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2007-07-19T08:17:00.001Z

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Xansa NASSCOM blog II: The return

2007-02-08T08:45:00.000Z

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

2007-01-29T22:14:00.000Z

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

2007-01-23T16:38:00.000Z

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

2007-01-04T14:19:00.000Z

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'

2007-01-03T14:07:00.000Z

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

2007-01-02T15:08:00.000Z

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

2006-12-05T13:30:00.000Z

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

2006-12-02T11:10:00.000Z

&lt;br&gt;

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

In it to win it

2006-11-30T22:59:00.000Z

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

2006-11-30T22:28:00.000Z

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

2006-11-29T23:16:00.000Z

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

2006-11-28T23:15:00.000Z

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

2006-11-28T22:35:00.000Z

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

2006-11-28T21:50:00.000Z

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

2006-11-22T11:27:00.000Z

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

2006-11-14T20:13:00.000Z

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

The Sony crisis shockwave

2006-11-08T17:21:00.000Z

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

2006-11-03T14:41:00.000Z

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

2006-10-30T13:38:00.000Z

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

2006-10-29T12:15:00.000Z

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

2006-09-20T22:33:00.000Z

Seen this?

Tagged: apple

My first poll: Congdon vs Colan

2006-07-12T20:18:00.000Z

Five alive

2006-07-12T19:12:00.000Z

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?

2006-06-26T20:47:00.000Z

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

Long live the king

2006-06-17T13:35:00.000Z

When I saw the picture of gapingvoid's Hugh Macleod signing 1,000 Stormhoek posters, it made me ask myself - "What does Hugh Macleod do?"

Here are the options so far:

1. Creative director
2. Blogvertising consultant
3. Cartoonist
4. Celebrity blogger
5. Tailor

Having a whizz around his site, and related business ventures' sites, his personal revenue model seems distributed. A bit of investment here, some consultancy there, and some monetized content here and there too. All underpinned by the blog, of course.

The fact that gapingvoid is arguably the most the most visible and popular of Hugh's ventures, which is - in his words - purely a way for him to exercise his hobby, I think I'm going to herald him as the new Blogging King for a while, now Scoble's left Microsoft (jumping the shark on his way out).

The creative mind is often completely unsuited to promoting its own creations for financial gain - it just doesn't think that way. If it did, the creativeness would be sapped as a result. But Hugh did what many artists are incapable of doing - he commercialised. He's obviously very astute, and used blogging to not only promote his own art, but his ability to use blogging to promote stuff.

All hail.

Tagged: gapingvoid Hugh Macleod Stormhoek

Is there a draft in here?

2006-06-16T23:32:00.000Z

One thing I've noticed since being in PR is that we call writing 'drafting'. Now, this small difference may seem trivial. But it sums up - often subconsciously - the blurred line between journalism and PR.

When a PR person writes - even though it's a huge and critical part of the job - they draft. It's almost as if the task isn't worthy of the verb 'to write'. Often it's done as quickly as possible to a tight brief, with scant detail and little direction. Most of the time, PR drafters are given one shaky fact and a gigantic heap of 'messaging' and told to get on with it. It's also something that needs to be cleared as soon as possible so the media relations execs can get on with their core task of actually relating with the media.

In the last three months or so, I've found myself drafting things. It's not that I don't want to write, but drafting seems to fit the brief so much better. I get my fact - two if I'm lucky - then refer to the messaging, corporate profile and previous material to fill in the rest. Once my draft is drafted, it's sent to the client, who makes some tweaks and sends it back, normally because they want to soften it, or fine tune the messages. Then, the second draft is drafted and hopefully gains approval if the messaging is right and the sense is inoffensive. End of story. (Come to think of it, is it called 'drafting' as the only outcome is a 'draft'? Would anything more suggest to the client we were being cocky?)

Anyway, I actually wrote something the other day. It was an article that had been placed with a magazine (more PR terminology there - it means the editor had agreed to run it) on a particularly meaty and interesting subject. I got into it, did a lot of research, undertook some interviews, took my time and actually wrote. As a journalist, I was proud of the end result.

Predictably, the client I wrote it for hated it and changed almost every word.

But my goal here is not to whinge about my precious creative powers being curtailed. I'm only interested in happy clients - we'd be failing in our jobs otherwise. What I want to do is point out that bloggers are writers too, but they never admit it.

Most bloggers I read write more than journalists and are often funnier, more compelling and quicker with the news. Yet they seem petrified to call themselves writers. What gives?

Tagged: writing blogging drafting

Bill and Bob

2006-06-16T17:30:00.000Z

So Bill's off now too?

Are any more people at Microsoft going to bail out just because their lord and master is leaving?

Tagged: Bill Gates Scoble Microsoft

The day the music died

2006-06-15T21:35:00.000Z

In all truth, Scoble's departure from Microsoft - and reality - was announced on May 8th.

For his entire reign, Robert Scoble had used his unexpected status to achieve a number of key objectives:

1. To singlehandedly create a small, but by no means insignificant, in-road into the dark and malevolent fortress of the Microsoft corporation

2. To boost his own standing as a proud leader among wannabe geeks - could anyone possibly blog as much as him without landing themselves a full-time blogging job or shunning sleep forever? (No.)

3. To get paid reasonable amounts of money to fulfill Microsoft's global PR and marketing objectives to be 'more friendly, like Apple'

4. To satisfy a niggling yearning to spend all his time surfing the web, then sharing his thoughts with a large reader base from across the planet

5. To make money.

When Scoble's 'mom' landed up in hospital, The Scobleizer didn't stop blogging. Oh no. He blogged about every minute detail of his experiences, from holding her hand by her bedside to his experiences trying to find a decent way to play MP3s at her funeral.

It was at this point, I reckon, that he decided to move on from Microsoft. As he blogged from his dying Mom's bedside, this is what ran through his mind:

"A little technology note (you know I couldn't resist) the machines that are keeping track of her vitals and helping her breathe are running Windows. Yet another demonstration of just how many machines Microsoft's software is running on."

Now, I'm not sure about you - but if that was me, I'd stop and think: "Hey! I'm sitting here, nursing my poorly mom who, if the truth be known, never find her way out of this stinkin' hospital save for a rest home with poor AV capability, and all I can think of is work."

It's no surprise that Scoble has now confirmed that he's off to join Silicon Valley startup TechnoPodcastBloggersComDotNet, or whatever they're called this week. I'm sure he's been offered an even reasonabler salary to sit and do what he has been doing for ages anyway (whatever he bloody well wants, basically), while wearing an 'I'm blogging this' t-shirt.

But I'm worried about my old pal Bob. While at Microsoft, he had a plan - to chip away at its image through his honest - sometimes far too honest - journal. At Microsoft, his honesty was his USP. What will it be now?

Tagged: scoble blogging

Stories from the frontlines of PR

2006-06-14T22:05:00.000Z

Intel gets Jacques Villeneuve along to a processor launch and shoehorns a Formula One message into its product marketing via Kirk Skaugen, general manager of Intel’s Server Platforms Group:

"If you look at Formula One car you have outstanding performance, then you can look at other cars with great miles per gallon. The IT industry is looking for a hybrid model where you don’t have to sacrifice performance for miles per gallon and efficiency," said Skaugen.

Tagged: Intel Villeveuve

Deadly dull

2006-06-13T22:16:00.000Z

Deadly dull? Deadly DULL?

That hurts. But it's probably true. I'll do my best to turn that around, anonymous. But if I was brave enough to 'come out', shouldn't you?

Tagged: The World's Leading

That was quick!

2006-05-07T14:18:00.000Z

Will Miliband be back?

2006-05-05T16:16:00.000Z

Labour’s chief glogger David Miliband’s got a new job and publishes an ‘au revoir’ within hours of the news. He's only been blogging since 2nd January (following a New Year's resolution).

His new role as Environment Secretary means he no can longer exists as part of The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister’s site. This’ll be a good test of which Government department is up for a bit of blogging and which isn’t. Better keep an eye on the Defra site to see if he resurfaces. I reckon they’ll be up for it.

I’ve enjoyed some of the debate around David’s presence in the online community even more than his posts, but overall feel that the transparency he has tried to inject into the political machine – no matter how small – has been a breath of fresh air. (Which is something that the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs should be all in favour of...)

Tagged: Miliband | Defra | blogging |
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Better back in the closet

2006-05-03T07:14:00.000Z

Auntie's blooming

2006-04-27T20:13:00.000Z

Despite most of the buzz across the web, the fact that the BBC is basing its new wave of services around social media doesn't underline the importance of blogging and web 2.0. It heralds their death.

Despite the frenzied, and sometimes excited, coverage in the blogosphere and the BBC's reckless use of web-too-dot-oh lingo like 'findability' and 'active audiences', this isn't the start of a new era. Well, not how you think. After all, 'Auntie' doesn't tend to haul herself out of her knackered old armchair and adjust her tea-stained cardigan without remembering that every new idea means gambling with my, and my countryfolks', hard-earned sterling.

The BBC is by no means an innovator - she's a cranky old crone whose creative peaks in the last few years you can count on one hand and generally involve a time-traveling toff chasing remote-controlled dustbins around Peckham with Billie Piper. (Mind you, the UK version of The Apprentice is currently dominating my Wednesday nights, so props for that at least.)

Don't get me wrong - I'm a massive supporter of public-funded media. I could argue with you forever that the BBC News is the only news outlet worth considering due to its comforting lack of commercial agenda. But I'm also pragmatic, and I admit that it's not perfect. It pays an extraordinary amount of my dosh to Jonathan Ross, for example, so he can buy suits that make him look like a prat.

But when The Beeb decides to adopt a strategy as core to its future, you can be certain that the idea has nicely bedded in and it definitely won't be a risky move. Just like Jonathan Ross, social media has proved its worth to the BBC by moving beyond its youth, spawning a few offspring and getting flabby around the middle.

And anyway, is it just me that has started to feel a little wrong using the term 'blog'? I know my French colleagues agree - one of them, just the other day, told me the French were 'so over blogging'. The BBC's statement just goes to show that it's not about blogs any more - just good old-fashioned social publishing.

Blogging is dead. Welcome to the mainstream.

Tagged: BBC | MySpace | web 2.0 | social media |

Blogging slows, life in progress

2006-04-19T17:20:00.000Z

I'm amazed at how many bloggers still warn people when they're not going to post for a while. Isn't it a bit conceited?

It reminds me of the way corporate types can get when they get carried away with writing an opinion piece or a regular column - pretty soon they're wandering off into self-indulgent prose mixed with advertorial that gives little to the reader. You can almost hear them reading it out to their long-suffering spouse, completing the monologue with a guffaw at how clever and brilliant they are.

The key to a great blog, or opinion piece, or column, is humility. As a journalist, you're keenly aware that all you are is a conduit of information. Even when writing an opinion piece, all the writer is really there for is as a foil to the human or corporate condition. Not one of the opinion pieces I ever wrote consisted of my unadulterated and unchecked opinion. They were based in fact but mixed with, shrouded in and enhanced by fiction to create an enjoyable experience for the reader. And not once did I apologise that I wasn't going to be there for the next issue.

Most opinion pieces from vendors are often too painful to read as they're steeped in self-love and corporate messaging. Either that, or they're heavily edited. I'm concerned that blogs could all too easily go the same way.

Tagged: journalism | blogging | style | writing |
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Conclusive proof that blogs increase sales

2006-04-11T12:20:00.000Z

Having never seen an advert, spoken to anyone about them or seeing any fancy marketing collateral about them whatsoever, I bought a Nokia N70 on Sunday.

There I was, sitting in Phones 4 U, having all sorts of fun with an enthusiastic but overly sales-focused chap, fighting off upsell attacks from his three colleagues who were swarming around me like wasps around cola, when the subject of which mobile phone I wanted with my new plan came up.

I said I wanted the best one. He reeled off a load of models, but none of them really meant anything to me. He waved something orange at me, with what looked like flowers on it. I told him I wanted something serious.

At this point he got his own N70 out and said he'd give me one of them if I bought today. So I walked out.

Three hours later, I was back. Of course, I knew exactly what an N70 was thanks to my interaction with Nokia over their N-Series blogging and blogger relations plan. I'd read the reviews from the bloggers who'd been sent them. I'd marveled at the video quality of Loic's rapid descent and Erik's confused-looking child. I craved brushed-aluminium-look-plastic and a 2 megapixel camera. With flash.

I'd only walked out to let the phone shark know that obvious pressure tactics don't work. I let him stew, popped home and had a cup of tea, then went back to claim my phone.

And all because I'd read about it on a few blogs.

Tagged: nokia | n70 | blogging |
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Moomin marvellous

2006-04-05T19:23:00.000Z

F-Secure (a client of LEWIS) released details of its new Moomin-branded security software on April 1st via its 'News from the Lab' blog, complete with a news release featuring a quote from chief Moomin and all-round good egg Moominpappa:

"The world is a very exciting place”, says Moominpappa, the modest patriarch of the Moomin family, ”and it is good to go and explore it, and learn more about it. But you should be cautious, and remember that it is better to be safe than sorry.”

Even better was Chief Research Officer Mikko Hypponen's addition:

"In my opinion, virus writers resemble Moominvalley’s Stinky in many ways. So we've taken the energetically fearless Little My as our role model and now we are ready to take them on!"

In a blogosphere aleady dominated by April Fool's jokes so sidesplittingly hilarious that I'm surprised nobody reading them actually died from laughing, the F-Secure attempt was a refreshing blast of surrealist humour and retro cartoon action.

I, for one, have not even contemplated Moominpappa and his extended family since I last enjoyed them on telly some decades ago. (This is because I live in the UK and, unlike their home country of Finland, The Moomins are no longer staple viewing here. We have Celebrity Love Island now. Mind you, seeing this brought it all back.)

The brilliant and unexpected twist, of course, is that it was all real. "For some reason, a surprising number of people thought that our new cartoon-themed security product was an April Fool's Day joke," said the blog yesterday.

It's a shame this story didn't go much further than the blogosphere - it certainly made the rest of the attempts at an April Fool's gag strangely unsatisfying.

Tagged: | blogging | Moomins | Moominpappa | F-Secure | April Fool's
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This is a valuable post

2006-04-04T19:47:00.000Z

Uh-oh. I've just realised there's no such thing as a blog. Not when you disclose who you are and who you work for, anyway. It's all corporate blogging from here on in. I admit it, I'm a clogger.

I've come to realise this through the last two posts - the first real posts posted since I've been a person and no longer hiding behind a nice comfy alias.

But, in an unexpected twist, the value of the end product has become an intrinsic part of the writing process. In the past, I've been comfortable having a bit of a whinge. Then I'd perhaps linkbait a bit, and have a go at someone for loose morals. After that, I'd swear for effect.

Now, I'm constantly thinking contextually. In my head is a torrent of questions: "What will people think of me if I say this? What will people infer about my employer if I say that? Does this comment upset any client / boss / balance of power? Will readers be turning up at my office as an angry, torch-wielding mob?"

In truth, my valuable posts - ie. the ones where I make an interesting point about corporate blogging, and don't just whinge / linkbait / swear for effect - have always been the ones that get people emailing, commenting and, hopefully, talking. I've been meaning to do more of those, anyway.

I'm interested in finding out what happens next. Will my future posts eventually evolve into watered-down tosh that tow the corporate line and give in to my commercial interests, or will my new focus on quality actually mean I post with more care and create an end product with greater value? You decide, and be sure to let me know.

But whatever happens, there are interesting lessons here for all corporate bloggers: Don't just treat your blog as a way to vent your opinions or self-satisfyingly drone on about your latest customer win or product release. Don't get too focused on your own little world and the problems you face or successes you enjoy. Try and add value to the reader experience through giving something back to them of value, such as advice from a lesson learnt or conversational fodder from an anecdote based in fact.

Actually, it helps to treat your blogging like you're at a dinner party - if you realise you're enjoying the sound of your own voice and others haven't spoken for a while, shut up and listen.

Tagged: | blogging | value | corporate blogging
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Weblogs, or 'blogs'

2006-04-03T21:36:00.000Z

Did anyone see the BBC News item on the Blooker Prize this evening? It was hilarious.

The entire report was presented as a computer-style desktop (Mac - yip!) with people popping up in windows with a mouse pointer flying around and revealing who they were through the medium of 'click and drag'.

The lowest point was when a 'real' writer popped up and started complaining that blogs had no editor and people might start to believe what they read online. Better ban the Internet then, eh?

The best bit was news anchor George Alagiah saying: "Duncan Kennedy reports from cyberspace," followed by the opening bit of the report simulating what the blogosphere might sound like. (Lots of typing and chatting, apparently.)

Great news that blogging gets some primetime airtime - shame the BBC treats it as though a 100 million people had suddenly started wearing their pants on their heads.

Tagged: | BBC | Blooker Prize | blogging
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The business?

2006-04-03T20:53:00.000Z

Bloggers have been quick to critique new CIPR member's magazine PR Business. Some are loving it. Others have already decided it isn't up to scratch. But I urge everyone to give it a chance.

Granted, it's rare for PR people to be able to legitimately sling some mud at magazines. After all, PR types spend their lives trying to get close to the journalists and editors, and are desperate not to piss them off.

But PR-related mags are where they can take a little bit of that back. These are magazines that are designed around them - PR folk are the readers, the subjects and the source. PR Business belongs to them, and they are going to damn well make sure they make their voices heard in its formation.

Launching a new magazine is a daunting task - you spend months working out the look, feel, tone, size, cost, voice, brand and values, then start trying to make friends in the right places. On launch, you prepare yourself for the inevitable backlash from the industry. And, trust me, it always comes.

But PR professionals need to support their new baby. The PR industry is large, successful and growing. The fact that it's (arguably) been supported by one industry publication for so long is absurd. There is more than enough room for two (or three), if not six or seven.

Tagged: | PR Business | magazines | PR
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All change

2006-04-02T20:29:00.000Z

You may notice a few changes around here. After much deliberation, a few (on- and offline) conversations and some sleepless nights (actually, that didn't happen) I decided to 'come out' from behind my 'nom-de-blog'. Whoot.

I'm purposefully going to spend very little time crowing about my reasons or the near-negligible effect this is likely to have on the blogosphere-at-large. But I thought I should at least acknowledge it.

It's been useful hiding behind the 'The Nobleizer' nickname to get some decent conversations going without the inevitable questions as to motive. I'm hoping that by going public it'll take things on a stage further, and add some context to my arguments.

I'll try to stay self-serving and not go all corporate on you. Promise.

Tagged: | nobleizer | blogging | nickname | PR
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Hooray for me

2006-03-23T20:06:00.000Z

Following in the vein of indulgent, self-serving posts that have become the norm, at least this week, here at leading corporate blogging information and analysis website clogger, I'd like to say hooray for me.

For I have been thanked in the list of contributing influencers to the launch of PR.ojet Z, the brainchild of deputy GM of Edleman Paris, Philippe Cherel.

Erm, that's ok Philpox. My pleasure. Can't remember what I did though, but it must have been awesome. Best of luck!

Tagged: PR.oject Z blogging edelman Philippe Cherel PR

Busted

2006-03-22T20:09:00.000Z

I've been busted by a number of people now as to my 'true identity', so am toying with the idea of 'coming out'.

Which raises some interesting questions about how to disclose my business interests when commenting on this blog. After all, isn't the reason that I'm blogging about this crap in the first place purely because I'm part of the PR industry?

And isn't the process of building up a decent head of steam with this blogging lark and then exposing my true identity just a cynical way for me to forward my employers' image in a market that's particularly focused on blogs and how they work? Surely then this blog should have a blanket disclosure clause that warns every visitor of my intentions?

But what if that isn't the case?

What if I do care about the fine line between traditional and social publishing and sometimes that natural interest sometimes crosses with what I do to earn a living? How do I disclose that inevitable, but less regular, occurrence?

I'm not sure I like the way Morgan and Loic and most other people do it - following the post itself. Yes, the method is up front and fair, but I always feel a little cheated that I've absorbed the info as gospel, only to find out after it had a motive all along.

But, as is usual with this blogging business, I end up at the same question every time: "Does anyone really care?" With so little to regulate the blogosphere and the errant knaves within, most of the comments are purely opinion anyway, with little control over the content.

Why shouldn't that opinion be tainted with a little commercial bias?

My head hurts. I feel a new entry into the clogger Code of Ethics coming on... I know, I know. It's been a while.

Here goes:

3. Disclose everything. (Godin)

I've named it after Seth Godin as he's the top hit in Google for 'blog disclosure', and his post made me smile. Oh, and it's ages old - well before anyone else started talking about this stuff.

And so, the usual recap:

1. In social situations, everything is off the record unless otherwise agreed. (Foremski)

2. When you edit a published blog post, track your changes openly and publicly. (Tebbutt)

3. Disclose everything. (Godin)

Onwards and downwards...

Tagged: disclosure blogging ethics Seth Godin PR

Not Amanda Congdon's boobs either

2006-03-15T22:43:00.000Z

Just checked my traffic reports - brilliantly, someone got to my site via the Google search 'congdon boobs'.

Unfortunately, it took them to my post on Scoble and his nippleizers and not the exposed chest of web legend Amanda Congdon. Sorry buddy, tough luck.

But, in honour of the Googler who's search resulted in a disappointing dead end, here's a haiku courtesy of Friends of Rocketboom:

why's your shirt so tight?
so we can get more viewers
my mouth is moving

*update*
My second most common referral page is now via the 'boobs' Technorati tag. And who said the Internet wasn't a haven for intellectuals?

Tagged: rocketboom amanda congdon boobs google haiku scoble

Social publishing and social etiquette

2006-03-15T21:25:00.000Z

It's funny being a blogger working for a company where there are other bloggers. Funny peculiar, that is.

A couple of times I've been mid-conversation, probably moaning about the journalism vs blogging debate or harping on about some online issue, and I realise the person I'm talking to already knows my point of view in detail. The moment I realise I'm quoting a post word for word normally coincides with the moment they realise they've read the entire argument already and we both glaze over, carrying on talking but thinking about whether it would be embarrassing to stop and say something.

(It's like telling someone you've got a dodgy stomach and the other person saying they already know because they were in the next cubicle that morning in the toilet and thought that, judging by the horrific noise and overpowering stench, you ought to have gone home hours ago. It just isn't done. Not in polite company, anyway.)

At other times, being a blogger among bloggers works a treat. Like in seminars about new publishing techniques, when you can dispense with 50% of the background info as the others in the group are up to speed on your views already. You can get straight to the good stuff.

Another good example of how blogging lubricates intracompany relations is the ability to ask colleagues you barely know about intimate details of their personal life.

"Good holiday was it, Paul?"
"Er, yes. Not bad."
"Didn't the wife get terrible tan lines from that bikini though?"
"Erm... A little maybe. I'm just wondering..."
"And hasn't little Tarquin grown? If you're not careful he'll be following in Wayne's footsteps and ending up in prison."
"Heh. Quite... Erm..."
"By the way, loving the new house. Shame about the curtains in the bedroom."
"I'm sorry... Do I know you?"

Brilliant.

Tagged: social publishing holiday blogging corporate blogging

Quaking in our boots

2006-03-14T23:37:00.000Z

The journo community woke up to blogging today. Features in two or three big nationals referenced the movement, while Rupert Murdoch's admission that the media was changing forever only fuelled their fires.

The most interesting rant was from Terence Blacker in The Independent. So interesting in fact, it sounded like it could be one of my posts...

"The blog has become regarded, at least by blogocrats, as the ultimate in free expression. Whereas someone writing in the mainstream media - the "MSM" as it is now contemptuously known - will be cribbed and confined by fear of offending a vested interest, a brutal editor or a proprietor, the blogger, putting down his or her views without fear or favour, is as unrestricted as someone talking in the pub. The system is the free market of ideas at its purest, and those who argue otherwise are almost always hacks fearful of their dwindling influence from within a dying media establishment."

Tagged: blacker Independent blogging journalism

Why you should hire a blogger

2006-03-13T19:43:00.000Z

Margaret Atwood's bizarre idea to sign her latest novel The Tent by remote robotic arm is a perfect demonstration of how geek power, when unharnessed, can go horribly awry.

Geek brains are not designed to be entrepreneurial, or be in positions of power, or be used to manage other people. Geek brains are advanced biotechnical computers, sucking in information from the worldosphere and spitting it out through carefully executed actions.

Like programming. And blogging.

When a geek brain becomes too powerful and lacks direction, it thinks of stupid things, like robotic arms that don't work and embarrass everyone involved. Even the geeks in the crowd, waiting for their copy of The Tent to be signed remotely by robot, were visibly flushed at the cockup.

"This geek is out of control," they whispered to each other, before shuffling home and watching three episodes of Farscape - The Peacekeeper Wars.

(Atwood founded a company called Unotchit to develop the LongPen. The device, unfortunately, turned out to be total chit.)

Where the corporations come in is keeping the geeks busy doing productive things. Those that had the foresight to hire a few to blog for them are doing the world a valuable service - keeping the geeks from having their own ideas.

It's a win-win situation. The company gets a detailed, accessible media marketing channel that speaks to the legions of blog readers and the geeks find that they have, at last, found a place in the media mix.

Tagged: atwood LongPen blogging unotchit

Pourquois je ne serais jamais aussi cool que Loic

2006-02-27T15:07:00.000Z

Parce qu'il est meilleur sur la neige.

Tagged: loic le meur nobleizer snowboarding

Vice city

2006-02-26T23:05:00.000Z

I'm slightly embarrased by it. My girlfriend doesn't like it. I hide it from my employer. I do it at the back of the bus, where people look at me funny. Some days I feel like I'm addicted to it. It gives me something to talk about with others that do it that I otherwise wouldn't have much in common with. It helps me meet people. It gives me pleasure. It gives me pleasure when I should be doing something else.

I just realised blogging is my only vice.

Man boobs

2006-02-24T16:10:00.000Z

Watching Rocketboom's recent clip of Scoble and co-author Shel Israel stripping to the waist and giggling was a very uncomfortable experience.

Although Amanda Congdon, presenter of Rocketboom, tried to cover up her horror with her usual thinly-disguised annihilation via a Lillith Crane-esque dead-pan delivery and eyes that contain nothing but hate, she was uncomfortable too.

Sanctioned by big business, the geeks are in control through the power of The Blog. And, worryingly, they are throwing their own parties where people are buying them beer. The recent episode when Anina threw herself into a swimming pool should have been a loud enough warning that this was going to happen. Things have got out of hand.

Now I've been exposed to the Scobleizer's nippleizers, nothing will ever be the same.

Tagged: scoble Shel Isreal blogging anina

Bloggy style

2006-02-22T19:19:00.000Z

Yahoo's celeblogger Jeremy 'Jay-Z' Zawodny has only and gone and blown the bloody doors off the corporate blog bribery debate with this awesome rant on the lengths businesses might go to in influencing bloggers.

So far we've seen numerous attempts at hurling perks at unsuspecting but grateful non-journalist opinion leaders, including the Nokia N90 phone giveaway and Fon's less discrete wedges-of-cash giveaway.

J-Dub takes the whole mess one stage further in his finely executed execution of the clumsy 'blogger relations' tools many marketing tools (I mean that) are now attempting.

Hope he's not just miffed he missed out on a snazzy phone.

(Personal related note: As a journalist, I was offered the 'favours' he talks about - on numerous occasions. It's only a matter of time, Jeremy...)

Tagged: Zawodny Yahoo! corporate blogging bribes

Hacking through the undergrowth

2006-02-22T08:28:00.000Z

The launch of blogs from Lemmy B and The Floodster mark important entries into the blogosphere (via Drew). But they also raise more issues than they answer.

For a start, why's it taken so long for them to get blogging? Lem and Gary were established tech journos when I entered the fray as a green hack who didn't know his ERP from his OLAP. And, eight years later, they've carried on hacking despite me leaving them for new frontiers. I now consider myself reasonably near the jokulhlaup of publishing technology - so why have their blogs turned up so late to the party?

And not just late, inappropriately dressed to boot. Lem's posts are long, detailed and barely accessible. His RSS clunks and stalls. Gary's blog was just a holding page, but was already being talked about and only started today. Not good, old friends. Not good at all.

In my experience, tech journalism was always crammed with writers begging their mean employers for better technology to help them do their jobs. Even Charles Arthur and his colleagues at The Guardian still have to put up with a 50mb mailbox limit, which is so ridiculous it brings me up in a rash. (It took me years to convince one publisher that an aged PC in the corner with dialup did not constitute a connected office.)

But it seems the social publishing revolution has gone and left the good journos behind. I now more regularly read the thoughts of a Microsoft marketing stooge and a kitesurfing salesman more than I read those of the ones who are trained to help me formulate my opinions.

And that scares me.

Tagged: Loic le Meur scoble IT week journalism

We are all Loic's children

2006-02-21T08:30:00.000Z

As long as leading lights in the blogging world continue to play down the importance of the journalism vs blogging debate, the continual selling out of public opinion to the highest bidder will carry on unabated.

Loic le Meur has positioned himself as a spokesperson that regularly and enjoyably preaches on the benefits of blogging, it's effect on communications and PR and the wider implications of socially-enabled software.

But his recent comment that he's "getting (really) bored about the debate" reveals a blinkered view.

I just learnt Loic's employer Six Apart has just won a significant new round of funding. He must be thrilled.

But I find Loic's enthusiasm for the technology all too often strays into the realm of irresponsibility. It begins to remind me of the kind of supressive marketing tactics the heads of fast food giants use to reel in the kids.

And I'm not lovin' it.

Tagged: Loic le Meur blogging ethics marketing six apart

Guy kwacks

2006-02-20T21:12:00.000Z

I'm a regular reader of Guy Kawasaki's blog. If you're a reader too, you'll know why. If you're not, give it a go. I'm often in awe of the density of ideas in his posts, and his easy and accessible manner. (I'm still working on "easy and accessible", but can still only manage "whiny" at best.)

But I'm concerned about this post, specifically point 4. An intelligent and knowledgable blogger, Guy goes and proves that he is, in the end, just a clogger at heart. He says:

In case you hadn't noticed, most bloggers don't make a lot of money from their blogging efforts. Thus, samples of your product, t-shirts, tickets to the Stanley Cup Finals, etc can go a long way. I'm not saying you can buy bloggers, but you can make them happy pretty easily. Dollar for dollar, schwag for bloggers is one of the best marketing investments.

I know this is a point I've laboured, but the fine line between impartial reporting and chequebook journalism is a fine one. Freebies - sorry, 'review units' and 'lunch briefings' - have always been a perk of being a journo (and one I'm still smarting from giving up).

For Guy to support the practice of buying favours from bloggers just underlines the vital part the 'traditional' media continues to play in protecting public opinion.

I don't blame him for making the point as, sadly, he's right. I just hope his readers exercise caution when trying bribery as a marketing tool.

Tagged: Guy Kawasaki blogging ethics clog

Fon-tastic!

2006-02-09T21:06:00.000Z

Funky Spanish wi-fi startup Fon has gone and stirred up the whole furore around lining bloggers' pockets for favours. (Spotted on Scobleizer).

This time, the company - with its wacky website, zany language and generally snazzy attitude - has hired a load of high-profile bloggers to sit on its groovy advisory board.

As the kooky start-up may or may not have planned, those bloggers have now raved about how kerrrazy Fon's service are! How totally funtastic!

Except some of them haven't disclosed they are being greased with Fon's dirty marketing cash.

Aw, man. How totally unhip.

Tagged: Fon blogging ethics wifi

Publishers: Spend more money on stuff

2006-02-03T20:34:00.000Z

Guardian journalist and blogger Charles Arthur recently posted another tip for the legions of PR people desperate to get a message to him.

Don't send attachments, he says. I'll only delete them, and your message too, as I have such a teeny weeny email allowance.

Shame. The journalist vs PR power struggle isn't new - I've regularly been surrounded by journos giving PR people a hard time. But doesn't Charles' post expose his employer as having an IT policy straight out of the Dark Ages (or, at least, the late Nineties)?

50 megabytes? FIFTY?! My inbox would melt in three minutes. On a slow day.

How am I supposed to trust a major news outlet when it provides me with news about the world when I know it's internal policies are so off the mark?

Tagged: charles arthur email journalism

Big pool, small pond?

2006-01-31T19:07:00.000Z

So, dubiously qualified model/dubiously qualified technology blogger Anina has been ordered to stop blogging (via Scoble) by her modelling agency, eh? Fantastic.

I am going to conspicuously avoid any comment surrounding the fact that, in light of recent model-related scandals, running a tech blog is therefore obviously thought of as worse than controlled substance abuse and fiddling around inside the wee-stained undergarments of addled tramps.

I'm also not going to mention the fact that her agency has made the biggest mistake since Bill Gates said the Internet probably wouldn't catch on, and stop playing around with that Netscape rubbish and get back to work thankyou very much. (Well, I'd never heard of Slides. And now, if I ever need the services of a gaggle of beautiful laydees next time I'm in France I certainly know where I WON'T be going. Stop laughing.)

And I'm certainly not going to jump to the defence of Anina, and portray her as an unfortunate pawn in the mysterious game of the blogosphere's evolution into a traditional and trusted media channel. Because I don't think the agency has done that much wrong. It controls her image in an image-obsessed world. If it maintains her image is tarnished by a dull-as-dishwater blog, who am I to argue?

The reason I'm not going to do any of these is here. Anina is at a blogging conference. She is the only female in a room frighteningly saturated with the stench of geek. She decides to be 'crazy' and jump in the pool.

This would've been cool had some old bloke not already done it, and had she not hung about posing for an hour on the side before she decided to jump in.

Sorry, Anina, the moment you jumped I saw you for what you really are. A pretender, enjoying the adulation of being a model amongst geeks, but ultimately a novelty in the blogosphere.

Tagged: anina blogging models

Blog them, and their law II (corrected)

2006-01-18T19:20:00.000Z

Some time ago, I started a clogger 'code of ethics'. My plan was to grow it organically and finally turn it into an NUJ-style set of rules to promote good practice in corporate blogging.

This kind of self-government works. Trust me, I'm a journalist.

Spurred on by David Tebbutt's post on crafty blog changers, and still smarting from Andy Hayler's blatant ignorance of my influence on him and subsequent attempts at contact, I'd like to propose rule number 2.

Here it is:

2. When you edit a published blog post, track your changes openly and publicly. ~~(Tebutt)~~ (Tebbutt)

So, to recap:

1. In social situations, everything is off the record unless otherwise agreed. ~~(Foremsky)~~ (Foremski)

2. When you edit a published blog post, track your changes openly and publicly. (Tebbutt)

Who's with me?

Or are you all far too busy being 'subversive' to care?

Tagged: ethics blogging tebbutt corporate blogging

Have you seen the light?

2006-01-08T22:53:00.000Z

In my post 'Above the law, but not reproach' I reprimanded Andrew Hayler on a poor choice of headline.

He's changed it now. Good work fella.

Tagged: hayler blogging good practice

AIM high

2006-01-08T22:09:00.000Z

Justin Uberti is one of AOL's more well-known bloggers, through his blog Tales of a Running Man. He doesn't update it much, but it's worth keeping an eye on.

I thought I'd point out his 2005 Retrospective post. It's a smart, quick, honest and informative snapshot of stuff his employer has done over the last year.

Firstly, it doesn't attempt to crow about the successes of AOL's Instant Messenger division. The tone is more excited than smug, more proud parent than gloating boyfriend. Like he's genuinely proud to have played a part in the genesis of these products.

Secondly, and - in my mind - more importantly, the failures ring true. Justin takes these errors personally and believes this year things will be better. But he keeps it quick, and to the point. There's no temptation to whine on about changing his own company from the ground up.

It's the false braying about how crap your company can be sometimes, how upset you are to work for it and how your blog is going to change it forever that sets off my bullshit detector.

Others should take a couple of lessons from this and apply them to their own blogs. Mentioning no names. Ahem.

Tagged: scoble

Ghost in the machine

2006-01-06T17:27:00.000Z

So, 83 per cent of corporate blogs are ghost-written? (via Mike Bawden's 'Much Ado' post.) Wow. That sucks.

I'm wondering, however, what constitutes being 'written by someone else'. There's a fine line here. A few fine lines even. Ones that could rock the result.

This calls for a sliding scale. A cloggerblog first!

START: SELF-WRITTEN

1. Owned

This jolly worker always fancied himself as a Hunter S Thompson-style character, ever since that mescal-fuelled road-trip from LA to Las Vegas for COMDEX back in the summer of '98. He cogitates, conceptualises, creates and publishes (damn, couldn't think of a suitable c-word) his blog in its entirety. There's no interaction from bosses or marketing dweebs or subeditors or stakeholders or any other uncool fool for this thought-leading pioneer. You go, girl.

2. Dictated

This hot young go-getter is far too busy and important to write his own blog. But that doesn't mean he doesn't understand that blogging, tagging wiki-ing and all those other trendy social publishing phenomena aren't crucial to the continuing success of his business. Hell no. No siree. That's why he dictates his thoughts to a member of staff who is more at home operating in the blogosphere. I mean, who can use a computer.

3. Consulted

He may care about the blog, but that shouldn't mean he should devote time to the blog. It doesn't even mean he really knows what the hell should go on the blog. But one thing's for sure - this guy knows his onions. And his potatoes. And his apples. So, he decides to stay involved, but in the most efficient way he knows how - by hiring someone to do it for him. But do not fear. These are his ideas. Weekly calls or meetings with the writer see pearls cast before swine. But man, can this pig blog. The result is a fine mix of form and content, fixed in eternal - and beautiful - ballet.

4. Approved

This exec doesn't blog. He doesn't get blogs. He doesn't like blogs, and may even think they're a threat to corporate branding, positioning and confidentiality. But he knows how important they are. So he too has hired a blogger to do the blogging for him. But instead of weekly inspirational meetings where concepts are bandied about like ethereal currency, this busy bee doesn't really give a toss about the topic of the posts. He's just happy to leave it to the hired help, check it for messaging, run it by corporate and give it the green light. Well, it's a just another marketing tool, right? Just like that time we hired those models in the tight t-shirts or advertised on the side of dogs.

5. Ghosted

The blog that the ghost-written CEO 'writes', the CEO may have never seen. Six months ago, he had a meeting sandwiched between lunch with the editor of the FT and a challenging round of golf that layed down what he wanted to do, say and avoid on the blog. Since then, he has had no contact with blog or ghost writer. A marketeer from the imagineering department casually glances across the posts before they go up to check that the right keywords have been used - 'end-to-end solution', thought-leading pioneer', 'techno-innovative' - and that the branding is intact. After all, it would be dreadful if the ghost forgot to use a lower case letter at the start of the company name, especially at the beginning of a sentence. That would be corporate suicide!

FINISH: GHOST-WRITTEN

So, the fine lines are in there somewhere. Can a blog that's anything than number one be truly self-written? If not, then I reckon that the results of the survey are skewed.

But if we're can feasibly count numbers one, two and three as self-written, which is easily arguable, then the numbers stack up much differently.

Where can the lines be drawn? What constitutes a self-written blog? Which are you? You decide.

Tagged: ghost written blogging corporate blogs clog

Byte perk with Fins

2006-01-05T18:15:00.000Z

Johnny Cass has told me to say more positive things about corporate blogging. I'm going to give it a try and see what happens. Here goes.

I was idly reading web coverage of the recent Windows vulnerability the other day when I noticed a great piece of clog-driven PR from cuddly Fins F-Secure.

VNUnet had used part of a post from Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure, and used it as comment in the piece. The only comment, in fact.

This represents the holy grail for the PR process and cloggers working together. I've always thought F-Secure's blog was good for a number of reasons:

1. It doesn't try to hide complex corporate messaging in its posts
2. It's regularly updated with useful, timely and business-critical information
3. It is cooked up in a 'lab'
4. It's got a hilarious picture of the cheery blogging team
5. It's Finnish. I like Finnish things.

Yes, I know that security companies generally have more interesting things to say as part of their sales process. IT security products don't need much of a hard sell, or much convincing as to why you need them.

And yes, I know that the blog isn't really a clog because it's not shamefully designed as a PR tool. It's a useful and efficient way of getting crucial security information published ultra-quickly.

But these points aside, I'm always thrilled when a good corporate blog goes rewarded with some attributed comment in a news story.

Must be the PR person inside me, screaming to get out.

(By the way, if anyone gets the headline to this post, I'd be keen to hear.)

Tagged: f-secure blogging corporate blogs clog

Tools down?

2006-01-04T19:30:00.000Z

Michael Lenehan at the Chicago Reader has written a fantastic article (via Romanesko on Poynter Online) about real journos downing tools for a year-long strike and letting the rest of the world cope without us. "Let's all relax, let go, and float blissfully in the information-free state (excuse me, I mean free-information state) that our public awaits so eagerly," he says. Hilarious.

While I agree with the sentiment behind the piece and commend the author on speaking out in such a high-profile manner, the various discussions I'm embroiled in across the blog/clogosphere have warned me to tread carefully. I'm coming across some *really* scary opinions.

Take that normally awesome Stowe Boyd at Get Real (it's true - who can wear a beret and still look cool and not be awesome?) - he seems to have lost his mind in the comments to this post. And the folks over at Nokia seem to be continually and blissfully unaware of the mechanism that normally presides over the product review process and protects consumers for willful and unbridled chequebook journalism. And Loic? He doesn't get it at all, but then he's busy filming himself ski down hills on his freebie Nokia phone.

In reality, disgruntled journalists throwing down their metaphorical pens in a huff isn't going to prove anything. At best, after many months of not noticing, people will yearn for some decent, accurate prose and the point will be made.

At worst, nobody will care, information consumption will continue (albeit through consuming shitty information), and the journos will be accused of sour grapes in the face of a dwindling market for their wares.

Tagged: loic le meur blogging journalism strike

Above the law, but not reproach

2006-01-03T19:39:00.000Z

The great thing about being a clogger is that you can reap all the benefits of having a high-profile, widely-read and (sometimes) informative and engaging web presence for your brand but are not forced to comply with any of those awfully boring rules or 'laws'.

Like corporate conduct policies, or libel. Yawn.

This has been extremely well demonstrated recently by Yahoo! clogmeister Jeremy Zawoddernodderny and king of Kalido bling Andy Hayler.

Exhibit A: Zawodny flames Dell in four-letter rant

Dell mucks up delivery of a monitor, then screws up telephone support. Zawodny sails close to the wind with his critique of the India-based helpdesk but just about gets away with it. He's not a happy man, and manages to slag off Michael Dell's sweet but struggling baby through an epic rant and one headline-based f-word. Charming. VERDICT: Curb your language, Jezza.

Exhibit B: Hayler strikes a blow to East-West relations

The rising dragon of Chinese commerce is good. Hayler responds with a wildly racist headline about the supposed colour of all Chinese people. The result is terrifying. The man clearly has no clue what he's done. What would happen if the next economic resurgence was in Uganda? The mind boggles. VERDICT: Take a holiday (preferably to Beijing).

In order to redress the balance, I'm going to give 'em some back. And I can, because I'm a blogger. Plus I have the added bonus that I'm not trying to reflect any brand values or corporate image. Yay!

Here goes:

On behalf of Dell: Yahoo!'s products are a pile of crap. In fact, as far as I can tell, Yahoo! doesn't have any products. Yahoo! bought flickr because weak search and rubbish email wasn't enough to keep it afloat.

On behalf of all Chinese people: I'd like to point out that Andy Hayler's head looks like one of those optical illusions that changes expression when held upside down.

Balance restored.

Tagged: hayler zawodny libel blogging

You just can't trust the interweb

2005-12-23T07:49:00.000Z

You can almost hear the internal anguish in Micro-Soft's clogmeister Robert 'The Scobleizer' Scoble's post on salesforce.com's recent service outages.

Here's what is happening inside his brain as he writes:

"Salesforce is the enemy. Must criticise."
"Can't sound too obvious, though. I'm trying to look impartial."
"If I don't look impartial, I'll lose my credibility. Yikes!"
"But hang on, Salesforce relies on Internet application delivery. That's a bit like our new stuff!"
"But Salesforce is the enemy. Oh no. Must criticise on-demand software model."
"Oh dear, we've just launched on-demand CRM!"
"Crumbs, this is a tricky one. I know, I'll try and be diplomatic."
"Must kill Salesforce must kill Salesforce must kill Salesforce."
"Who said that?"
"Must kill Salesforce must kill Salesforce must kill Salesforce."
"Stop it. Who are you, anyway?"
"I'm a member of Microsoft Corporate Marketing department. I live in your brain."
"Get out! Get out! I'm a free man! I blog what I like!"
"Yeah, right. We own you. Just do it, sonny."
"But I don't want to. It'll be so obvious!"
"So? Just tell people you don't like 'the rush to the web for everything'."
"What? Are you insane? I'm a GEEK. I love the rush to the web. I rush to the web. For everything. People will suss me straight away."
"Just do it. Or you're fired."
"Oh. OK."

Tagged: scoble microsoft salesforce blogging inner demons

Ex-journo in boat miss shocka

2005-12-22T22:57:00.000Z

Thanks to Daryl Willcox (of SourceWire fame), I'm now comfortable in the knowledge that another ex-journalist-now-PR-supplier doesn't get 'that blogging thing'.

Here's an excerpt from his latest DWPub sporadic:

"OK, OK. So blogging is a bit of a phenomenon. But it's more a phenomenon of exaggeration than one of substance. Blogging in general a great thing, but as a media relations issue it has been blown completely out of proportion. Yes, every now and then someone will say something in a blog that captures the imagination of a lot of people and throws someone into disarray. But this happens very rarely."

But save your dismay for the next bit. It gets worse.

"By all means it is worthwhile researching and monitoring blogs that may have a direct relevance to your clients - especially the well-read ones, often written by journalists, analysts and consultants - and engage with them if you think it's worth it, but don't let it distract you from focusing on communication strategy."

Sorry, Daryl. Blogs are part of the fabric of the media now. Just look at our friends at Microsoft and Nokia to see how corporate comms can be changed forever, or Boing Boing and Gizmodo to get a feel of how journalism has evolved.

It's OK, I understand and yes, it hurts me too. Trained journalists are not as valuable as we used to be. People don't want the facts any more - they want fast access to microfocused opinion. In fact, readers don't even mind about where that opinion comes from - it could be a multinational corporation or a teenage 'bedroom blogger'. Nobody cares.

To warn PR companies not to let blogs distract them from focusing on communication strategy, in my view, is a little wide of the mark. Blogs, which will soon become the standard way of content delivery for the Next-Gen Web, should be high on the agenda.

Tagged: blogs blogging journalism

Don't forget the day job

2005-12-07T19:37:00.000Z

With a small number of notable exceptions, most bloggers and corporate bloggers have day jobs. I do. Even for the cloggers, their day job probably has little or nothing to do with the fact that they actually blog.

Blogging may, indeed, improve press relations or public awareness or even sales of the widgets or services that their company sells, but - at the end of the day - people blog because they want to share information with others.

It's a compulsion. A hobby. Something to do on the bus. The rest is by-product.

But what the cloggers and bloggers have done by selfishly shovelling ideas into the ether in the vain hope that someone will read them is unwittingly create a private but extensive ideas distribution network.

While 'normal' websites are a forum for ideas to be left for people to find, blogs have been empowered by RSS. The ideas network has been given a way in which to speak to people proactively. My email is no longer what I hanker to launch every morning. It's now NetNewswireLite that gets the virgin click of the day.

What I'm getting at is this: whether a blogger, clogger or pretend blogger who's really a clogger but actually just a glorified marketer, you're part of the network. If you have an idea, sharing it is easy.

Whatever your motives, as a blogger you've created a mechanism for hundreds, perhaps thousands of like-minded people to listen when you say "you know what? I think..."

As long as everyone else remembers you have a day job and - shock horror - a motive, the whole system should remain nice and stable. Whatever the motive, ideas are valuable and made to be shared.

Tagged: blogging corporate blogging

I'm not ready for a relationship

2005-12-06T19:57:00.000Z

Blogger relations is a funny old game. Nokia seems to have nailed it with the N90 blog, by throwing marketing genius and money at the issue and creating a blogger relations site that not only seems to stay on top of its lofty goals but works pretty well as a blog in its own right. My mate Andy also does a pretty good job - a few infractions aside - of posting at the speed of light, keeping on top of comments, populating other blogs and generally sounding authoritative.

Come to think of it, most - if not all - of the corporate blogs (clogs) I read are really just blogger relations exercises. Microsoft seems to do a good job of feeding the blogging community with PR to keep the blogosphere humming. It's just that Nokia's done it with more transparency. Soon, Andy could be the new king clogger. He is Scobleizer 2.0.

To turn things on their head a little - I'm in the mood as I'm posting from the top deck of a rowdy London bus - it could easily be argued that clogs don't exist. They're just blogger relations sites formatted like blogs (because that's the format in which bloggers prefer to receive information) and ruled over by a character with enough time and inclination to post, comment and sound intelligent.

And seeing as most blogs have a corporate message behind them somewhere - apart from a) little blogs written by old folk in Utah about their cat b) proper magazine-style blogs like Gizmodo and Boing Boing which get treated like editorially-driven magazines anyway), then the target for blogger relations exercises don't exist either.

So - to recap: Clogs don't exist. Blogs don't exist. The corporations are pumping money into blogger relations strategies that are only serving to inform a closed network of other corporations what they're up to. The information survives forever in a closed loop.

Nobody takes any notice, until one day a bored journalist at a real publication can't be bothered to find their own story and takes a dip into their RSS reader to see what's a-hummin' in the blogosphere.

But wouldn't said journalist have been sent his or her own N90 anyway..?

Tagged: blogger relations

Ou est tout le monde? Les Blogs 2.0!

2005-12-05T21:56:00.000Z

I'm annoyed. There's nobody around to disagree with. They've all gone to Les Blogs 2.0 (which I thought was a site for women seeking women but is actually a blogging conference set up by blog flogger Six Apart) and are so enthralled by each others' company they're not giving me any material to work with. The blogosphere is eerily silent.

So I'll make some stuff up. Here goes.

Made-up excerpt from a discussion taking place at a seminar at Les Blogs entitled "Blogging 2.0 - Why blogs rock, and why bloggers rock, and why the long tail rocks and other stuff":

Cool San Francisco hacker/blogger in Abercrombie & Fitch shirt: "Blogging rocks. I've got a Porsche. Check out my iBook."

100% geek in "I'm blogging this" shirt: "You do realise I'm blogging this? You think you're an RSS addict? Wait for SSE. It's gonna rock."

Musclebound European blogging entrepreneur in no shirt: "The beautiful metaphor that encompasses the drifting of boundaries between the mass media and the social broadcaster is so delicate that it reminds me of a snowflake's attempt at survival in the final flourish of winter, twinkling in the morning light of spring."

Yes, yes. So I think it's all a little bit rubbish. But I know how these conferences are - I've been to enough. Loads of (insert latest technology fad here) fans get together to discuss how great (insert it again) is with no real contact with the real world.

How many speakers are going to be at Les Blogs that will talk about the gaping wound that blogging is opening up between ethical journalism and advertorial? Will there be a seminar based on controlling libel in the blogosphere? Who will be the main proponent of impartiality at all costs? Who will stop those with unbridled commercial greed?

I'm happy to be corrected here. I'm praying that I am. But at the moment I feel that the blogosphere is currently involved in a session of mutual self-congratulation.

Tagged: lesblogs

Word-of-mouth wombats

2005-12-04T22:46:00.000Z

First I thought the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) was a spoof site. Then I realised it was real. Then I realised it had published a resonable, if lengthy and inpenetrable, code of ethics.

Blogger relations seems to fit somewhere in the mix between 'real' and word-of-mouth marketing. It's not direct, but it's structured. It's not person-to-person, but it's not quite mass media either. Blogger relations is micro-influencing on a mass scale.

Some of the rules in the WOMMA list seem to fit the clogger code. I like the bit about protection of consumers, and the importance given to honesty.

It strikes me a number of cloggers and bloggers could do with reading some of these.

Who you gonna call?

2005-12-04T19:41:00.000Z

Below is my comment regarding Stowe Boyd's intelligent response to my Nokia N90 rant. I thought I'd post it in full, because I feel strongly about the subject. Oh, and Andy - stop it with the fatuous 'thankyous' already! Do you want me to reinstate your status as a drone?

My comment to Stowe:

Impartiality is a dangerous myth?

What the N90 blog has started is a real polarisation (that's English for polarization) of the blogging landscape. And it's done this by blurring boundaries. Hmm, weird.

Firstly, Nokia's blog isn't a corporate blog. It's a delivery mechanism for corporate material and a forum for reprinting bloggers' comments and responding to them with corporate messaging. Let's call it a 'blog marketplace'. I also think it's brilliantly clever, and a great blueprint for other PR 2.0 websites.

But as a journalist, my entire ethos is based on the concept of the Fourth Estate. In brief, it means that without a free and impartial press, civilisation crumbles.

The power of the Fourth Estate varies wildly from country to country. At one end of the scale, Government-owned media companies pump out self-perpetuating propaganda for those in power. At the other end, the free press regulates and controls those in power, including individuals attempting to amass vast personal wealth through commercial activity.

America seems to sit in the middle. The press is owned by the advertisers. We are seeing the ongoing erosion of ethical reportage in favour of short-sighted pandering to the corporations that wield the dollars.

And this is what is happening in the blogosphere. People are publishing. Social broadcasting means anyone can be an influencer. But within this society of social broadcasters is a huge range of people. There are people that are publishing to wide audiences with no concept of the responsibility that comes with being a part of the mass media. And there are others who do.

With no set guidelines as to how to protect the interests of the public, we are risking giving everything to the corporations, and keeping nothing for ourselves.

As I said in my original post, I just hope the true press stays in place as the filter between the corporate message and the public at large.

Leave Scoble alone?

2005-12-02T17:04:00.000Z

I realise these posts are becoming too focused on a small cluster of cloggers. Just like Mr Scobleizer sometimes vainly attempts to stop talking about Microsoft for a while, I'm going to try to stop talking about The Scoble.

Oh, go on then. Just one last gripe.

Colm Smyth has met Robert Scoble during his Dublin escapades, and has this to say in his post about meeting the King of Clog:

"(Robert Scoble is) 100% committed to the authenticity, validity and significance of the blogging conversation."

Er, sorry Colm. Nobody on the Microsoft payroll - or any payroll for that matter of a company that directly affects the fabric of the Internet - can be even 1% authentic.

And as for being "unaffected" by his Kingly status? Perhaps you need to be on the end of one of his n0-holds-barred comment flamers should you dare to say one word in criticism.

That's the last one for a while. I promise.

Nokia phone is off the hook

2005-11-30T19:12:00.000Z

Nokia's new clog around the N90 phone is a piece of marketing genius. In reality, it has just repurposed a load of public content, packaged all its collateral surrounding the phone and stuck the whole shebang in a blog. Having sent sample handsets to a number of high-profile bloggers, it's tracking coverage on the N90 blog and linking back.

Can you see what it did there? The bloggers are doubly chuffed - not only do they get a link on a high-profile corporate site but they get a new freakin' phone! And not just any phone! This is phone is cutting edge, dude! Check it out! It's off the hook!

Positive blog reactions from bloggers not used to getting free stuff - let alone free stuff worth hundreds of pounds and freshly created in geek heaven - are a given. Even reasonably ethical clogger and housewife's favourite Loic le Meur can't help admitting that he should say something nice about the phone seeing as he got it free.

Check out the fatuous thankyou message in the post's comments from the Nokia marketing drone: "Thanks for the kind words and the great "exposure" in the magazine."

Brilliant. Just send him a cheque, eh? Am I the only one who can see this is wrong?

Nokia is a great company run by clever people. I am a huge Nokia fan and a loyal customer. Its ultra-bright marketing people (above drone excluded) have spotted a loophole in the laws of ethics and exploited it ruthlessly. Fair play I say.

As It's up to the press to act as a filter and ensure impartiality at all costs, I just hope 'blogger relations' remains a way to purely feed the traditional media with off-diary stories.

Because if the public start reading the badly skewed reviews of the phones by wide-eyed bloggers still amazed at their good fortune, we are all doomed.

Blog them, and their law

2005-11-30T14:32:00.000Z

Drew B sent me a link to Tom Foremsky’s post on the first rule of social broadcasting.

I almost agree with the idea, but feel that it’s going to be hard to enforce. Particularly in a community that prides itself on a lack of regulation.

There certainly should be a set of guidelines for bloggers and cloggers to stick to in order to hold the whole thing together – much like the NUJ Code of Conduct but for untrained, gung-ho bloggers.

Let’s start one. Here goes:

1. In social situations, everything is off the record unless otherwise agreed. (Foremsky)

Oh, and when you’ve got rules, you need an enforcing body. (OK, I’ll do that bit. Perhaps brandishing razor-sharp wit and unavoidable shame as my weapons in the war against unethical blogging. OK, perhaps not.)

It amuses me that bloggers - who have started to call themselves journalists - are slowly starting to realise, on their own, that they have to stick to simple journalistic ethics. Foremsky’s thoughts clearly echo the ‘off the record’ concept that’s been crucial to us real journalists for decades.

But where does that leave the corporate bloggers? Well, they’re just PR people, so it doesn’t matter. PR people have been living without ethics for years. (Sorry, Drew).

Keith's mom sums it up

2005-11-29T18:56:00.000Z

I thought Microsoft's PR puppet Scoble was overstepping the privacy mark with his inane, continuous rambling about his wife, son and holiday activities.

But Jeremy Zawodny, chief clogger at Yahoo!, has gone and blown the doors off taste with his recent post about Keith's mom.

Let me just spell it out for you: Zawodny is using Yahoo!'s vast marketing budget and technological might to cast aspersions on the size of an elderly - if not deceased - lady's 'business'.

How old is he? Twelve?

This is corporate blogging spiralling out of control and going horribly, horribly wrong. If I was Keith's mom I'd sue.

Somebody stop these people before it gets too late.

Too much detail

2005-11-28T22:24:00.000Z

Why does The Scobleizer feel like it's necessary to divulge so many details of his private life?

Scoble is, no matter what you say, a celebrity of sorts. His image and thoughts are studied and considered by many thousands of people. He has built up a brand, an audience, a persona and a product.

As public interest in blogging grows, he can only get more famous. Today, he's appearing in podcasts and interviews with fellow bloggers. Tomorrow, he'll be doing TV and starring in his own magazine features.

For a fully-fledged 'celeb', there's WAY too much info on his private life out there. I'm not even that bothered, and I can tell you his wife's name and address, and young son's hobbies and location. I can even tell you where these people are right now ("Cardiff is a delightful town. Every time I travel I'm reminded at just how much influence American culture has had abroad." Sweet Jesus, man. Go and say that out loud in a city centre pub and be thankful the Welsh don't have the right to bear arms) and where he'll be for dinner on the 10th December.

In my view, the blogging community is growing at a rate that will make popular bloggers part of the real world pretty soon. Scoble may just be exposing a little too much. And all to become the 'trustworthy' face of Microsoft.

Robert, be warned. You not going to be able to hide in the blogosphere - or even the clogosphere - for much longer. You can't trust the people that are following your writing to be nice, friendly geeks forever. I hope you're being paid enough to put your mind at ease...

Clogged by Dilbert

2005-11-24T19:02:00.000Z

Is the Guy Who Draws Dilbert's blog a blog or a clog?

Yes, it's brilliant. Yes, sometimes it makes me laugh out loud (rare). But it also makes me feel closer to the Dilbert brand. I may even purchase some Dilbert merchandise this Christmas, based on the fact that I am reminded of it daily.

Shouldn't the true blogger blog with no thought of a commercial agenda?

Have I just been clogged by Dilbert?

SSE breaks in the clogosphere

2005-11-24T08:28:00.000Z

Sometimes a corporate blog is a fantastic marketing tool. Microsoft CTO Ray Ozzie's post on Simple Sharing Extensions (SSE) is an example of a perfectly-timed execution of clog brilliance.

Following Microsoft's announcements at the beginning of the month around Windows Live, heralding the beginning of on-demand software delivery and the classically cagey software behemoth's voyage into cuddly open-source friendliness, Ozzie's news was timely indeed.

As the excitement waned, up pops His Ozzieness allegedly spilling the beans on a half-baked idea. "One of the great things about once again having an active blog is that it enables me to engage in discussion about concepts I’m excited about, and that I’m working on, before they're fully-baked and while they could benefit from others’ involvement," he says. Aw, sweet.

I don't deny that SSE is a great idea. Using RSS-style information sharing is a perfect accompaniment to web-based software delivery. I, and everyone else, can see it's a fine plan.

But since when did companies, and Microsoft in particular, suddenly start releasing ideas before they are fully rounded? A half-baked idea? I don't buy it.

Sorry, but this is corporate blogging, a-list style. People are buying into Microsoft's new open source image and there was a dip in coverage for a day. Up steps Ozzie - it could just as well have been Scoble but he got gazumped this time - to fill the hole. The fact the news was released on a blog meant the developers picked up on it quickly, thinking they were sharing a secret with one of their own. The press picked it up a day or so late by the time the momentum had gathered and all the while, the blogosphere buzzed.

I don't believe this wasn't planned by marketers. It's too perfect, too slick. The fact the SSE standard was already finalised, licenced and released suggests there is much more at play behind the scenes.

I guess you've just got to be a bit more careful who you trust.

RSS is a two-way street

2005-11-21T22:22:00.000Z

Two-way RSS? It's web 2.0 made real.

This is important.

Stay frosty, people

2005-11-21T21:00:00.000Z

Anyone that's tried to start a blog on no particular topic is wasting valuable space. We've all had the misfortune of stumbling over some kid blogging about nothing in particular or a nice old lady telling an audience of none (except by unfortuntate chance) about her tortoise collection or the trouble with her curtains.

The same is true of corporate blogging. Just because you work for a small company that makes rivets or cans or software doesn't make you inherently interesting. Without focus, your corporate blog, if it even gets of the ground, will sink under the humiliatingly non-existent weight of traffic.

(There is one exception - you work for a company so huge and/or controversial that whatever you say is construed as interesting just because you said it and you work for THEM.)

The moral of the story? If you're planning a corporate blog, plan a topic. If it's a week-long conference, all the better. Short-term blogs are a valuable marketing tool.

But a blog for blog's sake? Just don't bother.

Yahoo! I'm a journo!

2005-11-18T19:12:00.000Z

I thoroughly enjoyed Jeremy 'Yahoo!' Zawodny's post on bloggers blacklisting PR companies. Well, I say enjoyed. More like fundamentally disagreed with and was generally horrified by.

I'm sorry, bloggers, but you're sitting at the big boys' table now. If you're in the fortunate position of having built up a large reader base through your hard work and sweat, all credit to you. You have an audience - this is a powerful thing. But with great power comes great responsibility.

Whether you like it or not, at the point your blog gets popular you need to embrace basic journalistic ethics. You must tell the truth. You must remain impartial. You must continue to promote the needs of public interest.

Hand in hand with your new role as thought-leader comes fundamental media processes. PR people will contact you to try and engage your interest in companies that pay them to engage your interest in them. This is how the world works. Journalists are trained to deal with this. A good journalist remains courteous and open to new ideas at all times.

A news release sent, albeit unsolicited, from a PR company to you is not 'spam', it's an example of said PR company *doing its job*. No more, no less. It is not an excuse for you to flame the company, start making blacklists or generally acting unprofessionally.

After all, if the PR types started giving you free stuff, like lunches or phones or huge wads of cash, I'm sure you'd change your tune and start listening. Which illustrates, above all, why blogging - and particularly corporate blogging - is so dangerous in its erosion of mass media values.

Blogosphere vs Clogosphere

2005-11-17T19:24:00.000Z

I'm not the biggest fan of the term 'blogosphere', but I admit it defines something important. It's one of those useful but ugly words. Like 'alphabetize'. Or 'cabbagey'.

The blogosphere is to social software what the universe is to cars. It is many, many organisational levels above and describes a space in which infinite networks and structures play out their little roles in intricate detail.

But what the blogosphere is not, is the clogosphere. The clogosphere is very like the blogosphere in structure. It's smaller, but growing by the day. Some of the residents of the blogosphere play in the clogosphere, while some of the 'clogospherians' often venture into the blogosphere.

But the two never meet. They are mutually exclusive. Diametrically opposed.

Rules in the blogosphere are reversed in the clogosphere. Truth becomes fiction. Friends become enemies. Journalists become marketers. Transparency becomes an impenetrable smokescreen. Trust has no value.

Bear this in mind, dear traveller, as you unwittingly flit in and out of both 'spheres. Sometimes it's hard to tell which one you're in.

And if in doubt, you can always ask.

RSS too much to ask?

2005-11-17T08:34:00.000Z

I've just had a meeting with the Press Association about signing up to its Mediapoint service. The service basically means users get access to PA news copy at the same time as the press gets it, as well as view first editions of daily papers as they roll of the presses.

Now, there is a LOT of information held in the system, and it's all searchable in hundreds of ways, from tag searches to free text to topic to writer.

It's possible to get search alerts emailed to you, based on the results of the search criteria you set up. I could have any number of new searches arranged, which might spit out every blogging story that day, or every headline that mentioned penguins.

So I asked the obvious question - 'Where are the RSS feeds?'

'Er, what?' said the salesperson, perturbed.

'Well, you know, I don't really use email for alerts any more,' I said. 'I use RSS. This would be ideal to scan my searches.'

The salesperson leaned across the desk. She laughed.

'Look, everyone's got their preferences. It's taken us two years to get the email alerts incorporated,' she said. 'It'll take another two to get anything else added.'

I tried to argue, but it came out a bit like a horrified splutter.

The salesperson moved in for her big finale: 'Look, you've got a Blackberry,' she said, noticing my handset on the desk. 'With email alerts, you'll be able to read the news on the bus.'

How can I argue with that?

Loose lips sink ships

2005-11-16T19:19:00.000Z

I was at a conference where Six Apart's Loic Le Meur was talking about corporate blogging. He made a great speech (watch it here, along with the others from the day). The female (and some of the male) members of the audience swooned at his mix of Gallic speech delivery and barely-contained musculature.

But there were a statement that almost made me spit out my popcorn, jump out of my seat and shout 'Are you INSANE?' (Which, of course, I didn't. But I thought about it.)

Talking about posting to a corporate blog, he said: 'If you say something wrong, correct it. It's fine.'

It's just this kind of cowboy attitude that's going to rip the blogosphere - and potentially the real-bloody-worldosphere - apart. What happens when said employee unwittingly breaks the law? What if a seemingly innocent comment is construed as libel? What if some financials are disclosed during a pre-announcement quiet period?

What could be done to save the company then? It would be too late. The damage to reputation has been done. Sales lost. Heads roll. If you say something wrong, it's not fine. It's far from fine.

Corporate blogging must be a balance of responsible journalism and responsible marketing. In your frenzy to get people blogging, Loic, it's important not to be shortsighted. The blog is a powerful tool. Try not to get carried away and start promoting recklessness.

The long tail is a slippery slope

2005-11-16T12:27:00.000Z

Something terrible is happening. Something huge. Well, actually it's lots of really tiny happenings that are adding up to a huge happening. Whatever's happening, its tiny-huge. And terrible.

Blogging is happening, but I'm not talking about that. It may be changing the media landscape forever, forcing crucial decision-forming comment out of the grip of the established, impartial press into the sweaty paws of crazed geeks, but I don't think blogging itself is terrible. It's tiny-huge, yes. And dangerous. But I don't think it's terrible.

I'm not really talking about corporate blogging either. On the face of it, the odd corporate blog is a fine idea. Why not find a cuddly employee, preferably near the top of the food chain, and stick his or her opinions up on the web for us mere consumers to read? After all, it fosters a spirit of openness, trust and transparency in a world were corporate social responsibility and governance are key themes in good business practice. The readers might even get the odd laugh out of it or learn something new. No, corporate blogging may be tiny-huge, but it's not terrible at all.

The point that things turn terrible, is where the two worlds collide.

The risks associated with blogging and the removal of mass media opinion - in favour of just 'opinion' - are magnified with those responsible for creating that opinion have a corporate agenda. Take Robert Scoble, for example, Microsoft's celebrity blogger and, quite probably, King Blogger. Whatever he may say, and whatever you may think, he follows Microsoft's agenda. That agenda might be to make Microsoft look more cuddly through not sacking him for some of the stuff he says, or it might be that he's paid to sound like he's in danger of being sacked when actually he's being fed directly from the spooks in Microsoft's global marketing bunker. But whatever it is, it's there.

It can't be ignored, however, that Scoble himself is now a key figure in changing public opinion. Which means a proponent of Microsoft's agenda is now a key figure in changing public opinion. Scoble is not a trained journalist. He does not subscribe to the NUJ Code of Practice. He is not beholden to the public to seek out the truth and defend his sources when faced with criminal charges. He will not die for you. His opinion is just his opinion, and is based on the agenda of his employer.

If the trend continues, and all the other corporate bloggers (sorry for singling you out again, Robert) start gaining audience mindshare, climb the long tail and become part of the great global decision-making process, opinion will start to be swayed more and more towards those with corporate agendas and away from those with public interest at heart.

The mass media is in trouble already. The free press is what holds civilised society together. We're witnessing the end of it.

Now THAT is terrible.

Scoble makes a rare mistake

2005-11-15T21:51:00.000Z

Microsoft's full-time blogger, Robert Scoble, made an uncharacteristically poor error of judgement on November 1 with his post on the 12 reasons why small businesses think Microsoft sucks.

All his points were valid, and - us usual - created waves that reached far and wide across the blogosphere and, eventually, the mass media.

But what people failed (refused?) to recognise was that The Scobleizer's comments pre-empted Microsoft's announcement of Live - including free, ad-supported versions of Microsoft software that is aimed squarely at small businesses - by less than 24 hours.

Am I the only person to spot the convenient timing? Has Scoble finally revealed himself to be no more than an extension - albeit a discreet one - of the global Microsoft marketing team?