ohio

I’m happy to say that the blogger - Jason Therrien - that posted the post that caused my reaction in my last post, has replied in the comments. I have responded there as well… but I think more needs to be said.

First - I do hope that Northeast Ohio succeeds. I hope things happen that make me say… I should move back. At the same time, I am extremely happy in Chicago and not really sure what can be done to make me say that.

Second - Jason’s response is welcome, as all responses are, but there was one response that really gave me pause. It was George Nemeth’s. He didn’t write anything about it on BFD, but in his del.icio.us bookmarks he wrote - “Not sure what to say about this.” I don’t think he should be. Two reasons: 1. I probably don’t know enough about recruiting to make the type of statements I did; 2. more importantly, he’s not part of the problem. The NEO community needs more people like George, more that point out great things, more that drive the conversation about change - and they need to be louder. Is he one of the saviors that I said NEO has too many of? I don’t know, but he’s probably doing more than those that want to be.

Third - the response I would have liked to hear was “Josh, you don’t know what you’re talking about. Maybe I can tell you some things that will change your mind.” If that happens, I will happily spread the word on my blog, and to those I know in NEO, about Indenti-fyi and why it is going to work.

I was working on a post that I realized might cost me every contact I have in Northeast Ohio. It was in response to this post: http://growcleveland.blogspot.com/2007/09/steering-herd.html - that says that those of us that leave NEO suffer from herd mentality and lack information.

I’ll skip the details and get to the meat of my argument: NEO has too many saviors, too many ideas of ways to reshape the region, and too many failed attempts. All this seems to be coupled with a fear to give up power at the top (think Arshinkoff) - which really doesn’t ever lead to change. There needs to be one concentrated effort and there needs to be large scale effort.

The post I pointed to earlier talks about a recruiting incident with 2 people - NEO needs to be talking about 1000s of individuals and about recruiting companies rather than college students. I don’t want to say anymore, because Cleveland doesn’t need anymore talking-head-would-be-saviors-without-real-actionable-plans… and I don’t even live in NEO anymore.

There’s a tremendous amount of talent in NEO - but that’s simply not enough.

I had an informal meeting last week with my good friend Jeff, who has an e-commerce website. He reads this blog and during the meeting we talked about one of the posts - this one in which I ramble on about my possible future. Anyway, while we were talking about it I mentioned Brewed Fresh Daily, Knotice, Sage Rock, and probably some other bloggers / people / companies that he hadn’t heard of that are based in Northeast Ohio. I thought about doing a post about these bloggers / people / companies, but then I thought it’s probably better as a stand alone, not a post that will disappear from the homepage in a week or so. So… I’d like to introduce NEO2.0.

NEO2.0 is a wiki to help promote all of the great things happening in Northeast Ohio. I feel that the people that are working hard to push our community forward don’t get enough recognition - especially in the early stages of their projects - I’m hoping this wiki can help a little in that regard. (The password is ohio.)

For now I’m just using a free hosted wiki (from pbwiki which I highly recommend) - but if it gains a little traction I’ll consider hosting it or doing something other than a wiki. Ideally, I’d create a social network for the type of people interested in this site that allows the people that I’m trying to promote to connect, exchange ideas, and maybe plan some interesting events. We’ll see - that’s a long way from where this is right now.

Try it out and please add as much stuff as you’d like. Remember the password is ohio.

I started working again today, so far so good. I will likely be leading the charge on putting content into RSS and or blogging so that should be interesting – can’t really say too much more.

The new format of the blog seems to be working well. Readership is increasing and it’s easier for me to blog everyday. I probably prefer a less structured approach, but there certainly are advantages to the structure – and I will tweak the structure if need be.

Not much to say from the Motask, Lopico, or BCO front. I’ve made some minor design changes to Lopico but haven’t added anything new in a few weeks (I also found an error that I’m fixing right now, but I don’t really want to brag about that). I’m thinking I might try to sell motask in the coming weeks – I don’t have to time to do with it what I’d like but I don’t just want to shut everyone out that uses it. BCO needs some momentum – interestingly more people have bookmarked the event in del.icio.us than have signed up. I haven’t done much with BCO yet, other than getting it blogged on Brewed Fresh Daily – one of Ohio’s most popular blogs. If you’re interested pleas sign the wiki.

Newbs and Exes - blogs/feeds I have started reading or have stopped reading this week
In:
Mike Davidson
Threadless Weekly

Out:
AU Blog
Riding Rails
Marketing Vox

All that with 33 minutes left before Tech News Tuesday.

Yes it’s interesting that so many new sites have come from former PayPal employees, but would it hurt to do an article like this about non-sillicon valley companies? It could be summed up as follows:

1. You need a strong network to succeed.
2. People that used to work at PayPal have a strong network.
3. People that used to work at PayPal are succeeding.

Shocking I know. Haven’t we heard enough about these overly hyped ex-PayPalers. With the exception of YouTube, none of them have really rocked the world in any noteworthy ways. The others have built great networks not great technologies. I’ve heard enough of this, I’m ready to hear what’s coming from places not called silicon valley.

The lesson this piece seems to send is that it matters less what the product is and more who’s behind it. A sad state, but that’s reality. And that lesson is part of the reason I’m trying to help get the Ohio tech community to come together. I may not like the lesson, but it’s one that people outside the valley need to learn.

—————————————
NYT - It pays to have firends in the valley
GigaOm - The PayPal Mafia
Valleywag - By our powers combined, we are Captain PayPal!

Starting off with BarCampOhio - the wiki is at least up, I haven’t done anything for this yet. Still trying to feel this one out. I’m reading up on best practices and we’ll see what happens. Anyone that would like to participate should go to barcamp.org/BarCampOhio

First Posts on BCO: Web 2.O-H-I-O | Wake up 2.0

On Commenting
Most of my blog readers are, well, readers, not participants and not commenters. That’s fine, but if you’re also a blogger you should comment. I have a new policy on the site: anyone who comments and links to their blog gains me as a reader. I upgraded WordPress and K2 the other day, which led to me loosing some style info and then eventually changing all of the style and updating some options - while I was at it I put my new blog reading policy in place. I’m only one reader, but if you write well enough I may just throw some links your way.

Speaking of me reading blogs…
I decided that part of MyStuff monday (still playing with the format) will be me linking to new blogs I’ve subscribed to or ones I’ve stopped reading. For this week:

In:
A Sack of Seattle
Center Networks
David Beach’s blog
Korea Crunch
Marketing Profs
Somewhat Frank
Tell Ten Friends

Out:
GigaOm

Actually an unusual week, I don’t normally add this many blogs in a week. I’m guessing some of these won’t be around long.