Podcasts from Brendan

DigitalP: 10 Nov 09: Interactive Rite of Spring

2009-11-10T10:32:00Z

Interactive Rite of Spring; BBC digital revolution; African techies; Jimmy Wales (Pt 2)

For Immediate Release: 11/09/09

2009-11-09T18:00:00Z

Introducing FIR Phone Quicks; Steve Rubel interview set for Friday; FIR Twitter list reminder; 500th episode details; Michael Netzley's report; Media Monitoring Minute; News That Fits: why social media is vital to corporate social responsibility, CEO authenticity on Facebook, problems with ads incorporating user-generated content; listener comments; music from Jemimah Puddleduck; and more.

Inside the Pentagon with Former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Robert Hastings

2009-11-09T01:17:01Z

A conversation about the chain of command inside the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and caring for wounded warriors with Bob Hastings, vice president communications Northrop Grumman Information Systems and former acting assistant secretary, Defense for public affairs who presentes a case study about Wounded Warrior Care: Practical Applications in Strategic Communications. 01:23 – An explanation of the civilian oversight of the military, the reporting structure within the US Department of Defense and what it’s like inside the control center at the Pentagon. 03:26 – Just how advanced IS the technology inside the US Department of Defense? 04:28 – Why some US Armed Forces service members are more guarded than others when talking to the new media. 07:40 – Secretary of Defnese Robert Gates’s observation of the tension between “exquisite systems” we may need to win the war tomorrow versus getting the gear we need to win the war today. 09:37 – How the SecDef cut through the bureacracy to improve the quality of treatment for wounded warriors, faster MRAP requisitioning and the procurement of faster and better intelligence on the battlefield. 10:53 – How the Department of Defense secures and develops intelligence. 11:29 – The Wounded Warrior Care case study that Robest Hastings is presenting at the 2009 PRSA International Conference. 12:58 – The most important lesson learned from the Wounded Warrior Care case study. 15:17 – How Robert Hastings came to be appointed as an Assistant Secretary of De fense. 17:24 – What it was like interviewing at the Pentagon with SecDef Robert Gates for the job of Assistant Secretary of Defense. 19:24 – A discussion of a strategic communications intiative undertaken by the US Dept. of Defense 20:25 – Which branch of the US Armed Forces officer’s dining room at the Pentagon has the best food. 22:25– End RECOMMENDED PODCASTS: • Social Media Training the US Armed Forces Public Affairs Staff at DINFOS with Staff Sgt. Joshua Salmons • Balancing Your Right to Know against Operational Security with US Marine Corps Public Affairs Officer Major Danny Chung Eric Schwartzman (@ericschwartzman) is an independent new media and social media communications consultant, the creator of the top-rated New Media and Social Media Boot Camp, which has been attended by more than a thousand public relations and marketing executives from the private, public, government and nonprofit sectors. In addition to advising clients on best practices for online newsroom design, deployment and management, Schwartzman offers a portfolio of social media training courses to accelerate the acquisition of social media communication skills, as well as social media strategy and campaign support. Schwartzman is also the founder of online newsroom software as a service provider iPressroom. This episode of On the Record…Online, the Official PR Podcast of the 2009 PRSA International Conference, was recorded live at the conference. Subscribe via RSS or follow us on Twitter @ontherecord and get them as soon as they’re released.

Balancing the People s Right to Know against Operational Security with USMC PAO Major Danny Chung

2009-11-07T05:20:08Z

United States Marine Corps Major Danny Chung discusses his role as a public affairs officer, pulling Geraldo Rivera out of the desert during Operation Iraqi Freedom and balancing the American people’s right to know against operational security during combat situations. 00:56 -- Why Major Chung decided to enlist in US Marine Corps in 1990. 02:07 – What it was about the Marine Corps versus the Army, Navy and Air Force that attracted him. 04:00 – How he wound up in media relations, which was certainly not his intention when he originally joined. 04:48 – Major Chung discusses his experience managing media relations in Iraq before and after former president George W. Bush command the US Armed Forces to invade Iraq on March 19, 2003. 06:05 – Major Chung talks about his experience getting the USMC story out to professional journalists in today’s highly polarized news media environment. 07:41 – Major Chung’s opinion of Fox News. 09:22 – Using access to newsmakers and other military public affairs officers as a way to influence the media coverage that gets generated. 11:44 – The mandate of a United States Marine Corps public affairs officer. 12:41 – Pulling Geraldo Rivera out of the desert during Operation Iraqi Freedom for compromising operational security and the more difficult aspects of balancing the American public’s right to know against operational and national security now and in the distant future. 14:41 – The single biggest lesson that all Marine officers learn. 16:06 –How a conservative, command and control style organization like the US Marines Corps is approaching social media engagement. 18:34 -- Casey Peterson asks if social media has replaced the letter home and if the Marines are monitoring that information for loose lips. 20:06 – The role of a public affairs officer and leadership in monitoring social media conversations, the pervasiveness of digital media in lives of service members today and the Abu Ghraib prison photos scandal as a case study for when things go wrong. 22:18 – Getting the good and the bad news out as quickly as possible. 23:12 – The prospect of living up to the motto “every Marine a spokesperson” by making laptops and handhelds standard issue. 24:14 – How the USMC public affairs staff mitigates risk be briefing their fellow Marines on dealing with the press. 25:39 – How to convince a commanding officer who may be older and less engaged that things like search engine optimization and social media matter, when they don’t even know what these channels are. 31:02 – Should the US Marine Corps acknowledge Matthew Ho’s resignation at www.marines.com? 33:03 – Fighting to preserve the right of people to freely protest and express their opinions. 34:02 – Erik Deutsch asks about the US Military’s social media strategy in the Middle East, to which Major Chung responds that print and radio are more of a factor in those theaters. 36:16 – The notion of using social media for information operations and the use of handheld devices to Tweet during the Islamic Republic of Iran’s recent electoral protests. 38:56 – Major Chung responds to a passage from a feature story in Wired Magazine about how Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is focusing on winning the war today and his decision to ramp up production of armed transports deployed in Iraq. 41:28 – Major Chung talks about driving around Bagdad in a soft skinned Humvee. 44:05 – Major Chung shares his personal perspective on the effectiveness of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates versus former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. 46:41 – End BONUS PODCAST: Social Media Training the US Armed Forces Public Affairs Staff at DINFOS with Staff Sgt. Joshua Salmons Eric Schwartzman (@ericschwartzman) is an independent new media and social media communications consultant, the creator of the top-rated New Media and Social Media Boot Camp, which has been attended by more than a thousand public relations and marketing executives from the private, public, government and nonprofit sectors. In addition to advising clients on best practices for online newsroom design, deployment and management, Schwartzman offers a portfolio of social media training courses to accelerate the acquisition of social media communication skills, as well as social media strategy and campaign support. Schwartzman is also the founder of online newsroom software as a service provider iPressroom. On the Record…Online returns as the Official PR Podcast of the 2009 PRSA International Conference, which will be in San Diego, Oct. 7-10, 2009. Other US Armed Forces public affairs officers who will be interviewed at the conference include: • Lt. Col. Ann Peru Knabe, APR, public affairs officer, Pentagon War Court Spokesperson, U.S. Air Force Reserve • Col. Rudy Burwell, director, Army Reserve Communications Subscribe via RSS or follow us on Twitter @ontherecord and get them as soon as they’re released.

SciA: 05 Nov 09: Aftershocks

2009-11-06T10:32:00Z

Small earthquakes could be aftershocks from quakes 100’s of years ago and is nanomedicine safe?

For Immediate Release: 11/05/09

2009-11-05T18:00:00Z

Shel's on his own in Toronto; Google Wave and Twitter List reminders; Dan York's report; Media Monitoring Minute; News That Fits: Novell introduces Pulse with Google Wave integration, the move from stickiness to spreadability, more on Twitter lists, Second Life takes enterprise software into beta; listener comments; and more.

State of Social Media in Austria and Europe with Top Austrian Bloggers

2009-11-04T00:28:31Z

Austrian bloggers Helge Fahrnberger, Michael Vaccaro and Matthias Wurz discuss the development of social media in Europe, cultural differences between Europe and the US, and what Austrian’s really think about Arnold Schwarzenegger, John Kerry and Bruno. 00:58 – Helge Farhnberger talks about his experience blogging in Austria, his blog, his work as a social media and social software consultant and a major sociological condition for human cooperation. 02:45 – Michael Vaccaro talks about his blog which is a platform for promoting unknown, indie artists -- primarily in Austria and Germany -- to help them snag record deals and talent representation. 04:02 – Matthias Wurz talks about his experience blogging, his blog and his objective of explaining Austrian affairs to an international audience. 05:19 – Austrian bloggers share their opinions on Arnold Schwarzenegger as an actor, a politician and an Austrian and why Austrian’s call him the man without a mother tongue. 06:43 – Why Austrian’s stripped Arnold Schwarzenegger’s name from a football stadium in the city of Graz that had been named after him. 08:27 – How Austria’s right wing conservative voters felt about the US Supreme Court’s decision to recognize as president George W. Bush over John Kerry, who was of Austrian decent. 08:58 – Austrian bloggers react to Sasha Baron Cohen’s portrayal of a fictional Austrian character in the motion picture Bruno. 10:10 – Austrian bloggers discuss the motion picture “The Sound of Music” and how many Austrians have seen the film. 11:23 – Austrian bloggers discuss Viennese coffee house culture versus American coffee house culture, Starbucks and talking your coffee to go.. 16:45 – Working hard, hardly working and living to work versus working to live. 18:02 – Austrian bloggers discuss Austria’s ranking as the best place to live in the world. 21:34 – Austrian bloggers debate whether or not a clearer delineation between work and play is causing the use of social media to develop differently in Europe and Austria. 22:17 – Helge Farhnberger on the social demographics of Austria, which has 8 million people: 20 to 30 thousand Twitter uses, he guesses, making the point that Twitter users are influential. There are 1.2 million active Facebook users in Austria. And he talks about why innovations are more likely to come out of the US than Europe. 24:31 – Michael Vaccaro talks about mixing social life and work, social media usage among younger people in Europe, the role social media users play as cultural sign posts and how Austria’s listing as the best place to live reinforces that behavior. 27:26 – Matthias Wurz offers a counter perspective to Michael Vaccaro’s assertion that laziness is at least partially to blame for social media apathy in Europe and how he uses Facebook both professionally and personally. Matthias is on Twitter at @matthias_wurz. 29:34 – Michael Vaccaro is on Twitter @clstrfck 29:42 – Helge Fahrnberger is on Twitter @muesli 30:17 – Austrian bloggers discuss the differences and similarities between US and Austrian bloggers. 32:45 – The state of the newspaper business in Austria, whether or not Austrian’s are becoming less interested in newspapers, and the reach and impact of mainstream news media. 34:43 – How Michael Vaccaro started securing MP3s from labels that he could make available at clstfck. 35:48 – Matthias Wurz gives us the state of the news media business in Vienna, from the perspective of an officially accredited Austrian journalist who has been writing at a magazine for many years. 39:12 – Which mainstream media channels are most under pressure from advertiser’s defections in Austria and how the advertising spend is changing in Austria. 40:34 – German start-ups developing products that involve search engine optimization and mapping: People123, TripWolf, Bikemap (Helge’s) and soup.io. 43:42 – How people find clstfck. 45:30 – Michael Vaccaro shares the hottest three (3) Austrian recording artists he’s blogged in the last three months: MMM Matthias, Database and Micro Trauma. 46:23 – Matthias Wurz on whether Austrian journalists are considering writing for search and Steve Lohr’s article “The Boring Headline Is Written for Google.” 50:07 – Austrian bloggers discuss the recent student protest that completely clogged the streets in central Vienna, which was organized entirely through Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag #unibrennt. The demonstration was estimated to be 20 to 40 thousand students large. 59:02 -- End Eric Schwartzman (@ericschwartzman) is an independent new media and social media communications consultant, the creator of the top-rated New Media and Social Media Boot Camp, which has been attended by more than a thousand public relations and marketing executives from the private, public, government and nonprofit sectors. In addition to advising clients on best practices for online newsroom design, deployment and management, Schwartzman offers a portfolio of social media training courses to accelerate the acquisition of social media communication skills, as well as social media strategy and campaign support. Schwartzman is also the founder of online newsroom software as a service provider iPressroom. On the Record…Online returns as the Official PR Podcast of the 2009 PRSA International Conference, which will be in San Diego, Oct. 7-10, 2009. We’ll be talking to other conference keynoters in the weeks leading up to the event, and interviewing many of the presenters and panelists on site.

DigitalP: 03 Nov 09: Wikipedia

2009-11-03T10:32:00Z

Jimmy Wales on Wikipedia; Informed by Mendeley; Google Wave for scientists; Muse Trek at the Louvre

For Immediate Release: 11/02/09

2009-11-02T18:00:00Z

FIR Listener Wave is up and running; an FIR Listener Twitter list is in the works; vote for us on Podcast Alley; Michael Netzley's Asia report; Media Monitoring Minute; News That Fits: bridging the gap between corporate culture and the Web 2.0 society, what a P2P company looks like, newspapers need to measure multimedia relationship, a deep dive into the spread of inaccurate information; music from Mano Reza; and more.

SciA: 29 Oct 09: Gene therapy

2009-10-30T10:32:00Z

Gene therapy treats blind children; flu vaccine; how to detect a nuclear explosion; the oldest star.

For Immediate Release: 10/29/09

2009-10-29T18:00:00Z

Episode 500 grows ever closer; interested in a Friends of FIR Google Wave experiment?; Dan York's report; Media Monitoring Minute; News That Fits: Edelman blasted for reverse-mentoring initiative, IT firm claims Twitter costs UK billions in productivity losses, Pew releases new Twitter stats, Google launches Social Search; listener comments; the music; and more.

DigitalP: 27 Oct 09

2009-10-27T10:32:00Z

Will Windows 7 prove an improvement on Vista? New York takes a bow as the sentient city of the future, and South African teenagers take to reading novels on their mobile phones.

For Immediate Release: 10/26/09

2009-10-26T19:30:00Z

Shel's in Nashville; assembling today's show; Neville's conference experiences last week; Michael Netzley reports on Edelman's Digital Brand Index in Asia; Media Monitoring Minute; News That Fits: Twitter is the killer app for customer service, Pepsi withdraws sexist iPhone app, Volkswagen USA to launch new Golf GTi via iPhone app, US government social media security guidelines, Boots launches health website and NHS website lets you rate your local doctor, big companies bypass the media and go direct to consumers; listeners' comments and FIR friendfeed Room round-up; music from Sheila Nicholls; and more.

Social Media Investor Relations Special with former SEC Attorneys

2009-10-23T16:09:16Z

This is a special episode on investor relations in the age of social media, releasing corporate disclosures on Facebook company pages and via Twitter, the legal risks that CEO bloggers pose to public companies, Regulation Fair Disclosure compliance with company websites and more. Featured guests are Brain Lane, a partner at Gibson Dunn and Crutcher and the former Director of the Division of Corporate Finance at the US Securities and Exchange Commission and Broc Romanek, the Editor of TheCorporateCounsel.net and a former counselor to SEC Commissioner Laura Unger. Special thanks to Dominic Jones of the IR Web Report and Mark Story, director of new media at the SEC for providing supporting information and research that was instrumental in the development of this podcast. Michael Decker who is the disclosure expert at BusinessWire, a press release distribution service, was also scheduled to appear on this podcast, but was dropped from the call. He will be invited to appear on another podcast. Request for Feedback: This podcast breaks from the program’s original format. There is no sound bite or set up. Instead, it moves straight from the opening main title to the interview. What do you think about this format change? Should we keep it, or revert to the previous format? 2:46 – An explanation of what Regulation Fair Disclosure is, whisper numbers, why the regulation was enacted and how public relations and investor relations officers at publicly traded companies comply with it. 4:56 – An explanation of what selective disclosure and insider trading are, and why it is considered unfair for a publicly traded company to disclose material information in a way that could give some investors an unfair trading advantage over others. 5:55 – How the NASDAQ bubble of the 1990s lead to enactment of Reg FD. 7:40 – Addressing the question of whether or not press release distributions services are the only sure way to satisfy Regulation FD in light of new guidance issued by the SEC. 8:09 – How the SEC’s view of push technology, like email, versus pull technology, like company websites has changed over the last nine years , which channel dominates today, and the use of pull technology to satisfy Reg FD. 10:21 – How to comply with the SEC’s new Reg FD guidance and how to satisfy Regulation Fair Disclosure with the use of company websites, or online newsrooms. “When the SEC first adopted Regulation FD in mid-2000, it acknowledged that companies may be able to rely on the web to disseminate disclosure at some point in the future, but emphasized it was not likely to be considered sufficient yet. Now, that day has come.” 11:01 – The eight factors for companies to consider when they want to go the online only route for releasing material information that could affect their trading value, and the challenge and irony of satisfying those factors for large and small companies. 11:55 – An explanation of what SEC Commission guidance is and a discussion about the August 7, 2008 Commission Guidance on the Use of Company Websites for Corporate Disclosures [PDF]. 13:27 – A confirmation that public companies can satisfy Reg FD by introducing material information first on their own website, as long as they comply with SEC’s guidance. 14:05 – Considering the following language (which appears on page 18, paragraph 2 of the guidance in the above PDF link) what determines whether or not a company’s website is a recognized channel of distribution. “In order to make information public, it must be disseminated in manner calculated to reach the securities marketplace in general through recognized channels of distribution and public investors must be afforded a reasonable waiting period to react to the information. Thus in evaluating whether information is public for the purposes of our guidance, companies must consider whether and when (1) the company website is a recognized channel of distribution…” 15:05 – Whether or not search engine optimization can play a role in helping companies comply with Reg FD. 16:03 – The shortcomings of investor relations website outsourcing services and the NYSE’s decision in May 2009 eliminate requiring listed companies to announce corporate disclosures with press releases. 17:32 – A second confirmation that companies can sequence the release of corporate disclosures on their own website first, if they follow it up with push technology release as well, and the commission’s guidance that “if you put something on your website, even if it wasn’t deemed to be public disclosure, they wouldn’t deem it to be a violation of FD if that’s what you did.” 20:08 – Using the press release to alert investors in advance that a company intends to release earnings information on its website at a specific time. 20:36 –The rationale for moving press releases on corporate websites first: search engine optimization specialists Danny Sullivan and Lee Odden agree that companies are best situated to improve the search visibility of their corporate website by collecting inbound links, and therefore, it’s in a company’s best interests to encourage inbound links to press releases at its own domain, versus links to a paid or legit newswire, which may have distributed or aggregated that press release. 22:30 – The growth of shareholder activism and how that may put pressure on public companies to more actively manage the investor relations section of their corporate website. 24:35 – The importance of accessibility from the SEC’s standpoint, and whether or not regulators are coming after companies with sloppy, difficult to navigate websites. 24:54 – SEC staff guidance that reference hyperlinks must lead directly to the pertinent content, rather than to the homepage or directory of the IR website. Permalinks are required. 26:31 – The use of Facebook company pages as IR websites, and a blog post by Dominic Jones of the IR Web Report about companies that are actually using Facebook pages for general business purposes, and IR specific purposes and which business sectors are the early adopters. 27:42 – Whether or not it’s legal to release corporate disclosures first on a company Facebook page. 29:25 – Whether or not Sun Microsystems Chairman Jonathan Schwartz, who pushed the limits of Reg FD on Jonathan’s Blog, would meet the same degree of resistance today. 31:26 – The legal challenges of public companies whose CEO blogs such as tipping off investors selectively, the duty to update and why nonselective disclosure means nonselective engagement in social media communications. Also, the type of corporate disclosures that belong in a press release rather than a blog post. 34:55 – The risk of blogs at company websites: “If you sponsor a blog on your website, there’s an inherent belief that somehow you’re endorsing that what’s on the blog is accurate.” 36:39 – Circumventing risk by blogging about nonmaterial corporate information. 37:39 – The risk of corporate blogs being seen as semi-private conversations by the regulators, and as such, selective disclosures, and just how easy it is to break the law under Reg FD. 39:10 – The opinion that all CEOs and all IR Officers should be blogging, as long as they are properly trained in what to say and what not to say. The Dell Shares blog is used as a good example of an effective IR blog that did not result in any regulator violations. 40:25 – The number of companies twittering about financial issues and a study by Q4 Web Systems about showing that 8 public companies have Twitter accounts 4 of those use Twitter for IR. (Seems to be the number must be considerable higher). 40:43 – The challenge of putting financial information in proper perspective in just 140 characters. The example of EBay live Twittering earnings calls. 41:57 – A confirmation that public companies bear greater responsibility for the accuracy of content situated at their own web domain than they would for content they create on a third party social network. 43:08 – Whether or not investors relations officers and attorneys are really ready to act on this guidance. The legal department at Microsoft’s blog as an example of a public company that’s comfortable with social media. 44:56 – An explanation of XBRL, an XML classification scheme for financial information. 46:43 -- Whether or not XBRL can be used to fulfill regulation FD, the real value of XBRL and the risks of serving up financial information out of context. 48:49 -- End Eric Schwartzman (@ericschwartzman) is an independent new media and social media communications consultant, the creator of the top-rated New Media and Social Media Boot Camp, which has been attended by more than a thousand public relations and marketing executives from the private, public, government and nonprofit sectors. In addition to advising clients on best practices for online newsroom design, deployment and management, Schwartzman offers a portfolio of social media training courses to accelerate the acquisition of social media communication skills, as well as social media strategy and campaign support. Schwartzman is also the founder of online newsroom software as a service provider iPressroom. On the Record…Online returns as the Official PR Podcast of the 2009 PRSA International Conference, which will be in San Diego, Oct. 7-10, 2009. We’ll be talking to other conference keynoters in the weeks leading up to the event, and interviewing many of the presenters and panelists on site. Register here.

SciA: 22 Oct 2009

2009-10-23T09:32:00Z

Biofuels: good or bad? saving seeds; HIV vaccine doubts; chimp culture; internet brains.

For Immediate Release: 10/22/09

2009-10-21T20:00:00Z

Neville's in Manchester while Shel's in Montreal; a focus on web accessibility; Dan York's report; Media Monitoring Minute; News That Fits: ATT asks employees to astroturf, Coca-Cola sends three bloggers on a world tour, the start of Google Wave spam, Procter and Gamble applies social media to toilet paper, email more popular than Facebook with Gen-Y; FriendFeed Room roundup; music from The Aces; and more.

DigitalP: 19 Oct 09

2009-10-20T09:32:00Z

Twitter and Media Law; Science of the Web; Network Relief Kit; Bill Brindley on NetHope

GOC 002: On sex with Danish blondes, Twitter and QR Codes

2009-10-19T09:50:00Z

In this excitement-packed edition of Grumpy Old Communicators you will hear us wax lyrical about such diverse topics as:

Karen, her baby August, and the scandal sheâs created (and if you want to know where the idea for Karen came from, check out Australiaâs far less raunchy but equally seductive young lady who is looking for her Mr Right and only has his misplaced jacket to go on; the video is below, as is a link to some thoughts by a superb Aussie commentator and no, thatâs not Lee!)
Twitter follower numbers and a reference to the superb The Twitter Book by Tim OâReilly and Sarah Milstein
Simon Crisp and IBM's new division
David Jones and his truly excellent MAIL process for social media engagement
QR codes, the Three Minds blog and Allanâs B+B website

All in all, 29 minutes and 22 seconds of disarmingly direct conversation over a shocking Skype line that makes you wonder if your two intrepid communicators were actually alive at the time, or were communicating via telepathy, a Ouija board and a plump and quite harmless 50-something-year-old landlady by the name of Mrs Scoggins who dabbles in the occult and thinks sheâs a channel for âthose on the other sideâ.

For Immediate Release: 10/19/09

2009-10-19T20:00:00Z

Not your usual show; Shel's in Cleveland and back from BlogWorld; Media Monitoring Minute; News That Fits: TSA blog opens conversation on a controversy, Technorati relaunches and issues a new State of the Blogosphere; five Twitter trends; listener comments; music; and more.

M Show 205 - Beginning of the End

2009-10-19T02:20:00Z

M Show 205 - The End is Near

Intro - Kevin from Power FM
The M Show Theme Song is by Clara Venus

News:
The Last M Show
Marketing Over Coffee

Talk:
Carin's Books
Drug Robbers

Entertainment:
Wallander
Yo-Yo Ma - Songs of Joy and Peace

Showtime 11:50

Support the M Show by using this link to shop at Amazon

Feedback to john@TheMShow.com
John Wall - Subscribe to this feed to listen to the podcasts that I find interesting

The Sangria Theme Song is "Romany Dance Gitano Flamenco" by hellozero