Opera and blogger business
Terry Frazier
drivel responses to a blogger. I once (not long ago, in fact) held
similar views to those freebie-boy expresses. But while looking for a
way to manage websites without dealing with lots of HTML pages I
discovered some things I didn't know about weblog software and
blogging in general.
I'm a pretty ardent Opera supporter -- I've used it almost exclusively
for a year. I've worked with Sue to pressure our regional banking
system <www.mainstreetbank.com> to accept Opera and a couple of other
things. After I re-read the press release on Opera signing with
Macromedia to embed Opera into their software products (sidenote:
Congratulations, guys. This was a great move.) it occurred to me there
may be a very useful leverage point in the blogging community for
Opera.
Once you look at the number of bloggers, and the growing acceptance of
weblogs in both the professional journalism and business communities
you can begin to see how a blog-friendly attitude and maybe a little
grassroots support could benefit the growth of Opera.
Setting aside the obvious points that freeb is an ill-mannered and
poorly informed child, his insults to blogger newbies are not a good
idea. Many bloggers are pretty naive technically. If they come here
asking questions and get nothing more than a dipshit response from
freeb, they will likely spread the word among their friends. That's
not good. We should be leveraging the "community" mentality they have
to grow Opera's base among the hundreds of thousands of bloggers, not
send them heading for the hills.
I've started looking at the blogging community as a pretty good
business opportunity. I offer the info below for consideration of the
Opera staff and the Opera community in general.
1) There are 500,000+ blogs (Blogger.com alone has 100k active blogs)
now running on the Internet. They are, without question, dominated by
prattlers who have little of value to add but just love to see their
feeble wit in writing. However, 500,000 users and growing is a sizable
community -- one that could make a pretty decent base for a targeted
marketing program for a company like Opera. Given that all blogs are
browser-driven, it would be hard to find a more dedicated
browser-using customer base than bloggers -- regardless of whether
they have anything worthwhile to say (the vast majority of web pages
and NG postings have little to say -- take freebie's, for example.)
These numbers make me think you should invite bloggers into the Opera
NG, not insult them, if the goal is to get more people to use Opera.
By approaching some of the weblog tool vendors (Moveable Type,
Blogger.com, Userland) in a way similar to the Macromedia deal Opera
could -- possibly -- weave their way into a fast-growing,
browser-intensive environment.
2) There are numerous weblogs posted by professional journalists,
educators, and consultants. The format of the weblog -- easily
updatable, minimal HTML, excellent news item integration -- makes the
format a natural for professional journalists and others who need to
constantly update an audience but don't want to manage a website. For
examples you can see:
Dan Gillmor's eJOURNAL
<http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/business/columnists/dan_gillmor/3748730.htm>
Jim McGee's (Diamond Technology Partners) McGee's Musings
<http://www.kellogg.nwu.edu/faculty/mcgee/htm/blog/>
Howard Bashman's Appellate Court blog How Appealing
<http://appellateblog.blogspot.com/>
Martin Schwimmer's Trademark blog
<http://trademark.blog.us/blog/>
This is just going to get bigger. By approaching a few of these
professional-level weblog authors directly Opera could -- possibly --
develop some key relationships in the blogging community. It *is* a
pretty self-congratulatory medium at this point (I'll grant freebie
some validation here) but that plays to the benefit of Opera. As a
small number of users switch there is a lot of "follow the leader"
mentality in the community.
3) Weblogs are beginning to gain considerable attention as a way to
improve Knowledge Sharing in the business world (this is my personal
interest.) The cover and lead story of last week's issue of
Information Week -- "Are You Blogging Yet? Web journals could have
business value" by John Foley -- was a well written analysis of this
and other topics.
The integration of weblogs into the business intranet is being
documented, critiqued, and furthered by folks such as these:
Phil Wolff's a klog apart
<http://dijest.com/aka/>
James Robertson's Column Two
<http://www.steptwo.com.au/columntwo/index.html>
David Gurteen
<http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/x00141d06/>
David Gammel's High Context
<http://www.highcontext.com/>
Louis Rosenfeld's bloug
<http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/>
If Opera is looking for a back-door way into major corporations this
could be a nice toehold. This is also likely to grow as companies
shuck failed big-buck KM initiatives for a more user-friendly
approach.
Whether this is actually a good opportunity for Opera only they can
decide, but I know the speed and UI of Opera is far superior (with two
notable exceptions) to any of the other browsers for doing weblog work
where one has to keep multiple windows open all the time. I also know
that a user-friendly support community will be critical to success in
the blogger community -- the pimply-faced, testosterone-driven
approach freeb uses won't cut it.
I don't pretend to have all the answers, but I've spent a good deal of
time looking at the business applications of weblogs, and at the
software alternatives ranging from high-end systems used by the CIA to
web-hosted apps. If I can help in any way I'd be happy to discuss it
via e-mail with any of the Opera staff or interested users.
-- twf
Atlanta, GA
e mail to terry at tfrazier dot org
Martin Schrode
Thanks for your article. You have some very valid points.
> By approaching some of the weblog tool vendors (Moveable Type,
> Blogger.com, Userland) in a way similar to the Macromedia deal Opera
> could -- possibly -- weave their way into a fast-growing,
> browser-intensive environment.
Just wanted to add one more link:
Dive Into Accessibility
30 days to a more accessible web site
http://diveintoaccessibility.org/
This is general advice as well as blog specific advice on accessibility.
Blogs using his advice, should display rather well in Opera (and all
other browsers/devices). So Opera could contact some weblog tool vendors
and help them make their blogs (blog templates) more accessible (and at
the same time promote Opera).
Tim Altman
wrote:
[...]
>Once you look at the number of bloggers, and the growing acceptance of
>weblogs in both the professional journalism and business communities
>you can begin to see how a blog-friendly attitude and maybe a little
>grassroots support could benefit the growth of Opera.
In my mind, Opera has two groups to win over: the RSS using
bloggers and the A-list bloggers.
An RSS feed is a way of syndicating your blog (or any other web
site, really) via XML. Take a look at
<http://backend.userland.com/rss092> for more information about the
format. A stylesheet is not included in the source, as it's up to the
syndicator how it is formatted. If Opera were to have an RSS feed
reader, that could go far to win over the blogger community.
Most of the A-list bloggers (the most popular blogs,
http://www.zeldman.com/,
http://www.thenoodleincident.com/inflight_correction/log.html,
http://www.scottandrew.com/, http://www.evhead.com/, etc.--this is by
no means an exhaustive list, nor is it necessarily what A-listers
would consider the A-list) know about Opera. Some of them even like
Opera. However, I only know of one that uses Opera, Owen Briggs (and
he's usually highly critical of it).
If Opera were to win over the people at WaSP
(http://www.webstandards.org/), they'd go a long way to winning the
blogging community, as several A-listers are WaSP contributors
(Jeffrey Zeldman, Scott Andrew LePara, Owen Briggs, etc).
>Setting aside the obvious points that freeb is an ill-mannered and
>poorly informed child, his insults to blogger newbies are not a good
>idea. Many bloggers are pretty naive technically. If they come here
>asking questions and get nothing more than a dipshit response from
>freeb, they will likely spread the word among their friends. That's
>not good. We should be leveraging the "community" mentality they have
>to grow Opera's base among the hundreds of thousands of bloggers, not
>send them heading for the hills.
In an unmoderated newsgroup, it's impossible to prevent anyone
from insulting anyone else, as you've so wonderfully demonstrated in
the beginning of the above paragraph....
--
Tim Altman
roy...@myrealSP-AMbox.com
No SP-AM is good spam.
Andreas Haugstrup Pedersen
news:d23dkugl9ediud944...@4ax.com:
> If Opera were to win over the people at WaSP
> (http://www.webstandards.org/), they'd go a long way to winning the
> blogging community, as several A-listers are WaSP contributors
> (Jeffrey Zeldman, Scott Andrew LePara, Owen Briggs, etc).
I don't think that possible until the DOM works and all that jazz (I don't
know much about the DOM, just that it apparently isn't implemented in
Opera).
On a related note I'm almost done with a blogging/journal publishing engine
written in PHP. I got annoyed with how hard the learning curve on the
existing tools are. It should be ready for the world in a couple of months
(with an Opera button on display in the administration module)
--
Andreas
http://www.solitude.dk
Rob Haynes
wrote:
>Something occurred to me while reading one of freexone's teenage
>drivel responses to a blogger.
Terry,
I think you're referring to a response to one of my posts. I'm not a
blogger, but a fan, mostly of political blogs.
I'm pretty tech savvy. It was my education and is my career, so I'm
not really a newbie. (Pointed out for the hell of it, no offense was
taken.)
The bloggers I frequently read share two common attributes:
they've got large devoted readerships;
and they're outspoken.
Glenn Reynolds, Andrew Sullivan and Mickey Kauss are three. Reynolds,
who just happens to be gettings results from Dell as a result of his
recent posts, is a paid freelance author and law professor. Sullivan
is a former regular contributing editor to the NY Times, until he
turned his wrath on them. Kauss is a professional journalist and
blogger for MSNBC, but he's shown no hesitancy in taking on his boss.
The job of a blogger is three-fold: share their opinions, get people
to agree, motivate those people to spread the word. The three
bloggers I mentioned do this regularly, and they enjoy doing it.
Opera would do well to get theirs and other bloggers' attention.
Microsoft did, and look at this post:
http://www.nationalreview.com/thecorner/2002_07_28_corner-archive.asp#85295676.
Excerpt: /*
This *%$#& WIndows software crashed every other day, it seems. Here I
sit in Louisiana after working all day to report a story for Tuesday's
NRO, and having spent the last three hours writing it. ... Literally
seconds away from sending it to K-Lo, Windows crashed. ... I lost my
entire story.
*/
This author, who posted to a page that receives > one-million monthly
pageviews, was probably using Word and IE. What caused the crash? He
was searching for information, probably in IE.
Could he be brought over from The Dark Side? Probably. His first
instinct was to dump his computer and jump to Mac. If that instinct
could be replaced (or augmented) with a desire switch to Opera, he
might become its next professional fan.
But besides avoiding crashes, imagine his joy at opening five or six
searches in the same browser? I doubt he's ever experienced such a
thing, but he'd benefit significantly. So too would every blogger out
there. You know Opera can do it; he should, too.
The question, I guess, is how. You touched on that, Terry. (The
miracle on Macromedia SW.) But as Opera users, there's another way
that is as natural as it comes: It's time for one grassroots-based
community to connect with another.
Get the word out, person-by-person. Spamming would result in a black
eye for Opera, but when your favorite blogger has a problem with MS,
drop off an e-mail to them.
Chances are, if you're a blog fan, you're used to reading through
drivel and have reached this point with ease. It'd take about half
that time, when the opportunity strikes, to shoot off an e-mail.
A few mentions here and there, some permalinks, and Opera might just
see a noticeable rise in its user-base.
Rob
(Posted using Agent under wine, which is not a windows emulator)
freexone
. . . issued forth these words:
[...]
>They are, without question,
> dominated by prattlers who have little of value to add
> but just love to see their feeble wit in writing.
;-)
--
#
"Wink wink, nudge nudge... Say No . . . More!"
freexone
issued forth these words:
[...]
Ha ha ha ho ho, I wish~!
[...]
>>3) Weblogs are beginning to gain considerable attention as a way to
>>improve Knowledge Sharing in the business world,
.....
and then this;
>>> (this is my personal interest.)
>>>
Gee, I would never have guessed . . . . .
Dilly Knockhead
> > Like the title says :-)
>
>
> It is really annoying when the entire content of an email or newsgroup
> posting is only in the subject line. Please put all content actually inside
> the body of the post.
You can kiss my ass. (Now I did it right! :-)
freexone
. . issued forth these in-valuable words:
Aha~! ?
. . . . . . that must be like Eeeee Aaaw right ? ? ? . . ..... ... .. . .
. . . . |"|;:~^>|"| (thats an pitcher of an ass, in 4F we did, for ya's)
. . . { FOT set to opera.animals+insects :} ...... bzzzzzst ....
--
freexone
#
remember:
"Silly is a state of Mind, :-)
"Stupid is a way of Life"
-- D. Butler
Dilly Knockhead
> On Sat, 10 Aug 2002 10:26:18 GMT, Dilly Knockhead <Dil...@worldnet.att.net> .
He-he ...<g> Thank you, Sir.
freexone
. . . issued forth these in-valuable words:
[...]
>> >You can kiss my ass. (Now I did it right! :-)
>> >
>> Aha~! ?
>> . . . . . . that must be like Eeeee Aaaw right ? ? ? . . ..... ... .. . .
>> . . . . |"|;:~^>|"| (thats an pitcher of an ass, in 4F we did, for ya's)
>> . . . { FOT set to opera.animals+insects :} ...... bzzzzzst ....
>
>
sorry we fibbed .... we was really in 4G when we did the pitcher~!
always havin' tribbles with them nombers & ledders n' stuff ....
Generally & Commodoreally too, we fink that dem sorta ...
word snunnecesarry in the modem whirld. ... ... ...of 2000+two,
Sonely loneby peoble like our goodest bestest buddy pal hear-abouts,
who 'needles' these woids . . . .... hav piddy on 'em ad leeest~! 8-)
'im can't helb 'erself, it jest comes out by itself, loves it in fact~! ..
Best jest snigger-snore 'em, that's the worst fing they hates . . . .
....... U jest bin watchin' 'im now+lately . . . .... .... 8-)
. . . . . . ... ... ... ... Wh-O' Bin Laffin now ? ? ?
New Ingredients for Martyr: Take 1 Saudi turn-coat ...(used to be ours).
. . . .add several rabid revengeful red-neck conservative war-mongers ...
Dilly Knockhead
> On Sat, 10 Aug 2002 10:26:18 GMT, Dilly Knockhead
> the thread. Please show some decency and do it correctly.
Er... aren't messages threaded based on message ids, rather than subject fields? Gotta be missing something here...
Dilly Knockhead
> sorry we fibbed .... we was really in 4G when we did the pitcher~!
> always havin' tribbles with them nombers & ledders n' stuff ....
>
> Generally & Commodoreally too, we fink that dem sorta ...
> word snunnecesarry in the modem whirld. ... ... ...of 2000+two,
> Sonely loneby peoble like our goodest bestest buddy pal hear-abouts,
> who 'needles' these woids . . . .... hav piddy on 'em ad leeest~! 8-)
> 'im can't helb 'erself, it jest comes out by itself, loves it in fact~! ..
>
> Best jest snigger-snore 'em, that's the worst fing they hates . . . .
I hear U buddy datz a v nIs litrery stIL U' got ther... .. U run in2 som dumB dud once n a whIl online so I Cnot jst hold it
bak~! .. So dat b a JK of corS :-))))) && d dumb d00d wil not get it tho wot a shame bt d JK iz on him thN
Dilly Knockhead
> On Fri, 09 Aug 2002 10:35:01 +0100, Roger Whitehead wrote:
> > Seems sensible and efficient* to me. It is standard practice in several large
> > companies, including Hewlett Packard.
>
> Efficient to break up threads and making a mess out of everything?
d00d, ah finks U godda upgreid yor noos readr .. ~subjects shud not b breaking thredz== d msgz mustAb thredid on IDz !hedrs. U
must b UzN somTIN fune, uz Opera insted, Ur not 'llowed 'Er unless U' UzN Opera!!! :~@
Matthew Winn
> Er... aren't messages threaded based on message ids, rather than
> subject fields? Gotta be missing something here...
That's the theory. Unfortunately there are a large number of clue-
impaired users who think that the correct way to start a new thread
is to reply to a random message and then change the subject. (Some
newsreaders require retyping of the group name when posting a new
message but when replying the group name is filled in automatically,
so the users take the easy but incorrect action.) The only way to
get such articles displayed as new threads is to break threading on
change of subject. Given that the number of people who join usenet
without bothing to find out how to use it is rising all the time,
the best thing to do is to reduce the impact of their cluelessness
as follows:
* Set newsreaders to break threading on change of subject.
* Don't change the subject unless it really needs to be changed.
* Use "(was: ...)" to indicate the thread where a new subject
originated.
And if possible:
* Cut off the genitals of the clueless so they're not able to breed
and outnumber us.
In groups where everyone knows the difference between posting a new
article and replying to an existing one it's not necessary to break
threading on change of subject, but the number of groups where this
is the case is falling all the time. And then there are groups where
people change the subject at the drop of a hat just because they can,
and breaking threading on change of subject gives almost no threads
at all.
--
Matthew Winn (mat...@sheridan.co.uk)
freexone
(Matthew Winn) . . . issued forth these in-valuable words:
[...]
>
>* Cut off the genitals of the clueless so they're not able to breed
> and outnumber us.
>
SqueeeeeeK~! ? ? ? . .. yucky~! .... . HELP~! . . . . . ... ..... .. .
--
freexone
#
"Wink wink, nudge nudge ... Say No . . . More!"