New Year - New Blogger

Hello readers.

My name is Alan Graham and I'll be taking over this area of the ZDNet blogosphere from the previous tenant, the excellent Richard MacManus. In the past seven years I've appeared in numerous publications and books, and I also created the world's first book dedicated to blogs as literature, Never Threaten To Eat Your Co-Workers.

I started my career in the early 90's in pre-press, later building six figure animation and digital video systems for large companies. An accidental twist of fate put me on the internet one night in 1995, and I left my company and career behind to pursue this frontier. I've been working with online companies ever since. In the past 11 years I've seen a lot of companies and technologies come and go, from the silly (selling dog food online) to the brilliant (Portico). In that time I've learned a lot of hard and fast lessons about what will survive and what will not. I hope to bring some of that insight to this blog. Sometimes I'm right, and sometimes wrong...but always try to be entertaining.

While I expect it to take a couple of months to get fully up to speed and hit my stride here, I did want to give you a little heads up on what to expect in the near future, and why you might want to keep this blog on your daily radar.

Beyond the Buzz
There is a lot of buzz and accompanying buzzwords around what is and is not Web 2.0. I'm going to try and cut through a lot of that and focus on how Web 2.0 affects your life and your business. I'm not simply interested in the next cool widget as much as I am interested in how these technologies can improve our lives. It isn't enough to create something for the sake of creating it. In this rapidly changing sector I'm interested in value.

News & Opinion
While I'll cover news items, this isn't a news blog as much as it is about putting some of the news into context and framing that with opinion. I will be doing a fair amount of opinion pieces and quite a few predictions. However, I'll have my share of scoops as well.

More Voices
I'll try to have a new guest blogger each week. I'll be bringing people from different areas of the Web 2.0 world. Some of these we rarely hear from, and we'll try to attack the important topics from new and interesting angles. I tend to feel we generally hear from the same voices again and again in this sector, and I'd like to expend on that. There are a lot of amazing stories and people out there who don't always make the pages of the big business mags.

Reviews
Another aspect I'm looking to address is reviewing not just services, but hardware that links the Web 2.0 world to our everyday lives. I use to be quite the gadget geek, but I find that it is harder and harder to separate the wheat from the chaff of today's gadget deluge. Cell phones, music players, home entertainment...if you make something compelling...I want to take a look at it.

Podcasts & Etc.
I'll be tapping into the talent pool of some good friends to bring original and quality content.

The Rules
I want to keep this blog as transparent as possible. From time to time I may have people appear who I've worked with in the past or currently work with. In this sector it is nearly impossible to not have some type of connection to people, since we are a relatively small community. However, I want to keep things as above the board as possible, so I'll disclose those relationships to the best of my ability.

One request I have for the community is that if you have something you want me to look at, review, or mention...all I ask is that you don't send me a Press Release unless I request them. I'm a person, so write me an actual email. I get so many press releases, that it is nearly impossible to keep up with them all.

That said...I'm excited to be here and get started. So let's go...