theodore worcester, a blog

Well, I am clearly not in Alaska so posting under WhileinAlaska.com doesn’t make much sense anymore.  I’ve moved on.  Why WooDesigns.com? WooDesigns is a throwback to 2001.  Really?  Wow.  I was a mere 13 trying to make it in the dog-eat-dog world of “web design.”  Woo was my nickname growing up for some reason.  I guess people preferred to pronounce Worcester as “Wooster” and that’s how it evolved into my nickname.  It is more fun to say, I’ll give them that. Little did I know, there is another ‘Woo Design’ floating around.  Woo Design, inc is a real live established web design firm with real live clients.  But guess what, Karen Woo…  I came first. So take that!  Needless to say, I decided to clear the virtual cobwebs and revive WooDesigns.com into something you might like reading.

I am here in London doing a year abroad (or the “General Course,” as they like to call it) at the London School of Economics.  Somehow, I’m simultaneously working on a startup with friend and business partner Dan Hussey back in the US.  We’ve managed to make incredible progress with the help of LogMeIn, Skype, Google Voice, and Google Docs.  Sorry, Google, we gave up on Wave. Being an ocean away has made collaboration difficult at times but the communication tools available, if used correctly, can immensely narrow that gap.

The new web and mobile technologies emerging of late are very exciting and, if anything, offer motivation for entrepreneurs.  New mobile technologies are still very much on the rise and there are big changes to come.  One might think that the market for social media is saturated and any new tool would simply be redundant but the evolution of social media has only just begun.  Geolocation tools will change the way you eat, shop, travel, and communicate.  Credit cards will be replaced by mobile payment software.  You’re already ten steps behind if you still own a dumbphone.   Computing will continue grow to be more “cloud” oriented.

Oh, and let’s not even begin with the inevitable demise of print that has been in full force for a while now.  I feel so 2004 writing about this but I think it’s finally coming into fruition on a large scale.  The Newsweek and Daily Beast merger is pretty indicative of the direction of some of even the oldest print publications.  Like many small-time local papers, the local paper in my hometown, along with every major paper in Maine, was acquired by MaineToday Media Inc.  MaineToday adopted a more unified web presence turning the respective papers into subdomains without any  real individual personality . See: Morning Sentinel & Portland Press Herald.  They monetize through advertisements (obviously) but how long can they sustain themselves on this model?  They need to make some drastic changes to survive.  Something as simple as moving to the Groupon model to provide value to their advertisers.   They cut 31 journalists in the acquisition and if they were smart would continue cuts.  All that remains of these newspapers are their namesake, reputation, and local Mainers needing their fix of coverage on 8-year olds getting running over by pickup trucks and false-alarm pregnancies. Hm?  National and world news can be easily read through Google News and/or Google Reader.  It is even possible to input your zipcode and syndicate local news in Google News.   Ultimately, this syndication directs to the local newspapers themselves but it still poses a problem to their monetization platforms.  Google News allows reader to hand select these articles in an interface without the local papers’ advertisements.  It eliminates the necessity to browse through the site looking for interesting articles and most importantly, appealing advertisements.  It is a much more direct source of media.  No longer do you thumb through your morning newspaper smoking a pipe and drinking your coffee and notice an advertisement for a local Opera House production or that flashy Dodge Neon you’ve always wanted in the classifieds.  Craigslist, anyone?

These changes in mobile technology, media, and the web are all very imminent.  I can’t help but want to write about them.  That is primarily why I started blogging again.    Feel free to disagree with me, say hello, or offer further insight.  That is all.