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Although I don’t know one word of Japanese, I did get an article published in the April 9th Edition of Fuji Sankei Business-i newspaper, which is being circulated to 200,000 readers a day nationwide. This is how it happened.

At the end of last March, I received an email from Masaru Ikeda. He’s running a system integration company in Tokyo and writes a weekly column about Internet innovations for the Sankei Newspaper. Masaru mailed me that he’d love to come to the Next Web Conference - which my partners from The Next Web Blog organized - but he had to stay in Tokyo for “business reasons”. Therefore, he asked me to write a column that he would translate in Japanese. And so it happened. It wrote the story, Masaru translated it, and he was so kind to sent me some copies.

But that’s not the end of it. Our overseas journalistic adventure ended with a grand finale in San Fransisco last week, where we met during Web 2.0 Expo. At moments like these, I take every word from McLuhan’s Global Village for granted.

Tags: Fuji Sankei Business-i, Global Village, Japan, journalism, Masaru Ikeda, newspaper

As promised, I sometimes just cover random blogging thoughts here. Like things I stumble on when working, reading, or - most of the times - when relaxing. So today I realized that the most self-destructing thing you can do as a blogger is writing when don’t feel like it. Here’s why.

Let’s start with one hell of a cliché: blogging is about passion. Sorry, you may have heard that a hundred times now, yet - as always with clichés - it IS true. You might blog for the money as well, but it doesn’t lead anywhere if that’s the only reason. Blogging takes too much effort to make it a logical way of earning money.

So you blog because you love it. Yet after a while, especially when your blog becomes popular, you might start to feel some pressure as well. Readers want updates, you don’t want your number of RSS readers to decline, and you might let down your co-editors. Well.., screw that.

Why? Take a moment and think about the baddest posts you’ve ever written. Got some? Alright.., now go back to the moments you were writing those low-quality posts. Back then, you were probably blogging to fill up space or meet an (imaginary) deadline. Right?

My advice would be to just walk away from the screen when you don’t feel like blogging. Otherwise you’ll become frustrated every time you feel obliged to blog. So long for the passion! Just take my advice, read a book, have a beer with friends, take a walk with your lover, listen to your favorite band and come back to that screen when you’re inspired.

Oh and when you’re inspired, write more than you need to. So by the time you have to fill up some space, you always have a secret stack.

Tags: advice, blog tips, deadline, inspiration, stress

1939481920Every summer has it’s soundtrack. Last year I listened to Room Eleven while enjoying the parks of Amsterdam, the summer before that, the Beach Boys and the Artic Monkeys (always a good combination) entertained me during a surf vacation with Peter Evers and in 2005 Gabriel Rios sparked up my trip to Italy. This summer I’ll stroll the Italian beaches while listening to Devendra Banhart.

Devendra Banhart was born May 30, 1981, in Houston, Texas, U.S. but was raised in Caracas, Venezuela from 2 to 13 years old. He is a folk rock singer-songwriter and musician. Banhart’s music has been classified as indie folk, psych folk, Naturalismo, and New Weird America; his lyrics are often surreal and naturalistic. (wiki)

I love the mysterious and somehow optimistic songs of this long-haired guy and so it was a true pleasure to create a playlist for you. Without a doubt, it will give those evenings on your balcony or veranda another dimension. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Devendra Banhart, folk, indie, music, summer

The LSD discoverer, Swiss professor Albert Hoffman, has died at the honorable age of 102. From 1938 he had been developing lysergic acid diethylamide - also known as lsd-25, acid, blotter acid, window pane, dots, tickets and mellow yellow - in his lab. During the fifties, outlaws like Timothy Leary picked it up and promoted it to a hugely popular drug in the infamous Sixties.

So why do I report about this? Because I witnessed the victims of this drug myself last week in San Francisco? Because I love to romanticize stuff, including drugs? Not really. I write this post because I think Internet is the new LSD. It’s a theory I came up with when I visited the exhibition Summer of Love: Art of the Psychedelic Era in The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York last June. Read “My inspiration: Internet is the new LSD” for an explanation, which you probably eager to hear by this point ;-).

Hoffman’s death inspires hundreds of writers to cover the history of LSD again. I think especially John Walsh from the Independent has done a great job with his artice “Trip of a lifetime: How LSD rocked the world - Features, Music - The Independent”.

Now before you think I’m some tripping-on-acid blogger, let me conclude with a quote from Hunter S Thompson’s book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas:

All those pathetically eager acid freaks who thought they could buy Peace and Understanding for three bucks a hit. But their loss and failure is ours, too. What Leary took down with him was the central illusion of a whole life-style that he helped to create…a generation of permanent cripples, failed seekers, who never understood the essential old mystic fallacy of the Acid Culture: the desperate assumption that somebody-or at least some force-is tending the Light at the end of the tunnel.

Tags: Albert Hofmann, Drugs, lsd, Psychedelics, Summer of Love, Whitney Museum of American Art

A few minutes ago, I met with Khris Loux at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco. Khris is the energetic and supercool founder of Js-kit, a service that offers rich and interactive services for web sites. We know each other from the Next Web Conference, where he gave a keynote speech about widgets and open standards.

He showed me some of the features, of which in my opinion Score stands out. It allows visitors to give a thumbs up or down. Simple, effective and in combination with the Navigator a great way to show the most popular articles on a blog.

Yet I’d like to use for something else. I want to know what YOU would like to read. Although this is a personal blog, I feel like the whole publication process makes more sense when I share what my visitors - that also means you - wish for. Would you like to read more about music, or would you like to read more of my thoughts on blogging? As soon as I figure out what the majority of the readers like the most, I can start working on the perfect foundation for good conversations by writing posts that match the general interest. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: js-kit, khris loux, web20expo, widgets

Jackson Pollock by Miltos Manetas, original design by Stamen

• More webart here

Tags: Arts, Jackson Pollock, Miltos Manetas

Generally, I hate tourist traps. I don’t care for the Eiffel tower, Big Ben or the San Marco square, I prefer to hang out with locals and discover shops, museums and bars I won’t find in Amsterdam. But to be honest with you, sometimes I actually do enjoy the typically tourist stuff. Perfect example, American diners who try to revive the fabulous fifties.

When Boris and me sat down in Lori’s diner for a quick break of all the Web 2.0 Expo chaos, I discovered an old-fashioned jukebox. So I robbed Boris, ended up with six quarters and enjoyed my jukebox moment. See a visual- (via microblogging service Twitter) and music (via Mixwit) representation.

After posting some pics on Flickr, I discovered I’m not the only Dutch fun of Lori’s cooking skills. Jeroen Mirck has also visited the place a couple of times and made some nice photographs.

Tags: american, diner, Eiffel Tower, jukebox, lori's diner, san francisco, tourists, Web 2.0 Expo

When you’re a tech blogger, you can’t afford to miss the infamous pre-conference meet-ups. Those are the ideal places to meet start-ups and influentials who can tell you the latest about developments in the web industry. Moreover, if your blog isn’t all too famous yet, meet-ups are perfect for getting the word out. So how can you make the most of these events?

Boris and me are in San Francisco for the Web 2.0 Expo and are visiting a lot of these meet-ups, here’s what I’ve learned so far.

1. Bring something to remember you by

When you’re at a meet-up, you’re likely to shake at least twenty hands. That means lots of names, companies and groundbreaking technologies in a short time. So you tend to forget most. And you’re not alone. Thus it pays of to bring something with you that you can hand out. People will come home, empty their pockets, skip through all the business cards, and then see your funny gimmick. They’ll love it!

So Boris and me brought tons of “This object has been marked: BLOGABLE” sticker with us. See Laughingsquid’s Scott Beale Flickr photostream for the result.

2. Look remarkable

For the same reason as no. 1. You might find inspiration in our white suits.

3. Make pictures and publish them right-a-way

As you can tell by the last paragraph of tip 1 - the link to the Laughingsquid photo page - , making pictures also is a good way to get people to remember you. So give your buddy a camera, lay your arm over somebody’s shoulder and cherish the snapshot on your Flickr page. Tag the pics accordingly with the names of the subjects and consider writing them a line saying that you’ve published a picture with their face on it.

We also decided to include them in our blog posts to give it a personal touch. So when people ask us to write about the start-up, we say: “Maybe! But we need a picture first”.

4. Take advantage of web celebs (no, not in that way!)

As long as you’re not a web celeb yourself, you might as well profit from other people’s fame. Especially here in San Francisco, there’s a culture of worshiping some successful entrepreneurs and bloggers. The success of dirty gossip blog Valleywag is just one example of that. You can do it the nice way, or the dirty Valleywag-like one. Boris and me, naturally, choose for the friendly way and smooth talked our way into the small circles of famous techies. Pitch your blog, and they might even take a look. Don’t worry about being too pushy, since these guys are used to people who want their attention and trust me, there a lot of rude people out there. So if you approach them in a friendly way, they could be pleasantly surprised.

5. Blog about it…

People love to relive the moment. So write some good, extensive, short ‘n’ sweet or sentimental - as long as it’s remarkable - posts about the meet-ups and publish them as soon as possible. Link to the blogs and sites of attendants to make sure they’ll notice your writings. Have a look at our altsearchengines meeting coverage to see how we do it.

Hope this posts helps you to make the most out of those meet-ups. If you have any tips about how you stand out from the crowd, I’d love to hear those from you. For now, let me conclude with the two most important tips: have fun and don’t get too drunk. Cheers!

Tags: howto, meet-ups, san francisco, tips, Valleywag, web20expo

Life is hard… but not in San Francisco! We arrived yesterday, had a burger in a rooftop restaurant at Union Square, took a swim (see above) and had dinner at Scott Rafer’s house with my favorite British blogger TechCrunch UK’s Mike Butcher and the ambitious guys from Zemanta. Today we’re live reporting from the altsearchengines’ meeting.

Keep an eye on Boris’ photoset, The Next Web Blog and this one to see what we land into in San Francisco.

Tags: san francisco, San Francisco Bay Area, swimming pool, TechCrunch, trip

I’m sitting in a typical airport diner, waiting for the gate to open. That gives me time to tell you I bought a white suit last week. For those of you who don’t know why, I’m glad to tell that it’s one of the most infamous clothings in the Valley. Ask the San Jose Mercury News, ask Micheal Arrington, ask Wired. They’re all familiar with the meaning of the suits: entrepreneurial trouble from Amsterdam. And now they’re coming back, with me on their team.

Boris and me want to put our European Web 2.0 blog under your attention and discuss the European start-up scene and its influence on the technology industry.

It’s 00:50 there right now, so I guess we’ll act like it’s night in the airplane and throw a small party. I hope the flight attendants have cold beer available. In the meantime, consider reading this post by Boris about our promotion plans in the Valley.

If you’d excuse me now, I have a plane to catch. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: san francisco, silicon valley