Hey, Guys. It seems like it's been forever since I wrote the last article. But I thank you guys so much. I still have 85 RSS subscribers according to FeedBurner! Yay! haha.
Anyhow, just some quick news, that is pretty sad, but exciting at the same time.
This blog post is basically an official announcement of the death of this blog. I doubt I'll be updating this blog again.
However, here's why this is exciting news at the same time. I've started another English blog named TechnoKimchi. TechnoKimchi is THE blog I'll be updating quite often and I believe you'll probably be more amused reading that blog than this one.
TechnoKimchi has a little different focus from this blog. When I started the Flexigility = flexibility + agility blog, the main focus was more on the "business side" of Web 2.0, as slightly implied by the IBM/HP/Sun-ish title of the blog. But again, as implied by the name, TechnoKimchi is going to be a fun blog describing the tech (more like digital generation) in Korea. My goal is to create an amiable atmosphere that'll constantly give you "AHA" moments. And yes, I took that approach from none other than Kathy Sierra! :)
Anyhow, you can get a good grip of what the blog is about in this article. Also, please don't forget to subscribe to the TechnoKimchi feed.
So farewell, but see you again at TechnoKimchi!
Thank you very much for having loved this blog. :)
Anyhow, just some quick news, that is pretty sad, but exciting at the same time.
This blog post is basically an official announcement of the death of this blog. I doubt I'll be updating this blog again.
However, here's why this is exciting news at the same time. I've started another English blog named TechnoKimchi. TechnoKimchi is THE blog I'll be updating quite often and I believe you'll probably be more amused reading that blog than this one.
TechnoKimchi has a little different focus from this blog. When I started the Flexigility = flexibility + agility blog, the main focus was more on the "business side" of Web 2.0, as slightly implied by the IBM/HP/Sun-ish title of the blog. But again, as implied by the name, TechnoKimchi is going to be a fun blog describing the tech (more like digital generation) in Korea. My goal is to create an amiable atmosphere that'll constantly give you "AHA" moments. And yes, I took that approach from none other than Kathy Sierra! :)
Anyhow, you can get a good grip of what the blog is about in this article. Also, please don't forget to subscribe to the TechnoKimchi feed.
So farewell, but see you again at TechnoKimchi!
Thank you very much for having loved this blog. :)
Uncategorized | 2007/07/27 02:43
"A blogger's brave journey"
is the title C.W.Kim dubbed the Web 2.0 Trip to the U.S. I'm planning on.
So, here's the gist of it. I've been greatly moved by NewAssignment.net, primiarly led by Jay Rosen, whom I have enormous respect for. NewAssingment.net is an initiative trying to see what happens when every process of journalism becomes open-sourced, including the financial part.
With that in mind, I'm planning on a trip to the U.S. in about 2 weeks. The goal of the trip is mainly to cover the Web 2.0 Expo and also other Web 2.0 related bloggers and companies with myself as a citizen reporter, live-blogger, and journalist. My belief and the value proposition are that I can bring back better information and insight based on my expertise in the Web 2.0 field than many professionally trained journalists in Korea, who might possess better skills as journalists, but not as much expertise in the field. But I'm doing it in a way that I want to get funded and sponsored by citizens, mostly my blog readers. (I'm one of the leading Web 2.0 bloggers in Korea with one of the largest readership among IT bloggers).
I'm opening the agenda-setting, interviewee-picking, question-selecting processes to the public as well. While I won't be able to make every single request actually, I'm trying my best to squeeze in all of them to make them into one big nice output. :)
My objectives are clear: 1) to try to explore and see what kind of citizen journalism this trip will bring about, 2) to bring lots of great information, news, and perspectives from the Web 2.0 region to Korea, and 3) to bring lots of great information, news, and perspectives about the Korean Web to the Web 2.0 people and companies in the U.S.
While thinking of this at first was such a daunting task to come up with, the execution part seems to be even more difficult. However, I've been very grateul at how many people have been gracious enough to give me helping hands. For one, I've been able to raise $2,800 so far, which covers nearly about 3/4 of the entire trip cost. What's even greater is that the trip cost was initially expected to be at around $6,000, but again, with many people helping me out to cut the cost, through providing places to stay over, giving free rides from places to places, and letting me borrow their cellphones, now I'm estimating it to be down to $4,000. Other helps also came in the form of basically hooking me up with many "celebrity" figures in the Valley area; introducing my trip to them and having interviews set up. I'm down on my knees with thanks for everyone who's helped me so far. And the help continues. :)
I actually could've gone on this trip with my own expense; after all, the cost ain't THAT bad. I also had opportunities to have corporate sponsorships. However, I've taken guts to start the citizen-sponsorship program in order to see what happens with this. This is why I'm even more grateful for all the helps. I almost feel there indeed is a cause in all this.
To make the process as transparent as possible, I've set up a blog (unfortunately, all in Korean), which covers how sponsorship is going, how I'm going to travel, whom I'm meeting, and also a place where people can throw in their ideas.
To be honest, I'm scared and excited at the same time. I'm glad that I'll be able to meet up with a great number of people in the U.S., learn much from them, and deliver the same lessons to my blog readers.
Are you gonna be there? Maybe we can hook up as well!
By the way, my name is Taewoo Danny Kim. You can always just call me "Danny". ;)
p.s. I'm also working on a blog named "TechnoKimchi", which will cover tech in Asia. It's still in its dormant stage, but once it comes out, it won't necessarily be a cold and dry tech/biz analysis blog, but rather more goofy and fun blog about everything surrounding the Web in Asia--tech, mobile, biz, culture, gaming, teens, and even philosophy. Oh, maybe even politics. :)
is the title C.W.Kim dubbed the Web 2.0 Trip to the U.S. I'm planning on.
So, here's the gist of it. I've been greatly moved by NewAssignment.net, primiarly led by Jay Rosen, whom I have enormous respect for. NewAssingment.net is an initiative trying to see what happens when every process of journalism becomes open-sourced, including the financial part.
With that in mind, I'm planning on a trip to the U.S. in about 2 weeks. The goal of the trip is mainly to cover the Web 2.0 Expo and also other Web 2.0 related bloggers and companies with myself as a citizen reporter, live-blogger, and journalist. My belief and the value proposition are that I can bring back better information and insight based on my expertise in the Web 2.0 field than many professionally trained journalists in Korea, who might possess better skills as journalists, but not as much expertise in the field. But I'm doing it in a way that I want to get funded and sponsored by citizens, mostly my blog readers. (I'm one of the leading Web 2.0 bloggers in Korea with one of the largest readership among IT bloggers).
I'm opening the agenda-setting, interviewee-picking, question-selecting processes to the public as well. While I won't be able to make every single request actually, I'm trying my best to squeeze in all of them to make them into one big nice output. :)
My objectives are clear: 1) to try to explore and see what kind of citizen journalism this trip will bring about, 2) to bring lots of great information, news, and perspectives from the Web 2.0 region to Korea, and 3) to bring lots of great information, news, and perspectives about the Korean Web to the Web 2.0 people and companies in the U.S.
While thinking of this at first was such a daunting task to come up with, the execution part seems to be even more difficult. However, I've been very grateul at how many people have been gracious enough to give me helping hands. For one, I've been able to raise $2,800 so far, which covers nearly about 3/4 of the entire trip cost. What's even greater is that the trip cost was initially expected to be at around $6,000, but again, with many people helping me out to cut the cost, through providing places to stay over, giving free rides from places to places, and letting me borrow their cellphones, now I'm estimating it to be down to $4,000. Other helps also came in the form of basically hooking me up with many "celebrity" figures in the Valley area; introducing my trip to them and having interviews set up. I'm down on my knees with thanks for everyone who's helped me so far. And the help continues. :)
I actually could've gone on this trip with my own expense; after all, the cost ain't THAT bad. I also had opportunities to have corporate sponsorships. However, I've taken guts to start the citizen-sponsorship program in order to see what happens with this. This is why I'm even more grateful for all the helps. I almost feel there indeed is a cause in all this.
To make the process as transparent as possible, I've set up a blog (unfortunately, all in Korean), which covers how sponsorship is going, how I'm going to travel, whom I'm meeting, and also a place where people can throw in their ideas.
To be honest, I'm scared and excited at the same time. I'm glad that I'll be able to meet up with a great number of people in the U.S., learn much from them, and deliver the same lessons to my blog readers.
Are you gonna be there? Maybe we can hook up as well!
By the way, my name is Taewoo Danny Kim. You can always just call me "Danny". ;)
p.s. I'm also working on a blog named "TechnoKimchi", which will cover tech in Asia. It's still in its dormant stage, but once it comes out, it won't necessarily be a cold and dry tech/biz analysis blog, but rather more goofy and fun blog about everything surrounding the Web in Asia--tech, mobile, biz, culture, gaming, teens, and even philosophy. Oh, maybe even politics. :)
Uncategorized | 2007/03/26 01:43
Few weeks ago, I was contacted by a foreign (i.e. non-Korean) startup company. This company is a pretty famous one in the Web 2.0 space as you can see its name come up relatively often on TechCrunch, ReadWrtieWeb, ZDNet and others. It's even ranked somewhere around 500 by Alexa. What they wanted was to make a move into the Korean market; since they don't know too much about the culture in Asia or the Korean market, they were hoping to find someone who could feed them with a research on those subjects. They had been looking for the right person for the task and concluded that I was "the right person" and contacted me.
Ok, enough with self-flattery. Hehe.
What was actually interesting about their proposal was the part they mentioned about the reward for doing the research. They basically said,
As the territory of attention economy grows on the Web, links are the most certain way to distribute and allocate attention, a resource and an asset in this economic system. Want an example? Look no further than Google AdSense.
There is most certainly a gap between attention economy and money economy. Currently, the links or conversion between the two economies are very weak and limited. What does that mean? There's only so many ways to make money off attention. These are 1) ads, 2) being sold to a company which already has a way to make money off something else, or 3) use all the attention one receives somewhere else to make money. Some examples of doing the third method are becoming famous and getting a better job somewhere, writing books, doing seminars/lectures, or acting as a commercial model for something related to the kind of attention that person is receiving. Especially in Korea where reputation often beats quality (which aren't necessarily closely related), the third method might be a great way to be rewarded financially.
I think that celebrities are the ones that know the dynamics of attention economy best. They live by it and live in it. The amount of attention they receive determines how successful they are. This is why we often see totally bogus reports about some not-so-famous celebrities on papers and stuff: THEY WANT TO RECEIVE ATTENTION! Especially, as we move deeper into the digital era, it's becoming harder for them to make money directly off their primary jobs (selling albums, concert revenues, acting in movies and dramas). This consequently makes them more reliant on indirect income channels such as showing up on commercials--this isn't necessarily true outside of Korea. They'd do anything to get exposed more to viewers by even losing their core identities. (Is she a singer? an actor? an professional emcee? a model?) Those who receive much attention make millions of dollars a year, mostly through commercials--again, in Korea.
In this context, Slashdot/Digg/TechCrunch effects are economically real. They do bring economic consequences. As individual bloggers grow more influential, they'll have to become more careful about where to make links to. Putting a link to another site means that you're transferring your attention to that site, which in turn implies you could be transferring some of your own money along with it.
Ok, enough with self-flattery. Hehe.
What was actually interesting about their proposal was the part they mentioned about the reward for doing the research. They basically said,
"After you perform the research, we??셪l add a link to your blog/feed on our homepage."
This was the "reward" they were talking about. At first, I thought, "What the heck? Are they even serious about doing business at all?" But immediately I realized that the way they were doing this was probably one of the most advanced methods for doing business.As the territory of attention economy grows on the Web, links are the most certain way to distribute and allocate attention, a resource and an asset in this economic system. Want an example? Look no further than Google AdSense.
There is most certainly a gap between attention economy and money economy. Currently, the links or conversion between the two economies are very weak and limited. What does that mean? There's only so many ways to make money off attention. These are 1) ads, 2) being sold to a company which already has a way to make money off something else, or 3) use all the attention one receives somewhere else to make money. Some examples of doing the third method are becoming famous and getting a better job somewhere, writing books, doing seminars/lectures, or acting as a commercial model for something related to the kind of attention that person is receiving. Especially in Korea where reputation often beats quality (which aren't necessarily closely related), the third method might be a great way to be rewarded financially.
I think that celebrities are the ones that know the dynamics of attention economy best. They live by it and live in it. The amount of attention they receive determines how successful they are. This is why we often see totally bogus reports about some not-so-famous celebrities on papers and stuff: THEY WANT TO RECEIVE ATTENTION! Especially, as we move deeper into the digital era, it's becoming harder for them to make money directly off their primary jobs (selling albums, concert revenues, acting in movies and dramas). This consequently makes them more reliant on indirect income channels such as showing up on commercials--this isn't necessarily true outside of Korea. They'd do anything to get exposed more to viewers by even losing their core identities. (Is she a singer? an actor? an professional emcee? a model?) Those who receive much attention make millions of dollars a year, mostly through commercials--again, in Korea.
In this context, Slashdot/Digg/TechCrunch effects are economically real. They do bring economic consequences. As individual bloggers grow more influential, they'll have to become more careful about where to make links to. Putting a link to another site means that you're transferring your attention to that site, which in turn implies you could be transferring some of your own money along with it.
Uncategorized | 2006/12/02 00:58
What if half of writings on Danny's Log weren't really written by Danny? Would you believe it?
That's how much we naturally and automatically connect blogs to indivdiual persons. Personal brands are finally starting to exceed the brands of institutions to which individuals belong. The world of e-lancers are finally coming true.
In movie, music, and sports industries, the importance of individuals has been at the the very core for a long time. Of course, that was possible because those individuals get exposed more, thus more transparency. We the audience can SEE and evaluate the activities of movie actors/actresses and directors. The same goes with atheletes.
Blogging has raised the level of exposure for "average" individuals. More transparency is looming day by day as skills and competencies of individuals are increasingly being revealed to everyone. More exposure also increases the importance of individuals. We can expect people to move more freely from companies to companies, from organizations to organizations, and from institutions to institutions. Now, finally a more flexibile labor market! (at least in Korea.)
Brands can be born and sustained without the mediation of mainstream media, meaning each of us individuals seriously needs to start taking care of our own personal brands. The most safe and assuring strategy here is to build "real", not fake, skills and competencies and let them be known to the world. The world WILL notice. Sometimes, even in a very short period of time.
* You can view the Korean version of this post here.
That's how much we naturally and automatically connect blogs to indivdiual persons. Personal brands are finally starting to exceed the brands of institutions to which individuals belong. The world of e-lancers are finally coming true.
In movie, music, and sports industries, the importance of individuals has been at the the very core for a long time. Of course, that was possible because those individuals get exposed more, thus more transparency. We the audience can SEE and evaluate the activities of movie actors/actresses and directors. The same goes with atheletes.
Blogging has raised the level of exposure for "average" individuals. More transparency is looming day by day as skills and competencies of individuals are increasingly being revealed to everyone. More exposure also increases the importance of individuals. We can expect people to move more freely from companies to companies, from organizations to organizations, and from institutions to institutions. Now, finally a more flexibile labor market! (at least in Korea.)
Brands can be born and sustained without the mediation of mainstream media, meaning each of us individuals seriously needs to start taking care of our own personal brands. The most safe and assuring strategy here is to build "real", not fake, skills and competencies and let them be known to the world. The world WILL notice. Sometimes, even in a very short period of time.
* You can view the Korean version of this post here.
Uncategorized | 2006/08/09 02:07
Richard MacManus, a friend of mine whom I met through blogging, introduces the top web 2.0 applications in Korea on his blog, Read/Write Web. Chang W. Kim, who's also a close friend of mine, nicely summarizes the state of the webosphere in Korea.
I've been meaning to write such a post here for a while, at least bite by bite, but unfortunately I've not been able to do so due to the crazy amount of work I've been getting lately.
But, hey. I won't let you down. Soon, you'll be seeing many posts coming up on this blog as well. :)
p.s. Another good blog to visit is KoreaCrunch, if you're looking for more information on what the Web and the Web industry in Korea are like. It's run by a guy named Channy Yun, who's the head of the Mozilla Korea Project and the technical strategist of Daum, which is one of the top portals in Korea.
Uncategorized | 2006/08/04 06:32
People are constantly talking about your company among themselves.
And you don't even know about it.
In fact, you don't even know where to go to listen to their conversations.
Even if most of the conversations are out in the open.
And you don't even know about it.
In fact, you don't even know where to go to listen to their conversations.
Even if most of the conversations are out in the open.
Uncategorized | 2006/07/31 15:51
Why is the traditional media meltdown happening?
It's because decentralization is taking place everywhere on the media value chain.
It's because decentralization is taking place everywhere on the media value chain.
- Production - Blogging, podcasting, 10-mega pixel digital cameras, camcorders
- Marketing - The audience hear about and are choosing what media they want through peer recommendation instead of through the controlled and pushed messages as in the past. The chances are if your friends like this one video clip, you'll probably watch it, too. YouTube, MySpace, Cyworld, Daum TV Pot, blogs... you name it.
- Distribution - P2P, YouTube, MySpace, Cyworld, Daum TV Pot, blogs... you name it.
- Consumption - There are tons of devices out there today. There are tons of channels out there today. The audience want the media right where, when, how they want it. And they're getting it right where, when, how they want it.
Uncategorized | 2006/07/22 02:12
1. You want to receive attention.
2. You want to receive long-lasting attention. This is where a brand is born.
3. In order to receive long-lasting attention, you need to build trust.
4. Trust is built when relationships are formed.
5. Relationships are formed when conversations take place.
6. A true conversation is based on transparency.
7. The intrusion of money into the formula annihilates transparency.
8. Transparency is a son of authenticity.
9. The Web, compared to other types of medium, is more likely to transfer authenticity through the use of links.
10. Authenticity, transparency, and conversations are possible only when you let go of control and first trust the other.
??? This is why Cluetrain Manifesto is so wonderful even till today. The one sentence, "Markets are conversations", includes all the principles mentioned above.
(You can view the Korean version of this post here.)
Uncategorized | 2006/07/06 00:15
For all the "told ya so!" stories about Google not living up to the hype, I was actually stunned to see the figures on Google's non-search products--not by how poorly Google is doing, but rather by how WELL it's doing.
Come on, MapQuest has been around for 40 years. Google Maps? Less than 2 years and it's already reached 80% of MapQuest's traffic!!! Besides, MapQuest's traffic has been on a decline as well.
Gmail? Again, around for about 2 years and already reached a quarter of the traffic of Yahoo & MSN mail. Both Yahoo mail and MSN mail have been around for about 10 years now, I believe.
Google News at No. 2? Froogle at No. 8? Wow. I don't know about others, but to me these are some crazy numbers. Orkut with about a third of the traffic of MySpace (worldwide)? Again, wow.
I've been one of the biggest Web 2.0 evangelists in Korea and never thought there would be a day that Everything Google will be No.1. Apparently, the current Google-bashing is happening as a reaction against the initial hype associated with each of Google's product launching. Google search took about 5 years to reach the top. Most of other Google services are still in their infant phases, but are still doing really well, IMHO.
I'm not here to "defend" Google by any means. I just thought that there was no ground for bashing Google for not being no.1 in everything. The majority of Google's revenues come from search anyways. Others are only there to "help" its search business.
Maybe people were just afraid of the 2.0 movement riding too fast. Would they say the same thing a year from now if those services are ranked higher?
Note:
Most of the numeric figures used in this post are based on Alexa. Too bad that I couldn't compare traffic of each of Google's services to those of other services side-by-side because Alexa only gives you traffic information on "google.com", not "maps.google.com" or "news.google.com". Also, I do understand that Alexa isn't the best tool for this kind of analysis, but I simply don't know what else I could use.
Come on, MapQuest has been around for 40 years. Google Maps? Less than 2 years and it's already reached 80% of MapQuest's traffic!!! Besides, MapQuest's traffic has been on a decline as well.
Gmail? Again, around for about 2 years and already reached a quarter of the traffic of Yahoo & MSN mail. Both Yahoo mail and MSN mail have been around for about 10 years now, I believe.
Google News at No. 2? Froogle at No. 8? Wow. I don't know about others, but to me these are some crazy numbers. Orkut with about a third of the traffic of MySpace (worldwide)? Again, wow.
I've been one of the biggest Web 2.0 evangelists in Korea and never thought there would be a day that Everything Google will be No.1. Apparently, the current Google-bashing is happening as a reaction against the initial hype associated with each of Google's product launching. Google search took about 5 years to reach the top. Most of other Google services are still in their infant phases, but are still doing really well, IMHO.
I'm not here to "defend" Google by any means. I just thought that there was no ground for bashing Google for not being no.1 in everything. The majority of Google's revenues come from search anyways. Others are only there to "help" its search business.
Maybe people were just afraid of the 2.0 movement riding too fast. Would they say the same thing a year from now if those services are ranked higher?
Note:
Most of the numeric figures used in this post are based on Alexa. Too bad that I couldn't compare traffic of each of Google's services to those of other services side-by-side because Alexa only gives you traffic information on "google.com", not "maps.google.com" or "news.google.com". Also, I do understand that Alexa isn't the best tool for this kind of analysis, but I simply don't know what else I could use.
Here we go! ;)
Uncategorized | 2006/03/25 12:31
