The Human Factor

Fredwilson_1
I haven’t posted much this week about technology, the web, venture capital, etc (ie the stuff that most people read this blog for). I’ve been busy rocking out at night with my kids, watching the mets, and working on a variety of deals.

But something has been rumbling around in my brain and my life this week and Marc Canter started it with this post where he said he liked my new icon (thanks Marc) and more importantly, he said:

Faces are a key component of social media and networking – and any
software that doesn’t display a user’s face – is uncomplete

Yes!

It doesn’t matter if its a face or an avatar or an icon. But I want to know that somebody is there. Web delivered software is social by definition. There are other people using it too (in real time or asynchronously). And what those people are doing is connected to what you are doing. Anyone who doesn’t get this simple fact is missing the point about web technology. At the end of the day it’s about people.

Now I’ve been reading a lot about MyBlogLog this week. MyBlogLog relaunched their service this  week and are now emphasizing reader rolls in addition to outbound click tracking. Techcrunch wrote about MyBlogLog which is always a source of increased buzz. But writing about MyBlogLog isn’t really what Techcrunch needs to do. They need to put a MyBlogLog reader roll on the front page (or something like it). Add some faces to Techcrunch. A huge community has been buit at Techcrunch. But we can’t see each other. I want faces! I want to see the other people that are there (in real time or after the fact, it doesnt’ really matter).

People have said that YouTube is all about pirated content. I say it’s about community. I posted some videos I took at the Flaming Lips show several weeks ago and within a couple days I was emailing and sending site messages with several other people who were at that show. One of them was one of the people dressed up as Santa Claus on the right side of the stage. How cool is that? Then the other day I got a comment from a girl who was also at the show and she saw herself in this video that I posted.

I went to see Ben Kweller last night and posted on the show this morning. I forgot to bring my camera so I wanted to gank some photos from Flickr. I found some great ones and I left a comment for each of the people whose photos I embedded in my post (with links and attribution). One of them, Kevin, sent me this message about an hour later.

Feel free to use any photo you like.  I read
your VC Blog all of the time, and actually decided to go
see the concert after reading your story of Ben Kweller’s
last NYC performance.
I posted a few videos of the show here if you want them:

I’ll end this post with one of Kevin’s videos. But not without finishing my point. The web is a social environment. Sure it’s about content, apps, services, communication, etc. But at the heart of it all is people. And that’s what makes it so great.

Here’s Kevin’s video. Later.

#VC & Technology