price, but it’s a good way to figure out if you have something people would pay for.
• “Price forces you to be really damn good.”
• “People say 9/10 businesses fail, but what does that have to do with you? Those are their failures.”  I liked this as a kick in the head not to take too much to heart what people say about failure in business.  People like to scare with statistics, of course, but why not shoot to be the one that doesn’t fail?

Chris Anderson (Editor in Chief at Wired)

Anderson has really been a huge advocate lately of giving stuff away–not to the point of becoming a non-profit, but instead, offering free products in order to get people hooked enough to pay.  Obviously, it’s not a new idea, but it’s one startups have really come to embrace.  Fred Wilson coined the term freemium for that idea back in 2006.

In Anderson’s eyes, free users are not freeloaders.  Instead, free users are a way to expose apps to the widest possible audience.  The goal then, is to find a way to get people to pay for a better version of the app (or whatever is being sold) once they’ve fallen in love with the free version and need something it doesn’t offer but other paid versions do.

What will people pay for?  According to Anderson:

1. People will pay to save time.
2. People will pay to lower risk.
3. People will pay for things they love.
4. People will pay for status.
5. People will pay if you make them (once they’re hooked!).

Then, he launched into a list of freemium models.

1. Feature-limited: the free version is actually useful, but has some limitation that encourages power users to convert up to a more useful/flexible version.
2. Time-limited: really easy to do, but doesn’t encourage commitment since users get cut off after the trial period is over.
3. Capacity-limited: think storage services where you get 2GB or so for free and then once they’ve hooked you into storing that much, you upgrade to a higher capacity account.
4. Seat-limited: charge on a per user basis.  It’s easy to do, but encourages cheating.
5. Customer class-limited: easy to do, but hard to enforce.  Gave the example of Microsoft’s BizSpark which gives away all of Microsoft’s software free to startups that are writing software, privately held, less than three years old, and generating less than $1M in revenue annually.

Anderson wrote the book Free: the Future of a Radical Price and the audiobook is available here (285MB Zip file)…for free-99.

Paul Bucheit (Founder of FriendFeed, creator of Gmail)

Bucheit winged things a bit and gave his life story.  I was most moved by his advice: “It’s important to do things that make you feel uncomfortable.”  Cliché, but I figure some of the most basic truths always seem that way after a while.

Biz Stone & Ev Williams (Founders of Twitter)

True to form, the guys took questions from the audience via Twitter after going on for a few minutes about how Twitter got started, technical issues (it’s a joy to see the Fail Whale a lot less these days!), and things they’ve found to be surprising about Twitter.  Biz talked about being surprised about how Twitter influences people’s movements at times, i.e., a guy tweeted about one bar being too crowded at SXSW and that he was going to another bar.  Thanks to having tweeted about it, everyone crowded into the bar he was going to.

Mark Zuckerberg (Founder of Facebook)

His session was an interview format with Jessica Livingston rather than prepared remarks.  A lot of his session was rehashing how Facebook got started, etc.  Zuckerberg dropped a few gems later, though, including:

• “Eventually you get judged not by how things look, but the value you provide to people.”
• “The biggest risk you can take is no risk at all.”
• “Don’t make the mistake of trying to be too perfect.”
• Figure out what users want more of from what they’re already doing on the site.

Mitch Kapor (Designer of Lotus 1-2-3)

Talked about company culture and how startups can be horrible in that regard, i.e., research shows that startups have more public humiliation and bullying than regular companies.  Kapor also emphasized the idea of a “Meritocracy vs. a Mirrortocracy.”  He thinks that startups often confuse talent with “people like us.”  In some respects, that’s a whole ‘nother post, but for another day.  Kapor also implored founders to “Walk the walk yourself–mind the gap between stated values and actual practice.”  There’s a Wall Street joke in there somewhere…

Tony Hsieh (CEO of Zappos)

Hsieh talked about customer service, company culture, core values, and positive psychology.  His talk was different in that he deeply emphasized the soft aspects of running a business instead of the usual pontifications on just profits.  On vision, he said: “What you’re thinking, think bigger.”  Then, he asked the audience, “What is your goal in life?”  and “What would you be happy doing for the next 10 years even if it didn’t make a dime?”  On values, he talked about the concept of “committable values,” as in “values that you’re willing to hire and fire people based on.”  For Hsieh, at the end of the day, Zappos is not about delivering shoes, but about “delivering happiness.”

Finally, he recommended a few books:  Good to Great and Tribal Leadership (the audiobook is available for free from Zappos’ website).  Also, Zappos publishes a book about company culture.  Gave his email address (ceo at zappos dot com) which you can use to ask for a free copy.  Slides from his talk are available here.

Mark Pincus (CEO of Zynga)

Pincus was the last up and gave a talk about being a world-class CEO.  Some high points:

• “Who gives a sh-t what your valuation is–only your ego!”  This one hit home not because of having to worry about a valuation right now (I struggled for while myself with how valuable I thought anything I’d done might be), but because it reinforced the idea of not doing things for that very reason.  CEOs and big heads don’t mix.
• “An internet treasure is something where consumers can’t imagine what life was like before it.” Google and most things they put out come to mind here.  Strive to create something of that calibre.

Overall, it was a great event that served as a nice pep-talk en masse.  And funniest of all, the peer pressure is building up to move to San Francisco, but we’ll see what happens.

Editor’s Note:  Twitter and Y Combinator just announced a partnership for start-ups using the API, they have a similar partnership with Justin.tv, check out the full coverage about the RFS (Request for Start-up’s) and RFS extension over at TechCrunch.

Windows 7, Microsoft’s answer to the vexing problems and negative feedback update from Vista, finally made a public appearance October 22. I’ve been using Windows 7 Release Candidate as well as received a copy of the final version before the public did. Is it all that it’s cracked up to be? In my now turning three months of using Windows 7 RC, I have a lot less headaches than my two years of using Vista.

Microsoft did way more than just fixed Windows Vista’s major annoyances (pop up alerts every time you change a setting, and the high system requirements), they also added a set of new features that make your computer easier, maybe even more inspiring, to use.

The taskbar is now revamped and incorporates some of the responsibilities that once belonged to the Start Menu. Groups of windows are now organized into icons, so if you want to preview what’s open, simply mouseover the icon. If you often use a program and want to launch it from the taskbar, you can pin it (think of it as Quick Launch). The “Recent Documents” feature is now “Jump Links”, which you can access simply by right clicking on the icon in the taskbar. The coolest feature of the Jump Links is the ability to pin documents you use frequently. Prefer to keep the icons off the taskbar? They incorporated the Jump Links and pinning of programs inside the Start Menu as well.

While there are improvements to the way the actual Windows work (which you can see in the videos below), my favorite improvements are the ones that I didn’t think about. For instance, “My Documents” are now organized into Libraries. Libraries are pretty much “shortcuts”, but with a difference; they can link folders together so you can see the contents of several folders in one Library. Another improvement is the way Windows 7 handle a blank disc. Pop in a blank disc and Windows 7 asks a simple question and explain the options. There are lots of little improvements that make Windows 7 a pleasure to use, like:

• Setting up the Windows to change the wallpaper automatically without additional software.

• Improved wireless connection wizard.

• A snipping tool to take snapshots. This eliminates the need to educate people on how to take a screenshot.

• Energy-Saving Improvements as well as less requirements to upgrade. You can enjoy most of Windows 7 without having to make a massive upgrade.

• A Message Center that will help you make the most out of your computer.

• Windows Media Player is more responsive and helpful in Windows 7 than pervious versions.

• Do you have programs that you can only run in Windows XP or don’t really work in Windows 7? Now there’s an “Windows XP Mode”, which will create a virtual machine (a copy of Windows XP) within Windows 7. So, if you need Windows XP, you can have it!

Now, as much as I like Windows 7 over Vista, there are some minor annoyances, such as:

• My keyboard isn’t working the way it’s suppose to. I can’t seem to get my Fn key to work, so I lost access to a few keys. Not a big annoyance because it’s due to HP not wanting to support Windows 7 while I was testing it.

• The Message Center at times gives you a false positive. I installed an Anti-Virus protection software and Message Center thought I didn’t. While it’s not nagging me about it, the flag raising is on my conscious.

• While Windows XP Mode is probably will be a life saver, you can only get it if you are using Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate.

• Renaming “My Networks” to “HomeGroups”. Why does Microsoft keeps reinventing the wheel, I will NEVER know.

So, is Windows 7 worth investing in? If you have a computer that came with Windows Vista and you downgraded to Windows XP, I say now is the time to upgrade it to Windows 7. If you have a computer that is about more than 3 years old, I would suggest it’s better to just get a new computer with Windows 7, as well as re-evaluate what you use your computer for to get the best out of your purchase. While Windows 7 may not convert the most hardcore of Mac users, it will help the rest of us makes sense of our PCs…

… now if only HP can give me a better sound card…

V. Matthew King-Yarde (aka Nukirk Digi.tal) is a freelance graphic and web designer as well as a New Media Consultant. He’s also a songwriter, recording artist and studies how to use Social Media to promote musicians as well as himself. He blogs about his love for music, social media and provides commentary when the two collides on his blog “Thought Remixer“.

Videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3wql555JHM
(Taskbar Video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzS2V1245G8
(Windows Areo Shake, 3D Flip and Peek)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM6RlloPM-4
(Windows Max Windows Starter – This stops you from opening to many programs)

Many YouTube stars have websites of their own where they can direct their audience for more information, merchandise, and much more. With the viral success of radio personality Ed Lover’s “C’mon Son!” video series, (the series reached over half a million viewers in under two months), it seemed that the next step for the video blogger would be his own website.

That step was interrupted when an online opportunist bought the CmonSon.com domain in hopes of selling it to Lover or the highest bidder on Ebay. The owner of CmonSon.com states, “Ed is a wildly popular NYC radio show host and his mention of this site is certain to draw traffic for quite some time. If you know anything about internet marketing then you know that obtaining traffic is the hardest part.”

In Lovers latest “C’mon Son!” video blog he responds to the domain owner by bragging about his CmonSonOnline.com site that is parked but has not yet been updated.

CmonSon.com has generated some interest as the site’s hit counter reads 7,949 visits to date. There is no official launch scheduled for CmonSonOnline.com but this can be a lesson to all: If you have an idea, purchase the domain. It’s certainly better to be safe than sorry.

Though the BET On Blast video player was nice when it launched a little over 2 years ago video on the web has certainly moved in another direction.  Specifically if you happen to be a television network.  BET.com recently ditched the BET on Blast player, which many thought was hard to navigate, and leveled the playing field with not only it’s sister sites (VH1 and MTV) but networks who have a presence online in general.  While video is the most notable change (and most exciting in my opinion considering where video on the web is going) there are several other changes on the site that aren’t worth over looking.

Video

The familiar player now allows sharing (mainly embedding and URL sharing).  The video library is logical and finally includes the breath of the network’s programming including video’s from artist which plays nice with the artist’s pages we mention below.

Individual videos can also be rated by a user and comments can be added.

Original Webisodes

I actually stumbled across this area when looking into the video programming that was offered.  While not much is there now (mainly video clips) my bet is that BET will get into the game of web original programming and perhaps even allow some form of User Generated Content for their audience.

Artist Pages

Less like Hulu and more like a Topic page for artists.  You can find everything related to an artist on this page including where they are on the social web, see Lil Wayne for an example.  The only thing missing here is to gather news from around the web and not just BET.com.

The community section still needs some work and follows the old site’s format but we’re told other areas to the site will roll out later this year with the complete revamp to be completed in early 2010.  With the adoption of the features above the decision not to syndicate it’s programming across the web on places like Hulu is starting to make more sense on why they’d opt not to.  Looks like they are building a Hulu-like presence on their own.  Should be interesting to also see how Centric is or isn’t incorporated into the site’s content programming.  We reached out prior to publishing but have yet to get a statement from BET.com on the site’s direction and strategy.

(Disclosure:  Black Web 2.0 is the technology content partner for BET.com)