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The End of Embargoes.

You gotta love Mike's style.  TechCrunch is banning embargoes.  Now, bloggers are already notorious for breaking them, and at least TechCrunch is formalizing it.  And by doing so, I think embargoes will gradually go the way of the DoDo.

The value of an embargo is the big launch, with multiple journalists covering the same thing (same message) at the same time.  Often, an exclusive is given to one of the journalists, say a customer interview.

As I've said before, we are moving from a world of exclusives to inclusives.  Inclusives build the story in public, involving more people in the conversation.  This carries an observer effect, leading to a more engaging story that explores more angles in more places.

2009 Recession: Corporate Alumni Network offer.

With record layoffs in the 2009 Recession, more former coworkers are turning to each other to get jobs and start new businesses. In less turbulent times, large employers would invest in hosting Corporate Alumni Networks for sharing connections, knowledge and expertise. Unfortunately, just when corporate alumni need to leverage these networks to find jobs and start new companies, HR departments find such projects stalled.

Almost four years ago PeopleSoft employees experienced a massive layoff similar to what is happening today (Yahoo began laying off 1,500 workers; Sony plans to lay off 8,000 workers in its electronics business worldwide. Bank of America may cut 35,000 starting in the beginning 2009. Google has been quietly laying off staff and up to 10,000 jobs could be at risk for layoff).

A grass-roots PeopleSoft Alumni Network was formed by former employees, both on LinkedIn and Socialtext. Community leaders used Socialtext to share job information, get organized and collaborate on events. They later gained permission to call their newly formed non-profit organization the PeopleSoft Alumni Network. To this day, over 800 recruiters tap the network of over 3,000 members.

I asked PeopleSoft Alumni Network organizer Steve Tennant to comment on his experience:

"Socialtext was an invaluable technology for team collaboration at a time of need. With Socialtext's Recession 2009 offer, I'm looking forward to sharing best practices from our experiences in getting organized, helping people find jobs or start new companies and staying connected."

CanToday, Socialtext is meeting this latent need with a free Corporate Social Network offer for the 2009 Recession. Any former employee and HR director of a company that reduced its workforce by 5% or more in the last year can create a private Corporate Social Network for free by applying here. Please note that this offer does not include free user support. We ask for an HR contact to be involved to encourage a constructive tone, enable the HR department to share informational resources and so the company can leverage the network over time for connections, knowledge and expertise. However, as was our experience with the PeopleSoft Alumni Network, the energy and participation will likely be driven by the grass-roots.

Socialtext is also building out a public resource for sharing Alumni Network best practices at http://socialtext.net/alumni-network. The site will also serve as a public directory of private Alumni Networks as they are established, with instructions on how to join them.

My hope is that this Corporate Alumni Network offer for the 2009 Recession helps people come together to help each other:

  • Share job leads
  • Share and collaborate on resumes
  • Share and create events
  • Share and document corporate history
  • Share new business opportunities for the company and alumni

Please spread the word.

Links for 2008-12-18 [del.icio.us].

  • SocialText helps workers affected in downturn by launching Corporate Alumni Network - Jobwire
    Ross Mayfield of Wiki concern SocialText announced an offer to provide a free SocialText account to aid employees who have lost jobs due to the downturn. The program permits any former employee and HR director of a company that reduced its workforce by 5% or more in the last year to create a Corporate Social Network for free. Also introduced, the Corporate Alumni Network will enable community builders the benefit of the success of others who have used SocialText to create community in times of economic mayhem.

Culture Moves Apple Stock, Film at 11.

This afternoon I had yogurt with Robert Scoble before he shot a video with me and Eugene Lee.  I mentioned that James Franco (actor, Spiderman's frenemy, and grew up in Palo Alto like me) was at Fraiche Yogurt yesterday.  An employee mentioned that Steve Jobs was there recently.  Robert asked if he seemed healthy, and the employee confirmed. Not just because the yogurt is healthy, I assume.

Discussion ensued on Friendfeed. VentureBeat picked it up and the uh, news, is making its way to China right now.  Perhaps it will move Apple's stock tomorrow. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Scoble posted the video interviews...

p>Part I. What will happen to both large and small companies during downturn? What are they seeing from their enterprise customers? (Hint: record sales so far this quarter but great uncertainty for next year).
Part II. Discussion of corporate pain of email.
Part III. Ross tells me about socialtext’s alumni network and how that can help both companies and workers who are laid off.

Links for 2008-12-30 [del.icio.us].

Links for 2008-12-31 [del.icio.us].

  • Why Now? - Windows Live
    For eight years (1992-2000), I was the driving force behind Microsoft's effort to make its Technology Evangelism (TE) efforts more efficient, effective, and ruthless, by studying both the practice and the theory of TE. After leaving Microsoft in 2000, I spurned the inquiries of numerous Microsoft competitors to testify on their behalf. As recently as year, I fell on my sword on Microsoft's behalf. So why come forward now?
  • The view of economy from Palo Alto's socialtext
    Robert Scoble interviews me and Eugene Lee

Links for 2009-01-02 [del.icio.us].

  • EarlyStageVC: The Coming Venture Capital Boom
    It’s times like these that test what you believe in, and I believe in the Business Cycle, Human Creativity, and the stimulative effect of massive Government spending. 2009 and 2010 will be great times to invest to reap the benefits in 2012-2014, for those who can judge both business risk and liquidity risk, and have the courage of their convictions.

Links for 2009-01-03 [del.icio.us].

Links for 2009-01-05 [del.icio.us].

Links for 2009-01-07 [del.icio.us].

  • Interview with Clay Shirky, Part I : CJR
    CJR’s Russ Juskalian recently spoke with Shirky about knowledge, the Internet, and why we shouldn’t worry about information overload. The second part of the interview can be found here.

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1/8/2009; 6:13:09 AM Eastern.
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