Kevin Wen is starting, introducing himeslf and welcoming foreign particvipants like Rebecca and Owen from feedster.




Kevin is now talking about the development of cnblog. Kevin says blog is another kind of document web - rss, xml and as a result pepole can connect to each other through links and rss feeds in ways not possible before. Hard to tell where the future is going , but we seem to be going in the direction of semantic web blogs: qblogs

skipped a couple of slides


He's talking about the "click" phenomenon
In the beginning you could only click on links within sites.
Then search helped us find things we were looking for ability to search information

"express intent. does not depend on result" (from slide)
stage 3: tag - we can label items to manage, remember, and share





How we start? (how his company started):
They started with a brainstorm session in small apartment.
And formed an organized team.
Felt that they should help more people do blogs
Their whole team met each other online.
They hadnt ever met in person and had various online meetings then figured out how they could develop a product to help users blog. Thats how they created blogdriver. It was a whole group with no marketing but developed 400 thousand users.

But some things that seem simple are much harder than you imagine
When youre working remotely with people how do you pay them?
Communication was always big challenge



We used a lot of im and skype and studied how u.s. startups work
Then went to south-by-southwest conference in austin in 2004 and had a chance to interact with other startups for the first time. We met six apart, feedster, etc. and learned how they work.

The biggest lesson: learn from users otherwise you cant develop a good service or product idea of a "personal portal".

In the brainstorms saw that there was demand in china. The startup was tough period: more efforts we put in, the more responsibility we have. After working for a year or so, had to make tough decisions, either find vc or merge with another company. It hit a point where they had to decide whether to merge or get round of vc capital. They realized they had no managerial and operational experience and the necessary connections, etc. So they decided not to seek next round of funding, and instead decided to merge with blogchina
(now bokee).




They felt it was a good platform, with lots of good management experience and Kevin feels that it was the right decision:
- lessons of entrepreneurship:
- learning by doing
- nobody is an expert
- professional amateur
- you must keep your mind open as you move forward
- this is much more effective than book learning before you start something

next lesson: focus.
know the value
you must specialize and be clear on what your differentation is

partners: you need good trusted partners focusing on one thing, do it very well and enjoy it a quote from david sifry

innovation: he is going to play a video of tiger woods
everything is possible, just do it
what innovation is not
just because you have new tech doesnt mean innovation
nor is just r&D
not just creative playroom
innovation is a process
its not just having an amazing idea



seed of innovation: understanding, imagination, action


Kevin is showing the "read my lips" remix video (the one with Tony Blair and George Bush mixed over "endless love"):










...Kevin finishes with his presentation .....





...and the Panelists are geting ready to start.....