Rafat Ali asks a radical question: “M&A is not the sole purpose of the digital media industry, or the entrepreneurs, but that seems to be prevailing wisdom now. Where are the companies being built to last?”

Technorati Tags: media

What the heck is a blog portal? These folks want to sell magazines blog portals. A what? That was my first head-scratching question, also: Apparently, here’s the concept (direct quotes): If you have a magazine, you want to set up “a stand alone blogging community portal to compliment your existing online magazine. You want to let your readers talk amongst themselves, automatically growing new advertising real estate…”

Can there be a more oxymoronic phrase than blog portal? Blogs are about personal expression and individuality. Portals are about, well, trying to jam together and own everything and everyone you can. Besides, offering someone help to create a portal sounds about as anachronistic as offering someone help to create a steel mill.

I’m going to stop there. I’m trying to stay positive. I’m trying to be a portal of positivity.

Technorati Tags: blogging

Random things I’ve learned by blogging:

What Shel Israel said: “Business that comes from the blogosphere comes because of the trusted friendships you make. These days, marketers are coming in droves to this new medium, and they are missing the fundamental importance of the Personal Web.”

Technorati Tags: boston, businessblogs