Satellite TV For PC London Dotcom Scene, Web 2.0 style
Following on from funders exiting the scene (see earlier post) I was saddened today to hear that Blogfriends has closed its doors for now.For those who don't know it, it was a Facebook App that took your social network of friends, and their friends, and fed blogs to you from those people. From my point of view it was probably the most useful (eventually the only) Facebook App I used.

However, it ran into 2 common problems with "Web 2.0" apps on Facebook

(i) The Facebook API and Platform has high friction on system maintenance and scalability
(ii) The App therefore couldn't scale easily above the 27,000 users it go to without significant redesign

(See Luke Razzell's description of the issues in his notice of mothballing over here)

Issue they had was raising funding to restructure the service (i) to scale and (ii) to go outside of Facebook, was more than the resources they had.

Looking at all the hoopla and the money thrown at apps like FriendFeed though, it makes me scratch my head - if I compare what Blogfriends does vis a vis say Friendfeed, it does basically the same thing behind the scenes:

(i) Connects you to feeds via a social network
(ii) Aggregates data feeds from the nodes in that social network

One of them starts up in early 2007 in the UK and, despite proving its utility on Facebook, gets no funding. The other gets $5m to spend on Tech and PR from a standing start in late 2007 in the US.

Now I understand the issues from a funder's point of view - plateau in numbers due to scaling problems means lack of traction means less desirable for funding, and the "alpha" system design hit scale issues - but that is normal in small startups like this, and Friendfeed - as far as I understand - took its $5m before it even got to this stage. I don't blame the UK VC's, Blogfriends is still small stuff. What I want to know is where are the UK Angels and Seed Investors who can bridge that "equity gap" - who can put in the £100k or so that companies like these need to get to the next stage, never mind putting in the c £2.5m ($5k) that Friendfeed got?

There is a lesson there somewhere. PC Satellite TV Reviews, Satellite TV For PC Reviews.

PC Perspective Podcast
You can subscribe to us through iTunes and you can still access it directly through the RSS page HERE.PC Perspective Podcast

This week we talk about a couple of gaming systems including the HP Blackbird 002, AMD Phenom 9600 Black Edition overclocking, Phenom TLB fix and triple-core processors, the end of VIA chipsets, AMD R700 and GeForce 9-series specs from mid-range to high-end.

How to get the PC Perspective podcast: 1:28:26

• iTunes - Subscribe to the podcast directly through iTunes
• RSS - Subscribe through your regular RSS aggregator
• MP3- Download the MP3 file directly

Hosts: Ryan Shrout and Josh Walrath.

PC Satellite TV Reviews, Satellite TV For PC Reviews.

Billy Bragg and some lessons for the Open Source Drones
There is an article in Wired Magazine on the newly emerging trend for Open Source Millionaires.

In 2007, some 30 open source software companies were purchased for more than $1 billion ? double the number of sales in 2005, according to consulting firm 451 Group. And 2008 is proving to be even more frenetic. In January alone, Sun Microsystems announced the purchase of open source pioneer MySQL for $1 billion

The key line to me, though, is at the end of the article, about how this monetisation impacts the Open Source collaboration model:

More important, software makers depend on the goodwill of outside developers, whom they rely on to keep updating their products. So the new open source billionaires might want to think twice about going 767 for 767 with the Google guys. For the coder drones, accustomed to being paid in warm feelings, such displays might make them take their coding skills elsewhere.

I'd call this the Billy Bragg Offset Economics Experience - the software creators dedicate their labour for free in the belief that they are creating a Brave New World, just to find that its Animal Farm and they're just the code-monkeys - and a very small number of people have potentially managed to get into a position to walk away with all the created common wealth at the monetisation event.

Now it can be a bit hard to follow, because the Open Source model relies not so much on the economics of "free" as the economics of "offset" (ie paying for it in some other way, including coder time subsidised by their actual employers), and, like in a game of 3-cup shuffle, the money is being moved around in new ways so that its harder to follow it - until someone walks off with it, of course.

There is, at the end of the day, no such thing as a free lunch, even in the "everything is free" internet.

And here's a tip - if you ain't eating at the table, you're doing the paying.. While you maybe wait at it too,

So Caveat coder...

PC Satellite TV Reviews, Satellite TV For PC Reviews.

Techware Slingbox Hosting Service
In spite of the fact we've been dissed by Sling in the past, I continue to be fascinated with the SlingBox, and how it disrupts the media business.The latest cool service is the Techware Slingbox Hosting Service. These guys will host a Sling Box for you, and let you stream cable TV from Wisconsin to anywhere in the world. It's not cheap at $45/month, but it appears legit as far as not redistributing cable TV or satellite feeds.

If you're a Packers fan, for example, this is one great way to catch all the action. Not sure how pleased the NFL is with this arrangement though.

You can read more about it here.

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