Archive for the ‘Media’ Category

Dean at the Merc snags a copy of Otellini’s internal blog and the Web is abuzz… From this morning’s Good Morning Silicon Valley – the eZine I look forward to most (other than Flavorpill…

…Otellini reveals a new side in “AMD suXorS” blog post: So now that we’ve reached this postmodern understanding that all official corporate communication is, if not a charade, part of a ritualized dance where meaning must be divined between the lines, where do you turn to hear an executive talk straight? Why, to his or her blog, of course, because blogs are required by longstanding Unwritten Net Law to be BS-free…

“Hollywood has always had a love affair with Apple Computers. In movies ranging from ‘Mission Impossible’ to ‘Shallow Hal,’ Apple products are positioned to in ways that say you are ‘Cool’ if you have an Apple Computer or IPOD. My kids will settle for Intel Inside PC or Laptop but they want an Apple computer. Beyond paying for product placements in movies, developing a better relationship between Intel and Hollywood is great way to make Intel the “Cool” computer company of the future

I’ve long maintained that the internal blog is where the action is. Now if we could just read more of them. For therein lies the paradox of blogging. You want conversations to be as personal and private as possible – you don’t want to use the same tone internally as you might have to externally – but anything posted digitally to more than one other person is likely to end-up public so why not just tear-down those walls – the transparency is likely to be positive in the extreme…

“Paul wanted another way to communicate with employees,” said Intel spokesman Tom Beerman. “It is meant for employees only, and that explains the tone and nature of the subject matter”

And hey Dean, don’t be a meanie, post everything you’ve got.. don’t serialize the data, be transparent…

At CNN you aren’t allowed to accept gifts but you can give them? Or, you can’t take “bribes” but you can give them…? OK, so this is all history and past tense – and the gifts were probably crap, but it does point to the importance of David Berlind’s media transparency channel…

Hylton’s got a nice little Blog innovation over at Corante [disclosure:: I write for Brandshift on Corante].

“…the intent of the Blink is to differentiate its content from the longer, meatier posts and to provide a space in which you can provide short pointers to interesting items/articles/blogs that don’t require much commentary. As well as to provide a vehicle that allows you to dump things into the blog, integrates a linklog, keeps the blog fresh, etc..

Take a look at Suw Charman and Copyfight to see this in action. This is great in terms of architecting information delivery in the sense it provides a simple way for the reader to visually filter content on the blog outside of category clicking…

Here we go again. More “death of” remarks… This time from the Economist which, in an otherwise great story on Robert Scoble, ponders if Blogs are the death of traditional public relations. Seems blogs are going to be the death of everything…

Bruce Lowry, PR boss at Novell, another software firm, also wants to get his executives blogging. Boring old press releases—where everybody is constantly resigning “to spend more time with the family” and what not—are totally ill-suited for responding to most PR issues, such as rumours or independent commentary, he says. He can imagine blogs completely replacing press releases within ten years.

Ten years from now? That’s what I call hedging ones bets. Many a PR pro is hoping its going to happen lots quicker than that Bruce. And maybe you could drop a note to the SEC asking them if it’s OK for blog entries to be regarded in the same light as press releases in terms of fair disclose.

I tend to agree with Schwartz – also quoted in the article:

(Scoble)… thinks that there will always be a place for traditional PR, with its centrally controlled corporate message, alongside the spontaneous cacophony of blogs. Microsoft’s official PR boss will not even comment at all on the subject. Sun’s Mr Schwartz is also circumspect. “It’s not the end of PR but the end of the old PR department,” he says. “The clarifying force will be credibility and reputation.” The truth is, nobody yet knows how corporate blogging will evolve.

The important message is that social networking technologies and participatory communications will force structural change on PR departments. Change in terms of the people required, budget allocation and focal points. And as with all change involving networking technologies, the advantage will go to the first movers.

This is interesting. They’ve probably done this for ages and I’ve, well, totally missed it, but the NYT carries an interesting narrated slide show on the goings on at HP this week. And, narrated by none other that Gretchen Morgenson. Ends with a link into a story by John Markoff.