Allow me to say that I think very highly of Jason Calacanis, even though I only found out who he was last year when I started to take an interest in blogs, and mainly, using web logs to grow the Mojo Supreme network.
I also think that those who bash Mr. Calacanis (particularly for this “self-promoting” ways) do so out of envy, jealousy and simple pettiness.
Finally, yes, AOL TW bought his company to get into and better understand blogs, but first and foremost it did to so lock down one of the more successful Web entrepreneurs out there.
Ok, now that the obligatory prelude / disclaimer is out of the way, I must say that I am shocked about one thing Mr. Calacanis is doing.
Weblogs and parent AOL Time Warner (I know, it’s only Time Warner now) launched a new blog called BloggingStocks.com.
While many people would question the common sense and ethics of having bloggers blog about stocks they own, I agree that so long as the bloggers do not violate any rules, it’s fair game. After all, blogging is nothing else than writing, and if business columnists for magazines and websites can write and talk about companies whose stock they own, it should not be any different in the blogosphere (in all fairness, I blog about many things, including stocks I own, used to own, will own perhaps, though I follow all mandatory and common sense rules of the practice).
But, what I do find a bit provocative is that one of the eight stocks that BloggingStocks.com covers is, you guessed it, Time Warner, parent of Weblogs. Inc.
Now, I just said that blogging is no different than writing. True. So if Fortune, the magazine, can write about Time Warner, the company, why can’t BloggingStocks.com?
Well, the reasons are simple:
1 - blogging is still relatively new and trying to gain credibility
2 - bloggingstocks.com can eventually talk about TWX, but launching a blog about stocks and covering eight and one of them being your parent company seems like a bad idea.
But maybe that’s just me. But take a look at this, re: ( <-- a really great company 
- ok, we see the smiley face, but is that really what people looking for information on the stock market and investing want to see?
The first eight blogs are:
http://goog.bloggingstocks.com/
http://aapl.bloggingstocks.com/
http://ge.bloggingstocks.com/
http://wmt.bloggingstocks.com/
http://ebay.bloggingstocks.com/
http://twx.bloggingstocks.com/ ( <-- a really great company
http://yhoo.bloggingstocks.com/
http://msft.bloggingstocks.com/
You can also have these rolled up into one big blog at www.bloggingstocks.com of course.
Do you agree with me? Am I crazy? Am I being over-ethical? Is there even such a term? Let me know at ash @ mojosupreme . com
Tags: Internet & Web|
Posted By: Ashkan Karbasfrooshan | Apr 28th
Subscribe: