Have nots - have to be considered

Esther Dyson

Made a useful contribution to the "Office 2.0" conference which is reported in IWR blog.

She offered words of warning:

For a start, ubiquitous access to Office 2.0 applications is restricted to those with continuous and reliable access to power and internet access. How many global companies can even claim that?

Some of the later demonstrations proved her point when access was so slow, the presenters mumbled about "the Regis St Francis Hotel wifi network" and quickly changed the demonstration focus. I've never seen so many rotating "waiting" icons.

She predicts "a long long time" before mass adoption. She also pointed out that the focus of the successful applications would be different to today's: they will focus on tasks and collaboration, not just documents. She said, "I want an activity manager not a data manager."

It came up this week for me when a student was trying to follow my netpr Internet lecture. With a slow connection, the benefits are lost.

Practitioners (yet I put my hands up) have to be aware that there is a big audience out there that still does not have broadband or access to a reliable on-line service. We have to accept that in spreading the word to our publics we have to consider what platforms and channels are available.

Google outage

Juan Carlos Perez at PC Advisor noted that:

Citizen journalists were unable to update their weblogs yesterday after Google’s Blogger and Blogspot hosting services went offline for two hours.
A "network malfunction" caused the outage, Google said in a short note posted on Blogger Status, a site where the company informs users about Blogger system issues.

No data was lost during the outage. "We know how important Blogger is to our users, so we take issues like this very seriously," a Google spokeswoman wrote via email.

17 October - A great PR campaign

17 October is just an ordinary day, but you can make it special says the BBC by keeping a blog or diary for just one day. The aim is to create the biggest ever blog throughout Britain, and by taking part you can contribute to a day in history. Organisers hope it will provide a useful archive for generations in the future.

Meanwhile BL Ochman tells us that Yahoo is inviting participation in the Yahoo Time Capsule.

Until November 8, Yahoo! users worldwide can contribute photos, writings, videos, audio and drawings - to this electronic anthropology project. You also can and comment on the contributions from around the globe.

These are great PR campiagns... we can all learn.

Getting an image online and on TV

Paul Trotter at PC Advisor notes that Endemol UK is working with a photo blogging site to find images for a TV programme marking the rise of the citizen journalist.

The company behind reality show Big Brother is putting together content for ITV1’s “I was there: the people’s review of 2006” programme, which is due for broadcast either later this year or early in 2007.

Blogging site Fotothing has been enlisted to find suitable shots, which could be anything from photos from the World Cup, or videos from the recent coup in Thailand, it said.

Well, here again is a Public Relations opportunity to contribute. This is great because it offers both online and television exposure.

More political bloggers - an opportunity

CEN reports that MP Richard Spring, whose constituency includes Newmarket and Haverhill, has opened an internet blog - an online diary.

He said: "I believe blogs will take political communication to the next level in Britain over the next few years.

"The better blogs are already beginning to set the agenda on political issues, break key stories and most of all, make politics entertaining without trivialising the process. I have always strived to be at the heart of new political developments and that is why I shall be blogging on a regular basis with my views, thoughts, stories - and occasional rants - from Parliament on issues that matter to me and that matter to my constituents.

There is an interesting opportunity here. If an MP is a blogger, they are a channel for communication and influencing their content is a useful channel for PR activity.

Updating iPod content

From MS Mobile there is a comment that works fo me.

If you are tired of listening to music when you commute, nowadays you can find plenty of podcasts produced both by amateurs and professionals, available both as free downloads of MP3 files accessible through RSS feeds, and as commercial podcasts, where exclusive content or advertisement-free content is available for some small fee. Unfortunately Microsoft still has not built-in podcasting support into Windows Media player and ActiveSync, although Apple iPod and iTunes have podcasting capability already for almost 2 years.

Where facilities do not exist, there will be people who will offer alternatives, which is the basis for thier article but more alternatives will come.

I can't wait for near field updates for my iPod.

Top Blog

Edelman, in conjunction with the blog search engine Technorati, published a list of the top British blogs. Reports TechDigest which also has its own list.

Medical podcast covered in glory

The University of Leicester has been pioneering the use of social media for quite a long time. MicrobiologyBytes is one of its great successes and has a number off awards and accolades reports Medical News.

Creator of MicrobiologyBytes, Dr Alan Cann, of the University's Department of Biology, commented: “There's a tremendous storehouse of knowledge locked up in universities. New technology, such as web 2.0 - the read-write internet - allows us to share this by blogging and podcasting.<br>
“The aim of MicrogiologyBytes is to bring people the latest news from the forefront of biomedical research in a form that everyone can understand. Obviously, I hope that this will also attract more students to the University of Leicester, but I don't expect that someone who listens to my podcasts in, say, Mexico, will turn up on the doorstop wanting to study for a degree. It's all about the conversation we should have with the public.”

It is worth following these experiments to see how they can be applied to PR practice.

Monitoring for online video content

One of the things that PR people have to work on is how it monitors on-line content.
Andy Plesser has come across Suranga Chandratillake, the Cambridge University-trained computer scientist and founder of Blinkx,whose company has a solution for effective search of video.

Second University Life

A Harvard University class is meeting on its own "Berkman Island" within Second Life (SL). "Avatars," visual images that represent the students and teachers, gather in an "outdoor" amphitheater, head inside a virtual replica of Harvard Law School's Austin Hall, and travel to complete assignments all over the digital world. (If SL could be magically brought into the "real world," it would cover about 85 square miles.)
Some 90 Harvard law and extension school students taking the course, called "CyberOne: Law in the Court of Public Opinion," can receive real college credit. But anyone on earth with a computer connection can also take the course for free.

This is a great public relations campaign.

Text 100 is well known for setting up in SL and Lewis PR has just won the global PR account for this phenomenon.

In PR we have to look at many forms of communication and this is another one (of many virtual reality domains) here then is another opportunity and it is getting serious traction.

Found-out fake is a fake PR

Shel Holtz is on the case: a blog ostensibly authored by a couple traveling across America in their RV and spending nights parked in WalMart parking lots turned out to be a fake blog, the brainchild of WalMart’s PR counselors at Edelman. While fake blogs (and other fake social media) are nothing new, it’s dismaying to see it emerge from Edelman, which has some of the smarter new-media people on its staff (Phil Gomes, Michael Wiley, Steve Rubel and more), and which touts itself as the PR firm that truly gets social media.

If publicists believes they can fool all the people all the time especially when 'all the people' run into millions, they are nuts. Publicists who do it should not regard themselves as part of the public relations profession,. In the UK this practice is not permitted among CIPR members.

Social media is emerging in fun forms for UK politicians and parties. The latest to hit the headlines is Birmingham MP Sion Simon who has recorded a spoof YouTube video of David Cameron's Webcameron.

Even more odd is that after a howl from politicians, its has been removed from YouTuble which is rather silly.

It could have been construed to be offensive. If that is the judgement then Simon is the looser.
Why can't the viewer choose?

Boring old men have to learn

Typically the boring old men (because invariably too many are - old and
male) of British politics don't like it and claim it "goes against the spirit of
confidentiality of the talks." Having quickly scanned the blog it appears to be
mainly about the process and an insight into how these things happen, rather
than the details of the negotiations.
One of the points I always make when
I'm running social media and blog training is that it doesn't matter if you
think social media is a good thing or a bad thing. It's happening and you have
to learn how to deal with it.

Stuart Bruce is right and we have to ensure our clients understand this now rather then at a time when it is an issue.

Scream Marketing parked on the PR lawn

David Meerman Scott has posted about the nonsense corporate speak that pervades our industry.

Its another flexible, scalable, groundbreaking, industry-standard, cutting-edge press release from a market-leading, well positioned mindless PR marketing core message.

Yatching World - podcast and scream mareketing

Yacthing World's podcasts by Matt Sheahan are interesting and informative and offer a new form of interaction that the PR practitioner can get involved in.

Having your client (Grant Simmer this time) interviewed bu this iconic publication would be a big plus.

I just wish that YW did not have such horrid advertising on its site.

Fear of the Internet

Fear of internet crime is now more prevalent than concerns about more conventional crimes such as burglary, mugging and car theft, according to a report in the Guardian.


In planning online PR programmes this is an issue that needs to be considered.

GoogleTube

John Harris has an alternative view of the Google acquisition of YouTube.

Thus far, there seem to about sixty, most full of fear that their beloved virtual community is about to be turned into a drab corporate hell-hole, and as the US wakes up, the volume of anti-Google agit-prop will surely skyrocket. Looking once again at Google's own video site, you can only sympathise: its front page offers the obligatory home-made clips, but its "featured" section rather tediously flags up The Cartoon Network, a new Oasis DVD and Sky Sports' coverage of the Ryder Cup. There is also the dull sound of cynical commerce: charges for video "downloads", when - doh! - the whole point of streaming technology is that no download is required.

Apple's secret society exposed

I am not sure what TechDigest is doing.

It reports (and one can only assume from an insider tip off)

Take one uber-secretive company, the ongoing saga of the perils of blogging at or about work, and someone who claims to be working for Apple (and in the UK at that) and all the ingredients are there.

It seems to want to scoop the next blogger to get fired for blogging about their employer.

The problem here is that secretive companies get 'exposed' and cannot get across their own viewpoint when they are secretive. Apple has a reputation as "uber-secretive" and so is under constant attack and investigation.

Exhausted celebs

Does the use of famous names still have the power to attract the public to events and causes, or have we over-used them, and is their power diluted by B lists and scandals? Love them or hate them, celebrities are still sought after to help promote new products, launch events or attract clients to a new venue.
Active Events discusses this issue. Celebrity has always been with us. It is something that society enjoys. The Hittites, Ancient Greeks and Romans had celebrities.

Today there is a big gorilla in the room. It is really easy for celebrity status to emerge in social media very fast which can make some celebs appear passe.

Press relations and the vultures

The CIPR Active Events blog reported on its media conference that Justin Hayward and Sam Stokes from MS&L began the conference with ‘Selling-in you stories playing a game of network bingo. Justin, Head of Technology & Telecommunications, went on to discuss the rapid changes in media and recognising ways to remain relevant as more consumers turned to the web as an information resource.

Perhaps the best way to remain relevant is to create news stories that journalists want to find, have it in social space or, at worse where an RSS feed will find it and save all the cost of the phone round and 'selling in'.


The old model is dying, the vultures are sitting on the shoulders of tradition means of press story distribution.