Disqus - Latest Comments for Will Pate

Re: How to botch a launch: Razzle.ca

Will Pate — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 22:15:39 -0000

It's always surprising that no matter how many people get caught astroturfing, some misguided person makes the mistake of lying about who they are to drum up interest about their company. If consumers can't trust the conversation about a company, or the people that work for it, how can they be expected to trust the company at all. Razzle may have killed their brand from day one. Hopefully someone will learn from their mistake.

Re: Guerrilla Marketing: Online Tactics For Independent Web Publishers

Will Pate — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:35:01 -0000

Hey Robin, great post. Thanks for transcribing, that must have been a lot of work. A lot of my presentation was edited out, I think if you saw the full 20 minutes you'd find that I agree with you on several of the points you raised.

I'm also not a fan of "get-popular-fast" schemes. The 1200 friends I have on Facebook came organically from me doing my work for Flock, commandN and others and having people that appreciated my work reach out to me. It's taken me years to build a base of friends online, because they're the right fit for me and often we've become friends quickly offline too.

The people I befriend on Digg because they're popular, is also so that I can study how they make content. How they write headlines and descriptions helps me understand why certain things get popular on Digg while others don't. All that being said, it would be great to actually know those folks and take them out for a beer. I bet many of them are media and news junkies just like me.

As for Dan Ackerman, I sincerely hope his business has had a boost. It sounds like he really changed his tune in his two follow up posts on Techcrunch where he mostly recanted his original message. My problem with the scenario is still that his brand is still associated with some of our colleagues with being "that sleazy viral video guy", deserved or not. I could have used a better example, but I thought for the audience that day it was in their space and thus apt for them.

Interesting observation about being vs. becoming ethical. I'm not sure I've thought about it well enough to give a proper comment, but it's definitely food for thought. I think I've always been an ethical person, so perhaps that extends to my online activity. I think I still believe in the dream that social media and the power of the internet will force companies to become more transparent, ethical and socially conscious.

Re: Flickr Commons: A great idea, but…

Will Pate — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 21:23:53 -0000

I'd love to know what the statistical rate of incorrect tags will be. It would be easy to have a mechanism for voting a tag as "incorrect". I bet it would be very low, but that's just an educated guess.

Re: Why is it different because it’s Craigslist?

Will Pate — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 14:34:41 -0000

The real question here: why has this not become the hottest campus prank sweeping the nation?

Re: Blognation Shuts Down

Will Pate — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 18:55:03 -0000

Tris is gold, someone should grab him soon.

Re: AideRSS announces funding

Will Pate — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 17:10:44 -0000

Congrats to the team :)

Re: Canada Needs to Realize The Technology Business is a Race

Will Pate — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 18:38:27 -0000

Wow, some amazing discussion has happened so far!

@Casey: Yep, I agree. Industries like entertainment can't afford to dilly dally either.

@Phillip: Great quote from MLK, very apt.

@Alex: Interesting. Were those companies focused on a local market, or a global one?

@Steven: I don't buy that you need to be in the US to build a great tech company. RIM, EA and others prove you can build really successful companies here. Heck, Skype was mostly from Estonia!

@Mark: I need to review all articles with you before I publish them, for proper policy wonk compliance like "competitive intensity". Also, "provincial" is my new favorite word to criticize small world thinking.

@Danny: Now I know the story of the mysterious dude working with Boris! :) I'm glad to hear that Vancouver is pushing ahead. I think some of our other cities need a kick in the backside.

@Stephen: Yes, it sounds like Canadian VCs aren't giving entrepreneurs enough runway to get their planes off the ground.

@Rebecca: You have to consistently break new ground. You can't just dig one hole and say "no oil here". Imagine if Texas or the Gulf oil countries took a Canadian attitude!

@Too scared: Thanks for sharing that info, very interesting to see the numbers on VC investment in Canada. Looks like we need our VCs to make bigger investments to give startups the capital they need to attract the best talent and give them enough runway.

@Thomas: Great post by Michele. I think the CBC is a totally other broken system, and one I'm not sure I want to help fix. From what I've been told by people on the inside, it's an organization full of people with the same kind of negativity and provincial thinking that's holding back our tech industry. I haven't found a silver bullet for old boys clubs yet, if anyone has one I'd love to hear about it.

Re: StandoutJobs raises $2m from iNovia Capital

Will Pate — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 17:39:18 -0000

Congrats to the StanoutJobs fellas.

Re: As The Web Turns - The tales of Capazoo

Will Pate — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 21:21:16 -0000

Oh Montreal, you so crazy. But we love you anyway, like that troubled art school girl we made out with at a party once.

Re: April Fools: We are funded! StartupNorth takes a $3.2 million series A financing

Will Pate — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:09:34 -0000

As the writer of SUN's most read/commented blog post who was left in the dark about this deal, I will leverage your new fame to step on your heads as I pass you on the ladder of fame. That Oprah couch looks comfy!

Publishers wishing to buy the rights to my upcoming behind-the-scenes-no-pulled-punches book about the real SUN please contact me at april1@willpate.org. It's time the world knows the real story about the Jevon that stalks the night writing the wrong addresses on people's garbage cans, and the Jonas that feeds on other, smaller robots. I've said too much!

Re: Wikinomics pushes Web 2.0 mainstream

Will Pate — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 04:18:45 -0000

To be fair, Facebook was at thefacebook.com before they bought the facebook.com domain. It's probably one of the few cases in which calling it "The Thing" is acceptable.

Re: » How to botch a launch: Razzle.ca | StartupNorth

Will Pate — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 22:15:39 -0000

Re: » Blognation Shuts Down | StartupNorth

Will Pate — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 18:55:03 -0000

Tris is gold, someone should grab him soon.

Re: » AideRSS announces funding | StartupNorth

Will Pate — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 17:10:44 -0000

Congrats to the team :)

Re: » Canada Needs to Realize The Technology Business is a Race | StartupNorth

Will Pate — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 18:38:27 -0000

Re: » StandoutJobs raises $2m from iNovia Capital | StartupNorth

Will Pate — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 17:39:18 -0000

Congrats to the StanoutJobs fellas.

Re: » As The Web Turns - The tales of Capazoo | StartupNorth

Will Pate — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 21:21:16 -0000

Oh Montreal, you so crazy. But we love you anyway, like that troubled art school girl we made out with at a party once.

Re: » April Fools: We are funded! StartupNorth takes a $3.2 million series A financing | StartupNorth

Will Pate — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:09:34 -0000

Re: http://laughingsquid.com/northern-voice-2006/

Will Pate — Thu, 26 Jan 2006 22:51:32 -0000

It's not a conference without Scott.