Gadgets get green

A short-range, wireless technology that is more energy-efficient than Bluetooth has been unveiled by Nokia says the BBC.

Ben Wood at UK-based Collins Consulting told Reuters news agency "Bluetooth is clearly not suited to some of the cooler applications like intelligent jewelry, watches - a less power hungry, smaller, cheaper solution will open some interesting new opportunities."

This thinking opens up ideas for even more platforms for communications channels to work through.

Happily for those of us who try to keep up, its a few years (OK weeks) away.

Making notes fflexibly

Stepan Pachikov has a great one liner:

One person cannot ruin a good company. It takes a strong management team to do that.

He also has cool software and a new startup called EverNote. Like Google Notebook, EverNote offers a software download that lets you highlight and clip information as you surf the Web and stores your clippings for you online. But, says B2Day, EverNote goes much further than Google Notebook because you can also clip text from any Word document, Excel spreadsheet, PowerPoint slide, Outlook e-mail, or digital-ink scrawl. It stores all of these clippings on the Web in an endless, chronological tape that is highly searchable.

Sony sidles up to BT

Sony BMG has struck a deal with BT to offer on-demand access to music videos through the telco’s upcoming IPTV service, BT Vision.

Although it is yet to announce pricing, the move will give BT exclusive early access to newly released videos through the BT Vision Download Store, launched in July.

Its nuts!

This is going to be fringe stuff. It will make some money but will be diddly squat compared to the rest of the online video exchange.

Old thinking.

PRN buys USNewswire

Press release distribution business PR Newswire has bought US Newswire from Medialink Worldwide for £10 million.

The purchase of US Newswire will give PR Newswire, which is owned by United Business Media, a significant foothold on the government and public interest sectors and improve its distribution channels in the US says Journalism.co.uk.

Students blog about bars - an idea for PR

An undergraduate student at the University of Plymouth, Darren Jones, is launching a social networking website, Nights Out @ Uni (http://www.nightsoutatuni.co.uk), run by students for students.

The site will provide users with entertainments information including events listings for nightclubs, pubs, bars, restaurants and cinemas, as well as the latest offers and promotions in their area, and could rival the likes of MySpace and Bebo, says Press Dispensary.

One wishes it well but its a big mountain and there is a lot of competition.

There is a useful thought here which is that a PR practitioner can create such portals for groups of people with common interests. For example what about one for your company, industry sector or locality?

Wal-Mart scream marketing social media site a flop

Wal-Mart’s brief fling with online networking appears to have come to an end, with several blogs saying the retailer has closed its teen-oriented social networking site - called ‘ The Hub ’, among other things says e-consultancy.

The site, temporarily launched this summer as a promotion for the start of the school year, aimed to copy Myspace et al by encouraging ‘hubsters’ to set up their own personalised web pages.

Apparently, features such as parental approval and photos like the one below (courtesy of The Blog Herald) weren't as appealing as hoped.

My impression of the site was that it had been designed by a control freak who wanted to blast Wal-Mart adds at everything in sight.

Aimed at a generation that counts the number of pay-as-you go text messages left on their phone, the targeting was awful.

The issue here is that people imagine that these sites are a communications channel. Yes they are but only if they facilitate community building.

A LexisNexis sponsored survey reported in Silicon.com says:

When asked for their top three choices for accurate and up-to-the-minute information, 50 per cent of people surveyed chose network/local television, 42 per cent chose radio, and 37 per cent chose newspapers. Slightly more than a third picked cable news or business networks, and 25 per cent said they went to "internet sites of print and broadcast media". Only six per cent said they turned to "emerging media" sources.

When asked to choose the top five topics that interested them, consumers were more into pop culture than politics. The most popular topics, chosen by about a third of the consumers surveyed, are popular entertainment (books, movies, music, TV, plays), hobbies, weather and food/cooking/dining. Almost a quarter of the people chose sports.

Of course, social media as a whole is one thing but I am reasonably happy with the sources I use but RSS is not well understood in domestic circumstances yet.

For the PR practitioner this suggests that there remains an imperative to work across all media - as always.

Mobile, TV and Games gardgets get juices going

A new survey reveals where a sizable chuck of our income is going each year – on buying new gadgets and gizmos suggests an article in Pocket Lint.

The research says that over 60% of Brits spend £5000 on gadgets every year, with 30% of those surveyed saying that they have 15 gadgets in total.

These are all Internet platforms offering a wide range of communications channels and channel convergence (e.g. watch TV on your mobile and text message from your game).

The popularity of communications platforms suggests that there is enthusiasm backed with hard cash to enjoy the Internet.

MySpace is taking ads

Social media website MySpace has struck its first-ever UK television deal which sees it promote drama series Brotherhood.

As part of the agreement, the first episode will be available in its entirety exclusively on the MySpace site ahead of its debut on the FX channel on 9 October says Mad.

It will be interestiung to see how MySpace users take to this new departure.

Ouch!

Peter Cochrane had some pithy comments to make to Information managers this week but his points if fire off in the direction of senior managers in PR would hole them below the watermark.

I reproduce some comments here but suggest you read the whole article and where you rile most - act.

1. Throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s people who knew deep technical stuff (nerds) were derided and discounted. The management attitude was that these people were irrelevant and a pain. Deep tech understanding was not seen as necessary to manage anything. How the world has changed - today some of the richest people in the world are ex-nerds!
2. This retrograde management attitude had a lot to do with the greater than 85 per cent failure rate of IT programmes through that era, that continues today in industry, defence, education and healthcare. Know-nothing managers are a menace to any industry and profession.
3. Not including the end user, not understanding the technology and not understanding the difference between data, information and knowledge is not only dangerous - it turns out to be very expensive!
4. The biggest universal mistake has been to take the old paper processes and transplant them to the screen, and then create even more paper! IT presents a much bigger opportunity to change organisations and operations but, unfortunately, people seem unable to adapt and change in more than one dimension at a time. Contrast the old (50- to 100-years-old) companies to the new (10- to 20-years-old) and it is stark in the way they use IT to create, run and advance the business.

School PR - watch the social media as well

TWO Sheffield secondary schools have become the first state schools in the city to employ a professional public relations firm to improve their image.

The Sheffield Star reports that

Myers Grove and Fir Vale are paying Sheffield agency Pickard Communications which also works with fee-paying independent schools in the city.
The firm's director Chris Pickard said he thinks it is money well spent - although he acknowledges some parents will wonder why a portion of the schools' budget will be spent on his services rather than paying for more teachers, books or equipment.
"Schools are increasingly becoming a focal point for their local communities, offering services far beyond classroom teaching. It is therefore ever more important that schools communicate effectively with local people," he said.

There is also a good case for monitoring and working with social media when dealing with schools. Over half of students will have a presence on channels such as MySpace or Bebo and almost all students will be suing Instant Messaging very heavily. This is both a PR opportunity and a threat.

Managing vulnerabilities

Cyber-Ark Software has announced the surprising results of its 2006 Privileged Password Survey.

Privileged passwords are the non-personal passwords that exist in virtually every device or software application in a company.

Managing Information reports on vulnerabilities.

2006 Privileged Password Survey reveals that privileged passwords are far more common in enterprises than previously thought: approximately one-half of all enterprises contain more privileged passwords than individual ones.

Secondly, although these privileged passwords provide "super-user" system access, the survey exposes that up to 42% are never updated, a frightening prospect in today’s environment of increased audits and hacker attacks. In fact, half of the IT professionals surveyed reveal that they’re concerned about audits, and 6 out of 10 state that their organization has been hacked.

This reveals a problem for mangaging issues in PR. You may find just asking the question for your issues management programme may save a lot of future embarrassment.

Be careful what you mean when you write

When they think of the word ‘industry’ young people see ‘money and computers’ whereas older people see ‘dirt and decline’, reports Onerec.

Younger people’s attitudes towards ‘industry’ have almost nothing in common with those of older people, a new national survey of 1000 people has found.

This is an interesting survey and useful for copywriters in PR.

Spoof is always with us

A video blog by the Conservative leader has been targeted by cyber-hoaxers supporting the UK Independence Party reports The Times.

A group called UKIPhome, which claims to be “unauthorised but proudly pro-UKIP”, has produced a video parodying the similarities between Mr Cameron and Tony Blair, which appears on a website with a similar address to the Tory leader’s own blog.

The parody video on webcameron.info has already been viewed more than 7,000 times while the authentic Cameron website on WebCameron.org.uk had received 160,000 hits, according to a spokesman.

It was inevitable and is just the kind of thing that every company involved in Social Media outreach should consider in their plan. It is an issue but nothing to get too excited about.

Computers - part of the furniture

As movie and TV downloads become more popular and the hard drive replaces the DVD drawer, people may want a nicer look, and a lot more storage suggests C|net.

Suissa, a new company featured at the Canadian design conference IIDEX/NeoCon, launched a line of wood-encased computers on Monday, Slashdot reported.

As people use thier computers in the living space (to watch on-line video, multitask etc). It is only to be expected that this would b ecome a 'must have'.

The key for Public Relations is the extent to which practitioners can accept that the PC is part of domesic life.

Social Media to turn on youth vote

The Conservatives say they are turning to blogs, or online diaries, to talk to the "iPod generation" of 16- to 25-year-olds who are less likely to get their news from traditional media, says Reuters.

They say blogs allow politicians to be heard without the filter of the traditional press.

"There is a crying need for intelligent use of the new media," Conservative member of parliament and former shadow Home Secretary Ann Widdecombe told a meeting dedicated to the topic at the party's annual conference this week.

Smart PR.

A Case study worth watching.

PR's have new comms channel in South Wales

The South Wales Argus has become the first Newsquest title to launch a reader blogs section on its website.

Readers were invited to write their own online diaries at www.southwalesargus.co.uk three months ago and since then their blogs have proved to be a popular part of the site.

Green Communications - Social Media unit

Green Communications has launched a new division advising business how to deal with the rapidly expanding world of web logs - or blogs for short reports the Yorkshire Evening Post.
The launch coincides with the release of research showing nearly half of small and medium-sized firms understand the business benefits of corporate blogs, but only three per cent have plans to start one.

Hoe to run a party the Google way

e-consultancy reports the speech by Google boss Eric Schmidt at the Tory conference, Schmidt said party leader and blogger David Cameron should adopt the search giant's internal model.

"We run Google in this bizarre way which we call 70-20-10. Seventy percent of our resources are applied to our core business, 20% on our adjacent businesses and 10% on new and innovative things that nobody could possibly ever have thought of," he said.

"I was thinking Mr Cameron and the leadership could say 70% could work on our core activities, 20% could work on our adjacent activities, and 10% of you are in charge of inventing completely new ideas - half of which are wacko, and half of which are brilliant."

In such fast changing time perhaps this would be a good model for PR departments too.

Convergence and Murdoch

Timesonline has started broadcasting video news packages supplied by Sky News on its TV service. Says Journalism.co.uk.

Times TV already carries video news from Fox News and Reuters but this is the first time that it has carried news from the UK-based 24-hour news channel.

The Times simultaneously launched its online TV service and an e-magazine in June, this year.