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Panelist at New Communications Forum this Thursday

Published Monday, February 27, 2006 by Jeremiah Test.


I’ll be participating as a panelist at the New Communications Forum this Thursday at the Sheraton at Palo Alto.

We'll be on at 10:15am in the "Corporate Blogging Case Studies" session. It will be lead by Debbie Weil, and I’ll sharing the stage with my pal Paul Rosenberg, who we met last year at the Blog Business Summit.

Will post pics and notes on Thursday. The list of key speakers and presenters is very impressive.

>> Comments: 0 comments







Early bloggers (before the internet) at Speaker's Corner, London

Published by Jeremiah Test.

While sightseeing in London two days ago, I had the privilege to visit one of the earlier known places where ‘blogging’ has taken form –before the internet came around. At a central park in London called Hyde Park, is an open land area called Speakers Cornder. This free speech area has been a public forum for famous speakers before the web was around --it's truely the first blogosphere.

Be sure to check out the community site for Speakers Corner, there are recordings in mp3 format. Wikipedia has some notes about it, as well as it’s considered a tourist attraction. Or check out the birds eye view of it in Google Maps.

Anyone can come here and setup a soapbox and speak to the crowds, of course, being a blog evangelist, this greatly interested me. Individuals could shout/heckle back at the speaker (just like comments) and speakers could converse with other speakers. This is an open public forum, and it’s much like the blogosphere. You can hear some of the raw recordings. You can even heard people shout out URLs and Domains.

"the century of the common man."
Amongst those who have attended meetings there, are the some of the most influential figures in world history like Karl Marx, Fredrick Engels and Lenin. Even Cromwell's corpse was hung up here in a cage for public display, after he had died as a warning to others who might wish to abolish the Monarchy.

This was of course in the days before Speaker's Corner when at the same location was "Tyburn", one of the "hanging fields" of London. Other's whose ghosts haunt this corner include William Morris, George Orwell, the Pankhursts, CLR. James, Benn Tillet, Marcus Garvey, and a star spangled cast of millions more who shall remain unmentioned, excepting the immovable Lord Soper, still speaking at 94.

Speaker's Corner has had a more powerful influence than any "university" in the world, because here there are no entry requirements, no rules of intellectual formality and above all no class restrictions. It is as Leslie James the Hyde Park pamphleteer wrote a fitting location to represent "the century of the common man."

Above: Sign in Pedestrian Subway to Speaker's Corner

Above: A lone speaker sets up his soapbox in the early morning (I guess all the speakers are too busy blogging rather than coming out in the cold?)

Above: A Welcome Sign, and some 'guidelines' (click to view details)


Above: (Note I did not take the above picture)
A picture from Cris's photo album, that shows what speaker's corner is like during a busy day
Other images available on google

>> Comments: 1 comments







PhotoBlog: Slough to London aboard High Speed Train

Published Friday, February 24, 2006 by Jeremiah Test.

Going to get some R&R in London, after a long week of travel and meetings.

Headed from Slough to Paddington Station in London via High Speed Train, we were going pretty darn fast. I then walked to London Hilton Metropole, where I'm sitting now.

People have been very helpful and friendly, I'm not sure I get the same courtesy in the states.

Europeans use public transportation very efficiently, in America, we resort to driving everywhere. Also, there are very few overweight people, the only one is the one I see in the mirror ;)

Tommorow, I go to Speakers Corner, the birthplace of blogging.


Above: the super trains, apparently the train that goes to France gets up to 200 MPH, when it went by the station it was extremely loud.

Several trains docked at Paddington

Above: First Class Car (No, I didn't sit in this) looks waay better than BART


Above: Paddington Station, London

Above: Paddington Station

>> Comments: 2 comments







PhotoBlog: Windsor, United Kingdom

Published Tuesday, February 21, 2006 by Jeremiah Test.

It's 8pm and I'm trying hard to stay awake. Nothing like a bit of photoblogging to keep me up.

I'm in Windsor, UK for business (web related of course). Wireless internet connection here at Hotel is spotty (provided by British Telecom for 20 US dollars a day). May purchase some Skype minutes to call home.

Virgin Airlines has an incredible multimedia setup for passengers, but no internet access such as Connexion from Boeing.

There is a geek dinner in London Thursday night, but I doubt I'll have the time to get there in time -- we'll see.

Andy Beale from Fortune Interactive gave me some UK travel tips, as well as Nic Cubrilovic of OmniDrive--thanks guys.

I noticed that many of the advertisements on billboards, posters, and bus stops do NOT have URLs like the states, interesting.

If you've got any travel suggestions for this area, leave a comment.

Above: View from my hotel room of Windsor Castle, the driver tells me the flag is raised, which suggests the Queen is staying in there --I wonder if she's read my blog?


Above: Castle Windsor and a statue of Queen Victoria

Above: Windsor train station, quite a few shops and cafes. I love how Europeans enjoy life, unlike the rushed hectic culture of the United States and (multiply times 10 in Silicon Valley)

Above: A train to Slough


Above: McDonalds here as internet access, appears to be used by teens. I wonder when this will be replaced by wifi hot spots. (no Starbucks in sight --yet) I didn't see too many laptops or other wifi devices today.


Above: Detail of the embedded internet cafe within McDs. I wonder if you could order food directly from the browser?

Above: the Harte and Garter Hotel, across from Castle Windsor at the moment.



Above: yes this little shop is indeed crooked --but still standing


Must Stay Awake. Must Stay Awake. Must Stay Awake. Must Stay Awake zzzzzzzzzz

>> Comments: 2 comments







Podcast: Syndication Awareness: A Unique and Growing Medium! (Podcast Part 2 of 3)

Published Monday, February 20, 2006 by Jeremiah Test.


Robyn and I have completed the second segment of Syndication Awareness. If you want to get your message out to your audience, you'll want to listen in.

Intended Audience:
We hope this series helps many who are new to syndication and want to learn more, Marketing folks, publishers, and anyone else who wants to embrace Web Feeds to reach users.

Podcast: Syndication Awareness: A Unique and Growing Medium! (Podcast Part 2 of 3) Swing by and listen to this 12 minute podcast at the Podcast RoundTable.

>> Comments: 0 comments







Users, Trains, Community, Podcast RoundTable

Published Sunday, February 19, 2006 by Jeremiah Test.

Getting a lot of reading done this morning, here's what I've run across:

Users centered design by 37 Signals
I really enjoyed this podcast from the web 2.0 show. They interviewed Jason Fried in a podcast from 37 Signals. They really put user design FIRST before any development or engineering is started. I know it's textbook, but it's really amazing to hear this in recent times. Sometimes I wonder if we build a business model AROUND an emerging technology. In the end, it's about the users, it's so simple for them to find an alternative now.

For my personal use, I use tadalist, the wife can task me with 'honey do' items which I consume in my feedreader.

All Aboard
I like Mike's comments on 'as he gets on the cluetrain' this is exactly what I've been talking about as I don't think blogs are important. Amy has a firm grasp of the strategies of Converational Media

Community Cultivation
I like Guy's post on "The Art of Creating a Community" I'm reading cultivating communities of practice, one diagram shows 3 concentric circles. I don't have the book in front of me, but it suggests that 15% or participants are active (with about 5% as core organizers) and the other 85% are watching, learning, and evaluating. This is important for companies to realize, as all of their online activities in blogs, forums, and other converational tools are part of the decision making process. My bud Chris saw Guy speak at his Santa Clara University.

Podcast RoundTable
I need to catch up with Martin soon, and give him his copy of Naked Convos that I got for him. We Podcast at Podcast RoundTable.

Denis and I wrote a white paper on "IT and web 2.0". In his quest for knowledge, he's interviewing IT proffesionals to hear how Web 2.0 is or is not being strategically mapped out in today's enterprise IT departments. His survey and interview findings are here from Sr SW Engineers to CIOs.

Robyn and I are publishing a three part podcast on Syndication Awareness, aimed at business and publishers that are new to the concept. We've already published part one, and hope to have two and three up by weeks end. I wonder what Dan is up to, I haven't heard from him in a while.

>> Comments: 1 comments







Questions about edegio

Published by Jeremiah Test.


edegio: listings from the edge

Edit: Monday, Feb 20th. I didn't get the name right, thanks to Richi at ComputerWorld for bringing this to my attention. My apologies to the employees and friends of EDGEIO if offended.

I'm off to the blackboard to write E-D-G-E-I-O 100 times now for a lil self-discipline.

I'm seeing some conversations around a new "Ebay Killer" called Edegio that's soon to emerge Read Tom's sneak peak as well as AMCP Tech Blog's write up. Check out Business Week's write up as well. Read more at the official edegio blog.

I'm kicking myself for not getting a demo at the party.

This looks interesting, it appears that the proposed model includes utilizing 'consumer' content platforms such as blogs with some specific tags (Structured blogging) to bypass the world's largest garage sale, Ebay --in short, it's cutting out the middleman and connecting buyers and sellers directly, as well as providing an index on their master site.

I've got a lot of questions:
  • What's the benefit to the consumer to use this? cost? flexiblity?

  • How do users obtain 'trust, as 'trust' is important in ecommerce type transactions
    • AMCP's post writes that: "Edgeio also wants to make sure that the buyer is inline, so you'll have one-click access to their eBay reputation." So why not just use eBay?
    • If edegio utilizes data from eBay's reputation DB, then do you have to be a former eBay user?

  • How will payment be handled? Paypal has it's value, and can help keep transactions clean

  • What if craigs list starts to input and output RSS feeds, could that be a competitive threat?

  • Is the value of connecting 'loosely' connected (distributed) buyers and sellers greater than going through ebay (centralized)?

  • What's the cost of using ebay vs 'loosely connected buyers and sellers via blogs and rss?

  • I wonder if bloggers will start using edegio and embedding items for sale within their blog, or if they will create a seperate blog just for buying and selling.

  • Will this be targeted to the blog community? Do you need a blog to use this tool?

  • What's going to stop ebay from introducing a widget that bloggers can use on their blogs to enable cheap transcations with their existing customer base?

  • How much do web users value 'trust' in online transactions, does eBay provide that trust? can a cost effective model like edgeio overcome this threshold?

  • Edit: Apparently Steve is asking questions like this too
I signed up for the beta at edegio, as I want to learn more.
(plus I have a patio table and chair set, I'd like to sell)


>> Comments: 2 comments







PhotoBlog: Naked Convo Party at TechCrunch House

Published Saturday, February 18, 2006 by Jeremiah Test.

Went to the techcrunch party for Naked Convos book launch.
  • Atherton is very dark at night.
  • Met up with Alexa from Omidyar, she had questions about business blogging, so I bought her a book.
  • Saw James from feedster, he introduced me to some of his colleagues. I think we should do a podcast soon.
  • I also met Salim from Pubsub an indexer that i use.
  • We checked out the Zazzle product again, maybe we'll make some shirts or poster, consumer created products are really grabbing hold.
  • Pandora was the 'live DJ" of the party, we fiddeled with that for a while.
  • Shirley cornered me again.
  • Ran into Gabe, he's quite the gentleman and mild mannered, the founder of memerandum, which I use frequently.
  • Michael thanks for the party, i'm sure his house is mess.
  • Robert and Shel got 'naked' --I left before that happened.
  • This party is being talked about by Dave, Scott, and Dan has pics up.
  • There's quite a few photos uploaded on flickr.
  • I uploaded most of the below pics to flickr



Above: Robert Scoble and Shel Israel sign a book for my podcasting bud Martin


Above: Party in the backyard tent..over 400 people were at the house

Above: The best converations happened in the long bathroom line


Above: Reminds me of Highschool
Above: I ran into James Gross from Feedster again, we metup at the Yahoo flickr party last week

Above: The Naked boys on Mic


Above: Shirley likes Pandora, she may want to but an account.

Above: Free cocktails...not picture, the catered food
Above: Preview of products in the house and tent

Above: A projection on the tent roof. It would be interesting if someone could get a sattelite photo of the house at night.


Above: The PodTech Setup

Above: Podtech mixing board and mics


Above: The bathroom line always had lots of great convos


Attention: I've moved to Web-Strategist.com --you'll find more of my thoughts there. I've selected specific posts to add this link to.

>> Comments: 0 comments







Naked Party Tonight (No, not that kind)

Published Friday, February 17, 2006 by Jeremiah Test.


I'm excited to go the Naked Conversations Book release party tonight at the TechCrunch house in Atherton. I'll be sure to post up some notes and pictures later. I was invited by Shel and Robert, brrreeeport check out their blog to learn more about the book --which I've read cover to cover.

I'm bringing my wife (who's been good to go to all these geek/tech events with me of late) I think she'll like the music site Pandora, and maybe can hang with some other 'geek wives'.

Maybe the geeks can coordinate an area where wives of geeks could meet and roll their eyes collectively as we talk about blogging and web.



>> Comments: 1 comments







Are CDs Dead? A podcast discussion

Published Thursday, February 16, 2006 by Jeremiah Test.


The latest podcast is now available on the “Podcast Roundtable”

Some of my weekend hobbies include dabbling as an amateur commenter on technology. As such, I’m one of the founding members of the podcast round table. This week we talk about how technology is crossing over to media.

CDs are Great as Coasters...and that's about it.
I'm into iPods and podcasting, and digital music. I maintain the stance that “CDs are Dead” while Martin and others have some good arguments against it. We talk a bit more about Google Desktop Version 3, and about corporate and consumer consent. I love having these saturday morning chats with my eFriends.

I always cringe when I hear my voice --Do I really sound like that?

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Blogger + MeasureMap + Google Analytics = CGM Platform

Published Wednesday, February 15, 2006 by Jeremiah Test.


Left: Measuremap Dashboard

Google acquired Adaptive Path’s ( I went to their flickr party a few days ago) Measuremap Software, Jeff Veen writes a post on the Google Blog. Many thought that MeasureMap would go to Yahoo, as Adaptive Path has quite a few buddies at Yahoo. Michael Arrington (Startup Guru) speculates the price is 5-10mil.

MeasureMap has barely been beta tested by the public, wow companies get picked up so fast.

Why I use Blogger
I’m sometimes asked why I don’t upgrade to Typepad or WordPress, as I’m pretty serious about blogging and it’s enhanced my career. I’ve got this silly belief in commodity enablement software, not because I’m cheap, but because I see the value that this technology that will enable the globe to communicate, and I want to experience it as others will. By the way, I also have access to Typepad (work related) and Wordpress (at the Podcastroundtable) site.

Also, I have this inkling that Google is going to enhance blogger with a feature rich set of services. My greatest concern however is when the rest of the world figures this out, we'll have severe bandwidth issues for the poor blogger servers. Right guys? (edit AND GALS)

Great Component to CGM suite
I’m with Matt, who wishes or foresses that with Google Analytics, Blogger, Audio Blogger, Search, Google News, Adsense, and other Google properties, they could easily mesh these into one Engine that enables consumers to create, share, and control content and media.

Measuremap (from what I’ve seen) will help to measure these relationships, and Google Anlaytics (which I use) will help to observe the experiences between these amorphous spaces.

Ya know, the user experience from measuremap is not too far off from blogger, it would be great to see all the tools meshed into one.

What will happen?
I predict (or wish) that Blogger + Audio Blogger + MeasureMap + Google Analytics will become a Consumer Generated Platform link, harness, and tie in with many other Google services as ONE integrated service within 12 months.

I'd also like to see
  • "Categories/Tags" embedded in blogger platform
  • Granular measurement of feed subscription and activity
Congrats to Jeff Veen, Google, and other Adaptive Path folks.

Edit: Blogger just announced this support forum.
The blogger buzz blog has much info, this platform is moving quickly

>> Comments: 0 comments







Reading Sampler Feb 14th

Published Tuesday, February 14, 2006 by Jeremiah Test.


This is really a summary of my last few days of web consumption and some related observations.

I'm having a hard time keeping up, below is highlights or things that I find interesting.

Things are moving very, very fast in web.

  • Microsoft and Blogger from Google have aligned to product a nice add-on to MS Word, that allows users to publish via Word. I’m actually typing this blog in word right now. Check out Scoble’s video demo on the Google campus (that’s amazing in itself) as well as consider downloading the plugin to try it out for yourself. It’s working well for me

  • The US government has concluded a "Cyber Storm" wargame last week. It was a test to a cyber attack on the “Internet from anti-globalization activists, underground hackers and bloggers” The web is very important for national security, as it’s the bloodline of information, finance, and business.

  • A SF conservation group called “Compact” is organizing and promoting themselves using online forums and blogs. It’s easy to spread ideas via blogs. Called “Compact” they have vowed to not buy new items whenever possible, think about all the packaging waste they are saving us from.

  • If you ever need to create a ransom letter, you can use this image generator that uses flickr content: Spell with flickr

  • Next week I’ll be in London on business, I’m trying to attend this geek dinner on Thursday Night, Ian has already responded to me –I’ll try to make it.

  • Niall Kennedy of Technorati has been playing with Odeo, No surprise that text is evolving to audio, Martin, Amy, and I have been talking about these features for a while.

    Wed Edit: Niall's left Technorati a few hours ago

  • Do you need to borrow some money? Prosper is a new web service that connects regular people to borrow and lend money. Prosper takes a 1% cut and a few other fees –cheaper than a bank for sure.

  • Matrix of Collaboaration Tools. This clever matrix shows all the benefits and limitations of these collaboration tools. I’d question the limitations around blogs. They are not confined only to comments, as readers can create a blog post to respond. In fact, there are huge discussions all over the blogosphere using blog posts. Link via Debbie.

  • Seth Godin (I’m reading the 'All Marketer’s are Liars' book right now) has noticed a new feature in Google’s directory ability. Users can request a call back from vendors, notice the trend? Opt in again –the participants are taking charge

  • Dave Sifry has posted a followup to the State of the Blogosphere. Notice how blogs are creeping into mainstream media?

  • What type of blogger are you? Check out the archtypes. Leave a comment to suggest what type I am.

  • The Corporate identity catalog and library. Quite a few logos and hex colors listed.

  • I wrote about the flickr party, and more and more pics are coming in, check out the tags for flickrbirthday pool.
  • Via James Gross’s Blog, a Pillow Fight tonight at 6pm in front of the Ferry Building SF. All kinds of groups (formal and underground) are using the web to communiate, congregate, and organize. The web is a communication tool, even for strangers

  • Narnia Rap Battle: (Turn it up): The popular Saturday Night rap parody on the Chronicles of Narnia is spreading coast to coast. The original NY version has an east coast flair, which was answered by an LA group, and now has somewhat settled in the midcoast ---err Midwest. Keep in mind some of these images are not worksafe, I try to be considerate to my viewers who are goofing off at work ;)


Web Site Counter

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Flickr party at Adaptive Path

Published Sunday, February 12, 2006 by Jeremiah Test.

rshir
Left, JBum's mosaic he created as the logo for the party. The official flickr blog thanked everyone.

Second Birthday Party for flickr in SF last night
Last night, my buddy Juan invited me to the flickr turns two” party at the Adaptive Path Suite in San Francisco. It’s a hip loft in the SOMA south park area.

The flickr community impresses me, they were able to pack the Adaptive Path Suite with quite a few of their avid community members on a Sat night –what a strong and loyal community.

Dot Com? User group?
At first this reminded me of a dot com party, then I started to think it was a user group, finally at the end of the party I realized this was really a "community gathering" --as a web marketing guy, I’m impressed.

Left: Cupcakes and Cake match flickr brand
Attendees used name tags, they were encouraged to use their flickr user name. It’s quite evident that the product team has harnessed a virtual as well as a tangible community. Yahoo made a smart move to capture this company, although James Gross made a good point that the helm is still being steered by the original founding captain. Small and flexible will help the product team to continue to serve the community.

There were sooo many cameras, everyone was taking pictures of everyone and everything. A live flickr upload called a 'livestream' was projected was display in the other room.

I ran into quite a few interesting folks at this party:
Great Conversations:

Renee, Cheese and flickr
I had a conversation with Renee Blodgett at the cheese table, we were discussing the flickr demographic being very youthful, she had some observations about the product being unstructured, we both agreed that flickr may not be suited for all demographics. I know my parents, aunts and uncles are more than content to use Costco photos or Kodak photos –they just want a method to print pictures and send via email.

I know some of my busy friends would not want to devote the time to setup and tag photos, they'd rather just upload and email. flickr is not for everyone.

We also discussed the ‘unstructured’ format and organization of flickr, it’s set of loosely grouped “tags” and “sets” allows for an amorphous experience. Renee was good to point out that not all people tag photos the same way.

Although I didn’t have a response at the time, I've given it some thought and would have prefered to respond that

“Different tags by different users are a good thing, with users able to tag media they way THEY think of it, this bottom up information structure will unite persons of similar interests. Folksonmoy is for the folks.”

Rubyredlabs: Smart folks
I also had an in-depth conversation with a few developers/engineers back in the Rubredlabs, a shared space with Adaptive Path --cool digs. We discussed their business model, and micro formats --something I need to look into more. If we can have consistent tagging and metadata around blogging of products, consumers could quickly access information about a product or service in real time. In essence, this could really put the power in the hands of the consumers, if consumer opinion can be quickly aggregated from around the world. The trick is however, to keep the EGM separate from CGM, it’s sometimes impossible to tell the difference as marketers get more clever.

Left: The "No No Room"
And yes, the mattress room scared me, I almost got pregnant by looking at it. I'm not sure what they call this room, but I call it the "No No Room" ....because it's oh soooo naugty. ;)






James Levine, Simply Hired
James Levine, the Director of Engineering at simplyhired had an impressive viewpoint around scraping, feeds, and where it’s all headed. I’m going to keep an eye on simply hired, I think they are doing some good stuff. Also, my buddy Damon works there as the Online Community Manager. Community…yup that’s key, look at how flickr pulled in that big crowd.

Left: A pic of James, James and myself

James Gross, Feedster
James Gross was a fun guy to hang with, I'm impressed he remembered what I looked like after a few months! We met at the Syndication conference in SF. I didn't recognize him in his casual garb, plus his hair is longer.

We’ve had some discussions on the benefits and risks of having free commoditized software vs pay for software. He’s got some good points, I’ll need to think about this more before responding. Yes James, let’s get coffee soon.

Thanks Emily for the flickr hacks book!
I’d also like to thank Emily for scoring me the Flickr Hacks book, I’m probably not the right audience for this book, but I know just the person who could benefit (Andy check your desk when you get back). And of course thanks Wirednerd for the invite, let's get lunch soon as dicusssed.

I had a great night, loved meeting other passionate web folks, enjoyed the food and drink from the flickr team and the hospitality from Adaptive Path –I look forward to next year’s party.


Bonus Links from Flickr
And yes it's ironic that I use blogger to embed pics in my post about a flickr party, deal with it ;)

Web Site Counter

>> Comments: 3 comments







Photo Tour: Internet Strategies Symposium | iPod

Published Saturday, February 11, 2006 by Jeremiah Test.

Wow, I've been so busy, I haven't had time to throw up my pics. A few weeks ago I was a panelist at the Internet Strategies Symposium in Arizona. Met some people like Avinash, David, Brett, Gene and Andy.

Above: at the Pointe Hilton at Phoenix


Above: Phoenix is very flat, although the reddish rocky hills and mountains around it makes for a unique landscape.
Above: A presentation on business blogging by Gene Wright, Vice President, Marketing, Netconcepts, LLC


Above: This was like "Speed Dating" where propsects would quickly rotate with vendors. Great way to meet a lot of people very quickly.


Above: The symposium...intimate but effective. Lot's of healthy dialogue.


Above: Recently received a 60 Gig iPod from my wife, I’ve been downloading quite a few podcasts, and refuse to buy CDs anymore. Here you can see me playing Lost Season 2 on the plane
Above: Listening to a Tech Podcast --As I mentioned, I listen to a lot of podcasts now. Pretty decent podcast too, well structured, short and sweet, and high impact content with a strong call to action.

Web Site Counter

>> Comments: 3 comments







Debate: Top Down and Bottom Up Product Launches but what about the people?

Published Friday, February 10, 2006 by Jeremiah Test.


There's a mini debate going on about launching products, and how 'revolutionary' it really is.

View 1: Bottom Up
Don Says: Blogs make launching a product or company cheap and fast

Don Dodge wrote a post called The new way to launch your product or company.

He's observed that "In the old days you needed a big marketing staff, a huge budget, a PR agency, an elaborate press event at a big hotel" Now with blogs, it's a very cheap, if not free to get your product launched in the blogosphere "Today you need none of that. It doesn't cost anything to publicize your new product or service. Simply engage a couple of the "A-List" bloggers"

View 2: It's going to be Top Down
DJHowatt, has some counter points and writes the following in a comment on Don's Blog. He suggests that we'll revert to the traditional methods

Don, the point you make in this posting strikes me as naive. Substitute "editor" for "A-lister" and you have the simple description of classic public relations. The only difference that blogs offer is speed -- it's a significant advantage, and one that you barely mention. The reason that big events and big money are used to gain attention and influence from editors is because there are so many companies seeking to do so. The events and money make invisible yet merit-laden companies stand out. It will shortly be the same dynamic for A-list bloggers. These aren't forces of technology here. They are forces of human nature. And these apply in the blogosphere, only faster.

The question remains: how do you get the attention of the A-list bloggers. There are some very pertinent skill sets and methods in PR that can make this effort successful. And it becomes something of an arms race. The more your competitor fights to get attention, the more you have to fight. The more influential the A-listers become, the more people who fight for their attention. This leads inexorably to "a big marketing staff, a huge budget, a PR agency, an elaborate press event at a big hotel (with food and drinks), and the attention of the trade press writers to launch your product."


Analysis
Don makes accurate observations, products can be introduced to market cheaply and quickly with blogs. This is a shift in communication --for now.

Doug is also correct, with many PR folks and A-listers being bloggers, and now with many companies harnessing this toolset, this channel will also get flooded. He's right...big business has yet to fully harness and catch on to blogging. In many ways these are the days of purity, too bad we can' keep those damn marketers out of the blogosphere.

If only a few voices will matter in a few years in the blogosphere, then yes, the barrier to getting your product announced will be the same as the current challenges of enlisting PR teams and elaborate venues to launch products.

Yup, speed is part of the change as well, more emphasis is needed on this. Don does mention it in his post how products will be quickly announced, evaluated, and analyzed publicly.

View 3: Don't forget the most important thing --the network!
Jeremiah thinks we're missing a very important aspect. What really counts is what consumers think and say.

  • Blogs enable a global social network. We don't need editors or A-listers.

  • The rules for introducing products may revert to the old ways, but cross-communication among consumers has radically changed.

  • People with similar interests will start to form online communities and connect, they will share this information quickly amongst each other. It will be evident who is an unbiased consumer and who is not --trusted networks

  • The difference with blogs and other fast communication tools, consumers can rate products and share amongst themselves in near real time.

  • The playing field is more level now than before, as consumers can communicate directly with each other

  • Regardless of how or who introduces a product, consumers can easily find, rate, and analyze products amongst themselves.

It doesn't matter if it's a top-down or bottom-up product introduction, what matters to consumers is what other consumers think and say about that product



>> Comments: 1 comments







Gmail to replace Outlook?

Published by Jeremiah Test.


Google Gmail moving in to take Exchange and Outlook's place at San Jose City College .

Nicholas Carr reports that, Google is offering it’s gmail webmail for at SJCC (I took a few classes there a few years ago FYI). This is also being talked about by Paul, and read what the official google blog says.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of Outlook, it seems to crash a lot and the search and sort features are substandard --let alone being a huge system resource hog.

Questions to be answered:
  • As a mail application to users favor Gmail over Outlook?
  • Is Gmail a good solution for Small, Medium organizations?
  • Will Google extend other applications as a cost effective solutions?
  • Are folks in Redmond concerned?
  • Are we moving away from desktop applications to embedded browser applications?
  • What happens when Google offers a free substitute for Microsoft Office?
  • Is software a commodity?
By the way, this is not the only case where there are browser applications that are being offered, have you seen PXN8? It's a broswer enabled substitute for Adobe's Photoshop.

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Two White Wires and a Microphone

Published Thursday, February 09, 2006 by Jeremiah Test.


I’ve recently received an iPod for my bday from my wife, and have been loading up tons of