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The pitch:

Searching For The Next Reality TV Hit? Try Go_Ogle.

The CEO of the company behind open source software for online matchmaking, code-named Go_Ogle, has a bad case of comic plight: like many men, he wants to succeed in his professional life and also be the best boyfriend, and later husband and father, he can. In his case, achieving this balance is complicated by the magnitude of the stakes in the market for online matchmaking software.

And will be further complicated by company-affiliated actresses, who will routinely employ their beauty, and their charms more generally, to make a favorable impression on him.

To learn why leadership of the market for online matchmaking software is the gateway to early leadership of the market for lifelong learning and career services, which will be worth hundreds of trillions of dollars in the coming decades, see this prototype of the web site that will launch when the TV show is announced.

To learn why company-affiliated actresses will go to great lengths to make a favorable impression on the CEO -- and more about why they will be effective -- click here.

To learn how the CEO and his girlfriend will creatively struggle to make their relationship work, click here.

Thoughts? Is Hollywood ripe for an open source comedy?

The pitch:

Searching For The Next Reality TV Hit? Try Go_Ogle.

The CEO of the company behind open source software for online matchmaking, code-named Go_Ogle, has a bad case of comic plight: like many men, he wants to succeed in his professional life and also be the best boyfriend, and later husband and father, he can. In his case, achieving this balance is complicated by the magnitude of the stakes in the market for online matchmaking software.

And will be further complicated by company-affiliated actresses, who will routinely employ their beauty, and their charms more generally, to make a favorable impression on him.

To learn why leadership of the market for online matchmaking software is the gateway to early leadership of the market for lifelong learning and career services, which will be worth hundreds of trillions of dollars in the coming decades, see this prototype of the web site that will launch when the TV show is announced.

To learn why company-affiliated actresses will go to great lengths to make a favorable impression on the CEO -- and more about why they will be effective -- click here.

To learn how the CEO and his girlfriend will creatively struggle to make their relationship work, click here.

Thoughts? Is Hollywood ripe for an open source comedy?

The pitch:

Searching For The Next Reality TV Hit? Try Go_Ogle.

The CEO of the company behind open source software for online matchmaking, code-named Go_Ogle, has a bad case of comic plight: like many men, he wants to succeed in his professional life and also be the best boyfriend, and later husband and father, he can. In his case, achieving this balance is complicated by the magnitude of the stakes in the market for online matchmaking software.

And will be further complicated by company-affiliated actresses, who will routinely employ their beauty, and their charms more generally, to make a favorable impression on him.

To learn why leadership of the market for online matchmaking software is the gateway to early leadership of the market for lifelong learning and career services, which will be worth hundreds of trillions of dollars in the coming decades, see this prototype of the web site that will launch when the TV show is announced.

To learn why company-affiliated actresses will go to great lengths to make a favorable impression on the CEO -- and more about why they will be effective -- click here.

To learn how the CEO and his girlfriend will creatively struggle to make their relationship work, click here.

Thoughts? Is Hollywood ripe for an open source comedy?

Online dating is big business. Consider:

• 26M Americans visited an online dating site during 12/02

• "Personals Comprise the Largest Paid Content Category on the Internet: According to a [12/02] study...the Personals category grew 387 percent to become the largest online paid content category among consumers in the third quarter of 2002, surpassing Business Content." (source: comScore Media Metrix)

• "'I have 43 employees, and we'll bring in $43 million this year. That's $1 million per employee,' [uDate president Martin] Clifford said. 'We have zero cost of sales within our business...The margins are almost super-margins.'" (source: MSNBC.com)

Google+Blogger is an ideal combination for serving this market.

Once Google goes public, here's how I think Go_Ogle will happen:

Soon, Google will improve the searchability of "blogspace" by making it easy for bloggers to annotate their blogs with information about themselves and their blogger friends. This information will be encoded in an RDF dialect called FOAF (Friend of a Friend).

It will then dawn on people that the FOAF file is effectively a static online profile, while the associated blog is akin to a living profile (in the 'living document' sense).

With this, Googling people will come to encompass both researching people you have met -- already a common practice -- and researching people you would like to meet.

The upside potential of this, as introduced above, will prove too substantial for publicly held Google to ignore. (In addition, I believe leadership of the market for online matchmaking software is the gateway to early leadership of the market for lifelong learning and career services, which will be worth hundreds of trillions of dollars in the coming decades. Toward understanding the relationship between the two markets, consider: according to a recent American Demographics survey, couples in the U.S. meet primarily at work (36%) or school (27%). More on 'online dating software -> LLCS' here ).

Google will then acquire the best makers of RDF query tools and launch Go_Ogle, the mother of all online dating sites.

Thoughts?

Hello all. I'm Frank Ruscica, founder of The Opportunity Services Group, a startup provider of lifelong learning and career services. Not long ago our business plan was circulated internally at Microsoft. Soon after, I received the following email from Randy Hinrichs, Manager of Microsoft Research's Learning Sciences and Technology Group:

"Frank, you are a good man. Have you thought about joining this team? Your only alternative, of course, is venture capital. But their usual models require getting rid of the 'originator' within the first eighteen months. With Netscape it took a little longer, but you get the idea."

An updated version of our business plan is now online at www.opportunityservices.com.

Why?

"An American invasion of Iraq is already being used as a recruitment tool by Al Qaeda and other groups," a senior American counterintelligence official said recently, "And it is a very effective tool." So the months and years ahead may be a dangerous time for coalition troops and corresponding civilian populations.

How dangerous depends in no small part on we civilians.

As the counterintelligence official makes plain, a big part of winning the war on terrorism is convincing potential terrorist recruits and supporters that their interests are being served by America and her allies. People are at their most convinced when they are psychologically addicted. Psychological addiction takes shape in the part of the brain called the nucleus accumbens, which is fired by the prospects of professional success, romance and laughs.

By definition, providers of lifelong learning and career services (LLCS) will focus on increasing their clients' professional success. In particular, providers will race to develop and fund their own student loan programs, as most customers will need financing in order to consume their initial bundle of LLCS, and will be drawn to the provider offering the best loan package. These loan programs will, in time, democratize access to LLCS -- and hence, expand prospects of professional success to all who might otherwise become terrorist recruits or supporters.

Credibly sustainable providers will also enable their clients to enjoy more romance and laughs (see opportunityservices.com for details).

Turbocharging maturation of the LLCS market, then, should be a big part of how we civilians support our troops and fight the war on terrorism at home.

Let's Roll (out LLCS startups)! :^)

One lucrative complement to open source is career services, starting with for-profit internships. The most lucrative complement to career services is lifelong learning. Is integrated LLCS hot? Yep. And getting much hotter (see ThinkEquity's weekly newsletter, via sector analyst Trace Urdan, for details). Will LLCS drive tech consumption/innovation, a la Walmart? According to my Microsoft-approved business plan LLCS will.

Details at www.opportunityservices.com.

(What do I mean Microsoft-approved?

Not long ago my business plan for an LLCS provider was circulated internally at Microsoft. Soon after, I received the following email from Randy Hinrichs, Manager of Microsoft Research's Learning Sciences and Technology Group:

"Frank, you are a good man. Have you thought about joining this team? Your only alternative, of course, is venture capital. But their usual models require getting rid of the 'originator' within the first eighteen months. With Netscape it took a little longer, but you get the idea.")

Portentously, Microsoft appears to be headed in the LLCS direction. Consider, for example, their updated mission statement: to enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential.

Or this remark by Jeff Raikes, Microsoft Group Vice-President of Productivity and Business Services:

"I want to grow the information worker business...For the growth we can achieve this decade, about one-third will be from continuing to grow and enhance Office, while two-thirds will come from creating new categories of application value and services to support information work."

Or the TV commercials with the line drawing overlaying the video, and the off-screen voice talking about Microsoft's passion for helping people realize their full potential.

So what will happen re: open source and LLCS?

I suspect MS will end up going the route of the providers of retail financial services. Namely, their differentiator will be the utility of their technology-enabled services, not the enabling technology. Return on money wins in financial services. Return on productivity time will win in LLCS. If open source underlies, a la Hotmail, fine. The LLCS-centered MSFT will be technology-agnostic. (Although not until they have to be. No sense killing off the cash cows prematurely.)

Beyond this, lots more can be said, so I will confine additional remarks to responses to questions or comments.

Enjoy,

Frank Ruscica

Founder
The Opportunity Services Group :: Have Fun to Get Ready
www.opportunityservices.com

ELCarlsson,

How are you? I hope all is as well as can be expected. I am writing to ask your opinion of an Op-Ed article that I am preparing to circulate. The article can be seen at www.opportunityservices.com/oped.html (I tried to include it here, but Slashdot's "Lameness Filter"(?) objected).

Thanks for any consideration you can extend, and best of luck in the days and months ahead.

Regards,

Frank Ruscica
Founder
The Opportunity Services Group :: Have Fun to Get Ready
www.opportunityservices.com

Online dating is big business. Consider:

• 26M Americans visited an online dating site during 12/02

• "Personals Comprise the Largest Paid Content Category on the Internet: According to a [12/02] study...the Personals category grew 387 percent to become the largest online paid content category among consumers in the third quarter of 2002, surpassing Business Content." (source: comScore Media Metrix)

• "'I have 43 employees, and we'll bring in $43 million this year. That's $1 million per employee,' [uDate president Martin] Clifford said. 'We have zero cost of sales within our business ...The margins are almost super-margins.'" (source: MSNBC.com)

Google+Blogger is an ideal combination for serving this market.

Here's how I think Go_Ogle will happen:

Soon, Google will improve the searchability of "blogspace" by making it easy for bloggers to annotate their blogs with information about themselves and their blogger friends. This information will be encoded in an RDF dialect called FOAF (Friend of a Friend).

It will then dawn on people that the FOAF file is effectively a static online profile, while the associated blog is akin to a living profile (in the 'living document' sense).

With this, Googling people will come to encompass both researching people you have met -- already a common practice -- and researching people you would like to meet.

The upside potential of this, as introduced above, will prove too substantial for IPO-bound Google to ignore. (In addition, I believe leadership of the market for online matchmaking software is the gateway to early leadership of the market for lifelong learning and career services, which will be worth hundreds of trillions of dollars in the coming decades. Toward understanding the relationship between the two markets, consider: according to a recent American Demographics survey, couples in the U.S. meet primarily at work (36%) or school (27%). More on 'online dating software -> LLCS' here).

Google will then acquire the best makers of RDF query tools and launch Go_Ogle, the mother of all online dating sites.

Internships have tremendous value:

• 85% of employers surveyed in July 2001 prefer "a job candidate with great reviews from his/her internship supervisor, but who had only mediocre grades, to a candidate with outstanding grades but no experience." (source: Information Week)

• "Having an internship or co-op on your resume will earn an 8.9% larger starting salary over a new hire with no experience." (source: www.jobweb.com)

• "College graduates with less than one year of [internship] experience will have approximately three times as many jobs to choose from than college graduates without experience. College graduates with more than one year of work experience will have fifteen times more opportunities." (source: CareerBuilder Job Market Report)

So it is reasonable to expect the emergence of for-profit internship providers.

(As it happens, not long ago my business plan for such a provider was circulated internally at Microsoft. I subsequently received the following e-mail from Randy Hinrichs, Manager of Microsoft Research's Learning Sciences and Technology Group:

"Frank, you are a good man. Have you thought about joining this team? Your only alternative, of course, is venture capital. But their usual models require getting rid of the 'originator' within the first eighteen months. With Netscape it took a little longer, but you get the idea."

You can see an updated, open source-friendly version of the plan here.)

In the future, then, there will will be paying internships -- it's just that the interns will do the paying.

On the upside, the benefits of a really well-run, well-documented internship will outweigh the expense.

Enjoy,

Frank Ruscica
Founder
The Opportunity Services Group :: Have Fun to Get Ready
www.opportunityservices.com

Hello all,

Not long ago, I received the following e-mail from Randy Hinrichs, the Manager of the Learning Sciences and Technology Group at Microsoft Research:

"Frank, you are a good man. Have you thought about joining this team. Your only alternative, of course, is venture capital. But their usual models require getting rid of the 'originator' within the first eighteen months. With Netscape it took a little longer, but you get the idea."

I am in the process of posting at opportunityservices.com an updated version of the business plan Randy reviewed -- which, in part, aspires to provide some insight into how the promise of OCW (and related software) may be leveraged/fulfilled in the coming years. (My reason for 'open sourcing' the business plan is explained at the site.)

Enjoy,

Frank