Joel Spolsky’s 2003 article, Mouth Wide Shut, makes an excellent argument for keeping the Secrecy Cap on all the way through until the release of a product. This means no discussion of feature-sets and, if the project is brand new, no discussion of what it does at all.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately and the supreme secrecy rubs me strangely. As much as Joel’s points make sense, I feel like I’m missing out on something if I keep everything to myself.

Is it the buzz? I don’t think so. It’s worth a lot more when possible customers can move on that buzz.

Is it the feedback? Possibly. When I’ve discussed my ideas with close friends, I am encouraged by their praise and intrigued by their take on something that has only been tossed about in my head.

Is it an aversion to paranoia? Yes. I believe that there are no new ideas. This becomes abundantly clear every time I look up domain names. Can you believe that MonkeyDonkey.com is unavailable*?

In the end, I think Joel’s argument makes a lot more sense for his shrinkwrap software company than it would for a web application. With a release cycle that works in months and years, it would be important to keep secrets. I like the idea of making many small innovations, released often. Web applications can do this.

What’s the difference between talking about something new now, or in two weeks when it’s available to the masses? And if there really is no difference, then maybe I should default to keeping my mouth shut?

Update: The guy who started Yahoo Groups and Bloglines argues against keeping secrets in Stealth Start-Ups Suck.

* DonkeyMonkey.com is also taken. TigerGoat.com awaits your money…

For small publications, finding businesses to advertise can be difficult. And since most small publications are free, advertising is probably the most important aspect of keeping the publication afloat.

Enter MediaBids, which allows publishers to auction or sell advertising space. Also, advertisers themselves can set a price and receive bids in square inches.

I’m not sure whether this is the magic bullet for my wireless publication since I think local ads are pretty important for its success. Currently MediaBids has mostly national advertisers, but the infrastructure for extremely local advertising is in place. In the meantime, MediaBids could help fill in the gaps for fledgling community publications like WifiPDX.

While doing some research for WifiPDX, I came across a highly prominent Google Ad for Metromark Corp.

Click on their ad and you get this:

To be fair, I have let my own namesake domain expire a couple times. Nevertheless, I would expect a company that requires “$100K min. buy” to put a few of those dollars into their domain registration… especially if they still are paying Google to funnel traffic to their site.

Update: Their site is back up. Woop!

The following three things, though I do them, still make me wary thanks to continual parental warnings during my childhood:

• Eating a lollipop while doing anything other than sitting still.
• Another choking hazard: eating a spoonful of peanut butter.
• Licking the top to an opened soup can.

Possibly inspired by the excellent 5ives.

Portland is a hipster sort of town. Because it is all around me, I sometimes have a hard time admitting that I like Miller High Life and ironic mustaches. But then there are moments like this morning…

I shared a bus ride with a young woman in chunky plastic-frame glasses and old school Vans. She was listening to music on a casette tape, not because it’s all she could afford or the only available media, but because she is just that hip. At one point she loudly opened the hatch of her Walkman and flipped the tape over with glee.

As a public service, I provide two additional portable music options for her fellow hipsters. If you would like to listen to MP3s, but not be found out as non-retro, consider hiding your iPod in a Walkman case. On the other hand, if casette tapes aren’t old enough for you, you can always get a portable record player.