You have no idea how frustrating it is to be attending such an extraordinarily blogworthy event as this AlwaysOn Media gig, and be almost completely off the grid.

Yes, my Dell is still dead. Looks like the hard disc is fried. Nightmare. That's two home machines that have gone pear-shaped on us in the past six months.

I'm snatching what few chances I can to get online, thanks to the kindness of some fellow attendees, and managing to catch up with some of the work I brought with me, thanks entirely to the always under-appreciated Constantin Basturea.

Constantin had read my earlier post about our laptop troubles and, when we met (for the first non-online time) yesterday evening, he very kindly offered to lend me the machine I'm using to write this post.

In fact, not only did Constantin agree to schlep all the way across town to his office after last night's reception to get this laptop for me, he then led Paull Young and I to the wonderful, ancient Old Town Bar where he insisted on paying for drinks and dinner, even though it was his own birthday. It's a Romanian custom, apparently - not a terribly fair one, if you ask me.

Happy Birthday again, Constantin, and my sincere, heartfelt thanks. You're a true gentleman.

Arrrgggghhh!

Like flies to wanton boys are laptop hard drives to the gods. For the second time in the last six months, I have a hosed machine making funny clunky noises when I try to boot.

This is bad. I'm sitting in the business centre of a New York hotel right now, down here for the next three days to attend a heavily bloggable conference. Worse than that, I have a metric shed load of work to do while I'm here, including building a new biz pitch for first thing Thursday morning.

Arrgggghhhh Squared.

The good news is that at least I have most of the stuff I need on my handy thumbdrive. Bad news, of course, is that the thumbdrive lacks some most of the other things I need - you know, the little things like a screen, keyboard, copy of PowerPoint...

I have a reasonably light morning tomorrow, so I'm going to see if I can find somewhere to diagnose and/or fix the trusty Dell. Three days out of the office and completely off the grid is not my idea of fun - well, not unless it was planned to be a vacation, which this most surely isn't.

This is Arrgggghhhh Cubed.

If you're reading this, and you need to reach me in the next few days, please: don't rely on email. Call my cell. If you've ever received email from me in the past, you have the number.

Off now to gnash my teeth a little more.

Darren Barefoot does it again.

Cross-posting this from a few other places across the company - pardon the commercial interruption, but we need more hands!

Thornley Fallis’ sister company 76design is looking for a full-time web developer with a minimum of 3 years of professional experience to join their talented creative team.

They're looking for a smart, responsible individual who is ready to be a key contributor on some exciting projects (and they are exciting - the 76ers have closed a lot of really cool new business in the last few weeks). The ideal candidate should be equally comfortable talking to computers and to people. He or she is proficient in multiple programming languages, but is also deeply engaged with the social aspects of web culture.

Translation: geeks=good; socially-skilled geeks=very, very good; super-talented but anti-social troglodytes=definitely not good (or should that be "!=good"?).

In other words, the person they're looking for knows what’s happening today and what’s coming down the pipe tomorrow, and can’t wait to get there. He or she is driven to achieve, but is also comfortable working in a collaborative environment, and is bursting with ideas and skills (pretty much exactly like 76design, in other words)

The core technical skills they need are demonstrable expertise in:

- PHP
- mySQL
- HTML

Knowledge of one or more of the following is also necessary:

- ColdFusion
- CSS
- JavaScript
- WordPress
- Ruby on Rails
- Ajax
- SEO
- podcasting
- advanced web metrics

If you think you’ve got what it takes to join the 76design team, email your CV to: jobs@76design.com.

Via the most excellent Bob Le Drew, I'm led to the equally fine Valley PR Blog and this re-telling of the classic gag:

How many PR people does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

PR Manager answer:
Two. One to screw in the lightbulb, one to write the press release.

Corporate Communications answer:
We are aware of the light bulb and, should we choose to participate, look forward to its implementation.

PR Firm answer:
Hmmm…lightbulb. That depends. Is this a launch? Are we taking it on tour? Let us think about it and we’ll get back to you with a proposal.

Hollywood PR Firm answer:
Just one lightbulb? Goddamn it! When I set this shoot up I told you explicitly that we were to have no less than 20 lightbulbs, a technical advisor and catered lunch for the talent. You want screwed? Give me the name of your boss, asswipe! You’re through in this town!

Brand communications answer:
Let’s not focus on the people or bulbs. Let’s own “light”.

*snort*

To which I would add:

How many A-List Bloggers does it take to change a light bulb?

Only one - as long as the rest of us all point to him while he's doing it.

(Click that link, btw, it's worth your time)

(Soundtrack graciously provided by Flanders & Swann)

I'm going to be in New Yawk most of next week for this AlwaysOn Media shindig, and have exchanged vague muttering noises with a couple of people about the possibility of getting together for grub, cups of tea, or other forms of socially-consumed sustenance.

Being the gregarious (or perhaps that's "annoying" - YMMV) type, I thought I'd throw my arms wide and see if I can encompass a few other online friends, colleagues, ne'er-do-wells, and hangers on (sorry, that should read: " influencers and A-Listers").

Rick Murray already suggested in the comments that we should "should find a corner of some pub and hash the SMPR thing out" (I'm hoping and trusting Rick won't want to find a particularly dark corner to bash my own thing out, after that last post I wrote about his boss).

Also, my new online friend Jerry Bowles, co-founder of the excellent Social Media Collective lives in the neighbourhood and has offered to point us in the right direction for good eats at a price that won't have too many of us shaking our heads and muttering "New York - feh!".

So what say we find an evening, a table or two, and a reasonable supply of both vegetarian and beastitarian foodstuffs, then set about putting the World to rights and attempting to unscrew the inscrutable?

Of course, if your supersaturated schedules are already suitably swamped with social sessions surrounded by serious and significant speakers and senior executives, feel free to scorn (or sympathetically sidestep) this supernumerary's suggestion.

Suit yerselves.

Short version: I'm in town, perhaps you are too. If you're in the mood to break bread in a social media style-ee, drop a comment here or by email (michaelocc AT gmail DOT com). I promise to keep the alliteration to a minimum.

I have a Costco-sized, artery-clogging lump of text sitting in the draft folder, on the subject of the Social Media Release flapdoodle going on around Stowe's blog.

The incredibly condensed version of my thinking on this: whether a Social Media Release (SMR) format is something we need or not; one thing, at least, seems clear. It needs a better name. As a self-respecting PR person, how can I counsel my clients to adopt something for which the abbreviation sounds like "SMEAR"?

But more on all that shortly.

In the meantime, if you missed the first episode of Ira Basen's "Spin Cycles" on CBC Radio One this past Sunday, I'd highly recommend you check it out online. Excellent stuff.

One particularly interesting moment (for people who follow this kind of thing) was towards the end of the show, when Ira ran in a few quick minutes of a conversation he'd had with Richard Edelman, head of Edelman PR.

A little disclosure, first of all:

1. I'm a PR guy who happens to work for a company that competes with Edelman, so I'm conflicted here - I don't want it to appear that this is gratuitous harping or knocking copy;

2. I know and respect a number of the people who work for Edelman, here in Toronto and elsewhere in the world. Good people;

3. Two good friends of mine have been actively consulting with the Edelman organization in the last couple of years, helping them to steer their Me2Revolution initiatives;

So in other words, I have plenty of reasons - even more than I've stated here - to want to give Richard Edelman the benefit of the doubt.

Quite apart from anything else, I'm probably going to bump into him at AlwaysOn Media in New York next week. There's a good chance he could kick me in the ankles.

Without further fussing and twisting myself into knots, suffice to say this: I'm sorry, Richard, but when I heard the clip I couldn't not post it. As you've said, Edelman "is properly being held to the highest standard on transparency" - that's what happens when you attain the position of leadership.

Towards the end of Ira's first hour-long segment on the history of Spin, he turned his attention to the topic of "astroturfing", introducing Richard Edelman as one of the biggest critics of the practice. Here's my quick transcript of the relevant segment. It started with an excerpt of a taped interview between Edleman and Basen, cutting back to Basen's direct commentary for the last quoted section below:

EDELMAN: Oftentimes, PR companies use names of front organizations to say, you know, "People For A Better Energy Future" or something, rather than saying they're working for the coal industry. In fact, I think in today's world of the Internet and immediacy of information, you don't have the ability to have that kind of artifice. You've just got to say: "Here's my objective, here's my data behind it," and let the public decide who's telling the truth.

BASEN: So they're often called "Astroturf" organizations - organizations that are essentially fronts for something. Your company doesn't do that? You're opposed to that?

EDELMAN: I'm completely opposed to it, because I think it doesn't work. Leave aside whatever my personal view is - I'm into functionality and success, and I believe that the smartest clients today recognize that they're better off step-by-step making their case.

BASEN: Here's the thing about functionality. The reason why PR firms like these astroturf organizations is that they actually do work. Even Richard Edelman's company has been known to succumb to the temptation.

At this point, Ira - as you'd expect - proceeds to tell the story of the "Wal-Marting Across America" fake blog.

Ouch. It's not unreasonable to suggest that Ira led Edelman into that one - he pretty much hands Richard the quote he needs to make his point. Still, ouch all the same.

Charlie is about to see his first piece of ink blot journalism in print.

Through our friend Heather Kuipers and her fantastic new bookstore, Ella Minnow, down on Queen Street in the Beach, Charlie was asked to write a quick book review. It should be showing up in the next issue of Snap, a terrific local monthly newspaper that takes, as they put it, an "entertaining photographic view of living in our community".

I won't scoop the publication by posting his review here before the print hits the streets, but we're all pretty excited, as you can imagine.

Meanwhile, Chapter 4 of Charlie's "The Way to the Sea" is coming soon...

This is terrific and timely. We use Instant Messaging a lot at Thornley Fallis, any I'm usually signed in to one or other presence-based system somewhere, whenever I'm online.

Just like Usenet, email, IRC, and many other essential communications tools, there's a certain unwritten etiquette to Instant Messaging use. There are subtleties to the etiquette that are not obvious to everyone, and it's not like anyone really spends the time to sit staff down and walk them through a set of guidelines for practising safe IM.

Stowe picks up on a funny rant from Anne Zelenka at Web Worker Daily and writes what needed to be written in response, creating a great guide for the perplexed in the process.

I don't suppose anyone out there would happen to have a half-decent kilt I could borrow for the weekend? O'Connor tartan would be fantastic, of course, but I'm not too fussy at this late stage.

Um...

It would appear that I'm...er... Yoda.


Or, at least, "The Yoda of Canadian Marketing Blogs", according to this remarkable list compiled by Sean "BuzzCanuck" Moffit (aka Agent Wildfire).

I'm flattered. Sean has chosen to include me in what he's hoping will become the canonical list of marketing communications blogs in Canada. He's calling it Canada's 1% Blogging Army. Neat idea. You'll have to visit Sean's post to understand the name.

As Sean does say that his choice of handles for the 150 or so bloggers on the list is "not meant to offend but to compliment," I'm inclined to thank him for comparing me to "arguably the wisest and most powerful Jedi of all time".

I'm sure the fact that (compared to many of the other, more fresh-faced bloggers on the list) I'm old, short, and wrinkled, had absolutely nothing to do with it. Er... right.

When 42 years old you reach, look as good you will not.

...at least, I think they are. Only took me six years to figure 'em out.

Sorry that they're currently popping up in a separate window - I've had to go with a 3rd-party plugin. Blogger hasn't properly supported native trackbacks until their implementation of "Backlinks" in the latest, just released version of the code (they just had to call them something different - wouldn't do to give Ben and Mena any recognition. Meh.)

Alas, my efforts to get Blogger's own trackback code working kept completely wrecking my template, so I gave up. That's when I discovered that my long-time 3rd-party comments system, Haloscan, has its own trackback plugin. Neat!

The install system on Haloscan's site is a tad odd. They provide a specific auto install script for the new version of Blogger, but it wouldn't work for me at all. So I flipped to the install instructions for the old version of Blogger, and they worked like a charm.

Still hoping to get the native Blogger version working some how, but don't hold your breath.

In my archive trawling of the other night, I was reminded of this great Chris Pirillo post from a few years ago:

(1) The first rule of Blog Club: you talk about Blog Club.
(2) The second rule of Blog Club: you TALK about Blog Club.
(3) When someone says stop or goes limp, the conversation has begun.
(4) Unlimited links in a post.
(5) One post at a time.
(6) No shoes.
(7) Conversations go on as long as they have to.
(8) If this is your first night at Blog Club, you have to Comment.

The link to Chris' blog in my original post, from 2003, was broken, alas. Googling around to see if I could track it down, I came across the "Make Marketing History" blog of John Dodds. (Love that double meaning in the title, John.)

John seems to have independently come up with his own set of Blog Club rules:

1st RULE: Everyone talks about BLOG CLUB.
2nd RULE: For the love of links, everyone talks about BLOG CLUB.
3rd RULE: If someone says "A list" or goes limp, the blog is over.
4th RULE: Only two brain cells to a fight.
5th RULE: One blog at a time.
6th RULE: No links, no points.
7th RULE: Blogs will go on as long as they have to - and then some.
8th RULE: If this is your first night at BLOG CLUB, you HAVE to blog.

Like it.

John's blog is well worth a read, btw. Spent a happy hour wandering through his archives and learning that we appear to share some common perspectives on the need for marketing aforethought, particularly in tech circles.

Duly subscribed.

[BONUS LINK: Hugh MacLeod's "Random Notes on Blogging"]

Keyser Trad, in a curious piece at Australia's Daily Telegraph site, comments, in passing, on something that rings true at the heart of public relations:

"The first rule in public relations is to maintain one's integrity and dignity. There is no dignity in mealy-mouthed pandering to a self-appointed lynch-mob."

I can't claim to fully understand the local context of Trad's piece, but that one particular quote resonates.

Via email this morning, news that CBC Radio One's superb "Sunday Edition" show is set to launch a new six-part series titled "Spin Cycles", hosted by CBC producer and author Ira Basen.

Strangely, I can't find the original announcement on the wires or anywhere on the CBC site, which is kind of sucky (why is the CBC.ca site search so horribly bad?).

This series sounds like an important, interesting, and worthwhile endeavour for the CBC, and something of particular relevance to a lot of the readers of this blog - so I hope they won't mind me reposting the entire announcement here:


CBC Radio producer and author Ira Basen takes on the news media and the public relations industry in Spin Cycles: A Series About Spin, The Spinners And The Spun, a six-part series airing during the final hour of THE SUNDAY EDITION, beginning Jan. 21 at 11 a.m. on CBC Radio One. The series, produced and narrated by Basen, provides listeners with a rare look into the strategic orchestration that goes into many of the stories that make headlines.

As a veteran current affairs producer for CBC Radio, Basen grew frustrated with guests dodging questions and pushing key messages instead of directly answering questions. Basen sets out to better understand what drives the public relations industry, and tries to bridge the gap between journalists and PR practitioners.

Public relations is a robust vehicle for selling the public on everything from a war to a lifestyle. Spin Cycles explores a range of issues surrounding the PR industry, from its humble beginnings to the significant challenges this multi-billion dollar industry now presents to journalists.

A highlight in the series is Basen's look at political spin. Through interviews with pioneers of modern day spin, including the communications consultants behind Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Canadian prime ministers from Lester Pearson to Paul Martin, Spin Cycles examines how these PR wizards concocted "leaks" to selective reporters, who then transformed their spin into "news". The series then analyzes how effective reporters have been at cutting through this media manipulation.

In the widely publicized case of Maher Arar, some journalists uncritically reported politically motivated leaks from the RCMP. The leaks were designed to justify the RCMP's treatment of Arar, but they had the effect of doing even more damage to Arar's reputation. It is just one example of how spin doctors take advantage of the intensely competitive nature of the modern media. Reporters and editors want their "scoops", even if it means becoming passive conduits for official spin.

"Spin itself is relatively benign. It becomes toxic when the press fails to do its job. I hope this series helps listeners take in the news with a more critical eye," says Basen.

The program will also explore the future challenges for PR practitioners and journalists at a time of shrinking newsroom budgets, increased demand for content, and a PR industry that continues to grow in size and sophistication.

Spin Cycles airs from Jan. 21 to Feb. 25 at 11 a.m. (11:30 NT) on CBC Radio One.


I think this is going to be a must listen programme. Clashes with Sunday morning mass for us, but I'll have to remember to tape it.

PR for the CBC is being handled by Toronto's Media Profile, btw. Smart firm with good people. Wonder if they might be able to convince the CBC to build a proper online press room...?

The National Priorities Project, a U.S.-based organization whose mission is "to educate the public on the impacts of federal tax and spending policies at the community level", has this genuinely astonishing ticker that keeps a running total of the cost to the U.S. taxpayer of the Iraq war.

As I'm posting this, their calculator is running at around $358,378,585,180

No, that's not a typo.


According to the most up-to-date and presumably authoritative figures I can find (at the CIA World Factbook site), Iraq's GDP is somewhere around $94.1 billion (2005 est.)

In other words, as David Weinberger and Paolo Valdemarin once noted, if Dubya really wanted control of Iraq that badly, it would have been one hell of a lot cheaper to just buy the whole darn country outright.

In fact, given the amount spent on the war to date, he could have picked up the bumper Costco-sized Iraq four-pack (now with 100% less Saddam!)

Just in case you need reminding, btw, the original budget for Operation Iraqi Freedom, back in March 2003, was in the order of $75 billion. Even that was an obscenely large figure.

Three hundred and fifty-eight BILLION. I feel sick.

(Description of how the NPP calculates the numbers.)

For all those Palm OS handheld owners out there - you Treo fans, lusting to get your hands on the Apple iPhone, with it's sexier-than-thou touch screen UI - here's a nice little simulator you can install today to start geeking your PDA brains out six months early.

And here's a video of the iPhone sim in action.

Teee heeee...

Holy serendipitous small world thingy, Batman!

Been spending a rather odd hour or so, trawling through my entire archive. Long story.

One of the things I happened across in my rambling was a post from October 2002 in which I'd pointed to a snort-inducingly hilarious series of essays posted to a site named Webservile.com

I happened to be up to my eyes in Web Services stuff at the time I wrote that post, working with some clients who were big into .NET, SOAP, UDDI and all that. Really quite horrifically dry, but outrageously hype-laden stuff.

The short-lived Webservile site, purporting to be edited by one "Wilfred Seymour Davis-Larson" (aka WSDL, another Web Services in joke) was a breath of fresh air, featuring such outstanding articles as "Acronym Shortage Threatens Web Services Community" and ".NET Saves Boy Down Well" ("In the early hours of the morning, .NET, Microsoft's platform for XML Web services, saved a five-year-old boy who fell down a well in Ottumwa, Iowa...").

Finding the site no longer active, I Googled around to see if I could find some archive of the stories somewhere. Well blow me down - turns out the perp was none other than Vancouver's own Darren Barefoot.

Sadly, the links to Darren's marvelous Webservile parodies appear to be broken. Perhaps his recent server switchover has b0rked the links. Hey, Darren! What's up with that?

[UPDATE 15 Jan: Darren responds in the comments, with an updated link to the Webservile site, now restored in all it's lunatic glory here]

A few days ago, I left an audio comment for Mitch Joel's podcast, wherein I rambled about many things (shoes and ships and sealing-wax... cabbages and kings).

As I'd just finished listening to that Snow Patrol album I heard so much about last year, I made some snarky remarks along the lines of "everything sounds like Coldplay now".

For the record: I take it back. Now that I've had a chance to listen to the record a few more times, I'm hooked. "Chasing Cars" and that duet with Martha Wainwright, in particular, are stuck in my head.

OK, so they do sound kind of like Coldplay, but in a good way.

Via Chuck Wilkins, on the YoungPRPros mailing list, two important rules to add to the canon:

Internet complaint rule:
Substance of an online complaint is inversely proportionate to the amount of space the author takes to make the complaint.

Internet ego rule:
Inflammatory Internet postings are 85 percent wounded ego, five percent fact, 10 percent egregious spelling errors.

Well who knew?

Via Bryan Person's blog, I've just learned (almost too late) that it's officially National Delurking Week, January 8-12.

If you've been reading for a while (or even if this is your first visit), don't be shy.

The server stats tell me I'm getting around 500 unique visits a day. Whoever you all are, now would be the perfect time to pop a note into that comment link below and say "hi". If you're blogging yourself, let me know that too - I'll subscribe.

Delurk thyself. You'll feel better for it.

Great minds apparently do think alike, sometimes (yeah, and "fools seldom differ", I know...)

Jean-Yves Stervinou and Seth Godin both seem to have arrived at almost the exact same devilishly brilliant new marketing idea within days of each other.

The idea: using "captchas" as a branding vehicle. As Seth says: "Everyone has this stuff now. Comments, sign ups, it's everywhere. We only want people, not computers. But it's way way too hard to decipher the writing.

What we need is a centralized captcha server that everyone can use for free. And how would it be monetized, you ask?

Easy. Logos.

It might be for soup or a server or an airline...

Type the brand you see above, please."

Jean-Yves arrives at almost exactly the same thought, but instead of posting, he demonstrates:


Genius!

A little flurry or two in Toronto the other night, temperatures yesterday morning just barely cold enough, for the first time this year, to don my gloves on the way to the subway.

It's January 11th and I still haven't needed to zip the snuggly lining into my winter coat.

Chances we'll be able to finally get a decent backyard ice rink in this year (third annual attempt): approximately nil.

On which note, Meg Hourihan, posted this splendid little epistle to husband Jason Kottke's blog:

Dear Mr. Old Man Winter,

Please consider this letter notice of your termination, effective immediately. Despite clear expectations and requirements -- January temperatures not to exceed 40° F, consistent snow and blustery conditions, minimum of one blizzard with white-out per annum, &c. &c. -- you have failed to date to meet expectations and deliver even rudimentary winter weather. A forecast high of 72° today in New York City is clear proof of your failure to do your job.

A replacement will be appointed immediately. Perhaps we will try a young go-getter for this role, someone who is willing to take on the many weather challenges of this magnificent season rather than rest on his "Great Winter of '02-'03" laurels.

Yours truly,
Mother Nature

Brilliant.

Which reminds me, if you haven't yet watched An Inconvenient Truth, please rent it this very weekend or, even better, sign up for your own free copy.

The inevitable iPhone post.

I thought I was going to get away without adding to the maelstrom of coverage on this, but I'm afraid I can't help myself.

For the record: yes, of course I want one. I want one so bad I can taste the metallic tang of those slick steel edges. But enough of that.

Hard on the heels of Apple's utterly phenomenal, nigh-on flawless launch of the Apple iPhone at yesterday's Macworld Expo, comes the (expected) news that Cisco - who still own the iPhone trademark in the U.S. - are filing suit.

Here’s the thing about this: it really doesn’t matter all that much what Apple or Cisco choose to do now. Apple has already come out with an absolute killer of a launch, and branded the thing deep into the minds of all who lust after it.

It is the iPhone, now and forever.

No matter who wins or how Apple may or may not be required to re-label it. Everyone's going to call it the iPhone.

Apple could even quietly concede, rename it the “Apple Phone”, the "iCall" - whatever. In many ways, they’ve already won the brand battle.

Try this out, for example. Paul Kedrosky has a terrific little keyword marketing research tool called Gindx. It uses Google to concatenate some simple searches -- taking a domain name and some keywords, and showing you where that domain ranks, in Googlejuice terms, for the keywords you specify.

Enter "cisco.com" in the Site field at Gindx, and "iPhone" in the keyword field; here's what you get:

"Here are the top Google results (out of 14,400,000 total) for keyword iphone:
http://www.apple.com/iphone/
http://www.apple.com/iphone/phone/
http://appleiphone.blogspot.com/
http://www.vocaltec.com/
http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/09/the-apple-iphone/

No address containing cisco.com was found in the first ten pages of Google results for iphone"

Try the same keyword search with "apple.com" in the Site field.

They've already won.

You just know that, two years from now, when the product has become firmly established as a major game-changer, everyone will be calling it the iPhone anyway. Hell - everyone was already calling it the iPhone two years before yesterday's launch. What the heck else would one call it?

Perhaps Jobs was crazy to come out and call it the iPhone, knowing that Cisco would go bonkers. Or perhaps he was just crazy like a fox...

[Bonus thought: fascinating to watch how this drama is being played out among blog posts and comments in the blogosphere. I was alerted to this post at one of the Cisco blogs, where Mark Chandler, their SVP and General Counsel, discusses the trademark infringement. The only way I happened across this post was through a comment left at Paul Kedrosky's blog by John Earnhardt, a senior staffer in Cisco's government affairs organization. Smart.]

New year... check.
New clients... check.
New workload... check.
New hires...?

Things are getting even busier here at Thornley Fallis. We're only at day nine of 2007, but we're looking set to just blow the doors off this year.

And we need your help!

We've just posted a few new career opportunities up at the main TFG site. If you're a PR pro at the top of your game, and you're ready to make a switch, what are you waiting for?

The BBC's venerable Newsnight program is currently running its second annual Geek Week series of films "from the cutting edge of technology".

As the Beeb's site points out: "We like to embrace new media here at Newsnight, and in a BBC TV News first we are putting all the Geek Week films out on the website and as podcasts before they air on television. How geeky is that?"

Very groovy.

Not part of Geek Week, per se, but also worthy of note is that Newsnight now runs regular special reports from Salam Pax, the original Baghdad blogger.

I well remember how truly strange it was to read Salam when he was first posting from downtown Baghdad during the early weeks of the shock and awe campaign. I remeber the fear when his posts dried up for three months, and the relief when he found a way to get back online through the help of an American journalist. Good stuff back then, even more interesting to re-read some of it and watch his new reports now.

[Hat tip to my brother, Gerard, for the Geek Week link]

...in the hands of a master.

1. Go to Amazon, Flickr, Google News or your favourite image-heavy site;
2. Delete everything in the address bar;
3. Paste this entire line of code into the address bar:

javascript:R=0; x1=.1; y1=.05; x2=.25; y2=.24; x3=1.6; y3=.24; x4=300; y4=200; x5=300; y5=200; DI=document.images; DIL=DI.length; function A(){for(i=0; i-DIL; i++){DIS=DI[ i ].style; DIS.position='absolute'; DIS.left=Math.sin(R*x1+i*x2+x3)*x4+x5; DIS.top=Math.cos(R*y1+i*y2+y3)*y4+y5}R++}setInterval('A()',5); void(0);

Hit Enter.

Woohoo! *snort*

[Via Chaising Daisy, by way of the Destructoid forums]

Oh, and remember to hit F5 before your eyes completely melt.

I'm overdue in getting to this, but thought it worth pointing to this AP report picked up by the Globe & Mail's Personal Tech section back in December.

The writer, Anick Jesdanun, does a good job of explaining why asymmetric home broadband packages continue to be such a pain in the neck for anyone doing much more than casual web surfing:

"The information superhighway isn't truly equal in both directions. Cable and phone companies typically sell asymmetrical Internet services to households, reserving the bulk of the lanes for downloading movies and other files and leaving the shoulders at most for people to share, or upload, files with others.

The imbalance makes less sense as the Internet becomes truly interactive ... Yet the ability to upload still lags — in some cases, downloads are 10 to 15 times faster."

This is something I've ranted and moaned about at length in the past and it continues to bug me. I'll accept that I'm not a typical broadband user, in some respects. As the article notes:

"Cable and phone providers insist they are keeping up with demand, in many cases increasing both upload and download speeds, but they say they haven't had a huge clamouring for symmetry."

Understandable. But as the wave of user generated rich media continues, the problem is going to become more apparent, and more irksome to many, many more users.

Renowned tech columnist, Robert X. Cringely, in his predictions for 2007, even goes so far as to suggest that this year will prove to be "The year the net crashed (in the USA)," as "Video overwhelms the net and we all learn that the broadband ISPs have been selling us something they can't really deliver."

Ouch. I really hope he's overstating that one, for dramatic effect, but I can't help feeling there's a bone of possible truth under the flesh of his hyperbole.

Note: Bob doesn't specifically say that asymmetry is the problem here - that's my inference, not his.

Windows Home Server, just announced today at CES in Las Vegas, looks like precisely the kind of product we could really use here chez O'Connor Clarke. From a first very quick run through the specs and product overview, I think it could turn out to be a boon for our little home network.

But until and unless they can put up a proper website about it, there's not a chance in hell I'm going to be exploring any further.

There are a few scraps of information available at the Microsoft Presspass site (the news release, a Q&A, and a couple of background documents) but rather than launch this promising product with a well-planned and informative website, they've opted for the humorous approach (and I'm using "humorous" in the loosest possible sense).

The site, goofily labelled the Center for Digital Amnesia Awareness, is a bigass piece of Flash, featuring some guy cast in the role of "intensely irritating fake doctor". As soon as you arrive at page one, this chap starts blathering on at you in a way that is very far from amusing and not even remotely enlightening.

As you walk through the sparse content sections on the site, the same bloke keeps popping up. There's no way to switch him off, no "skip intro" option, not even a mute button. Disabling Flash in youe browser only takes you to a single page that says you have to install Flash before you can go any further. Great.

Even the "Case Studies" featured on the site, aren't - it's the same annoying dude performing a series of cameos. By the second page, I was already shrieking "make it stop! Make the scary man go awayyyy!!"

I am exactly the target demographic for this product - and the launch site makes me want to punch my own computer full in the face. How smart is that?

As an aside, going back to that Time magazine cover story for a moment, I was a little surprised at the tide of snarky reaction to their "Person of the Year" choice (even the Ad Age piece I mentioned below refers to Time's choice as "widely reviled").

One of the most unnecessarily mean-spirited reactions was in the "Bad news" column of the Jan 1st Maclean's magazine. It seems impossible to get at their print archives online, but here's what the piece said:

TIME MARCHES ON
Time magazine decided to award its Person of the Year distinction to "you" this year, marking a low point for the venerable franchise. Not only did it miss the cultural shift brought on by the Internet age by at least a year, it over-looked many other potentially worthy recipients, from Donald Rumsfeld and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to Pope Benedict XVI and Vladimir Putin. Where do you go once you’ve named "everybody" the person of the year? Time is in the midst of a redesign and a shift to pre-weekend delivery, following a move made by Maclean's this year. We wish them well and look forward to seeing Time rejoin the ranks of serious newsweeklies.

Why so snarky? I spent a couple of hours of my Christmas downtime actually reading the "widely reviled" Time magazine cover story. It's a generally solid, interesting piece of journalism, and I really enjoyed it. OK, so the choice of "you" could indeed be considered a bandwagon-jumping publicity stunt - but if you actually take the time to read the whole piece, it's pretty good stuff.

What really chafes about Maclean's bitter little philippic, however, is all that smug nonsense about Time rejoining "the ranks of serious newsweeklies" and the patently absurd suggestion that Time's ongoing redesign and shift in publishing schedule is in some way "following" Maclean's lead.

Look - I really like the work they've been doing to revitalize Maclean's over the past year. In 2004, I'd almost completely stopped reading the thing, it had grown so tired and fusty. The current line up of columnists, and the overall zing of their revitalised editorial voice have made Maclean's, once more, a must read weekly for me.

And yet editors who live in glass houses should be awfully careful how they juggle their self-satisfied stones. The same issue in which Maclean's chooses to heap scorn on Time features a cover story titled "Why do we dress our daughters like skanks?" The cover photo is pure, disturbing cheesecake: a heavily-styled shot of an obviously underage girl, dressed as if she's an extra from a Britney Spears video shoot.

Classing your magazine as a "serious newsweekly" and simultaneously leading with a deliberately attention-grabbing, jailbait photo on your cover - that's just wrong.

Again - I'm enjoying the ongoing reinvention of Maclean's, for the most part. I wish them well and look forward to seeing them rejoin the ranks of the serious newsweeklies.

On the heels of Time Magazine kicking up a kerfuffle by dedicating their "Person of the Year" issue to "You", Advertising Age just announced that its pick for Agency of the Year is "The Consumer".

The contention of their editorial is simply that much of the most important commercial content created in the past year was that generated directly by amateurs and consumers.

They cite the infamous "Diet Coke & Mentos Experiment" as an example of the best of consumer-generated media, proclaiming that the success of this entertaining little clip - put together by "pair of Maine theater geeks" - led directly to a 15% spike in sales for Mentos mints.

OK, it's a cheap shot (in many senses), but a smart enough choice and a valid recognition that , at its best, consumer-generated content can have at least as big an impact as the output of traditional, high-cost ad shops.

A couple of key points from the article really resonate for me - they sound so close to some of the things I've been saying at conferences, seminars and in client meetings for the last few years. For example:

"... it's time to give up control and accept that consumers now control their brands. Of course, in some ways, they always have. A brand has only ever been as good as consumers' experience of it. The difference today is that consumers have lots of ways of communicating those experiences, and trust each other's views above marketers' overt sales pitches. Consequently, they're influencing marketing strategy as never before."

It's worth a read.

Happy to discover, via David Weinberger, that Jimmy Guterman has applied the paddles and breathed life back into his previously-mothballed blog.

Jimmy's one of my favourite writers in the tech/business/online media space. I've followed and enjoyed his work at the (sadly now defunct) Media Grok and Media UnSpun newsletters, the Industry Standard, and PaidContent.org. Good to see him back and blogging again.

Of course, even while his main blog was gathering cobwebs, Jimmy hadn't fully left us. He's been posting regularly to his blog on The Sandinista Project (described as "An open record of the development of a tribute to one of the strangest records ever made" - that being, the Clash's "Sandinista" album, which is indeed strange, in a brilliant way).

Thinking about Jimmy G, I was reminded of one of my favourite posts from his old blog, which appears to have disappeared into the ether, alas. Thanks to Google, I was still able to find it, though, and re-post here (for the benefit of posterity, etc. Hope Jimmy won't mind):

The Ten Commandments of Online Media

1. Thou shalt not rely on press releases.

2. Thou shalt check facts.

3. Thou shalt seek out new stories not being covered elsewhere.

4. Thou shalt speak frequently to a wide variety of informed sources who aren’t the usual suspects.

5. Thou shalt search out and quote people who don’t have a financial interest in the story.

6. Thou shalt write brief, informative, provocative leads.

7. Thou shalt provide context, both qualitatively and quantitatively.

8. Thou shalt not commit cliches or lazy writing.

9. Thou shalt not forget who thine audience is.

10. Thou shalt make thine own decision about what the most important part of the story is, not simply agree with conventional wisdom.

About 18 months ago, I stumbled across an interesting spreadsheet at the Newspaper Association of America's DigitalEdge site, listing the North American newspapers known to have podcasts of some sort at that point in time (the list was dated May, 2005).

Back then, there were 23 podcasts on the list, and I speculated that - at the rate of adoption podcasting was then enjoying - the number would hit 100 by the end of July.

If the NAA's researchers are to be trusted, it looks like I was way off the mark with that prediction. The most up-to-date version of the list I can find (downloadable Excel file, dated January 2006, here) catalogues a mere 40 North American newspaper podcasts.

I'm curious as to what the real number is today - 12 months since that list was last updated. Anyone know?

As I move into my sixth year of blogging, I still stumble every now and then when I think about just how much the media universe has changed since way back then.

One of the things I mentioned on the Inside PR podcast is that 2007 is the year we'll find out whether the blogosphere or the New York Times will win in one of the Long Bets placed five years ago. Click that link for the full story, but if you want the summary: in 2002, proto-blogger Dave Winer placed a bet with Martin Niesenholtz (CEO of NY Times Digital) to this effect:

"In a Google search of five keywords or phrases representing the top five news stories of 2007, weblogs will rank higher than the New York Times' Web site."

If that prediction proves accurate, Winer wins (and the proceeds are donated to the W3C); if the NYT still triumphs, Niesenholtz wins (proceeds to the Times' Neediest Cases Fund).

One of the questions that struck me when I was reminded of this the other night, is whether Martin Niesenholtz would have placed his money on the same side if he were making his bet today.

In five years we've seen a huge shift in attitudes at mainstream media outlets. The homepage of today's NY Times, for example, is positively littered with blogs, feeds, and opportunities to engage in the conversation. A long way from the dry online presence of the NYT five years ago.

Digging through my own archives in search of something else, I was reminded of an even bigger shift in attitudes at a different media giant. In this post, less than four years ago, I quoted from an article at the Online Journalism Review:

A journalist working for a major media company decides to start a personal Weblog in his spare time. His blog becomes popular (or not). His association with the media company is stated, but discreetly. He has the usual disclaimer: This Weblog is the opinion of Joe Journo, and not the company he works for. But what does the company think? If it's CNN, Time magazine or the Hartford Courant, it doesn't think -- it acts, killing the Weblog for reasons stated (and unstated).

CNN killed correspondent Kevin Sites' popular Weblog from Iraq. Time killed freelancer Joshua Kucera's personal Weblog, and most recently, the Hartford Courant killed former-columnist-turned-travel-editor Denis Horgan's Weblog. A CNN.com spokesperson told OJR previously, "CNN.com prefers to take a more structured approach to presenting the news. We do not blog." (my emphasis)

"We do not blog." Ha! Visit the CNN site today and you'll be able to find a whole host of blogs, podcasts and feeds. And Time magazine, of course, just caused a frenzy of back-slapping in the blogosphere with their "Person of the Year" issue, featuring "You" as their icon of choice. The Time site now prominently features links to the "Time Blogs" in their side bar.

I like to think that at least part of what's going on here is that we're gradually getting past what Robert Niles at the OJR calls: "The silliest, and most destructive, debate in journalism". The debate Robert derides is "that of "mainstream" vs. "citizen" journalism".

He's right to describe this as silly and destructive. It's a pointless argument that just will not die.

Yet while I agree with Robert's headline, and fully support the vigour of his overture ("Let's quit arguing the merits of "mainstream" versus "citizen" journalism and instead work together on "better" journalism."), I find that I can't quite side with his conclusion that "Journalism is journalism, no matter who does it, or where."

I don't think that's right. It has taken me a good while to think this through, and I've written about it a number of times before, but I'll try to reframe the thought here for what it's worth.

My issue with this point of Robert's argument is that, to my mind, journalism is not journalism no matter who does it. "Mainstream" and "citizen" journalism are different (and complementary) things - and vive la difference!

While I agree that the debate is silly and destructive, I'm inclined to think that way because so often it is framed as a "vs." - the implicit assumption being that one or other must triumph in some kind of blogs vs. MSM ultimate smackdown.

That's just plain wrong. One doesn't replace the other. It's the logical operator in the debate I'm taking issue with here - the whole "versus" thing.

I've been making this point so often over the last five years, I've even been tempted to rename this blog "AND Logic". That's what is at work here - AND logic, not OR. The two things are different, can co-exist, can even complement one another to their mutual benefit. (Which is kind of Robert's point, in the end, but we get there by different paths).

What I do here is not journalism. I work with a lot of journalists - I've some idea of how that particular sausage gets made. It sure ain't the same thing as I'm doing here.

Some of the best, most thoroughly researched blogs are worthy of the epithet "citizen journalism", for sure - but they're still blogs (and hurrah for that!).

My old friend David Akin phrased this best, just a few short months after he started blogging (in 2003):

"The output of a blog and the output of a journalist may, indeed, be similar but they are not the same thing nor, really, is it fair to compare them in a meaningful way.

Journalism, unlike blogging, is a process and a system that involves more than one individual. Journalism must be done by a writer, an editor, a researcher, a publisher, and a host of others." (my emphasis)

Journalism is a process. What I do here is write.

Or to butcher an old comment from Oscar Wilde:

Acting as Terry Fallis' stunt double for the InsidePR podcast the other night, I commented that this wasn't quite my first experiment with podcasting.

For those who may have missed it, here's a link to my inaugural podcast, from just over a year ago.

(Note: if you didn't grow up on a diet of British TV ads in the 70's and 80's, you may have absolutely have no idea what the graphic refers to, but click it anyway - you never know...)

Jeneane notes that, even though she was first to break the news of the BubbleShare acquisition this morning, it takes comments from Mathew Ingram and Mark Evans to actually get the news onto Techmeme's radar.

I guess the truth (as one rather mean-spirited and misogynistic commenter at Jeneane's blog pointed out) may be that the Techmeme editors were skewing in favour of a little editorial independence - assuming this was an editorial, not an algorithmic thing. Jeneane and I posted enthusiastic personal congratulations as friends of Albert, whereas Mathew and Mark, naturally, took a more sober and editorial approach (they're journalists - go figure).

There's another indicator in this though. Mathew and Mark have clearly risen to become two of the most influential voices in Canadian tech and business circles - and, by extension, among the most interesting and influential bloggers in North America and beyond. Between them, they represent something of a tech media gospel in Canuckian circles - a post on one of Mathew or Mark's main blogs is kind of the Canadian equivalent of getting TechCrunched or Scobleized.

There's a business opportunity for some entertaining Canadian Valleywag-type in there somewhere. I note that the domain lukeandjohn.ca is still available...

Hmmm... makes me think... if we've got Mathew and Mark, does that make Jeneane our Mary Magdalene...?

Outstanding news this morning from my mate Albert Lai, CEO at BubbleLabs/BubbleShare - they've just been snapped up by Kaboose, a terrific network of family-focused online properties.

Congratulations, Albert and team! I've ridden alongside Albert and some of his crew members for the last four years, watching as they pumped more and more energy and effort into building this thing.

No one I know works harder than Albert Lai, and he deserves every bit of success this deal brings. As Jeneane puts it, it's nice to see one of our Web 2.0 babies graduate.

One of the posts I've been stewing up in the background while battling this vile bug was an extended comment on Microsoft's latest curious exercise in blogger relations -- sending around 90 ultra high-end Acer Ferrari laptops, pre-loaded with Windows Vista to a bunch of influential bloggers.

The threads of this story are continuing to unravel and I'm not sure yet whether I think this joint Microsoft/AMD incentive program was brilliant or dreadfully ill-advised.

Loren Feldman of 1938 Media has the most entertaining take on the whole thing so far, and an admirably simple product review policy. Click for Loren's video take on the story.

*snort*

Doesn't leave much else to say on the subject really, does it?

Apologies for the lighter-than-usual blog output of late.

As you can imagine, we were rather busy celebrating Christmas in the O'Connor Clarke household in the last week or so - plenty of carousing, wassailling (sp?) and general making of merriment, precious little of our precious family time to spend on reading or posting in blogland. Christmas at home with three kids is a hoot. Glad to report that Santa delivered wishes galore all round, the turkey was a success (although another 24 hours in the brining mix wouldn't have hurt), and La Belle Saucisse outdid herself in the desert department with not one but two of her fantastic Trifles.

I had planned to start the year off well with some blog posts full of predictions, speculations, resolutions and such like, but I'm afraid I was struck down by the dreaded plurghs on New Year's Eve, and have been reduced to lying around sounding just barely more alive than Dick Clark in the last few days.

I did manage to gargle sufficient tea to clear my voice just long enough that I was able to warm Terry Fallis' usual seat alongside Dave Jones for this week's InsidePR podcast. Terry is off on a cruise with the family, and I was delighted to try to fill his shoes for this one episode, although you can probably tell, if you listen to it, that I'm only partially sentient and struggling to be coherent. Sorry Terry, just not as adept at this stuff as you.

Hoping to be back in the saddle properly by tomorrow - this enforced indolence is driving me nuts, and the work is piling up. In the meantime, a very, very Happy New Year to you all. Normal service will be resumed...