Biz Blog Review

Announcement -- Change in 2008

2007-12-24T08:45:00.000-08:00

Biz Blog Review will be taken over by a USC Business Communication Class in January 2008.

Compliments of the Season!

2007-12-24T08:44:00.000-08:00

Biz Blog Review wishes all Compliments of the Season!

IBM & PwC for Social Media CR?

2007-11-25T06:00:00.000-08:00

In past posts, I've discussed social media in light of standards and corporate responsibility. I received views from various parties, such as USC's Center for Telecom Management, PwC, and others.

Then I posted a link to IBM's reports on "Navigating the Media Divide."

As business and "social media" and forms of marketing evolve...we do see the need for standards and business models that incorporate standards. But how do you approach this from an international standpoint?

For example, iMediaConnection UK published the article, "Crossing the pond with your search engine marketing strategy", where Warren Cowan -- CEO of Greenlight -- refers to the need for cultural knowledge and domain knowledge to avoid not only case study-type marketing disasters but also for translating search campaigns to multi-country campaigns. But what does this mean in terms of standards and corporate responsibility?

Translation of words in meaning may have ethical but not legal liability, or vice versa or both. In using and interpreting "search data", what's the implication? Cowan refers to differences in quality and 'competitiveness of the term' and the impact on pay-per-click. What are the implications beyond pay-per-click ie. the use of this data? Cowan also describes the difference in rankings of international search engines and the need for strong multilingual and culturally fluent talent for site creation in non-domestic English-speaking regions.

The above example is from a marketer's perspective, but what about the impact on the user ie. the companies that go on to use the data obtained from search to develop user experiences or engage with users...?

Here's another example: a software company may produce a package for virtual meetings. Within this software is the capability for the "presenter" to hand over "remote access" to any member within the audience. Depending on the "presenter's" training/view of international relations...they may opt to give remote access to someone in say Burma. Now this Burmese audience member takes control over the presenter's computer to illustrate something within the presentation....However, the potential is there for the Burmese participant to have access to Internet websites that they otherwise wouldn't be allowed to or would be banned from usually in Burma. Potentially, the "presenter" could place the company, and even the country, and not to mention the Burmese, in a position of liability...why? Because a software was produced for sale with a remote function that technically "gets around" certain restrictive international "laws". And this software may have been developed based on "search data".

On another scale, we have privacy issues, such as a Facebook feature that shares what you automatically buy online without requesting consent to do so.

Marketers are developing strategies to "Get personal with your landing pages" -- to reach out to users on a more social and personal level. Although marketers should work to improve strategies, and all of us to improves products and services, we need to do so in a responsible manner.

PwC have produced two reports with US and International Perspective on the Rise of Lifestyle Media.

If standards are to be set for the multi-level use of social media,
1. Who should take the lead and who should be involved in developing these standards?
2. What should the business model look like that incorporates these standards?
3. How should standards be considered internationally?

The Facebook Privacy Issue...

2007-11-25T05:58:00.000-08:00

Group Info
Name:	Petition: Facebook, stop invading my privacy!
Type:	Business - Consumer Groups
Description:	. . . . . . . . . . (CNN did a story on this group! See below.) Matt in New York already knows what his girlfriend got him for Christmas... Why? Because a new Facebook feature automatically shares books, movies, or gifts you buy online with everyone you know on Facebook. Without your consent, it pops up in your News Feed--a huge invasion of privacy. (See demo below.) CAN YOU SIGN THE PETITION TO FACEBOOK TODAY? THEN INVITE FRIENDS TO THIS GROUP! Petition: "Facebook must respect my privacy. They should not tell my friends what I buy on other sites—or let companies use my name to endorse their products—without my explicit permission." Sign here: http://civ.moveon.org/facebookprivacy/?rc=fb_privacy Then, tell your friends about this group. A lot of us love Facebook—but they need to take privacy seriously. Facebook encourages companies to get "word-of-mouth promotion for your business" to "millions" by using the new Beacon feature that makes this happen. But the rights of Facebook users get left behind. Facebook says its users can "opt out" of having their private purchases reported to all their friends. But that option is easily missed. And even if you do "opt out" for purchases on one site, it doesn't apply to purchases on another site—you have to keep opting out over and over again. The obvious solution is to switch to an "opt in" policy, like most other applications on Facebook. In 2006, when Facebook users protested policies that violated privacy, Facebook's founder admitted, "We really messed this one up...we didn't build in the proper privacy controls right away." The problem got fixed. (Link below.) SEND A SIGNAL TO FACEBOOK TODAY BY SIGNING THE PETITION! Then tell your friends about this group. The petition is here: http://civ.moveon.org/facebookprivacy/?rc=fb_privacy

Update re: bizblogreview website

2007-11-25T05:57:00.000-08:00

I decided to remove the website of bizblogreview since it's the blog that is mainly in use.

Social Networks and Blogs

2007-11-18T09:09:00.000-08:00

Today I've looked at the various social networks that I signed up for, such as Facebook, MySpace, Mixx, LinkedIn, Winksite, Twitter, and docstoc, and the differences in these networks with regard to "engagement of users."

MySpace have "Tom" that is an automatic "friend" once you sign up, but that you can delete if you so wish. If you choose to keep "Tom", you will receive an email once in a while, but it's not as if you're bombarded with messages. If I want to "Cancel Account", I can do so in Account Settings.

Facebook have all their applications, third party applications, users, friends, groups, networks, but no "Facebook" intervention or active "engagement" via email or bulletins. In Account, I have the option to "Deactivate" my account.

Mixx have a statement on the "Your Mixx" that says: "Sorry, there's no recent activity from ............... You should bug them about this!" The goal is then for users to engage other users. You can also vote for and against users. Mixx have their blog and feedback but no option to cancel, delete, or deactivate an account.

LinkedIn show a "Profile Completeness" that encourages users to input more details, similar to a resume, about themselves. There's the "Get Recommended" option where users can give recommendations for each other, but the LinkedIn team don't actively coax users to participate. In searching, I didn't see an option to delete, cancel, or deactivate the LinkedIn Account.

Winksite's Founder is quite active in contacting users with assistance when signing up. What appears to be a random user may make contact (as in my case) to nudge you to make use of mobile web -- "If you're not going mobile, you're standing still." Under the section My Account, I have the option to "Delete Account."

Twitter have those involved in social media that start "following" and before you know it you've got a tail of "Followers". If you're not "Twittering", what use is this? Likewise, to interact, you should "Follow" others on the site. I am highly interested in Twitter, but find keeping up time-wise not fair to other users, so I deleted my account.

Docstoc have a team that engage users via email about the documents they may need. Jason Nazar, the Founder, is also actively available for questions. They then encourage users to upload documents too. Docstoc have recently added the ability to add your Facebook and LinkedIn Profiles to your Profile page. I didn't see an option in Settings or Profile to be able to delete, cancel, or deactivate the Account.

(If I've left anything out here, please let me know)

So, what do think works best?

The Facebook approach where users aren't contacted by the Facebook team but engage through affiliations and interests?
The MySpace approach that uses Tom as a kickstart and then users go from there creating their Space according to purpose and interest?
The Mixx approach of getting users to vote/rate each other in effect through content with a blog and feedback for engagement?
The LinkedIn approach of profile detail, connections, and recommendations without direct engagement?
The Winksite personal touch?
The Twitter approach through social media "engagers" and Followers?
The docstoc approach through personal/professional contact and relevant content?

It depends on the user doesn't it? Some users will be put off by certain approaches depending on their characters and style. Others may be more flexible to a wide range of approaches. Some may not have the time to be "personally engaged" and prefer a more indirect relationship with the social network team.

Blogs

With the opening up of Facebook and other sites where users can interact in specific discussion groups and add applications, it does raise the question on whether only a handful of mainline blogs will remain while all other discussion (ie. users that would usually blog or setup their own blogs) will continue through the social network environment like Facebook and Myspace. Some may submit their blogs (as one can now do in Facebook) but others may opt to close their blogs and just join discussion groups where the audience is.

Facebook Summing their Ads?

2007-11-11T01:26:00.000-08:00

Last weeks we heard that Facebook is working on these three areas:

1. Social Ads (ads targeted based on member profile data and spread virally)
2. Beacon (messages in feeds), and
3. Insight (marketing data that goes deep into social demographics and pyschographics)

So this morning I thought I'd take a look at my Facebook pages to see what Ads pop up --

1. Are they targeted to my member profile?
2. Are they of more appeal to others in my network?
3. Are they relevant to my network at all?
4. In comparison, how appealing are the Ads in the groups I belong to?

To assess the Ads and my questions (for those who cannot see my entire profile), you will need to know some information:

1. I have a dog and have her in my Facebook Album, and have added the Trojan Pet application
2. I don't watch TV much but have the Movie application on my profile
3. My networks are USC and LA, but I've added some friends in the London and Manchester University network -- few UK or SA in relation to US.
4. My profile is set as "Single" and interested in "Friendship" (ie. not dating)
5. I have added the Causes (Charity) application
6. I live in the UK

Here are my findings (I may represent a sample of a population who feel this way too):

PROFILE PAGE ADS

www.facebook.com

EDIT PROFILE, INBOX, AND MY QUESTIONS ADS

www.facebook.com

How effectively do these Ads target my profile?

Facebook, second and third (possibly more) parties share information on profiles. Users will not know what information they possess, but targeted ads are a clue. And this collection of ads shows me as a user that the information the targets are based on (if profile specific) is weak. The ads targeted at groups, such as Neuroscience Rocks or JoVE, are more appropriate to the audience - but that's a no-brainer.

Pet Owner or Trojan Pet Application

So the choice is made to target a user through the fact that they own a pet (in album) or have added the pet application. Is it sufficient to throw a puppy Eukanuba ad at them? The answer is "no". The reason is because our minds filter out irrelevant material daily. What would be more appropriate? An ad with something eye-catching related to the specific breed that that user owns.

TV Movies DVD

I've made it clear before in my "interests" on Facebook that I don't watch TV much -- so that includes "Desperate Housewives". To me, this ad is just a desperate attempt to throw something more gunky at me. Since I have the iRead and Art application, perhaps a DVD documentary on the lives of one of my authors or artists would be more appropriate.

Relationship Status

Gumtree: "Can't find a decent man?"
Facebook Flyer: "Rent a date for charity?"

Is this form of targeted advertising about dating on a profile fair game or appropriate? Do you think it appeals to the user ie. me -- you're targeting this at me I presume? This puts me off Facebook. On the otherhand, Gumtree and Charities are appealing to me for different reasons -- have you found out those reasons Facebook so that you can help "advertisers" target better and me find useful information -- I enjoy research remember?

Courses & I love Nerds

I've done a distance learning course in the UK before through ifs, so you're right there...I have an interest in distance learning. Would I do just any distance learning course? No. So how do you assess which type of distance learning course (since I've recently graduated from USC too) is worth bringing to my attention, and how do you best do this?

"I love Nerds" -- yes, I enjoy technology, so I may add this application just to see what it entails. But it depends who created the application doesn't it? Because I give them full rights then to see my profile and all those associated with my profile.

Travel, Phones, Cameras, Clothing...
If you introduced links to access or a means to make travel booking through Trainline, BA, Virgin, and the like depending on country and provider, that will be useful. Would I buy a phone or camera as a result of the Facebook ad? Not as it's currently presented to me -- nor clothing.

eFax, skinny jeans, and TV Licences...

I found this amusing in terms of profile targeting. Do many people use eFax? What are the stats compared to email in the UK vs US? I'm not in favor of fax whether e or otherwise. As for skinny jeans and diets, etc -- I'm not interested in that at all.

Why the TV Licence ad? Just because I'm UK? No licences are required for TV's in the US. I have a Licence for my UK TV, but seldom use it, so is it worth having the Licence for the TV? You can watch DVDs and Videos without needing a Licence.

Skype, Be, O2 and Apple Iphone...

Those are more applicable generally. For Skype and Iphone -- what's new? For Be and O2, what's the comparison?

To specifically answer my questions 1-4:

1. Are they targeted to my member profile? No
2. Are they of more appeal to others in my network? Maybe
3. Are they relevant to my network at all? Not really -- more UK than US
4. In comparison, how appealing are the Ads in the groups I belong to? Neuroscience Rocks and joVE have Starbucks ads, SIGN UP FOR docstoc have a XMAS Wishlist, Richard P Feynman Fan Club have Ugg Boots Sale -- more appealing. But even more appealing for the Richard P Feynman Club would be Feynman books for sale and upcoming lectures or events at Caltech.

As a user, when adding a group, I've thought how useful it would be if Facebook gave me the option to say why I'm adding the group -- and the same with leaving it. We see notices all the time of people adding and leaving groups, but never know why. From a Profile perspective, this is a useful piece of intelligence about the user. And it takes two prompt questions from Facebook -- Why are you joining? Why are you leaving?

Once Facebook make changes with Social Ads, Beacon, and Insight...we will be able to compare. Besides "adding applications", giving input on books and interests and inviting friends -- Facebook doesn't appear to ask the user to give targeted feedback in terms of their profiles that I know of. What's the challenge in engaging the user to assist second/third/more parties better?
The Farmers in Facebook will give you one perspective -- "they're not getting paid for it."

The Facebook Sum of Social Ads

2007-11-06T12:50:00.001-08:00

According to TechCrunch's Eric Schonfeld in liveblog from New York City, Facebook is announcing three things:

1. Social Ads (ads targeted based on member profile data and spread virally)

2. Beacon (messages in feeds), and

3. Insight (marketing data that goes deep into social demographics and pyschographics

which Facebook will provide to advertisers in an aggregated, anonymous way). These three things together make up Facebook Ads.

Social Actions + Content = Social Ads

The Big Juicy Twitter Guide

2007-11-06T12:26:00.000-08:00

Caroline Middlebrook has produced "The Big Juicy Twitter Guide" on her blog that answers a number of questions, some of which include:

1. How does Twitter work as a mobile communication tool?
2. Is socializing with Twitter business or personal?
3. How can Twitter be used for marketing?
4. What are the platform-specific Twitter tools?
5. How can Twitter promotion go viral?

Now that Google have unveiled their groundbreaking mobile strategy - Android - allowing operators, handset makers and application developers to innovate together, how will Twitter evolve?

RBS Launches World's First Virtual Careers Recruitment Event in Second Life

2007-11-02T15:45:00.000-07:00

iMedia Connection UK recently published an article by Catriona Campbell titled, "Second Life: What value can it add beyond PR and marketing?"

Catriona cites two specific examples that I've quoted below:

Example One – RBS Virtual Careers Recruitment Event

"RBS, the world's fourth largest financial services group, was also on the ad:tech panel, and Sion Mooney, channel development manager in the resourcing division of RBS Group HR attended. He talked exclusively about RBS launching the world's first Virtual Careers Event in Second Life on 16 October. Why? Because beyond the PR value, Second Life is allowing RBS' careers team to connect with people in geographic locations that they would otherwise have had to reach by more traditional and expensive means, such going on the road with a recruitment fair.

In the Second Life environment, candidates can pose questions to the virtual careers advisers, meet current RBS employees and see a mocked-up version of where they would be working, without having to leave their homes. Recruitment is incredibly expensive, and Sion revealed that just one successful hire would more than pay for the whole Second Life project.

The session demonstrated that Second Life is not the money pit that some brands have reportedly experienced, so long as a sales strategy is applied at the early conception phase. While it remains in the early adopters curve it won't work for everyone, but the platform is ripe for brands wishing to attract a youthful and experimental audience."

Example Two – STA Travel

"Craig Hepburn, Global Webmaster for STA Travel, told the audience how he had invested only tens of thousands of pounds in Second Life (a fraction of what some brands have spent), but by taking a sales-led strategic approach the investment has already paid for itself.

The student travel brand is using Second Life to build a social sales channel around a community of people who enjoy travelling and talking to each other about where they have been. The virtual environment that they've created allows users to place bookings through an avatar (they employ a real person in Second Life to take bookings and give advice) and on the Second Life STA island, which incorporates dorms for students, Lonely Planet travel guides and video footage and posters of recommended destinations.

Because STA Travel is a student brand, the Second Life virtual world works really well for them. Their customers love it, and they are already making money through a multitude of round the world bookings made in Second Life.

The audience was so impressed that a representative from a TV production company suggested that virtual worlds might translate well to an internet TV experience for a brand like STA. This is exactly the kind of question that needed to be asked, as investment in virtual worlds should be not considered as a standalone project or experiment, but rather should be consolidated with the brand's overall sales, marketing and PR objectives."

Source: http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/17099.asp

docstoc give iPod touch to users...

2007-10-30T15:44:00.000-07:00

...that upload the most professional documents each week!

Social Networks as Ad Platforms – How appealing is that to society?

2007-10-28T07:27:00.000-07:00

With Microsoft’s $240m investment in a 1.6 percent stake of Facebook for advertising and growth opportunity purposes, I do wonder what form this will take.

Recent notable changes to Facebook include applications (among others), such as iRead, iLike and Flixster where users can upload the books, music, and movies they enjoy to rate, review, and discuss with others. A book I am currently reading didn’t feature on iRead’s selection, so I was able to upload it from Amazon.com. Sharing such interests is still a digestible form of promotion while partaking in social network.

However, if Facebook opt for a similar incentive model introduced on MySpace, such as Vivasearch (or the like), it may be detrimental to the quality of the network. Users appear to sign up with organizations like Vivasearch to earn profit by adding “friends” on MySpace.

The concept is similar to the IndieClick model where media/marketing professionals “work with advertisers and agencies to deliver relevant and targeted messaging to our discerning audience of more than twenty-eight million 16-34 year old “Influencers” and tastemakers.”

What this could smack of, depending on delivery, are those pyramid-type schemes.

In a recent study (discussed more in-depth further on) IBM interviewed executives about challenges in new content and distribution strategies. Here are the results:

Source: IBM Global Business Services - "Navigating the media divide"

Back in June 2007, FOOA (Future of Online Advertising), featured an article on “Deciphering trends in online advertising.” IndieClick is the topic of discussion in this article, but what I found of interest are:

Things that affect the landscape of online advertising (Digital Rights Management, disintegration of content from platform, consolidation of major players, remnant players expanding into premium markets, new forms of media, new hardware)
Audience’s acceptance of new forms of advertising
Advances in ad-serving technology
Flight of talent from print and television
Online advertising metrics

After posting Google’s Terms and Conditions to Biz Blog Review, I wondered how Google (if they had got the Facebook stake instead of Microsoft) would have approached this ad platform or “landscape”. A comparison of Microsoft-Google approaches may give us an idea of two different Facebook user social experiences/experiments in advertising.

On visiting the IBM site, I discovered the article “The fight ahead on media’s main streets” produced in February 2007 highlighting how user-generated content and open distribution platforms are shaking up the media industry:

“A new media world has arrived. Pioneered by teens and gadget-savvy professionals, it has quickly spread into virtually every consumer segment, and started to encroach on traditional media. The number of unique visitors to MySpace.com has now surpassed the 50 million mark – something akin to the number of U.S. households that tune into the Super Bowl.¹ Every day, consumers around the world watch about 100 million videos on YouTube – putting that number in context, the top 15 British primetime television shows combined attract about 100 million viewers, as do the top 4 U.S. shows.²

To examine the inherent tension between new and traditional media and explore future industry scenarios, we conducted a comprehensive study that included interviews with leaders of media companies and an in-depth analysis of the factors that are shaping the industry outlook” – IBM.

Through the analysis, IBM identify four business models co-existing – Traditional media (The Walt Disney Company), Walled communities (NTT DoCoMo), Content hyper-syndication (BBC with My BBC interactive media service), New platform aggregation (YouTube, MySpace, Second Life) – with a blur of the models over time as media companies experiment into 2010.

While the revenue of new media channels is expected to reach US$55 billion in 2006 with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 23 percent to 2010, traditional channels are expected to generate US$455 billion in revenue in 2006 with a CAGR of 6 percent.

The study shows the drivers of change and the catalysts of the conflict between new media and traditional channels to be:

Device and access rollout
Multichannel content innovation
New consumer behavior and roles
Faster revenue to attention alignment

According to IBM – available bandwidth, interactive media possibilities, falling prices of sophisticated media editing and recording equipment and software – “have put the tools of the trade within reach of almost any aspiring talent or wannabee. The result is a blurring and merging of the roles of producer and consumer, or a “prosumer,” as coined by Alvin Toffler.”

And what happens when media companies start experimenting with the role of the “prosumer” (producer + consumer) as “prosumermoter” (producer + consumer + promoter)?

One aspect may be the review of industry standards. IBM report:

“Government policy affects consumer pricing for access and content, piracy rules and their enforcement, network usage and competitive neutrality, business conditions for entrepreneurs, just to name a few areas. In addition, as telecommunications and media industry boundaries blur, companies are often subject to two sets of regulators, instead of one. For the foreseeable future, regulation remains a critical factor that can accelerate or derail new initiatives or strategies.”

In this analysis, IBM identifies options and provides ten recommendations for industry:

Put consumers at the center of your business and boardroom.
Convert consumer data into competitive advantage.
Give control to get share.
Deliver experiences, not just content.
Leverage virtual worlds.
Innovate business models.
Invest in interactive, measurable advertising services and platforms
Redefine partnerships, while mitigating fallout.
Shift investment from traditional business to new models.
Create a flexible business design.

In a society where consumers want to create unconstrained by distributors’ conditional access controls, IBM suggests industry incumbents should review the timing and completeness of response to “prosumers” (and partners), offering opportunity for growth and experience instead of conflict.

Welcome to Web History!

2007-10-21T06:11:00.001-07:00

With all the changes happening in Facebook and MySpace of late, I've toggled between using Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer. Recently, Facebook have encouraged me through a notice to upgrade to Internet Explorer 7, or as a second option with another -- Mozilla Firefox. When doing so, I found myself being welcomed to Web History by Google:

If I choose to enable Web History (or even limit my searches) and install the Tool Bar, I am subject to Google Terms and Conditions (pay particular attention to 8.2 and some of the terms & conditions beneath those in CAPS at the bottom):

Google Terms of Service

Welcome to Google!

1. Your relationship with Google

1.1 Your use of Google’s products, software, services and web sites (referred to collectively as the “Services” in this document and excluding any services provided to you by Google under a separate written agreement) is subject to the terms of a legal agreement between you and Google. “Google” means Google Inc., whose principal place of business is at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States. This document explains how the agreement is made up, and sets out some of the terms of that agreement.

1.2 Unless otherwise agreed in writing with Google, your agreement with Google will always include, at a minimum, the terms and conditions set out in this document. These are referred to below as the “Universal Terms”.

1.3 Your agreement with Google will also include the terms of any Legal Notices applicable to the Services, in addition to the Universal Terms. All of these are referred to below as the “Additional Terms”. Where Additional Terms apply to a Service, these will be accessible for you to read either within, or through your use of, that Service.

1.4 The Universal Terms, together with the Additional Terms, form a legally binding agreement between you and Google in relation to your use of the Services. It is important that you take the time to read them carefully. Collectively, this legal agreement is referred to below as the “Terms”.

1.5 If there is any contradiction between what the Additional Terms say and what the Universal Terms say, then the Additional Terms shall take precedence in relation to that Service.

2. Accepting the Terms

2.1 In order to use the Services, you must first agree to the Terms. You may not use the Services if you do not accept the Terms.

2.2 You can accept the Terms by:
(A) clicking to accept or agree to the Terms, where this option is made available to you by Google in the user interface for any Service; or
(B) by actually using the Services. In this case, you understand and agree that Google will treat your use of the Services as acceptance of the Terms from that point onwards.

2.3 You may not use the Services and may not accept the Terms if (a) you are not of legal age to form a binding contract with Google, or (b) you are a person barred from receiving the Services under the laws of the United States or other countries including the country in which you are resident or from which you use the Services.

2.4 Before you continue, you should print off or save a local copy of the Universal Terms for your records.

3. Language of the Terms

3.1 Where Google has provided you with a translation of the English language version of the Terms, then you agree that the translation is provided for your convenience only and that the English language versions of the Terms will govern your relationship with Google.

3.2 If there is any contradiction between what the English language version of the Terms says and what a translation says, then the English language version shall take precedence.

4. Provision of the Services by Google

4.1 Google has subsidiaries and affiliated legal entities around the world (“Subsidiaries and Affiliates”). Sometimes, these companies will be providing the Services to you on behalf of Google itself. You acknowledge and agree that Subsidiaries and Affiliates will be entitled to provide the Services to you.

4.2 Google is constantly innovating in order to provide the best possible experience for its users. You acknowledge and agree that the form and nature of the Services which Google provides may change from time to time without prior notice to you.

4.3 As part of this continuing innovation, you acknowledge and agree that Google may stop (permanently or temporarily) providing the Services (or any features within the Services) to you or to users generally at Google’s sole discretion, without prior notice to you. You may stop using the Services at any time. You do not need to specifically inform Google when you stop using the Services.

4.4 You acknowledge and agree that if Google disables access to your account, you may be prevented from accessing the Services, your account details or any files or other content which is contained in your account.

4.5 You acknowledge and agree that while Google may not currently have set a fixed upper limit on the number of transmissions you may send or receive through the Services or on the amount of storage space used for the provision of any Service, such fixed upper limits may be set by Google at any time, at Google’s discretion.

5. Use of the Services by you

5.1 In order to access certain Services, you may be required to provide information about yourself (such as identification or contact details) as part of the registration process for the Service, or as part of your continued use of the Services. You agree that any registration information you give to Google will always be accurate, correct and up to date.

5.2 You agree to use the Services only for purposes that are permitted by (a) the Terms and (b) any applicable law, regulation or generally accepted practices or guidelines in the relevant jurisdictions (including any laws regarding the export of data or software to and from the United States or other relevant countries).

5.3 You agree not to access (or attempt to access) any of the Services by any means other than through the interface that is provided by Google, unless you have been specifically allowed to do so in a separate agreement with Google. You specifically agree not to access (or attempt to access) any of the Services through any automated means (including use of scripts or web crawlers) and shall ensure that you comply with the instructions set out in any robots.txt file present on the Services.

5.4 You agree that you will not engage in any activity that interferes with or disrupts the Services (or the servers and networks which are connected to the Services).

5.5 Unless you have been specifically permitted to do so in a separate agreement with Google, you agree that you will not reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, trade or resell the Services for any purpose.

5.6 You agree that you are solely responsible for (and that Google has no responsibility to you or to any third party for) any breach of your obligations under the Terms and for the consequences (including any loss or damage which Google may suffer) of any such breach.

6. Your passwords and account security

6.1 You agree and understand that you are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of passwords associated with any account you use to access the Services.

6.2 Accordingly, you agree that you will be solely responsible to Google for all activities that occur under your account.

6.3 If you become aware of any unauthorized use of your password or of your account, you agree to notify Google immediately at http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/answer.py?answer=48601.

7. Privacy and your personal information

7.1 For information about Google’s data protection practices, please read Google’s privacy policy at http://www.google.com/privacy.html. This policy explains how Google treats your personal information, and protects your privacy, when you use the Services.

7.2 You agree to the use of your data in accordance with Google’s privacy policies.

8. Content in the Services

8.1 You understand that all information (such as data files, written text, computer software, music, audio files or other sounds, photographs, videos or other images) which you may have access to as part of, or through your use of, the Services are the sole responsibility of the person from which such content originated. All such information is referred to below as the “Content”.

8.2 You should be aware that Content presented to you as part of the Services, including but not limited to advertisements in the Services and sponsored Content within the Services may be protected by intellectual property rights which are owned by the sponsors or advertisers who provide that Content to Google (or by other persons or companies on their behalf). You may not modify, rent, lease, loan, sell, distribute or create derivative works based on this Content (either in whole or in part) unless you have been specifically told that you may do so by Google or by the owners of that Content, in a separate agreement.

8.3 Google reserves the right (but shall have no obligation) to pre-screen, review, flag, filter, modify, refuse or remove any or all Content from any Service. For some of the Services, Google may provide tools to filter out explicit sexual content. These tools include the SafeSearch preference settings (see http://www.google.com/help/customize.html#safe). In addition, there are commercially available services and software to limit access to material that you may find objectionable.

8.4 You understand that by using the Services you may be exposed to Content that you may find offensive, indecent or objectionable and that, in this respect, you use the Services at your own risk.

8.5 You agree that you are solely responsible for (and that Google has no responsibility to you or to any third party for) any Content that you create, transmit or display while using the Services and for the consequences of your actions (including any loss or damage which Google may suffer) by doing so.

9. Proprietary rights

9.1 You acknowledge and agree that Google (or Google’s licensors) own all legal right, title and interest in and to the Services, including any intellectual property rights which subsist in the Services (whether those rights happen to be registered or not, and wherever in the world those rights may exist). You further acknowledge that the Services may contain information which is designated confidential by Google and that you shall not disclose such information without Google’s prior written consent.

9.2 Unless you have agreed otherwise in writing with Google, nothing in the Terms gives you a right to use any of Google’s trade names, trade marks, service marks, logos, domain names, and other distinctive brand features.

9.3 If you have been given an explicit right to use any of these brand features in a separate written agreement with Google, then you agree that your use of such features shall be in compliance with that agreement, any applicable provisions of the Terms, and Google's brand feature use guidelines as updated from time to time. These guidelines can be viewed online at http://www.google.com/permissions/guidelines.html (or such other URL as Google may provide for this purpose from time to time).

9.4 Other than the limited license set forth in Section 11, Google acknowledges and agrees that it obtains no right, title or interest from you (or your licensors) under these Terms in or to any Content that you submit, post, transmit or display on, or through, the Services, including any intellectual property rights which subsist in that Content (whether those rights happen to be registered or not, and wherever in the world those rights may exist). Unless you have agreed otherwise in writing with Google, you agree that you are responsible for protecting and enforcing those rights and that Google has no obligation to do so on your behalf.

9.5 You agree that you shall not remove, obscure, or alter any proprietary rights notices (including copyright and trade mark notices) which may be affixed to or contained within the Services.

9.6 Unless you have been expressly authorized to do so in writing by Google, you agree that in using the Services, you will not use any trade mark, service mark, trade name, logo of any company or organization in a way that is likely or intended to cause confusion about the owner or authorized user of such marks, names or logos.

10. License from Google

10.1 Google gives you a personal, worldwide, royalty-free, non-assignable and non-exclusive licence to use the software provided to you by Google as part of the Services as provided to you by Google (referred to as the “Software” below). This licence is for the sole purpose of enabling you to use and enjoy the benefit of the Services as provided by Google, in the manner permitted by the Terms.

10.2 You may not (and you may not permit anyone else to) copy, modify, create a derivative work of, reverse engineer, decompile or otherwise attempt to extract the source code of the Software or any part thereof, unless this is expressly permitted or required by law, or unless you have been specifically told that you may do so by Google, in writing.

10.3 Unless Google has given you specific written permission to do so, you may not assign (or grant a sub-licence of) your rights to use the Software, grant a security interest in or over your rights to use the Software, or otherwise transfer any part of your rights to use the Software.

11. Content licence from you

11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive licence to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This licence is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

11.2 You agree that this licence includes a right for Google to make such Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals with whom Google has relationships for the provision of syndicated services, and to use such Content in connection with the provision of those services.

11.3 You understand that Google, in performing the required technical steps to provide the Services to our users, may (a) transmit or distribute your Content over various public networks and in various media; and (b) make such changes to your Content as are necessary to conform and adapt that Content to the technical requirements of connecting networks, devices, services or media. You agree that this licence shall permit Google to take these actions.

11.4 You confirm and warrant to Google that you have all the rights, power and authority necessary to grant the above licence.

12. Software updates

12.1 The Software which you use may automatically download and install updates from time to time from Google. These updates are designed to improve, enhance and further develop the Services and may take the form of bug fixes, enhanced functions, new software modules and completely new versions. You agree to receive such updates (and permit Google to deliver these to you) as part of your use of the Services.

13. Ending your relationship with Google

13.1 The Terms will continue to apply until terminated by either you or Google as set out below.

13.2 If you want to terminate your legal agreement with Google, you may do so by (a) notifying Google at any time and (b) closing your accounts for all of the Services which you use, where Google has made this option available to you. Your notice should be sent, in writing, to Google’s address which is set out at the beginning of these Terms.

13.3 Google may at any time, terminate its legal agreement with you if:
(A) you have breached any provision of the Terms (or have acted in manner which clearly shows that you do not intend to, or are unable to comply with the provisions of the Terms); or
(B) Google is required to do so by law (for example, where the provision of the Services to you is, or becomes, unlawful); or
(C) the partner with whom Google offered the Services to you has terminated its relationship with Google or ceased to offer the Services to you; or
(D) Google is transitioning to no longer providing the Services to users in the country in which you are resident or from which you use the service; or
(E) the provision of the Services to you by Google is, in Google’s opinion, no longer commercially viable.

13.4 Nothing in this Section shall affect Google’s rights regarding provision of Services under Section 4 of the Terms.

13.5 When these Terms come to an end, all of the legal rights, obligations and liabilities that you and Google have benefited from, been subject to (or which have accrued over time whilst the Terms have been in force) or which are expressed to continue indefinitely, shall be unaffected by this cessation, and the provisions of paragraph 20.7 shall continue to apply to such rights, obligations and liabilities indefinitely.

14. EXCLUSION OF WARRANTIES

14.1 NOTHING IN THESE TERMS, INCLUDING SECTIONS 14 AND 15, SHALL EXCLUDE OR LIMIT GOOGLE’S WARRANTY OR LIABILITY FOR LOSSES WHICH MAY NOT BE LAWFULLY EXCLUDED OR LIMITED BY APPLICABLE LAW. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OR THE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR LOSS OR DAMAGE CAUSED BY NEGLIGENCE, BREACH OF CONTRACT OR BREACH OF IMPLIED TERMS, OR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES. ACCORDINGLY, ONLY THE LIMITATIONS WHICH ARE LAWFUL IN YOUR JURISDICTION WILL APPLY TO YOU AND OUR LIABILITY WILL BE LIMITED TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

14.2 YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK AND THAT THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND “AS AVAILABLE.”

14.3 IN PARTICULAR, GOOGLE, ITS SUBSIDIARIES AND AFFILIATES, AND ITS LICENSORS DO NOT REPRESENT OR WARRANT TO YOU THAT:
(A) YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS,
(B) YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE OR FREE FROM ERROR,
(C) ANY INFORMATION OBTAINED BY YOU AS A RESULT OF YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES WILL BE ACCURATE OR RELIABLE, AND
(D) THAT DEFECTS IN THE OPERATION OR FUNCTIONALITY OF ANY SOFTWARE PROVIDED TO YOU AS PART OF THE SERVICES WILL BE CORRECTED.

14.4 ANY MATERIAL DOWNLOADED OR OTHERWISE OBTAINED THROUGH THE USE OF THE SERVICES IS DONE AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK AND THAT YOU WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM OR OTHER DEVICE OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM THE DOWNLOAD OF ANY SUCH MATERIAL.

14.5 NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION, WHETHER ORAL OR WRITTEN, OBTAINED BY YOU FROM GOOGLE OR THROUGH OR FROM THE SERVICES SHALL CREATE ANY WARRANTY NOT EXPRESSLY STATED IN THE TERMS.

14.6 GOOGLE FURTHER EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

15. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

15.1 SUBJECT TO OVERALL PROVISION IN PARAGRAPH 14.1 ABOVE, YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT GOOGLE, ITS SUBSIDIARIES AND AFFILIATES, AND ITS LICENSORS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR:
(A) ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES WHICH MAY BE INCURRED BY YOU, HOWEVER CAUSED AND UNDER ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY.. THIS SHALL INCLUDE, BUT NOT BE LIMITED TO, ANY LOSS OF PROFIT (WHETHER INCURRED DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY), ANY LOSS OF GOODWILL OR BUSINESS REPUTATION, ANY LOSS OF DATA SUFFERED, COST OF PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSS;
(B) ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE WHICH MAY BE INCURRED BY YOU, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OR DAMAGE AS A RESULT OF:
(I) ANY RELIANCE PLACED BY YOU ON THE COMPLETENESS, ACCURACY OR EXISTENCE OF ANY ADVERTISING, OR AS A RESULT OF ANY RELATIONSHIP OR TRANSACTION BETWEEN YOU AND ANY ADVERTISER OR SPONSOR WHOSE ADVERTISING APPEARS ON THE SERVICES;
(II) ANY CHANGES WHICH GOOGLE MAY MAKE TO THE SERVICES, OR FOR ANY PERMANENT OR TEMPORARY CESSATION IN THE PROVISION OF THE SERVICES (OR ANY FEATURES WITHIN THE SERVICES);
(III) THE DELETION OF, CORRUPTION OF, OR FAILURE TO STORE, ANY CONTENT AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS DATA MAINTAINED OR TRANSMITTED BY OR THROUGH YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES;
(III) YOUR FAILURE TO PROVIDE GOOGLE WITH ACCURATE ACCOUNT INFORMATION;
(IV) YOUR FAILURE TO KEEP YOUR PASSWORD OR ACCOUNT DETAILS SECURE AND CONFIDENTIAL;

15.2 THE LIMITATIONS ON GOOGLE’S LIABILITY TO YOU IN PARAGRAPH 15.1 ABOVE SHALL APPLY WHETHER OR NOT GOOGLE HAS BEEN ADVISED OF OR SHOULD HAVE BEEN AWARE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF ANY SUCH LOSSES ARISING.

16. Copyright and trade mark policies

16.1 It is Google’s policy to respond to notices of alleged copyright infringement that comply with applicable international intellectual property law (including, in the United States, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act) and to terminating the accounts of repeat infringers. Details of Google’s policy can be found at http://www.google.com/dmca.html.

16.2 Google operates a trade mark complaints procedure in respect of Google’s advertising business, details of which can be found at http://www.google.com/tm_complaint.html.

17. Advertisements

17.1 Some of the Services are supported by advertising revenue and may display advertisements and promotions. These advertisements may be targeted to the content of information stored on the Services, queries made through the Services or other information.

17.2 The manner, mode and extent of advertising by Google on the Services are subject to change without specific notice to you.

17.3 In consideration for Google granting you access to and use of the Services, you agree that Google may place such advertising on the Services.

18. Other content

18.1 The Services may include hyperlinks to other web sites or content or resources. Google may have no control over any web sites or resources which are provided by companies or persons other than Google.

18.2 You acknowledge and agree that Google is not responsible for the availability of any such external sites or resources, and does not endorse any advertising, products or other materials on or available from such web sites or resources.

18.3 You acknowledge and agree that Google is not liable for any loss or damage which may be incurred by you as a result of the availability of those external sites or resources, or as a result of any reliance placed by you on the completeness, accuracy or existence of any advertising, products or other materials on, or available from, such web sites or resources.

19. Changes to the Terms

19.1 Google may make changes to the Universal Terms or Additional Terms from time to time. When these changes are made, Google will make a new copy of the Universal Terms available at http://www.google.com/accounts/TOS?hl=en and any new Additional Terms will be made available to you from within, or through, the affected Services.

19.2 You understand and agree that if you use the Services after the date on which the Universal Terms or Additional Terms have changed, Google will treat your use as acceptance of the updated Universal Terms or Additional Terms.

20. General legal terms

20.1 Sometimes when you use the Services, you may (as a result of, or through your use of the Services) use a service or download a piece of software, or purchase goods, which are provided by another person or company. Your use of these other services, software or goods may be subject to separate terms between you and the company or person concerned. If so, the Terms do not affect your legal relationship with these other companies or individuals.

20.2 The Terms constitute the whole legal agreement between you and Google and govern your use of the Services (but excluding any services which Google may provide to you under a separate written agreement), and completely replace any prior agreements between you and Google in relation to the Services.

20.3 You agree that Google may provide you with notices, including those regarding changes to the Terms, by email, regular mail, or postings on the Services.

20.4 You agree that if Google does not exercise or enforce any legal right or remedy which is contained in the Terms (or which Google has the benefit of under any applicable law), this will not be taken to be a formal waiver of Google’s rights and that those rights or remedies will still be available to Google.

20.5 If any court of law, having the jurisdiction to decide on this matter, rules that any provision of these Terms is invalid, then that provision will be removed from the Terms without affecting the rest of the Terms. The remaining provisions of the Terms will continue to be valid and enforceable.

20.6 You acknowledge and agree that each member of the group of companies of which Google is the parent shall be third party beneficiaries to the Terms and that such other companies shall be entitled to directly enforce, and rely upon, any provision of the Terms which confers a benefit on (or rights in favor of) them. Other than this, no other person or company shall be third party beneficiaries to the Terms.

20.7 The Terms, and your relationship with Google under the Terms, shall be governed by the laws of the State of California without regard to its conflict of laws provisions. You and Google agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located within the county of Santa Clara, California to resolve any legal matter arising from the Terms. Notwithstanding this, you agree that Google shall still be allowed to apply for injunctive remedies (or an equivalent type of urgent legal relief) in any jurisdiction.

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With IE flipping up the "Send Error Report" notice, it made reading these terms and conditions quite a challenge.

What's the meaning of Green Internet Services?

2007-10-15T00:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was researching e-book sites and knowledge sharing when I found a number of interesting things.

The first is an Ebook Share site where members can vote for "Which file host is faster?" Here's yesterday's results:

Out of all members on the Ebook Share site, 582 members bothered to vote and the results indicate that MiHD is the fastest file hosting service. So does fast mean eco-friendly?

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I Googled for the solution (as you do) and I found EcoMatrix - "We provide a Eco friendly web hosting solutions and our servers are run on alternative energy sources and supplied by "GREEN" enviornmently conscious companies."

What are the eco-friendly web hosting solutions?

The alternate energy sources the servers are run on and the companies that EcoMatrix do business with.

Then I discovered Athenaem: Ecological Hosting with a far more extensive Green Mission:

Our Mission

We aim to operate the business based on our own ethics and principles.

To be the provider of choice for green Internet services.

Our Ethics

We are a debt free company operating entirely in the black on our bank account.

We use recycled paper for most of our office printing needs and aim to increase the use of recycled materials as more quality products become available.

We recycle used office paper and card.

We continually appraise our suppliers and our own procedures to reduce the amount of paper we use (e.g. email invoices, online banking, reusing envelopes, using online government systems for VAT returns etc).

We do not like waste and will not swap things just for the sake of it.

We try and specify computer equipment to last as long as possible without breaking the bank and always try to reuse equipment in a different role if it becomes no longer sufficiently powerful for its original purpose.

We always try to be open, honest and fair in our operation & procedures and to treat our customers as people, not just a number in a database.

The owner is a strict vegetarian and chooses to use green energy to supply electricity for his own home and office use.

We have gained Vegetarian Society approval to promote added confidence in our services for our vegetarian clients.

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Irrespective of company size or industy type, using GREEN INTERNET SERVICES may mean the same or different things to various people according to their commitment to environmental causes.

For some, it may be the kind of food they order over the internet from a store that is envirnomentally conscious, through the transport they use, to those that they select for online banking and contracts in business. For others, it may be of lesser meaning and importance.

Internet services are used in every industry with such dependence. If being more environmentally-conscious and caring truly matters to us, then what does it mean to be Internet Green?

Internet Green Strategy:

1. How many eco-friendly involvements/causes do the CEO, VP's and executives support?

2. What types of eco-programs are your company involved with or sponsoring?

3. What is the eco-friendly rating of each vendor/supplier your company does business with? And how many eco-friendly vendors/suppliers does your company do business with?

4. How are your employees rewarded for eco-friendly behavior? Or what incentives are offered to employees for involvement in eco-friendly programs or activities?

5. What incentives are shared between partners or affilliates for eco-friendly behavior? What collaborative/exchange benefits can be gained from eco-schemes?

6. What energy sources are your servers and "systems" run on? And, when (where and how) can energy be conserved?

BT's Fon Wi-Fi for Everyone?

2007-10-10T05:49:00.000-07:00

If you're signed up for BT Broadband Options, you can opt in to join the Wi-Fi community and share in the hotspots. Option 1 and 2 isn't unlimited, but Option 3 is. The line rental is the standard £11/month with £7.95/month Option 3 charge (April cost). These are London, UK, hotspots:

How does it work?

"Membership of the BT FON Wi-Fi community is included with BT Total Broadband. All you need to do is say I'M IN. Then your BT home hub is automatically set up to become part of the BT FON network. This means that other members of the community can securely log on to their own Broadband account when they are in range of your hub's Wi-Fi signal In return for this, you can log on to your Total Broadband account whenever you are in range of either another member of the BT FON community's Wi-Fi signal or BT Openzones" -- beta.bt.com

And there's a support forum:

And, you can tell a friend:

"Don't keep BT FON to yourself. Get your friends to take part. The more people who join BT FON, the more places we can get Wi-Fi out of the home. Add their email addresses below to invite them to take part."

The snag with these options and communities is that they're local, and Option 3 is really required to experience the full benefit worth the cost. International travelers may not be included and may find the experience costly (that's if temporary opt-ins eventually exist). If BT partnered with broadband providers in other countries for international hotspot "collaboration-sharing", that would be beneficial. Currently, it's not necessarily a model that works for everyone.

MIXX is Public and US Local!

2007-10-09T13:19:00.001-07:00

Today Mixx went public for business and have also explained on their blog that they're currently US local:

"Rest assured that we are working on the international angle, and we’ll let you know as soon as it’s ready to go! In the meantime, if you hear anything about a Greta von Magnusson and a can of spray paint, please give us a call."

Thank you, Mixx!

What's Twitter's Success? More answers for Jeff Jarvis

2007-10-08T09:56:00.000-07:00

Jemima Kiss of MediaGuardian interviewed Ev Williams, Founder of Twitter, to understand its success. Williams explains that even his mother doesn't understand the tool! But, it's taken on a life of its own...

And Williams sold Blogger to Google. So, what's in store for Twitter? Google...or teaming up with others like docstoc.com where users can share ideas, comment on documents, or refer a friend to needy information at the right time?

What's Twitter?
Group Text Messaging or Micro-Blogging
How's the tool evolving?
It's in its infancy to become a functional, personal tool - "Users need a critical mass of friends, and then the real conversations begin."
What's the attraction?
"Dedicated users share ideas, ask questions, suggest meetings and post useful links and stories...charming details of day-to-day lives that would otherwise be lost."
What are these "shared ideas..." called?
Tweets
How old is Twitter?
17 months
How many users Tweet?
350,000
What's Twitter's goal?
To grow the core service because of the practical benefits of socializing

Users can Tweet all friends to tell them what time they'll be at an event. Williams says that Woot.com started using Twitter to inform followers of bargains before they sold out. Mainstream news sites use Twitter for automated distribution of links to news stories and TV channels like MTV are experimenting with giving stars their own Twitter channel during music video awards...a way of reaching fans. Other uses of Twitter? A real-time sports result tool for race results such as Nascar...

What lies ahead for Twitter's success?

The 140 character limit is an advantage in a time when we're bombarded by information
The development of a group feature for browsing users' history
The monetizing of the service with branded channels for companies like Woot

Exploring Twitter... Twit Wiki Communities...Williams concludes that, "Rather than attach advertising to a personal communication channel, we want to make it a benefit so that there are people or entities you want to follow. We think those things have potential, so as the userbase grows we'll flesh out which of those things work and the business model and revenue will fit in."

iPod Moments - Media Guage?

2007-10-08T09:20:00.000-07:00

Today's MediaGuardian features an interesting article by Jeff Jarvis - buzzmachine.com - describing "iPod moments" as a type of media guage with questions such as:

When will television reach its iPod moment?
When we download video more than we watch broadcasts - "Then TV will face the upheaval music has barely survived."

When will newspapers reach their iPod moment?
With the emergence of a "relatively mass-market device on which reading a newspaper (and watching and listening to it) will seem quite normal" - web browser.

According to Jarvis, the iPod Touch and iPhone are just that...an iPod moment...except Apple got the timing right in the UK by launching iPod Touch first, but bungled it in the US by introducing iPod Touch after the iPhone's entry. What's the difference?

In the US, the iPhone is viewed as a phone with a few added features. By contrast, the British view the iPhone as a whole computer with wi-fi connectivity, and a web browser with ability to download and display, and capability to capture and share all media - text, photo, audio, video, interactivity.

Jarvis contends that, "Everything you can do on the web you can do with media on the iPhone, anywhere, any time." So, what's the challenge to newspapers and journalists?

The same challenge that's existed since the first commercial browser was released 13 years ago, says Jarvis, except more urgently we seek answers to these five iPod moment questions:

1. How do we use the device to give people the news and links whenever, wherever, and however they want?
MobileWeb?

2. How do we do this (1.) with efficiency?
MobileWeb infrastructure and networks?

3. How do we make it local and relevant?
MobileWeb infrastructure and networks?
Twitter?

4. How do we take advantage of the two-way relationship we have now, enabling people with these gadgets to share what they know?
Incentives and social platforms/networks?
Twitter?

5. How do we make money doing it?
One example is crowdsourcing (winnowing wisdom from the wash)...another the Twitter model...

Free Burma

2007-10-03T12:06:00.000-07:00

Free Burma WIKI

www.free-burma.org

Yahoo!'s Mash getting the Bash?

2007-10-02T06:47:00.000-07:00

They're not the only one - "The Assumptions That Yahoo Mash And Other Social Networks Make About You."

Techmeme Leadershipboard for Techies - Standardization?

2007-10-01T23:48:00.000-07:00

Techmeme have launched their Leadershipboard ranking sources by Presence - "the percentage of headline space a source occupies over the 30-day period. "Discussion" links are not taken in to consideration here — only full headlines are counted."

Coverage includes "Mini Techmeme for Mobiles."

On the "Mini" is an article by Robert Scoble (Scobleizer) titled "Techmeme list heralds death of blogging?" He says, "Most of the things on the list are now done by teams of journalists — that isn’t blogging anymore in my book" and also points out that, "people who used to enjoy blogging their lives are now moving to Twitter." The closer? "Why don’t you join? I automatically follow anyone following me now."

Scoble -- HP blog...so do Cisco, and IBM...and they're not on this list either along with the masses out there -- not everyone is Twittering nor wants to Twitter. With the range of social networks available and those joining forces to monitor, rank, and engage the dynamic, Techmeme's Leadershipboard is only the start.

In previous posts, I referred to social media and "standardization". Isn't Techmeme's Leadershipboard a form of "standardization"? Why or why not?

USC on YouTube...Fight On!

2007-09-30T07:56:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/usc

Google Docs Beta competes with docstoc.com_Fragmentation or Spice of Life?

2007-09-29T01:50:00.001-07:00

Talk about duplication and fragmentation on the web or talk about spice of life...depends on who's doing the talking! Google's just launched Google Doc Beta. How does that compete with docstoc's 9,457 and counting docs? This is getting interesting...
And -- today -- it looks as if docstoc have just opened up their Beta some more!

What's different about Google's Doc Beta? We'll have to take a look and see...

The major difference is what you see and feel when you login to each site and also what each site has to offer the user in terms of community sharing.

Here's what you see when you login to Google Doc Beta:

In contrast, this is what you see before and when you login to docstoc Beta:

Can you see and feel the difference?

Where docstoc offer users the ability to add comments, Google are offering the user to discuss documents real time:Both sites may succeed equally well, from two different cultural standpoints -- Google's interface and approach to the user appear from a "individualistic standpoint" (or just a different view of collectivity?). You have your "account" almost like an Email Outlook account and share from there where you can access all things Google including your gmail. docstoc appear to approach the user from a more "collective standpoint". Each user's account looks like a rolodex or business card feature with button to LinkedIn too.

These networks have different mindsets to engaging users in sharing documents and tools, and engaging other networks. The question is: Will users want everything under one Google roof?

What is "duplication or fragmentation" from a third party business offering perspective may be the "spice of life" from a user perspective.

MIXX REMIX GLOBAL?

2007-09-28T23:08:00.000-07:00

Mixx isn't simply a remix of communities like Twitter, StumbleUpon, Topix, with Digg-like news products according to Frank Gruber, "Mixx's strategy appears to cater to large online publishers" as a "solid distribution strategy".

How does this strategy benefit large publishing companies?

"Mixx aims to offer a place for large publishing companies to get into the social media space."

How does this strategy benefit users?

"Mixx enables users to contribute and discover stories, video and photos as they blend their own mix of the Web."

So do other sites...how is Mixx different? According to Gruber -

1. Users can tag and categorize content, and subscribe to both
2. The categories mirror traditional online news offerings but tags are open user-contribution
3. Users create a "My Mixx" page to follow categories, tags, and people
4. Users can connect to and follow other users
5. Users can access local community content by Zip Code and follow what neighbors are reading

Recently, I received access to my account, and I'm enjoying exploring the site immensely. Users are also able to join groups and create new groups of their own, similar to other social networks like Facebook. Users can also monitor MixxFriends' Recent Activity and Vote For or Against them. There's a link for "Your followers".

With the Headquarters being in Virginia, USA, and the Founder being formerly from Yahoo and USA Today, I wondered how "globally orientated" the site's setup is. Social Networks have to think globile and mobile, right, even if in Beta? So, I searched Local Search results for London. Here's the results - no London, UK:

Large publishers may be concentrated in the US, but "Users" of social networks and mobiles are global. I am sure we will see Mixx evolve with global focus as it emerges through Beta.

Facebook and social networks...viable for mobile critical mass communication?

2007-09-28T06:39:00.000-07:00

The WSJ recently announced that, "Microsoft is in talks to buy a minority stake in the popular social-networking Web site Facebook Inc., a sign of a new urgency by the software giant to jump-start its online business at a time when Google is widening its lead in the fast-growing Internet-advertising business."

Today, John Gray who manages online media campaigns for enlighten.com, says social media is not just for kids! According to Gray, "Over the past few years, social networks have emerged catering specifically to older, more educated, and often more affluent audiences. Like the social sites most marketers are familiar with, this next generation social networking site for older generations offers both traditional and unique ad customization options, and a new avenue through which to reach baby boomers and busy moms."

Social Networks and Portals discussed include:

Eons.com
BOOMj.com
lavalifePRIME
sisterwoman.com
CafeMom
MothersClick

When we think in terms of internet-advertising business, the future is "mobile." And social networks have a dynamic role to play. Revenue Science issued a press release on Sept 24, with headline: REVENUE SCIENCE FIRST TO DEPLOY MOBILE BEHAVIORAL TARGETING IN JAPAN. According to Revenue Science, Japan's advanced user adoption and homogenous network infrastructure make for an ideal entry.

Whether this "model of mobile critical mass communication" translates elsewhere depends on a number of factors (among others):

infrastructure & investment
network consistency
culture (sub-culture)
translatable "globile-viral-mobile-experience"

On Wednesday, I attended the ad:tech London '07 Digital Consumer Panel Forum and listened to John Baker, Managing Partner of Ogilvy One, discuss the Unilever case study. He said that brands work when they're entertaining, useful, and sexy. Did I get that right, John?

And his views tie in with an article I read in Wired titled: "How Mobile Phones Conquered Japan." Xeni Jardin writes that mobiles shaped Japan's culture (and can shape other cultures). From the article, I picked out some words used as "shapers" - here they are:

state of wireless closeness - zone of intimacy - relationships
territory machines - transformers of space - personal room
integrator of virtual and physical realms - tools of sustenance
portable pedestrian - history, legend, culture, stranger link - vivid experience

Ogilvy One use 360 degree brand marketing and as a "non-marketer" (?) I'm intrigued at the fun involved and the outreach. With mobile, the potential of using layers of social networks (and more Google?) to mass communicate is immense.

Those in Telecom who have studied the statistics on mobile users around the globe are aware of infrastructures, networks, and cultures. Marketers have opportunities to share in collaboration on multi-social media levels to learn what is best for their brand.

Links of Interest:

USC Marshall CTM 6th Annual Global Mobility Roundtable 2007: The Adoption of Mobile Phones in Emerging Markets: Global Diffusion and the Rural Challenge by Kas Kalba, Kalba International Inc.

Ingenta Connect: European Journal of Information Systems - Perceived critical mass and the adoption of communication technology by Van Slyke and Ilie, et al

What would you do if a recruiter or potential employer invited you to interview in Second Life?

2007-09-25T10:09:00.000-07:00

On Oct 4, a USC Business Communication class at the Marshall School will discuss various perspectives in answering this question: What would you do if a recruiter or potential employer invited you to interview in Second Life?

I've been invited to engage the class in a discussion on videoconferencing, videoblogging and online CV's to create awareness of messages and media.

As prior assignment, the students are using these examples and discussion questions for reference:

1. HP Eric Kintz Digital Mindset Blog
“Videoblogging from NYC”
http://h20325.www2.hp.com/blogs/kintz/archive/2007/09/10/4367.html

“Mobile Social Marketing” – How important is Mobile for Social Marketing?
http://h20325.www2.hp.com/blogs/kintz/archive/2007/09/19/4454.html
Winksite and Feed2Mobile

2. TechCrunch: If A Conference Is Held In Second Life, Will Anyone Listen?
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/09/20/if-a-conference-is-held-in-second-life-will-anyone-listen/
BizBlogReview: Is the future of global commerce in virtual worlds?
http://bizblogreview.blogspot.com/2007/09/is-future-of-global-commerce-in-virtual.html

3. The Official Cisco Blog “The Platform” – Alan S. Cohen, VP Enterprise Solutions
“The Next Wave of the Business Internet: The Human Network@Work”
http://blogs.cisco.com/news/2007/09/the_next_wave_of_the_business.html

4. Online CV’s
Colin Rhinesmith
http://colinrhinesmith.com/cv
Nova Commercial - MySpace
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=13754983

5. Tuesday, November 28, 2006
http://diamondgeezer.blogspot.com/2006_11_01_diamondgeezer_archive.html#116469686556354886

Discussion Questions:

Videoconferencing:
1. What are the advantages and disadvantages?
2. How can you use the videoconference setup to engage (create rapport) the interviewer more?
3. What unexpected events can happen during a videoconference and how would you deal with them (example: split screens with more than one interviewer)?

Videoblogging:
1. Referring to Eric Kintz’s “Videoblogging from NYC” (1), what are the advantages and disadvantages of using an “interview format” in a videoblog as CV?
2. Referring to Colin Rhinesmith’s online CV with video (4) – do you think this CV works? Why or why not? Do you think this form of CV is the future? What’s your reasoning?
3. If the Nova Commercial serves as a CV, what impressions can it make?

Mobile Social Marketing, the Next Wave, CV’s, and the interview future:
1. After reading “Mobile Social Marketing” (1), TechCrunch and BizBlogReview (2), Cisco Blog (3), and diamondgeezer (5) – What are your thoughts?
2. How do you see your CV’s and interview techniques evolving?
3. What would you do if a recruiter or potential employer invited you to interview in Second Life?

PwC's David Phillips response to Social Media and CR

2007-09-22T14:18:00.000-07:00

On 3 Sept 07, I asked David Phillips, PwC's senior corporate reporting leader in Assurance Practice, a question on the PwC corporate reporting blog:

David,

Do you think that industry will eventually expect standards in social media as it impacts their products and services? I've posted a writeup on http://bizblogreview.blogspot.com.

David's response:
Fiona, I think you pose an interesting question. I think the promotion of products and services through the social media is at an early stage of its evolution, as is normally the case industry and society are happy for it to evolve as no one has been badly damaged. As with most things I am sure a point will come when industry may try to impose some form of standards (clearly at the moment some companies impose their own standards for accreditation) to ensure that individuals are not mislead and damaged by the irresponsible actions of a few.

Facebook-Google Debate-Debacle Spark Innovation for Social Networks

2007-09-22T01:38:00.000-07:00

While some insiders know all...some users are non-the-wiser...some of us may read and observe...while others couldn't be bothered...

Nov 5 is the start of Google "100" according to Arrington of techcrunch. What does this mean?

The gist is that Google had a secret meeting (naturally because of trade secrets) to discuss (among other things) allowing third parties to push and pull data in and out of Google and non-Google applications using application program interfaces (APIs). This poses a challenge to Facebook who haven't allowed third parties the same amount of scope.

Entrepreneur - David Recordon - gives an example of this on his LiveJournal blog: "It is disappointing hearing stories from developers who see F8 as a very one sided platform; you're allowed to put your data in but not take it out. I'm waiting for the first application which adds all of your Facebook friend's email addresses to your Gmail contacts, just as Facebook is so happy to suck them out via their "invite your friends" feature."

Google is offering an additional layer to third parties in accessing social networks that Facebook isn't offering. But in February, Business Week reported that Facebook (and Friendster and others) is "starting to let third-party developers build new features to attract more users-and profits." The new features involve opening up their API code.

Why is it beneficial for social networks to open up their code (API)?

1. to grow their user base—and build a sustainable business model—they need to attract third-party developers
2. it offers them the ability to harness innovation through creation and sharing of new applications
3. to allow more people to discover their site, which can translate into greater revenues since more viewers mean higher ad rates (branding and traffic)
4. to access audiences with specific interests
5. etc...

Who's in the running?

Google's orkut
Facebook
Friendster
LinkedIn
MySpace
Others...

We can observe and partake in these changes as November comes and goes - Google and all their competitor, collaborator, and partner innovations - these are exciting times we live in because we're given the opportunity to connect with others globally in dynamic ways.

Cisco says "People are in the center not computers"

2007-09-22T01:07:00.000-07:00

"If the first wave of the Web Internet was largely defined by commerce and customer support (“find it, buy it, help it”), the second wave is more about rich collaboration (“find me, work with me”). The entrance of rich media and video into the equation shows how fast people-to-machine transactions are moving to people-to-people-to-contextual/real-time information types of interactions. People are in the center, not computers. And every device, fixed and mobile, is in play" - Alan S. Cohen, Vice President, Enterprise Solutions

Source: the_next_wave_of_the_business

Cisco on "The Next Wave of Business Internet" - they're surfing Second Life!

2007-09-22T00:49:00.000-07:00

Here's the link - have a read:

The Next Wave of the Business Internet: The Human Network@Work

Post by Alan S. Cohen, Vice President, Enterprise Solutions

the_next_wave_of_the_business

The 4 Guiding Principles to the Human Network@Work according to Cohen:

1. The next wave of the business Internet is real-time, contextual, borderless and user-centric.

2. By its nature, it is about secure rich collaboration and unified communications, not just IP Telephony or email or IM, but also web conferencing (e.g., WebEx), mobility, and video collaboration (TelePresence).

3. It is open, not dictated by one vendor’s applications but a rich and diverse suite of capabilities from a very, very wide range of players from ERP to industry-specific.

4. It can be delivered and consumed in a variety of manners: implemented at your business by your own IT staff or a great experienced technology partner (e.g., Cisco UC), managed by a VAR (Cisco Smart Business Communications System) or delivered by a service provider (WebEx)

What does this mean for those less-tech-savvy-biz surfers?

Is the future of global commerce in virtual worlds?

2007-09-21T03:13:00.000-07:00

Sandra Kearney, IBM’s head of 3D Development, in Second Life's second session of the Metanomics Conference responded to this question with the view that face to face is still the communication channel of preference but when not an option, virtual worlds provide an alternative.

techcrunch: if-a-conference-is-held-in-second-life-will-anyone-listen

"IBM is already holding meetings and doing other staff/ communications activities in Second Life, and others are including Cisco and Amazon are also using Second Life for business meetings. It won’t replace a top end teleconference setup, but it works as a more affordable alternative" reports techcrunch.com.

Metanomics Conference Video from techcrunch:

Kaywa's Feed2Mobile Beta - give it a try!

2007-09-20T21:31:00.000-07:00

Eric Kintz of HP mentioned two mobile web mashups in his post unleashing HP Uncut:

"Two such services worth looking at are Kaywa's Feed2Mobile service (in beta) and Winksite. What makes these services interesting is they are examples of mobile web 2.0 mashups, where web content is automatically repurposed for mobile consumption. Such tools make it almost trivial to mobilize one's blog. And they provide nifty mobile hyperlinks to make the mobilized blog easily accessible from camera phones with the right scanner software. I first learned about Feed2Mobile from this interesting video by Elektrischer Reporter."

Here's a response from (correction HP's) Stephen Miller:

Fiona,

I took the liberty of mobilizing your blog with Feed2Mobile (anyone can do it - you just provide the feed url). Here's the link to the mobilized blog:

http://feed2mobile.kaywa.com/202182734

If you navigate there on your mobile phone, you'll get the mobilized version of the blog.

Feed2Mobile provides a QR code, which you can see if you navigate here using a PC Web Browser, and you can also see an emulation of the mobilized blog.

-Stephen Miller

TechCrunch Announces Mixx Private Beta

2007-09-20T21:18:00.000-07:00

Have you got your Mixx?

Techcrunch say "Mixx is a new social news site. To put it into context, it’s a sort of cross between Digg, LinkedIn and MyYahoo.

In a nutshell, its a social network that lets you find and share news based on your interests and location."

Enter your email and they'll be in touch shortly...

Docstoc Beta YouTube for Professional Documents?

2007-09-20T13:52:00.000-07:00

A friend just emailed me this link: Docstoc Beta

Website: http://www.docstoc.com
Blog: http://blog.docstoc.com/

Docstoc.com: Coming Soon March 8th, 2007

Docstoc.com is a free online document exchange database and social networking site that allows users to store, search, and share virtually any type of document (word, excel, powerpoint, pdf, illustrator, etc…). Similar in concept to Flickr.com (for photos) and YouTube.com (for videos) Docstoc.com will be the online community for sharing all types of documents. The users will post, categorize, and rate thousands of documents that can be reused by other users for a variety of purposes.

Its three primary applications will be: 1) Business/Legal - to share business, legal, and financial templates that attorneys, business professionals, and the public can retool for their own purposes, 2) Educational – to provide an online form to share term papers, outlines, and a variety of educational materials for students and teachers, and 3) Self Expression – to provide an online community to share scripts, creative writing, and e-books.

Here's the Overview:

Currently in private beta, Docstoc is trying to become the YouTube for documents - geared toward professions.

Jason Lawrence Nazar (Docstoc's CEO) told us the idea for docstoc originated while working on his other venture - Venature.com. Venature provides consulting and capital to startups. Jason would often spend 2 hours/day looking online for documents the startups needed such as forms, NDAs, etc. He wondered why there wasn't something like YouTube for documents.

In September of 2006, he decided to make it himself and Docstoc was born. So far the site has been self funded, with development happening overseas in India. However, it has been rumored that they are close to closing a "substantial" round of funding from a number of potential investors.

Scribd is another site aiming to become the "YouTube for documents." However, it is not geared towards professionals like Docstoc."

Source: Docstoc Beta

David Harper says Winksite is Standards - Compliant - What does this mean?

2007-09-20T13:30:00.000-07:00

Hi again Fiona.

Re: "What does it mean for Winksite to be "standards-compliant mobile Website builder"?"

Winksite is the first standards-compliant mobile Website builder that also includes RSS-driven content deployment and mobile-tuned community features such as forum, chat, and polls. This approach delivers fresh content, fast-loading pages, and universally accessible easy-to-use community features to your audience.

This refers in part to the fact that every mobile site published at Winksite is fully (100%) compliant with W3C and .Mobi Mobile Web Standards.

In addition, without having to lift a finger or squint at code your Winksite is guaranteed to score 5/5 on dotMobi’s MobiReady Report (we are .Mobi certified).

What does this mean beyond bragging rights?

Broad support across every browser on the planet to start. (and soon much more in terms of SEO.)

…and for those visitors still using WAP, no worries we serve that up just as neatly as ever.

The following links are available at the desktop version of your mobile address but I have included them here for easier access:

W3C mobileOK Basic Validator

Report: http://validator.w3.org/mobile/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwinksite.com%2Fbizblog%2Freview

MobiReady

Score: 5/5

Report: http://ready.mobi/results.jsp?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwinksite.com%2Fbizblog%2Freview&locale=en_EN

Bango

Score: 5/5

Report: http://winksite.com/site/bango.cfm?address=http://winksite.com/bizblog/review

More can be found here:

Winksite Releases Major Upgrade - Love the Mobile Web.

http://harper.wirelessink.com/?p=119

InformationWeek Interviews David Harper on Mobile SEO

http://harper.wirelessink.com/?p=125

Cheers,
David Harper
Founder, Winksite

Winksite Recommended!

2007-09-20T13:16:00.000-07:00

The team (Founder - David Harper) sorted out my self-created tech dilemma in no time and explained exactly how the site works in an email:

Hi Fiona,

Usernames and the folder names added (as the second part of of your site's address ) when you create a mobile site are limited to 12 character each. We have found it best t keep these address short as it can be bothersome for mobile users using phones without qwerty keyboards to enter longish addresses.

IMHO - The address you ended up with appears fine to me as far as how it relates to your web presence.

Now as far as "Please let me know how to proceed so that your site recognizes my blog and website."

i assume you are referring to your blogs feed that you wish to mobilize.

It's actually has nothing to do with the address you choose to create at Winksite. Let me explain...

We took a look and it appears you inadvertently entered your blog's web address (http://bizblogreview.blogspot.com) rather then it's feed address (
http://bizblogreview.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss) when setting up the Blog channel on your Winksite.

We went ahead and fixed that for you and your blog's RSS feed is now mobilizing correctly..

Please let me know if there is anything else we ca help you with.

Feedback and suggestions are welcome!

Re: The comment your blog. We received your support request within moments after you sent it - but you caught us sleeping - literally. :)

Cheers,
David Harper
Founder, Winksite

Death of Privacy by Social Media?

2007-09-20T06:15:00.000-07:00

iMedia Connection Inc. have published an intriguing article today on the "Death of Privacy" due to Social Media:

Amelia Torode (Head of Digital Strategy VCCP) asks: "As individuals, the web has offered us so many opportunities to connect. We share everything, all the time, with everyone. But where is it all going?"

Torode refers to Emily Nussbaum's New Yorker publication "Say Everything" on teenage online behavior representing the greatest generation gap since rock-n-roll and suggests we read it.

BUT WHERE IS IT ALL GOING?

Nussbaum says: "The future belongs to the uninhibited."

Concluding paragraph:

"The benefits are obvious: The public life is fun. It’s creative. It’s where their friends are. It’s theater, but it’s also community: In this linked, logged world, you have a place to think out loud and be listened to, to meet strangers and go deeper with friends. And, yes, there are all sorts of crappy side effects: the passive-aggressive drama (“you know who you are!”), the shaming outbursts, the chill a person can feel in cyberspace on a particularly bad day. There are lousy side effects of most social changes (see feminism, democracy, the creation of the interstate highway system). But the real question is, as with any revolution, which side are you on?"

----------------------------------------------

Torode says: "I think that by the end of this year we will move away from this era of radical transparency to one of refined privacy. Maybe we will find again that antiquated notion that sometimes silence is golden?"

Concluding paragraph:

"It is fine for us grown-ups to know that we have to manage our own personal "brand," but much harder (if not impossible) for a teenager to realise that everything we do online has tracks, and this indeed is a scary thought. I wonder whether something like Ning and other micro-social networks are the way forward. Ning allows you to create your own bespoke network of "friends" based around specific passion points, so in my Ning account group I would not dream of posting pictures from my hen night, because I communicate about the professional world that I inhabit."

----------------------------------------------

I found both these conclusions thoughtful.

Other variables to think about are:

Who promotes the death of privacy through social or online media?

What are teenagers facing today that companies, schools, and families, do differently with use of online or social media and how does this impact on their sense of privacy?

How are adults responding to social media and the "death of privacy"?

Social media gives audiences across the board a voice - how does this impact not just individuals but entities?

An approach may be to survey youth on "the value of privacy" and the variables that contribute to the formation of that value. Social Media may be a contributor but it is also a vehicle for expression - also when values are violated.

Eric Kintz on Mobile Web - How important is Mobile for Social Marketing?

2007-09-20T03:36:00.000-07:00

Eric is really exploring mobile technology and features such an informative article on his Digital Mindset Blog.

He raises the question:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So how important is mobile for social marketing? In short, very.

* John Hadl, whom Brandweek called "the father of mobile marketing" and a top 10 Next Generation Marketer, predicts that in a couple of years mobile phones will be the "premier consumer connection and medium for insights available for marketers."
* Julie Ask of Jupiter Research makes the case that mobile has already become a natural and increasingly important complement to social marketing campaigns. She provides a list of seven best practices for marketers to keep in mind when creating mobile social marketing campaigns.
* In his keynote at Mplanet 2006, AT&T's COO Randall Stephenson, said that of the three vehicles AT&T has to reach customers in their new Three Screen Initiative (internet/PC, TV, wireless/mobile phone), wireless is the most important.
* Wireless Week's Brad Smith suggests mobile advertising may be poised to explode next year.
* Tomi Ahonen calculated that in 2006 mobile social networking was already worth $3.45 billion. In Ahonen's view, "if you are not on mobile, you won't be relevant soon."
* Mmetric recently reported that 12.3 million consumers in the United States and Western Europe accessed a social networking site with their mobile device in June. And this was prior to the launch of the iPhone.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After reading the post, I signed up with Winksite - Mobile Web but experienced some technical difficulties with the URL. Winksite have a customer support on their site where I've queried the error that occurred, so...let's wait and see.

Eric Kintz introduces Videoblogging & HP Uncut

2007-09-17T11:14:00.000-07:00

http://h30400.www3.hp.com

"Real HP employee insights, inspiration and answers, shared through self-produced videos."

HP employees can post videoblogs to the UP Uncut site - it's educational too.

BlogCasts vs Podcasts

2007-09-16T06:15:00.000-07:00

Shockpod have had this post up on Google for ages with my email address causing my gmail account to be spammed.

Here's the idea:
BlogCasts vs. Podcasts...?
BlogCasts vs. Podcasts...?
BlogCasts are something to consider. One of my thoughts are being able to have blog posts with audio or voice-over which can be heard while typed and/or read on screen...that may be coming soon in the future (nothing is impossible). And it may help and be fun for people with and without challenges who use these technologies/media.

Imagine having blog posts read to you while you're busy doing something? Imagine a cooking blog with recipes and pictures. Yes - you could use your iPod - and there is YouTube videos and such inserted in blogs with sound. But, you could have your Apple iBook, IBM / Lenovo Thinkpad, or HP Notebook plugged in with the voice over of Dolly Parton telling you how to cook that Turkey from your favorite blog posts! What if you could choose the voice-over just to put you in specific mood too? Wouldn't that be neat?!

On Dec 31, 2006, I wrote a short entry titled "BlogCasts" on this blog - http://bizblogreview.blogspot.com/2006/01/blogcasts.html, related to having podcast interviews with executives available on my site as "BlogCasts". However, I changed my mind about doing this for that period. I thought "BlogCasts" could in the future develop into something far greater, even if I'm not the developer or the producer.

Cadbury's Drum Up African Spirit in Rugby World Cup '07!

2007-09-14T15:44:00.000-07:00

See Video: http://bizrapport.blogspot.com/2007/09/sa-vs-uk-2007-world-cup-highlights.html
The advertisement was shown just before the start of the England vs. South Africa Rugby World Cup 2007. After South Africa thumped England 36-0, I wondered about this ad...the connections advertisements make in the mind...and the timing of an advertisement's broadcast.

For different viewers, what connections would their minds make when watching this advertisement?

If the advertisement was shown at half-time with score around 20-0 or towards the end, what connections would the mind make then (some players were injured with blood running down their faces)?

The first connection my mind made when I saw this advertisement was "Gorillas in the Mist" - the film that depicts the true-life story of Dian Fossey who fought to protect Gorillas from poaching and extinction in Rwanda: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorillas_in_the_Mist:_The_Story_of_Dian_Fossey

True, there is the "choclate-sex connection" because of Phil Collins's song "Coming in the air tonight..." and enthusiasm with humor, but after the game when the mind still connects - what other connections may be made?

"Cadbury's Drum Up African Spirit"

The English continent isn't the natural "home" to Gorillas, it's the forests of Africa, although through colonization they inhabited English territory. Were Cadbury's supporting S. Africa?

Advertisements carry conscious and sub-conscious messages. Depending on demographics and the likely connections minds may make where those ads are broadcast, combined with the timing of events at the time of broadcast, the impact on the product or service can be quite far-reaching.

If simply downloaded from YouTube or watched on my blog and not in the context of the World Cup, it may send a different message too.

Gorilla DNA is 97-98% identical to that of a human - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorillas
Why do we as humans respond differently to a Gorilla playing a set of drums in this ad than a human?

These are interesting dynamics to consider.

blackpig on innovation and the marketing balance

2007-09-14T06:28:00.000-07:00

I've asked the blackpig team (http://www.blackpig.co.uk/) on their blog how companies should go about (solutions) achieving a balance when using a standard product/service while engaging in innovations, trying to achieve a competitive and sustainable advantage, and meeting responsibilities.

--------------------------

I found this post on the blackpig site quite interesting:

"Edward De Bono is often regarded as the father of lateral thinking in creative circles and has numerous tips and techniques which can easily be incorporated into any marketing planning session to produce some truly innovative results. One of the simplest is the PMI (Plus, Minus & Interesting).

With the PMI you don’t just produce a list of pro’s and con’s of an idea you also list interesting results too, for example if a business was to start giving bonus’ for staff who went a year without taking a sick day some of the ‘pro’s’ might be: motivating staff to work harder and bonuses would cover lost sick time pay. ‘Con’s’: might be that staff who are genuinely too ill to come to work become disgruntled. And the ‘interesting’: because staff force themselves to work whilst ill could it result in more sickness around the company?

Another relatively easy technique to encourage creative thinking and innovation is backwards brainstorming; in this you produce a list of points which would have the opposite effect of what you want, for example a business producing a new website may have points including being viewable in only one specific browser, not updating the content, having large images and making it difficult to navigate. From this list you then turn each point around to create a list of solutions."

Source: http://www.blackpig.co.uk/wordpress/?p=53

David Maister's blog on "How Much Standardization?"

2007-09-12T19:29:00.000-07:00

There's a great discussion on David Maister's blog about "How Much Standardization?" - take a look - http://davidmaister.com/blog/481/How-Much-Standardization.

PwC Advertise on Facebook

2007-09-11T23:16:00.000-07:00

It's fascinating how corporations are tapping into the use of social media for marketing purposes. Here's an example of my Facebook account where I'm responding to a friend at USC and we're discussing careers. I happened to mention PwC with the web link and what pops up? This thumbnail advertisement. Notice though, I have the choice to remove it and also to choose a picture or no picture before clicking "send". Facebook users have free access to this utility and receive no commission for being "instruments of advertising or marketing". Versus the partnership that exists between Facebook (soon-to-be-Google) and advertisers/marketers.

RFID Memo to the CEO

2007-09-11T01:18:00.000-07:00

Back in 2004, we were given a memo assignment in my Advanced Business Writing class (one of my first at USC) on the topic of "trickle-down effects in business" - a subject of our choice. We had to address this memo to our professor as if she was the CEO. The use of RFID has come a long way since this memo I wrote then (it may appear a bit distorted because of the blog-tool):

To: Yolanda Kirk, CEO
From: Fiona Torrance
Subject: Trickle-down Effects of RFID Technology
Date: September 16, 2004

We recently discussed the future of the barcode, and as we both agreed that it wasn't the most efficient technology in terms of inventory tracking and cost used by retail companies like our own, I decided to research its successor – Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology.

This analysis with provide you with the following:
· industries experiencing the trickle-down effects of RFID
· origin of RFID and how it works
· RFID's benefit to the retail industry

RFID application is not limited to any particular industry. It has multiple effects on businesses and consumers. The retail industry have recognized the impact of RFID use, and are pioneering its advancement. The web site, internetnews.com, had an interesting write-up titled, “Are You Ready for RFID?” by Colin C. Haley. In discussing this trend, he says, “Retailers believe RFID will replace bar codes, vastly improve the efficiency of their supply chain and cut down on theft and loss.

Still other business sectors are looking at tags and readers for a variety of tasks” (Haley 1). Business sectors are considering the advantages of implementing RFID and the trickle-down effects RFID is having on other industries, and on individuals.

Industries Experiencing Trickle-down Effects of RFID Besides the retail industry, RFID technology is revolutionizing many other industries and organizations, some of those experiencing the trickle-down effects of RFID include:
· Engineering and Information Technology
· Educational Institutes, Library Services, and Publishers
· National and International Security
· Public Services
· Agriculture, Botany, and Zoology
· Health and Medical
· Food and Beverage
· Legal, Accounting, and Financial
· Retail and Manufacturing

Recently, RFID technology has been embedded in bandages to monitor wounds and to monitor SARS patients in China. It is also being used in refrigerators to detect spoiled food. Research in all fields greatly benefits from RFID development. RFID technology has the potential to alter the operations of almost every industry that you can think of, and to change the way that businesses and individuals interact.

The technology is becoming much less costly to produce, ranging from 10¢ to $1 per RFID tag depending on the particular type of RFID required – read-only, write-only, or both. You can think of RFID technology as a database with programmable capabilities. I'll now give you some background of RFID's origins and how it works.

The Origin of RFID

RFID technology was previously used during the 1940’s in World War II military aircraft to detect friend from foe. Mainly being used by the military for detection and tracking, its other uses for many years did not venture much further than air traffic control and vehicle monitoring at tollgates. But RFID is now being developed by engineering firms world-wide for multi-use in industries and organizations. Scientists have drawn an analogy between the development of the Internet - and its global impact - and RFID development.

Debora Vrana recently featured an article in the L.A. Times about the Pasadena-based company, Avery Dennison Corp., and their use of RFID in labels. She quotes the editor of the RFID Journal, Mark Roberti, as saying, “This is a lot like what the Internet was in 1995, we are on the verge of a major change in the way companies do business” (qtd. in Vrana C1). With this change comes many ramifications because of how RFID works, so I've provided you with a brief description below.

How RFID Works

RFID is a transponder that allows identification of radio frequency. This transponder contains programmable electronic code, embedded with a unique identification number. It is often referred to as an ‘RFID tag’. A receiver, containing an antenna, detects the tag within its electromagnetic field, and is able to wirelessly receive and transmit information to and from the tag.

The RFID tag can be as small as a pin-head and can share information about any object, animal, or person that it is attached to. It acts as a tracking device and a portable database that allows multiple tags to be read simultaneously. RFID tags survive harsh climatic conditions and hazardous environments. Because of its features and versatile use, the RFID tag is deemed to replace the barcode and smartcard in the future, and to revolutionize industries and organizations globally.

The retail industry is at the head of this revolution with its implementation of RFID. Retail companies, like our own, have to make a decision about whether or not to embrace this change. It's not an easy decision to make without the knowledge of how we will be affected, and what measures will need to be in place to facilitate RFID use. This information on RFID's benefit to the retail industry may give us a starting point for further discussion.

RFID Benefits the Retail Industry

Retailers and manufacturers stand to benefit from RFID in the following three main areas:
· Financing Activities
· Operating Activities
· Investing Activities

The effect on each activity is briefly discussed below, starting with financing activities.

Financing Activities

Retail financing activities involve the exchange of resources between owners for a return, or gaining resources from creditors for future settlement. Retailers are experiencing an effect on their financing activities due to RFID in some of the following ways:
1. Improved tracking of resources due to RFID's accurate monitoring abilities
2. Substantial reduction in shrinkage costs as RFID enhances security
3. More efficient business forecasting because of the quality of data transmitted by RFID

Intel list the values of RFID in the Business/Enterprise section of their Homepage stating: “RFID reader-generated data can be converted into valuable, actionable information that delivers a significant return on investment by capturing, consolidating, and analyzing huge volumes of data which can be used to make faster and better business decisions” (Intel 1).

RFID provides the information that businesses need to make more efficient calculations of future earnings. Its tracking abilities also reduces the cost of shrinkage and theft, as operations are streamlined.

Operating Activities

Running a retail and manufacture business involves daily activities where RFID is playing a major role. Some of these business operational activities include:
1. Improved system for purchase and sale of inventory as recorded data is accurate and immediately available
2. Efficient management of the supply chain, reducing labor costs and human error
3. Better customer service in terms of monitoring of stock, defective goods, and delivery

Prashant Bhatia and Greg Gilbert, writing for the E-Business Executive Daily, highlight the effects of RFID on the supply chain and customer service, saying, “The rippling effects of RFID will permeate across many industries enabling a new level of customer service and nimbleness in the supply chain.

Instead of looking to the industry to dictate what RFID can do for them; leading businesses will gain recognition for what they have done with RFID” (Bhatia and Gilbert 2). Their view is that how businesses use RFID will be what redefines their position and influence in the business sector. The retail supply chain is expected to invest from $91.5 million in 2003 to nearly $1.3 billion in 2008 on RFID technology (Earls 1).

Investing Activities

Retail and manufacturing firms try to spend capital productively in line with company objectives. RFID is viewed as a key contributor in making some of these investing activities successful:
1. The replacement of long-term assets to facilitate RFID use will become more economical as RFID's costs reduce, and because of RFID's long-term durability
2. Cash availability for investment in marketable securities will increase because of these cost-savings
3. Changing company objectives to meet the capabilities of RFID will enable positioning and influence within the business sector, and will spur industry growth

Investing in RFID technology carries with it risks and rewards, William Atkinson discusses these in the Risk Management publication. In his analysis, he quotes the principal of Stamford, Gartner, Inc., Jeff Woods, as saying, “RFID represents huge investment in new IT.

Wal-Mart, for example, is expected to be investing a couple of billion of dollars in equipment alone. As such, one implication for risk management is the tremendous shift in a company’s data collection budget from labor to assets” (qtd. in Atkinson 3). Moving the company’s data collection budget from labor to assets is an example of the risk Wal-Mart is taking by investing its capital in RFID-compatible equipment.

There is no doubt that the implementation of RFID will boost the activities of industries, such as the retail and manufacture industries, however, the advent of RFID and its infancy is not without its concerns. And, these concerns seriously affect all industries mentioned and not mentioned in this document. I've listed some of these concerns for you to consider.

Concerns about RFID

There are arguments both in favor and against RFID advancement with respect to the following important issues:
· No current standardization of RFID technology exists
· Regulation of RFID capabilities, and international use, is still to be determined
· Royalties on RFID designs are a grey area that could increase trickle-down costs
· Public reaction to RFID use and its capabilities, particularly when in the wrong hands,
is pending because of the lack of awareness about the technology
· The need to protect personal privacy could be costly

All these concerns are valid and could intensely weigh the benefits down if RFID is implemented prematurely, or too late causing loss of competitiveness and industry position. We would need to balance these interests and the decisions we make to protect us from both possibilities.

Weighing the Interests of RFID

The ‘birth’ of the internet sparked debate about its origin, features, and uses, yet it is still evolving even with jurisdiction and security issues within the United States. Similarly, the mandates by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and the Department of Defense (DoD) which force suppliers to adopt the new RFID technology starting January 1, 2005, are igniting awareness and discussion amongst industries, organizations, and individuals.

The far-reaching ramifications created by the ‘birth’ of RFID is yet to be experienced and identified as it evolves and changes how we do business, or how we conduct our lives. Although, in the retail industry specifically, we foresee substantial benefits to our financing, operating, and investing activities if we embrace RFID, the concerns raised about standardization, regulation, and privacy will have to be addressed.

We will have to consider the restructuring process within our company accordingly, and this is why I have provided you with this overview of RFID technology. Should you have any questions or details that you would like me to research more in-depth, let me know and I'll do so with pleasure.

Works Cited
Atkinson, William. “Tagged: The Risks and Rewards of RFID Technology.” Risk Management 51.7 (2004) : 12-19. Proquest. Business. USC Lib., Los Angeles, CA. 5 September 2004 http://www.proquest.com/

Bhatia, Prashant, and Greg Gilbert. “Now’s the Time for RFID”. Line56.com: The E- Business Executive Daily 22 April 2003. Google. 12 September 2003 http://www.line56.com/

Earls, Alan R. “Are You Ready for RFID?” The Know Retail Management 2004. Google. 9 September 2004 http://www.theknow.net/

Haley, Colin C. “Are You Ready for RFID?” Internetnews.com 14 November 2003. Google. 12 September 2004 http://boston.internet.com/news/article.php/3109501

Intel Homepage. “Rfid Converts Data into Business Value.” Business/Enterprise. 2004. Google. 12 September 2004 http://www.intel.com/

Richardson, Helen L. “Tuning in to RFID.” World Trade Magazine 1 November 2003. Google. 10 January 2004 http://www.worldtrademag.com/

Roberti, Mark. “The RFID “Revolution”.” RFID Journal 12 January 2004. Google. 10 January 2004 http://www.rfidjournal.com/

Vrana, Deborah. “Avery Dennison Is Hoping New Technology for Its Labels Will Stick.” L.A. Times 29 August 2004, Business: C1

RFID Journal introduces Distance Learning

2007-09-10T11:38:00.000-07:00

http://www.rfidjournal.com/

What's interesting is not just the introduction of distance learning, but all the partnerships, collaborations, and alliances that result in product development, innovation, and forms of marketing too as a result. How social media is used to convey messages and the systems or platforms these media types run on - the compatibilities and incompatibilities - this is intriguing. More fascinating are all the conflicts of interest that may, can, and sometimes do arise with the dynamics of combining all these elements.

USC CTM Response on Social Media and CR

2007-09-10T07:25:00.000-07:00

"I don’t think you will see, nor would it be a good development, standards for structure, content of social media. However, security issues, which is the one that triggered your original question, will most definitely generate demand for standards. Whether those turn out to be industry proposed, which is what is happening in finance industry when it comes to cyber security, or government imposed, which some in Congress argue for, or imposed through third parties such as auditing community remains to be seen. CTM’s sister institute, ICIIP (Institute for Critical Information Infrastructure Protection) has developed one model for such standards, Systemic Security Management, which is being actively reviewed by one of the leading international auditing communities."
Morley

Morley Winograd
Executive Director

USC Marshall
Center for Telecom Management (CTM)

Biography:

Morley Winograd is an internationally recognized authority on the impact of technology on life and work. Prior to joining CTM, he served as Vice President Gore's Senior Policy Advisor in the National Partnership for Reinventing Government. Since then, governments in Italy, Mexico, Israel, Costa Rica, and Argentina have asked him to help with their own reform efforts.

His lectures on the topic of technology's reshaping of America have won wide praise in forums as diverse as the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco, Los Angeles' Town Hall, Harvard's JFK School of Government, and Bologna University's John Hopkins School of International Affairs.

Prior to his work in government, Winograd spent eighteen years with AT&T, retiring as a Regional Vice President for Commercial Markets, having previously served as President of AT&T's University of Sales Excellence, a two-campus corporate training center that he reshaped into a university environment.

Morley is co-author of Taking Control: Politics in the Information Age (Holt, 1996). His innovative approach to corporate training has been recognized in such management training books as Stewardship, by Peter Block, and The Monster Under the Bed, by Stan Davis and Jim Botkin.

Source: http://www.marshall.usc.edu/web/CTM.cfm?doc_id=3979

Social Media & CR Example Continued...

2007-09-10T01:58:00.001-07:00

I'll give you two personal examples, and they're just two in that multi-layered spectrum of the universe termed "social media":

1. My ISP is BT and they're teamed up with Yahoo! who provide me with an email service too. I have the Option 3 package for broadband - full bells and whistles unlimited - with firewall, virus and spyware protection...all that stuff.

While in the US I setup a Yahoo.com email account and I've continued to use that for personal US friends, etc. For UK purposes, I use the BT Internet Yahoo! account. There is also a Europe one which includes UK to my knowlege but I can't login through that with my BT Internet Yahoo! one.

When I'm using Yahoo.com and login to email...this is so called "personal communication", BT Internet slice in the middle of my email with a pop-up (even though I disable the pop-ups?) informing me that I have a BT Internet Yahoo! email account. Well, don't I already know that? And, do I want to be informed in the middle of an email just because BT have teamed up with Yahoo!?

It's all about marketing.

2. What I've also experienced while paying a student loan online with an international finance institution is that "in the middle of the transaction", a pop-up appears for another finance institution trying to sell me a loan product (?). What's going on?

3. I've always used Google as my default homepage. Well, Microsoft have apparently tried to take dominion a number of times because Google have warned me...another pop-up saying something to the effect that Google has blocked Microsoft from changing my default settings. Do I want to know all this?

It's all marketing, advertising and competition - using social media as a form of "predatorship". We all know it exists, but when it extends to financial products and online capabilities - shouldn't we ask questions?

Who do we ask...the ISP (in this case BT)...Yahoo!...the creators of the IT & infrastructures...the marketers advising these firms...who?

PwC Corporate Reporting Blog - Viewpoint on Social Media?

2007-09-09T07:25:00.000-07:00

I've posed quite a broad question on David Phillips blog:

David,
Do you think that industry will eventually expect standards in social media as it impacts their products and services? I've posted a writeup on http://bizblogreview.blogspot.com/.

Links:
http://pwc.blogs.com/uk/2007/07/corporate-repor.html
http://pwc.blogs.com/corporatereporting/

Social Media and Corporate Responsibility

2007-09-07T05:28:00.001-07:00

Rough Mind Map - Social Media & Finance Industry Example.

At the start of the week two people were discussing Social Media with me when one mentioned the word "Insurance" - this was what my mind mapped. Take out the finance industry as just one example.

A major area for social media is distance learning. Social media brings learning to life and companies (VISA, RBS, HSBC) in the UK are getting the ifs (and similar institutes) to customize learning products for them:
http://www.ifslearning.com/home/default.cfm
They also have ifsProshare and KnowledgeBank.

Tremendous changes are happening in the finance industry. We'll take this term - finance - to include the accounting and investment fields...because where Corporate Responsibility (CR) auditing is concerned - there will be an overlap in the future: http://www.pwc.com/Extweb/service.nsf/docid/
976C40E302D62DA980256BC1003D7DA7
Reporting that extends to economic, social, and environmental sustainability - below and beyond the "reporting threshold".

PwC are an industry leader in setting the standards for global implementation of IFRS which used to be known as the "International Accounting Standards Board" (IASB). The words "Financial Reporting Standards" have replaced "Accounting Standards Board".

In 2009, the International Financial Reporting Standards is proposing to merge with US GAAP:
http://www.pwc.com/gx/eng/about/svcs/
corporatereporting/WW2_06Convergence.pdf

Differences between IFRS and US GAAP:
http://www.pwc.com/extweb/pwcpublications.nsf/
docid/74d6c09e0a4ee610802569a1003354c88

Consider the impact on large and small business, and on academic institutions teaching financial-related courses. Changes will have to be made. Are preparations being made?
In 2004, when I took Accounting courses at university, no mention was ever made of IFRS in the class. Since global changes in financial regulation and reporting standards are so important -students should be kept in the loop.

In November 2007, Markets in Financial Instruments Directives (MiFID) takes effect extending the responsibility of firms in their conduct of business and internal organization - CR.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) in the UK have implemented "Treating Customers Fairly" - also CR. And it's the FSA that provide institutes like the ifs with syllabus guidelines, and industry with codes of conduct.

Firms are operating internationally, and so are educational institutes - all are using social media. What's interesting is the dependence we have on social media - especially in distance learning.

As PwC forges ahead to set the standards in global CR for finance - which company should set the global standard for social media? Google? Yahoo? Should marketers be curators of content? What are the conflicts of interest? What protections are in place for profiles and content?

The answers to these questions need to be explored. Our reliance appears to be on marketers as the promoters of social media to answer them. We see division, such as with the Wikimedia Foundation and the Founders of Centiare. Does or should a multi-industry group exist to independently evaluate and answer these questions?

Brainy Brands, Emotions, and Eve's Apple - Brain Patterns - Useful in Social Media Search?

2007-09-04T23:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I went to Brighton. While travelling back on Southwestern Rail, a pretty young lady with long fair hair sat opposite me in the coach.

My eyes fixated on her adam's (or should we call it eve's?) apple - it was wobbling up and down. I thought: "This young lady's about to cry." Then I thought: "Don't make assumptions, look at her eyes...look for other signs." The eyes were slightly watery. But that didn't necessarily mean emotional tears.

Suddenly all I saw was a giant ONION. Dad's Army? Dixondale Farms? David Coleman? An onion on a billboard that said: "We know our onions..." The billboard was attached to some scaffolding as I passed on a bus between Tower Hill and Victoria earlier that day.

The brain's ability to associate tears with onions and attach memory is amazing. This is another area to explore. People's brains must create different patterns when connecting emotions, perceptions and memory. Those patterns may be used in social media search. Marketers have all kinds of avenues to experiment with especially with the development of biometrics and tools like fMRI.

Too far off? Look at Case 7 and 11 - http://ethics.iit.edu/eb/Nationalcases20071.pdf.

But ethics (simply a custom or habit - your thinking and doing) do have to be considered when marketing products and appealing to emotions because of social and moral responsibility to others. So I'd ask you to think about the contribution of someone like Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) - Genevan Philosopher of the Enlightenment and his socialist theory (social media?):

1. Society's negative influence on men centers on its transformation of a positive self-love (what he terms "Amour de soi") into pride or "Amour propre". The self-love is our instinctive human desire to self-preserve combined with our human power of reason.

Pride, on the other hand, is artificial and forces man to compare himself to others. The articiality and comparison creates fear, allowing men to take pleasure in the pain or weakness of others. Rousseau was not the first to make this distinction. The French moralist, Luc de Clapier, marques de Vauvenargues is thought to be the first.

Rousseau viewed society as artificial and held that the development of society, especially the growth of social interdependence, has been inimical to the well-being of human beings. Marketers have to consider the well-being of human beings when developing and deploying metrics, search strategies, and campaigns.

2. Rousseau published "Discourse in the Arts and Sciences" where he "argued that the arts and sciences had not been beneficial to humankind because they were not human needs, but rather a result of pride and vanity" (wikipedia).

He saw both as disciplines that created opportunities for idleness and luxury with the progress of knowledge that contributed to the corruption of man, and the overpowering of goverments that crushed individual liberty.

His conclusion: Material progress undermined the possibility of sincere friendship because it replaced genuineness with jealousy, fear, and suspicion.

3. Another work of Rosseau's is the "Discourse on Inequality" where he argues a number of points:

a) primitive humans were possessed of a basic drive to care for themselves and a natural disposition for compassion and pity
b) humans were forced to associate together more closely by the pressure of population growth, they underwent a psychological transformation and came to value the good opinion of others as an essential component of their own well-being
c) their new self-awareness was associated with a golden age of human flourishing - the development of agriculture, metallurgy, private property... (social contract created by the rich & poweful)
d) humans became increasingly dependent on one another which led to inequality and a state of conflict (the flaw of the social contract)

Conclusion: "...the desire to have value [brand?] in the eyes of others, which originated in the golden age, comes to undermine personal integrity and authenticity in a society marked by interdependence, hierarchy, and inequality" (Wikipedia).

Challenge for Brand Marketers: How do you create a desirable brand that does not undermine personal integrity and authenticity in a society marked by interdependence, hierarchy, and inequality?

In his "Social Contract", Rosseau advocates that individuals free themselves by abondoning their claim on natural right because submission to the authority of the general will of the people protects individuals from the subordinate will of others, and also ensures that they obey themselves because they are, collectively, the authors of the law.

According to the Wikipedia, he invented modern autobiography (isn't blogging a form of autobiography?) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Jacques_Rousseau

Lists of Ethicists: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethicists

INTP on Facebook - What does this say to Brand Marketers?

2007-09-04T14:04:00.000-07:00

This is what I have written in the About Me section in Facebook: "INTP Meyers Briggs "Preference-Type". It used to be INTJ. Heavens knows what it was before then and what it will become!"

Joking aside, here's a link to the INTP preference-type: http://typelogic.com/intp.html on Typelogic and a Portrait of an INTP: http://www.personalitypage.com/INTP.html. Check this site out: http://www.intp.org/images/intpcrossword.gif. And - let's not forget the Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INTP.

The point being...that if Facebook or MySpace (and other online social communities and such) provide the option for users and customers to identify their personality preference types, the "personalization" may help marketers identify their audience and pitch their brands.

Socio-personal metrics could be developed too for use in the social computing/media context.

Jungian functional preference ordering for INTP:

Dominant: Introverted Thinking
Auxiliary: Extraverted Intuition
Tertiary: Introverted Sensing
Inferior: Extraverted Feeling

Recommended Reading: "Type Talk At Work" - Otto Kroeger, Janet M. Thuesen, Hile Rutledge
www.amazon.com/Type-Talk-Work-Revised-Personality/dp/0440509289

Here's a great site with loads of personality tests to gleam ideas from:
http://similarminds.com/personality_tests.html

The Internet Freemium vs Premium Debate - What are your thoughts?

2007-09-04T00:49:00.000-07:00

iMedia recently published this article: "The internet's dirty secret: free will cost you" by Anthony Casalena - http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/16432.asp.

Anthony raises the question to online marketers: What happens when this "ad-supported" model is transitioned from supporting not just content, but actual services on the web? The shift brings in the requirement of "customer service, reliable systems, and a dedication to fix bugs" - is the ad revenue enough to cover these costs?

According to Anthony, $32 billion is spent globally in online advertising. The bottom line: Hardware is consumed and servers host masses of free users that create "downtime" for paying users who are mostly professionals with higher traffic sites that can't afford to be offline for substantial amounts of time. How can marketing professionals eliminate this downtime - missed opportunity for business?

Antony M. from Spannerworks - http://www.spannerworks.com/ - gives an interesting perspective: http://open.typepad.com/open/2007/08/facebook-fandan.html.

But how much does free cost you?

I pay approx. $11-12 per month to use Yahoo! Smallbusiness - http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/ - to host my website: http://www.bizrapport.com/. And it's worth paying this amount because I derive pleasure out of creating the site and experimenting with social media.

No free service could offer me the same tools. The service is terrific. Instead of adding a Yahoo! blog or one on offer through the service, I choose to add a Google Blogger one - http://www.blogger.com/, because I'm comfortable with how Blogger works and don't have to use AdSense if I don't want to.

Even though I experience bugs (as a free user) from time-to-time, I learn how to work around it and Edit Html too until my page looks right. Being able to combine the Yahoo! and Google services together works for me - the blog is accessible on every page of my Yahoo! website. Both Yahoo! and Google benefit from this too.

Free users of blogs do provide free content with innovative ideas, and serve as a broad sample base to gather statistics. Paying customers - marketers in particular - benefit from these ideas, statistics, and market exposure to their products and services, that users give away freely.

Where professionals can spread the costs of internet service, the non-professional often doesn't benefit from this form of scaling.

Weigh these benefits to professionals against the cost of their "downtime" and what's the result? How much "downtime" do the user and customer experience?

Similarly, even paid software isn't without its bugs and incompatibilities as we're aware with Microsoft products and others - http://connect.microsoft.com/Main/content/content.aspx?ContentID=2220. Customers still have to rely on global call centers (I've had the experience) and the online forum. Time is still money whether you're paying for the software or not.

And open source products (many of which are free) are aimed at taking into consideration those with disabilities -http://www.ibm.com/able/resources/firefox.html - what value do you place on this?

There are many aspects to consider when thinking about Premium versus Freemium. What are your thoughts?

www.bizblogreview.com Corporate Profiles Updated

2007-09-03T09:48:00.000-07:00

I've just updated the Biz Blog Review website. Thanks to Yahoo! Smallbusiness, all the corporate profiles are still there:

Bob Sutor - http://www.sutor.com/newsite/index.php
Charlene Li - http://forrester.typepad.com/charleneli
Leo Bottary - http://blogs.hillandknowlton.com/members/Leo+Bottary.aspx
Eric Kintz - http://h20325.www2.hp.com/blogs/kintz/
Rishab Ratnu - http://xpanseasia.blogspot.com/
David Jackson - http://internet.seekingalpha.com/

Thank you all again for your participation! I'm going to leave the site as is but add a different flavor to this blog by raising questions with executives on different topic themes. It's going to be a bit of an experiment as the first, while I keep up another website and blog - http://www.bizrapport.com/.

USC to the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl - National Championship Competition

2007-02-20T12:10:00.000-08:00

The USC Marshall Ethics Team - Chuong Nguyen, Stephanie Crim and Fiona Torrance - headed by Dr. Sandra Chrystal - compete on Thursday, February 22 in the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl National Championship Competition in Cincinnati, Ohio at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics.

USC Marshall Ethics Team are one of 32 national teams selected to compete in legal, financial, and ethical analysis of 15 cases: http://ethics.iit.edu/eb/Nationalcases20071.pdf. Collectively, students try and find solutions to these vexing modern-day dilemmas by drawing on interdisciplinary learning and the wisdom of philosophers/ethicists.

Dr. Sandra Chrystal is one of the first professors at USC's Marshall School of Business to ever lead business students into this collaborative and interdisciplinary approach of learning applied ethics to business and corporate governance. Information on her classes are available through USC's Marshall School of Buisness Center of Management Communication - http://www.marshall.usc.edu/buco/.

Is Social Computing Sustainable?

2007-02-20T12:05:00.000-08:00

RW -- http://luddites-or-laggards.blogspot.com/2007/02/social-computing-is-it-sustainable.html -- posted a comment on my site posing the question:

Is Social Computing Sustainable?

In the article above, RW raises three further questions:

1. Will we be able to distinguish between true consumer generated content and organisational content in the future?
2. Will consumer content become lost amongst a battle ground for organisations and brands to gain share of voice?
3. Will Governments around the world hinder the chance of social computing to grow to its full potential?

Here are my thoughts on the topic and welcome yours:

Hi RW

Thank you for visiting bizblogreview.com and directing me to your site. You raise three complex questions -- here are some thoughts on each:

1. In attempting to distinguish between organizational content and consumer generated content, we need to look at the source of the content, the platform hosting the content and its "filters"/"moderation" and as you've mentioned - regulation too.

Some organizations are genuinely soliciting and publishing all types of consumer generated content/feedback to improve product innovation and sales. There are cases though, such as sites with guest hotel reviews where subjective filtering is occuring and this raises ethical questions when customers make choices based on reviews. I think it will become harder to distinguish between what is consumer vs. organizationally-driven content, and that there will be criteria eventually to evaluate this.

2. The battle ground is in gaining visibility and attracting the DESIRED consumer to generate the DESIRED content for your site. Organizations will specialize in targeting certain consumers to contribute specific kinds of content. I think, in terms of marketing, it's just a different playground and those organizations with the best techniques will succeed.

3. A country like China (or any other) with its regulation cannot alone hinder the social computing evolution that's occurring. I don't personally think regulation and jurisdiction issues can keep up with the pace of technology.

SOUTHWEST Spreads the LUV!

2007-02-13T18:56:00.000-08:00

Today, Southwest are celebrating employees with blog post -- "Our Valentine's Day Heroes."

http://www.blogsouthwest.com/2007/02/13/our-valentines-day-heroes/

Past recipients of the Heroes of the Heart award are listed in this entry, representing a "deserving group or department that works behind-the-scenes at Southwest without direct contact with our External Customers."

It's interesting that Southwest have selected to link the Valentine's Day celebration with employee motivation.

How will other corporate bloggers seize the day?

Wells Fargo's Officers are still stuck in pursuit...

http://blog.wellsfargo.com/GuidedByHistory/

Corporate Blog Monitoring Focus 2007

2007-02-03T18:29:00.000-08:00

As the blogosphere becomes saturated with discussion about corporate blogs and strategies, I thought (from a monitoring perspective) that Cymfony's Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer, Jim Nail -- http://www.cymfony.com/abt_mgt.asp#jn -- effectively summed up the focus for 2007 -- http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/10798.asp:

"2007 is shaping up to be the year that the fast followers will kickstart corporate blogging. This wave will spur greater experimentation with topics, audiences and formats, leading more companies to jump into the blogosphere."

"The blogosphere thrives on diversity of voices. But this time next year [Aug 14, 2006] the voice of business, currently almost absent from the dialogue, will have a more prominent presence."

Some Questions:

1. Who were the early adopters (IBM, HP...)? How did they experiment with topics, audiences, and formats?

2. Who are the fast followers (Wells Fargo, Southwest Airlines...)? How are/will they experiment with topics, audiences and formats?

3. How and what is the comparison effect on business/business communication measured between a single CEO voice on a company blog and a diverse collection of employee voices on a company blog? The business voice vs. the CEO voice...

4. What strategies are companies using to gain visibility to their corporate blogs (since external corporate blogs build networks)? Blog Tag -- a fun means of gaining visibility and networking?

5. What universities/colleges/companies are offering training programs in corporate blogging and what are the topics under study and practice? How are these programs evolving?

6. What surveys and studies on corporate blogging are being conducted and by which companies? What are the findings and how do they compare with previous surveys and studies?

7. What aspects of content management systems are internal blogs overlapping/replacing?

---------------------------

As I think of more questions, I'll add to them. Please add your thoughts too.

Corporate Blog Talk 2007

2007-02-03T17:32:00.000-08:00

I've researched some articles and blog posts discussing the future of corporate blogs. Here are the links and I'll add to this post as I discover more topics of interest (please add your interests too if you read this post):

"The Outlook of Corporate Blogs" by Jim Nail, Cymfony's Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer
http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/10798.asp

"Corporate Blogging & Podcasting" - SocialMedia2007
http://socialmedia2007.blogspot.com/

Plexis 2007 - http://www.plexus2007.com/

"Corporate Blog Owners Report Success, But Differences in Resources Devoted to Blogs" - Cymfony and Porter Novelli Corporate Blog Survey
http://www.porternovelli.com/site/pressrelease.aspx?pressrelease_id=123&pgName=news

"TALKING FROM THE INSIDE OUT: The Rise of Employee Bloggers" by Edelman and Intelliseek - Fall 2005
http://edelman.com/image/insights/content/Edelman-Intelliseek%20Employee%20Blogging%20White%20Paper.pdf

"Corporate Podcasting Strategies for 2007" - Web Strategy by Jeremiah Blog
http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2007/01/18/corporate-podcasting
-strategies-for-the-fortune-1000/

"Reports: Online Activities & Pursuits" - Pew Internet & American Life Project
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/201/report_display.asp

"Internet Annual Report 2007 - Dictatorships Get to Grips with Web 2.0" - Reporters Without Borders
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=20839

"Corporate Blogging Pays for GM" by Thomas Claburn, InformationWeek
http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid
=3ZZ55K5KPSMUCQSNDLQSKHSCJUNN2JVN?articleID=197001026

"Calculating the ROI of Blogging is Easier than it Looks" by Stephen Turcotte, SCOUT of Backbone Media, Inc.
http://www.scoutblogging.com/2007/01/calculating
_roi_of_blolgging_i.html

"The Impact of Organic Google Search on Social Media - My Favorite Posts" by Eric Kintz, HP's Marketing Excellence Blog
http://h20325.www2.hp.com/blogs/kintz/archive/2007/01/22/2262.html

"Is a Blog-Tag Virtual Game Too Non-Corporate" by Eric Kintz, HP's Marketing Excellence Blog http://h20325.www2.hp.com/blogs/kintz/archive/2006/12/20/2110.html

"Web 2.0 Policy Lacking in Corporate Communication Departments in US and UK" - Sally Falkow's Proactive Blog
http://falkow.blogsite.com/public/item/151484

Source - Kaiser Scapegoat: California Laywer Magazine

2007-01-05T20:35:00.000-08:00

When researching corporate blogs in January 2006, I found an article in the California Lawyer Magazine discussing the case of Elisa D. Cooper, former employee of Kaiser Permanente.

The article states that Kaiser was "fined $200,000 by a state agency for the blogger's online disclosures."

On December 2, 2006 -- Elisa tried to add the following comment to a post on my blog:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi, Fiona -

I wish I had found this when you first posted it. I was NOT fired for blogging. I didn't begin blogging until over a year after I lost my job at Kaiser.

This was the story Kaiser PR put out because they were trying to cover up for the fact they had posted patient information on the Internet for four or five years.

I found their web site through Google, just as you could have.The whole timeline is posted in the sidebar of my blog: http://corphq.livejournal.com

Please consider actually reading up on a person's story before making public pronouncements about them in the future.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I used the California Lawyer Magazine as a source. Elisa D. Cooper's side of the story is at: http://corphq.livejournal.com/

Kaiser Scapegoat -- Apology from Fiona Torrance Author of Biz Blog Review

2007-01-05T14:33:00.000-08:00

THE POST "non-traditional-business-communication" WILL BE DELETED FROM BIZ BLOG REVIEW.

Elisa:

Thank you for emailing me and correcting the story.

When researching corporate blogs back in January 2006, I discovered a story about you being fired for blogging published by a credible source (I don't have it with me right now but will forward you the source when I get home). Based on this source, I quoted the incident not intending to spread information that is untrue about you. For this, I sincerely apologize.

Please forgive me and accept my sincere apology. I believed the source to be true and wasn't following your blog at the time.

Sincerely,

Fiona Torrance

On 12/2/06, kaiser scapegoat wrote:

Hi, Fiona -

I just saw this post from back in March:http://bizblogreview.blogspot.com/2006/03/non-traditional-business-communication.html

You falsely accused me of being fired from Kaiser Permanente for blogging. I didn't start blogging until a year after I lost my job at Kaiser. Since you I are so interested in corporate PR, the "fired for blogging" story was one ofmany played up by Kaiser to distract the public and cover up for the factthey had been posting patient information on the web for four or five years.

I have a timeline of events posted in the sidebar of my blog:http://corphq.livejournal.comSince I'm a blogger, it would have been very easy to follow up on my storyinstead of just reaching for a stereotype to fill out your own efforts atself-promotion. It looks like that post was fairly popular, with almost 50 comments.

Please think of what it would do to you if other prominentbloggers were cavalierly labeling you as a person "fired for blogging." Now your false assertion has been posted in public for nine months. I ask you toremove it immediately, though it won't do much good now.

~ Elisa

Sun's blog energized!

2006-12-20T21:32:00.000-08:00

See Jonathan Schwartz's blog's new look:

http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan/

Color talks.

Yodel Anecdotal vs Google Blog

2006-12-20T21:03:00.000-08:00

When venturing into Yahoo! Corporate Information territory, you'll discover "Yodel Anecdotal" -- http://yodel.yahoo.com/ -- Yahoo!'s coporate blog in bright orange and purple.

Larry Tessler, VP User Experience & Design, posted "Design out of the box" christening the Yodel Anecdotal blog on August 11, 2006. Posts are frequent, almost daily, with Yodelers ranging from Blog Editor -- Nicki Dugan, CIO -- Lars Rabbe, CFO -- Sue Deckler, Jeremy Johnson -- Platform Engineering, to Chief Yahoo! -- David Filo and Intern -- Doreen Bloch.

The mix of personal voices enhances the purpose of this blog:

Yodel = to sing with frequent changes from the ordinary voice
Anecdotal = a short account of a particular incident or event of an interesting or amusing nature
Source: http://www.dictionary.com/

This blog, like the official Google Blog -- http://googleblog.blogspot.com/ -- stands out from other blogs like those in my blogroll that only have one or two authors. Having different company employees voice their experiences helps users learn about the company and its people.

The other benefit is fresh content published more frequently. One drawback may be coordinating & authorizing blog-writing efforts for publication.

When comparing "Yodel Anecdotal" to the "Google Blog", I found myself drawn to the Yodel blog because of the energizing colors. In contrast, Google's blog appears clinical and less inviting. Another reason the Google Blog isn't as appealing is because there's no "Comments" option besides the occasional "Your Feedback". All Yahoo! posts have a "Comments" option that extends an invitation to readers to add content -- appropriate in our user-generated content world.

Yahoo! Lists 24 official blogs and 2 unofficial blogs on Yodel Anecdotal. In contrast, other than Google’s “Inside Google Desktop”, no other Google blogs are shown under “More Google Blogs” -- the space is blank.

What’s the purpose of the Google Blog?

"Googler insights into product and technology news and our culture."

Yahoo! and Google use two different approaches in communicating the purpose of their blog. Yahoo! uses a creative blog title while Google uses their company name followed by this one-liner spelling out their Blog’s purpose.

In their own right, both Yodel Anecdotal and Google Blog are effective in communicating messages, but which blog appeals more to this century’s users and why?

Transferred Biz Blog Review Posts August 19 - August 26, 2006 Archive

2006-12-15T10:24:00.000-08:00

Business Blog Study — Ingo Haupt — Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany
Aug 26, 2006

Yesterday, I received the email pasted below from a German student conducting a study of business blogs. I completed the survey (not for the offers but because I think business blogs are powerful business tools that should be studied!) using Bob Sutor's Open blog -- http://www.sutor.com/newsite/blog-open/ -- as the example corporate blog to answer questions about.

It's interesting because I owned an IBM Thinkpad that I recently sent my father. It's a demo model that I bought on an ebay auction some time back -- good machine! I purchased additional memory and accessories for this Thinkpad from IBM online.

The survey questions attempt to link your views of the company blog, your trust in what's communicated via the blog, the sense of community you are a part of because of the products you use and your communication about this on the blog with your loyalty to the company and the use of their products.

One of the tech items on my future buy list is another IBM Thinkpad -- http://www-131.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?storeId=10000001&catalogId=-840&langId=-1&categoryId=2035724.

IBM’s tech support and customer service people are so accessibly, efficient, and wonderful in terms of client service. I'm sold on IBM because they helped me with queries even when I hadn't purchased the IBM Thinkpad from IBM, only the accessories. They didn't respond to me as an "insignificant client".

Here's Ingo Haupt's email:

Hello Fiona:

My name is Ingo Haupt and I am a business student at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany. Within the framework of my degree dissertation I am conducting a study on Business Blogs as an instrument for consumer loyalty.

The purpose of my research is to learn what quality aspects of a business blog are most important for consumers and how companies can use their weblogs to create and strengthen consumer loyalty. I would like to invite you to participate in my online survey about business blogs. The survey will take 10 minutes or less to complete.

By doing so you would be making a significant contribution to advancing the knowledge on how companies can develop relationships with consumers through their weblog. As an additional bonus three shopping coupons for Amazon will be raffled amongst the participants of this study. You can reach the survey at the following link: http://www.marketing-mainz.de/haupt/hspe

As a matter of course all information will be treated strictly confidential. The survey results will be published anonymously, so no conclusions on the statements will be possible. I would also appreciate if you forward the link of this survey to other people you know, that are regular readers of business blogs!

Please feel free to contact me by email for further questions at http://bizblogreview.com/ym/bizblogreview.com/Compose?To=ingohaupt@gmail.com&YY=31516&y5beta=yes&y5beta=
yes&order=down&sort=date&pos=0&view=a&head=b
or have a look at my personal weblog at http://businessblogstudies.blogspot.com/ where I am documenting the progress of this study.

Thank you very much for your time and help, Ingo Haupt

Jonathan's bringing FUN to Sun!
Aug 21, 2006

Have you seen Jonathan Schwartz's recent post "Acquiring Hewlett Packard's Legacy"? Here's the link: http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan.

Jonathan says:

“I love the humor and mischief in Sun. It's one of the things that drew me here long before I joined the company, and one of the things I really appreciate about our culture. But frankly, it's one of the things that's gotten close to being rinsed away by years of cost cutting. So I'd like to officially declare, herewith, a rebirth of fun at Sun.”

And the rebirth is through ART -- read about it in his post -- and take a look at this art project he references: http://ylem.org/Hitchhikers/index.html.

Jonathan -- When can I profile you on Biz Blog Review?
I've got some interesting questions to ask you about Sun's corporate culture and the changes you're talking about on your blog. Your ideas are interesting and the atmosphere you're trying to cultivate for employees sounds intriguing. On your blog, I noticed you don't really respond to commenters -- why? Is there a reason that you don't? Some bloggers do -- they engage in a dialogue for a while before posting their next entry. Look forward to talking to you!

Launching "Career Thoughts"
Aug 21, 2006

Even though I have a number of projects on the go, I'm in a pre-permanent employment period and there are a number of thoughts yoga-ing my mind -- what I'm going to publish in the "Career Thoughts" Category on my blog.

By "permanent" employment, I mean "full-time" employment.

David Maister -- Eccentric and "widely acknowledged as one of the world’s leading authorities on the management of professional service firms" -- published an interesting piece on his career path here: http://davidmaister.com/articles/3/90/ which I thought would be a good way to kick off this Category.

David -- I'm allowed to call you an eccentric (smile) -- http://davidmaister.com/print.php?n=blog&d1=175

What I particularly like about David is how candid he is in his blog posts as you will see when you read about his career path.

It's so interesting to learn about what prompted David to make certain career/life decisions. Doing an undergraduate degree in statistics prompted him to initially become a statistician. Discovering being a statistician was not his passion or special talent, he pursued further education and taught statistics to support himself. Although the stats still bored him, he found that he loved teaching!

And so he pursued a PhD at Harvard Business School (HBS) becoming a specialist in logistics and transportation. Why this field? Because of a most helpful faculty member and because money was an issue. This field offered a large scholarship!

Even though David dedicated himself as a specialist, he discovered again that this was not his life's work. So he returned to HBS as a faculty member to teach management of service business and factory operations.

David describes the act of writing in academia as “publish or perish” because academics are expected to write and writing terrified him, while the topics didn't really excite him. But he always wanted to be a published author.

Once committing to writing articles for a magazine, David's consulting career took off.
In his post: http://davidmaister.com/articles/3/90/, David describes how difficult it is to "find your passion" and that, "most successful business careers have been based on experimentation and opportunism".

When discussing career momentum and adding force to that momentum, David says: "...only those determined to get somewhere will actually do what it takes."

David also gives us a window into his thoughts and the questions he asked himself while discovering and moving through his career path:

-------------------------------------------------------------
He says -

"If what you have now isn’t what you dream (or dreamed) of, then you must keep looking, experimenting, and adapting. You must always search for the next thing you think you can feel passionate about, so that you will have a burning reason to show the discipline and drive that will distinguish you.

Once you have found something to try, you must then throw yourself into it and work at it with as much commitment as you can muster until you can answer three questions:

Is it as exciting as I thought it was going to be?
Is there a market for this? (Will anyone pay me to do it?) and
Can I make a contribution that others are not (yet) making?

All three must be present to succeed. If any component is missing you must move on. Living your professional life this way is not easy.

Each step in my career often seems to other people like a terrific “step-up” accomplishment: giving up my statistics job to go get a master’s degree, signing up for a doctorate, joining the Harvard faculty, then later leaving it to become a solo consultant.

The truth, however, is that for me (as for most people) each successive step was a terrifying leap into the unknown, requiring me to abandon the security of what I had without any certainty (or even probability) that it was going to work."
-------------------------------------------------------------

I find David's life story an inspiration. We can read so many short published biographies and never really know what prompted people to make certain decisions -- the reasons why.

My own life is an unusual one that caused my return to education as a "mature student" at USC.
In future posts, I'll tell you a little about this so that you can follow my professional progression.

A blog is a public realm and I'm careful what I say on my blog because I'm yet to step into a "permanent" - although not guaranteed - official professional position of employment. Even when I reach this point, I'd still be mindful of my published (and unpublished) thoughts.

Leo Bottary questions the HR Pros about "Finding The Best Talent"
Aug 21, 2006

Recently, Leo Bottary -- Senior Vice President of Corporate Practice for Hill & Knowlton Tampa -- asked those involved with identifying and hiring PR professionals within their agencies the following questions:

How do you identify and select the kind of employee who will provide a level of client service that is consistent with your agency's culture and values?

What do you look for, and what do you believe serve as reliable predictors when it comes to meeting your high client service standards?

Here is the link to the debate if you want to join in:
http://blogs.hillandknowlton.com/blogs/leobottary
/archive/2006/08/15/4054.aspx

Leo's blog is a collective conversation on Client Service Insights (CSI). Personally, I find this fascinating because every industry has clients and we all need to learn to build long term trusting relationships with those clients.

Leo's views on client services are educational too -- take a look!

Bob Sutor -- Blog ROI and Blogging...
Aug 19, 2006

http://www.sutor.com/newsite/blog-open/

Anyone who knows me well will tell you that Bob Sutor’s my favorite corporate blogger! And it’s not just because he recognized Biz Blog Review at its inception but because he’s so authentic. If you’ve not visited his site, actually looked at his blog in-depth, or read a single Sutor post – get over there now!

You’ll discover an eclectic blend of IBM developments, family projects, Open Source initiatives, health topics, travel stories, education, humor, writing, guitar lessons, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones. And much more – written and posted with personality!

Last Friday, I asked Bob about whether or not he measures the ROI of his blog. Put short, the answer is “No”. But he is attempting to track visits to his site out of interest. In contrast, says Bob, the IBM developerWorks blogs -- http://www-03.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/-- do track hits to their sites as a means of measuring ROI because it’s an indicator of people interested in developers “talking about IBM products/goods”.

Bob views his own blog as a communications tool that is personal with a dual audience that is “internal” – within IBM – and “external” – within the public arena outside of IBM.

When discussing blogging, we also touched on the topic of “spelling” and “comment moderation”. If you have posted to your blog and you have spelled words incorrectly – should you edit the post and correct the spelling or leave it? Is the attention to detail important?

If a particular commenter is posting negative comments continually or is using your blog as a platform to damage your character/reputation, should you moderate the comments or not post them to your blog?On the topic of spelling, Bob says that he pays attention to detail and prefers to edit so that words are spelled correctly.

I have to agree with Bob on this point – I do the same. Being correct on spelling is tougher when posting comments to other blogs because once posted by the moderator, the commenter cannot edit the spelling errors. The same is true when posting a string or two of thought to someone elses blog and you leave the other four strings of thought behind in mind! Unless you restate what you mean – nobody knows what you mean!

On the topic of comment moderation we both shared examples (other than advertising/spam) where we simply chose not to post the comment for decent reason. After our discussion, I gave this further thought, and I’d say that this is a good measure:“When you blog, you don’t write down your every thought in your blog posts. You carefully think about what you are going to say and by “thoughtful process” you create your blog entry. Why then, should you have to post the comment of every/any thought that comes into someone else’s mind? I think you have a choice to moderate based on the same thoughtful process."

Other subjects I’d loved to have discussed further with Bob are Open Source and his experimentation with the WordPress program.Bob’s site is an excellent starting point to learn about Open Source –“Open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's sources. Some consider it as a philosophy, and others consider it as a pragmatic methodology.

Before open source became widely adopted, developers and producers used a variety of phrases to describe the concept; the term open source gained popularity with the rise of the Internet and its enabling of diverse production models, communication paths, and interactive communities.[1]” – www.wikipedia.org

Even though I'm not a programmer of any kind, I find Bob’s style of writing clear and easy to understand, when he writes on his blog and about Open Source in these two essays:

1. Open Standards vs. Open Source: How to think about software, standards, and Service Oriented Architecture at the beginning of the 21st century -- http://www.sutor.com/newsite/essays/e-OsVsOss.php

2. Adjusting to a more open world: Understanding and overcoming resistance to open technologies -- http://www.sutor.com/newsite/blog-open/?p=788

You can also learn about IBM as a company and why they donate code to various foundations like the Eclipse Open Health Foundation -- http://www.eclipse.org/proposals/eclipse-ohf/
http://www.ddj.com/dept/opensource/191901448 http:
//www.sutor.com/newsite/blog-open/?cat=25 -- and and the Mozilla Foundation -- http://www.firefox.com/

“IBM has already helped integrate into Firefox support for Microsoft Active Accessibility, an industry standard for access technologies such as screen readers, which read software and content aloud. "IBM's commitment to further Firefox's capabilities and reach people who have disabilities marks an important technical advancement for Firefox," Mitchell Baker, Mozilla president, said in a statement.

The market for access technologies is large. Between 750 million and a billion people globally have a speech, vision, mobility, hearing or cognitive disabilities, according to the World Health Organisation. In the US, the Rehabilitation Act requires federal agencies to provide access to electronic and information technology for all employees and citizens, irrespective of their abilities.”

Source:http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/applications
/0,39020384,39213395,00.htm

There are so many blogs out there written by different people and different organizations for different reasons. When following blogs, interacting on blogs, and becoming involved with the people writing to those blogs, it’s a personal choice.

What I find most stimulating in discovering a blog like Bob Sutor's is that it not only represents the man himself and his organization, but that Bob puts incredible effort into its creation to personally share and educate on a diverse range of topics with his sincere voice and experience.

Thank you for sharing your blog with us, Bob, and for showing us what it means to "strike the right chord, if we can find it"!

PROFILE: Bob Sutor
Vice President, Standards and Open Source
IBM Corporation

Dr. Bob Sutor is the Vice President of Standards for the IBM Corporation. In this role he has the responsibility for driving and executing the cross-company business and technical strategy for open standards and open source as they relate to software, hardware, services, vertical industries, and emerging markets.

Previously, Sutor was Director of WebSphere Product and Market Management. This included ownership of the WebSphere Application Server, WebSphere MQ, and the WebSphere Business Integration product lines, as well as web services and Service Oriented Architecture.

A 23 year veteran of IBM, Sutor worked for 15 years in IBM Research, specializing in symbolic mathematical computation and Internet publishing. He co-authored the books Axiom: The Scientific Computation System and The LaTeX Web Companion. Sutor was a co-author of the W3C Recommendation Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) as well as the W3C Recommendation Document Object Model Level 1.

In 1999 Dr. Sutor moved to the IBM Software Group and focused on jump starting industry use of XML. This led to positions on the Board of Directors of the OASIS standards group and the vice chairmanship of the ebXML effort, a joint OASIS/United Nations endeavor. Sutor then led IBM’s industry standards and Web services strategy efforts.

Dr. Sutor is a widely read blogger and is a frequent speaker around the world on open standards, open source, web services, and Service Oriented Architecture. He is widely cited in the press and was recently featured in interviews in the Harvard Business Review, CNET, eWeek, and InfoWorld.

Dr. Sutor has an undergraduate degree from Harvard College and a Ph.D. from Princeton University, both in Mathematics.

Full Resume: http://www.sutor.com/newsite/cv.php

Striking the Right Chord, If You Can Find It — Bob Sutor and Family Website and Blogs: http://www.sutor.com/newsite/index.php

Blog Discussion: Measuring blog ROI, PR vs. your personal voice, and blogging…

Corporate Blogging at Occidental's SCCUR 2006

2006-12-10T17:47:00.000-08:00

On November 18, 2006 approximately 750 participants from 70 colleges and universities participated in Occidental's 14th annual Southern California Conference for Undergraduate Research (SCCUR) -- http://sccur06.oxy.edu/index.shtml.

"Why is corporate blogging relevant to students?" was one of the entries selected for presentation.

My opening question to the audience was: "How many corporate blogs exist?"

Back in 2004, David Sifry -- Founder of Technorati -- indicated approximately 5000. Most corporate bloggers then were centered in software and media companies.

By 2006, reports by Anderson C. and Mayfield R. of the Fortune 500 Business Blogging Wiki and Dowling G. and Daniels D. of Jupiter Research suggest the following:

Approximately 35 percent of large companies plan to institute corporate weblogs in 2006
More than 5 percent of Fortune 500 companies blog externally
With 34 percent of corporations blogging, a 70 percent total is expected by the end of 2006.

The growth in corporate blogging is visible as the benefits of this corporate blogging tool are weighed and recognized as greater than the liabilities.

When I first started my Independent Study on Corporate Blogs in January 2006, no entries existed on the topic in the Wikipedia. It's exciting to see the sharing of information on the subject in this online encyclopedia -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_blog.

Although I've not posted any entries for some time on corporate blogging due to my USC courseload priorities, I will start and build momentum with the New Year.

USC Fall Semester '06 on the Fly!

2006-11-04T17:56:00.000-08:00

The Summer came and went so fast, ending my internship with iMedia Connection - http://www.imediaconnection.com/ - and starting afresh the Fall '06 semester with all the thrill of new classes and colorful challenges.

During this period I'm learning new tools in Operations Management, Business Economics, Advanced Strategies for Managing Corporate Communications, and Strategic Management.

What's interesting is that although this undergraduate business degree skims the surface in what's possible to discover in all these disciplines, I'm valuing the pattern I can see in how they fit together -- in how the tools complement each other in an "interdisciplinary" way. Here's the link to our programs: http://www.marshall.usc.edu/web/Undergraduate.cfm?doc_id=3419

I'm looking forward to joining a company or organization where I can research and explore indepth real-life issues, using and developing on these tools I've learned over four years, to seek solutions.

My blog's been on the backburner as time's been short to keep it up, even though it's been my intention to do so. Further blog posts may remain few through November until after the first week of December when my final exams are over. Thereafter, I intend to add content more frequently.

Officially, I graduate from USC on December 13, 2006.

Transferred Biz Blog Review Posts July 24 - August 12, 2006 Archive

2006-10-13T16:58:00.000-07:00

12 August 06 - Pointers from Charlene Li on measuring blog ROI and the impact of user-generated content

In a brief discussion with Charlene Li yesterday morning, I asked her about measuring corporate blog ROI and about the impact of user-generated media/content on business strategy.

On the topic of measuring corporate blog ROI, Charlene suggests that company metrics differ depending on the business purpose but that three main components are involved:

1. Benefit -How beneficial is the blog as a communications channel (marketing/advertising/public relations) whether used by customers or employees?

2. Cost -How much is the technology and time costing?

3. Risk -What risk is associated with the blog and how do youquantify and contain the risk?

When asking Charlene how she sees businesses changing as a result of user-generated media/content, she posed a striking question for businesses to consider:

Are you ready to respond to feedback?

User-generated media/content is customer feedback in the public arena.

Whether businesses choose to harness new technologies or not, the feedback exists. When put that way -- Charlene says -- it gets attention.

Refer to one of Charlene's previous blog posts -- "The Changing Media Business Model": http://blogs.forrester.com/charleneli/2006/05/index.html

Charlene's bio will be published on the Profile page shortly.

9 August 06 - Response from GM!

Not so long ago, in one of my posts, I mention asking GM's Bob Lutz a question on his blog via "comments" but the question remains unanswered and still hangs somewhere in the ether out there. Key Question for Business: Are you ready to respond to feedback?

The question: Does GM measure the blog ROI of their GM Fastlane and FYI blogs and if so, how do they go about doing so (in terms of the variables used)?

So I decided to attempt to find the answer by asking the question on GM's Corporate Responsibility Contact Page. Here's the response:

---------------------------------------------------------------

Customer Relationship Specialist: Jennifer Bastian

Dear Fiona Torrance

Thank you for contacting the General Motors Customer Assistance Center regarding your interest in corporate blogs. I appreciate your taking the time to email us regarding this matter.

I recommend that you write to our Public Relations Department at the address below. We apologize, but there is not direct e-mail address for that department.

GM Public Relations100 Renaissance CenterCommunicationsP.O. Box 100Detroit, MI 48265-1000

If you should need to contact us in the future, simply reply to this message or call our General Motors Customer Assistance Center at 1-800-222-1020. Customer Relationship Specialists are available Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., Eastern Time.

Again, thank you for contacting General Motors

Sincerely,

The General Motors Consumer Support Team

---------------------------------------------------------------

Although this does not answer our question, it is the kind of response I've received in the past when using company contact pages. This may take a couple of weeks via snail mail, but I may receive some kind of an answer for you from GM yet!

We are venturing into PR territory here...it's time to setup a new category on my blog.

9 August 06 - The value in visiting blogs

There's so much fun to setting up a blog on a topic you're passionate about and sharing that with those who engage the blogosphere.

But I've discovered that it's just as exciting to expore the blogs of others, join in discussions, and "meet" other people.

Leo Bottary (http://www.bizblogreview.com/Profiles.html) introduced me to David Maister's blog (http://davidmaister.com/blog/) where I came into contact with someone named Shaula Evans -- http://stresslimitdesign.com

Shaula's so helpful in providing me with information that I felt I wanted to share the links she's given me with those who read my blog:

The New PR/Wiki CEO Blog List -- http://www.thenewpr.com/wiki/pmwiki.php?pagename=Resources.CEOBlogsList

The New PR/Wiki Corporate Blog List --http://www.thenewpr.com/wiki/pmwiki.php?pagename=Resources.CorporateBlogsList

Babson Women's Business Blog --
http://www3.babson.edu/cwl/blog/

David Maister on "Adventures in Modern Marketing" --http://davidmaister.com/articles/2/97/

Start Cooking --
http://startcooking.com/
http://blog.startcooking.com

Thank you, Shaula!

26 July 06 - Leo Bottary — Senior Vice President, Corporate Practice Hill & Knowlton Tampa — offers thoughts on corporate blogs

Fiona -

I posted a comment on Richard Edelman's blog just the other day, where I offered some thoughts on corporate blogs:

Regarding corporate bloggers, I think it's similar in some ways to trying to convince some executives, even today, to participate in television news interviews. Assuming they have something to say, some have figured out that instead of taking a beating on a 90 second news segment, they can fill some of that time delivering their own message and actually communicating even much more than that. They're apprehensive because they don't trust the medium, and many never will. Of course, what it really looks like is they don't trust the viewers (their customers).

Blogging takes it a step further because not only are execs uncertain of the medium, but also they're scared to death about what all the messengers will say. As you well know, the conversation is taking place and will continue take place with or without them. The number of people influenced by those conversations is growing every day.

To add to that, the blogging medium is no different than any other in terms of evaluation criteria - participation should be based on individuals, company culture, business/communications objectives, etc. With rare exception, it's not a question of if you should join the conversation, it's how. For many executives, their interest in blogs tends to pique during times of crisis.

I recommend not waiting until you're in trouble to engage in the conversation.
Link to comment on Richard Edelman's blog:
http://www.edelman.com/speak_up/blog/archives
/2006/07/his_masteras_vo.html#comments
Leo Bottary's blog:
http://blogs.hillandknowlton.com/blogs/leobottary/

26 July 06 - More male executive blogger presence

I've been observing corporate blogs for a while now and have noticed that there appears to be a greater male executive blogger presence then female.

Susan Underhill is the only female executive blogger at Hewlett Packard - http://h71028.www7.hp.com/enterprise/cache/104417-0-0-0-121.html. Of the 32 corporate blogs I studied - http://bizblogreview.blogspot.com/ - predominantly male executives have setup journals on the web.

Today, I've been searching to find female executives other than Susan Underhill or Charlene Li of Forrester Research - http://forrester.typepad.com/charleneli/ - to be profiled on Biz Blog Review, and what I've discovered is that there aren't that many in the blogosphere.

As a female business student, I value learning from women in key business positions, yet some are less forthcoming with guidance than men in similar positions. Susan Underhill was a tremendous help to me during my Independent Study.

There must be more females in management positions that could have company blogs and contribute through these to employee motivation, research, knowledge management, or marketing of their expertise/business.

Early this year, I evaluated some statistics of business students -- male and female -- using blogs/wikis for learning at USC. From my sample, what I discovered is that females overall use the tool more frequently than males, and as a means of reflection. The blog definitely spurs critical thinking.

An article published in the Wall Street Journal not so long ago (I forget the article title and issue) discussed the lower presence of females in executive positions. Yet certain studies showed that females in the classroom often -- contrary to former Harvard President Summers' view -- outperformed male counterparts in the math and science arena.

It's interesting to watch this presence in the blogosphere and to see if more female executive bloggers are going to emerge. What are the reasons for the lower numbers of executive female bloggers? And how does this impact the blogosphere if at all?

25 July 06 - Dell’s One2One blog - Blog Outreach!

Link:
http://www.dellone2one.com/

July 2006 marks Dell's official corporate blog launch.

Actually, July 5 to be exact with blog post title: "XPS 700 BYO" where Mary Joseph of the XPS Product Team presents performance features of the 700 BYO in a vlog.

As vlogs are posted and comments stream in, Dell turns less into more saying, "Real People are Here and We're Listening".

Today's post is titled: "Dell Customer Advocates in the Blogosphere" where Dell tells how they "began monitoring blogs to help customers who needed help from Dell support"
- BLOG OUTREACH -
http://www.dellone2one.com/one2one/archive/2006/07/25/979.aspx
Dell says they have people responsible for blog outreach because:

"Finding and supporting customers in the blogosphere is a difficult and risky undertaking. It does, however, allow us to address many ongoing issues head on. And when the process results in resolution of a customer issue, we think it's clearly worth the effort."

Corporate blogs connect real people, create jobs, provide information and sell products/services. They generate criticism/feedback and are used for research. And Archives, such as One2One's, provide the public with an inside view to technology's role in corporate and organizational change showing customer and employee interaction.

24 July 06 - What S has to say on calculating executive blog ROI

S's Profile: http://www.writerproducer.com/

Here is S's take on calculating corporate blog ROI:

Fiona –

Very interesting website…

Have you thought about calculating the ROI on business blogs by focusing on executives who are in the midst of a reputation management issue?

For example, if you could find a CEO who was responding to a product recall or an accounting scandal, he would be actively trying to manage the publicity.

You could measure the number of times his blog gets picked up by the media against any stock price movements.

Anyway…just a thought.

S

Transferred Biz Blog Review Posts July 1-20, 2006 Archive

2006-10-10T20:51:00.000-07:00

20 July 06 - Discussing corporate blogs and changes in technology in Florence, Oregon…

I've just returned back from a week's visit in Florence, Oregon. Aside from enjoying cool weather, kayaking on Wohink Lake, and meeting the gentleman that John Kerry saved, I answered a recurring question: "What work do you do?"

After telling all about my participation in the Cybercamp 2006 for migrant workers' children run at USC during the summer, I explained that I enjoy reviewing corporate blogs. This prompted the next question: "What's a blog?" Answering this question created a wonderful opening to discuss corporate blogs and why they are being used.

A retired college vice president then asked me how I keep up with technology. My response was that I wasn't sure that I do - but I try. And I try by reading what researchers, marketers and advertisers have to say.

The reason is because researchers and marketers/advertisers track how technology is used to reach the consumer or how the consumer uses technology to communicate their needs. Inevitably, they mention the technology with a basic explanation of who produced it and how it's being used.

I'd be interested to know how you keep up to date with changes in technology, and how you see these changes impacting corporate blogs.

20 July 06 - Google links to Seeking Alpha conference call transcripts

Today I received the following email from David Jackson of Seeking Alpha network blog:

Hi Fiona,

Sorry to take so long to get back to you. I tried your page, but couldn't load it. Here's the Seeking Alpha about page:http://seekingalpha.com/article/5824

Also, Google started linking to our conference call transcripts, something which should be very useful for business school students!

David

Here is the link mentioned on the Google blog: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/07/stocking-up.html

This is the response I emailed David:

Hi David,

Thank you for this information - I appreciate you taking the time to send me the links.

What I usually do is post the information to my blog (and update the Profile).

When I initially contacted you, I was in the process of moving my blog and setting up the new Website so it is possible that you could not access the site -- sorry about that. It should be accessible now.

I studied investments and "alpha" under Joe Chen at USC during Fall 2005. Joe's website is accessible at http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~josephsc/ if you are interested in reading some of his Working Papers (intriguing!).

Thanks again for you inputs!

Fiona

13 July 06 - Blog ROI question for Charlene Li of Forrester Research

On July 7, I emailed Charlene Li the following question in response to the June 5 post on her blog -- http://forrester.typepad.com/charleneli/:

Hi Charlene,

Eric Kintz of HP recently referred me to your June 5 post "Calculating the ROI of blogs - it's not about the math" because I am posing the question to a number of executives to find out their thoughts/views on the topic.

Here is the link: http://bizblogreview.com/blog/2006/07/05/eric-kintz-hps-vp-of-global-marketing-strategy-excellence-on-measuring-executive-blog-roi/

My blog used to be located at http://bizblogreview.blogspot.com/ originally setup for a USC Independent Study on corporate blogs and is now located on a new site in progress: www.bizblogreview.com/blogs.

I agree with you about the subjectivity involved in trying to measure a blog's ROI. The reason I say this is because of the differences in executive blogs -- their objectives, number of posts, comments generated, and harnessing of new technologies to increase or measure traffic.

When I studied 32 corporate blogs, the data I obtained and placed into statistical models appeared 'noisy' and needed transforming -- it was still hard to make specific statements. I was looking at the success of the blog as a business communications tool.

The vast differences in the blogs makes it difficult to come up with that 'template' that one of your commenters /pd is asking for because metrics cannot be used in isolation.

How do you account for the cost that may be incurred from a blog post perceived negatively and build that into the ROI calculation?

You mention: "In my case, I believe that I can associate my blog with increased business and marketing value to Forrester because I write about certain topics only on my blog. If I wasn’t blogging about these topics, then I wouldn’t have had the content, exposure, and influence to interest those companies in becoming Forrester clients."

Determining the impact of your content, exposure, and influence on Forrester clients is tricky to measure. I am interested to know how you would go about this. If you have the time, would you give me your thoughts on this?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Fiona Torrance
Student
USC Marshall School of Business

11 July 06 - Setting up a blog creates a cultural expectation

John Cass, Director of Blogging Strategies for Backbone Media, conducted the Corporate Blogging Survey in 2005 and An Interview with General Motor's Best Customer.

The entry is titled "The GM Blog: Lessons for Customer Blogging Relations" and is found at this link:
http://blogsurvey.backbonemedia.com/archives
/2005/09/the_gm_blog_les.html

Cass sums up that by setting up a blog allowing for comments, customers expect their questions to be answered.

Bob Lutz of GM does not answer every question on the GM Fastlane blog and has stated in a number of posts that he does not have the time to respond to all queries.

The difficulty is that not all customers read every post and know this and some are disappointed when their questions are left unanswered or unaddressed.

Recently, I asked Mr. Lutz a question on his blog about how GM measures blog return on investment (ROI) and I tied the question in with the subject matter of the post. It suprised me to see a single comment "B-O-R-I-N-G" posted and yet my question is still unanswered.

Mr. Cass's survey answers the question to a degree. Being tenacious, I explored the GM Website and discovered the Corporate Responsibility Report Contact page -- http://www.gm.com/gmcomjsp/contactus/
gmcorpcit_comment.html. I posted the same question via this page and look forward to see what comes back.

9 July 06 - Rishabh Ratnu introduces me to Starcom MediaVest Group’s Xpanse Asia blog

When starting my original independent study on corporate blogs at http://bizblogreview.blogspot.com/, an individual named Rishe would offer some interesting questions and insights on my blog, yet I did not know anything about him.

Today, Rishe introduced me to his company's blog -- Xpanse Asia --located at http://xpanseasia.blogspot.com/.

The blog is Starcom's Small Town & Rural Solutions initiative -- "We fuel brands through contact innovations based on consumer insights in the Small Town and Rural space across Asia to deliver results that make a difference to the bottom lines of these brands."

Xpanse Asia blog started in February 2006 and contains interesting information about the initiative with pictures of activities and people involved.

What I particularly like is the sense of culture conveyed. The author writes:

"Punjab, the land of gaiety and merrymaking, where festivals are celebrated with much aplomb and fanfare. Being a predominantly agricultural state that prides itself on its fields, hardly surprising, that its most significant festival is Baisakhi, which marks the arrival of the harvesting season."

This blog is worth reading because it shows how such an initiative in rural India is evolving and how effective a blog can be in showing the world what companies, like Starcom, are doing and also the cultural dynamics at play.

6 July 06 - Seeking ROI — What does David Jackson of Seeking Alpha say?

On this mission to discover how companies or "if" companies measure their blog ROI, I contacted David Jackson -- Founder of The Seeking Alpha blog -- http://seekingalpha.com/.

Here's David's response:

Hi Fiona,

Sorry about the delay getting back to you.

Seeking Alpha is actuallyan aggregator and filter for stock market blogs, not a single blog.

We have over 150 contributors. So I'll leave it to you to see if youwant to adapt your questions to that!

Your project sounds fun!

Best,
David

Adapting the question, we eagerly await David's response to this one:

Hi David,

Thank you for your feedback!

Do you know if any of your 150 contributors to Seeking Alpha are measuring their blog ROI?

That would be interesting to know.

I would love to post something different about you on my Profile page: http://www.bizblogreview.com/profile -- say an interest you have or something in your line of work that you would find intriguing to research further.

If you have the time to email me back that would be great.

Enjoy your day!
Fiona

5 July 06 - Eric Kintz — HP’s VP of Global Marketing Strategy & Excellence — on measuring executive blog ROI
http://h20325.www2.hp.com/blogs/kintz/

Here's Eric Kintz's response to our question:

Fiona,

Thanks for pinging me. The ROI of corporate blogs is a critical question that generates a lot of interest in Fortune 100 companies. Can blogging be justified by the additional sales it generates?

I agree with Charlene Li (http://blogs.forrester.com/charleneli/2006/06/calculating_the.html) that it is difficult, possibly dangerous, to attach a number to blogging ROI because blogging is all about the relationship and the dialogue with your community.

In her words, “It’s that investment in the relationship that turns intangible, unquantifiable blogs into hard metrics”. We track traffic, links to our blogs as well as links on “influential blogs”, but these are proxies for the quality of the relationship.

I would be very interested in your findings

Eric

5 July 06 - How Does Hewlett Packard Measure Executive Blog ROI?

Recently, I asked Mr. Eric Kintz -- VP of Global Marketing Strategy & Excellence for HP -- the following question on his blog: "The Marketing Excellence blog by Eric Kintz":

Hello Mr. Kintz,

I've noticed Mr. Tankus is no longer blogging for HP and his blog was one that I used in an Independent Study at USC -- http://bizblogreview.blogspot.com.

Would you mind being interviewed and profiled on my new site -- http://www.bizblogreview.com/?
My new blog is located at http://www.bizblogreview.com/blog.

I am particularly interested in how companies calculate blog ROI and how the metrics differ from traditional calculations for say PR/marketing campaigns. How does HP calculate executive blog ROI?

I look forward to your response.

Fiona Torrance
Student
USC Marshall School of Business

Link:
http://h20325.www2.hp.com/blogs/kintz/
archive/2006/06/26/1225.html#Comments
We look forward to Mr. Kintz's response to this question!

4 July 06 - How Does GM Measure Blog ROI?

Yesterday I asked Bob Lutz a question on his GM Fastlane blog about the metric system GM uses to measure return on investment (ROI) generated by the blog and what variables they focus on. We look forward to his response.

Measuring the ROI generated by a blog is a fairly new field, even though methods of calculating ROI from marketing and PR campaigns long exists.

What I am interested in discovering is how the method of measuring ROI for blogs differs from measuring any other PR mechanism.

A report written by Heidi Cohen on July 7, 2005 titled "Corporate Blogs: Measure their value!", states that, "To date, ROI hasn't been applied to blogs."

Cohen suggests refering to how other marketing components within your company are valued (how you calculate their metrics) and to apply a similar method to valuing your business blog.

Other practical approaches include:

Media placements
Direct revenues or traffic
Improved search rankings
Brand effect
Increased buzz
Promotion generation

In collating relevant costs, include direct cost factors involved in creation and operation of the blog and soft/shared costs such as executive blogging time and corporate communications.

Cohen offers the following method for calculation of blog ROI -- Combine the revenue and investment components to yield an ROI calculation as follows:

ROI = [annual profit (loss)]/investment costs
Where profit (loss) = dollar value of success metrics - fixed costs - variable cost
With fixed costs = relevant ongoing marketing and overhead associated with blog
With variable costs = costs associated with product sold
With investment costs = one-time costs to launch the blog

With the growth in corporate blogs and blogs receiving financing from venture capitalists, such as Rafat Ali's PaidContent.org blog and GigaOm.com blog, their ROI should be measured to record blog value and impact.

Knowing blog ROI is important because it can help managers make strategic business decisions.

Heidi Cohen's report is available at: http://www.clickz.com
/experts/crm/actionable_analysis/article.php/3517546

Biz Blog Review Moved Back To Blogger!

2006-10-09T20:03:00.000-07:00

After moving my blog - Biz Blog Review - from blogger.com (http://bizblogreview.blogspot.com) to a WordPress application (http://www.bizblogreview.com/blog), I've decided to return to using blogger.com (this site) for these two main reasons:

1. Blogger is "WYSIWYG" - What You See Is What You Get
Posts take less time because the application is easy to use. In contrast, WordPress takes more time because the application isn't as easy to use.

Although I support open source and enjoy the challenge of learning WordPress, I've not got enough time (busy college workload in my last semester!) to download new versions of the application and to post.

2. The simplicity of Blogger allows me to focus on content and rather than the blog application software (I've got side-tracked!).

3. Blogger's community of techi helpers are so supportive! They email and give feedback when you're in need of guidance with your blog. I expressed a lot of frustration initially when I setup Biz Blog Review on blogger.com because of my own lack of technical experience but the Blogger people were so helpful.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Since WordPress 2.0.3+ eliminated the referrer check in their core files and my posts were blocked, I haven't blogged on my own blog.

Recently, Professor Kathi Berens at USC asked me to discuss my blog experiences with her Writing 340 class and this was when I realized that I really would prefer to return to using blogger.com.

The question I faced is: How do I communicate this "three-point-turn" to the blogging community? Since I just switched to using a new blog site for Biz Blog Review, I thought about how confusing this would be to my audience.

What I explained to Professor Berens's class is that I started Biz Blog Review initially without a real set plan -- the blog just evolved as my independent study unfolded.

When we look at my first post on this blog, we see in January 2006 that it's merely an "Annotated Bibliography" - just parts to a research paper. This develops to blog posts of email communications with executives, and later to blog discussions and interviews with different executives.

Initially, my intent was just to house research information. But I've derived so much enjoyment from interacting with people and sharing insights through the blog that it's gone beyond just a knowledge management system.

In my presentation to Professor Berens's students, I listed the following questions for students to think about before setting up a blog:

1. What will your blog’s purpose be?
2. Do you want people to participate?
3. What will the blog do for you?
4. How frequently can you blog?
5. What should you bear in mind?
6. Should you blog on other blogs?
7. How techi do you want to be?

These questions help us discover our blog topic and how involved we want to be in blogging. They're questions I didn't ask myself before starting Biz Blog Review -- I just dived in! So, it's apt -- this Biz Blog Review.

I'll copy over the blog posts from the other site in the coming weeks to consolidate all blog posts in one place. For easier reading, I may invert and place black text on a white background. This is a work in progress...we're back!

Biz Blog Review has moved!

2006-07-03T21:51:00.000-07:00

Biz Blog Review has now moved to site:

www.bizblogreview.com

The blog is located at:

www.bizblogreview.com/blog

Any feedback on these new sites is most welcome!

The 32 Corporate/Executive Blogs Analyzed:

2006-06-28T23:04:00.000-07:00

I researched the following 32 company blogs (or executive blogs representative of the company) for statistical analysis to try to determine how effective the blog is as a business communication tool:

Hewlett Packard http://h71028.www7.hp.com/enterprise/cache/104417-0-0-0-121.html
IBM http://www-03.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/
Google http://googleblog.blogspot.com/
Dow Jones: Wall Street Journal http://blogs.wsj.com/law/
GM http://fastlane.gmblogs.com/about.html
Ford http://blog.ford.com/BLOG.CFM
Kodak http://blog.lib.umn.edu/koda0009/blogthoughts/
Sun Microsystems http://blogs.sun.com/roller/main.do and http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan
Wiley & Sons http://jwikert.typepad.com/the_average_joe/
Mercer Capital http://merceronvalue.com/
Cisco Systems http://blogs.cisco.com/gov/
Earthlink http://blogs.earthlink.net/
Pricewaterhouse Coopers http://pwc.blogs.com/
Nike http://www.gawker.com/artofspeed/
Jupiter Research http://weblogs.jupiterresearch.com/toplevel/
Red Hat http://blogs.redhat.com/executive/
Boeing http://www.boeing.com/randy/
IUpload http://royce.iupload.com/
Forrester Research, Inc. http://forrester.typepad.com/charleneli/
Adobe http://blogs.adobe.com/
Siemens http://www.club-siemens.net/blog/blog/
FastCompany http://www.fastcompany.com/welcome.html
Schwimmer & Associates http://www.schwimmerlegal.com/
Amazon http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/id/A3JZTPVXXIUPTJ/102-0808310-6689716
AOL http://ted.aol.com/
Wired News http://blog.wired.com/sterling/
Mavericks http://www.blogmaverick.com/
Burson Marsteller http://hb.burson-marsteller.com/
Oracle http://blogs.oracle.com/
Telstra http://www.nowwearetalking.com.au/Home/Page.aspx?mid=48
Hitachi Data Systems http://blogs.hds.com/
Versant Solutions http://www.versantblogs.com/

Acknowledgements

2006-06-28T22:39:00.000-07:00

Thank you to the following USC faculty and staff for your contributions:

Professor Sandra Chrystal -- Associate Professor of Clinical
Center for Management Communication -- Marshall School of Business

Jude Higdon -- Project Manager
Teaching & Learning Services -- Center for Scholoarly Technology

Professor Bert Steece -- Professor
Department of Information & Operations Management -- Marshall School of Business

Professor Ronald Bruck -- Professor
Director of Math Computing Labs -- Mathematics Department

Professor Rex Kovacevich -- Associate Professor of Clinical
Department of Marketing -- Marshall School of Business

Professor Steve Posner -- Part Time Lecturer
Center for Management Communication --Marshall School of Business

Thank you to the following corporate executives willing to answer my questions:

Mr. Mohammed Amin -- International Taxation Specialist, Pricewaterhouse Coopers

Mr. Bob Sutor -- Vice President of Standards and Open Source, IBM

Mr. David Gee -- Vice President of Hewlett Packard's Worldwide Marketing, Software, Technology Solutions Group

Ms. Susan Underhill -- Vice President of Hewlett Packard's Global Certification and Partner Education

Mr. John Earnhardt -- Media Spokesperson, Cisco Systems, Inc.

Mr. Brad Berens -- Executive Editor, iMediaConnection, Inc.

Mr. Chris Charron -- Vice President and Research Director, Forrester Research

Mr. Neville Hobson -- Communicator, Blogger and Podcaster
One of the leading European early adopters and influencers in social media communication for business.

Mr. John Cass -- Director of Blogging Strategies, Backbone Media

Independent Study on Corporate Blogs -- Academic Achievements

2006-06-27T13:59:00.000-07:00

Personally, I learned so much from Professor Sandra Chrystal as my mentor and from this study of blog-use as a business writing tool. Here is some of what I gained:

improved writing skills for print and online work
broadened perspectives on technology and business trends
stronger critical thinking skills for analysis
enhanced quantitative abilities for statistical application
developed professional conduct and contacts

During the study, I produced the following work:

1. Research paper -- "Why is corporate blogging relevant to business students?"

Achievement: 1st prize in Professionalism -- USC Undergraduate Writing Competition 2006

Internship: Imedia Connection Inc.

2. Knowledge Management System -- Biz Blog Review

Achievement: Grand Prize -- USC Webfest 2006

3. Independent Study on Corporate Blogs --

Statistical analysis of 32 corporate blogs; two research papers based on primary research interviews with corporate bloggers and academics; guest speaker to advanced business writing class at USC Marshall School of Business with video footage; and http://bizblogreview.blogspot.com knowledge management system.

Achievement: Honors -- USC Undergraduate Symposium 2006

http://www.usc.edu/uscnews/stories/12344.html

The USC Chronicle article, "Taking Another Leap in Technology", discussing this study is accessible at this link:

http://www.usc.edu/uscnews/stories/12429.html

Summary of findings from Independent Study on Corporate Blogs:

2006-06-27T13:28:00.000-07:00

I started Biz Blog Review at http://bizblogreview.blogspot.com/ to research and evaluate corporate blogs for an independent study. For this study, I analyzed 32 corporate blogs for the Spring 2006 semester. These blogs are listed in my blogroll.

A summary of the study findings are as follows:

A link exists between the frequency of posts to a business blog and the number of comments which may be used to indicate how successful a blog is as a business communication tool. The analysis of data obtained from the study appears 'noisy' and even when transformed poses difficulties in interpretation. A number of outliers are present.

Corporate blogs have a specific business objective and the blog platform is designed to achieve that objective.

Stages of development are evident in the evolution of the corporate blog as it impacts the online community and the executive blogger. Vice President of Standards and Open Source at IBM -- Bob Sutor -- recently consolidated his blog creating an Open Blog on his site: www.sutor.com.

The personal voice of the executive blogger is an important connector to the audience in the writing process. Bob Lutz -- GM's Vice President -- is professional yet personally engages his audience while expressing a business message.

The psychology present in the corporate blog pertaining to the message and the executive, and how it impacts the blog function, is another captivating field to look at.

The blogroll (links to other business blogs) may be indicative of a corporate network if the executive blogger links to other corporate blogs.

Not all corporate blogs have obvious blog policies and liability statements, such as the Club Siemens blog. Comparing corporate policy on blogging is an area of study in itself.

Some corporate blogs cease after achieving a purpose or are not updated, such as the Nike Art of Speed blog and the Ford Mustang blog. The reasons why corporations stop blogging is also an intriguing domain to explore.

Certain blogs do not invite comment, but are effective even though posts average 5-10 a month, such as Randy's Journal belonging to Randy Baseler of Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

Some companies have a number of high profile executive blogs, such as Hewlett Packard, while others sport one executive blog only.

Corporate blogs are growing in number even though warnings of liability continue to echo from the legal community. Measuring the value of corporate blogs in terms of ROI is a fairly new field and is what the business of blogging boils down to.

Biz Blog Review in Backbone Blogging Survey

2006-05-30T14:00:00.000-07:00

Recently I discovered that John Cass, Director of Blogging Strategies for Backbone Media, linked to my "Blog Evaluation Strategy" in April, in a post -- Assessing Whether You Should Blog.

Here is the link: http://blogsurvey.backbonemedia.com/archives/2006/04/assessing_wheth.html

Cass includes the following points on conducting a blogging assessment for your company:

1) Company Goals: Start off by writing down your company goals; list your PR, Communications and SEO goals. Understanding your goals will help you to determine if blogging is a strategy that will help you to achieve your overall marketing goals.

2) Outcomes: Develop a list of outcomes that will be produced by starting a blog. Base the outcomes on the your assessment of your industry's blogging community, the ability of your company to blog and what's happening with your competition. List traffic potential, which goals you expect to achieve through a blogging strategy and how you expect your industry's blogosphere to develop.

3) Keywords: Research the keywords that will help you to target your audience for search engines and RSS feed search engines.

4) Blog Audit: Develop a list of bloggers in your community. Assess each blogger's level of influence and impact.

5) Blogosphere Profile: Take the themes being discussed in your community's blogosphere and assess how your company can enter into the discussion. What unique characteristics about your product/service will elicit discussion and demonstrate leadership.

6) Blog Costs: Describe how much time will it take to blog. Assess the cultural norms of interaction within your community; for example do bloggers send trackbacks. Estimate the costs of not blogging against the dangers of blogging for your company.

7) Justification for the blog: What results will the blog produce, estimate the traffic, SEO results and PR outcomes. Use these results for your CEO presentation.

8) Commit or pull the plug: Review your research and based on the overview give a fair estimate of whether your company should blog or not blog.

John Cass provides Internet marketing, SEO and corporate blogging advice to clients. His biography is available on his personal business blog: http://pr.typepad.com/about.html

All in a May's work!

2006-05-24T21:34:00.000-07:00

What an exciting month May is! May leads the way...

Some of us closed the Spring 2006 semester with final exams in the first two weeks and sealed our degrees with graduation by May 12. To top it, I moved home during this period and am still tackling the boxes!

As part of a prize for USC's Undergraduate Writing Competition [http://angelingo.usc.edu/vol03issue02/uwc.php], I received the valuable opportunity through Brad Berens -- Executive Editor -- to intern for iMedia Connection Inc. [http://www.imediaconnection.com/].

Every week, since mid-March, I have written news articles for Roger Park (News Editor) and then researched for Rebecca Weeks (Content Director). Brad Berens offered me two terrific learning experiences to review and write about recent Forrester Research Reports:

"Interactive Marketing Channels to Watch"
http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/9630.asp

"Social Computing & Interactive Marketing"
http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/8765.asp

From this internship, I have learned the difference between writing research papers and writing for an online audience, and about the latest trends in media, marketing, and advertising.

Working with Brad, Roger, and Rebecca is a wonderful experience -- they are a great team -- and I will miss "my iMedia" when this internship comes to a close on May 31.

During June and July, I will be working at USC's Marshall School of Business Center of Management Communication, and on research evaluating student learning with Dr. Sandra Chrystal.

My goal during this period is also to improve Biz Blog Review. Although my Independent Study ended this Spring 2006 semester, my intention is to share what I have learned and to tweak the focus and layout of this blog. [Neville Hobson -- I have not forgotten you!].

In August, I start the last of four classes to complete my degree (BS Business and Communication) and am also applying for the Masters in Communication Management program at USC's Annenberg School of Communication.

Researching the uses and impacts of corporate blogs, learning about online communities, and social computing are areas that I am interested in.

There are so many things of awesome interest out there in varied disciplines with such little time to pursue them. Connecting with people, sharing interests, and deciding on that passionate specialization is key.

What is important to me is that, that "passionate specialization" contributes to positive upliftment of humanity. From this, all else will fall into place.

Studying at USC represents a transformation/evolution to me that is both personal and professional, and I am enjoying every moment of life as it unfolds.

Bill Cara's Blog: Capital Markets

2006-05-23T14:41:00.000-07:00

Today I took a look at Bill Cara's Blog [www.billcara.com] and find his daily analysis of capital markets most intriguing. The Trader Daily gives some background on Bill Cara -- here's the link: http://www.traderdaily.com/column13/index.html

USC Graduation -- Class of 2006!

2006-05-16T08:21:00.000-07:00

I celebrated Graduation this past week with some of my best friends:

Graduate Torrance . Dr. Gary Woods

Dr. Sandra Chrystal . Graduate Torrance . Professor Yolanda Kirk

I "walked early" for graduation and complete my last classes in December 2006.

Post Break: Final Exams

2006-05-01T14:33:00.000-07:00

We are currently in final exams at USC and I will continue more indepth posts after May 9.

Hewlett Packard's Susan Underhill -- Vice President of HP Global Certification & Partner Education -- On blogs for knowledge transfer

2006-04-21T22:11:00.000-07:00

Susan Underhill

Source: Photo from Susan Underhill's blog

On April 3, I posted a question to Susan Underhill's blog. Here is my question and her response:
Link: http://h20325.www2.hp.com/blogs/underhill/
archive/2006/03/10/808.html

Ms. Underhill

How do you see corporate blogs, such as these HP Executive Blogs, contributing to knowledge transfer internally within HP and externally with business, consumers, and the general public?

Fiona Torrance
USC Undergrad Student
http://bizblogreview.blogspot.com
Posted by FionaTorrance on 4/3/2006 12:21 AM

Susan Underhill's Response:

Thank you for your question, Fiona.

Though I'm a rather new member to the "blogosphere," I'm very enchanted with this medium as a way to share and exchange ideas and information with lots of people.

The popularity of blogs has certainly soared in the past year or so, as evidenced by the sheer number of aggregator websites that have popped up to enable RSS feeds.

Not every blog posting, of course, is what I would call "knowledge transfer." Nor are they meant to be. Many blogs are simply a way for people to keep in touch about their daily activities or experiences, and that's great.

In the corporate world, we use blogs to share our insights about the knowledge we have that pertains to our positions. I'll admit – these executive blogs are great for "setting the tone" or "giving the view from 30,000 feet."

But if you really want to dig into the "knowledge transfer" type of blogs, try reading some of the postings from our researchers, engineers, and product developers. Of course, you can only see the ones outside the HP firewall, such as those posted on the main blogs page under "Other blogs from HP." [http://www.hp.com/go/blogs]

I can tell you that we have some deep discussions taking place on the blogs as well as wikis inside our firewall. We see them as a valuable means of communication.

Posted by Susan Underhill on 4/13/2006 1:11 PM

Dr. Sandra Chrystal -- We Are Proud Of You!

2006-04-19T15:21:00.000-07:00

Dr. Sandra Chrystal . Dr. Mark Kann . Fiona Torrance

USC TEACHING HAS NO BOUNDARIES AWARD

(Dr. Mark Kann presents Award to Dr. Sandra Chrystal April 18, 2006)

HP's David Gee says, "Your blog is a thoughtful process"

2006-04-18T08:54:00.000-07:00

Link: http://h20325.www2.hp.com/blogs/gee/
archive/2006/02/07/747.html#Comments

Here is a question I posed Mr. Gee on his HP Executive Blog:

Mr. Gee Thank you so much for your feedback. I posted it on my blog -- http://bizblogreview.blogspot.com -- and already received feedback from an individual named Roche. He brought up the subject of outsourcing and blogging. How do you see blogs impacting outsource hubs and do you think it is viable for companies to oursource their own blogs? Look forward to your response.

Posted by FionaTorrance on 4/9/2006 5:15 PM

Here is Mr. Gee's response:

You can’t outsource your own blog – one of the reasons I can’t keep up as much as I’d like since it’s a thoughtful process

Posted by D Gee on 4/13/2006 2:00 PM

Josh Kaufman -- Assistant Brand Manager at Proctor & Gamble -- blogs about the MBA's worth

2006-04-11T22:42:00.000-07:00

(Click on picture to enlarge)

Here is an article published on Josh Kaufman's site with some details about the personal vs the traditional MBA: http://www.joshkaufman.net/personalmba/ (part of the script is posted below my thoughts on the debate) --

Josh raises significant points no doubt born in the minds of different students over time.

What I have realized from my experience as an undergraduate at USC is that what we learn in a classroom -- professor experiences, differences in teaching presentation and styles, group interactions, questions raised by others, and that making mistakes is part of the learning process -- is a valuable contribution to our development to cope and succeed in the workplace.

An MBA allows students/employees to raise their critical thinking processes to a level that involves greater responsibility. And the research involved broadens the foundation of specialist knowledge that is needed to be an expert in a particular field. Mentors in MBA programs guide the research process so that the intended questions are properly and thoroughly addressed.

Face-to-face interaction with others teaches skills highly pertinent to the negotiation process too. People skills and effective communication strategies are needed by MBA students to be successful in business, and this cannot be achieved solely through the online community. These are aspects that cannot be learned or achieved alone in a library or at home either because the benefit of interaction with a mentor and with other students from different backgrounds is lost.

For this reason, I think it is still highly valuable to pursue an MBA degree -- if it is within your means.

A combination of the traditional and online aproaches may work well. MIT's OpenCourseWare is a great resource for online learning, and interaction on corporate blogs is also a valuable tool for students to learn. The two approaches combined are complimentary.

THE SCRIPT FROM JOSH's BLOG:

Thoughts on Traditional MBA Programs

“Whatever be the qualifications of your tutors, your improvement must chiefly depend on yourselves. They cannot think or labor for you, they can only put you in the best way of thinking and laboring for yourselves. If therefore you get knowledge you must acquire it by your own industry. You must form all conclusions and all maxims for yourselves, from premises and data collected and considered by yourself. And it is the great object of [our educational institutions] to remove every bias the mind may be under, and to give the greatest scope for true freedom of thinking.” - Joseph Priestly, Dedication of New College, London, 1794.

The debate concerning the value of traditional MBA programs is long and involved, and this manifesto won’t close the issue [1]. For the sake of brevity, here’s a short Q&A on the pros and cons of business school:

Can a traditional MBA program help you? Yes. You’ll meet a lot of great people and get acquainted with a few professors and corporate HR recruiters who can help you land a new job. You will also sink very deep into debt. If you decide to enroll in a full-time program, the opportunity cost of lost wages and future investable savings is huge.

Will a traditional MBA teach you anything you can’t learn by yourself? Probably not. Classroom discussion can be beneficial, but there’s nothing presented that you can’t learn by studying a good book on the subject.

Is a traditional MBA worth the time and money? Sorry – there’s no universal answer. If you’re looking to go into advanced corporate accounting, finance, quantitative analysis, commercial real estate, consulting, venture capital, or investment banking, an MBA or MS in a business-related field may be expected or required. In those cases, caveat emptor: once you decide to attend, the only certainty is that your bank account will be significantly smaller.

If you decide not to go to business school, the Personal MBA is a low cost way to educate yourself about business. (Even business school graduates can benefit greatly from reading these books.) Before we get to the list, however, allow me to set a few reasonable expectations about the PMBA.

Do blogs replace or compliment company Intranets?

2006-04-11T22:03:00.000-07:00

Rishe's Comment:

Hey there Fiona!

Thansk for your feedback.

The autheticity/ ownership of blog content is always going to be a big area of possibilities. Ghost written or otherwise, so long as the companies voice is heard, I think it's a job well done.

Now for my query, What I meant to know was, can blogging be used to create dynamic online communities to make the employees feel more connected and instilled with a sense of belonging.

Can they serve as a media for internal communication, say, as against an official Intranet. Which is always suspect in the absense of content updates on periodic basis.

And so far as I knwo blogging, it defines the skew of content from, created by specialists to created by the user. So user generated content can make a difference to communication within the Internal Publics or employees.

Would look forward to your feed.

Cheers
11:04 PM

Fiona Torrance said...

Hi Riche

Blogs definitely create dynamic online communities -- the interactions on this blog between students and those in business internationally is a real example.

What I love about the IBM blogs, such as Bob Sutor's blog, is how even managers and employees are interacting -- in this sense the blog is a wonderful bonding, mentoring, and motivating tool.

In terms of official intranets and internal blogs, my view is that internal blogs create a more open platform for discussion and reduce email overload. In using an email inbox, we have to choose (by subject line and sent from line) whether or not to open the email. Sometimes people copy one another unnecessarily on emails too.

In contrast, an internal blog allows optional comment (or it can be part of workflow) and also provides time for the commenter to think about what they will say/write. Emails are often fired off in haste with detrimental backlash.

So, on a whole internal blogs provide a number of flexible and useful options.

Internal blogs can be password protected and accessible by company employees only -- not for open comment by the public. Comments can also be moderated. Certain blogs are used internally and externally as long as the blogger registers on the company blog.

My view is that we -- as bloggers -- should take ownership of our postings for credibility.

With marketers using stealth means to sell products and services, blogs are a platform that can, are, and will be used for this purpose. I have already deleted a number of comments that were advertisements because I temporarily lifted comments moderation to allow students to see their comments posted immediately. Stealth marketers can destroy credibility.

This is where Intranets (I am limited in my knowledge on them) may succeed because the content is better protected.

What do you think?

Cisco's John Earnhardt -- On starting blogs

2006-04-11T21:51:00.000-07:00

Recently, I asked John Earnhardt, Media Spokesperson for Cisco, about the decision to start his blog. This is his reply --

My e-mail answer to Fiona:

We initiated blogging in our group to basically "extend" the reach of our staff experts.

As you may have been able to surmise, my colleagues have not taken to the form as quickly as I would have liked. We're still basically at the crawl stage...hope to be walking by the end of the year.

In terms of effectiveness, I would rate it a C+...we've gotten some interaction and traction and the blog was recently mentioned in the Wall Street Journal, so we've had some impact, but nothing super tangible.

Hope that helps.

Best,
John Earnhardt

John Earnhardt of Cisco on net neutrality and the influence of corporate blogs

2006-04-09T13:50:00.000-07:00

Mr. Earnhardt,

You mention that "The net neutrality issue is a solution in search of a problem that doesn't exist" -- would you explain what you mean by this statement?

Also, do you think that corporate/business blogs are spurring the debate on this issue?

Thank you,
Fiona Torrance
USC Undergrad Student
http://bizblogreview.blogspot.com

Posted by Fiona Torrance on April 2, 2006 10:45 PM

Response posted on Cisco's (John Earnhard) Blog:

There has been no need to regulate in this area because there haven't been any bad actors who are taking advantage of their ability to block or slow another application's traffic, yet the OTT's ("Over-the-top" providers) are advocating for Congress or regulators to regulate or legislate.

To be accurate, there has been one instance of an SP blocking a VoIP provider's traffic and that SP was quickly punished by the FCC. Again, a case-by-case basis, not a pre-emptive regulatory or legislative solution.

As per blogs having an impact on this debate, I really couldn't say. My best guess is that as there are more and more information sources out there it will be harder and harder to track what is influential because so many different sources will be touching many different people.

Posted by John Earnhardt on April 3, 2006 03:32 PM

Outsourcing and Blogs

2006-04-09T13:36:00.000-07:00

"Roche" posted a comment on the recent post featuring HP's David Gee's feedback as follows:

Hi there Fiona!

HP indeed has taken up blogging and ppl like DG would surely make a difference in the Corporate Blogosphere. Where I am coming from is another area where blogging perhaps can make a difference. HP, besides having presence through Hardware, Imaging and so on also has 2 big outsourcing hubs in say India. Can Blogs be a great way to communicate with internal publics and also with teh blogging community at large. Would love some feedback on this. Cheers!
3:11 AM

Here is my response to "Roche":

Hi Roche

Thank you for your comments. From my understanding, you are suggesting that blogging can make a difference in the area of outsourcing. What you are saying is true because blogs allow for on-going shared business communication on a "shared" platform -- the Internet. Corporations, even those that outsource, use blogs for knowledge management. However, a new area of outsourcing blogging is emerging. You may have seen this on the net already or experienced it in your work.

Here is an example from the BeConnected site:

Link: http://betuitive.blogs.com/beconnected/
blog_outsourcing/index.html

"I dare say that more and more companies are waking up to the fact that they need to be listening to what blogs are saying about their companies. At the same time corporations are at a loss for how to effectively use blogs for positive PR and crisis response. It's a delicate balancing act that requires experienced hands. A good reason to consider outsourcing your blog design, management and content creation."

What would you think if corporations outsourced their blogs and if corporate executives posed as the authentic voice but in actual fact were not the actual true bloggers on the site?

I look forward to hearing your views.

David Gee - Hewlett Packard's VP for Worldwide Marketing Software -- On Complaints & Mobile Operators

2006-04-05T16:32:00.000-07:00

I asked Mr. Gee in a previous post and comment on his blog about how HP views consumers who use their executive blogs to vent about HP products/services, and also about their direction with mobile operators. Here is his response:

Fiona raises a good question – the role of this and other HP blogs to vent about our products.

We’ve had some experience with this already:

http://h20325.www2.hp.com/blogs/gee/archive/2005/05/06/138.html.

Our blogs are open for comments and as such are fair game as long as they are not offensive, use inappropriate language and are not defamatory. This is a two way medium after all. We do however have a place to go to air these complaints:

http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/execteam/email/hurd/index.html.

I blog on software, so if you have comments and feedback on OpenView in particular, this is a great place to post.

The question about mobile operators is an interesting one. Having spent the past four months in Asia in a region with the fastest growing mobile community in the world, the mobile operators are leaving the wired world behind them and bringing with them a whole generation of users for whom the idea of having a phone number where you call a place and not a person is totally alien. China added the population of Hong Kong last month in new mobile users – the numbers are staggering.

On the Hong Kong underground system, I get 5 bars of GSM/GPRS/EGDE and 3G coverage while on the trains and two or three stories under the surface – better coverage in fact than I get from my mobile provider in the Bay Area.

HP as a company helps mobile operators deliver new services, reduce churn and maximize the revenue potential of their network investment – we offer software in the form of the OpenCall platform for example that enables pre paid services, push to talk and MMS capabilities.

Our technology is embedded in many of the large network equipment providers as well as hardware and services for many of the world’s largest operators, you can read mere about it here:

http://www.hp.com/go/nsp

and here:

http://www.hp.com/go/opencall

Posted by D Gee on 4/5/2006 12:32 PM

Neville Hobson to the Rescue!

2006-04-04T19:06:00.000-07:00

2 Responses to “The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #125: April 3, 2006”
Feed for this Entry Trackback Address
1 Fiona Torrance Apr 4th, 2006 at 12:13 am

Hallo Neville

Today I’ve been reviewing your blog and I absolutely love the layout and how you present information.

I added a post from your blog that is relevant to my Independent Study at USC on Corporate Blogging: “Student Questions About Corporate Blogging” by Dr. Carl.

Recently, I’ve been trying to add RSS feeds, the ability to share Podcasts, and a StatCounter to my blog housed at Blogger.com. But I am new to this and find that when I follow instructions (such as at FeedBurner) and past the relevant HTML into my template, I lose information on my blog.

For someone starting to learn the use of this “new” technology, what is your advice in adding such features to a blog?

I look forward to hearing from you and — if you have time to look at my blog — any advice that you may have.

Thank you,

Fiona Torrance
http://bizblogreview.blogspot.com

2 neville Apr 4th, 2006 at 7:37 pm

Fiona, thanks for visiting and for your compliments.

Good questions re customizing your Blogger blog. I’m not that familiar with Blogger these days, I’m afraid, not having used it for a couple of years now. The best place for advice to start with would be the comprehensive help system, especially the section on templates.

As for the general advice you ask about, I think it really depends on what you want to achieve with your blog by adding features such as you mention (RSS, etc). In any event, FeedBurner has a terrific help forum where I’m sure you’ll find good advice from knowledgable people there re the specifics of how to add an FB feed to a Blogger blog. The same with StatCounter.

I’ve looked at your blog. It seems to me that you know more than your give yourself credit for!

1 Fiona Torrance Apr 5th, 2006 at 4:00 am

Thank you for this valuable feedback, Neville!

The reason I think it is valuable is because blogging is relatively new to me and there are so many techi things available to bloggers. Knowing what to add, why, and how takes a bit of deciphering.

My blog was initially set-up as a knowledge management system for an Independent Study on corporate blogs (BUAD 490 class at USC). I started off analyzing 32 blogs that are listed in my blogroll. Since then, I’ve included communications with corporate executives and student interactions from classes where I serve as a Teacher’s Assistant.

The blog became part of a research paper I submitted for USC’s undergraduate writing competition and it won first place in Professionalism. Thereafter, I took a chance and submitted it to USC’s Webfest 2006 and it won grand prize for that — which was amazing because I’m not technically a techi person and some of the websites presented are so creative!

My goal is to continue the blog when this semester ends. I would like to include links to articles (like the one I posted that is on your site) and I thought RSS feeds may help with this. Also, I want to be able to give audio discussions (bizblogcasts) about articles featured in the Wall Street Journal/Business Week about corporate blogging to create dialogue.

Knowing how to project quality content that readers can access easily(or in their preferred manner)and creating a stream of thought — whether people answer it or not — is important to me. I just want to express and put it out there to be part of the social computing evolution.

Blogger.com is a great site in many ways, but I have lost my content a number of times and had trouble publishing posts. Talk about a sleep problem! Would you suggest moving the blog, and if so, which blog do you think I would find more compatible?

Blog for Traffic or to Communicate?

2006-04-03T20:30:00.000-07:00

In the WSJ article, "The Inside View", William Bulkeley states that, "According to search-engine experts, that jump is partly because search engines like Google look for constantly changing content like blogs and rate it higher in search results than Web pages that aren't updated regularly."

This statement highlights two differences between blogs and websites:
1. Blog content is updated more frequently than Web pages
2. As a result, blogs are rated higher than Web pages on search engines

Depending on the blog objective, traffic generation (the amount of visitors to a blog) may or may not be that important. Some blogs are used for personal expression, such as my TourEsprit blog. If the purpose of a business blog is to promote products and services to increase sales, then traffic is important. The same is true for communication if the blog's purpose is to generate feedback from customers to improve products and services. Either way, traffic plays a role.

Microsoft's Director of Developer and Platform Evangelism -- Jeff Sandquist -- says, "I don't blog for traffic. I blog to communicate" (qtd in Bulkeley, WSJ 4/3/2006). Even Evangelists need an audience, but purely blogging for traffic to increase ratings on search engines may reduce the quality of the communication and dialogue on blogs.

Blogrolls, permalinks, and feeds -- who bloggers link to -- are also a means of generating traffic to a blog. About a week ago, I discovered an interesting dialogue published on Steve Rubel's Blog, Micropersuasion, after Steve (Senior VP with Edelman & Marketing Strategist) had removed a colleague's blog link from his blogroll:

(Click on picture to enlarge)

The blog, in general, is not without its politics, even on the best of blogs. Steve Rubel's blog contains vast amounts of useful and interesting entries for students (faculty and others) to understand the use of technology in media and what makes a corporate blog successful.
To learn more, visit this link:
http://www.micropersuasion.com/2006/04/index.html

Employment Law Alliance: Blogging and the American Workplace Survey

2006-04-03T20:25:00.000-07:00

Here is the link to the survey mentioned in the Wall Street Journal article: "The Inside View" [of Employee and Corporate Blogs]:

http://fm.employmentlawalliance.com
/ela/FMPro?-DB=ela_articles.fp5&-Format
=article.html&-RecID=33678&-Find

http://fm.employmentlawalliance.com
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