“‘Social networks’ may be a popular buzzword these days, but the
whole concept of the internet was based on social networking from the
start — going all the way back to bulletin boards, email, and forums
right up to today’s blogs, social networking sites, and, yes, Twitter.
As far back as 1978, bulletin board systems were essentially doing the
same thing that modern networks are doing. The big difference now is
that the usability and usefulness of the newer networks are infinitely
better.”
Jason Clark
I made my way to Jason’s article via an eMarketer piece called “Time to Write Twitter’s Tombstone?” I don’t think that’s the case. I do think that social networks are fashion. They come and they go. Jason believes that Google Wave will make Twitter obsolete. Perhaps. I like the concept of Wave a lot. Keith McGreggor and I came up with a concept very much like Wave. We called it The Greatest App Never Built. Here’s the pitch:
The Greatest App Never Built will solve the information overload problem of all your Internet communications. It will take your email accounts, RSS feeds, social networking communications into a simple interface and then semantically sort them not based on date or read/unread status but by how much attention they deserve based on your past behavior.
Still a good idea.
But back to my point. Social networks are fashion. People tire of them. They are too hard to manage. All the marketers come in. They get spammy. It is easier to move on to the next thing instead of scrubbing all the stuff within a particular network. And just leave it there. An artifact of a bygone era. Social networks have no staying power.
There is something else that is going on as well. Something that Jason confused a bit. Below is Jason’s history of social networking graph.
There is a difference between the application layer of the Internet protocol suite and an Internet application. Usenet (NNTP), Email (POP3, SMTP & IMAP), and Internet relay chat (IRC) are part of the core Internet application protocol suite. Therefore they have tremendous staying power. All of the social networks that have emerged since 2000 are not part of the core Internet application protocol suite. All these social networks applications are built within the HTTP Internet protocol. The social network applications are not as fundamental as the earlier Internet protocol suite applications. Take another look at the chart.
Internet protocol suite applications are like underwear. Have not changed much since the 1980s. Social networks are like fashion. They change every few years.
I called AT&T to inquire about Internet service pricing last week. They slammed me. I figured this out last night when I got home and there was a package on the porch. Took it inside. Opened it. Saw a DSL modem. Livid.
This started 10 days ago. I made an inquiry to AT&T sales. Wanted to know how much it would cost me to bundle my Internet, phone, and television service. It was getting close to time to switch from EarthLink. Though you will not find it anywhere on their Web site EarthLink charges $49.95 for 3.0 Mpbs. AT&T is $30. I am loyal to EarthLink. But they are charging about 66% over market rate for the same level of service. It was time to switch and it was my intent to do so when Abby and the kids were off on their summer tour. Anyhow, the AT&T rep told me their pricing for various services and that I could immediately save $10 a month by switching phone service to something called Complete Choice Enhanced. I said sure and forgot about it.
On Monday night my Internet service went down. Seemed odd. Used to do that quite a lot back in the day. Not so much anymore. Decided to head off to work and give it a little time. When I got home it was still down. So I called EarthLink tech support. The rep did not speak English well. Made me do all the obvious things. Then something not so obvious. He asked me to switch phone jacks. Which is not the easiest thing to do in the world. I pinged. Googled the word idiot. It seemed to have worked. Odd that the jack would just go bad. But I started moving some network gear around to get all the computers online. Did not work. I checked all the jacks. None of them would give me PPPoE. Called back EarthLink tech support. The rep did not speak English well. I was told there was a widespread outage and my service would be down until midnight on Tuesday. Suggested I use dial up. Was a bit taken aback when I said that my computers did not have dial modems so that was not possible.
On Wednesday morning DSL was still down. So instead of calling EarthLink tech support, because the reps tend to not speak English well, I decided to have a chat session. Was told that the outage would continue to affect me for another 24 hours. And then I got home and opened the DSL modem. No prior notification that I had an account with them of any kind. No mail. Nothing. Just a DSL modem on my doorstep. And it's just a simple plug in one computer type of modem. Would not even work for my setup if I wanted it to.
Livid. So livid I think I scared my kids. Livid because AT&T slammed me and made my Internet service go down. To get semi-technical here, a DSL line can only be provisioned by one telephone company at a central office. If AT&T has a DSL line provisioned on the switch for your phone then EarthLink cannot. EarthLink had my line provisioned. AT&T put in the order to provision my line and essentially took down my DSL service.
Called AT&T. Asked for a sup. No love. Could not even tell me what level of service they signed me up for without my permission. Said I had to speak with customer service. Which of course is closed at night when normal people take care of such things (remember that convenient for us not the customer sin?). Denied that they had anything to do with my EarthLink service going down. Liar.
Called EarthLink tech support. The rep did not speak English well. With a little direction he figured out my line was "inactive". Transferred me to another phone queue. The queue that I was transferred to had a recording. "Not able to handle calls due to system outages." Great.
So I called AT&T customer service this morning. Explained what had happened. Guy was a jerk. Denied that they had anything to do with my EarthLink service going down. Liar. Hung up on him.
Called back, got a nice calm lady. Explained what happened. Found out I was signed up for 6.0Mpbs service. That I was currently being billed for the DSL service, and I was being billed $75 for the DSL modem that I did not order. Made a note in the account that I did not order the service and if I cancelled I would not be billed anything.
I cranked up EarthLink chat tech support. This is the conversation.
Shawn P: Your DSL line is turned off. lance@mindspring.com: why? Shawn P: You can contact our Installation Department and get it turned back. Shawn P: Seems your area is undergoing some changes on the phone line. Hence it happened. Shawn P: You can reach us at 1-888-EARTHLINK (1-888-327-8454), available Mon – Fri 7 a.m. to Midnight, ET Sat & Sun 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. ET. Shawn P: This is what I am going to do for you. Shawn P: I've kept a note on your account. Shawn P: Please phone them after few hours. Shawn P: It helps us to serve you quickly.
Quickly would be nice. It's been three days. I called the EarthLink tech support. The rep did not speak English well. He told me it would take five days to reprovision the account. I said no thanks. Tired to cancel. Guy would not let me. I hung up.
I called EarthLink tech support. The rep did not speak English well. Told the lady I wanted to cancel. Told her pricing was too high. And I swear it was just like the infamous AOL recording.
I very specifically had to say "cancel the account" seven times. Once she got finished with that she started to tell me about the final bill that I was going to be receiving. $49.95 for the period of June 16 – July 16. I tried to politely explain to her that she could not charge me for a service that was not being provided and that if she did so I was not going to pay it. She agreed to only charge me $25 because the phone company got the other half. Told her that was not my problem and that if they charged me anything I would not pay it and would walk down the street to EarthLink HQ and have a chat with the receptionist. I am not going to get billed.
So back to AT&T to see if they want my business. Explained to the rep what happened. Said if they did not do something to make up for this mess I would cancel all my AT&T business and go to Comcast. I got transferred to a specialist. Nina.
Nina from Atlanta. Nina in Atlanta. Nina in the office park where I take the kids to Taco Mac. Nina was nice. The first person I spoke to in this whole ordeal that was nice. Nina understood the semi-technical issue I described. Nina had empathy that I had been without Internet service since Monday. Nina cut me a deal. Nina is overnighting the proper modem. Nina fixed the problem. Nina kept me as a customer.
Nina was service. Service gets and keeps customers.
I really did create Secret Sig. And it pretty much unfolded the way that I described in my How I Created Secret Sig post (less all the snarkiness). And after I made Secret Sig I pretty much put it on the shelf. But like the ring of power Secret Sig did indeed have a will of its own. And like the ring of power it was forgotten for a long time. Until it awoke and ensnared me. This is the story about how Sig Mosley found out that I created Secret Sig.
Once again, it all started innocently enough. It was June of 2008. I had a meeting with Melanie Leeth of Imlay Investments. I wanted to get her view on one of the companies that I advise. And as is often the case when seeking Melanie's advice we were having a great conversation. Right in the middle of it she changed the subject. Melanie asked me "Lance, what are your going to do?" Well since she asked me, I told her. I told her my master plan. She wanted to know if I had discussed this with Sig. I told her no and she encouraged me to do so. So shortly thereafter I sent Sig a note and we scheduled lunch at the now defunct The Globe in Technology Square.
Sig Mosley and I went to lunch. We had a good meeting. As we were winding things down and settling our tab Sig asked me one last short question.
"Have you ever heard of Twitter?"
"Yes" I replied as calmly as possible while a B9 voice started screaming in my head.
"Well somebody has gone and created a Twitter account called Secret Sig and attached a Web page to it. Would you have any idea about how someone could do such a thing?" Sig asked. I am not sure of the exact words. I was in a state of shock. And panic.
Yes, Secret Sig did indeed have a will of its own. And lots of power. The power of Web crawlers. The power of search engines. All you have to do is bing Sig Mosley to understand the extent of the power. Someone close to Sig had searched on the term Sig Mosely and told him about Secret Sig.
Here I was sitting across from the most powerful technology investor in Atlanta, if not the Southeast, and he was asking me a direct question about something that I had created to semi-impersonate him. I never dreamed that things would unfold this way. People talking about it at an event and online with me just listening, sure. Getting asked a direct question from Sig himself, no. My mind was racing. Really, really racing. I had not done anything with the Secret Sig persona for several months. Was this an innocent question? Was there some artifact out on the Web that connected me to Secret Sig from the botched first attempt? Does he know? What do I say? Is my master plan going to completely blow up before it gets out of the gate? My career flashed before my eyes. I tried to stay as visibly calm as possible.
You know they say under stress people revert to their true self. I believe in being honest. It's what my parents taught me. So I came clean. I told Sig the truth. It was really the only option. "Yes Sig, I know how someone could do such a thing. I created Secret Sig."
And waited for a response. Waited for what seemed an eternity. How was the unwitting father of Atlanta angel investing going to respond to this gem of a confession? I really did not know him very well. We had worked together on the GRA/TAG business launch competition but that was about it. I had no idea how he was going to react. I was dying.
And what did Sig do? Sig smiled. To me at the moment a smile that was more beautiful than the Mona Lisa. With that smile I knew things were going to be all right.
Sig asked me how I did it. I told him the story. He asked me about Twitter. I told him all about that as well. Sig asked me if he could have control of @secretsig. I said yes. I even game him a tutorial on how to use it. With the exception of an entry or two at the beginning it has been Sig himself tweeting since last June.
Eventually Sig asked me if he could have control of Secret Sig he wanted to change some of the content. Correct some errors in fact. I said yes. Came to find that there is really no way to transfer a blogger account. So I am now the webmaster of the only Web presence of Sig Mosley and Imlay Investments. Sig wants changes, I get cracking.
Know Massey of the Atlanta Technology Angels pointed me to a great article in The New York Times about angel investors and how to pitch them. Toward the end there is a simple summary. It is from an entrepreneur named Ted Ray currently going down the angel path.
Have a product on the market.
Do not ask other people for money until you have spent your own.
Be concise in your investment materials.
Seek angels in your field.
Focus on achieving one and two before taking steps three and four.
Like the Secret Sig blog itself this article is written in a manner that attempts to imitate the skewering parody voice Dan Lyons created for Fake Steve Jobs. I have the utmost respect for all the individuals and organizations mentioned below. It is my hope that they all view their inclusion as a sign of great respect in the same manner that Sig views Secret Sig. With the exception of the dudes from Despair. They really are weenies.
It all started innocently enough. In January or February of 2008. Maybe March. I was a little bored. Had a little time on my hands. And I was inspired.
Inspired by the then anonymous Fake Steve Jobs. Before he become Real Dan. Fake Steve was brilliant. Literally. Perhaps the best non-marketing marketing campaign in the history of man. Or at least for a book about a technology icon.
And Fake Steve was big. Maybe even bigger then real Steve. I wanted one of my own.
The target was easy to pick if you were sitting at the epicenter of the Atlanta technology community. Sig. Sig Mosley. Sig Mosley the unwitting godfather of Atlanta angel investing. Sig Mosley without the “e” of Noro-Moseley (lots of people make that mistake). Sig had no Web site. His company, Imlay Investments, had no Web site. So I decided to make one.
I started by privately registering a few domain names. Sigmosley.com was available. I grabbed it. Thought about it a bit. Started to feel a little creepy. Almost stalker like. Ditched that. Registered secretsig.com. Felt more like fun. Fun was the goal.
I don’t really code. It’s not that it’s hard. It’s just typing. I don’t have time to code. I needed some help. And help I found with my trusty confidant Blake Perdue. Blake has some mad web design skills (among others), and he put up with my insistence on using all things Typepad when creating PeachSeedz. Like he had a choice. He works for me. He does what I say. Like he had a choice in my evil plan. So he did it.
Blake designed and coded up the first version of the SecretSig Web site. I wrote the content. It was a thing of beauty. Custom templates. It even had SigWear, inspired by Andrew Hyde’s VCWear. Shirts that had cool writings like “I’ve Been Sigged”, “What Would Sig Say?”, and “If You Need The Internet To Find Me You Don’t Deserve Funding.” This was before those weenies at StartupLounge came up with their lame Sig Said No shirt and then ceased production because the even bigger weenies at Despair (no link love for them) sent a cease and desist for the use of the 🙁 emoticon that some idiot at the USPTO granted a trademark (Exhibit A the trademark and patent processes are broken).
So we had the site. SecretSig was up and running. I needed a launch strategy. And if there is one thing I know how to do in the world it is launch Internet stuff. Unless it really is crappy product from some entrepreneur that has no clue. No clue that you actually need to think of your marketing strategy before you start building. That marketing is not some tag on that makes people buy bad things that they don’t want or need. They are losers. I know how to tell them to get lost. Or get them to pay me a bunch of money. But I digress. I created a launch strategy. It was brilliant. Really. More brilliant then Dan Lyons. Perhaps the most brilliant simple plan in history. Even better then the Grinch.
I decided to launch via Twitter.
Twitter before everybody was getting on and being all spammy. Twitter before that jerk Tony LaRussa, whom I used to respect, decided to sue Twitter because someone was using his name and they came out with the stupid idea of non-anonymous accounts only for important people (what are they going to do, use Wikipedia to decide who is important?). Twitter before anyone in the Atlanta technology investment community was on it. But they are all on there now. And it is because of me. I was the first person to semi impersonate a member of the Atlanta technology investment community on Twitter (and as far as I know the last, nobody else has the kahonas). I set up a twitter account using the handle secretsig. Set the more info URL to www.secretsig.com. And then I had secretsig follow Sanjay Parekh.
You may have heard of Sanjay. He founded Digital Envoy, created Startup Riot, and is a founder of Shotput Ventures. Has this big hangup like Tony Dorsett about how people should pronounce his name. Gets into arguments with important people about things that don’t matter. And he has doesn’t have enough to do so he sits around all day long, stares at Tweetdeck and spews meaningless drivel at the rate of about a zillion messages a day. I figured follow Sanjay and it would generate about 50 tweets and somebody that was actually important like the weenies at StartupLounge would find out and spread the word. Sanjay is going to get all pissy with me for saying all this but it is true.
But Blake screwed it up. Dolt. He failed to mask the domain of www.secretsig.com about page. It looked something like forceofgood.typepad.com/secretsig_about.html. Sanjay called me on it. Sent me a DM. I denied it. Sanjay sent me the domain evidence. Mea culpa. But Sanjay was cool. He volunteered to keep SecretSig secret.
So I took down www.secretsig.com. Then recreated it on Blogger (the application that Google paid millions of dollars to Evan Williams for and then just let it languish like every other thing they buy with the possible exception of Urchin). I did it myself and just let it sit there. Waiting for the opportune moment to tell the world. Cooking up an alternative launch strategy. But like the ring of power, Secret Sig had a will of its own…
The story about how Sig found out that I created Secret Sig is a story for another day.
Not too long ago late one night at Smith’s Olde Bar Tessa Horeled and I had a conversation about Drive A Faster Car. It’s her love. Her passion. I encouraged her to work on making DaFC more then just a personal project. To make a run at turning it into a business. Tessa is going down that path. She is using Kickstarter to fund the early stages of this endeavor. I continue to support Tessa. I hope you do so as well.
One of the mainstay features on FoG over the past two years has been the "quote of the week". It is a post that appears every Friday at noon (I tried 3:14 for a period, but noon works better). It started as a throwaway, something to get a quick and easy article up at the end of the week. Quotes are easy to find if you are looking for them.
It has evolved into a pretty popular series. One of the quote of the week posts generated more comments than any other article in the history of FoG. Heck I even used the quotes to create a presentation called "Startups in 12 Quotes" that generated over 2,700 views, 18 favs, and 9 embeds on slideshare.
But with the break from FoG I have also been thinking if I wanted to continue with the quote of the week feature. But instead of deciding by myself in some misguided self-absorbed vacuum, I thought I would ask the audience via a poll.
Please take a moment to take the poll. And comments beyond the poll are of course welcome.
