Disqus - Latest Comments for Ronald Lewis

Re: I Liken Anonymous Comments to Nothing Being Said

Ronald Lewis — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 22:08:02 -0000

I think it's best to ignore anonymous comments if they do not add value. Also, I like David's approach. Although comment moderation can be a pain for a very active blog, I feel it's a blogger's best asset to keep things orderly.

Keep in mind as well that some people are bored and will post things just because. Currently, I do not accept comments on my own blog, but I do on another.

Re: Podcasting Consent Form

Ronald Lewis — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 22:22:23 -0000

Wow. I am surprised to see that people are actually using consent forms in podcasting. To date, I haven't used anything and no one has raised any issues. I've interviewed primarily executives (Southwest Airlines, Iotum, Intrado, Digium, Sangoma, Cisco Systems, etc.), but there are also entertainers and such as well.

The same is also true for the Voice 2.0 Conference podcasts I produced this past October. There weren't any formal agreements -- they just wanted someone to produce a few interviews for the conference and I was fortunate enough to help out.

So far, everything "just works" and everyone has been happy with the final product.

Re: iBAM on (mt)

Ronald Lewis — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 23:42:52 -0000

Nice to see you guys on (mt). Great choice. The site is blazing fast.

Re: RANT: Bloggers morph into Jack Black.

Ronald Lewis — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 07:38:06 -0000

Jake,

As a podcaster, blogger, and new/social media producer, I find that of the 60 Million+ blogs in existence today, only a handful seem to represent the blogosphere overall. This is a sad reality.

Most "elite" bloggers are also the least accessible, and I tend to wonder, why? Is it because of their thousands of readers per month? Their "status?" Their recognition?

For the past few weeks, I've grown increasingly frustrated by the obvious "I am better than than most" mentality shared by these bloggers.

"We" are supposedly a "community," which means an act of SELFLESSNESS, rather than SELFISHNESS.

I challenge the "elite" bloggers to become more accessible and denounce their obvious egos to help the blogosphere move forward as ONE -- together.

Re: Digg and Reddit: It’s Not Wrong to Create and Submit Your Own Content. In Fact, it’s Necessary.

Ronald Lewis — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 13:02:58 -0000

100% correct. It is not spam to submit your OWN content to these sites. Yes, we must deprogram the negative connotations associated with self-submissions.

Re: Seeking Happiness

Ronald Lewis — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 04:01:26 -0000

Micah,

I've always chosen 'Life' over 'Work'. As a kid, I knew I wanted the freedom of a 'job'. Thus, when I left my last corporate job (2005), I toughed it out on my own to 'enjoy life'. Any chance I can, I'm on a plane to another city. Or, I'm spending time with friends, seeing favorite movies and visiting the bookstore. I grew up believing that hard work didn't necessarily equal success. I wanted to work smarter. I wanted to see ahead and beyond the masses.

My freedom over the last few years have been wonderful. Sure, my income varied as a self-employed guy, but the freedom was liberating. I declared a few weeks ago that I would remain independent of a job (though I don't deny 'peeking' at jobs on occasion as a 'just in case' measure). I see the modern day job as slavery. Going to work for someone was never a stimulating experience for me. I wanted to vomit more often than anything else.

So, yeah, this lifestyle brings me happiness (when I'm not saddled down by trying to save and inspire the world).

Re: Looking for Feedback

Ronald Lewis — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 12:42:53 -0000

I followed this page via Twitter and I didn't notice any issues with loading, rendering, etc. At least from my end, things look great.

Re: Another rout in China: Ebay throws in towel after spending nearly $300M

Ronald Lewis — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 10:04:24 -0000

It's all about culture, and I don't think EBay did well with aligning its marketplace with the Chinese. However, Tom has, hence their success and the newly formed partnership.

Re: We really are in trouble in this country. This is just the beginning of it.

Ronald Lewis — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 13:46:41 -0000

I've been telling Americans that sky is blue for years. Americans don't care to be informed.

Most Americans aren't even aware of our worthless, fiat-based currency. Yes, troubling times are ahead indeed and it goes far beyond money.

Re: 2006/12/13/how-to-have-an-overnight-internet-success-story/

Ronald Lewis — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 01:15:06 -0000

Great read. I'd love to hear ideas on extending one of these two approaches to new media (podcasts, blogs, etc.) What is the secret to success of blogs like Mashable, GigaOm, TechCrunch, etc.? Are they viral, or just have deep pockets for marketing?

There are folks like myself building a great brand (Interviews Podcast) and equally compelling content, but are still falling short. What gives when you've seen 70,000 downloads to date, sponsorship interest from Cisco, offers of help from prominent Silicon Valley execs who have failed to keep their word, press coverage, etc.?

It's painful sitting on a nestegg of content which can scale to millions of subscribers in time, but is going nowhere fast because the awareness levels aren't there (yet). It is a frustrating experience, because I'm always thinking of creative ways to expand the visibility of things with little resources to do so.

Re: 2006/12/13/how-to-have-an-overnight-internet-success-story/

Ronald Lewis — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 02:19:53 -0000

Peter, Phil, and others:

Thank you for your feedback. Perhaps original content will have a difficult time scaling, but when I think about 1 billion cell phones having MP3 playback capability by 2010, my eyes widen! :)

I think new media is an exciting space to be in and there's a lot of room to provide compelling content to a large audience. I agree that viral sites such as YouTube are succcessful because of user content, but I still believe there's opportunity for original content, just maybe not on the scale of video sharing sites.

Personally, I can see 1 million unique listeners each month of time-shifted (on-demand) content at some point. There are already some large-scale producers out there such as IT Conversations and the PodTech network. I'm not sure of how they developed their mediums, but they are certainly successful for what they do, if not on a large scale, but good enough to be satisfied.

If there's one thing I'm sure of, it's that there are some great folks out there who stand behind the brand I've been building this year. There's some great support, so it's encouraging, as they understand the vision and the approach I've taken to attract visibility to the content.

I think one of the greatest accomplishments thus far was beating the WSJ, NY Times and 100s of other press to interview the co-founders of Webaroo in April. The power, capability, and flexibility of new media content is just amazing when compared to traditional media.

Re: 2006/12/13/how-to-have-an-overnight-internet-success-story/

Ronald Lewis — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 09:38:54 -0000

Shane: Alex Tew is a great success story. He created a new pop-culture ecosystem all on his own.

Nisan: Thanks for your feedback. Creating relevant content is important and I believe I've achieved that, so it sounds like I'm on the right path.

Transcribing the podcast has certainly been on my radar, and I hope to achieve that in the coming weeks with an idea to "open source" my podcast's production work -- I'm already seeing great search results with the static bios of the personalities and their companies.

It's funny you mention content syndication. I think most podcast directories fail in this area and I've approached several sources of interest to syndicate the content I've produced thus far. I think such deals could be quite lucrative and will permit the brand to expand further. If you have any ideas on this, I'd love to hear them.

Re: 2006/12/15/changingthepresent-launches-social-site-for-donations/

Ronald Lewis — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 22:51:15 -0000

This is a neat idea and closely mirrors my thoughts on "social sponsorship": http://www.ronaldlewis.com/blog/2006/12/sponsor...

If someone can build something like I've proposed above for the "rest of us", we'll really be on to something!

Re: 2006/12/16/times-person-of-the-year-youtube/

Ronald Lewis — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 22:55:27 -0000

New media is certainly changing the landscape for the average joe or joette. I'm glad Time recognized the everyday new media player. It's the future, indeed.

Re: 2006/12/17/jajah-going-ad-supported/

Ronald Lewis — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 02:25:52 -0000

This leads me to wonder if most revenue from sites offering free services and content will come by way of sponsorship and/or ads. Seems to be the only logical thing to do, since online ad dollars are increasing each year.

Finally, this could be an indication that Jajah's premium services (conference calls, etc.) aren't doing too well and they realized they'd do better with an ad-supported model.

Well, if Google, Yahoo, and the major broadcast networks can make billions from advertising, anyone can make a buck and do well.

Re: 2006/12/19/fauxto/

Ronald Lewis — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 17:05:30 -0000

Nice! I really love these online photo editors. Sometimes, I don't feel like using a desktop app just to resize an image. They come in handy!

Re: 2006/12/20/youtube-concedes-to-japanese-demands/

Ronald Lewis — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 02:58:20 -0000

These guys are wasting valuable time about right now. If I were the owner of a large library of copyrighted works and "clips" were available online of the content, I seriously wouldn't care. The content is engaging the audience and furthering the brand and/or show. I'm sure these guys are benefiting from YouTube.

Re: 2006/12/19/viacom-abandons-youtube-killer/

Ronald Lewis — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 03:02:33 -0000

For now, the networks do not pose an immediate threat to YouTube -- however, the network execs believe so. Sheesh, those guys are so 1950s in thought. Will the Executive 2.0 types please stand up and show American businesses how business is done today?

Re: 2006/12/19/youtube-gives-nbc-a-hit-in-a-box/

Ronald Lewis — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 03:20:34 -0000

Some powerful figure in new media should step forward and show these 1.0 Execs the ropes of living in the 21st Century. YouTube is a GOLDMINE for visibility and marketing opportunity. At least NBC is somewhat getting it and playing "friendly" with YouTube.

Congrats YouTube and NBC: A great example of mixing old and new media for great results.

Re: 2007/01/04/momjunction/

Ronald Lewis — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 00:06:21 -0000

Maybe I need to launch a MySpace knockoff, so I can get in on these millions that are being given away like candy!

Re: 2007/01/18/myspace-sued-after-girls-sexually-abused/

Ronald Lewis — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 16:22:02 -0000

The blame lies squarely on the parents and their daughters -- if you look at the average profile of these teenage girls, you'd think they were trying out for Playboy Magazine. These girls are selling appeal in exchange for attention, and when it's too much, they cry "victim."

Re: 2007/01/18/geniuscom-funded-blogster-sale-nytimes-widgets-tag-maps-yahoo-answers-socialcom-mefeedia-aol-qvc-tutorlinker-filmcom/

Ronald Lewis — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 16:25:04 -0000

Hmmm. Skype Pro might be an interesting deal.

Re: 2007/01/19/youtube-ads/

Ronald Lewis — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 11:55:40 -0000

Sorry, but TV and social networks are in a league of their own. You cannot apply traditional broadcast ideas to social media. If there's one thing which irks me, is how governing bodies attempt to apply traditional rules to non-traditional mediums such as the Internet.

Re: How to Get George Bush or the CEO of Google on the Phone

Ronald Lewis — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 01:57:50 -0000

Since 13, I've personally contacted some of the world's elite for knowledge, friendship or interviews. It was as simple as writing a letter, sending an e-mail or being within a degree of my target. This same ability is also responsible for attracting press coverage -- via my OWN PR work -- in the Detroit News, Nashville Business Journal, TechCrunch, etc. for "business experiments" I conducted over the years (I've been covered by the media since I was 15).

At 28, I'm still amazed by what I've achieved in business relationships and the media. I've told myself for years that what I've accomplished is of value to someone and that I will eventually discover a vehicle to make a living from it -- I simply haven't figured that out yet.

Quick backgrounder: I am the product of a deceased Vietnam veteran who fell victim to drug abuse. I spent most of my childhood, adolescence and very early adulthood (through 21) life with a single mother just above the poverty line until the early 1990s. I am also the only child.

Some of the people I've been in contact with:

1. Bill Gates (Chairman and Former CEO, Microsoft)
2. Donald Schneider (Chairman and Former President, Schneider National Carriers -- $3.1 Billion net worth currently)
3. J.B. Hunt (Founder and Former Chairman, J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. -- Company's revenues exceed $3 Billion annually)
4. Mark Spencer (Founder and CTO, Digium -- Develop's the world's most popular open source PBX, Asterisk)
5. David Mandelstam (Founder and President, Sangoma)
6. Alec Saunders (Former Microsoft executive -- Responsible for launch of Internet Explorer, Windows 95, etc.)
7. Craig Newmark (Founder, Craigslist)
8. Michael McDonald (Grammy winning recording artist and former lead of the Doobie Brothers)
9. Kem (Multi-platinum Universal Records recording artist)
10. Kent Wien (American Airlines pilot and Grandson of aviation pioneer Noel Wien)
11. Linda Rutherford (Southwest Airlines)
12. CMU's Dr. David Farber ("The Grandfather of the Internet" -- Here's the audio interview I conducted with him: http://interviews.direcpod.com/2007/01/08/inter...)
13. David Friend (CEO, Carbonite)
14. Stephen Meer (CTO and Co-Founder, Intrado -- Responsible for the technology behind our nation's 911 infrastructure)
15. Kevin Rose (Founder, Digg.com -- The world's leading social networking and news site)
16. Rakesh Mathur, Brad Husick and Beerud Sheth (Co-Founders of Webaroo, creator of the "Offline Internet" technology)
17. Alex Tew (Founder of the Million Dollar homepage -- My interview with Tew was the only one granted outside of the mainstream media)

This is just a sample of folks I've managed to contact all on my own. I estimate that I've corresponded with at least 50 such individuals. There's also the former CEO of Covad, executives at Qualcomm and others.

The one thing I've noted was the mindset when I set out to contact these people. It was a "can do" attitude and it's the primary reason why I succeeded in reaching them.

Tim -- I think I've more than exceeded the challenge in your book. I've been doing so well before your book was ever released. What's my prize? :)

Ronald Lewis
Denver, Colorado

Re: My Thoughts on The Dating Game

Ronald Lewis — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 13:34:48 -0000

Adam,

This is the beauty of blogging. Just from interacting with you on Twitter, I can tell you're a good person to know. I like that you're honest and frank about yourself, life, etc.

Dating can be quite complex (and very frustrating), but you are right that both men and women date for one reason: To mate!

Re: Becoming chrisbrogan

Ronald Lewis — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 14:13:50 -0000

Since I've discovered you, Chris, you've always stood out as a "community organizer and collaborator" in my eyes.

Re: Why I Am Not a Podcaster

Ronald Lewis — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 23:19:40 -0000

Damnit, Brogan. Now you'll make me reflect endlessly about who the hell I am and what I do. As one who denounces labels, I market myself these days as a "new media producer" who creates content for mass consumption via podcasts, blogs and lifecasts.

Hell, I don't know, but it's definitely something I've been thinking about. Thanks for posting this.

Re: Why Bother Blogging Podcasting and Using Social Networks

Ronald Lewis — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 18:04:34 -0000

Chris --

You're far from broke. You're being paid to do this stuff -- Something I've been working to do for two years now. Like yourself, I've built some pretty interesting connections via social networks. Via my lifecast, I'm not reaching an entirely different audience.

However, I'm still broke. I've talked to more millionaires in the last two years than you can shake a stick at -- and they all say the same damn thing: "You do awesome work and we'd love to help." And then they forget you like you never existed.

Perhaps I missed something, but I don't think I've done anything wrong. I've knocked on doors, I've made the phone calls. Right now, I'm on a cruise control and will go back to focusing on what I first fell in love with: The content.

Re: Glenda Watson Hyatt Rocks

Ronald Lewis — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 21:40:43 -0000

Chris,

Thanks for sharing this. It's yet another reminder ...

Re: Share YOUR Social Networking Success Stories

Ronald Lewis — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 10:28:02 -0000

Hmmm. I can think of a few, including:

* Beating the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and several hundred other global, mainstream outlets to interview all three co-founders of Webaroo for my little known podcast in early 2006. I was also granted permission to be first to announce their official launch. No one really cared though. :)

There's more, but I won't bore you folks with the details.

Re: SXSW - Stalking Chris Brogan

Ronald Lewis — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 11:30:31 -0000

Good list of activities. Still undecided on my schedule.

Re: How to Start Speaking at Events

Ronald Lewis — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 02:32:02 -0000

Chris,

Thanks for writing this post. I'm glad you mentioned the video part of speaking. Around my apartment, I've been practicing my speaking skills as if I were actually at a conference (I have this weird switch for different things that I can turn on where appropriate). Soon, I will start recording practice videos and posting them to my blog on topics I'm interested in speaking about (such as cloud computing, VoIP, etc.)

Right now, I'm speaking with a major company about attending and speaking at their events in the future. So, this could be the opportunity that launches my speaking full-time. Regardless, I'm still crafting this part of my life to be really good at it in the future.

Re: Guest Post - What Bloggers Can Learn From Journalists

Ronald Lewis — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 09:04:55 -0000

Chris -- Thanks for inviting Anita to do this.

Anita -- Thank you for sharing some of the 'secret sauce' from the traditional world of media.

Re: Be Wary of Creating Pedestals

Ronald Lewis — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:04:32 -0000

Here's the post that's been festering in my mind for months now, only I've decided to create a video about this very subject. Chris is right that it's not simple to think that "people are people". I've connected with or met a lot of amazing people over the last 16 years, but one thing I realized early on is that they're no different from either of us.

CEOs, "A-list bloggers", celebrities, politicians and others all live and breathe the same. We all function on a very basic level in life as human beings. Everything else are extensions of our identity and existence (fame, fortune, relationships, etc.) It is our perception of these people which make them different (in our minds). Surprisingly, a lot of these people are truly average joes -- And I've met all types of them to know.

It's best to interact with these people like you would a friend -- Which is keeping the interaction simple, friendly and down-to-earth.

Thanks for posting this, Chris.

Re: Dodgeball? Jotspot? Jaiku!

Ronald Lewis — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 16:06:45 -0000

I just awoke to the news of Google's acquisition. I'm already tired of the discussions on Twitter. It's great for Jaiku, but now people are going apeshit because of it.

Re: The truth about traffic on the Internet

Ronald Lewis — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 03:28:06 -0000

"Quality over quantity" -- indeed.

Re: It’s your business

Ronald Lewis — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 03:22:34 -0000

Robert --

Lifecasting is by far the most open platform you'll ever use, as you've noted by your observation of Justin.TV.

If you truly want to be transparent, then I challenge you to lifecast 24/7 for at least a month. I've done so since May (until recently -- took a break) and the experience of listening to and engaging people from around the world has been priceless.

The next step of course is how to turn these conversations with my blog, podcast and lifecast into a decent living -- Something I hope to finally figure out in '08.

Re: Facebook lets me back in…

Ronald Lewis — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 16:59:54 -0000

Tsk, tsk, Robert. You should know better than to run naughty scripts on Facebook. Now, be a good boy and behave or risk being bitch slapped by Facebook again.

Personally, I'm sick of walled-gardens on an open network such as the Internet. Human beings enjoy being divided by the few, eh?

Re: My favorite thing at CES…

Ronald Lewis — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 18:24:58 -0000

CNBC misspelled PodTech, "ProdTech".

Re: Jobless

Ronald Lewis — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 14:57:32 -0000

Looking forward to seeing what's next.

Re: Microsoft researchers make me cry

Ronald Lewis — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 21:15:34 -0000

Damnit, Scoble, you're having wayyy too much fun! I can smell the excitement and passing leaping off of my LCD -- I'm getting chills just thinking about it all.

Your work is what gives my passion for people, knowledge, information and inspiration validation. Thanks, Rob.

Re: SXSW: too many parties!!!

Ronald Lewis — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:46:08 -0000

Perhaps we'll bump into each other at SXSW.

Re: Digg and Reddit: It’s Not Wrong to Create and Submit Your Own Content. In Fact, it’s Necessary.

Ronald Lewis — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 13:02:58 -0000

100% correct. It is not spam to submit your OWN content to these sites. Yes, we must deprogram the negative connotations associated with self-submissions.

Re: I Liken Anonymous Comments to Nothing Being Said

Ronald Lewis — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 22:08:02 -0000

Re: Podcasting Consent Form

Ronald Lewis — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 22:22:23 -0000

Re: 2007 Podcast Predictions

Ronald Lewis — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 20:36:24 -0000

Predictions:

1. New media producers are "in" -- we'll all do well to focus on creating new and interesting content in the social media space, as well as doing consulting work

2. Podcast sponsorships go mainstream -- We'll see a flood of sponsorships thanks to marketers being more aware of the medium

Interesting reads:

http://www.ronaldlewis.com/blog/2006/12/7-cool-...
http://www.ronaldlewis.com/blog/2006/12/2007-ye...
http://www.ronaldlewis.com/blog/2006/12/worlds-...
http://www.ronaldlewis.com/blog/2006/12/podcast...
http://www.ronaldlewis.com/blog/2006/12/sponsor...

Re: Podcasting Consent Form

Ronald Lewis — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 22:22:23 -0000

Re: I Liken Anonymous Comments to Nothing Being Said

Ronald Lewis — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 22:08:02 -0000