Vmyths users in parsimonious shocker.

http://www.wired.com/news/infostruct...,59473,00.html

"Good wishes and fame are not adequate compensation for intellectual
capital." Franz Liebkind, "My Struggle"

"Parsimonious"? Yeah, but we like to call it our "Net King Cole" strategy.
:-/ Read
http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/N/...atkingcole.htm for
insight. When Eric Robichaud approached me about turning "CVMhp" into a
Siskel/Ebert production, I told him we needed a serious plan to run for six
months without money -- just in case a hostile antivirus industry somehow
shut off our revenue.

We initiated the "Net King Cole" strategy at the end of September 2001 when
our patron saints abandoned us. I consider it an epic feat to last nearly
two years with $0.00 in our checkbook, not to mention all of my mandatory
"trips" that get in the way.

If we could do as much as we did since 9/11 with $0.00, just imagine what we
could do with a major sponsor. Download the 107MB video at
http://Vmyths.com/mm/rants/2003/0501/107mb.avi if you want to *literally*
change the computer security world for the better.

Rob

Depends if you run it as a volunteer site or as a professional site, Jack.
We chose the professional route.

Our webmaster likes to get paid for his work. Think of him as a janitor at
a library. Janitors don't sign up on a volunteer sheet to mop the library's
bathrooms.

Our editors (George Smith & myself) like to get paid for their work. Think
of them as the librarians who answer the phone and who direct you to the
books you want. Librarians*do* get paid, you know.

We've got four regular columnists who like to get paid. Think of them as
the authors of the books & magazines on a library shelf. Libraries get a
steep discount when they buy books, yet the authors still earn a full
royalty on every sale.

....Obviously, if you attach a public library to a school, you can mooch off
the school's janitor or you can let students clean the bathrooms as an
alternative to detention. Someone will give you an old 1975 encyclopedia
box set. Someone else might donate a new $10 dictionary. Dozens of
families will drop off their old Readers Digest Condensed books for your
shelves. The library can subscribe to free magazines, of course. Soccer
moms can work as librarians on a volunteer basis. And, yes, you can always
find an intern who wants a college degree in library sciences.

I could find an intern to replace Chuck as our webmaster. Mary Landesman
(About.com) graciously offered to play our librarian while I serve our
country. Yeah, we could line up "guest columnists" (e.g. the chief
information security officer for the State of Montana) to write for free in
return for a byline.

A volunteer library can't offer the quality of materials you'll find in a
professional library. Nor can it expand beyond the limits of its
volunteers. Nor can it grow larger than the free space it occupies.

No offense, but "guest columnists" write as a hobby. They'll gladly write
for free just so they can say they got published. They'll laminate a copy
of the column and pin it to their cubicle wall. (ugh!)

I find hobby writers boring. VERY boring. They write the same ol' same ol'
and they seldom embrace controversial ideas. Their writings almost never
take a stand against the establishment. Worse, they regurgitate other
people's ideas far more than they think for themselves. They won't identify
the people they cite in a negative context, e.g. "I recently spoke with the
CFO of a large firm who clearly doesn't know the importance of investing in
computer security technology blah blah blah..."

We built Vmyths as a haven -- a library, if you will -- for the best
computer security criticism. Hobby writers don't write the best stuff.

If you want to start a volunteer library for hobby writers, Jack, then I say
"more power to ya." But you won't build anything useful for the world.

Vmyths' shelves should overflow with the best independent criticism that
money can buy AND it should be totally free to the public. That's why
George Smith & I want to turn it into a non-profit "Vmyths.org." But to do
it, we need a major benefactor. $1000 a month doesn't cut it. I had the
balls to ask Microsoft's CEO for FIVE MILLION. (Download the 107MB video at
http://Vmyths.com/mm/rants/2003/0501/107mb.avi where I swing my gonads at
Steve Ballmer.)

Vmyths is unique, Jack. We're not GartnerGroup: we don't want to charge
hundreds of dollars for every column we publish. We're not the Virus
Bulletin newsletter: we don't want to charge hundreds of dollars for a
subscription. We're not Information Security magazine: we don't want to
regurgitate press releases and print guest columns and review products and
do feel-good stories about a heroic network administrator at a linoleum
manufacturing plant who led a tiger team against the onslaught of one
pissed-off teenage hacker.

Vmyths exists to change the face of computer security -- or it'll die
trying.

Rob Rosenberger, editor
http://Vmyths.com

No argument there! Furthermore, I blame only myself.

You're right about Kumite.com. It was a hobby site; I went looking in 1999
for a way to turn it into a professional site. When Eric approached me (I
didn't approach him), I told him I wanted to build it up as a public
library. He wanted to build it up as a Siskel & Ebert show. Eric staked
his money on it, so we followed his idea.

Let's talk about Siskel & Ebert. They made money doing what they do best.
Their producers made money from it, too. Their show didn't run on too many
stations, and they'd certainly never graduate to the big screen like
"Charlie's Angels," but their show did well enough. And in doing well, they
get the word out to the masses about good movies versus bad movies.

Ironically, Siskel & Ebert never really tried to appeal to the masses. They
appealed to a minority of movie-goers who wanted professional, independent
movie reviews.

The producers never really tried to appeal to the masses, either. Get this:
a cheap set, a balding guy, a fat guy, and they sit across the aisle talking
to each other during the movie trailers. Get real! These guys practically
started out as Wayne's World because no mainstream production company would
take them. And yet their popularity led to national syndication.

Siskel & Ebert paved major inroads for movie criticism. Now you've got a
half-dozen knockoffs, not to mention those insipid follow-on shows where
they do a half-hour of movie trailers, each introduced by a bimbo with a
perky voice who gets paid to make "Nuns on the Run" sound as great as "The
Godfather."

Eric believed Vmyths could follow the lead of Siskel & Ebert. We'd use the
virus hoaxes database to draw traffic from the masses, and we'd use the
rants section to bring in the minority of people who needed good criticism.
We added a fourth columnist to the payroll just before Osama bin Laden
struck on 9/11. That's when all of our money dried up.

....You wonder why so many of our "rants" carry my byline. It's an important
question, Jack, and I thank you for asking it. I'm the only columnist at
Vmyths who will write for free -- the others barely got a chance to come
into their own when 9/11 happened. George, Lew, Robert, and others (!)
await the day when they can return to the fold and get paid for writing
excellent criticism.

Sure: our columnists could return to the fold with a relatively small
infusion of cash. Sure: $1 million would let us break the Siskel/Ebert mold
and set it up as a professional non-profit "library" just as I described.
Sure: we could run at full speed for a year, and bring on more professional
critics in the process, while we searched for more benefactors. Frankly,
though, I don't want $1 mil. I want $5 mil so we don't need to do a
fundraising drive every six months.

And $5 mil isn't as big as you might think. Hell, Microsoft uses $5 mil as
a rounding error. Venture capitalists treat $5 million as walkin'-around
money. Nike sees a $5 million sponsorship as a bargain. Fortune firms pay
$5 mil just to chisel their name into the cornerstone of a new wing at the
museum. Dead guys bequeath $5 mil to their alma mater. Vmyths just needs
to find a willing corporate sponsor. Or a willing corpse. :-)

Rob Rosenberger, editor
http://Vmyths.com

"Rob Rosenberger" <us@kumite.com> wrote in message
news:be5bl4$j60$1@ins22.netins.net...
Well, you'd never attract VC money, unless you had a business plan that
headed toward a profit. But, since what you do is sort of a "public
service", have you thought about trying to get funding from public
broadcasting? You know, there might even be interest in turning Vmyths into
a periodic radio spot, which would provide the foundation for having paid
writers. Think about it.