NevOn

Mainstream media knows more than you think

BBC News: Newspapers are far from dead, despite the challenge from online news and blogs, media executives have been told. [...] The challenge now for established newspaper groups is not just to respond to changes in the consumption of electronic media, but to start profiting from the new ways that audiences access their media.

I've deliberately truncated the full BBC story, reporting on the annual meeting of the World Association of Newspapers, as I want to highlight a point - that new-media channels like blogs are not a dire threat to established mainstream media if mainstream media embraces these new channels, and not resist them.

It's become literally self-evident that blogs in particular are here to stay and those members of the mainstream media - whether print or broadcast - who embrace them will find that they will help open up new channels to build relationships with readers, viewers and listeners in new and different ways.

They are evolutionary and will help mainstream media make the jump through hyperspace (I think that's an apt Star Wars metaphor) to reach a new plateau of loyalty-creation with those readers, viewers and listeners.

It's still embryonic and some of the statistics about newspaper circulation growth quoted in the BBC story (see below) could maintain some of the complacency and denial exhibited by some media when it comes to the subject of blogs - read this story in USA Today, for instance, for such an example. Actually, best to see it as absolute cluelessness by the journalist and his editor, as Don Giannatti so beautifully points out.

Anyway, the BBC report shows the sign of the current mainstream media times.

On the one hand, things aren't looking too bad:

• global newspaper sales hit a new daily high of 395 million in 2004
• the five largest markets are China, with 93.5 million copies sold daily; India (78.8 million); Japan (70.4 million); the United States (48.3 million); and Germany (22.1 million)
• the audience for newspaper websites grew 32% last year, and 350% over five years from a very low base
• 2004 saw the best advertising performance in four years, with a revenue increase of 5.3%

And on the other hand:

"Newspapers are clearly undergoing a renaissance through new products, new formats, new titles, new editorial approaches, better distribution and better marketing," [Timothy Balding, WAN director-general] said. "Despite the incredible competitive challenges in the advertising market, newspapers have more than held their own and their revenues are strongly on the increase again."

But he warned that although newspapers' online revenues were on the increase, this did not mean the internet posed no threat to the industry.

Speakers [at the WAN meeting] cautioned against complacency, predicting that free papers, online news sites, and the spread of blogs and other non-mainstream news sources would put growing pressure on the readership of traditional newspapers.

I think the point's clear. And I also think more journalists and editors  'get it' about blogs than many bloggers think. Take a look at editorsweblog.org to see what I mean.

The consequences of email blacklisting

During last weekend, Shel and I learned that the domain of For Immediate Release, our podcast blog, was included in a couple of email blacklists. These are databases that include the addresses of domains known to be the source for spam email. And on Monday, I learned that my domain, the domain of this blog, was also on a couple of such lists.

As you can imagine, we were flabbergasted. Thankfully, both these issues were speedily resolved.

Yesterday Shel documented the story in some detail. We devoted a major part of yesterday's edition of our bi-weekly show to talking about our experiences and questioning how such things happen and how to resolve them.

The reason I'm posting about this is to draw your attention to Shel's post and the very interesting conversation that's now developing there - as I write this post, there are 26 comments in 24 hours. That's quite a conversation going on.

If you have a comment or opinion on the thorny issue of email spam, blacklisting and whitelisting, email policies and related topics, head on over to Shel's blog and join the conversation.

The Hobson and Holtz Report - Podcast #37: May 30, 2005

Content summary: Listeners' comments (on podcast vertigo and rich media search; full-content RSS feeds are the way to go; garbled ID3 tags); getting on an email blacklist - and getting off it; more Naked Conversations; tips on presentations; Flash-based RSS aggregator; good and bad business podcast listening; Flash-based media players and MP3 files; Desert Island Discs; the challenges of communicating the EU Constitution.

Show notes for May 30, 2005

Welcome to For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report, a 73-minute conversation recorded live from Concord, California, USA, and Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Download the file here (MP3, 29.2MB), or sign up for the RSS feed to get it and future shows automatically. (For automatic synchronization with your iPod or other digital player, you’ll also need software such as the FeedDemon RSS aggregator, or the free ipodder or DopplerRadio).

In this edition:

Intro:

• 00:28 Shel introduces the show; what this show's about; how to give your feedback; show notes

Discussion on listeners' comments:

• 02:09 Scott Solomon on podcast vertigo and developments in rich media search
• 05:26 Mike Strock likes full-content RSS feeds, not extracts, which enable you to read everyting when you're offline
• 10:10 Stuart Bruce has some problems with garbled characters in the MP3 file on his Tungsten T5 - is it the ID3 tags?

Features:

• 15:10 Email blacklisting and whitelisting - what do you do when your domain gets on an anti-spam blacklist? It just happened to us.
• 26:43 New blog book chapters on Naked Conversations; how Trevor Cook's savaging of the chapter on PR resulted in content changes; Trevor's 500 words to redress the balance; how online content critiques help the book's credibility
• 34:52 From Our Correspondent Down Under: Lee Hopkins - tips on presentations; update on Media Tuner Flash-based RSS aggregator and receiving podcasts; business podcasts: what makes good listening and what doesn't; Flash-based media players and creating MP3 files that work
• 42:47 Shel's and Neville's Desert Island Discs

Short Take:

• 60:25 European Union Constitution - the French vote 'no'; the challenges of communicating a mammoth and complex topic

Outro:

• 67:42 Neville outros the show; how to give your feedback; show notes
• 68:52 Shel intros the music and the band; outro music

Links for the blogs, individuals, companies and organizations we discussed or mentioned in the show:

Intro - PR Week, Neville's interview in PR Week.

Listeners' comments discussion - Scott Solomon, Chad Dickerson, Open Text, Google, Podscope, Copernic, Blinkx, Mike Strock, FeedDemon, Stuart Bruce, Dan York, Tungsten T5, iPod, iPodder, Pocket Tunes, Windows Media Player, London geek dinner, Robert Scoble, Hugh McLeod, ID3 tags, Stuart Bruce: Why blogs are an essential part of the democratic process.

Features - Steve O'Keefe, IAOC, surbl.org, blackhole list definition, Outblaze, Don Dunnington, Spam Soap, Cloudmark Safetybar, Naked Conversations, Robert Scoble, Shel Israel, Chapter 12, Chapter 2, Chapter 7, Trevor Cook, Trevor rebuts the PR chapter, Wiley, O'Reilly, We The Media, Michael Hyatt, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Lee Hopkins, Seth Godin, Beyond Bullet Points, Media Tuner, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Pan-Galactic Gargleblaster, Big Contact, PodcastNYC, Audacity, LAME MP3 encoder, Jeroen Wijering, example playlist of FIR shows in a Flash MP3 player, Wimpy Player, Geek News Central.

Desert Island Discs Special - Music: I Want You (Beatles), Crystal Frontier (Calexico), Lonesome Fiddle Blues (String Cheese Incident), You're So Vain (Carly Simon), Chocdust Torture (Phish), Without You (Harry Nilsson), Gypsy Fire (Hot Tuna), Feelin' Good (Nina Simone / Joe Claussell Remix), Beethoven 9th Symphony 2nd Movement (Berlin Philharmonic), Get Over It (Eagles), Tangled Up In Blue (Bob Dylan), Rudy (Supertramp), The Roadhouse Blues (The Doors), It's a Sin (Pet Shop Boys), Dark Star (The Grateful Dead from 1969 Live Dead EP), Calling All Stations (Genesis). Books: Altered Carbon (Richard Morgan), One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez). Luxury Gadgets: Barcalounger, solar-powered music player powering an ever-lasting battery with dual-listening headphones plus great speakers. [Most items should be available for purchase from your nearest Amazon. Except the luxury gadgets. Probably.]

Short Take - European Union Constitution, French 'no' vote, Dutch vote on June 1, Dutch Referendum Commission, EC Communications Commissioner Margot Wallstrom.

Outro - Daily Source Code, Podsafeaudio.com, RIAA, Laundr-O-mat (launches player), Samantha Murphy, For Immediate Release, A Shel of My Former Self, NevOn.

If you have comments or questions about this show, or suggestions for our future shows, email us at comments@forimmediaterelease.biz, or call the Comment Line at +1 206 984 0931. You can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments, if you wish (max. 5Mb attachment, please!). We'll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.

So, until Thursday June 2...

(Cross-posted from For Immediate Release, Shel's and my podcast blog.)

Who understands the EU constitution?

So the French voted 'non' yesterday to the proposed European Union constitution. That shouldn't be a surprise, really, given the broad lack of general understanding in Europe about what the constitution means and what all its effects would be.

You can't say there's not plenty of information about the constitution - take a look at A Constitution for Europe, for instance, the EU website that has an enormous amount of information. That link is to the English-language site: the same info is there in 19 other languages.

Yet if you do wade through much of that information, it raises lots of questions in one's mind that are pretty hard to find clear answers to. That isn't helped when you listen to all the politicians' jaw-jawing from every different and conceivable point of view, all of them with different axes to grind.

So what's the average EU citizen to do? As with most things, if there's something you don't fully understand, the safe route is to not go with it. That looks like what 55% of French voters did, mixed in to be sure with lots of other French issues which undoubtedly played a role.

This Wednesday, the Dutch go to the polls to vote on the constitution. There's been official communication about it - I've had two booklets delivered during recent weeks - and the Dutch Referendum Commission has detailed information on their website. Most Dutch media are pro-constitution, though, so the reporting has hardly been impartial.

In spite of all that, many observers here expect the Dutch vote to be 'nee' as well.

Here's an interesting statement on the Dutch government's news website last month:

A government survey has found that 74% of voters consider it important that the EU have a constitution. It has also found that voters who receive information about the constitution are more likely to vote in favour of it.

Heh! Do you think they might be on to something?

Getting information is one thing, though. Understanding what it means is another. The BBC News site has a simple but pretty good analysis of the constitution's major points with some explanations on what they mean.

As I mentioned earlier, it still raises lots of questions. I'd say it's time to go back to the drawing board, not so much on the draft constitution itself, but more on looking again at what's needed to help more people gain a fuller understanding on what it all means.

EC Communications Commissioner Margot Wallstrom really has her work cut out.

Related NevOn posts:

• EU signs new Constitution
• Making the EU relevant

Boeing takes second step with 777 blog

Aircraft maker Boeing launched a new blog ten days ago - Flight Test Journal, a place where the engineers and test pilots of Boeing's new 777-200LR Worldliner talk about their work in getting the world's longest-range commercial airplane ready for commercial service.

Only two posts so far, but it looks like the scene has been set by Joe Kranak, Chief Engineer, Test and Validation, 747, 767, 777, for for how this blog will develop:

As chief engineer for testing and validation for the 777, I’d like to welcome you to an inside look at the testing leading up to certification of the Worldliner. This journal is your ticket aboard. [...] In the coming weeks you’ll hear from some of our crew at Edwards AFB — people in the cockpit and people who ensure that everything is in place each morning when it’s time for “wheels up.” [...] So, we’re hoping you’ll find it a fascinating ride. I think it’s really going to open your eyes to the remarkable people and machines that make up the Boeing flight test program.

Even with just two posts so far, this blog conveys a refreshing informality and insight into some aspects of the work of some pretty skilled people that you'd likely never get a glimpse of otherwise. Just take a look at this example, posted a few days ago by Suzanna Darcy-Hennemann, Chief Project Pilot, Boeing 777-200LR Worldliner:

[...] I've been an experimental test pilot for Boeing for more than seven years, and I will tell you that very few things catch us off guard because as a team we prepare so throughly. I've been involved with this particular airplane for more than a year-and-a-half. I took part in early engineering meetings when designs and specifications were being formed. That gave me the opportunity to take the information from those meetings back to our team of test pilots. In that way we're able to give the program recommendation from the pilot's perspective. As the airplane was being built, I visited the factory regularly and watched the pieces come together. It's always a thrill to see ideas and designs become a reality!

Suzanna's post includes her photo. That's a perfect touch, which adds greatly to her post to help make a real connection with Boeing. Would you get that just from reading the dry description about the new plane, or even watching one of the videos?

The blog has RSS feeds but not direct commenting - if you want to comment, you have to email them in from a link on the blog's main page. Interesting, though - if you visit the guidelines page, there's a link there to the comments page on Randy's Journal, the blog by Randy Baseler, Vice President Marketing, Boeing Commercial Airplanes, that was launched in mid January.

The new blog is a terrific step in sharing commentary and opinion on a subject that most people would only find out about through traditional communication means (TV, print media, etc). And without any of the informality.

As for Randy's Journal, that can no longer be accused of being just a tarted-up press release as it's undergone a design refresh, with a similar look and feel to the new Flight Test Journal, and has direct commenting.

It looks like Boeing now has more of a plan about blogs and where they fit into their overall marketing and communications.

(Hat tip: Blog Business Summit via Constantin's Delicious Digest)

Solving PDF irritations in Firefox

Don't you find it really irritating when you click on a link on a website or blog and then discover that the link is to a PDF file? That usually happens after you've clicked the link. The PDF starts loading and takes forever because it's a big file, or has loads of graphics, it's a slow connection, etc.

Part of the irritation is the unexpectedness of it. Too many sites just don't tell you there's a PDF at the other end of that link (and, increasingly, other file types - big MP3s, for instance). Poor site design, in my view, with little thought for the "user experience."

If you use Firefox, there is a great solution - PDF Download, an extension for Firefox by Denis Remondini, which lets you choose whether you want to view the PDF file inside the browser (as PDF or HTML) or download it.

So with this extension installed, when you click on a link that's to a PDF file, you get a dialog like this -

No more surprises. Thanks, Denis, very useful.

When travel isn't pretty

Regular listeners to For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report will know that my co-presenter, Shel Holtz, travels a lot. Much more than I do at the moment. In fact, during the past month, Shel's co-presented our show from the road on six occasions. And there's more travel for him coming up in June.

So I'm not surprised to hear why Shel's started Road Weary, his new blog:

[...] I need a place to vent, to kvetch, to complain. This is it. Welcome to my life on the road. If you need to know any more than this, I have a business web site and a blog dedicated to the work I do, and you're welcome to visit either or both. But this blog, this blog is just about business travel. And it isn't pretty.

If you want a good source of blunt comment and opinion on a road warrior's life, this is the place.

Shel, I'm looking forward with a kind of morbid fascination to reading some horror stories!

Star Wars is simply a great story

Ten days after it opened, I finally managed to see Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith yesterday. And what a phenomenal film it is! If you haven't seen it yet, do go. And if you do plan to and don't want any spoilers, then don't read the rest of this post.

There are plenty of film reviews out there, and plenty of different individual opinions about the film, the acting, the dialogue and the special effects - try these, for example. I thought all of it was simply terrific.

Two things struck me especially strongly about this film, both to do with acting and characterization.

The first is the brilliant portrayal of Anakin Skywalker by Hayden Christensen. This is an actor who without doubt has grown substantially in ability since his first appearance as Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones three years ago. In this latest film, he is believable and makes for compelling watching as the tortured and lost soul who is Anakin Skywalker and who becomes Darth Vader.

Watching him progress from confusion and doubt (about himself, primarily) to warped denial and the awful catalyst for the eventual death of his pregnant wife Padmé Amidala (acted by Natalie Portman) was quite something. Deep and dark, definitely not a film for small kids.

The second thing is the relationship and inter-reactions between the characters of Anakin Skywalker and Chancellor Palpatine, played equally brilliantly by Ian McDiarmid. Seeing one human being consistently manipulating another in the pursuit of raw and absolute power was quite breathtaking.

Great acting means acting a great story, and this film is that. Yes, I've read some reviews and commentaries that talk about wooden acting and lame storylines. I don't agree at all, but that debate will have no end. For me, this film - and all the Star Wars films - are simply a great story, a variation on a timeless theme about good and evil, love, trials and tribulations, having dreams and vision, and so on. It's a winning formula, every time.

I thought the final part of the film, following Anakin's conversion into Darth Vader, set a pretty seamless transition to Episode IV, the original Star Wars film released in 1977. How the newly-born Luke and Leia were separated to protect them from their father, Darth Vader on the bridge of a star destroyer, the crew below in uniforms that were those in the later (original) films, the partly-built Death Star visible through a window - all elements that bridge the gap between this last of the new trilogy with the first of the original trilogy.

The circle is now complete, to quote one of the oft-said lines in this film series. It makes me want to watch the original trilogy again...

[Technorati tag: starwars ]

Nokia's rap on the knuckles

BBC News: Phone maker Nokia has been reprimanded by Finland's financial market watchdog and stock exchange for not releasing positive earnings news quickly enough. Listed in New York and Helsinki, Nokia followed US rules but did not abide by Finland's, the regulators said. Nokia should have told investors about the improved fourth-quarter earnings and sales on 14 January, and not have waited until 27 January as it did. Nokia shares jumped more than 6% when the good news came out on 27 January.

From reading this concise BBC News story today, plus other news reports on the net, it's hard to see how Nokia could have made such a high-profile error like this, given their knowledge and significant experience under the regulatory frameworks of multiple jurisdictions.

It looks like Nokia got off lightly, a rap on the knuckles, with the Finnish regulators giving them the benefit of the doubt (read the statement from the Helsinki stock exchange). A one-time benefit, no doubt.

Now this from Nokia's spokesperson quoted in the BBC report:

"We are a multi-listed company and we are obliged to follow the laws of all countries," spokeswoman Arja Suominen said. "According to our understanding, rules gave us time to communicate. Of course in the future we will take the decision into consideration."

I'd say the communicators need to be 100% familiar with the exact disclosure requirements in each jurisdiction, even if no one else in the company appears to be.

Yet having said that, I know from my own experience that it can sometimes not be an easy task to correctly interpret the sometimes vaguely-worded disclosure requirements of stock exchanges.

In The Netherlands, for instance, the Euronext exchange in Amsterdam had a helpful and useful booklet at one time that sets out the matter of disclosure by listed companies - when, how and under what circumstances. (That booklet doesn't seem to exist any more as I can't locate it on the Euronext website.)

But the over-riding factor on disclosure and when to disclose relied on what to many people was too vague a criterion - in essence, you had to make a public announcement on anything that might affect the share price, up or down. As to what 'anything' might be, that was left to corporate common sense - if you have reason to believe that a given event or circumstance could affect your share price, then you disclose. You err on the side of disclosure, not the other way around.

While I can imagine that narrowing such a seemingly-vague condition isn't easy, with so many variables, it would lessen anyone's misunderstanding - and, hence, aid their understanding - if it were a lot clearer.

So to help communicators get fully in the picture on disclosure requirements, whatever the stock exchange, regulators need to ensure their requirements are clear so that the communicators get a chance to actually understand them.

The Hobson and Holtz Report - Podcast #36: May 26, 2005

Content summary: Listeners' comments (on Autodesk's blog and podcast combo; which non-tech companies use blogs; how to structure Desert Island Discs); podcasting in the news: going mainstream; Blogebrity and reality or not; looking for writers via blog posts; the virtues of print; RSS comes to Microsoft's Knowledge base; the London geek mega-dinner next month.

Show notes for May 26, 2005

Welcome to For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report, a 55-minute conversation recorded live from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and San Antonio, Texas, USA.

Download the file here (MP3, 22MB), or sign up for the RSS feed to get it and future shows automatically. (For automatic synchronization with your iPod or other digital player, you’ll also need software such as the FeedDemon RSS aggregator, or the free ipodder or DopplerRadio).

In this edition:

Intro:

• 00:29 Neville introduces the show; Shel's hotel coffee desire; how to give your feedback; show notes

Discussion on listeners' comments:

• 02:19 Robin Capper on the first corporate CAD software blog/podcast combination
• 04:48 Dan York asks about the top 5 non-tech companies who use blogs, wikis, etc; an overview of some resources with information
• 10:07 Lee Hopkins with advice on structuring our Desert Island Discs show (coming on Monday)

Feature:

• 12:02 Podcasting in the news again - Chad Dickerson's podcast vertigo; the value of comprehensive show notes; a podcast as a conversation developer; intranets for delivering podcasts internally; audio as an aid to comprehension and retention; mainstream media take up of podcasting; music is the big growth driver; tech developments, hardware and software

Short Takes:

• 37:10 See who's on the A, B and C lists in Blogebrity magazine. But is it real or fake?
• 39:39 "Writers wanted!" blog posts - how the search is going
• 42:15 Reminding us of the virtues of print - the US Print Council's traditional campaign
• 44:30 Microsoft's Knowledge Base content now available via RSS feeds
• 48:38 London geek dinner on June 7 - 154 signed up so far!

Outro:

• 49:37 Shel outros the show; getting today's show online and doing the show notes - timings; how to give your feedback
• 50:40 Neville intros the music and the band; outro music

Links for the blogs, individuals, companies and organizations we discussed or mentioned in the show:

Listeners' comments discussion - Robin Capper, Autodesk's Realize Your Ideas Tour blog, Dan York, IBM bloggers, Microsoft bloggers, General Motors executive blog, The New PR Wiki, CEO Blogs List, CorporateBlogging.Info, CEO Intranet List, Intel, Disney podcasts, Ragan Communications, The Tinbasher Blog, Kodak, Lee Hopkins, Desert Island Discs, iPod.

Feature - Chad Dickerson's podcast vertigo, InfoWorld, Technorati, PubSub, Podscope, Darren Barefoot, Potkast, Google, Dave Winer, Doc Searls, Raytheon, Jonathan Marks, Apple, iTunes, Winamp, Winamp iPod plugin, BBC, Newsweek, NPR, ABC, NBC, The Observer blog, Business Week Online, Adam Curry, Adam Curry's Podcast Show on Sirius Satellite Radio; KYOU Radio, Kazaa, RIAA, Garageband, Propaganda, Mixcast Live, Boku, Skype, Constantin Basturea, FeedBurner.

Short Takes - Steve Rubel, Blogebrity, People, National Enquirer, Contagious Media Showdown, Crying While Eating, seeking freelance writers: Neville's post and Fredrik's post, IABC Memberspeak, IABC Job Bank, US Print Council, Pressbox, Microsoft, Microsoft PressPass, Nooked Directory, London geek dinner, Robert Scoble, Hugh McLeod, Stuart Henshall, Bill Campbell.

Outro - Daily Source Code, Chance, Garageband.com, Say What You Will, For Immediate Release, A Shel of My Former Self, NevOn.

If you have comments or questions about this show, or suggestions for our future shows, email us at comments@forimmediaterelease.biz, or call the Comment Line at +1 206 984 0931. You can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments, if you wish (max. 5Mb attachment, please!). We'll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.

So, until Monday May 30...

(Cross-posted from For Immediate Release, Shel's and my podcast blog.)

Hot Recorder is hot for podcasters!

If you're a podcaster, and you don't have any kind of professional-type hardware (a mixer, for instance), and you're looking for almost the perfect way to record interviews via Skype relying just on software, then this is the solution for you.

Purely by chance, I discovered HotRecorder this afternoon. And let me tell you straightaway - this is HOT! It is perfect for recording both ends of a Skype conversation, so perfect for podcasters doing interviews.

No fiddling with things like virtual audio cables (with which I've had nothing but nightmares) and no re-configuring anything in your Windows set up. No tweaking your sound settings. Just install HotRecorder, reboot your PC - you don't have to, but I recommend it - and you're good to go.

I've been testing it this afternoon, and it works perfectly. Then Shel called me on Skype from the airport in San Antonio, Texas, and I recorded the call. Absolutely perfect! The sound quality is simply outstanding, as good as any I've heard by podcasters using professional equipment. It's certainly far better than the sound quality you typically get with using Skype and a virtual audio cable set up.

HotRecorder is free. But, it records in its own proprietary file format, which of course is useless if you want to take a recording and include it in a podcast, because you can't.

But there is a solution!

If you pay $14.95 for the Premium version, that also gives you access to a file converter, currently in beta, which lets you convert Hot Recorder files into either WAV or OGG Vorbis files. From there, it's an easy step to convert that output to MP3 files using, for instance, Audacity.

I've not seen any one yet talking about HotRecorder as a podcaster's dream software solution. Well, I'm talking about it. This really is hot - get it now!

Time pressure...

Imagine - no real time to blog! That's been where I've been at all this week, hence pretty light posting in recent days. No signs of that improving, sorry to say, until early next week.

This is also affecting my ability to respond promptly to comments left on various posts. Lots of great conversation-starters, and the ball's in my court on most of them. Same with email.

Shel and I finished recording today's edition of The Hobson & Holtz Report podcast an hour or so ago. Earlier than usual as Shel's traveling and wrapped up in meetings all day. Unfortunately, that means we probably won't get the MP3 file up and available via the RSS feed until Shel gets back home late tonight (his time, PDT), unless he's able to get online at the airport while he waits for his flight. So the show notes won't be posted on our blogs until during tomorrow morning (my time, CET).

Just time today for a couple of quickies, both about RSS:

• Microsoft makes all Knowledge Base articles available via RSS feeds. Huge development - access via RSS to everything technical you need to know about all Microsoft products. (via Robert Scoble)

• RSS: full feed or extracts? I commented about this in a post last week on getting more from your RSS feed. My firm view is if you publish less than a full RSS feed, I won't subscribe to it. So what happens to writers whose thoughts and opinions I enjoy reading? People like Chris Pirillo and BL Ochman, for instance, both of whom publish less than full feeds? Well, I still have their feeds in FeedDemon. But, frankly, I'll be skipping through them pretty quickly from now on as I'll be focusing on those feeds that have complete content. I do all my blog reading in my RSS reader, so you'll need to figure out some new ways to drive traffic to your blog or website.

[UPDATE: For today's show, Shel managed to get a wireless network connection at the airport and post the podcast (MP3, 22Mb). That meant I could do the show notes earlier, which I posted this evening Amsterdam time.]

Knowing right from wrong is intuitive

Last month, 119 applicants to Harvard Business School followed a link on a Business Week message board to access a website containing confidential information about their admittance, a Financial Times report says. Harvard decided this constituted hacking and Kim Clark, the dean of the business school, decided the applicants would all now be rejected.

This quote by Kim Clark puts the debate about ethics in PR and other aspects of organizational communication into stark perspective:

"Our mission is to educate principled leaders who make a difference in the world," he explained. "To achieve that, a person must have many skills and qualities, including the highest standards of integrity, sound judgment and a strong moral compass - an intuitive sense of what is right and wrong. Those who have hacked into this website have failed to pass that test."

The FT reports that a poll taken by the business school's own newspaper showed that 70 per cent of Harvard's MBA students approved of the dean's stance. Many students spoke of the importance of protecting the Harvard brand.

The full story has a good analysis discussion on ethics in business and education including opinions from the London Business School and INSEAD.

Financial Times | A lesson in moral leadership (paid sub required)

Manage your iPod with Winamp

News earlier this week that the next version of iTunes will enable you to sync your podcasts directly with your iPod, without needing separate podcatching software, has been eclipsed by this news in Wired News about Winamp:

iPod users are raving about a plug-in that makes the Winamp digital jukebox a better way to manage the iPod than Apple's iTunes. The plug-in, called ml_iPod, allows iPod users to bypass iTunes and manage music collections in Winamp instead. The iPod is supposed to work with iTunes only. A new version of the software was released Monday.

The only time I use iTunes is when I want to sync podcasts (and music) with my iPod Mini. My usual digital music player is Winamp, so I'm pleased to hear this news. Others feel the same, too:

[...] The ml_iPod plug-in has been downloaded half a million times. [...] The plug-in works with all varieties of the iPod, but some users have trouble getting the software to work with the iPod Shuffle. [ml_iPod programmer] Fisher said there are plans to make the plug-in available for other digital music players.

A new version 5.091 of Winamp was released last week, a security fix. I commented in Monday's podcast that I'd had problems with version 5.09 not playing some MP3 files. Looks like the updated version has the fix for that, as those MP3s now play in 5.091.

The Hobson and Holtz Report - Podcast #35: May 23, 2005

Content summary: Listeners' comments (on Rush Limbaugh podcasting, building trust for a blog, tech issues with podcasts and iPods, guest hosting FIR, creating an RSS feed for blog comments); Kensington lock hack follow up; a savage view of Naked Conversations; favourite podcasts and how to produce them; Flash-ing round workplace restrictions on browsers and aggregators; Desert Island discs; seeking freelance writers via blogs; creating a list of CEO intranet blogs.

Show notes for May 23, 2005

Welcome to For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report, a 75-minute conversation recorded live from Concord, California, USA, and Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Download the file here (MP3, 30MB), or sign up for the RSS feed to get it and future shows automatically. (For automatic synchronization with your iPod or other digital player, you’ll also need software such as the FeedDemon RSS aggregator, or the free ipodder or DopplerRadio).

In this edition:

Intro:

• 00:30 Shel introduces the show; how to give your feedback; show notes; about the show - at the intersection or the collision?

Discussion on listeners' comments:

• 03:05 Mike Wing's link to IBM CEO interview; trackbacks from other blog posts to our interview with Mike
• 05:27 Scott Solomon on Rush Limbaugh podcasting his radio show; on like-minded thinking for building trust for a blog; it's the trust networks that matter, not the reader volume
• 10:45 Dan York with a technical question about some podcasts not playing on his iPod - including this one! Anyone else with such issues?
• 18:42 Sam Whitmore on guest hosting FIR
• 21:04 Christopher Carfi on getting an entire view on the conversation - creating an RSS feed for comments with Movable Type and TypePad; issues on reading content in an RSS reader puts the onus on the writer to make the content compelling

Features:

• 32:24 Follow up on hacking the Kensington computer lock - what's the word from Kensington? Nothing yet; a look at how some of the conversations around the blogosphere are developing
• 35:37 Trevor Cook savages Naked Conversations - the editor doesn't get it, says Trevor; regulatory issues on disclosures
• 43:43 From Our Correspondent Down Under: Lee Hopkins - asks what are your favourite business podcasts; looking for audio guides on how to produce podcasts; on a Flash-based alternative for employees of a company that doesn't permit browsers or RSS aggregators; what are your favourite Desert Island Discs?
• 58:35 Seeking freelance writers via blogs and word of mouth - Neville's and Fredrik Wacka's simultaneous blog posts and why they're doing this
• 63:17 Shel's list of CEO intranet blogs on The New PR Wiki - building a great resource

Outro:

• 65:28 Neville outros the show; how to give your feedback
• 66:40 Improved audio quality for this show - we have fixed it but we're not sure how...
• 67:45 Shel intros the music and the band; outro music

Links for the blogs, individuals, companies and organizations we discussed or mentioned in the show:

Intro - IAOC, AA, AAA.

Listeners' comments discussion - Mike Wing, Conference Calls Unlimited, Hans Mestrum, Scott Solomon, Rush Limbaugh, BBC podcasts, Adam Curry, Daily Kos, Wonkette, Dan York, iPodder, iTunes, iPod, Winamp, Windows Media Player, iTunes to directly support podcasts, Dawn & Drew, Starbucks, T-Mobile, Bill Gates, Ericsson, Samsung, Nokia, Sam Whitmore's Media Survey, Forbes.com, Closet Deadhead, ZDTV, Sam's interview with InfoWorld and PC World (MP3, 19Mb), Pete Shinbach, Christopher Carfi, Johnnie Moore, Movable Type, TypePad, Six Apart, Expression Engine, Chad Dickerson, NewsGator, FeedDemon, Chris Pirillo, Lockergnome.

Features - Kensington, blog posts (on Icerocket), Alan Jenkins, Darren Barefoot, Steve Rubel, Larry Borsato, The Gadget Guy, Trevor Cook, Robert Scoble, Shel Israel, Naked Conversations, SEC, PR Newswire, Business Wire, Euronext, David Parmet, Robert French, BL Ochman, Lee Hopkins, Heidi Miller, PodcastAlley, Audacity, Daily Source Code, Podcast Brothers, Podcastingnews.com, Desert Island Discs, Dan Bricklin, Software Garden, Joel Spolsky, Fog Creek Software, GodCast Network, Behind the Scenes, Desert Island Discs, seeking freelance writers: Neville's post and Fredrik's post, IABC Memberspeak, CEO Intranet List, Constantin Basturea, The New PR Wiki.

Outro - Skype, Stuart Henshall, Bill Campbell, Skype Journal, The Evil Genius Chronicles, Bullet Called Life, The Girl I've Never Seen (MP3, 6.7Mb), For Immediate Release, A Shel of My Former Self, NevOn.

If you have comments or questions about this show, or suggestions for our future shows, email us at comments@forimmediaterelease.biz, or call the Comment Line at +1 206 984 0931. You can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments, if you wish (max. 5Mb attachment, please!). We'll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.

So, until Thursday May 26...

(Cross-posted from For Immediate Release, Shel's and my podcast blog.)

Podcasting is almost mainstream

Is podcasting really starting to move as a serious business communication tool, never mind it's entertainment appeal? Yet more signs:

1. iTunes to directly support podcasts

Engadget via Charlene Li:

Steve Jobs just revealed at the D: All Things Digital Conference that iTunes 4.9 will add support for podcasts. With one click you’ll be able to subscribe to different feeds and have them automatically delivered to your iPod without using a third-party app like iPodder. You’ll be able to search through a directory of available podcasts (producers will be able to register their podcasts with the iTunes Music Store), but users will have the option of adding whatever feeds they want to iTunes. The other big news: Jobs says that he would consider selling podcasts through the iTunes Music Store, something which should have Audible just a little worried.

2. BBC starts podcasting experiment

The BBC offers 12 different radio shows as direct downloads and as a podcast RSS feed. Via Stuart Bruce:

As part of a trial we're offering some programmes and programme highlights as downloads and podcasts. The trial runs from May to December 2005 and programmes will start appearing on Monday 16 May. [...] Look out for the 'three ways to listen again' icons, they'll appear on a page where the programme is available for download or podcast. Should you choose not to download or podcast then you can, of course, always listen with the Radio Player.

And in a BBC News story published on Friday, technology analyst Bill Thompson  says that podasting could be 'a revolution' -

The quality of some of the podcasts I have listened to is certainly as good as many supposedly professional radio stations, and as the tools for finding and filtering what is out there improve we will inevitably see new ideas, new approaches and new names emerge. [...] A podcast with no listeners may take up disk space, but it is not stopping anyone else doing their own thing, so there is absolutely no argument for any form of quality control. It is not like radio, where the fact that I am talking on a frequency means that you cannot be.

[...] Podcasting will not replace radio in my life, not least because I like to listen in real-time. But it adds an interesting element to the mix and is an easy way to find new voices that would otherwise never come to my attention.

Still with the BBC - a great feature by Peter Day, a presenter on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service, on his thoughts about podcasting following a visit with Adam Curry.

Key snippet:

[...] all the assumptions I have made in 30 years of being a radio practitioner are suddenly up for grabs.

Related NevOn posts:

• A business model for podcasting
• Podcasting: Adding the human and informal touch
• Kick-starting a broadcasting revolution

Writers wanted!

Together with Fredrik of CorporateBlogging.Info, I'm involved in a major communication project for a European client. As one part of the project we need to produce news articles for the client's website. For this we need writers - maybe you?

These are our requirements:

• Native English speaker (all texts will be written in English).
• Experienced writer, possibly a journalist, able to show us articles you've written for media and/or organizational websites.
• Preferably experienced in writing about scientific topics.
• An ability to write about complex subjects for general audiences who need simple explanations as well as for more technically-minded audiences

This is not a job ad or employment opportunity - it's a great assignment for any freelancing writer/communication consultant. We are building a team of writers and we're looking for 5-10 freelance business writers. We'll probably start out with 2-3.

Where you're based doesn't matter as long as you can meet our requirements, above. If everything works fine, you can expect to write one article per week during the coming year for which you'll get paid up to 400 Euros per article. This could mean one writer writing lots of articles or many writers writing fewer each. Either way, there's a lot of potential work here as well as a great opportunity to build a long-term relationship with an innovative European organization.

Please note: This is not a blogging project. It's about the other 95 percent of organizational communication. We will, though, coordinate this project with the help of new media technology so it's a clear advantage if you know RSS, wikis, etc. Being on Skype is essential.

If you're interested, send an email to me with [Writer] in the subject line. Tell us how you meet the requirements and why you're perfect for the assignment. Please don't send us portfolios or any attachments - if we like what you say in your email, we'll be asking you for such things. If we get many responses, we may not be able to answer everyone, but we promise we'll read every email.

So who's the client?

What we can tell you now is that it's a European research institution. "Whatever happened to transparency and openness in blogs?," you might be thinking. "These guys talk about it all the time and now they're not even telling me who their client is."

Our answer is simple. Once this part of the project is up and running, we will be glad to tell you more about it. Including who the client is.

And yes, both of us expect blogs to become part of this organization's communications mix soon enough…

A business model for podcasting

Software veteran Dan Bricklin (remember VisiCalc?) started podcasting last week:

I've finally started my own podcast, "Dan Bricklin's Software Licensing Podcast". It will be a series of interviews and perhaps other material that should be of interest to people who care about the legal and managerial aspects of software licensing in general, Open Source licenses in particular, and who knows what else.

As I'm doing more frequently these days, I find and listen to new podcasts as part of learning what others are doing and how they're doing it. I listened to Dan's second podcast, a phone conversation with Joel Spolsky, author, blogger, Windows developer and co-founder of Fog Creek Software, recorded last Thursday.

Pretty niche subject matter: keeping track of where software code comes from, differences between Windows and Unix, etc. Not the type of subject matter I'd naturally seek out (as perhaps the topics Shel and I discuss in our show might not be what Dan would naturally seek out).

What it illustrates, though, is the beauty of 'niche podcasting' - if you have a topic you want to talk about, you can just go ahead, create your podcast - include interviews like Dan's if you want - and make your recordings available via your blog or website and in an RSS feed. People will discover it. If they like it, they'll come back for more. And it doesn't really matter if you have 10 listeners or 1,000 - the barriers to entry are so low that it's feasible to do no matter how many or how few listeners you have.

I wrote a lengthy-ish post a few weeks ago about the value such a communication channel could present to almost any business as part of overall communication and developing more effective relationships with stakeholders of all types.

Dan has some of the most succinct and sound reasons for doing a podcast that I've seen:

So here I have what I hope is a good business model for podcasting:

• Getting awareness in an area in which I wasn't that well known among potential purchasers of a product.
• A vehicle for "sponsorship" advertising ("...brought to you by Software Garden, producer of the training video...").
• I get to build up my credibility and stature in a target market, create awareness of a product, and do good for the listeners, all at once. This is similar to the "business model" of blogging for many of us "experts".
• And the costs, even going pretty much almost first-class (as you'll see I did), are much less than advertising and much, much less than direct sales. We'll see how it works.

It's not a bad business model.

Blog stats for Japan - now what about Europe?

Nearly all the available statistics about how many blogs and bloggers there are estimated to be relate to the US. We have Technorati's estimate of about 10.3 million blogs. PubSub has a similar number.

During Les Blogs in Paris last month, one of the presentations I saw (can't recall which one) talked about there being over 30 million blogs not in the English language out there in Asia.

Yesterday I saw a post by Om Malik citing a report from Japan on how many blogs there are in that country:

The number of people operating blogs on the Internet totaled 3.35 million in Japan at the end of March and is seen more than doubling in the next two years, while blog-based markets are expected to expand by about 40 times in value by the end of March 2007, the government said Tuesday [17 May].

About 16.51 million people visit blogs at least once a month, according to a survey by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. The influence of "blogs will certainly grow in Japan, just like in the United States and other countries," a ministry official said. (Kyodo News)

Hard to find any meaningful numbers at all for Europe. Does anyone have any?

Keeping tabs on TypePad

If you have a TypePad blog and were trying to publish posts on Saturday, you'll have encountered some downtime TypePad experienced for some hours. It meant that you couldn't log in to your blog account on the TypePad servers for about three hours. The live blogs themselves weren't affected.

Downtime isn't unusual from time to time with any hosted service - a server problem here or a network problem there, for instance. What would be nice is if you could see what's going on rather than sit wondering what's going on.

Well, you can. Six Apart, TypePad's owner, has a TypePad Status Weblog with posts on service issues that arise. Even better, there is an RSS feed so you can get the news in the comfort of your RSS reader.

Another great tip from Constantin Basturea, that man of many talents!

Upcoming geek extravaganza in London

The last time I looked at the sign-up wiki for the London geek dinner next month, there were some 80 names. I looked again just now - and it's 127.

Wow! It would be an easy conclusion to jump to in saying that the big attraction is probably the opportunity to share a margarita or two with Robert Scoble, who's hosting the gig with Hugh McLeod.

Undoubtedly that has something to do with it. Yet I think it goes a bit deeper than that (no offence, Robert!).

Take a look at some of the people who have signed up. Geek bloggers, naturally. Plus people like me - communicator geeks involved with blogs. Quite a few journalists. Some BBC folk including from Backstage (check that out if you haven't yet). DopplerRadio will be there. As will be some Microsoft UK bloggers.

A political focus as well, with at least one very interesting participant who plans to be there - the owner of the "Posted by melissa" moniker on Boris Johnson's blog (he's the MP for Henley, if you want to know).

That's quite an eclectic mix. And I bet this event will be the most podcasted one of its type so far this year. Or at least set a record for the most margaritas consumed at a geek dinner (it takes place at the Texas Embassy restaurant). Or model Hugh's bespoke T-shirts. Or all of the above...

Just looked at Hugh's post today - he says the numbers could get up to 200.

Looking forward to meeting as many as possible on 7 June!

Skype blogs to create community

Skype has started a blog - and it looks very good indeed. This could be a great example of how a blog can play a key role in building and cementing positive relationships with customers.

One of the ongoing criticisms of Skype has been the way in which the company really hasn't engaged well with customers who have issues (real or perceived, but what's the difference from the customer's viewpoint?) of one type or another in using the service. Many people give Skype high marks for the technology, and low marks for customer relations and customer satisfaction (in early March, I asked whether Skype is approaching a crossroads in this regard).

This new blog could play a key role in reversing that situation. Skype certainly seems to be highly focused on doing that if the welcoming post on Thursday is a guide:

[...] We know some people have reservations about Skype for various reasons. We often get questions on our history, motives and network architecture, as well as the longevity and sustainability of our business model. On this site, we intend to provide our own view on all these issues, and more. While the Skype forums continue to be open user-driven discussion areas, we will use share.skype.com to spotlight the issues that are interesting to us at Skype at the time. Hopefully, you will learn who we are, what we do, why we do those things, how we think things should work and be done, and where is the whole thing heading - where “thing” can be Skype, the Internet or telecom industry, or the next gadget or Skype feature, or just something that caught our eye.

Indeed, this blog is well integrated into the overall Skype offering, with links to the Skype website, the forums and other resources. If you're a Skype user, you can log in (that worked perfectly when I tried it) and create a profile of yourself. You have to log in if you want to leave comments - participate, in other words.

And check out some interesting new things - how to earn cash or points, for instance, through referring people to Skype (which looks similar in broad concept to Amazon Associates). I like this new one: in the Facts & Figures category on the blog, there's an RSS feed you can subscribe to that brings you stats on how many users are online at any one time, amongst other info.

So how does all this now fit with what I said in March that Skype isn't yet ready for a blog?

If the blog has been developed as part of an overall plan that supports Skype's strategic business goals - of which building and developing relationships with customers is one element - then I'd be very happy indeed to be able to say: it looks they are now ready. I wonder if ex-Microsoft Lenn Pryor has any fingers in this pie?

(Hat tip: Skype Journal)

Interview: Mike Wing, IBM - May 20, 2005

For anyone with an opinion about corporate blogging, the big news this week was IBM's dynamic step into the blogosphere with their initiative to enable employee blogging and making publicly available their detailed employee blogging guidelines.

In this special edition of For Immediate Release podcast interviews, Shel and Neville enjoyed a 53-minute conversation with Mike Wing, IBM's Vice President Strategic Communications, about the big news and what it signals for IBM as a new way to engage with the marketplace. Our conversation also addressed other areas of communication at IBM with Mike's commentary and opinion on a wide range of topics including IBM's corporate values, the company's recent history, how the employee jams came about and the value of them, the role of the intranet, taxonomy and folksonomies, and the impact blogging will have from both the perspective of an organization and an individual.

About our conversation partner:

Mike Wing is Vice President Strategic Communications at IBM where he has worldwide responsibility for strategic and policy-related messaging. Before establishing this new function in IBM Corporate Communications in 2004, Mike was Vice President Worldwide Intranet Strategy & Programs, responsible for the strategy and development of w3.ibm.com, IBM’s corporate intranet, also known as the On Demand Workplace, which reaches the company’s 320,000 employees worldwide. He guided ‘w3’ from a small publishing site to the company’s primary medium for information and a key engine of culture change in IBM’s turnaround during the 1990s. Mike joined IBM in April 1997, after 13 years managing employee communications at Time Warner Inc. and its Home Box Office division. Before joining HBO he was editor of the worldwide employee publication for CBS Inc. And before that, he was a graduate student in English at the State University of New York at Buffalo, concentrating on Shakespeare. While there, Mike was a leader of Vico College, an interdisciplinary undergraduate humanities program. He graduated from Swarthmore College in 1970, with High Honors. He is co-author of The Kissing Place, an original film produced for USA Network.

Download the conversation here (MP3, 22.5MB), or sign up for the RSS feed to get it and our future shows automatically. (For automatic synchronization with your iPod or other digital player, you’ll also need software such as the FeedDemon RSS aggregator, or the free ipodder or DopplerRadio).

Interview Segment Time Points:

• 00:13 Mike sets the scene with an overview of his background, and about his current responsibilities at IBM.
• 03:40 IBM's corporate blogging initiative, why Mike thinks blogging is such a big deal and why the company is doing this.
• 08:24 Neville comments on IBM's strategic blogging move as having a massive impact on the future development of this medium from an organizational perspective.
• 09:08 It's an experiment, Mike says, we don't know what to expect, and talks about how it might develop for IBM in the context of the company's business model: more important in the long run is what we will learn and what experiences we will gain.
• 11:27 Shel asks about employee reaction to the news about the corporate blogging initiative.
• 11:35 Mike on positive reactions and what the company is doing to support the initiative.
• 13:48 Neville asks about IBM's corporate values statement and how all of this connects to it.
• 14:09 Lots of links between the blogging initiative and those values, Mike says: if you're going to be visible and transparent in communication, trust is essential.
• 17:49 Mike on how IBM's corporate values were developed: the crucial role of the employee "values jam."
• 19:54 Mike on the traumatic experience of IBM's near death in the early 1990s; Lou Gerstner's pivotal role in the turnaround; the question of values.
• 21:33 Shel asks about the employee jams and the role they played as an extension to the employee intranet as a channel for integrating the business.
• 21:54 Most important of all was the essential role they played in transforming the company, Mike says, commenting on some of the public snarkiness that greeted the news of IBM's corporate blogging initiative.
• 22:30 IBM has been living in an electronic environment for many years, Mike says, longer than many competitors have existed: an overview.
• 24:30 Mike on the key role Lou Gerstner played in halting plans to break up IBM in the early 1990s; cultural obstacles.
• 27:19 Mike on the role HR research and a global employee survey played in 1999 in deciding to create the jams; formal communication channels vs. informal ones; how the intranet is perceived by employees.
• 30:55 The pragmatic core of the first world jam in May 2001 - capturing best practice and sharing it; structure of and topics discussed in the jam; the different conversations with CIOs and CMOs.
• 33:54 Six jams done so far, says Mike; how people react to the values; how to make the values real.
• 35:07 56,000 participants in WorldJam 2004, 32,000 posts, 191 ideas.
• 35:52 Neville asks about cultural changes and the impact of the sale of the PC division to Lenovo and employee perceptions of this change.
• 36:39 Mike's anecdotal sense: it crystalized the shift in IBM's business model; for people inside and outside, it's a turning point in thinking about the company.
• 28:56 Mike comments on business historian Alfred Chandler, the creation of the IBM PC as an early version of open standards. IBM is a machine built to grow institutions at a societal level, he says