It was bad enough in the days of Web 1.0 (has enough time in Web 2.0 passed for us to refer to 1998 as Web 1.0?). Back then, Most of us Collective Intellect staffers were working in some dot.com or telco software company or “ on the web” company. We were writing code, provisioning bandwidth or drawing up strategic powerpoint presentations with bullet points like “demand for IP is doubling every 6 months” and “build traffic first, then worry about how to make money”. Despite repeated attempts at explanation, my mother still described to her friends what I did as “something with computers”.

A lot has changed since then, and some things have stayed the same.

THE SAME: Venture Capitalists love disruptive technologies, experienced management teams and big marketss
DIFFERENT: Venture Capitalists actually expect businesses to make money.

THE SAME: The amount of information out there is growing exponentially.
DIFFERENT: Blogs and MySpace have replaced “homepages”. In between Chinese dudes’ lip-synch videos and teen-age diatribes are great posts about pharma, consumer technology and healthcare.

THE SAME: Small companies are innovating faster than Big companies.
DIFFERENT: The small companies are filled with entrepreneurs who have been around the block and are wary of dot bomb ideas. Plus our girlfriends/boyfriends are now our spouses and and they won’t let us work at companies with stupid ideas anymore.

And while my mother still describes my job as “something to do with bluggs on the Internet”, and least she faithfully reads my blog through her RSS reader now.

Welcome to Collective Intellect. We are the company that monitors and filters the crazy world of New Media for the largest institutional investors and Fortune 50 companies in the world. If you have budget for it, we’d love to help you.

Now excuse me while I go try to explain to my wife why I have a profile on MySpace……

-DK

Tags: Analyzing Consumer Generated Media, Social Media Insights //