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Randy creates a new blog that contains most all of the NBA game boxscores for the last two seasons.
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Digg, a new San Francisco Internet start-up, seeks to rank news items by letting people choose which stories they like anywhere on the Web.
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New online forum plans gradual ramp-up
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The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) will offer a teleseminar that focuses on how an increasing number of politicians are using blogs and podcasting to communicate daily with those who are interested in their opinions.
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Trade show and public-speaking secrets from a professional trade show presenter
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A review of Videoegg.
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October 2005
Monday, October 31, 2005
Skate to Where the Puck is Going
Hockey great Wayne Gretzky once said: “Skate to where the puck is going, not where it's been.”
Marketing great Kathy Sierra said: skate to where the marketing budgets are going...
Weber Shandwick Gearing Up to Blog
Weber Shandwick - one of the largest PR agencies in the world and a unit of IPG - is getting ready to blog, according to my server log. The site is currently password protected.
How Geeks “Do Romance”
Dave Garr, one of PalmSource's early bloggers, got engaged last week in a very unique way. He sat his bride to be in front of a computer screen and then asked her to browse over to DaveLovesElizabeth.com. Once he popped the question, he blogged the engagement. Along the way, Dave used the Google Maps API to show all the stops he and Elizabeth took on their courtship. Very clever. Congrats Dave and Elizabeth!
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Saturday, October 29, 2005
Happy Halloween
An early wish for a safe and fun Happy Halloween to my readers. In celebration of the festiviites, here's a video my Dad sent me of a guy seamlessly walking through a plate glass window (Windows Media required). Amazingly, the window remains completley intact. The video appears to come from A&E. Then again, it could all just be a massive hoax. Who knows, but it's sure worth a watch.
blummy is Bookmarklets for Dummies
A few weeks ago I blogged about bookmarklets and how I integrate them into my day. Alexander Kirk emailed me about a new AJAX-based service he has created called blummy. The tool gives you quick access to your favorite web services - many of the same ones I mentioned - via a single link on your bookmark toolbar. Small widgets, called blummlets, works on almost every page on the web. Even better, you can configure your blummlets via a cool drag and drop interface. It's worth a try.
Technorati Tags: bookmarklets
Friday, October 28, 2005
How to Contribute to Wikipedia
Lifehacker has one heckuva great tutorial on how to contribute to Wikipedia. Most of it covers the technical side, not the ethical discussion of how to be part of this community. My general advice for PR pros is to tread lightly. If something is factually wrong and you can point to indisputable information to the contrary elsewhere, make the edit. Be sure to note who you represent. Otherwise, don't.
Technorati Tags: Wikipedia
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Forbes Cover Story Blows It, Calling Bloggers Lynch Mobs
Earlier tonight I was on a four-minute segment on CNBC that largely focused on Forbes' new cover story - Attack of the Blogs. Registration is required or the bugmenot login/password "forbesdontbug" worked for me. The article's author, Daniel Lyons, was in our interview group.
The gist of Lyons' soon-to-be maligned story is that blogs are “the prized platform of an online lynch mob spouting liberty but spewing lies, libel and invective.”
If that's not bad enough they also squarely put the blame here on Google and Yahoo as our “potent allies.” It's so ridiculous that two companies that have done so much to democratize media are being chastised for it.
Forbes, I am very disappointed that you chose to take such an unbalanced POV when BusinessWeek and Fortune told us both sides of the story. With all respect to Lyons and the magazine's editors, bloggers are not Corporate America's Boogeyman. They can be a company's greatest allies and evangelists if AND only IF we take the time to take them seriously and engage them in dialogue. Instead of telling us about both opportunities and threats, you paint the blogosphere as the Wicked Witch of the West. With a a few hours of reading excerpts of the forthcoming book on business blogging, Naked Conversations, you would have seen both sides of the story.
My message to Corporate America is simple. Don't listen to Forbes. Take a look around the blogosphere for yourself and you will find real humans - good, bad and ugly. What do you know? It's just like in the meatspace. There are some who mean well, others who are more nefarious. And all want to be heard. Listen to them. Work with them. Live with them and get over this fear mongering because they're here to stay. And some companies -probably your competitors unless you act - will prevail by treating them with respect and engaging them in genuine unfiltered conversations.
The Fujifilm Blimp Captain Is Blogging
Adam Yates from the PR team at Fujifim writes in that his company has just lanunched a new corporate-sponsored blog - the Fujifilm Captains' Blog. They've been watching the blog phenomenon from the sidelines for awhile now. Mindful of the fine line between genuine citizen journalism and commercialism, they shunned the very notion of creating a “Fujifilm Digital Camera Blog” or “Fujifilm CEO Blog”. Instead, they decided to use their blog to tell a story. Now that is smart brand blogging.
“We realized though, that for more than two decades we've had this fascinating group of people traipsing across the country flying in a blimp,” Yates said in an email. “And everyone who meets them seems mesmerized by the stories they tell. So, we set up a blog for them. Its our toe in the water...a small start, but so far people seem interested to read about who flies with them, where they go, what they do.”
There's one big thing missing, however. Dialogue. Adam, you have a start here, but we need a way for us to discuss what the blimp team is talking about and also see who's linking to your posts (e.g. comments and trackbacks). For example, people might want to speculate on how the planes know to steer clear of you. Or they might want to talk about how a blimp navigates at night without headlights. Finally, I am sure everyone will want to know what happens if your pilot is big pimpin' blimpin' and she has to go to the bathroom. Add more ports for dialogue and your blog is truly golden. You're almost there.
On a related note, check out how Fujifilm has embraced RSS to boot.
Technorati Tags: Fujifilm
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An AdAge Power 150 Blog 
Steve Rubel works at Edelman. Everything posted on this blog is his personal opinion and does not necessarily represent the views of his employer or its clients.
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