Stardust Global Ventures

I’ve been thinking a bit about influence and what that all means. Let me tell you what started this train of thought. I’ll try to keep it short.

Earlier I was looking at friendfeed and noticed one of Leo Laporte’s updates for his show and listed his guests. Most of you know I’ve been a Leo fan for many years. Leo invited me to visit his show and I went. Now I’ve told that story often enough I won’t go back into it, but what matters is that I am an original fangirl. I watched him on tech tv, listened to his radio show, have followed him from his early days in internet stardom to his growing empire today, and what struck me was that on his show one thing has remained constant. His guests are almost always the same. Oh sure he has a fairly large pool to draw from and he does switch it up when a new star hits the horizon, but it’s sort of like a green show. He recycles all his guests from year to year, other than those shiny new stars, like Ev or Biz.

The last couple of weeks twitter got a new feature called lists. We now have the ability to create lists where we get to categorize people where we want to see them or where we think they fit. Tonight Robert Scoble tweeted:

I agree. Not everyone should be in such a list. There are several reasons that’s the case but the most important one is because not everyone is a social media guru. However, if Robert wanted someone in his list to be there, that is certainly his business.

Still, this created yet more thoughts and I even tweeted back to Robert a couple of them: following up with: Which brings me to my basic thought processes and something that came to me all at once.

Robert Scoble is a nice enough guy. He is what most people would term fairly influential. So is Leo Laporte. Both nice enough guys who work pretty publicly and influence a lot of people and even get them to change their minds. What they aren’t is always right. They are human. They are fallible. They may have influence, what we see as clout, but when it comes to making a list the same people will be on their lists. The same people will be invited to their parties, and hang out with them at the bar in the *name a famous hotel* in Half Moon Bay or Petaluma. They both appear to be real people who really engage, but you and I both know there is a limit to that engagement. If you don’t live near them, don’t attend the same parties, don’t regularly socialize in the circles they socialize in you aren’t one of them and you won’t be on the massive insider list that only they have the ability to build and create influence with.

That’s a fact. Dispute it, disagree but it is what it is. We aren’t the insiders. We are regular people who may be every bit as intelligent as the people on those lists, but through whatever forces that be, aren’t as influential. I own it. Do you?

Technorati Tags: Robert Scoble, Leo Laporte, Sheryl Breuker

A little tongue in cheek was required here. I have been a fan of the iPhone since it first hit the stores. I still don’t have one, but last year I did get an ipod touch. I enjoy many things about it, particularly the browsing capability and also the integration with itunes and the app store.

Having said that, I read everyday something not good about it. While we’re all familiar with the great things about the iphone, the bad seems to get pushed down. Or does it?

It occurred to me this morning as I was reading a post on VentureBeat, it may be a lot more about just being part of a craze and not so much about the greatness of the phone. Everyone I talk to says how great it is, and they extol the many virtues, but when pushed with any amount of force, they will acknowledge the much more stable quality of the rim devices and also how comfortable email is on a Blackberry as well.

There are a lot of things about the iphone no one wants to admit. The inferiority of call quality, email etc. etc. Sure, Apple pointed us to a better set of features and functions a phone could and maybe should have. Now, why doesn’t Blackberry or another phone integrate some of those great features and let’s put the iphone behind us?

Apparently one has. I can’t wait for revues on it. Have a look at what TheBoyGenius Report has to say about what the new DROID phone will do, that the iphone doesn’t.

Technorati Tags: theboygeniusreport, droiddoes, iphone, apple, blackberry, sheryl breuker, matt marshall

One of the COOLEST campaigns out there is Drew Olanoff’s fight against his own cancer, Hodgkins Lymphoma. Something he started early on was what he called, simply, Blame Drews Cancer. All you had to do was tweet out something like this: I #blamedrewscancer for….(fill in the blank with whatever annoys you). It got a bit of buzz, was inspirational and people really got behind a man so determined to win his own personal fight. Except it’s not just a fight for him, it’s a fight for everyone.

Drew is an amazing guy, someone who decided he wasn’t going to let ‘cancer’ beat him. And he hasn’t. The last tests showed, well maybe you should just read the results in his own words and then come back here and finish this off.

Of course who of us has been untouched by cancer? I can tell you for me personally I lost my grandmother to it in 1982, my father to it in 1986, and just a little less than 5 years ago my mother got sick. I went to help her out and was told by the doctor she had colon cancer and in her physical state there was nothing they could do. I was then asked to share this news with my mom. She died 3 short weeks later, the night I arrived home.

Drew’s example of fighting has touched me personally. Yeah we follow each other, yeah we’ve had a couple of conversations, but his story is so incredibly inspirational, I really want to support him. His fight has taken on a life of it’s own and he is the driver. Through all the throwing up, stomach ailments, weakness just plain nasty feelings that come with treating cancer with chemotherapy, he has remained strong and LOUDLY proclaiming his absolute assurance that he will BEAT this. He provides hope unlike any other person I have ever seen to every one of us who have battled this or anything like this in our lives.

But Drew’s story doesn’t end there. He got an idea. He decided to do something bigger. Boy did he decide to do something bigger! Drew Olanoff was early to the twitter game. He got a rather cool 4 letter name, @drew on twitter back in the beginning. he also got a brainstorm. How about auctioning off his name to the highest bidder? He checked with the powers that be at twitter headquarters and they agreed for this sort of thing to make an exception to their TOS.

Drew Carey, from the Drew Carey Show, Whose Line is it Anyway?, current host of The Price is Right and @DrewFromtv, started with 12k followers on twitter when he got wind of Drew Olanoff’s cancer challenge. He threw his hat into the cancer ring offering to donate $25k then quickly upping it to $100k if he got an equal number of followers by Nov. 9th, Drew Olanoff’s birthday. But it didn’t end there.

Drew Carey has now raised the bar yet again stating on his network, CBS, that should he get 1 million followers by midnite Dec. 31st, he will donate 1 million dollars to LIVESTRONG.com, Lance Armstrong’s Foundation which is also paired up with Drew Olanoff. Amazing!

What can you do? It’s simple really and won’t cost you a dime. All you have to do to make this happen is follow @DrewFromtv. If you don’t have a twitter account get one. Go to the twitter site, create an account and make a follow for @DrewFromtv your first piece of business. If you already have an account, you know what to do. What are you out for a HUGE donation to fight cancer? A click of the mouse, my friends. Your 1 click can make all the difference. Just do it already. This is a CHALLENGE to all my friends, my entire network. Let’s get 1 million dollars to fight cancer. We can do it! We’ve seen a real miracle already. Together we can make another one.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Technorati Tags: drew olanoff, drew carey, hodgkins lymphoma, twitter, @drew, @drewfromtv, livestrong foundation,

I’ve been hunting for my next great job for a while and now I’ve found it. Twitter is looking for a Manager of Corporate IT, and I am the best person they’ll find for the job. Continue reading “Hire @kencamp for Manager of Corporate IT at Twitter” »

Anyone who uses Twitter is familiar with what happens each week on #FollowFriday. It’s that day when we all call out to those people we think merit special attention for following. The problem is, it’s turned into what often looks and feels like a grocery list of all our favorite people. Why is that? Well, everyone I follow is someone special who deserves attention.

This week, I’ve been hit hard with the idea of heroes. I’ll explain why, and you can laugh if you will. Sheryl and I watched three eposides of Extreme Makeover Home Edition with Ty Pennington (@iamreallyty). First, I’ll confess I am a bit of a sap. You can talk to Sheryl for any more details, but let’s just say I’m not ashamed to cry. Extreme Makeover is one of a very few TV shows I love, but 9 out of 10 episodes will make me cry. Ok 10 out of 10. It’s a show that from my view is heroes giving back to heroes. I’m very jealous of the job Ty has and would love to be part of that somehow, but it’s a different universe than I live in.

So this week rather than blurt a list for #FollowFriday, I’m going to introduce you to four of my heroes on Twitter. They add value to my daily life. And I started this blog post earl in the week as I gave it a lot of thought.

Jeff Pulver (@jeffpulver)
Sheryl and I share a very special friendship with Jeff. Part of it has to do with his being an inside confederate who helped in my proposal to her live on stage during a presentation at VON.x in San Jose. But we go back farther than that. Jeff and I share and overlapping passion for VoIP and emerging communications technologies that dates back several years. Our passion for social media is something shared and that’s a very personal part of who we are.

In our real life, Sheryl and I have spent time with Jeff at VON, done more than one of the world famous Breakfast with Jeff events. We even kidnapped him across the border from Seattle to Vancouver for a breakfast there. But it goes farther. We met Jeff in Minneapolis. And dragged him downtown to the famed intersection where Mary Tyler Moore did her famous hat toss for the show opening. Yes, we have pictures of Jeff doing the hat toss.

Jeff is a friend and a colleague. He’s also one of my heroes because even in times of personal crisis, identity crisis and self re-invention, he’s someone who always looks to the future, always reaches for more, and never quits. Jeff’s good humor and outlook on life and the future have been a positive influence on my life.

Jeff’s my hero because he shows us to never give up, never quit.

Lotay Yang (@lotay)
Lotay is a friend I’ve not yet met in person, but he’s touched my life in another heroic and positive way. He’s a young fella, a business man in financial services who’s made his way into spheres of business that I’ve never touched. And I don’t really expect I will. Our real day-to-day lives run in very different circles.

Lotay’s attention is focused on doing good through the Black Card Circle Foundation. It’s a network of people who through wealth, celebrity, connections and achievements have come together to make the world a better place by helping support noble causes. For example, the latest invitation I got from Lotay and BCCF is to an event providing support to stop human trafficking. That’s a big deal and even though it’s not something I have any personal experience with, Lotay’s work keeps me ever mindful of the plight of those less fortunate than I.

On top of that, he’s active on Twitter asking opinions, sharing thoughts, quoting wisdom from others and just adding value to the world every day. And he loves his Blackberry as much as we do ours.

Lotay’s my hero because he lights the way to each of us as people taking care of the people of our world.

Shambu Neil Vineberg (@nvineberg)
I met Shambu several years ago as Neil. He’s a PR and marketing advisor to some of the very coolest companies on the planet. You’d recognize many of the names. We spoke before the conference we met at, but I’d say we bonded as friends the first time we met in person. We’ve had the opportunity to work together several times since, and he’s one of the most consummate professionals I’ve ever had the opportunity to work with.

We count Shambu as a personal friend. Sheryl and I spent some time at his home last year where he played guitar for Sheryl. He even entrusted me with a few chords on one of his incredible guitars. Yes, Neil is a magnificent musician and has been a part of that industry for many more years than I’ve known him. He’s the one who introduced Sheryl and I to Narada Michael Walden.

But he’s my hero because he is forever optimistic and upbeat about our place in the world. He loves mankind…humanity. And it pours out in his thoughts and words constantly. Shambu is a friend who believes in the good of the world, the good of people, the power of simply doing the right things. He lives his life that way each day and is an outstanding example. He is a gentleman and a gentle man. A hero.

Shambu’s my hero because he lives a life of positive energy that shows us the power we each hold inside.

David Worley (@DavidWorley)
Last among my heroes for this week is someone you won’t find on Twitter a lot, although we keep prodding him to Tweet more, Sheryl’s 18 year old son David, or Bubba.

Sheryl can point you to stories of David growing up. He’s got ostegenesis imperfecta, or brittle bones. That means that while outwardly you might never notice anything, as a child he was very fragile. I’ve heard David and Sheryl talk about some of the experiences they’ve shared and I am awed at the bond between them and the life they’ve lived.

David is something of an old soul at his young age. He’s far more mature a teenager than anyone I’ve ever known, while remaining childlike in many ways. He’s deeply thoughtful, introspective and inquisitive. He wants answers and can be relentless in their pursuit.

He’s my hero because he personifies the hope of our next generation for me. He’s destined to greatness even though he isn’t really sure what he wants to do some days. His interests are many. He’s articulate and literate. If you think high school age teens are shallow, petty or unthinking, engage David in a meaningful conversation on some topic of substance – healthcare, common sense, politics, education, responsibility, ethics – and hang on for a ride. You’ll get both deep questions and original thoughts that will boggle your mind.

David’s my hero because he gives me hope for what lies ahead for all of us.

Who are your heroes?

Technorati Tags: Twitter, #followfriday, @jeffpulver, @lotay, @nvineberg, @davidworley