MORE FROM WEB 2.0... THOUGHTS ON UPCOMING.ORG

A lot more posts on the Web 2.0 conference, but I've just selected a few. Richard MacManus has several good summaries that you should check out. It was also good to meet Richard on Wednesday since he's working with Marc Canter to help build out our platform. He flew in from New Zealand to attend the conference, so it was definitely cool since we won't be able to meet with him often. Here are some of his posts:

"Mary Meeker talk"

"Bubble or Bubble-let?"

"A Conversation with AOL CEO Jonathan Miller"

Richard's post on "Bubble-let" led me to Susan Mernit's post on "Yahoo buys Upcoming.org," which I decided not to post on a few days ago. Susan states how this signals that the bubble is truly back.

I tend to agree, but also think the acquisition was strategic. Google has been hoarding engineering talent over the past year, so I'm guessing this was a way to get creative, enterprising engineers into Yahoo!'s DNA.

Yesterday at one of the Web 2.0 parties, I was talking with a programmer from a similar company to Upcoming.org. Both of us initially talked about how the acquisition really didn't make sense. Less than a year old, Upcoming.org hasn't drummed up significant traffic and users. The programmer stated that Yahoo! could have just built it themselves. I questioned whether this was true and especially if they had available bodies to do so. We agreed that it would have been better for Yahoo! to wait and see how the space develops, but of course the acquisition costs would be higher at that point. We also discussed how Upcoming.org's founders should have waited it out, but maybe they didn't want to be the odd one out down the road. Or, hopefully, they negotiated an incentive package based on the future performance of Upcoming.org.

Anyway, last link, Om with his latest, "And 5 More Things About Web 2.0 conference"

I agree with Om's point on "Revenue Models… what is that?" As I posted before, the problem with many of these cool tools are just that. They are only tools and features that will have a difficult road towards becoming a sustainable company. I hope the craze within this space doesn't grow to the point where larger entities bail them out and valuations go skyhigh. While this environment would be great for GoingOn Networks when we raise our next round of financing, I don't believe it's healthy in the longrun for the tech industry.