NevOn

Microsoft snaps up Teleo

The instant messaging market just shifted up a few gears with the news today that Microsoft has acquired Teleo, the Skype-like internet phone/chat service.

In a press release this morning, Microsoft said it plans to use this acquisition as a means to greatly extend the capabilities of MSN Messenger. An announcement on the Teleo website said:

[...] Microsoft plans to incorporate and expand upon Teleo’s technologies, integrating them into the MSN services infrastructure, with plans to ultimately deliver new VoIP consumer applications in future releases of MSN services, such as MSN Messenger.

Teleo has been in beta since it launched earlier this year (that beta programme is now discontinued, according to the website). I tried it in February and it did look very attractive as an alternative to Skype at a time when Skype's offering lacked much of what it now comprises.

Microsoft's new tool is a bit different to that of Google who launched Google Talk last week. The difference is that while Google Talk enables you to connect to other users via your PC for free voice and text chatting, it doesn't have real phone calling capability, ie, the ability to make and receive phone calls from regular phones such as you can with Skype and its SkypeIn and SkypeOut offerings.

Teleo, on the other hand, has many similarities to Skype including that phone-calling capability.

That gives a pretty clear idea on what Microsoft is thinking as CNET News' story indicates:

[...] Microsoft has its eyes set on something more like Net phone company Skype's service, however. A key part of Teleo's technology is focused on making calls from a computer to an ordinary telephone, a feature that company executives said would start finding its way into MSN Messenger before the end of 2005.

What's next? What about Gizmo which I experimented with last month? Maybe Yahoo will come knocking on that door.

Blog Day connections

Today is BlogDay, the day when it's great to be part of a way to make some new connections.

So I decided to link to some blogs that I've not directly connected to before, all from my PubSub and Technorati watchlists that show bloggers who have linked to some of my posts during the past month.

Here they are - five blogs that I suggest you visit, take a look at what the bloggers have to say and maybe join in their conversations:

• The Ted Rap - Ted Demopoulos' thoughts and musings on information technology, security, business and more.
• Sue's Place (Southern Rants) - Where Sue can be Sue and rant in a southern voice when she feels like it.
• NetWizz Jungle Blog - the blog in French of some cool graphic designers in Paris (already a connection: they designed the graphics for Blogging Planet, among others).
• The Closed Circle - Dave Briggs'  online diary. (Nice WordPress blog.)
• Below The Fold - media, politics and culture in the modern age by Gary Goldhammer.

Blog Day is the initiative of Nir Ofir, the Editor in Chief of an Israeli portal, Tapuz.co.il. So that makes six connections ;)

[Technorati: BlogDay2005]

Hot recording Google Talk

I installed Hot Recorder on my new Dell PC today, which I use for recording occasional Skype conversations for the For Immediate Release podcast.

Hot Recorder is a great application, as I enthused when I first discovered it in May. As a software-based option for recording phone interviews over Skype for use in podcasts, I think it's the best out there.

Two things I noticed with today's install. I have the paid version but had to download it again as I couldn't find the original download. First, the Hot Recorder installer is marked as version 2.0.1, although the app still describes itself as version 2.

Just as well as then I noticed something quite interesting - an option to configure Hot Recorder to work with Google Talk, as this screenshot of the popup menu in the system tray shows.

So you can make and receive Google Talk calls and record those conversations. Not only that, you can also set up a voice mail facility in Hot Recorder that acts as an answering machine for Google Talk and record your own playback greeting. Very useful as Google Talk is currently rather bare bones.

The Hot Recorder Help page has been updated to include commentary about the app's integration with Google Talk (which I guess would explain the 2.0.1 version number).

From what I can tell, this is the first third-party application developed for Google Talk. The first of many, I'd say. Still not a Skype killer, though.

Speaking of Google Talk, Chris Pirillo has some suggestions for what Google should have named their VoIP application. I think GTalk is the best one.

Heed some good PR advice, Dell

In show #63 yesterday of For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report, I commented on the latest news in the Dell hell saga as reported by Jeff Jarvis.

While the situation looks hopeless, I'd like to think that Dell's corporate communicators and PR teams just need a little more pushing to the fountain so they can see where the water is.

Steve Rubel swiftly does this today with some sound PR advice to Dell on how they can engage with customers and influencers in the blogosphere.

Heed the advice, Dell. Not because it's free - it's simply good advice.

The Hobson and Holtz Report - Podcast #63: August 29, 2005

Content summary: Listeners' comments discussion (pitching journalists; IABC recognition; great iRiver recording; how email spies work); blog etiquette: Steve Rubel and Jeremy Pepper trackback stand-off; Max Hansen's second report from Blog Business Summit; the latest on Dell hell; Lee Hopkins reports from Australia; communication channels in organizations in times of change.

Show notes for August 29, 2005

Welcome to For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report, a 79-minute conversation recorded live from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and almost live from Concord, California, USA.

Download the file here (MP3, 33MB), 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 a podcatcher such as the free iPodder, DopplerRadio or iTunes 4.9, or an RSS aggregator that supports podcasts such as FeedDemon).

In this Edition:

Intro:

• 00:29 Neville introduces the show; what the show's about; how to give your feedback; what's in this edition

Listeners' comments discussion:

• 03:27 Heidi Miller's tips on researching and pitching journalists
• 04:43 Jerry Stevenson compliments Shel on his IABC Fellow award; his cool iRiver, email tracking and how spying works, usability and blogs (Neville adds comment on this point re his Movable Type experiment)

News and Features:

• 15:02 Blog etiquette and trackbacks: when does it become spam? Shel analyzes the stand-off between Steve Rubel and Jeremy Pepper last week and offers a clear opinion; Neville counter-argues with a contrary opinion
• 30:47 Max Hansen's second report from Blog Business Summit - themes that emerged: trust between top management and employees who blog, and blogger privacy
• 40:15 Dell hell - after a conversation with Dell's PR person, Jeff Jarvis gives up on Dell's lack of willingness to engage with and connect customers in the blogosphere
• 48:57 From Our Correspondent Down Under: Lee Hopkins - tweaking Firefox with tabs, professional associations and social media, training bloggers in media relations, what your website says about you, podcasts and 'grey power'
• 57:33 Employee communication after an acquisition - what channels are appropriate during times of great change? Considering an employee's preferred sources of information and the actual source is key to effective communication

Outro:

• 72:02 UK holiday weekend; how to give your feedback (new email address: fircomments@gmail.com); the music

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

Listeners' comments discussion - Heidi Miller, Chris Marlowe, Hollywood Reporter, Eric Schwartzman, Amy Gahran, Jerry Stevenson, iRiver IFP-890, Dallas IABC, Microsoft Outlook, Thunderbird, NEO Pro, Movable Type, TypePad, Six Apart, WordPress.

News and Features - Steve Rubel, Jeremy Pepper, Wikipedia definition of trackback, Six Apart technical specification on trackback, Max Hansen, Blog Business Summit, Robert Scoble, Janet Johnson, Marqui, Steve Ballmer, Rebecca Blood, The New PR Wiki, Dave Taylor on the blogger being sued, Creative Commons, Jeff Jarvis, Dell, Jennifer Davis, Media Guardian, Lee Hopkins, Alexandra Samuels, Firefox, Allan Jenkins, Robert French, IABC, PRSA, AAAF, Donna Papacosta, Podcasting News, Better Communication Results latest podcast, Shel's post about TJ Larkin's IABC presentation, Towers Perrin, FIR interview with Angela Sinickas and Tudor Williams, TJ Larkin's response to Shel's post.

Outro - Edinburgh Festival, PodcastNYC, Again (Remix), Billy Klippert, Orange Record Label, 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 fircomments@gmail.com (new email address), 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 September 1...

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

Survey: RSS on the rise among key influencers

Last week Nooked, the RSS search engine and directory of corporate RSS feeds, published the aggregated results of two connected surveys they conducted in March.

The first survey aimed to learn more about how industry analysts, journalists and bloggers use RSS; the second, to determine the rate of adoption of RSS in the PR/marketing arena. Nooked said 200 people took the surveys.

The conclusions:

1. Journalists and analysts are demanding RSS feeds. RSS adoption is on the rise amongst key influencers and early adopters who have moved beyond the “RSS for beginners” stage and now demand information be delivered to them through a clean channel, in a specified location with specialist content.
2. RSS must become part of the communication arsenal for PR and marketing professionals. RSS is a new technology and is not a replacement for email, instant messaging or phone communications but a way to enhance and complement existing communications activity while achieving 100% deliverability of demanded messages.

Visit the Nooked blog to see detailed commentary.

Mark your diary for Les Blogs 2.0

Following the success of Les Blogs, the one-day conference that took place in Paris last April, Loic le Meur is organizing Les Blogs 2.0 which will take place in Paris as a two-day conference on 5 and 6 December. I'm honoured to be working with Loic and others in an advisory role to help plan this event.

Loic's already got one keynote speaker lined up - Robert Scoble. More news soon on other names as well as information on venue, proposed programme, cost, signing up, etc.

A wiki will be up soon. Meanwhile, note the dates for your diary - 5 and 6 December.

Blog spam is relentless

Since I implemented comment and trackback moderation on this blog a couple of weeks ago, the amount of spam I've been getting has steadily increased. Now it's averaging between three and five such hits every day. May not sound much at all in the context of the overall blogosphere, but that adds up to at least 21 a week, 84 a month and over 1,000 a year. Multiply that by just 1,000 of the 14 million or so other English-language blogs out there and you can see the scale of this problem.

The current average will go up a bit now as yesterday I received 12 in one day, all re sex and pills from the same spammer at IP address 84.242.95.27 which, according to the nifty ForMyIP.com, is located in the Czech Republic and belongs to an ISP called Karneval Media S.R.O. Needless to say, he's now a banned IP address.

What's good, though, is that none of the crap will ever see the light of day on this blog because of moderation, part of the raft of service enhancements for TypePad blogs implemented by Six Apart last month. It is a bit time-consuming to have to go into TypePad and delete the stuff from the pending queue, not to mention wasted bandwidth usage, but that's preferable to having to do it after the event which would be the case without moderation.

What I find a bit curious is that nearly all spam during the past month or so has been targeting posts I've written during the first quarter of this year; hardly any spam aimed at recent posts. Is that signficant of anything? Maybe the spammers or the auto-senders think older posts are less likely to be on the current radar screen of the blogger. But I really have no idea!

I'm sure we'll see more bloggers putting up defensive walls though devices like comment and trackback moderation as well as with some intelligent tools that can filter inbound comments and trackbacks looking for key phrases and other indicators of spam.

It doesn't stop the spam but at least with such protective measure in place, you get the satisfaction in knowing that your blog won't be an unwitting channel for these odious peddlers.

New Movable Type disappoints

I've spent a bit of time this weekend upgrading my Movable Type experimental blog to the latest MT version 3.2 released on 25 August.

Installation of the new version was pretty smooth, no real issues with it, thanks to the excellent installation guide in the new 3.2 manual.

I do have issues, though, with expectations on what you should reasonably expect to be able to do with your blog after installing the new version of the platform.

As I've commented in my other blog, I'm pretty disappointed with the hurdles I'm now jumping following the upgrade.

I'd certainly expect the release version of a blog tool like this it to be a lot easier to dive into after installation and do what you want to do with the new features and functionality that supposedly are ready and usable. And I'd certainly expect the help system to be a bit more complete - every question-mark link I clicked on from within my MT installation got to the online MT help system with pages saying "Coming soon..." That's just not good enough.

So I'm spending far too much time scratching my head and trying to figure out why something doesn't work. It looks like quite a few others are doing their own head-scratching as well.

As a complete MT newbie, maybe my expectations on what I can do with 3.2 out of the box, so to speak, are a little unrealistic. Yet I would argue that Six Apart has set a high expectation level on what almost anyone keen to use the tool should be able to do relatively easily.

Am I being wholly unrealistic in my expectations for Movable Type 3.2? An unfair critique of Six Apart?  I want to use Movable Type. But maybe I should just go with WordPress - that seems far easier to use.

[Technorati: Movable Type]

Biz-Tech Headlines 27-Aug-05

• As Blogging Grows, Companies Eye Legal Pitfalls
• BBC plans to put channels on net
• Blogger sued for comments others left on his blog
• Getting Real About Podcast Adoption
• New Web copyright tool to exclude non-IE users
• NewsGator Opens Online API to Public
• PayPal co-founder readies photo-sharing service
• Personal Search Site Adds Blogs
• Pixar Faces Informal SEC Probe
• RIP, Rio: A Digital Music Pioneer Dies

Created from RSS feeds in FeedDemon 1.6 beta 3.

Mars dog blog gets it right

With the focus on blogging in Europe and North America, it's good to have an opportunity to broaden one's horizon and gain some insight into contrasting uses of this medium in Asia from a business and marketing perspective.

Niall Cook reports on what two consumer product companies are doing with blogs as integral elements of advertising and marketing campaigns - Unilever with their Sunsilk shampoo brand in Malaysia, and Mars with their Cesar dogfood brand in Singapore.

In the case of Sunsilk, they have a character blog. What a pity. Such lame things are a waste of time, a view I've clearly stated before. But read the detail in Niall's post to make your own judgment.

Mars have done it right, as Niall reports:

[...] Mars, on the other hand, is doing some great things with the Cesar brand in Singapore, having launched My Cesar, "Your companion to online blogging". This blogging community encourages Singaporean dog owners to "create your own personal doggie blog where you can impart your thoughts about your favourite pooch."

Cesar could have done the same thing as Sunsilk. They could have set up a blog for the dog in the adverts, turning him (or her) into a canine character blog. But they didn't. They understand that consumers no longer want brands to talk at them, but give them the tools to talk to others.

Unlike a character blog, this approach creates genuine engagement. And that, surely, is what any company looks for.

Paris blog conference update

Plans proceed apace for Around The Blog, the one-day conference in Paris organized by Blogging Planet (the communication consultancy of which I am an alliance partner) which takes place on 11 October.

More speakers are on board, we now have the venue confirmed, and the price - just €85, which you can pay via PayPal if you wish.

Full details on the event wiki.

Communication innovation with podcasting

Shel Holtz, my co-host of the For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report bi-weekly business podcast, has achieved another first success in the innovative use of a new-media communication channel.

Available now is the first podcast Shel has produced for The Conference Board for their forthcoming 2005 Corporate Communication and Technology Conference which takes place in New York at the end of September.

This pre-conference podcast is a 33-minute conversation between Lee Hornick, the programme director, three of the presenters and Shel, who discuss what they'll be covering during the two-day conference. In essence, a taster of what you can expect.

Very useful for attendees as part of their conference planning. For The Conference Board, too, in overall awareness-raising about the event as the podcast is openly available on the event website (RSS link there) as well as demonstrating their leadership in a new and interesting way of communicating that complements other channels.

Nice work, Shel!

Today's rich biz-tech miscellany

A ten-minute scan of the headlines of the RSS feeds in my business and technology channels in FeedDemon produced this list of candidates that looks worth exploring:

• An Anchor by Evening, a Blogger Any Time
• Analysts: Google's Talk Move May Shake the Market
• Blog tools tackle content management
• Carly Fiorina to Write Tell-All
• Customer Evangelism webinar
• Dell: In the Bloghouse
• Dutch TV hits sperm-spattered low
• GM extends employee discounts for everyone
• How to Face Off Against Microsoft
• Maturing net growing more slowly
• Microsoft Responds to Google Talk
• Microsoft to Release Antiphishing tool Before IE 7
• Nokia sees 200 mln new China mobile users in 3 yrs
• Pod2Mob: Podcasts Without The Pod
• Rocketboom's Powerful Lift-Off
• What Blogs, Podcasts, Feeds Mean to Bottom Line
• Why Online Travel Firms Make More Money Selling Hotel Rooms Than Air Tickets
• WPP sales buoyed by new media ad demand

Movable Type 3.2 launched

After months of beta testing, Six Apart launched version 3.2 of its Movable Type blog publishing and management system yesterday.

Boasting a wide range of new and improved features, this version offers static or dynamic publishing; built-in support for multiple authors, blogs, categories, and templates; automatic archiving and publishing of XML feeds; and better platform support for almost any common operating system or database; and much more.

One of the new features that looks especially attractive is the commenter management capability which extends the simple listing of commenters with the commenter's status (whether they were banned or approved), their name, a link to their TypeKey profile, and some simple tools to approve or ban the commenter:

[...] With the new version, we've retained all of this information, but radically improved its presentation and utility and added significant detail and context to the display. This information can help you to encourage positive contributions, reduce the impact of trolls or disruptive community members, and in general know more about the people who help keep your blog active.

I plan to upgrade to 3.2 as part of my MT experiment.

The Hobson and Holtz Report - Podcast #62: August 25, 2005

Content summary: Listeners' comments discussion (Google Talk; being offline for 24 hours; briefer show notes and iTunes Chapter Tool; CBC's ad structure; PRblogs.org; show links; FIR brings Dan the news); Ziepod; Max Hansen reports from Blog Business Summit; Jeff Jarvis gets a result; Eric Schwartzman's Spinfluencer report; CBC follow-up.

Show notes for August 25, 2005

Welcome to For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report, a 67-minute conversation recorded live from Concord, California, USA, and Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Download the file here (MP3, 26.5MB), 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 a podcatcher such as the free iPodder, DopplerRadio or iTunes 4.9, or an RSS aggregator that supports podcasts such as FeedDemon).

In this edition:

Intro:

• 00:29 Shel introduces the show; what the show's about; how to give your feedback; what's in this edition; show notes

Listeners' comments discussion:

• 02:30 Dan York asks what we think of Google Talk? Neville has tried it.
• 09:01 Neville explains why he's been offline for the past 24 hours
• 11:29 Steve Rubel suggests briefer show notes and use the iTunes Chapter Tool
• 13:51 Eric Eggertson clarifies CBC's structure on advertising, TV vs. radio
• 14:51 Robert French on PRblogs.org
• 16:07 Sebastian Kiel thinks the column links on the podcast blog should go to the show notes not the MP3 files
• 17:18 Dan York again, in Ottawa, who finds out what's going on through listening to FIR

News and Features:

• 18:43 Ziepod, a next-generation podcatcher, offers some cool options including streaming podcasts and a rating system
• 22:52 Max Hansen's first report from Blog Business Summit - themes that emerged: medium vs. genre norms
• 34:05 Jeff Jarvis' open letter to Michael Dell finally gets a response from Dell
• 39:49 The Spinfluencer in LA: Eric Schwartzman - audience demand for porn podcasts; an interview with Chris Marlowe, executive editor of the Hollywood Reporter
• 57:16 CBC employee lockout follow-up

Outro:

• 60:10 How to give your feedback (new email address: fircomments@gmail.com); show notes; Shel won't be live on Monday's show
• 62:01 Shel intros the music

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

Listeners' comments discussion - Dan York, Google Talk, Fredrik Wacka, Gmail, Skype, MSN Messenger, AOL, Yahoo Messenger, News Corporation, Hot Recorder, Jyve, Starbucks, EasyInternetCafe, Steve Rubel, iTunes Chapter Tool, Eric Eggertson, CBC, Robert French, PRblogs.org, BlogSavvy, edublogs, Lexblogs, Sebastian Kiel, Tom Keefe.

News and Features - Robin Good on Ziepod, Ziepod, FeedZie.com, iTunes, FeedDemon, Winamp, Max Hansen, Blog Business Summit, Boeing, Randy's Journal, Chris Brownrigg, DL Byron, Clip-n-Seal blog, Dave Winer, Jeff Jarvis, Dell, Online Media Daily report on Dell, Jennifer Davis, Business Week Online: Dell in the Bloghouse, Eric Schwartzman, Search Engine Watch, Sitemeter, FCC, Hollywood Reporter, Chris Marlowe, Variety, Slingbox, Slim Media, ParticipatoryPR.com, VNU Media, Lexis-Nexis, CBC, Howard Harawitz, CBC Unplugged, iLoveRadio.org, Tod Maffin, Robin Rowland.

Outro - Podsafe Music Network, CC Chapman, Podshow Network, Chance, 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 fircomments@gmail.com (new email address), 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 August 29...

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

Google talks about big change

Before the internet disappeared on me yesterday, I was able to try out the new Google Talk VOiP phone service launched by Google yesterday.

After downloading the application and installing it (for Windows only at the moment), I chatted with Fredrik in Sweden. While just one use of the service clearly isn't a good basis for making any real judgments, it is pretty impressive from the crystal-clear sound quality and connectivity points of view.

Installation is very easy and the app configures itself with your default sound and hardware (microphone) setup. Then, you add contacts from your Gmail contacts list (or manually input their email addresses) to invite your friends to connect. You do need a Gmail account in order to use Google Talk.

Overall, I was very impressed with the ease of use and call quality. For anyone not yet using an internet phone service, Google Talk would be a good option especially if you have trust in the Google brand.

Many people will immediately compare Google Talk with Skype, as I did. But making such a comparison is an apples-and-oranges one.

From the user perspective, both do the same thing - enable you to connect via the net with anyone else running the desktop application and have voice conversations and text chats for free, wherever in the world you happen to be.

From this user perspective, that's where the similarities end.

Net chaos in Amsterdam

Since about midday yesterday, Wednesday, I've been without net access along with several hundred other people in the part of Amsterdam where I am. Still no service this morning.

No dial-up any more: none of my PCs has the capability to connect to the net via a normal phone line (how we progress!). So I'm writing this post from an internet cafe downtown.

From what KPN, the Dutch telecom company, and XS4ALL, my ISP, told me in my frequent calls to them during Wednesday, there was a complete outage of DSL service in Amsterdam affecting hundreds of subscribers. No one could say what the problem was nor when it would be fixed. All KPN would say was that they were working on fixing it, whatever it was.

In one of my conversations with KPN yesterday, the otherwise-helpful support person suggested I check the ISP's website for info. Duh! Hello?!

At 11.00am this morning, there was still no net service. Speaking to KPN early this morning, they told me that the problem had now been fixed although still unable to say what the problem was. If I still had no connection, then full service restoration was in the hands of my ISP, they said. They also said that other parts of The Netherlands were without DSL service.

The importance of headlines

One of the neat things things you can easily do with FeedDemon, the desktop RSS aggregator for Windows, is note items of interest in the various feeds you monitor and quickly mark them for later action such as blogging. This is especially useful if you want to create a link post, as many business bloggers already do.

To get the links for your post in FD, what you do is drag-and-drop items from the various RSS feeds into a news bin as a place to concentrate items for your later reference. I do this a lot in FD as items catch my interest which I may blog about. Once you apply the right view to the items in the news bin, using a special newspaper style for this purpose, it works a treat for a quick headlines or links post, like this one:

• Anthropologists get to the bottom of customer needs
• Bank fires 20 staff who monitor risks in the financial world
• Enter a Digital Publisher
• Entering the Corposphere
• Google Uses Blog to Spin Court Decision
• Lightweight Version of RSS Released
• List of Blogs Nobody Reads but Should and Other Lists
• MediaPost Publications - Dell Computer To Respond To Bloggers' Complaints - 08/23/2005
• Microsoft may Dump Proposed RSS Name
• Online Extra: Social Responsibility: 'Fundamentally Subversive'?
• Our small PR blogosphere is growing
• Reactions to Google Sidebar (GOOG)
• Synthesiser pioneer Dr Moog dies
• Team-Building With a Twist
• The Customer *is* always right
• The world goes beyond english speaking blogs

For this to be even halfway effective, a good headline is an absolute necessity, both from my point of view (to decide whether to include in a news bin) and from yours as a reader of this post to see if the headline gives you a sufficient enough clue as to what the story's about with no further description.

So does this post work?

Around the blog in Paris

A one-day conference is being organized in Paris on 11 October designed to introduce participants to communication tools complementary to blogs such as RSS, podcasting, videocasting and tracking/buzz measurement - all elements of participatory communication.

Set up as a series of informal roundtables, the event is being organized by Blogging Planet (the communication consultancy of which I am an alliance partner), with my fellow partner Guillaume Du Gardier leading the planning and event development.

The event will address how such new media tools can be applied to various business challenges. We think it's time to talk about the next level of related tools and services which can really help blogs come alive for business.

Confirmed speakers to date are:

• Fergus Burns, CEO, Nooked
• Richard Treadway, CMO, PubSub
• Loïc Le Meur, Executive VP Europe, Six Apart
• Jian Ni, Senior Business Development Manager, Nokia LifeBlog
• Mark Rogers, CEO, Market Sentinel

The cost of participation will be low, less than €100 - the event is being planned as an affordable framework for stimulating discussion and ideas, not as a money-making event. We have limited the number of places to 200 attendees, so if you'd like to participate, please pre-book your place now - details on the event wiki.

Everything will be announced in the wiki, so please stay tuned there. We hope to see you in Paris on 11 October!

Webinar: Blogs and internal communication

If you have responsibility for internal communication and want to find out how you can use blogs effectively within your organization, you might want to consider participating in a 90-minute webinar on Wednesday 31 August in which I will be one of the speakers.

Blogs and their implications on internal communication - are you ready for that call? will address the following issues:

• Understand what you want to achieve with blogs - internal blogs serve very different purpose than external blogs
• How to address the concerns of managers who may be nervous about legal issues and lack of control
• Understand what a blog is in communication terms - how are they different from other interactive media you may be using?
• Learn and set the rules for blogging: you'll be the person who is asked to draft the blogging policy - would you know what to write?
• How to get them right from the start and avoid embarrassing and humiliating mistakes
• How to overcome the concerns of your legal department and senior managers
• Understand the legal ramifications of launching a blog and how to establish guidelines so that executives and employees understand what material is off limits

My fellow speakers will be Victoria Mellor, CEO of Melcrum, the publishing and event management company who have organized this online event, and David Berger who manages strategy communications for IBM. David helped create IBM's blogging point-of-view and employee blogging guidelines. In addition to his work on blogs, wikis and syndication for IBM, he is responsible for communicating IBM's corporate strategy to their 320,000 employees.

Date : Wednesday 31 August
Time: 2:00pm to 3:30pm US Eastern time
Cost: $295

More information and registration here.

The Hobson and Holtz Report - Podcast #61: August 22, 2005

Content summary: Listeners' comments discussion (Josh buys a podcast rig; no problem with anonymous blogging; big thanks to FIR listeners); locked-out CBC employees with podcasts; an interview from the CBC picket line; Share your Story success; PodcastCon UK starts interviews; IABC Belgium starts a blog; no, your email is not private; get used to hearing about splogs; PRblogs.org launches; blog advice for Adobe; WordPress challenges; Skylook success; impressions of McGraw-Hill; an OPML party.

Show notes for August 22, 2005

Welcome to For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report, an 80-minute conversation recorded live from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and Concord, California, USA.

Download the file here (MP3, 32MB), 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 a podcatcher such as the free iPodder, DopplerRadio or iTunes 4.9, or an RSS aggregator that supports podcasts such as FeedDemon).

In this edition:

Intro:

• 00:29 Neville introduces the show; what the show's about; how to give your feedback; what's in this edition; show notes

Listeners' comments discussion:

• 03:01 Josh Hallett gets the same rig as Shel's original for his own start at podcasting
• 05:21 Patrick Strang doesn't have a problem with anonymous blogging, generally
• 09:53 Sebastian Kiel says thanks to FIR listeners for feedback to the questions he asked in show #48, and congrats on show #50, and offers some suggestions for the podcast blog

News:

• 15:06 How both sides in a bitter labour dispute are using online communication - the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) locks out employees, who start podcasting radio shows and blogging their views
• 21:31 Howard Harawitz on the CBC picket line in Halifax, Canada - interview with Jean LaRoche, CBC reporter, on the use of the internet as a means for employees to communicate their points of view; Shel and Neville discuss the broad potential issues (and opportunities) in labour disputes in future
• 30:38 The success of 'Share Your Story' that gives parents the means to share and discuss their experiences through blogs and message boards
• 34:35 PodcastCon UK gears up for the event in London next month, including a series of podcast interview with participants, the first interview being with Neville
• 37:46 The Chairman of IABC Belgium Chapter starts a blog

Features:

• 40:30 Do you think your email is private? Tom Keefe's story on software that can tell the sender when you open an email (and much more) and you'd never know - except in the case Tom outlines
• 46:55 Get used to this word: splogs - blogs set up as spam creators (with Blogger being accused as being the worst offender) and the means to report spammers - a new system set up by Google that's already being abused
• 52:24 PRblogs.org launches, offering PR practitioners, educators and students a community for blogging
• 54:50 Advice for Adobe's new blogging community from Niall Cook on design, navigation and policies
• 56:02 From Our Correspondent Down Under: Lee Hopkins - on the challenges of setting up a new WordPress blog, success with using Skylook, comments soon on Barons to Bloggers
• 62:12 Further thoughts on show #56 (podcasting from a McGraw-Hill conference in New York) - impressions and the tech issues, and the potential for this medium
• 67:43 Shel goes to Dave Winer's OPML editor show - and why communicators should pay attention to this tool

Outro:

• 73:56 How to give your feedback (new email address: fircomments@gmail.com); show notes; Neville intros the music

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

Listeners' comments discussion - Josh Hallett, Patrick Strang, Steve Crescenzo, Eric Eggertson, Deep Background, Sebastian Kiel.

News - Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CBC Negotiations, CBS Unplugged, Howard Harawitz, Todd Maffin, Canadian Media Guild, Jean LaRoche, New York Times, Mark Cuban, Charles Pizzo, Lee Lefever, March of Dimes, Share Your Story, PR Week, PodcastCon UK, Nicole Simon, PodcastCon UK signup wiki, IABC Belgium, IABC Belgium Chairman's Blog, Gerard Murray, IABC New York, IABC Cafe.

Features - Tom Keefe, Warren Bickford, ReadNotify, Google, Blogger, Blog Herald, Blog Critics, TypePad, Dave Sifry's state of the blogosphere re spam, Technorati, Robert French, PRblogs.org, Edublogs, Niall Cook, Adobe Blogs, Lee Hopkins, Ben Hamilton, WordPress, Skylook, Skype, Barons to Bloggers, Melbourne University Press, Feedster Top 500, Out of Costa Rica, WordPress hosted blogging service, Movable Type, McGraw-Hill, OPML, Dave Winer, Ray Ozzie, Robert Scoble, Dan Farber, Buzz Bruggeman, Max Hansen.

Outro - Garageband.com, A Different Rhythm, Jackson Brown, 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 fircomments@gmail.com (new email address), 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 August 25...

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

The window of opportunity for Google

Google has launched version 2.0 of Google Desktop, the free software that lets you do a load of things from your PC in addition to searching for files.

'Loads of things' is the key phrase. This is far, far beyond purely search as the screenshots show. Focused on a sidebar or dashboard, the new Google Desktop aggregates email, news, RSS feeds, and more all in one place.

An article in today's Financial Times (paid sub) has a very interesting take on Google's new offering:

[...] Microsoft, which has been playing catch-up with Google in search, could feel Desktop is invading its control of the user interface in Windows, ahead of the introduction of its next-generation Vista operating system next year.

Analysts said the upgraded software, which allows users to launch programs, search their hard drives and access recent documents and emails, could be used as an alternative to Microsoft's operating system.

I really can't see how this would be an alternative to any Microsoft operating system (you need the OS on which to run the application) unless Google's getting into the OS business. But maybe this from the FT's article might explain that idea a little more:

[...] Google Desktop 2.0 features a “sidebar” a single-column stand-alone strip of information that includes news, weather, stock data, a notepad, photos and easy links to frequently accessed data and programs. “I would describe Sidebar as a dashboard, or a series of shortcuts that circumvent the need to go through the Microsoft operating system. It's an integration of content on your desktop as well as from the internet,” says Greg Sterling, analyst with the Kelsey Group.

While I remain a big fan of Copernic Desktop Search - now version 1.6, and very good indeed - as my preferred desktop-based search tool, maybe it's time to look at Google's greatly expanded offering. I've stuck with Copernic since the beginning of this year after trying out most of the search tools now on the market. But Google Desktop version 2.0 does look very attractive indeed.

They shall be heard!

Big news in Canada during the past few weeks has been a major labour dispute at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) which has seen programming disrupted as CBC has locked out many of the journalists and presenters from the workplace.

So what's this about? Not much on the CBC website to clearly explain it. As good a description as any I've found with a simple Google News search is the "No winners in the CBC lockout" article on the andPop website.

What's very interesting is how both sides have embraced online communication to pitch their different points of view in a dispute where the positions of both sides currently look to be entrenched and inflexible. The CBC has a website called CBC Negotiations in which the broadcaster's management set out in considerable detail their points of view, such as this:

[...] In the flood of communication from both union and management over the last weeks, you will have gathered that there seem to be two central issues at the core of the dispute: contract employment status, and the concept of demonstrated occupational qualifications as the criterion for redeployment during workforce adjustment.

While I'm not making any opinion about the dispute itself, that last bit is fuzzy corporate-speak if ever I read it!

And what about the locked-out employees? Blogs and websites galore as grassroots efforts to communicate about and comment on the dispute from the employee viewpoint.

It gets even more interesting - many of the radio programme producers have started podcasting versions of their shows. CBC Unplugged has an RSS feed for all podcasts (plus iTunes subscription link) as well as a growing blogroll of CBC employee blogs, and says this about what's happening:

Missing your favourite CBC Radio show? Now, re-connect with their favourite personalities and shows. Some producers are making unofficial replacement shows and you can listen to them here. This site is neither affiliated nor endorsed by either the CBC or the CMG. Look, we all love our jobs and want to be back at our jobs soon and put the programming you love back on the radio. In the meantime, I hope this helps.

Some of the podcasts aren't just programming but comment and opinion about the dispute from the presenters' viewpoints.

The future of labour relations? If you're in the broadcasting business at least, this is not the future at all.

[UPDATE] In today's edition of For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report podcast, we include an interview with a CBC reporter on the 'picket line' in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The interview was conducted this morning Halifax time by FIR listener Howard Harawitz. Shel blogged it.

Podcast about PodcastCon UK

Nicole Simon interviewed me yesterday as the first in a series of podcast interviews she's doing in preparation for PodcastCon UK, the first conference in Europe dedicated to podcasting. I'm one of the presenters.

Our conversation is about 27 minutes. Nicole's notes, direct download link and RSS feed link here.

Nearly 100 people have now signed up for the event. Still space for more.

Wordpress starts hosted blogging service

Announced at Blog Business Summit in San Francisco today - Wordpress, the open-source (and free) blog publishing platform, has started a hosted blog publishing service.

To participate, you need an invitation. What will the offering be? Free, like Blogger? Paid, like TypePad?

No details yet but undoubtedly more will emerge very soon.

(Hat tip: DL Byron)

Rupert Murdoch's long tail play

Financial Times: Rupert Murdoch has put two more internet companies on News Corporation's list of desired acquisitions: Blinkx and IGN Entertainment. [...] Talks to buy video search engine Blinkx are under way. IGN, a video gaming company considering an initial public offering or a sale, is also under consideration and could be valued at up to $800m, people briefed on its plans said.

Rupert Murdoch's long tail is looking very interesting! Blinkx' focus on video (and audio: podcasts) search could make them very big indeed in a burgeoning market where searching for and finding the content you want is crying out for someone to provide consumers with the means to do that easily.

Blinkx say they are already "tracking, listening to and watching over 15,000 podcasts and video blogs." If Forrester Research is right, videocasting will be the next big thing - and it will be hot.

IGN has numerous web properties embracing video games, file sharing, entertainment and movies. All broadband-intensive, and as we can see almost everywhere, broadband penetration is increasing rapidly, both in the US and in Europe.

Earlier this year, Murdoch identified the internet as a priority and said his group could spend up to $2 billion on acquisitions, the FT reported.

Watch the space.

Financial Times | Murdoch sights more internet targets

The Hobson and Holtz Report - Podcast #60: August 18, 2005

Content summary: Listeners' comments discussion (blog comment moderation; alternatives to British Airways; FedEx the new 'blogger Satan'; iPod display; news about Furl; why Hill & Knowlton started employee blogging; spicing up web pages; Skype for business calls; cool Jyve; smart Segway; Audacity and ID3); new audio recording equipment; no credibility for anonymous blogger; Cruisebox kick it; a cautionary blogging tale; speaking geek; Dell customer service hell again.

Show notes for August 18, 2005

Welcome to For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report, a 77-minute conversation recorded live from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and almost live from Portland, Oregon, USA.

Download the file here (MP3, 31MB), 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 a podcatcher such as the free iPodder, DopplerRadio or iTunes 4.9, or an RSS aggregator that supports podcasts such as FeedDemon).

In this edition:

Intro:

• 00:29 Neville introduces the show; what the show's about; how to give your feedback; what's in this edition; show notes

Listeners' comments discussion:

• 03:17 Andrew Marritt on Wordpress for comment moderation; some suggested alternatives to British Airways when flying to the UK from continental European destinations
• 08:16 Frank Meeuwsen says FedEx is the new 'bloggers Satan'
• 08:57 Susan Getgood's request for a better display of the show edition title in her iPod
• 11:10 Marshall Kirkpatrick's news about Furl and a very curious customer service approach by the different company who's at the Furl.com address
• 13:04 Niall Cook explains why Hill & Knowlton launched their employee blogging initiative
• 16:30 Dan York on spicing up web pages with good logo graphics, using Skype for business calls, thinks Jyve is cool, complements a filmmaker on a Segway, and asks about Audacity's ID3 tags

Features:

• 28:48 Shel tells us about his cool new audio recording equipment for on-the-road recording (and starts with a story about dinner) and what he's got lined up in his recorded commentary for this show
• 34:48 What credibility does an anonymous blogger have, no matter the good-looking reasons? Shel's analysis and strong critique of Deep Background
• 48:01 Greg St Clare says 'kick it!'
• 49:16 A cautionary tale on advising a client about blogging when the client hasn't told you his full story
• 54:52 Journalists need to learn to speak some geek, says Tom Foremski - as do communicators, says Neville
• 59:24 Corporate reputation - the impact of blogs that talk about businesses: about Dell, for instance

Outro:

• 68:57 How to give your feedback
• 69:47 One more listener comment, from singer Rebecca Dru whose song we played on April 28
• 70:50 Show notes; Neville intros the music selected by Shel

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

Listeners' comments discussion - Andrew Marritt, Wordpress, British Airways, Gate Gourmet, Easyjet, Swiss, Frank Meeuwsen, FedEx, Susan Getgood, iPod, iPod Mini, iTunes, Marshall Kirkpatrick, Furl