I broke with tradition somewhat and posted this week’s Carnival of the Capitalists in two parts. My reasoning was that with more than 50 posts, I suspect that the current format of a huge dollop on Monday leads to reader fatigue. In fact, I know this to be true as a post listed in the first 10 or so entries attracts many more readers than a subsequent one.

By the time you read this, the verdict from you readers will be in and we can see if this is a format worth repeating. I will also do a round up of comments in an “update” section at the bottom of this post.

Part 2

In Part 1 of this weekÌs Carnival I featured a post by Mover Mike taking a ÏprofessionalÓ journalist to task. Tim Worstall goes one better by launching an Economic Idiot Award to Ïjournalist or commentator who has shown themselves to be absurdly under-educated in the field of economics while still feeling competent to pronounce upon itÓ. Hmm, Tim, you donÌt mince your words do you? Find out who is the first lucky winner Ò surprisingly enough at the Press Association!

Anyone who has a remotely popular blog will know at first hand the evils of the blog spammer. These are the fiends who promote their nefarious websites by leaving urlÌs in the comment sections of blogs. The idea is that search engines are fooled into giving their sites higher rankings. The poor blogger meanwhile has to manually remove all this dross, which can be pretty time consuming. Blog Business World looks at the whole issue, including some very effective preventative steps you can take. But the main point is that bloggers mustnÌt give up allowing comments as a conversation is at the heart of the best blogs.

Having said that, Gizmodo, Boing Boing and Sun CEOÌs Jonathan SchwartzÌs blog all donÌt have comments and theyÌre doing pretty well, thank you very much, so itÌs not mandatory. But I agree with Wayne that most blogs can only get even better with comments enabled.

Ripples continues this theme about blogs being conversations, comparing blogging with the human experience of fire, in an interesting and thought provoking essay. Like fire, open communication can be dangerous as well as revolutionary.

My own contribution this week is about NokiaÌs new keyboard for their phones. ÏSo what?Ó you may be thinking. Well, itÌs the start of a new and revolutionary new trend as our mobile phones replace our PCÌs as our primary digital device. This coincides with a move to web services as opposed to on-device software. The PC is dead, long live the mobile phone!

By the way, various opponents of the two phase Carnival have suggested that I put the best entries in the first edition. Obviously this isnÌt the case, as I even left mine to the last one

On the theme of new trends, K. Todd Storch has been looking at Podcasting Ò recording audio and making it available for download as an MP3. ItÌs blogging’s close cousin and looks like itÌs going to be big. Carnival of the Podcasts, perhaps?

The Raw Prawn has a really interesting marketing post about ToyotaÌs innovative and successful strategies behind the Scion car brand. Targeting twenty-somethings, itÌs been experimenting with ideas like launching its own not-for-profit music label.

Part 1 also looked at better working practices and this is a theme continued with Steve PavlinaÌs excellent tips on how to do better email. As I currently have about 750 unread emails from my holiday, I can really relate to this one!

New Millennium Minds has also been looking at email Ò this time choosing an email service provider.

Christopher Bailey at The Alchemy of Soulful Work looks at one of his readerÌs ideas for Buddha’s Four Noble Truths on Job Hunting. Think career, rather than job. A nice post and a nice blog from a new contributor to CotC (IÌm pretty sure) so check it out.

From soul to sex÷sex sells, so weÌre told. And the Retail Store Blog looks at the phenomenon of using sexy baby boomer models Ò ie people who are 50 or more. And yes, 50 year olds can definitely look sexy as the post illustrates.

Still on the ÏsÓ word, Sand Hill proposes that software needs to be sexed up in 2005. Blogging could be an important part of the marketing strategy, but what else can be done to make your brand stand out from the crowd?

TJ Jacobi has been looking at entrepreneurship both Globally and in Germany, including the fact that Germans are terrified that their venture could go the wrong way, with only Greeks, French and the Israelis more worried about this!

Moving to Politics, Gongol lays into socialism with an unequivocal ÏWe risk most our own well-being whenever we grant socialism undeserved credibility.Ó. Ouch. But I guess this carnival is all about capitalism.

Like many people with a pension plan, I look glumly at my end of year statements and wonder why I bother investing when my capital seems to decline every year. Of course, professionals mouth the tired phrase that Ïyou have to look at the long termÓ. Conveniently, if I wait until IÌm 65 or so to take this view, these same professionals will have retired and be well out of the scene. The Big Picture looks at this long term investing scenario with some rather sobering results.

But it would have been far worse if youÌd been an employee of certain telecom companies and exercised Incentive Stock Options, according to Roth & Co. We havenÌt heard the last of this scandal, thatÌs certain.

Another potential scandal is covered by Sanity Check. Public companies are required to disclose all material risks. But they donÌt disclose the huge contingent liabilities from the fail to delivers and the margin shares loaned out to short sellers. This could be the next big class action suit to hit corporate America.

Meanwhile, Political Calculations has been looking at Personal Retirement Accounts (PRAs) as an investment vehicle for US residents. Most retirees today would have been better off, but read the full post as itÌs pretty comprehensive.

An alternative strategy would perhaps be looking at investing in the Chinese market as followers of the China Stock Blog will no doubt be doing.

Staying on the investing track, the Internet Stock Blog looks at the implications of the email war between behemoths Yahoo! and Google and the effect on the other big players. No easy answers, but lots of thoughtful questions. Sister site Media Stock Blog looks at current issues facing Hollywood Entertainment.

Can Capitalism be wrong? asks The Golden Gate. Well, yes if itÌs applied to the housing market of San Francisco.

Meanwhile, Steve VerdonÌs been writing about the US Healthcare system. Specifically, heÌs been questioning the claims that socialized medicine is quite all itÌs cracked up to be.

JS Logan has been exploring the topic of testimonials in business and it seems no matter how many times that weÌre told how important they are, we still donÌt use them properly. I can certainly vouch for their effectiveness at first hand Ò read the post and try his recommendations. It works.

Staying with the international theme, Interim Thoughts looks at a housing boom in Bangalore, India and asks if it has all the hallmarks of a bubble. Watch that space.

And finally÷on a lighter note, WordLab has been blogging about ShitBeGone toilet tissue. Their business blog errr÷. stinks apparently or as Abnu writes is Ïreally a piece of shitÓ.

UPDATE: If the debate on having two editions of the Carnival of the Capitalists doesnÌt interest you, read no further. But if you are interested, hereÌs some analysis on the experiment.

I estimate that about 4,000 people read the first post. Of these the overwhelming majority didnÌt seem to care one way or the other Ò or certainly not enough to leave a comment.

IÌve had a total of about 12 people commenting. One was very positive and the rest pretty much or very much against it. However, the ones who felt most strongly about this subject were all contributing bloggers who werenÌt included in the first edition and seemed to feel slighted in some way. There is no truth that I put the best posts in the first edition as you can read for yourself Ò I worked pretty hard to get the right balance. I also ensured that posts in this second edition werenÌt especially ÏperishableÓ or topical.

You can read most of the comments yourself and make up your own mind, but the main argument for not splitting the Carnival seems to me to be summarised as that we havenÌt ever done it before.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that if no one ever tried anything new, the world would be a pretty dull sort of place. And I thought that bloggers generally would be the very sort of people who would welcome change, bearing in mind that they’re very much at the forefront of changing the way the world communicates.

Besides which, I ran this experiment with the reader in mind Ò contributing bloggers, in my opinion, are only a secondary consideration. If the reader isnÌt being served, they wonÌt come back, which will be the end of the Carnival.

So, letÌs carry on this debate. If splitting the Carnival isnÌt the answer, but reader-fatigue is (I think weÌre agreed on this), what else could be done?

IÌm sure Jay and Rob would welcome any new ideas before the Carnival becomes unmanageable Ò and that would be a great shame for all of us who care passionately about it.

So please leave a comment or drop me an email Russell AT mobhappy DOT com.

Thanks for reading.

Russell

(Breathes sigh of relief and ducks behind a convenient fire wall, wondering why 10 hours of work on this and motivated purely by a desire to help could lead to such vitriol.)

I’ve just come back from a week’s skiing in Austria to find over 50 excellent entries in the carnival’s mail box. While I’ve duly read and mulled over each of them, I can’t help thinking that it’s a daunting task for you, the reader, to give all these great bloggers the attention they deserve in one mega-session.

So I’ve unilaterally decided to break with tradition slightly and publish one batch today and another on Wednesday. Sorry if you hate the idea, but if I’ve made your life a little easier, I’m pleased. Either way, leave a comment below or drop me an email (russell AT mobhappy DOT com) and let me know what you think, so other hosts can take board your feedback.

So, here goes….Carnival of the Capitalists – Part 1:

No Carnival of the Capitalists would be complete without a post from Jay at Accidental Verbosity, not the least because he started the whole idea. This week Jay writes about the horribly familiar problems faced by start-ups with multiple owners. I’m reminded of the quote by the late Giovanni Agnelli, of Fiat who said (I paraphrase); Boards of Directors should always consist of an odd number of members. And never more than two.

The trials and tribulations of entrepreneurship are also covered by Ego. In this instance, Hakan Lans apparently invented a “data processing system and apparatus for color graphics display” used by many computing companies who don’t pay him licenses. Sadly, many legal cases are won by the party with the deepest pockets rather than justice and right on their side. But sometimes the little guy can win – look to James Dyson for inspiration.

Open Source has to be one of the most powerful business and social concepts for the 21st century. PC4Media has been exploring how small businesses can benefit from open source, including a new way to develop commonly required software on a shared risk basis. All that’s needed, it seems to me, is a way of matching companies with similar requirements – a kind of eBay for SME software.

Corporate blogs were the talk of the Blogosphere last year as companies started to experiment with blogging, with varying degrees of success. Good Basic has a run down of the most important, ranging from Yahoo! to Microsoft. Never have “excellent writing skills” been more important for corporate execs than today.

Still on blogging, Will Pate has been writing about his blogging policy. Specifically, he wants to reassure people that he won’t post your secrets on his blog, unless you want him to – a stance shared by most of us I think. This is an important point that’s frequently misunderstood by non-bloggers, so definitely worth clarifying. Don’t assume that every blogger is like this though, so ask before blurting out anything you want keeping secret squirrels.

Jill Fallon of Estate Legacy Vaults has been pondering how marketers can use blogs to reach today’s “multi-minding” women. Jill also includes a list of her favourite women bloggers, which is definitely worth checking out too.

The Enterprise System Spectator has been exploring another new model for companies using software – software on demand. This turns software from a license model to a subscription based one. Pioneered by the likes of Salesforce.com, Webex and Rightnow, this could be the way of the future.

I normally find the world of macro-economics is a bit of a closed book to me, so it was great to read David Foster’s of Chicagoboyz post on whether we currently have a world surplus of capital and what that really means. If I happen to be sitting on a plane next to Henry Kissinger himself this week, as in the old Economist advertisement, I know I’ll be well briefed on at least one area.

Mover Mike has also been pondering economics and the implications of the US national debt. It’s currently a massive $26,347.74 per US Citizen and is increasing at $2.32 Billion per day. In this age of the Pro:Am – where amateurs can often produce work of equal quality, if not better than their professional counterparts, I was amused to see Mike correcting the Sunday Oregonian as to the actual size of debt America faces. The professionals, in this case, seemed to have exaggerated the levels by 300%.

Meanwhile, Individ has been exploring the strategies involved in investing in metals such as copper, gold and molybdenum.

Interested Participant has been looking at Libya’s rehabilitation into the international community, with a series of trade deals with Japan and Korea. Despite warnings from the US government, Libya is actually becoming a booming tourist destination for the adventurous traveler.

Catallarchy has been exploring the argument that welfare payments and positive discrimination actually harm those it’s designed to protect. This is certainly worth looking at further, even though it seems counter-intuitive at first glance.

Slacker Manager (great name) has been looking at better use of email subject lines to help manage our ever expanding email boxes. “911″ seems to be a favourite, though the meaning may be lost on non-Americans.

Better working practice is a theme shared by All Business and the author risks the wrath of her publisher by sharing a favourite tool from her book, the Results Oriented Responses Cheat Sheet. Try it and be impressed.

Keeping abreast of bureaucracy is turning into a full time job for many companies. Coyote Blog warns against inadvertently becoming a black market egg rustler in Kentucky by failing to obtain the proper permissions.

Business Pundit has been pondering why recent advances in cognitive science don’t get applied in business. Maybe it’s something to do with people thinking that this stuff applies to “them” and not us. A similar example is that most people think their use of mobile phones in public is entirely reasonable, whereas other people’s is always disgraceful. Ho hum.

WILLisms has been writing and analyzing about social security reform in the US.

Crossroads Dispatches has been looking at that vital component of success in many fields – creativity. Having great marketing is no longer enough, your products/play/book need to be “remarkable” to succeed these days. The post outlines the 4 stages of creativity with a view to joining the blogger in a voyage of creativity over the next month.

Have Wal-Mart lost the plot, asks Mad Anthony. Well, they may well have on the evidence of Target’s Michael Graves electric can opener by Black and Decker!

If you run a US based business, you could be ready to share in a $6 billion tax refund. Scrivener.net tells you why and how to claim your bonanza.

And finally, on a more light hearted note to end Part One, Window Manager has been looking at how we have to break rules in order to actually get things done in corporate life. Oh how true.

See you on Wednesday, unless I get overwhelmed by irate blog readers asking for the second half NOW. Like Harry Potter’s JK Rowling, I have written the final chapter already so I know what goodies there are in store for you.

UPDATE: Click here to go to Wednesday’s Part 2.