The uber geeks

What’s next for blogging in 2008? - An interview with Paul Stamatiou

Paul Stamatiou, a friend of mine and student at Georgia Tech, has been an active blogger since mid-2005. He has accomplished many things with his blog, and from that, he’s had opportunities that he may not have had otherwise.

Paul was nice enough to answer a few questions about where he sees things heading over this 2008 year, and a little bit about his startup Skribit. Below is our interview with him.

Paul Stamatiou, New York City, Nov. 2007 (original)

Colin: Hi Paul, thanks for taking a few minutes to talk about one of your favorite topics: yourself.

Paul: Thanks for the interview opportunity Colin. For those unfamiliar with me, I’ll give a brief summary. I’m a 21 year old Georgia Tech college student majoring in Computational Media (half computer science, half new media and so on). I’ve been blogging for a few years at PaulStamatiou.com about pretty much everything tech-related. When I’m not in class or blogging, I’m working on my blog-related startup Skribit or thinking about what meeting Steve Jobs would be like.

Colin: You and I have been using the Internet for long enough to see some major changes happen in the world of personal publishing. Blogging, as it is now commonly called, has grown to proportions that I don’t think you or I could have ever predicted. When did you start publishing content to the Web, and what have you seen as being the major milestones of change since?

Paul: I have been blogging since the summer of 2005. When I started blogging, social news/bookmarking sites were just starting to pick up speed. Now everywhere you turn someone is trying to get you to digg their article or bookmark it here or there. It’s quite a different online world. Back in 2005 it was very easy to start a blog from
scratch with hosted blogging platforms. Now anyone can publish content online even easier and quicker with micro-blogging services ranging from Tumbler to my favorite Twitter.

Colin: I come from the “copy and paste HTML” generation as it pertains to blogging. Now, we have more tools than we probably know how to use making it easier than ever to publish a really great site with minimal effort. What would you say will be the biggest change in publishing to the Web in 2008? More rich content like video/audio?

Paul: I definitely think you’re on the right track. People want a more in hands-on and richer experience. While I don’t think video blogs will even come close to replacing standard blogs (people like to skim through text, not sit and watch everything), there will be more weight on visual complements to publishing. It’s already been happening for a while with sites linking to massive image galleries of products they’ve reviewed in addition to quick video clips summarizing the review and so on. For the most part, we’ll have to wait and see.

Colin: Several things have “happened” to you as a result of your Web site. A recent thing that comes to my mind is being in a Nike+ commercial. Perhaps you could list a few things you’d think are notable that have happened to you since you started your site - and comment on whether you think this sort of “self branding” will prove crucial to those that work on the Web in the future to find opportunities like you have.

Paul: My blog has brought me a tremendous amount of opportunities. I’ve always tried to keep it professional and publish well-researched and thought-out articulate articles to make it a portfolio of sorts. I was found by Yahoo! and ended up being an intern for them in the summer of 2006. General Motors found me online and has graciously flown me out to some events including the 2008 Detroit Auto Show. More importantly though, I’ve been able to establish some connections with people I may have never met before had it not been for my blog. I receive a few job opportunities every few months so it will be interesting to see if I can leverage my blog to help me in the job hunt when I graduate in a year.

Colin: What about for readers? Not all of us can write as much as the Stammy. What do you see happening in 2008 for people that like to find great content to read about their favorite topics? Will good things happen? Or will it get harder to find the signal through the noise?

Paul: I might be biased but I think 2008 will be big for my startup Skribit. Skribit lets blog readers suggest things they want to see on blogs and rank them, in a nutshell. I’ve been using it for a few months and have already had a few posts that close to 400 people recommended I write about. It’s a great way to gauge reader interest and cure writer’s block.

Colin: What about your thoughts on sites that monitor current news, or conversations, happening on the Web? Sites like Technorati, TechMeme, etc. are making it fairly easy to find out what the top bloggers are talking about. But, it also drowns out “the little guy”. Any thoughts on this?

Paul: I tend to stay away from the “echo chamber” and focus on more unique and original pieces. However, I love TechMeme because in a 10 second glance you can immediately see what is happening in the tech world and how important each news piece is.

Colin: One final question and I’ll let you get back to taking over the world. What do you think is the best blog that you’ve found within the last three months? Why? And what do you think makes you subscribe to a site?

Paul: Hrm, you’ve got me in a corner here. I really can’t think of a noteworthy blog I’ve discovered in the last three months. I’ll get back to you on that. As for what qualities of a blog get my subscription, it’s really only just one thing, dedication. They don’t have to blog everyday but it’s nice to see effort put into posts and not just blurbs from stories on digg.

– End interview –

Thanks to Paul for taking the time to have this chat. It is always great to get the opinions of where things are going from those that are using the tools, using the Internet, and living it everyday. Best of luck with PaulStamatiou.com and Skribit!

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