I was just looking into Google’s Knol after reading a Techcrunch article about it. As you may know, Google’s Knol is Google’s version of Wikipedia but with Google Ads and money being driven to the writer of each article. If it sounds like the private sector is trying to replicate something a nonprofit is already doing, then you’re quite right. Regardless of the merits of Knol (I’m not sure it’s going to take off), I found something very interesting almost immediately.
I took a look at the article for software as a service and lo and behold, Timothy Chou, has written the article. If you’re not a Blackbaud nerd like I am, you wouldn’t know that the Timothy Chou who wrote the article was the Timothy Chou who is on Blackbaud’s Board of Directors. He writes:
You will have many choices. You can choose to sell Model 1 and Model 4, which is what Oracle did. You can choose to use Model 1 and Model 5, which is what Callidus Software did. You can choose to move completely to Model 6, which is what Concur did. You can choose to start out a new business in Model 6, which is what Salesforce.com did. You can choose to acquire Model 6 companies, and have some of your product line in Model 1 and some in Model 6, which is what Blackbaud did. [emphasis mine]
This may be another Timothy Chou but it’s highly unlikely that an article that talks about Software as a Service and basically namechecks Timothy Chou’s past business relations (he works for Oracle, shilled for Callidus and again, is on Blackbaud’s board) is not going to be written by him. Tim don’t hide — fill out that biography! An interesting note is that the article was originally published on 2/25/2008 which I guess means that the Kintera negotiations were probably already in the air during that time.
A Model 1 company is your traditional software business model. Model 6 is Software as a Service as we’ve seen it in salesforce.com. It’s a wide open clue if you know, not so much if you don’t that Timothy Chou seems to be referring to the purchase of Kintera here and the current state of Blackbaud’s software outside of that. I’m hoping for more Model 6 out of Blackbaud in the future.
Talk about trying to own a phrase that you don’t yet deserve! I suspect submission of other articles in the future from say, Tad Druart of Convio mentioning Aikido Convio Common Ground (yeah they changed the name so no more hillarious Google search mashups of nonprofits and pictures of guys doing Aikido (bow to your sensei!)) and how it’s a clear example of “computer technology” and “fundraising” at the same time.
What’s interesting here is that Knol is already being penetrated by corporate shills – indeed there is a wonderful article on Dr. Tom Lue by Tom Lue himself. Clearly, the age of Googling for yourself is being supplanted by getting an article on yourself ON Google. Watch out for my own entry on Knol entitled “Abe Namer: The Many Wonderful Disguises of Allan Benamer” under “Stuff”.
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