SharkJumping

After an exhausting 36 hours of Web 2.0 mayhem, I'm calling it a day, even though there are another 36 hours to go.   The MySpace party at MOMA last night was a really fun event, with Rupert Murdoch bringing a splash of So Cal to the Bay area, but what really stood out for me were 2 lines from very smart people who will go un-named to protect the innocent.

1.  "Remember you're raising cattle, not pets" - a veteran entrepreneur explaining how he looks at each company he starts.

2.  "I sold them a thin-slice exclusive" - a bus dev veteran explaining how he extracts the highest fees possible from his intellectual property

There is another post coming about how we have now officially checked all of items in the "how to recognize a bubble" checklist, but that will have to wait...

At Meez, we're in the process of switching the majority of our bandwidth, storage and computing power to Amazon's Web Services group.  AWS is a suite of web services which seems to be catching fire with many of the smaller web start-ups in Silicon Valley, especially those who are launching Facebook applications when you're not sure how successful it will be when you first launch them.

After spending a reasonable amount of time with due diligence on various current customers of AWS, the benefits seem clear.  Amazon has built a series of massive storage/bandwidth (S3) and server farms (EC2), and they're willing to lease computing power on them to other companies in a utility-like way, meaning you just pay by the byte in most cases.  Your upfront costs are ZERO, and the ongoing costs are incredibly competitive, although there is no guaranteed level of service and it doesn't currently support MS technologies, just Linux.  In addition, there are apparently some growing pains in the services, such as inadequate tools, occasional bugs, and some possible latency issues with certain services.

That having been said, we're huge fans, and it looks to us and everyone I survey that its a really compelling offering vs our alternatives.  So why is Google not doing this, or IBM or Sun?  Rumor is that Google's offering is 6-12 months away since they're over-thinking it, that IBM hasn't even seen the opportunity yet, and even stranger, that Sun has had an offering similar to AWS for a while now, but no one actually uses it since no one I asked could even remember the name.  So it means that Amazon has quite a runway for the next 6+ months, and so far, I'd say the buzz is really good on it.

Chris Sherman (bio here) is someone I have interacted with for 10+ years across digital media.  Starting with Multimedia Wire, followed by UGO, and multiple other mobile, music and conference companies, my personal rule of thumb is that if Chris Sherman is involved in the new sector in some way, then we're 1-2 years away from it being a mainstream phenomenon. 

It doesn't always mean that Chris knocks it out of the park personally on each venture - it just means that he's generally right about what's going to be big, just like the first Casual Games conference he hosted 3.5 years ago in Seattle before anyone major paid attention to the category.

So what's Chris promoting these days after selling his Austin game conference company?  - so obviously, I'm pleased with where Meez is located since it means we have 18 months to make it big :)  That is the Chris Sherman rule...

Not to beat this topic to death, but our superstar Marketing Associate Mayka pointed out to me today that in Halo 3, when 2 soldiers jump onto one of the tanks, one of them yells "Ghost Ride the Whip!", so it appears that this expression has completely crossed the chasm...

My wife Claudine has officially launched Claudina's Kitchen (), her food blog, as well as her SF catering business.  As our friends have known for years, Claudine is an amazing cook, focused on slow, seasonal, local, delicious and healthy foods, as well as the nutrition and health aspects of food.  Plus she loves to entertain, and isn't fazed by cooking the same delicious meals for 2 or for 35 people, as she did last week for the Meez Fall event, so check it out.

In August, our Meez marketing and community associate asked me if we could create "Ghostriding the Whip" as an animation for Meez.   At that point, a brisk conversation ensued among the interns and the associate about the practice, whereby I asked the obviously stupid question - "what is ghostriding the whip?", thinking it was probably some type of sexual saying.   It was clear from the resulting expressions that I was definitely too old and way too boring to even be involved in a company like Meez  :) 

Over the last 45 days, I have asked the same question numerous times, in meetings, at social gatherings, at restaurants, etc.  What is blindingly obvious is that it is an age-thing, with almost every person below the age of 25 knowing what it is, from the busboy at Masa's restaurant last weekend to the random bartender in Atlanta 4 weeks ago.  And what's also clear is that almost no one else older knows the answer, so it's become my personal culture test, similar to how Google allegedly would only hire a CEO who had been to Burning Man. 

If you know what it is, then you should probably come work at Meez since it's become a top animation for us - or you just go see it on You Tube or read the definition here at Wikipedia.