So according to Techcrunch and Valleywag, Jason Calacanis is packing it up and leaving. Out of all the people who are blogging about it all I can say is this…I’m glad.
While at AOL Jason has always been outside the organization. Even now while AOL is going through this transition (and before) he was doing the “Calacanis Cast”. Jason why don’t you name something else “Calacanis foo” because it’s not really needed. So in effect we (AOL) paid Jason to do what he was already doing, made him Senior Vice President of something or another (I never really cared to look), and gave him a platform and another spot to put on his resume.
“But Jason ran Netscape“…lemme think about the value that has brought…yay.
OK, but Jason also started a platform for content “taggers” to get paid. *Yawn*
I’m actually glad that Jimbo didn’t do any advertising for AOL, as if Jason is leaving…that doesn’t look great. AOL got a great platform with Weblogs Inc. and with Blogsmith we got alot of great people, but let Jason take his millions and leave.
Jason if you do read this, and you’re leaving all the luck to you, hopefully the next time you talk about making a difference in a company you do more than sell it your platform, get paid for it, and raise your platform. If you’re not leaving, these are all the things that others think about you as well.
So you came, did some things, and now you’re leaving…AOL is a great company and hopefully someone getting a SVP spot will know what to do with it and help promote the company and not themselves.
3 Comments
I enjoy many of the services that Calacanis brought to AOL. I follow many of the weblogs.inc blogs and I enjoy the new Netscape. Good content.
Something else he sparked was an upturn in the quality and quantity of AOL employee blogging. Ya’ll have a blog policy but that alone did not generate the upturn in AOLer’s using blogs to place a human face on the corporate facade. Calacanis did that for AOL.
Maybe once he’s officially gone you can restart your MiniAOL.
I follow many of the Weblogs, Inc blogs and I ventures out into the new Netscape every once and awhile…I admit, that platform is nice…
I have to say though, I wouldn’t contribute Jason to being responsible for the quality or quantity of blogging at AOL. In my honest opinion I believe that the “devil may care” attitude about AOL internally is prompting the blogging from outsiders. This is something that isn’t seen from NY or from VA, this is something that is “down in the trenches”.
Calacanis touched his part of the company but couldn’t be felt in others, most the other teams blogged about their products because they have faith about them, not because of any encouragement.
Maybe when you see more bloggers from different teams (not paid to blog) , blogging about life…then you’ll see it. Check my blogroll for others.
yeah — Jason who?
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