Julia Allison sings us a love song from SXSW. Is this for former beau Kevin Rose, we wonder — or for the Internet at large? She's got a point: Why do we build her up, just to let her down? Why?
Last week, Digg CEO Jay Adelson wasted no time debunking rumors that Google, Microsoft and two media companies were bidding $200 million or more to buy the social news site. It's too bad, because last week would have been a good time for Adelson and Digg cofounder Kevin Rose to sell. According to metrics firm Hitwise, traffic Yahoo's Digg competitor, Buzz, sends to news and media sites nearly caught up with the traffic Digg sends in just one month.
If you make your living publishing content on the Internet, you live and die by the pageview. One way to drive huge amounts of traffic to your site is through "social news" sites like Digg. If I write something interesting, the theory goes, someone may submit my article to Digg. If it gets enough votes, it hits the front page and I suddenly have enough money to buy a new hibachi. The reality: I often submit stories I've written myself, or get friends to do it, and I then harangue coworkers to vote for my story on Digg. Digg has been making it harder to score this way by detecting how "diverse" your voters are. If it's the same old gang Digging your story every time, you get downgraded. But there is one virtually foolproof way to beat the system: throw tons of traffic at your Digg link.
I've always loved to watch Mark Cuban dance — but Tuesday night I got to see the billionaire booty-shaker up close. The venue: PureVolume Ranch in Austin, Texas. The occasion: The Bigg Digg Shindigg, South by Southwest Interactive's closing party. "You guys always picked the worst photos of me," Cuban said. Mark, as I said at Sunday's panel on gossip, I live to serve. Digg packed PureVolume's dance floor and backyard tents with hundreds of partygoers. Besides Cuban, Moby was there, as were Digg CEO Jay Adelson and cofounder Kevin Rose, iLike CEO Ali Partovi, StumbleUpon's Garrett Camp, and Automattic's Matt Mullenweg. RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser had just flown in from Florida on a private jet. But for me the most interesting person was newly hired Digger Aubrey Sabala, who put the party together in three days — after Digg had given up on the idea.
Do not want fail? Why then, can has win, say the folks behind the curtains at Flickr, Digg, Media Temple, and StumbleUpon. Six of them showed up at a panel organized by Kevin Rose to explain how to make websites that stay online, more or less. Being a not very clever gossip, I just listened in for the quips. Oh, and the drama. Automattic founder Matt Mullenweg almost didn't make it. Check out how his fellow panelists updated the lineup right before he showed up.
AUSTIN, TX — I've seen Kevin Rose drink beer; I've heard the Digg cofounder likes to drink tea. But plain H20? Unheard of. The audience at his SXSW panel about scalable websites started whispering discontentedly when he paused to fill his cup from the watercooler.
Digg founder Kevin Rose typically cites "the need for diversity" when questioned or criticized about the promotion algorithm that controls what stories make it to Digg's front page. "One of the keys to getting a story promoted is diversity in Digging activity. When the algorithm gets the diversity it needs, it will promote a story from the Upcoming section to the home page. This way, the system knows a large variety of people will be into the story." Oh, really? A Digg submission linking to headline aggregator Fark.com received over 1,000 diggs but still hasn't been promoted to the front page. The problem? The submission is 11 days old. Why are old stories so penalized? If there is a significant surge in Diggs on a story, it should be promoted to the front page just like any other upcoming submission. So much for the vaunted "algorithm."
Hey, wait a second: Why am I the only one working at SXSW? For everyone else in the Valley, the Austin conference is just a sanctioned spring break party. Clearly, I'm an idiot. I just spent three hours snapping photographs at SXSW's Bit 16 opening-night afterparty, without so much as a beer touching my hands. The Scoot Inn, a dingy dive bar east of downtown, hosted the event. I ran into Julia Allison first thing. I heard Kevin Rose was there, too, but I never spotted him. (Curious.) I chatted up Automattic's Matt Mullenweg, and Mashable's Pete Cashmore, as well as Glenda Bautista, Mullenweg's ballsy Bronx belle (pictured here with friends). It was a good time. But the ROI on SXSWi? Hard to spot, if you don't run an Austin bar, restaurant, or convention center.
Some enterprising young lad submitted Fark.com to Digg — eight days ago. Fark predates Digg by several years. It has elements of social news like Digg, but it's more in the spirit of the Daily Show than Digg's Slashdot-inspired tech obsessions. Submitter "topsyturvy" described it on Digg as "Fark: the not news news — News that doesn't matter. Not even sure if half of it is true, but it's funny." As of this morning, it had only garnered four Diggs. But that's not the saddest thing of all.
A Digg sale might happen soon, to Google or Microsoft, says Michael Arrington. Cofounders Jay Adelson and Kevin Rose have made no secret of their disinterest in running a big company or going for an IPO. That leaves no exit but a sale, which Digg's bankers at Allen & Co. have been working on for months. This latest rumor could be just another trial balloon. Or it could be the beginning of the end. If not to Digg, then to a drama-filled life as an independent concern perpetually for sale. (Photo by briancaldwell)
A tipster sends us this shot of Digg founder Kevin Rose clambering up a palm tree during the Future of Web Apps conference. You know, the one in Miami, where quasi-professional geek paramour Julia Allison drank his milkshake. Allison is beautiful, and if bright lights are your thing, plausibly charming. So why would Kevin flee? Maybe like Allison's last beau, he doesn't want to shell out for a MacBook Air, either. Leaked emails on that whole mess, below.
Looks like Kevin Rose and Julia Allison had a nice time in Miami at the Future of Web Apps conference. The pair were photographed sharing an ice cream shake by Fusebox founder Bryan Thatcher — a photo that subsequently was hidden from public view by Thatcher, but not before we got ahold of it. Here's the full pic:
Time Out New York columnist Julia Allison's geeklust hardly began or ended with her romance to Vimeo founder and general crazy person Jakob Lodwick. Last year she and a friend flew out to Silicon Valley to find tech boyfriends, or at least a geek willing to tweak their websites, including by licking any security issues and biting the best new technologies. They also spent time with (shudder) TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington. The latest nerd on Allison's radar screen: Kevin Rose, founder of Digg.com and friend to hot female journalists everywhere. Rose asked Allison out on a date a few months ago, then he maybe set her up with an account on his Twitter clone Pownce. Now Allison is at the Future Of Web Apps conference in South Beach, and it's not all "blunk drogging" and wearing bikinis: she's also been working the geek crowd, in particular Rose, according to one source, who writes she's been seen "partying and all up on Kevin Rose." Valleywag is hearing the same thing, and even has a couple of innocuous cell phone shots, one of which follows after the jump, along with some scenes of how Allison prepares for the brave future of the Web (hint: it involves many short skirts and bathing suits):
Why is Digg founder Kevin Rose clambering around the inside of Miami's Carnival Centre, the site of the Future of Web Apps conference? Perhaps the conference is literally climb-the-walls boring. Or Rose is indulging a newfound enthusiasm for buildering, the indoor version of rock climbing. Or, most likely, he's trying to impress Julia Allison. Suggest your own caption in the comments; the winner of the contest has their suggestion turned into this post's new headline. (Photo by tantek)
A tipster emails from the Future of Web Apps conference in Miami with a Julia Allison and Kevin Rose sighting. Guess that Pownce invite worked on Julia. The conference was described by one attendee as "basically a war between PHP and Ruby on Rails." Well, it seems like some are having a good time. Check out the tipster's email and full-size pics below, enhanced slightly for clarity.
Julia Allison writes that she signed up for a Pownce account despite not knowing "what, exactly, Pownce is or does." (I'm with you there, Julia.) She says she signed up because "I was told to sign up, and ... I follow instructions when given by cute boys." Well Kevin, that's one way to get signups. Just be careful down there in Miami at the Future of Web Apps conference, 'kay? We hear there's a big pink target on your back.
It seems obvious that Web 2.0 is not as citizen-generated as people would like to believe. So obvious that Slate's recent article, "The Wisdom of the Chaperones," seems too mainstream for the usually contrarian site. Writer Chris Wilson imagines that Digg and Wikipedia are still seen as radical examples of the wisdom of the crowds, and reveals that they're run by a small base of power users. Of course, Slate is wrong. Call it banal, but the user-written news site and encyclopedia really are the work of thousands, even millions of casual users.
Digg founder Kevin Rose turns 31 today. Google might think you're only 30, but we can do the math. Happy 31st, Kevin! We hope you find this post even more heartfelt than the 13 birthday wishes you got on Facebook — oh, and Julia Allison says happy birthday, too. Now Kevin, I have a rich uncle who's looking to invest some money. Can you fill me in on Digg's secrets? (Photo by AP/San Diego Zoo)
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