Is it live or is it memorex? On YouTube it may not matter.

Ryan Burke thought Mindy Moorman was cheating on him and decided to break up with her...in a very public way. He set up a meeting with her, hired a chorus of singers, and used Facebook to announce the "public" event.

mlive.com: NewsFlash - Breakup becomes YouTube breakthrough: "Burke, a history major, said the breakup was something of an experiment in human behavior. But he also said it was genuine — he was furious about Moorman's alleged cheating.

'It was like they were reading from a script,' said James Mundia, a manager at UNC Chapel Hill's student TV station, who helped edit the online footage. 'There wasn't a lot of passion for a breakup where there's a lot of raw emotion.

'But I guess that's YouTube. It didn't matter if it was real or if it was fake, everyone wanted it to be real. People wanted that entertainment.'"

You decide...

John Battelle's best decisons and worst mistakes

Mark Fletcher has started a blog Startupping - A Community for Entrepreneurs which he describes as "a one-of-a-kind community resource created for Internet entrepreneurs by Internet entrepreneurs"

He asked John Battelle, whose Searchblog I read regularly to desribe his best decisions and worst mistakes. Here is his answer:

1. Either keep control, or don’t act like you have it. This was the primary lesson of The Industry Standard. I felt like this was the first large scale business I built on my own, and I acted like it. But majority control was always squarely in the hands of the company who funded it. We fought, and I lost.



2. Don’t skimp on hiring. Ever. I’ve hired folks who had the right resume, but I knew in my gut were not right for the culture of the business. I thought the skills/resume overshadowed the ability to work together as a team. They never do.



3. Do it for love, not money. This is pretty careworn, but it’s very very true. I’ve never ever started anything for money. Some folks are really good at starting companies to make money, but I’m terrible at it. I suspect most entrepreneurs are like me.
   
   3a. But make sure what you are doing makes sense to others. Everything I’ve started or been part of starting, I’ve talked to key folks who would make or break the idea, and gotten their buy in and encouragement/help first. If folks who are critical to the idea are not interested, well….that’s a pretty good sign it isn’t going to fly. Doesn’t mean it’s not a good idea, but it probably means you’re not the person to do it.



4. Pick one constituency and stick to it. Very early on, we decided that FM would be “author driven”. We could have made the company “advertiser driven” but it struck me the core business had to do with the folks who produce the sites we work with. At Wired, it was all about the ideas. At the Standard, it was all about the journalism. One clear core driving force helps clarify decisions during the tough early years.



5. Don’t do something because you can. Do it because it’s good for the folks in #4."

A belated goodbye to Bruce

I learned today that an old friend of mine, Bruce Reid, died late last month after a long, painful struggle with thyroid cancer. He was 44 and is survived by his wife, Lori, and three daughters.

I met Bruce the first year I cam to Ann Arbor, in 1981, and we fellowshipped together for nearly 10 years until he moved to New Jersey and we lost touch. But from reading what others said about him upon his passing, its clear that a man I saw as a role-model for my Christian walk, continued to grow in his tendency to reflect God's glory.

He was one of those rare people who are strong leaders, but so tender-hearted that they seem to lead through weakness. You want to work with them and serve them because you know they love you.

At 43, I still carry around a notion of invincibility. I'm not very limber and my bones are tired at times, but I still think of my life's end as distant place. It is sobering to think that such a great man had his legacy cut short so early in his life, only one year older than I am.

May he rest in peace until that great day when all things will once again be restored and heaven and earth are united once more. Maranatha!