Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

Wrote yesterday about a Hamburg-based start up called www.20six.de, which is hoping to be Old Europe's answer to Blogger. Thought the idea presented a good opportunity for a blog interview, something I haven't tried before, so I e-mailed Stefan Wiskemann, one of the company's founders, and here's the result.

Rainy Day: "Who are you?"

Wiskemann: "Stefan Gl䮺er (41), Christoph Linkwitz (41), Stefan Wiskemann (40) — all studied business economics in Hamburg, Paris and Vienna."

Rainy Day: "What's your entrepreneurial background?"

Wiskemann: "We started a publishing company called COMPANIONS back in 1991. In 1996 we published one of the first internet magazines in Germany called CU. In 1998 we founded ricardo.de offering internet auctions in Germany. With that company we had an IPO in 1999 and merged with British competitor QXL to QXL ricardo plc in 2000. The company is operating services in many European countries. Under the ricardo brand its running in Germany, Netherlands and Switzerland."

Rainy Day: "What makes think that blogging has business potential?"

Wiskemann: "Weblogs are the ideal multimedia tool for publishing thoughts, diaries or other very practical stuff like family blogs etc. one-to-many. We are convinced that many people will join this emerging universe of news and opinions. And: there is no free Currywurst. If we offer a good service than people will accept to pay for certain value adding features over time."

Rainy Day: "How many people are working on the 20six project?"

Wiskemann: "Currently 10."

Rainy Day: "How is it financed?"

Wiskemann: "No comment, we just started it."

Rainy Day: "What are your projections for user numbers?"

Wiskemann: "We would be very happy if we could reach comparable numbers to some of the U.S. services."

Rainy Day: "When will you introduce paid subscription? How much?"

Wiskemann: "We will introduce some kind of payment in the future. For now it's all free. So enjoy it."

Rainy Day: "How are you marketing 20six?"

Wiskemann: "Only by word-of-mouth. We hope that our users will spread the word if they are happy with the service. Please try it yourself — it's really very simple to use. Also there will be a lot more features in the near future."

Rainy Day: "What's the technology involved? What was the inspiration? Blogger?"

Wiskemann: "The technology has been self-developped. Of course we screened existing services and added some ideas ourselves. Anyway we are a hosted community rather like LiveJournal or Xanga is. You cannot FTP your 20six Weblog to your own website."

Rainy Day: "How would you compare 20six to Blogger? To other blogging systems?"

Wiskemann: "The content of 20six is generated dynamically which allows you to post comments, choose between private and public entries or even define a list of buddies whom you allow to see your entries. Also we would like it to be more editorial. We have weblog reporters who guide others to interesting contents. We have a part called 'Magazin' where we try to throw up or gather interesting entries to hot topics."

Rainy Day: "Finally, a question about language. Are you interested in attracting bloggers whose first language is not German? And a quick follow up: Can German bloggers ever gain a wide audience if they don't write in English?"

Wiskemann: "Of course we are open to webloggers who do not speak German - and we already have some too. But we started 20six because we believe that there are also different cultures going along with different languagges. Who cares if I write about the HSV or the Reeperbahn if I write it in English. Nobody, because they do not know what those things are. If this is as somebody said the eBayiziation of media than it also will work like ebay where most of the deals are done within a country and not cross-border.

Hope that helps. What about you as an expert in the field writing a weblog in German?? I would love to see that!"

My sincere thanks to Stefan Wiskemann for taking the time to answer these questions so graciously. Don't know when I'll get around to writing a blog in German, though. Keeping this one running is hard enough. But if 20six makes me an offer I can't refuse?I won't. Refuse, that is.

Diarist of the day: Malcolm Muggeridge, 14 March 1957

"With Val to see play Look Back in Anger by John Osborne. Play quite execrable -- woman ironing, man yelling and snivelling highbrow smut, 'daring' remarks (reading from Sunday paper; Bishop of?asks all to rally round and make hydrogen bomb). Endured play up to point where hero and heroine pretended to be squirrels."