Shine 2008 - Later that day

Well the web-based seminar and the blogging seminar went well (even if I did get lost finding it). Both were great and I met some bloggers in the flesh for the first time who I have only met virtually.

I think we are really missing a trick monetising web-based social enterprises and I think advertising-based models are fundamentally flawed. I have just had some interesting discussions about cross-fertilising ideas from "the long tail", "the four hour workweek" and some of the American East Coast business models. The gist of them is how we take niche pieces of content and learning and monetise them via podcasts, pdfs/lulu, blogs, etc. It would be good to pull a bunch of web-based social entrepreneurs together to explore this and I will bring my podcasting gear tomorrow to try and capture some of this.

Anyway the whole event is unfolding quite well although I think it depends on how comfortable you are with little structure. Some people seem to be struggling but I love this kind of space. I have just realised that I haven't eaten anything today and I am now starting to get a bit peckish. That and having my business ideas pulled apart and reassembled by some of Ashoka team has definitely knocked the old blood sugar.

I am now sat at the back of a discussion which I am not entirely sure what its about but it is very popular (and means I can blog in the background without looking too rude). I think this mobile blogging is getting a bit like twitter and I will reflect when I get back about whether this is at all useful or whether it is becoming "Dave's Stream of Consciousness".