This is a test post from 
, a fancy photo sharing thing.
The above line was sent via the Flickr site.
Author: Angelo Fernando
Tiger endorsement – not!
Is this one of the worst puns, or what?
Quotes for the week ending 12 Dec, 09
“However Mr. Jobs, now that you got into this mess …You are the only person who can get our APPS ‘everywhere.’ despite the fact that their MAPS have blanketed the country.
Commenter named Gary of Chicago, on the Advertising Age story on how Verizon Wireless created buzz for the Droid phone –a distinct shift in the way a carrier is advancing the popularity of a handset.
“And, the warning? Don’t read too many blog posts like this.”
43 Folders, on NaNoWriMo
“Living Stories,”
Google’s experimental project to save newspapers, featuring content from New York Times and the Washington Post
“Our role is actually stronger than ever, because we are more than just a magazine … to promote travel around the state.”
Robert Stieve, editor of Arizona Highways magazine
“When you’re using search engines, you’ve got to be diligent. You can’t trust that just because it’s Number 2 or Number 1, it really is…”
Jim Stickey, on how fake web sites trick search engines which become ‘unwitting accomplices’ of Google, Yahoo and Microsoft.
“Industry Listening Program”
One of the four recommendations by Rohit Bhargava, who advises companies on easing into listening via social media by keeping an eye on keywords rather than brand mentions
There are Flip cameras and there’s the Blackberry Storm
I often carry my Nikon D90 to events. But a camera bag, podcast recorder and laptop creates clutter.
So while holding off on a Flip video camera –for now– I use my trusty Blackberry Storm for the odd video. Turns out it does very well, especially when I want to cover an event live using a few social media elements.
This one was taken at a class on Social media for Realtors. I was there with a friend who is just getting into the space, and wanted to check out what Jerry Fischer, the instructor, was offering.
Click to view a few seconds of video.
What I found:
- The picture quality is really good for a phone. The audio quality, better still.
- Sending it to Twitvid is not easy – slow uploading. But the app I had downloaded for this made it one-touch.
- You really need a tripod when you do this. It is less distracting to the instructor, too.
Not that Jerry would have minded. He was also showing real estate agents how easy it was to video with Facebook.
Incidentally the audio recorder on the Storm also produces stunning quality. Saves carrying a bulky recorder everywhere.
This must be the dumbest use of email
You can’t make this up. But people actually think they can use digital communication to have their way.
If you are one of those who give airport security a hard time, take some time to sympathize with them after reading what they are up against.
(As an added bonus, read the comments to this post. A lot of anonymous people talking about unrelated things.)
“Customer experience with be huge in 2010”
In a great conversation with Nathan Wagner of Creative Refinery on customer experience, which he says will be the big differentiation in 2010.
Also testing how the integration of email and Word Press – and posting this directly via a Blackberry.
We are at Gold Bar coffee shop in Tempe. Nathan’s an old friend who advises clients on creating value increasing sales.
Update: Had to go in via the web to reformat the photo and headline. Since this was an experiment I had forgotten to write the headline in my subject line. The photo was taken on my phone by a fellow customer. By default, the phone’s email program uses the image name (usually a string of letters) as a subject line, so you need to watch out for that.
Word Press does have a few custom settings –short codes as they call them -for including the category of the post, making it a draft etc. I can see these expanding as more people begin to use smart phones to create content.
I like to see short codes to:
- Resize the photo
- Add some basic HTML
- Include a URL
Did DARPA’s network challenge tell us anything we didn’t know already?
Last Saturday’s experiment baffles me.
The idea of the Defense Department trying to understand network effects is understandable. DARPA (which stands for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) sent up 10 of these across the country.
Balloons to study social networking how information travels across the Net seems like a bit odd. Sure DARPA did invent the internet, but…
Why use a large object in the sky? On Twitter people resort to “wide area team-building and urgent mobilization” without any interest in a reward. Just ask Tiger Woods, and (you knew this was coming, all you balloon fans, didn’t you?) the dad of Balloon Boy.
Here is how it was handled: Teams were asked to take part in locating ten moored weather balloons at fixed locations in the US. They were visible from roadways (spottings here) and accompanied by DARPA representatives –hopefully not inside the balloon, as that would have been too much like the Falcon incident.
They went up at 10 am (Eastern) and supposedly stayed there until 4 pm on Sat, Dec 5.
Attached (hopefully not to the aforementioned rep) was a $40,000 prize “to the first participant to submit the correct latitude and longitude of all ten weather balloons.”
I have an idea, DARPA: Why don’t you do this once a month, and then ask the winner to give half of the reward to someone who’s lost a job? The network effects of this would be huge since there could be 15.4 million people (the official unemployment figure as of Nov 09) Tweeting, talking and Facebooking this. Larry King would love to cover incidents like this and regularly point to the bottom of his screen to show us his Twitter address.
Or maybe you could hire a few people to increase the network effects of your Facebook page –which had only 19 people leaving nice messages about this.
OK, enough of having a bit of fun at DARPA’s expense. Let me say what I liked about:
- I like the fact that an organization like this is not sitting on its laurels, but trying to learn how this thing they created works, and morphs. (Watch this vid, below) as Peter explains.
- I like the idea of encouraging collaborative efforts. Throwing it out to the hoipolloi. Nerd Fighters took up the challenge, and though they didn’t quite win, their efforts were very impressive.
Not enough organizations take risks like this. It’s time many did send up some trial balloons, red or otherwise.
Quotes for the week ending 5 Dec, 2009
“The general consensus about my hair, among our team and the client, was that it was distinctive and instantly recognizable — a characteristic we ad people long for in our campaigns, but it sounds funny when we’re talking about my hair.”
Andy Azula, the guy in the U.P.S. whiteboard commercials, in a Q & A with Stuart Elliot. He has a Wikipedia entry!
“Once you start restricting access on the websites, if you have content that can broadly be found somewhere else, then you really restrict the number of people coming to websites.”
Emily Bell, Guardian’s director of digital content, on a regional British newspaper publisher charging for online news content.
“She’s more caustic than a manure lagoon.”
Paul Shapiro, senior director of the US Humane Society Factory Farming Project, on Kerry Trueman, a contestant for the Huffington Post contest for citizen journalists. One person will be chosen to report from the Copenhagen climate change summit next week.
“Most painful for us is not the minaret ban, but the symbol sent by this vote.”
Farhad Afshar, of the Coordination of Islamic Organizations in Switzerland, com
And speaking of symbols…
“It’s that image that has been shattered, sort of like the back window of his SUV, but maybe I’m pushing another metaphor too hard.”
Bill Saporito, on Tiger Woods’ apology
“I realize there are some who don’t share my view on that. But for me, the virtue of privacy is one that must be protected in matters that are intimate and within one’s own family. Personal sins should not require press releases and problems within a family shouldn’t have to mean public confessions.”
Tiger, having dealt with his ‘transgressions’ in a 6-paragraph apology, on his web site.
Are airport posters just wallpaper?
I always wonder what kind of response a poster at an airport gets.
I saw this one at Salt Lake City yesterday, and it caught my eye because it was an attempt to humanize global warming.
But what is one supposed to do with this message? Rush over to a computer and login to the web site? The URL defaults to the WWF web site, and the landing page has nothing to do with the message –“ignore global warming and…”
And yet organizations continue to spend on this kind of wallpaper.
Tiger Woods lectures us on ‘tabloid scrutiny’
Words like frenzy and hype surround this non-story, but the media seemed incapable to let it pass. Today they have been told: stay off my turf.
Yet it’s been framed as problem for refusing to make a statement to the media. Most PR have said that remaining silent was not a good way to handle this crisis. (Interesting discussion here at ValleyPRBlog, where I also blog.) I beg to differ.
I understand that public figures have to learn to live with an always-on media. But I don’t see why this auto-accident is such a big thing. Man hits fire hydrant is not man bites dog, for heaven’s sake!
Tiger called this out in his statement. Couched in the language of an apology, it was an indictment of this nonsense: that just because he is a celebrity, he has to answer to the media.
As he put it:
“But no matter how intense curiosity about public figures can be, there is an important and deep principle at stake which is the right to some simple, human measure of privacy. I realize there are some who don’t share my view on that. But for me, the virtue of privacy is one that must be protected in matters that are intimate and within one’s own family. Personal sins should not require press releases and problems within a family shouldn’t have to mean public confessions.”
Perfectly put, even though the beginning and end of the statement is over the top with apology language that will be scrutinized to death for some weeks.
Hoipolloireport 