Tread Lightly… and carry a big microphone

by | Oct 2, 2006 | Podcast, Uncategorized

Kevin and Jason have uploaded another episode (finally!) of the "Treading Lightly" podcast which is pretty good timing considering my recent rant about wanting TPN to do more to promote "An Inconvenient Truth". In this episode the boys talk in some detail about Integral Energy’s green power options and purchasing other peoples green options. I learned a lot. Maybe they could get someone from Integral onto a future episode to talk about the take up of green energy in Australia?

Melbourne’s Top Dogs

by | Sep 21, 2006 | Melbourne, Uncategorized

I’m in the planning stages for a series of interviews for G’Day World which will contain in-depth interviews with Melbourne’s leading business people. I want to know what makes them tick, how they got started, about their biggest successes, biggest mistakes, and lifetime ambitions.

First cab off the rank will be Geoff Lord. I’ve got an interview scheduled with him for next week. Geoff has been in the news lately due to his large stake in Melbourne Victory, the first soccer club in Australian domestic football history to sign-up 10,000 members. He is also currently Chairman of UXC Limited, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Belgravia Group, Chairman Terrain Australia Limited, Australian Litigation Fund and Terrain Capital Limited, and a Director of the following companies: MaxiTRANS Limited, Triako Resources Limited, Ausmelt Limited, Auto Group Limited, Institute of Drug Technology Limited, Adelhill Limited and Kids Campus. I’ve heard a lot about Geoff over the last couple of years from a friend who worked for him for a while and he sounds like a very interesting bloke, a true entrepreneur.

Then I’m going to work my way through the A list of Who’s Who in Melbourne. Should be fun. Wish me luck.

Another IT Journo Goes Solo

by | Sep 21, 2006 | Uncategorized

Mary Jane Watson… sorry, I mean MARY JO FOLEY… has announced she is no longer writing for Microsoft Watch and is now going to be writing a blog about Microsoft as her own business.

I’m interested in this for a few reasons.

  1. I had the opportunity to meet MJ last year at a flashy party in NYC and she was lovely. She even pretended to know who I was. I had been reading her stuff for many years and even though I suspected she was just doing a Clinton on me, it had the right effect – my ego was inflated.
  2. For a while now when I’m discussing the future of the media business with newspaper folks, they harp on and on and on and on and on and on and on (get the idea) about "why the world needs journalists". I am usually quick to agree (unless I’m just trying to annoy them, which can also be a lot of fun) but then I ask "but do those journalists need YOU?". We’ve started to see journalists break out on their own and I hope this is a trend which will continue. As I said on G’Day World last week – if Chris Masters, Australia’s #1 investigative journalist, wanted to go out on his own, I’m sure he could find enough corporate sponsorship to pay his annual salary and legal/travel expenses. He has his own brand. What does he need a publisher for these days? Dan Gillmor did it. Om Malik has done it. Now MJ is doing it.
  3. I’m wondering what MJ’s model is. She’s blogging, not under her own brand, but under ZDnet’s. I don’t get that model. I’ve asked her on her new blog how it works and I’ll try to get her on the show for an in-depth discussion.