Anthill Magazine

Over the past few days, much has been written about a proposal issued by Communications Minister Stephen Conroy seeking to introduce a government funded media regulator. However, no-one has yet addressed how these changes are likely to affect a far larger and arguably more influential interest group than the established media players. Naturally, I’m talking about the hundreds of thousands of businesses that actively blog.

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If there’s one question that I’m asked, in my role as editor, more frequently than any other it’s this: “How do I get you to write about my business in Anthill?” And, like many members of my profession, I grow cynical and closed-minded. Today, I hope to end this scenario. I can’t make you rich but, hopefully, I can help make you famous. (I mean ‘more’ famous.)

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I’m no expert on video production. Or the intricacies of video search engine optimisation. But, inspired by Jim Stewart’s webinar on Anthill today, I took it upon myself, in the closing minutes of my lunch break, to practice what he preached and create a video… on how to create a video. It was filmed in one take. It is filled with stammering and stuttering. (So, please be kind.) But, if you can endure the first two minutes, it shows — step-by-step — how to create a tutorial video in under six minutes. Ready, fire… aim.

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Last week, I caused an online ruckus by questioning whether Cool Company Finalist LeadBolt should be named our 2011 Cool Company Awards Readers’ Choice winner. LeadBolt totally annihilated the competition – because its business model is based on triggering online actions, such as Facebook Likes. Starlettos, the first runner-up, had courted reader praise and social media reactions the old fashioned way – by rallying their mates. So, who should get the award? Short-cutting LeadBolt or hard-working Starlettos? The results were smashing.

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Can you remember the winner of TIME magazine’s Most Influential Person poll in 2009? Was it Barack Obama? Oprah Winfrey? The Dalai Lama? No, it was Moot, the pseudonym of 21-year-old Christopher Poole, a college student and founder of online community 4chan.org. So, why the long winded introduction to this year’s Cool Company Awards Readers’ Choice Award? Did we get gamed?

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If you attended yesterday’s webinar with Pete Williams on outsourcing, offshoring and crowdsourcing, you might recall that I asked Pete whether we could share a video of his that I was fortunate enough to stumble across in the not-so-distant past. As mentioned, this video really got my head spinning. It begins with one logical and familiar example of outsourcing (creating content for a website) and then takes the process to the… wait for it… EXTREME! (Because Pete’s an outsourcing ‘extremist’, see?)

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This morning, I sat down with my 9-month old son, Julian, to feed him breakfast. This is one of the jobs allocated to me as a first-time, new father. Remembering the arduous steps required to complete yesterday morning’s meal (and the day before that), and contemplating how bizarre it is that I must work so hard to provide him something that will make him stronger and healthier and happier, I began to think about online marketing. Yes, the brain works in mysterious ways. (And I am kind of sleep deprived.)

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Incubator options for Australian startups will expand next month, with the announcement on Friday that “venture technology company” BlueChilli has acquired growth funding from early stage venture capital fund FCDF. If the names BlueChilli and FCDF sound familiar it’s because BlueChilli is the venture of serial entrepreneur (and 30under30 veteran) Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin. FCDF is the product of another well-heeled player in the Australian startup scene, Domenic Carosa.

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Zach Nelson is CEO of NetSuite. He was named one of the 10 Visionary CEOs of 2008 by InternetNews.com, after guiding the company through its 2007 IPO. He helmed it from startup to one of the world’s leading cloud computing companies. So, it’s not surprisingly that he should hold this view. Yes, he is biased. But is he wrong?

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Naturally, we receive feedback all the time from Anthill readers. Much of it is helpful. But, sometimes, the feedback contradicts what we know to be true, based on the cumulative behaviours of hundreds of thousands of site visitors. Rather than provide a polite but generally meaningless response (like, “Thank you for your feedback. We welcome and respect the views of all our readers”), I often try to explain why it is that we do things the way we do. But, today, I’m feeling a bit guilty. Too harsh?

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