clogger | Blogging the corporate bloggers.

Links for 2007-07-18 [del.icio.us] - Rmail

2007-07-19T08:17:00.001+00:00

Links for 2007-07-18 [del.icio.us]

40+ Tips to Improve your Grammar and Punctuation - Dumb Little Man

Link - Thu, 19 Jul 2007 01:00:00 GMT - Feed (2 subs)

Sent using R|mail.

Visit here to unsubscribe from Clogger feed.

Recommended Feeds/Actions

Subscribe Great Ideas from Country Living

Xansa NASSCOM blog II: The return

2007-02-08T08:45:00.000+00:00

Xansa's blogging from NASSCOM again, and we're helping. In a year when India is in the centre of much excitement over its economic growth, it must be a good place to be right now.

I expect it isn't snowing, either.

Tagged: NASSCOM Xansa LEWIS PR

The ultimate question

2007-01-29T22:14:00.000+00:00

Life is full of pivotal but often unanswerable questions. What's the secret of a good press release? Is Jade really a racist? Has Sarah Beeny ever hosted a home improvement show while not pregnant? What's that smell? There's a few for starters.

Another question that springs up countless times every day - at least in my world - is whether PR people and journalists will ever see things the same way. After all, we all work in communication, even though our 'work' is often carried out on different sides of the proverbial 'fence'.

Throw bloggers into the mix - with their very different take on the media relations machine - and you've got a difficult question to answer. If not handled with kid gloves, things can often snowball into a potentially incendiary situation.*

So how do you not only go about understanding the journalist / PR relationship and therefore do your job better, but also convince the very journalists you're trying to relate to that they should down tools, hop over the fence and join you?

Like this, perhaps?
____________________________________________________

AWARD-WINNING LONDON PR AGENCY** SEEKS IN-HOUSE JOURNALIST

‘Ideas person’ with journalism experience required to join in-house creative team to work on high-profile campaigns
Faultless spelling and grammar, and ability to work to brief and turn flat ideas into sparkling copy essential
Must enjoy a high-pressure environment and be able to take ownership of varied projects, both internal and client-facing
Knowledge of new media publishing techniques, such as blogging and podcasting, an advantage
An outstanding benefits package plus opportunities for fast promotion and performance-related bonuses await the right person!

SALARY DEPENDENT ON EXPERIENCE

Contact Kirsty Mallows on kirstym@lewispr.com or 020 7802 2626 for more details.

____________________________________________________

* I did that on purpose.
** That's us.

Tagged: LEWIS PR

Also published on LEWIS 360

2007-01-23T16:38:00.000+00:00

links for 2007-01-23

Drew B's take on tech PR: UK PR site to be launched by Sam Sethi - PressMeme

Sam Sethi resurfaces after his swift exit from TechMeme. Drew's all over it.
Flickr: The Bloggers' desks Pool

Drew started a Flickr pool of bloggers' desks. Come join us! Or just visit and marvel at Sam's view, Drew's two computers (totally staged as he idolises Renaissance Chambara) or gaze in awe at my helmet.
Off to go Photowalking… « Scobleizer - Tech Geek Blogger

Photowalking. Like rambling but even geekier?
A PR Guy's Musings - Stuart Bruce: Edelman Trust Barometer

Big pockets, small rockets

2007-01-04T14:19:00.000+00:00

If you were a technology entrepeneur, had made a few quid and wanted to splash some cash on a new hobby, what do you do?

Microsoft's Paul Allen is doing it. Ebay's Elon Musk is doing it. Good old Richard Branson's doing it. You join the space race, of course.

Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, has seen the first successful test flight of Goddard, the initial attempt to build a vertical takeoff and landing craft in his Blue Origin programme.

Go and watch the hi-res, low frame rate video of Goddard's flight. You'll see a small but significant step towards bringing low-cost, commercial space flight to the masses. (Which means it's OK to spend a lot of money playing about with rockets.)

I'm off to convince Chris Lewis to build a launchpad on the roof of Millbank Tower.

(Spotted on Boing Boing. Also published on LEWIS 360.)

Tagged: bezos amazon space

'Calm down dear'

2007-01-03T14:07:00.000+00:00

Gizmodo's just published a British TV clip from over two years ago about a crappy hover bike, thinking it's a new one.

It reminded me of this. Mind you, he might already have one...

Only read this if you're human

2007-01-02T15:08:00.000+00:00

Every so often someone will write an article or post that captures a debate or moment in our own evolution that just sums it all up.

Go and read this immediately.

(Via Rough Type.)

Threshers: The day we woke up

2006-12-05T13:30:00.000+00:00

Things move quickly in the blogosphere. No sooner had Threshers launched its 40% off voucher and sent it forth unto the world to wreak Oddbins- and Majestic-shaped havoc, than the annals of the world wide web were alight with people posting, emailing and generally sharing their newly-acquired savings.

About five seconds later, the blogosphere turned. We'd been had. Duped by an offer that they'd meant to go viral all along, and didn't represent particularly good savings anyway.

There's a good summary over at Stuart Bruce's blog. Otherwise, gapingvoid sums things up nicely (see above).

I was interested to read about blog-friendly budget wine vendor Stormhoek's attempt at eclipsing the offer - and succeeding. (Apart from taking its own website down, of course.)

Technorati tags: stormhoek / threshers / voucher
Also published at LEWIS 360

Eye on the sky

2006-12-02T11:10:00.000+00:00

&lt;br&gt;

Zell am See Snow Forecast | Snow Report | by E-mail

In it to win it

2006-11-30T22:59:00.000+00:00

LEWIS client F-Secure is asking readers of its blog to vote on its new set of laptop stickers.

Get stuck in now by casting your vote.

But let's all please try stay away from 'Where is this kernel-land? Is it close to Lapland?', eh? I'm not sure the world is ready for that level of hilarity...

Also posted on LEWIS 360.
Tagged: LEWIS PR F-Secure

Trigger hippy

2006-11-30T22:28:00.000+00:00

It's worth following the thread of conversation here regarding Jackie Danicki's alleged assault on the London Underground. Stuart makes a good point that a LOT of bloggers are posting images of a person that needs to remain innocent until proven guilty.

Has everyone got carried away here at the slight scent of blog scandal, or are we well within our rights to leap to the defence of a blogger - and therefore friend - using the only tools we've got?

Tagged: Jackie Danicki

Just one of the 1.3 million

2006-11-29T23:16:00.000+00:00

At last, someone has made a sensible point about regulation in the blogosphere.

From the BBC today:

Press Complaints Commission director Tim Toulmin said he opposed government regulation of the internet, saying it should a place "in which views bloom".
But unless there was a voluntary code of conduct there would be no form of redress for people angered at content.

Good work fella.

And that comment looks particularly sensible when you look at the quote from Alastair Campbell at the end of the article. "Some of the most offensive stuff" comes from blogs, does it Alastair?

Maybe you're right... But your comments still echo a worrying lack of nuance in the general public's understanding of the medium. Doesn't most of the most offensive stuff come from people's mouths?

Or am I over-complicating the matter?

Tagged: ethics

Back

2006-11-28T23:15:00.000+00:00

To celebrate my reinstatement on Technorati (I've been very out of the loop for three months), here is a link to my favourite post ever from Loic. Enjoy.

Tagged: NotAmandaCongdonsBoobs

Don't have nightmares

2006-11-28T22:35:00.000+00:00

Using the Internet for good, not evil, is to be commended.

Let's find the freak who assaulted Jackie Danicki.

Thanks for your help.

(Via Drew.)

Three heads are better than one

2006-11-28T21:50:00.000+00:00

Why would wonderful blog Boing Boing feel the need to tell PR types to stop emailing them suggestions for their site? In bold?

My first reaction was to pity the editors at Boing Boing for having to deal with a load of PR people desperately emailing them dumbass press releases about their client's latest rubbish product in the vain hope of 'coverage'.

But that was the blogger in me talking.

Then I thought about the poor PR types. Most of the media relations people I know are only really just working out their key blogger contacts. Yes, some are more behind than others, but PR is currently one of the blogosphere's main supporters. They are even happy to give free stuff away (like mobile phones) in the hope of 'coverage'. Why publicly berate them just for doing what they do best? In bold?

But that was the PR person in me talking.

Then I thought 'Hang on a minute'. These bloggers have found themselves at the helm of an online magazine. These writers are reporting fact, swaying opinion and entertaining the masses. When a blog gets as big as Boing Boing, it's made the jump from pet project to broadcast medium. This is a position of great power. And as we all know, with great power comes great responsibility. So if Boing Boing thinks it's OK to post glib remarks about PRs - in bold - it's wrong. All that is doing is showing that it's a fledgling in the big wide world of publishing. Editors need PR, and PR needs publications to survive. I suspect they don't complain when they get free stuff. This is just another case of a blog that's got too big for its boots.

That was the journalist in me talking. I will only be listening to him from now on.

Tagged: Boing Boing

Sprint posting

2006-11-22T11:27:00.000+00:00

I've been down in the LEWIS Media Centre blogging 'live' the LEWIS Industry Forum 2006.

It was a mad hour of typing and scanning the web for images to go with the posts. I'm exhausted now. Perhaps I'm too old to blog.

You can read my posts at LEWIS 360.

They're made out of meat

2006-11-14T20:13:00.000+00:00

For Drew and everyone that hasn't seen this...

The Sony crisis shockwave

2006-11-08T17:21:00.000+00:00

Sony has launched the 'world's lightest notebook PC'. But this CNN article doesn't seem too bothered about that. After an initial flurry of stats, the third paragraph drags the story right back to what seems to have only slightly tarred Apple, Toshiba et al's reputation - the 'exploding batteries' saga.

By the end, we're back to the story. But paragraph 3 and 4? You just can't miss them.

What will Sony do next to renew confidence? The world's largest LCD TV? The world's coolest MP3 player? The world's most expensive robot dog?

Or will the world's fastest games console be enough to divert attention away from the crisis?

Let's just hope they don't explode.

Also published on LEWIS 360

OS mashes-up maps

2006-11-03T14:41:00.000+00:00

Some words just don't go together. 'Fashion sandals'. 'Racing pigeon'. 'Modern jazz'. 'Express queue'.

These are contradictions, bordering on the oxymoronic.

So when Ordnance Survey - a company so steeped in geographical and geological expertise that not having a beard and a personal subscription to Geotimes is banned by its HR department* - announces it's getting involved in mash-ups, I nearly jumped out of my fashion sandals.

The Ordnance Survey 'OpenSpace' project will begin with a limited three-month experiment with 12 developers using a new Java API (application programming interface, for those of you without a beard) to create mashed-up applications using OS data.

The idea is to mimic the success of Google Maps in becoming a reasonably standard standard for online mapping. After all, letting any old publisher access your data in an integration-friendly way is a great way of upping your profile.

While Ordnance Survey and the crazy world of Web 2.0 seem to be at odds with one another, this announcement is great news for the citizens of the planet. I can't be the only one who's been sat somewhere on Earth (in my case, Battersea) wondering why the hell the map I'd printed off Google Maps is bearing no resemblance to the layout of the streets in front of me. Is that too much to ask?

But Google don't really care that I'm stranded in South West London by their rubbish mapping, because they're too busy fiddling about with other, more trendy things like YouTube and JotSpot.

The friendly chaps over at Ordnance Survey, however, would rather have their collection of modern jazz CDs set on fire than let me lose my way. They are the old guard of mapping - from a time when maps were maps and explorers relentlessly charted the globe armed with a sexton, a compass and a pencil just to see who could make more detailed schematics of the Isle of Wight.

Ordnance Survey's entrance into the online mapping arena will hopefully mean that the other providers pull their finger out and improve the quality of online mapping. After all, in Web 2.0 world, mapping is a killer app.

Now let's see if the experts can force Google into making a killer map.

* Not true, obviously

Also published on LEWIS 360.

Wii spot

2006-10-30T13:38:00.000+00:00

This is a great promotional video for the Nintendo Wii. Look at the happy faces as people of all ages enjoy the cuddly graphics and easy-to-operate controls.

Hang on! Who's that guy? OH MY GOD. HELP! A serial killer is sitting at home learning how to kill! Look! He's shooting people! Now he's slashing them with a Samurai sword! AAAAARGH!

Back to basics

2006-10-29T12:15:00.000+00:00

Sorry.

I've been away for a while. I've been a bit busy with LEWIS 360, which has now overtaken my Technorati ranking (which was the point).

You've probably had little to read recently. Perhaps you've resorted to finding new and exciting things to do with a computer? No doubt you're probably missing your fix of acerbic anti-clogger insight. How has the clogosphere been without me?

Anyhoo, back to business. Time to catch up with some old friends.

I see Scoble's yet to make an interesting point since leaving Microsoft (now that he doesn't have access to the inner workings at Redmond, who actually cares?). I sat through 15 seconds of 'The Scoble Show' before I actually gouged out my eyeballs and stuck them in my ears to try and keep the horror from reaching my brain. I've still got some residual images from it burnt into my memory, but alcohol's helping to keep them supressed. For now.

Someone who's travelling in the other direction, metaphorically speaking, is Juberti, who's left AOL for Google and moved his blog accordingly. Although Justin wasn't the most prolific blogger when at AOL, his posts were always reasonably accurate and interesting, and he never resorted to showing off - which, in my book, is a good thing. The only thing I'm concerned about is how much he's going to be able to give away before Google's Thought Police, dressed in their trademark red, green, orange and yellow suits, drag him into the Googleplex's high-security underground bunker and shoot him in the back of the head. (In the mean time, check out President Bush lovin' the Google.)

One thing I've really enjoyed recently is the Edelman PR / Wal-Mart story. To summarise: A couple of seemingly innocent Wal-Mart fanblogs had Edelman pulling the strings. Bloggers find out. Transparency ensues. To summarise a couple of the responses: "It had nothing to do with me." - Steve Rubel. Fair enough, Stevie, but pretty gutless. "Please don't blame our client - it was our fault. By the way, we helped write the rules we broke." - Richard Edelman. Brave, Richard. But is that response as brave as it seems? Taking the fall for this is just a crisis management exercise on behalf of the client. And you helped write the WOMMA code of ethics? Is that supposed to make us feel better that you broke them? Doesn't that just make it worse? If we can't trust the people that wrote the code, who can we trust? And anyway, screw the code. Corporate blogging is about common sense and decency, nothing more.

And finally - have you seen Loic le Meur try out a Segway? It's AWESOME. For an extreme sportsman, he doesn't really give it much stick. Loic - check this out, it'll give you some tips.

How to dress like a Mac II

2006-09-20T22:33:00.000+00:00

Seen this?

Tagged: apple

My first poll: Congdon vs Colan

2006-07-12T20:18:00.000+00:00

Five alive

2006-07-12T19:12:00.000+00:00

I was in a meeting today with Drew and our web team, chatting through some of the blogging tools we use every day, and swapping ideas.

Drew and I were harping on about our definition of social media. It's not an easy thing to explain quickly.

I tend to define my experience of blogging (and beyond) through the online tools I use every day. And this was how the debate continued.

While I'm not a big Digger, some rely on it. I tend to use my Google personalised homepage to aggregate content feeds, while Drew uses popurls to monitor the aggregators and search for memes. For blogging I prefer Blogger, while some use TypePad and others swear by WordPress. I love my del.icio.us, and use it to save content for reviewing later. Drew uses it more for publishing, having plugged it into his Social Media Report. We all love Technorati.

I began to realise that there are five tools that keep me alive in the blogosphere:

FIVE THINGS I CAN'T BLOG WITHOUT:

1. Blogger
2. Technorati
3. del.icio.us
4. Statcounter
5. YouTube

Granted, I'm a bit old skool. I still use Yahoo! Photos, not Flickr. I uninstalled Skype because I couldn't stop it launching every time I booted up my laptop. Memetracker (like most other monster content aggregators) makes me feel dizzy.

So, in the spirit of the blogosphere's 'Five Things' meme, what are your 'Five Tools That You Can't Blog Without'?

Morgan, Drew, Stuart, Piaras, Wade, Loic - consider yourself tagged. Your turn.

Technorati Tags: five things, blogging, social media, meme
Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |

Destined for publication on LEWIS 360, but TypePad was down.

Is green the new white?

2006-06-26T20:47:00.000+00:00

The story that broke today about ‘green’ PCs and, more to the point, the amount more that users are willing to pay for them, was another opportunity for technology companies to jump on a friendly social issue.

Apart from Greenpeace – which commissioned the study – Dell seems to be the biggest recipient of positive coverage, with its own nicely-timed announcement that it plans to phase out dangerous chemicals from its products cross-referenced all over the place.

For once, Apple was mentioned in a negative light as a member the list of computer manufacturers yet to commit to eliminate hazardous materials from their products.

Are consumers really willing to pay more for greener PCs? According to the study, UK buyers are willing to spend £75 more. But when it comes to purchasing greener power, such as electricity from providers that source renewable energy, it’s been demonstrated time and time again that the public will only sign up if it’s the same price as ‘brown’ energy, or cheaper.

In the consumer electronics market, where prices are constantly being squeezed and expectation always rising, are consumers really likely to pay almost another £100 to ensure they get a green one? I doubt it. People are likely to say they’ll pay more – but when it comes down to it, they mean well but won't follow through.

Call me cynical, but this story appears to be another classic piece of solar-powered spin. If I was Mr Dell, I’d look at making my green PCs cheaper AND better than my normal ones, and doing something really responsible. That might even make Apple sit up and take notice.

Originally posted at LEWIS 360.
Tagged: Greenpeace Dell environment