Richard Giles

We had dinner with the BloggerCon crowd last night. It was great fun and we got to chat some amazing people, like Buzz Bruggeman.

This morning we’re sitting in the second day of BloggerCon, and Clay and I have established that it’s much more relaxing than SuperNova. Different purpose, and of course a different people, and much more conversations. The later making it a heap more useful so far.

Don’t get me wrong, SuperNova was great for networking, and there are just some unreal people there, but the sessions focused more on the corporate space, and the new web has accelerated beyond them. BloggerCon people are all in the slip stream, creating it in fact, so they don’t have to rehash what we all know.

The current session is a little empty, but I guess that’s to be expected. It is only just past 9am on a Saturday morning.

I leave for the US tomorrow morning, on a damn early flight, and then after just over 24 hours of travel I arrive in San Francisco for Supernova.

The great news is that Graeme and I are ready to start to let people in on a few more details of our startup. We’re not quite ready for full disclosure–we’re keeping those secret for another few weeks/months–but we’re happy to start discussing the process.

Right now we have an alpha ready for a little testing. We’re also speaking to some people about an advisory board role or two. Hence the trip to the US.

So, if you’re interested in what I’m up to, or the actions of a startup then you can find the details at our startups blog: Web2Thing.

Yes, the name is slightly tongue in cheek, and when we’re ready will announce the actual name of the service.

If you’re planning on attending Supernova or Gnomedex, then flick me an email. Perhaps we can meet and chat about a web 2 thing.

Scoble has given several reasons why he chose to leave Microsoft, his family and happiness. Two of the best reasons to pursue a new career.

When I think back to why I left Sun, for several opportunities that are all about the new industry he’s entering, it was for exactly the same reasons. I wanted to spend more time with my family, and enjoy the work I was doing 100%.

For me that meant pursuing my own business, having a crack at a startup. I knew that if I sat in the corporate world for the rest of my life I’d regret not trying an idea of two I have.

It also gave me more time to pursue a hobby I’d discovered. Recording a The Gadget Show and G’Day World are a blast. I get to chat with some amazing people around the world, and Cam and I get to banter several times a week about the stuff we love.

This hobby, as Cam I’m sure will agree, has become something of a passion, and anyone who has dabbled in it will know, it’s big stuff. By the end of last year there had been about 30 million iPods sold since its launch, growing five times faster than the year before. If that’s not enough, in the first quarter of 2006, a total of 226.7 million mobile phones were shipped. Most have the ability to play audio files like MP3s. So, Scoble is entering a small market that is set for a boom: nanomedia, as Cam calls it.

For all those reasons I really get why Scoble is making his move. A very wise choice.