http://odeo.com/channels/2123-Better-communication-results no innovative communication for innovative communicators innovative communication for innovative communicators innovative communication for innovative communicators en 40 Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:27:18 -0800 Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:27:18 -0800 Society http://odeo.com/episodes/25396265-BCR054-Telstra-joins-the-conversation-again Good bloody on ‘em! They started before anyone else. They listened to the conversations and comments about their first foray. They regrouped and they entered the conversation again. Stop the bloody whinging, Australia – at least they are IN THE MIX – how many other Aussie blue chips are? Santos? Westpac? NAB? Any effin’ mining companies? Westfield? Come on, fellow social media luminaries -  let’s CELEBRATE someone having the intestinal fortitude to START opening up their ‘closed shop’ culture. How many other Aussie blue chips are ready to even begin unravelling their culture to be ‘open’ instead of fish-sphincteringly closed. Technorati Tags: telstra, blue chip, australia, social media, business communication, lee hopkins Good bloody on ‘em! They started before anyone else. They listened to the conversations and comments about their first foray. They regrouped and they entered the conversation again. Stop the bloody whinging, Australia – at least they are IN THE MIX – how many other Aussie blue chips are? Santos? Westpac? NAB? Any effin’ mining companies? Westfield? Come on, fellow social media luminaries -  let’s CELEBRATE someone having the intestinal fortitude to START opening up their ‘closed shop’ culture. How many other Aussie blue chips are ready to even begin unravelling their culture to be ‘open’ instead of fish-sphincteringly closed. Technorati Tags: telstra, blue chip, australia, social media, business communication, lee hopkins Good bloody on ‘em! They started before anyone else. They listened to the conversations and comments about their first foray. They regrouped and they entered the conversation again. Stop the bloody whinging, Australia – at least they are IN THE MIX – how many other Aussie blue chips are? Santos? Westpac? NAB? Any effin’ mining companies? Westfield? Come on, fellow social media luminaries -  let’s CELEBRATE someone having the intestinal fortitude to START opening up their ‘closed shop’ culture. How many other Aussie blue chips are ready to even begin unravelling their culture to be ‘open’ instead of fish-sphincteringly closed. Technorati Tags: telstra, blue chip, australia, social media, business communication, lee hopkins tag:odeo.com,2009-11-04,25396265 Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:27:18 -0800 no Better communication results Blogging, social media, Australia, videoblog, BCR podcast, telstra, Business Communication, blue chip http://odeo.com/episodes/25396266-Review-of-Norton-Internet-Security-2009 Norton Internet Security 2010: I give it a 7/10. Lee Hopkins on YouTube Norton Internet Security 2010 Good points: * NOT a resource hog (see the video) * tons of great information in a great, easy to understand interface * FINALLY Norton allows you back up/copy your ‘Identity Safe’ data from one pc to another ['Identity Safe' is the username/password stuff, credit card info, etc., that Norton stores securely -- I just wish I knew where so I could change it to my Dropbox] * very fast when scanning Dislikes: * a big box for just a cd (I know, this is an old complaint, but it never hurts to re-iterate it) * your usb stick is the ONLY place you can store your backup ‘Identity Safe’ data – no, I cannot store it in my Dropbox. Booo! * the ‘other’ pc must also be running NIS 2010 – not overly handy when you find yourself in a web cafe or the Qantas Lounge * is my laptop getting old, or do I have to ‘wake up’ ‘Identity Safe&#... Norton Internet Security 2010: I give it a 7/10. Lee Hopkins on YouTube Norton Internet Security 2010 Good points: * NOT a resource hog (see the video) * tons of great information in a great, easy to understand interface * FINALLY Norton allows you back up/copy your ‘Identity Safe’ data from one pc to another ['Identity Safe' is the username/password stuff, credit card info, etc., that Norton stores securely -- I just wish I knew where so I could change it to my Dropbox] * very fast when scanning Dislikes: * a big box for just a cd (I know, this is an old complaint, but it never hurts to re-iterate it) * your usb stick is the ONLY place you can store your backup ‘Identity Safe’ data – no, I cannot store it in my Dropbox. Booo! * the ‘other’ pc must also be running NIS 2010 – not overly handy when you find yourself in a web cafe or the Qantas Lounge * is my laptop getting old, or do I have to ‘wake up’ ‘Identity Safe’ by clicking on the Norton toolbar when going to my first password-protected site for the day? * why no toolbar for Google Chrome? I actually quite like it as a browser… Disclaimer: NIS 2010 review copy sent to me from Norton – thanks, Natalie! Norton Internet Security 2010: I give it a 7/10. Lee Hopkins on YouTube Norton Internet Security 2010 Good points: * NOT a resource hog (see the video) * tons of great information in a great, easy to understand interface * FINALLY Norton allows you back up/copy your ‘Identity Safe’ data from one pc to another ['Identity Safe' is the username/password stuff, credit card info, etc., that Norton stores securely -- I just wish I knew where so I could change it to my Dropbox] * very fast when scanning Dislikes: * a big box for just a cd (I know, this is an old complaint, but it never hurts to re-iterate it) * your usb stick is the ONLY place you can store your backup ‘Identity Safe’ data – no, I cannot store it in my Dropbox. Booo! * the ‘other’ pc must also be running NIS 2010 – not overly handy when you find yourself in a web cafe or the Qantas Lounge * is my laptop getting old, or do I have to ‘wake up’ ‘Identity Safe’ by clicking on the Norton toolbar when going to my first password-protected site for the day? * why no toolbar for Google Chrome? I actually quite like it as a browser… Disclaimer: NIS 2010 review copy sent to me from Norton – thanks, Natalie! tag:odeo.com,2009-11-02,25396266 Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:48:19 -0800 no Better communication results videoblog, BCR podcast, tools http://odeo.com/episodes/25368172-Skribe-is-Famous-%C2%BB-Windows7 My mate Skribe is famous – watch the video below for the microsecond (at 15 seconds into the vid) that his name pops up in a tweet. As he says, Blink and you’ll miss the tweet sent to me. BTW Microsoft, send me a copy of ultimate please. Just cos you’re nice like that =). And while you’re at it, Microsoft, how about a copy of Business Ultimate for Australia’s most famous Adelaide Hills-based business communicator? I is Famous » Skribe Productions Technorati Tags: microsoft, skribe, windows7, business ultimate, adelaide hills, adelaide, business communication, lee hopkins My mate Skribe is famous – watch the video below for the microsecond (at 15 seconds into the vid) that his name pops up in a tweet. As he says, Blink and you’ll miss the tweet sent to me. BTW Microsoft, send me a copy of ultimate please. Just cos you’re nice like that =). And while you’re at it, Microsoft, how about a copy of Business Ultimate for Australia’s most famous Adelaide Hills-based business communicator? I is Famous » Skribe Productions Technorati Tags: microsoft, skribe, windows7, business ultimate, adelaide hills, adelaide, business communication, lee hopkins My mate Skribe is famous – watch the video below for the microsecond (at 15 seconds into the vid) that his name pops up in a tweet. As he says, Blink and you’ll miss the tweet sent to me. BTW Microsoft, send me a copy of ultimate please. Just cos you’re nice like that =). And while you’re at it, Microsoft, how about a copy of Business Ultimate for Australia’s most famous Adelaide Hills-based business communicator? I is Famous » Skribe Productions Technorati Tags: microsoft, skribe, windows7, business ultimate, adelaide hills, adelaide, business communication, lee hopkins tag:odeo.com,2009-10-25,25368172 Sun, 25 Oct 2009 03:19:44 -0700 no Better communication results microsoft, Humour, marketing, PR, clippings, adelaide, Windows7, Business Communication, business ultimate, adelaide hills, skribe http://odeo.com/episodes/25311760-GOC-002-On-sex-with-Danish-blondes-Twitter-and-QR-Codes In this excitement-packed edition of Grumpy Old Communicators you will hear us wax lyrical about such diverse topics as: Karen, her baby August, and the scandal she’s created (and if you want to know where the idea for Karen came from, check out Australia’s far less raunchy but equally seductive young lady who is looking for her Mr Right and only has his misplaced jacket to go on; the video is below, as is a link to some thoughts by a superb Aussie media commentator — and no, that’s not Lee, it’s Tim!) Twitter follower numbers and a reference to the superb The Twitter BookThe Twitter Book by Tim O’Reilly and Sarah Milstein Simon Crisp and IBM’s new division David Jones and his truly excellent MAIL process for social media engagement  QR codes, the Three Minds blog and Allan’s B+B website All in all, 29 minutes and 22 seconds of disarmingly direct conversation over a shocking Skype line that makes you wonder if your two intrepid communicators were actually alive at the ti... In this excitement-packed edition of Grumpy Old Communicators you will hear us wax lyrical about such diverse topics as: Karen, her baby August, and the scandal she’s created (and if you want to know where the idea for Karen came from, check out Australia’s far less raunchy but equally seductive young lady who is looking for her Mr Right and only has his misplaced jacket to go on; the video is below, as is a link to some thoughts by a superb Aussie media commentator — and no, that’s not Lee, it’s Tim!) Twitter follower numbers and a reference to the superb The Twitter BookThe Twitter Book by Tim O’Reilly and Sarah Milstein Simon Crisp and IBM’s new division David Jones and his truly excellent MAIL process for social media engagement  QR codes, the Three Minds blog and Allan’s B+B website All in all, 29 minutes and 22 seconds of disarmingly direct conversation over a shocking Skype line that makes you wonder if your two intrepid communicators were actually alive at the time, or were communicating via telepathy, a Ouija board and a plump and quite harmless 50-something-year-old landlady by the name of Mrs Scoggins who dabbles in the occult and thinks she’s a channel for ‘those on the other side’.   You can, of course, download the conversation right now to your audiophonic weapon of choice. Equally, and probably more preferably, you can in addition subscribe to this podcast in iTunes, by copying this here subscribing link and then pasting it into the box that pops up when you click on the ‘Subscribe to Podcast…’ link under the ‘Advanced’ toolbar option (see the image below). **] iTunes, wherein you will automatically download each shiny and sparkling conversation as they come off the printing press (how’s that for a mixed metaphor?!) [** check this, Lee, as they may not have added it to their database yet; in which case change the text to: subscribe in -- A screenshot of how to subscribe to our podcast manually in iTunes.   ************** Videos Karen: The Karen in Denmark video on YouTube     Hitler: The extremely funny (if you like that sort of thing) video of Hitler remonstrating with some colleagues about a long-forgotten night out in Copenhagen and a blonde he picked up at a bar.     Witchery: The ‘man in the jacket’ video that got all of Australia talking, a lot of Aussie men wishing they had lost their jacket, and then a lot of media people in Australia swearing [and here, here and here]:       Dove: The second Dove commercial that was targeted specifically at ‘moms who blog’ and was, it is believed, a resounding success:       Technorati Tags: allan jenkins, lee hopkins, twitter, #karen26, #unkaren, dove, denmark, simon crisp, ibm, david jones, mail, qr code, business communication, adelaide hills, adelaide   Allan’s blog         ::         Lee’s blog In this excitement-packed edition of Grumpy Old Communicators you will hear us wax lyrical about such diverse topics as: Karen, her baby August, and the scandal she’s created (and if you want to know where the idea for Karen came from, check out Australia’s far less raunchy but equally seductive young lady who is looking for her Mr Right and only has his misplaced jacket to go on; the video is below, as is a link to some thoughts by a superb Aussie media commentator — and no, that’s not Lee, it’s Tim!) Twitter follower numbers and a reference to the superb The Twitter BookThe Twitter Book by Tim O’Reilly and Sarah Milstein Simon Crisp and IBM’s new division David Jones and his truly excellent MAIL process for social media engagement  QR codes, the Three Minds blog and Allan’s B+B website All in all, 29 minutes and 22 seconds of disarmingly direct conversation over a shocking Skype line that makes you wonder if your two intrepid communicators were actually alive at the time, or were communicating via telepathy, a Ouija board and a plump and quite harmless 50-something-year-old landlady by the name of Mrs Scoggins who dabbles in the occult and thinks she’s a channel for ‘those on the other side’.   You can, of course, download the conversation right now to your audiophonic weapon of choice. Equally, and probably more preferably, you can in addition subscribe to this podcast in iTunes, by copying this here subscribing link and then pasting it into the box that pops up when you click on the ‘Subscribe to Podcast…’ link under the ‘Advanced’ toolbar option (see the image below). **] iTunes, wherein you will automatically download each shiny and sparkling conversation as they come off the printing press (how’s that for a mixed metaphor?!) [** check this, Lee, as they may not have added it to their database yet; in which case change the text to: subscribe in -- A screenshot of how to subscribe to our podcast manually in iTunes.   ************** Videos Karen: The Karen in Denmark video on YouTube     Hitler: The extremely funny (if you like that sort of thing) video of Hitler remonstrating with some colleagues about a long-forgotten night out in Copenhagen and a blonde he picked up at a bar.     Witchery: The ‘man in the jacket’ video that got all of Australia talking, a lot of Aussie men wishing they had lost their jacket, and then a lot of media people in Australia swearing [and here, here and here]:       Dove: The second Dove commercial that was targeted specifically at ‘moms who blog’ and was, it is believed, a resounding success:       Technorati Tags: allan jenkins, lee hopkins, twitter, #karen26, #unkaren, dove, denmark, simon crisp, ibm, david jones, mail, qr code, business communication, adelaide hills, adelaide   Allan’s blog         ::         Lee’s blog tag:odeo.com,2009-10-19,25311760 Mon, 19 Oct 2009 03:33:06 -0700 no Better communication results podcast, Podcasting, Denmark, Australia, BCR podcast, ibm, lee hopkins, adelaide, karen, Business Communication, david jones, qr, allanjenkins, leehopkins, allan jenkins, simon crisp, comms cafe podcast, #karen26, commscafe, #twitterbook, #unkaren, mumbrella http://odeo.com/episodes/25262774-Flip-minoHD-camcorder-review-%E2%80%93-I-love-it I’ve been given a Flip minoHD camcorder by the very kind folks at Cisco and so I’ve been road testing it for the last four days. Verdict? I love it! I’ve included some test videos below that you can look at if you are bored, but the upshot is this: If you are looking for a camcorder that you can whip out and instantly start filming your friends and family with, this is it. This is the sort of camcorder you take to barbeques, to picnics, to weddings and birthdays, where you want to catch the spontaneous moments. This is the sort of camcorder you want when the video camera on your mobile phone isn’t worth the menu-and-quality hassle. Ok – a table of FORs and AGAINSTs… FOR AGAINST Is incredibly light in your pocket Is ‘instant on and start filming’ Has inbuilt ‘beeps’ and ‘bops’ to let you know if it’s turned on or not, and if it’s recording Has a VERY clear monitor screen so you can see what you are filming and clearly see your playbacks Has internal speakers so you can hear what was ... I’ve been given a Flip minoHD camcorder by the very kind folks at Cisco and so I’ve been road testing it for the last four days. Verdict? I love it! I’ve included some test videos below that you can look at if you are bored, but the upshot is this: If you are looking for a camcorder that you can whip out and instantly start filming your friends and family with, this is it. This is the sort of camcorder you take to barbeques, to picnics, to weddings and birthdays, where you want to catch the spontaneous moments. This is the sort of camcorder you want when the video camera on your mobile phone isn’t worth the menu-and-quality hassle. Ok – a table of FORs and AGAINSTs… FOR AGAINST Is incredibly light in your pocket Is ‘instant on and start filming’ Has inbuilt ‘beeps’ and ‘bops’ to let you know if it’s turned on or not, and if it’s recording Has a VERY clear monitor screen so you can see what you are filming and clearly see your playbacks Has internal speakers so you can hear what was said when you playback your files Is less than $300 so you aren’t going to weep buckets and sell the Kingswood (“Not the Kingswood!”) if you lose it or drop it in the river/ocean The inbuilt editing suite is simple enough that even my mother could (eventually) get the hang of it The inbuilt editing suite is quick enough so that you can shoot and upload to YouTube within a few minutes via your laptop and a wireless or 3G connection You can plug your Flip into your standard tv (the standard red, white and yellow plugged cable is included in the box) and watch your cinematic genius in glorious sound and colour No socket for an external mic No ‘anti-shake’ software – you see every bump in the road The inbuilt editing suite is VERY basic The inbuilt editing suite is very slow when processing files The default files straight off the Flip are mp4 – make sure any more advanced editing software you might want to use can handle this format, otherwise you will have to convert the files to wmv with the Flip software, which is not a fast process You need to adjust some of your tv settings if you want to watch the videos direct from the Flip and your tv is a high-def one As you can see, the ‘FOR’s outweigh the ‘AGAINST’s — and that’s just after four days. I’m sure if I played around with it for longer as part of the review process I could find even more things to love about it. But each time I thought about one of the ‘AGAINST’s I kept coming back to the thought: “It’s a sub-$300 camera, Hopkins, get a grip!” But even as it is, I LOVE IT and am definitely not sending this back to them at the end of the review period! I will become my default ‘car-cam’ recorder for my BetterComms vidcasts, because the sound quality is pretty darn good at 60km/hr around town — it’s only when I hit the freeway and start clocking 100km/hr that the background noise starts intruding. At 60km/hr I can record and not have to worry about adding another hour to my editing time by having to import and align a separate audio recording from my lapel mic. Here’s my final summation of my views, quite naturally in video format:   Other videos: A semi-review shot outside – it shows that if you get too far away from the camera the mic can’t really perform at its best   The 30 minute video I mentioned is right below – a collection of tests and trials, indoors and outside, just looking at some of the features. The movie is put together with the Flip’s editing software. You’ll notice that the zoom isn’t very strong, nor is the wide-angle particularly wide, nor is the Flip editing software a replica of high-end Adobe software. But what do you want for under $300 when you are getting HD quality and ‘instant on’???   Just after the courier dropped it off, I opened the Flip box and took a peek at what’s inside. Useful links If you are interested, Cnet have a really good review of the camera So, too, does Macintouch Quick video of hi-def landscape taken with the Flip How to use FlipShare (the editing software) to make a movie (YouTube) Technorati Tags: #FlipAUS,Flip minoHD,mino,flip,cisco,text100,lukas picton,review,camcorder,youtube,video,communication,lee hopkins I’ve been given a Flip minoHD camcorder by the very kind folks at Cisco and so I’ve been road testing it for the last four days. Verdict? I love it! I’ve included some test videos below that you can look at if you are bored, but the upshot is this: If you are looking for a camcorder that you can whip out and instantly start filming your friends and family with, this is it. This is the sort of camcorder you take to barbeques, to picnics, to weddings and birthdays, where you want to catch the spontaneous moments. This is the sort of camcorder you want when the video camera on your mobile phone isn’t worth the menu-and-quality hassle. Ok – a table of FORs and AGAINSTs… FOR AGAINST Is incredibly light in your pocket Is ‘instant on and start filming’ Has inbuilt ‘beeps’ and ‘bops’ to let you know if it’s turned on or not, and if it’s recording Has a VERY clear monitor screen so you can see what you are filming and clearly see your playbacks Has internal speakers so you can hear what was said when you playback your files Is less than $300 so you aren’t going to weep buckets and sell the Kingswood (“Not the Kingswood!”) if you lose it or drop it in the river/ocean The inbuilt editing suite is simple enough that even my mother could (eventually) get the hang of it The inbuilt editing suite is quick enough so that you can shoot and upload to YouTube within a few minutes via your laptop and a wireless or 3G connection You can plug your Flip into your standard tv (the standard red, white and yellow plugged cable is included in the box) and watch your cinematic genius in glorious sound and colour No socket for an external mic No ‘anti-shake’ software – you see every bump in the road The inbuilt editing suite is VERY basic The inbuilt editing suite is very slow when processing files The default files straight off the Flip are mp4 – make sure any more advanced editing software you might want to use can handle this format, otherwise you will have to convert the files to wmv with the Flip software, which is not a fast process You need to adjust some of your tv settings if you want to watch the videos direct from the Flip and your tv is a high-def one As you can see, the ‘FOR’s outweigh the ‘AGAINST’s — and that’s just after four days. I’m sure if I played around with it for longer as part of the review process I could find even more things to love about it. But each time I thought about one of the ‘AGAINST’s I kept coming back to the thought: “It’s a sub-$300 camera, Hopkins, get a grip!” But even as it is, I LOVE IT and am definitely not sending this back to them at the end of the review period! I will become my default ‘car-cam’ recorder for my BetterComms vidcasts, because the sound quality is pretty darn good at 60km/hr around town — it’s only when I hit the freeway and start clocking 100km/hr that the background noise starts intruding. At 60km/hr I can record and not have to worry about adding another hour to my editing time by having to import and align a separate audio recording from my lapel mic. Here’s my final summation of my views, quite naturally in video format:   Other videos: A semi-review shot outside – it shows that if you get too far away from the camera the mic can’t really perform at its best   The 30 minute video I mentioned is right below – a collection of tests and trials, indoors and outside, just looking at some of the features. The movie is put together with the Flip’s editing software. You’ll notice that the zoom isn’t very strong, nor is the wide-angle particularly wide, nor is the Flip editing software a replica of high-end Adobe software. But what do you want for under $300 when you are getting HD quality and ‘instant on’???   Just after the courier dropped it off, I opened the Flip box and took a peek at what’s inside. Useful links If you are interested, Cnet have a really good review of the camera So, too, does Macintouch Quick video of hi-def landscape taken with the Flip How to use FlipShare (the editing software) to make a movie (YouTube) Technorati Tags: #FlipAUS,Flip minoHD,mino,flip,cisco,text100,lukas picton,review,camcorder,youtube,video,communication,lee hopkins tag:odeo.com,2009-10-08,25262774 Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:58:41 -0700 no Better communication results video, youtube, communication, Cisco, Review, videoblog, BCR podcast, tools, flip, camcorder, book review, mino, text100, lukas picton, Flip minoHD, #FlipAUS http://odeo.com/episodes/25239860-BCR053-Interview-with-Simon-Crisp-IBM Courtesy of the suave, sophisticated and debonair (and almost 30 but don’t tell him I told you) Lukas Picton at Text100, I had the opportunity to catch some time with the very busy Simon Crisp at IBM (you can find out more about Simon at the bottom of this post). Simon is part of a newly-developed global initiative within IBM – the Business Analytics and Optimization (BAO) Division. According to IBM, there are 15 petabytes of information generated every day. Say wha??? That’s the equivalent of a stack of books stretching from the sun to Pluto and back. Each day. As a report from the BAO Division says, It’s easy to understand why business leaders regard their experience and intuition as inadequate tools for optimizing their enterprises. In addition to all the new information being created every nanosecond, permanent and far-reaching changes are being shaped by multiple global forces that include a new economic environment, along with the familiar forces of a shrinking and flatt... Courtesy of the suave, sophisticated and debonair (and almost 30 but don’t tell him I told you) Lukas Picton at Text100, I had the opportunity to catch some time with the very busy Simon Crisp at IBM (you can find out more about Simon at the bottom of this post). Simon is part of a newly-developed global initiative within IBM – the Business Analytics and Optimization (BAO) Division. According to IBM, there are 15 petabytes of information generated every day. Say wha??? That’s the equivalent of a stack of books stretching from the sun to Pluto and back. Each day. As a report from the BAO Division says, It’s easy to understand why business leaders regard their experience and intuition as inadequate tools for optimizing their enterprises. In addition to all the new information being created every nanosecond, permanent and far-reaching changes are being shaped by multiple global forces that include a new economic environment, along with the familiar forces of a shrinking and flattening world. Routines persist but everything is just so different and very little feels familiar. Based on our survey of 225 business leaders worldwide, we found that enterprises are operating with bigger blind spots and that they are making important decisions without access to the right information. They recognize that new analytics, coupled with advanced business process management capabilities, signal a major opportunity to close gaps and create new business advantage. Those who have the vision to apply new approaches are building intelligent enterprises and will be ready to outperform their peers. The report goes on to ask, How is it possible for organizations to make sense of information with virtually quantum-level granularity – and cosmic-level ubiquity? That’s a tough question to answer, and of vital relevance to us as business communicators in this new communication landscape. So Simon and my half-hour chat looked at social media analytics and information gathering, for both corporates (Simon’s area of expertise) and SMEs (Small-to-Medium-sized-Businesses). You can download our 29-minute chat [29mb] for later listening, or not take advantage of the power of rss subscription and ensure you automatically and painlessly catch each new edition of my podcast and vidcast in iTunes as and when I publish them. A bit of background info about Simon Crisp: Simon is the Sales and Solutioning Lead for Business Intelligence and Performance Management in the newly formed A/NZ Business Optimisation and Analytics practice for IBM Global Business Services. Simon has over 14 years experience both in operational and consulting roles focused on Business Intelligence solution design and implementation, business strategy development, product management, advanced customer analytics, and customer marketing. Simon has an entrepreneur type style with a focus on maximising customer value through innovative value propositions and results driven strategy and technology implementations. Simon is recognised as an expert in intelligent customer marketing and analytics techniques to maximise customer value and has been invited to speak at conferences in Asia and Europe. His industry experience extends to Telecommunications, Digital Media, Petrochemical, and Information Technology industries and has worked with a client base across Europe, Asia and North America. While writing this, I was listening to "New Toy" by Lene Lovich Technorati Tags: simon crisp,ibm,bao,business analytics,optimisation,optimization,lukas picton,text100,social media,podcast,business communication,lee hopkins Courtesy of the suave, sophisticated and debonair (and almost 30 but don’t tell him I told you) Lukas Picton at Text100, I had the opportunity to catch some time with the very busy Simon Crisp at IBM (you can find out more about Simon at the bottom of this post). Simon is part of a newly-developed global initiative within IBM – the Business Analytics and Optimization (BAO) Division. According to IBM, there are 15 petabytes of information generated every day. Say wha??? That’s the equivalent of a stack of books stretching from the sun to Pluto and back. Each day. As a report from the BAO Division says, It’s easy to understand why business leaders regard their experience and intuition as inadequate tools for optimizing their enterprises. In addition to all the new information being created every nanosecond, permanent and far-reaching changes are being shaped by multiple global forces that include a new economic environment, along with the familiar forces of a shrinking and flattening world. Routines persist but everything is just so different and very little feels familiar. Based on our survey of 225 business leaders worldwide, we found that enterprises are operating with bigger blind spots and that they are making important decisions without access to the right information. They recognize that new analytics, coupled with advanced business process management capabilities, signal a major opportunity to close gaps and create new business advantage. Those who have the vision to apply new approaches are building intelligent enterprises and will be ready to outperform their peers. The report goes on to ask, How is it possible for organizations to make sense of information with virtually quantum-level granularity – and cosmic-level ubiquity? That’s a tough question to answer, and of vital relevance to us as business communicators in this new communication landscape. So Simon and my half-hour chat looked at social media analytics and information gathering, for both corporates (Simon’s area of expertise) and SMEs (Small-to-Medium-sized-Businesses). You can download our 29-minute chat [29mb] for later listening, or not take advantage of the power of rss subscription and ensure you automatically and painlessly catch each new edition of my podcast and vidcast in iTunes as and when I publish them. A bit of background info about Simon Crisp: Simon is the Sales and Solutioning Lead for Business Intelligence and Performance Management in the newly formed A/NZ Business Optimisation and Analytics practice for IBM Global Business Services. Simon has over 14 years experience both in operational and consulting roles focused on Business Intelligence solution design and implementation, business strategy development, product management, advanced customer analytics, and customer marketing. Simon has an entrepreneur type style with a focus on maximising customer value through innovative value propositions and results driven strategy and technology implementations. Simon is recognised as an expert in intelligent customer marketing and analytics techniques to maximise customer value and has been invited to speak at conferences in Asia and Europe. His industry experience extends to Telecommunications, Digital Media, Petrochemical, and Information Technology industries and has worked with a client base across Europe, Asia and North America. While writing this, I was listening to "New Toy" by Lene Lovich Technorati Tags: simon crisp,ibm,bao,business analytics,optimisation,optimization,lukas picton,text100,social media,podcast,business communication,lee hopkins tag:odeo.com,2009-10-05,25239860 Mon, 05 Oct 2009 17:32:18 -0700 no Better communication results podcast, Podcasting, interviews, social media, BCR podcast, tools, ibm, optimization, Optimisation, Business Analytics, Business Communication, text100, lukas picton, bao, simon crisp http://odeo.com/episodes/25206007-Social-Media-Tsunami-%E2%80%93-the-numbers-say-it-all Mega thanks to Gary Hayes for this! Technorati Tags: gary hayes, social media, statistics, numbers Mega thanks to Gary Hayes for this! Technorati Tags: gary hayes, social media, statistics, numbers Mega thanks to Gary Hayes for this! Technorati Tags: gary hayes, social media, statistics, numbers tag:odeo.com,2009-09-29,25206007 Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:33:26 -0700 no Better communication results Podcasting, Blogging, marketing, social media, videoblog, miscellaneous, tools, PR, Numbers, micro-blogging, Statistics, gary hayes http://odeo.com/episodes/25196981-BCR-052-Why-the-Amora-Jamison-is-%E2%80%98my%E2%80%99-hotel And in another edition of the Better Communication Results vidcast, filmed in stunning ‘Car-o-rama’, I let you know why the Amora Jamison in Sydney is my new ‘hotel of choice’ — simply a stunning hotel that does things from a customer’s perspective, not theirs. Mega thanks to Jess Heffernan at Melcrum for insisting I stay there and insisting they treat me like royalty. BCR052 on YouTube Technorati Tags: amora jamison,hotel,sydney,melcrum,business communication,lee hopkins And in another edition of the Better Communication Results vidcast, filmed in stunning ‘Car-o-rama’, I let you know why the Amora Jamison in Sydney is my new ‘hotel of choice’ — simply a stunning hotel that does things from a customer’s perspective, not theirs. Mega thanks to Jess Heffernan at Melcrum for insisting I stay there and insisting they treat me like royalty. BCR052 on YouTube Technorati Tags: amora jamison,hotel,sydney,melcrum,business communication,lee hopkins And in another edition of the Better Communication Results vidcast, filmed in stunning ‘Car-o-rama’, I let you know why the Amora Jamison in Sydney is my new ‘hotel of choice’ — simply a stunning hotel that does things from a customer’s perspective, not theirs. Mega thanks to Jess Heffernan at Melcrum for insisting I stay there and insisting they treat me like royalty. BCR052 on YouTube Technorati Tags: amora jamison,hotel,sydney,melcrum,business communication,lee hopkins tag:odeo.com,2009-09-27,25196981 Sun, 27 Sep 2009 23:15:17 -0700 no Better communication results sydney, hotel, videoblog, BCR podcast, Business Communication, melcrum, amora jamison http://odeo.com/episodes/25168298-Fabulous-reminder-from-Jim-Stewart Jim Stewart is a SEO (search engine optimisation) guru from Melbourne, Australia, and regularly pops out videos about the topic full of insight and wisdom. He’s a ‘good egg’, in my books. Jim’s video of his phone interview with the NAB after their spam fiasco is regular viewing in my seminars, when we get to the section about the audiences now having the power to bite ‘corporates’ on the backside if they don’t follow the cultural rules of the social media space. As an aside, Jim himself comes under some stick during these sessions because it looks like he is secretly recording the conversation without the NAB’s spokesperson knowing it, at least until they go ‘off air and off the record’. Some delegates even argue robustly that the messages may well have been of value to the punters. But all agree that the manner in which they were delivered (‘anonymous’ and therefore untrustworthy, completely un-transparent, totally off-topic to the post above them) were “no no”s. I’ll pop the video... Jim Stewart is a SEO (search engine optimisation) guru from Melbourne, Australia, and regularly pops out videos about the topic full of insight and wisdom. He’s a ‘good egg’, in my books. Jim’s video of his phone interview with the NAB after their spam fiasco is regular viewing in my seminars, when we get to the section about the audiences now having the power to bite ‘corporates’ on the backside if they don’t follow the cultural rules of the social media space. As an aside, Jim himself comes under some stick during these sessions because it looks like he is secretly recording the conversation without the NAB’s spokesperson knowing it, at least until they go ‘off air and off the record’. Some delegates even argue robustly that the messages may well have been of value to the punters. But all agree that the manner in which they were delivered (‘anonymous’ and therefore untrustworthy, completely un-transparent, totally off-topic to the post above them) were “no no”s. I’ll pop the video at the bottom of this post so you can make up your own mind, plus some screen grabs from my own workshops that accompany Jim’s video. But all of that is not why I am posting about him today! Only a few seconds ago Jim sent through his weekly email list to his fans (of which I am a vocal one) with the following: I was in Wye River last week talking to a group of Tourism marketers. They were scratching their heads as to what they could put on YouTube. Sometimes you can get so close to something that you don’t realise there may be a lot of people out there who are interested in what you have to say. If you are in a glorious part of the world FILM IT! Upload it and tell the world. It gives you authority over that topic. I nearly didn’t start doing a show about SEO because all the info was freely available online! duh! Just because you may not find it that important, doesn’t mean there are not plenty of people out there who will. By being the one who does video you are assumed to be the expert in your field. Incredibly timely information from @Jimboot. Just because YOU think it’s dull and boring doesn’t mean others will too. As I stress over and over again in my workshops, any podcasts and videos of even the most (to you) mundane things are pure gold to your fans. So take them behind the scenes, let them see for themselves your working conditions and environment, let them experience the sights and sounds that greet you every day. Trust me, they will feel ‘closer’ and love you even more in return! Here’s Jim’s video this week:   As promised, here’s Jim’s controversial ‘NAB’ video, plus the slides I show before and after it in my workshop: Technorati Tags: jim stewart,jimboot,seo,search engine optimisation,search engine marketing,nab,spam,fans,business communication,lee hopkins Jim Stewart is a SEO (search engine optimisation) guru from Melbourne, Australia, and regularly pops out videos about the topic full of insight and wisdom. He’s a ‘good egg’, in my books. Jim’s video of his phone interview with the NAB after their spam fiasco is regular viewing in my seminars, when we get to the section about the audiences now having the power to bite ‘corporates’ on the backside if they don’t follow the cultural rules of the social media space. As an aside, Jim himself comes under some stick during these sessions because it looks like he is secretly recording the conversation without the NAB’s spokesperson knowing it, at least until they go ‘off air and off the record’. Some delegates even argue robustly that the messages may well have been of value to the punters. But all agree that the manner in which they were delivered (‘anonymous’ and therefore untrustworthy, completely un-transparent, totally off-topic to the post above them) were “no no”s. I’ll pop the video at the bottom of this post so you can make up your own mind, plus some screen grabs from my own workshops that accompany Jim’s video. But all of that is not why I am posting about him today! Only a few seconds ago Jim sent through his weekly email list to his fans (of which I am a vocal one) with the following: I was in Wye River last week talking to a group of Tourism marketers. They were scratching their heads as to what they could put on YouTube. Sometimes you can get so close to something that you don’t realise there may be a lot of people out there who are interested in what you have to say. If you are in a glorious part of the world FILM IT! Upload it and tell the world. It gives you authority over that topic. I nearly didn’t start doing a show about SEO because all the info was freely available online! duh! Just because you may not find it that important, doesn’t mean there are not plenty of people out there who will. By being the one who does video you are assumed to be the expert in your field. Incredibly timely information from @Jimboot. Just because YOU think it’s dull and boring doesn’t mean others will too. As I stress over and over again in my workshops, any podcasts and videos of even the most (to you) mundane things are pure gold to your fans. So take them behind the scenes, let them see for themselves your working conditions and environment, let them experience the sights and sounds that greet you every day. Trust me, they will feel ‘closer’ and love you even more in return! Here’s Jim’s video this week:   As promised, here’s Jim’s controversial ‘NAB’ video, plus the slides I show before and after it in my workshop: Technorati Tags: jim stewart,jimboot,seo,search engine optimisation,search engine marketing,nab,spam,fans,business communication,lee hopkins tag:odeo.com,2009-09-22,25168298 Tue, 22 Sep 2009 19:03:16 -0700 no Better communication results spam, videoblog, SEO, fans, PR, nab, ethics, search engine marketing, search engine optimisation, Business Communication, @jimboot, jim stewart http://odeo.com/episodes/25157589-BCR-051-Interview-with-SnapComms-com Yes, a podcast rather than a vidcast! Refreshing, eh? I interview the very smart Sarah and Chris from SnapComms.com, an internal comms software and service provider with a truly innovative set of tools. These tools allow companies to talk to their employees – and listen to their responses – in multiple, noise-cut-through ways. Sarah and Chris assure me that their tools can: Reduce email overload internally Increase message cut through for internal communications Improve the Intranet as an internal communications tool Communicate change to staff successfully Reduce the impact of a recession with effective employee communications Improve information cascade via line managers Improve leadership communications with staff Deliver effective front line communications Leverage Share Point and maximize it’s value Build engagement with innovative internal communications Measure effectiveness of internal communications   All of which are dead handy want-to-have’s, aren’t they? Liste... Yes, a podcast rather than a vidcast! Refreshing, eh? I interview the very smart Sarah and Chris from SnapComms.com, an internal comms software and service provider with a truly innovative set of tools. These tools allow companies to talk to their employees – and listen to their responses – in multiple, noise-cut-through ways. Sarah and Chris assure me that their tools can: Reduce email overload internally Increase message cut through for internal communications Improve the Intranet as an internal communications tool Communicate change to staff successfully Reduce the impact of a recession with effective employee communications Improve information cascade via line managers Improve leadership communications with staff Deliver effective front line communications Leverage Share Point and maximize it’s value Build engagement with innovative internal communications Measure effectiveness of internal communications   All of which are dead handy want-to-have’s, aren’t they? Listen to the podcast and enjoy finding out about a very cool set of tools to help you cut through the noise and actually engage with your employees – I guarantee you will be surprised and will want to find out more! You can download our eight-minute chat [8mb] for later listening, or not take advantage of the power of rss subscription and ensure you automatically and painlessly catch each new edition of my podcast and vidcast in iTunes as and when I publish them. Technorati Tags: snapcomms, internal comms, employee comms, software, saas, business communication, lee hopkins Yes, a podcast rather than a vidcast! Refreshing, eh? I interview the very smart Sarah and Chris from SnapComms.com, an internal comms software and service provider with a truly innovative set of tools. These tools allow companies to talk to their employees – and listen to their responses – in multiple, noise-cut-through ways. Sarah and Chris assure me that their tools can: Reduce email overload internally Increase message cut through for internal communications Improve the Intranet as an internal communications tool Communicate change to staff successfully Reduce the impact of a recession with effective employee communications Improve information cascade via line managers Improve leadership communications with staff Deliver effective front line communications Leverage Share Point and maximize it’s value Build engagement with innovative internal communications Measure effectiveness of internal communications   All of which are dead handy want-to-have’s, aren’t they? Listen to the podcast and enjoy finding out about a very cool set of tools to help you cut through the noise and actually engage with your employees – I guarantee you will be surprised and will want to find out more! You can download our eight-minute chat [8mb] for later listening, or not take advantage of the power of rss subscription and ensure you automatically and painlessly catch each new edition of my podcast and vidcast in iTunes as and when I publish them. Technorati Tags: snapcomms, internal comms, employee comms, software, saas, business communication, lee hopkins tag:odeo.com,2009-09-20,25157589 Sun, 20 Sep 2009 17:38:40 -0700 no Better communication results Podcasting, interviews, Software, SaaS, BCR podcast, Business Communication, employee comms, internal comms, snapcomms http://odeo.com/episodes/25088604-%E2%80%9CSocial-Media-is-a-load-of-time-wasting-rubbish-%E2%80%9D AND I AGREE! Well, kind of. Well, actually, no I don’t. The need for business to communicate effectively has never gone away. But these days the channels that we have available to use are more varied and numerous than ever before. And unlike previous channels, these new ones allow our markets to talk back to us! That can be scary! Some evangelists loudly proclaim that social media is a communication revolution on a par with Gutenberg’s Press. Social media changes the playing field In just a few short years Social Media, Web2.0, Social Networking (call it what you will) has changed the face of online communication. This web2.0 stuff is not just the realm of geeks anymore, or fun, wacky, zany, madcap teens… the largest demographic group on Twitter, for example, is aged between 30 and 45! So too with Second Life — the average age of someone in Second Life is 34! As an aside, do you ever wonder what happened to Second Life? Well, it’s as busy as ever, with corporations and learnin... AND I AGREE! Well, kind of. Well, actually, no I don’t. The need for business to communicate effectively has never gone away. But these days the channels that we have available to use are more varied and numerous than ever before. And unlike previous channels, these new ones allow our markets to talk back to us! That can be scary! Some evangelists loudly proclaim that social media is a communication revolution on a par with Gutenberg’s Press. Social media changes the playing field In just a few short years Social Media, Web2.0, Social Networking (call it what you will) has changed the face of online communication. This web2.0 stuff is not just the realm of geeks anymore, or fun, wacky, zany, madcap teens… the largest demographic group on Twitter, for example, is aged between 30 and 45! So too with Second Life — the average age of someone in Second Life is 34! As an aside, do you ever wonder what happened to Second Life? Well, it’s as busy as ever, with corporations and learning institutions using it for networking and to deliver training cheaper and quicker and more effectively than Real Life! is the fourth largest country in the world The latest research shows that Social Networking (that’s Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Bebo, Second Life and so on…) is used more than email as a way for Aussies and our Kiwi counterparts to communicate with their friends and family. The growth of social networking in Australia is phenomenal. Each day 900 people sign up on one of the social networking sites, and the trend curve is steeply upward. And it’s not just a lower socio-economic phenomenon: the average income of those who ‘social mediarise’ is around $73,000 per year and they are often tertiary-qualified. They are choosing to spend their time in different ways: the time they would traditionally have spent watching TV and reading newspapers and magazines is now spent online, engaging with their peers and sharing their passions with others who have similar interests . There are few areas of Australian life that are not touched by social media. If you have an interest in primetime tv soaps, palaeontology, and post-menopausal naked underwater basket weaving… all of these interests and more are ‘covered’ by blogs, podcasts and even video in some instances. To the surprise of many, the decidedly ‘un-sexy’ business of business communication is covered! There are blogs, podcasts and even video shows devoted to the subject (and I produce one of them). Politicians are ‘tweeting’ Even the stodgy old area of ‘Politics’ is now a part of the social media realm. More and more politicians are using social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook and blogs to connect with their constituents and the Australian public at large. South Australia’s Premier, Mike Rann, a convert to Twitter after cyclist Lance Armstrong put him onto it, has recently started calling ‘traditional’ media—such as radio, tv and newspapers—’old’ media. He now spends more and more of his time engaging with fellow Twitterers and can often be seen hoping straight onto his Blackberry to ‘tweet’ as soon as he is out of meetings and in his government car. The HR conundrum Of course, where politicians go is a reflection of where the population is already at, and have been so for a while. Businesses are now wrestling with the various ‘do we/don’t we’ questions around social media: “Do we ban Facebook at work or don’t we?”; “Do we allow our employees to blog or don’t we?”; “Do we allow our employees to Twitter or don’t we?” Naturally, with the advent of smart, internet-enabled mobile phones it matters very little what the ‘official’ company policy is: ‘always on, always connected’ employees of all ages simply turn to their iPhones, Blackberrys, Nokias and Samsungs when they want to get their message out, or read and contribute to what their industry peers or friends have to say. But where are smart companies now sourcing their employees? Yes, where the future employees already are—on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and so on. Smart companies use LinkedIn to find the first pick, then refine that pick by searching for the blogs, podcasts and vidcasts of the thought leaders within that group. “We are living in the middle of the largest increase in expressive capability in the history of the human race.” Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody Conversation has never been easier But it’s not just employees who can engage in conversation; so, too, can customers and clients. If they’re happy with your products and services they can shout about it; but equally, if they are unhappy they can shout about it too. More and more you can find examples of customers using social media tools to try to connect with companies, offering both product suggestions and product complaints. The expectation these days is that the company will be ‘listening’: monitoring the various social media channels for mentions of their name, the names of their brands or their executives and key personnel, so that they can respond quickly. Today’s online social networking expectation is such that companies that take longer than 24 hours to respond—even if it is just a “thanks, give us some time to look into this and get back to you”—have ‘dropped the ball’ and are ‘old school’. Being ‘old school’ is equivalent to being irrelevant and those customers will quickly find, through their network of peers, other companies who will listen to them! The challenge for business communicators Of course, for business communicators the challenge is simple: more channels to monitor than ever before, with more channels being added every week, and an audience that fully expects you to respond immediately (or certainly within 24 hours). All that plus your normal communication activities; it’s no wonder that some communicators are feeling ‘burnt out’. But communication will increasingly become a major cause for concern for CEOs: even the US military recognises that communication, in all its varied forms and channels, is crucial to the 21st century army. Not just for recruiting and reducing attrition, but for engagement with the American populace, the ever-hungry media and the rest of the world. Former U.S. Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, in an address at Princeton for the Council of Foreign Relations podcast entitled ‘New Realities in the Media Age’ (you can find it on iTunes), stated categorically that communicators were key to the future of the US military. Social networking is fast becoming the principle method of ongoing communication between the military and its outside audiences. So the message is… The social media genie is out of the bottle and it won’t go back in! The wise communicator will get involved as soon as possible, even if just in a small way, lest their own career prospects become limited.   You can download a pdf version of this post for circulating amongst your office colleagues from here Technorati Tags: social media,social networking,facebook,donald rumsfeld,council of foreign relations,podcast,blog,twitter,bebo,second life,career,career limiting move,clm,timewasting,timewaste,business communication,lee hopkins AND I AGREE! Well, kind of. Well, actually, no I don’t. The need for business to communicate effectively has never gone away. But these days the channels that we have available to use are more varied and numerous than ever before. And unlike previous channels, these new ones allow our markets to talk back to us! That can be scary! Some evangelists loudly proclaim that social media is a communication revolution on a par with Gutenberg’s Press. Social media changes the playing field In just a few short years Social Media, Web2.0, Social Networking (call it what you will) has changed the face of online communication. This web2.0 stuff is not just the realm of geeks anymore, or fun, wacky, zany, madcap teens… the largest demographic group on Twitter, for example, is aged between 30 and 45! So too with Second Life — the average age of someone in Second Life is 34! As an aside, do you ever wonder what happened to Second Life? Well, it’s as busy as ever, with corporations and learning institutions using it for networking and to deliver training cheaper and quicker and more effectively than Real Life! is the fourth largest country in the world The latest research shows that Social Networking (that’s Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Bebo, Second Life and so on…) is used more than email as a way for Aussies and our Kiwi counterparts to communicate with their friends and family. The growth of social networking in Australia is phenomenal. Each day 900 people sign up on one of the social networking sites, and the trend curve is steeply upward. And it’s not just a lower socio-economic phenomenon: the average income of those who ‘social mediarise’ is around $73,000 per year and they are often tertiary-qualified. They are choosing to spend their time in different ways: the time they would traditionally have spent watching TV and reading newspapers and magazines is now spent online, engaging with their peers and sharing their passions with others who have similar interests . There are few areas of Australian life that are not touched by social media. If you have an interest in primetime tv soaps, palaeontology, and post-menopausal naked underwater basket weaving… all of these interests and more are ‘covered’ by blogs, podcasts and even video in some instances. To the surprise of many, the decidedly ‘un-sexy’ business of business communication is covered! There are blogs, podcasts and even video shows devoted to the subject (and I produce one of them). Politicians are ‘tweeting’ Even the stodgy old area of ‘Politics’ is now a part of the social media realm. More and more politicians are using social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook and blogs to connect with their constituents and the Australian public at large. South Australia’s Premier, Mike Rann, a convert to Twitter after cyclist Lance Armstrong put him onto it, has recently started calling ‘traditional’ media—such as radio, tv and newspapers—’old’ media. He now spends more and more of his time engaging with fellow Twitterers and can often be seen hoping straight onto his Blackberry to ‘tweet’ as soon as he is out of meetings and in his government car. The HR conundrum Of course, where politicians go is a reflection of where the population is already at, and have been so for a while. Businesses are now wrestling with the various ‘do we/don’t we’ questions around social media: “Do we ban Facebook at work or don’t we?”; “Do we allow our employees to blog or don’t we?”; “Do we allow our employees to Twitter or don’t we?” Naturally, with the advent of smart, internet-enabled mobile phones it matters very little what the ‘official’ company policy is: ‘always on, always connected’ employees of all ages simply turn to their iPhones, Blackberrys, Nokias and Samsungs when they want to get their message out, or read and contribute to what their industry peers or friends have to say. But where are smart companies now sourcing their employees? Yes, where the future employees already are—on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and so on. Smart companies use LinkedIn to find the first pick, then refine that pick by searching for the blogs, podcasts and vidcasts of the thought leaders within that group. “We are living in the middle of the largest increase in expressive capability in the history of the human race.” Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody Conversation has never been easier But it’s not just employees who can engage in conversation; so, too, can customers and clients. If they’re happy with your products and services they can shout about it; but equally, if they are unhappy they can shout about it too. More and more you can find examples of customers using social media tools to try to connect with companies, offering both product suggestions and product complaints. The expectation these days is that the company will be ‘listening’: monitoring the various social media channels for mentions of their name, the names of their brands or their executives and key personnel, so that they can respond quickly. Today’s online social networking expectation is such that companies that take longer than 24 hours to respond—even if it is just a “thanks, give us some time to look into this and get back to you”—have ‘dropped the ball’ and are ‘old school’. Being ‘old school’ is equivalent to being irrelevant and those customers will quickly find, through their network of peers, other companies who will listen to them! The challenge for business communicators Of course, for business communicators the challenge is simple: more channels to monitor than ever before, with more channels being added every week, and an audience that fully expects you to respond immediately (or certainly within 24 hours). All that plus your normal communication activities; it’s no wonder that some communicators are feeling ‘burnt out’. But communication will increasingly become a major cause for concern for CEOs: even the US military recognises that communication, in all its varied forms and channels, is crucial to the 21st century army. Not just for recruiting and reducing attrition, but for engagement with the American populace, the ever-hungry media and the rest of the world. Former U.S. Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, in an address at Princeton for the Council of Foreign Relations podcast entitled ‘New Realities in the Media Age’ (you can find it on iTunes), stated categorically that communicators were key to the future of the US military. Social networking is fast becoming the principle method of ongoing communication between the military and its outside audiences. So the message is… The social media genie is out of the bottle and it won’t go back in! The wise communicator will get involved as soon as possible, even if just in a small way, lest their own career prospects become limited.   You can download a pdf version of this post for circulating amongst your office colleagues from here Technorati Tags: social media,social networking,facebook,donald rumsfeld,council of foreign relations,podcast,blog,twitter,bebo,second life,career,career limiting move,clm,timewasting,timewaste,business communication,lee hopkins tag:odeo.com,2009-09-07,25088604 Mon, 07 Sep 2009 20:44:57 -0700 no Better communication results podcast, Podcasting, twitter, second life, career, Social networking, Facebook, Blogging, marketing, social media, Blog, videoblog, customer service, tools, PR, internal communications, bebo, micro-blogging, Donald Rumsfeld, Business Communication, council of foreign relations, clm, timewaste, career limiting move, timewasting http://odeo.com/episodes/25082564-Social-media-takes-my-breath-away Courtesy of my colleague in arms Michael Seaton comes a breath-taking video on the pace of social media and social networking. You may have seen the ‘shift’ video (I play it all the time in my workshops) but this will be the follow-up (and same music, too!) Technorati Tags: social media, social networking, michael seaton, speed of change, pace, digital media, youtube, lee hopkins, business communication, word of mouth Courtesy of my colleague in arms Michael Seaton comes a breath-taking video on the pace of social media and social networking. You may have seen the ‘shift’ video (I play it all the time in my workshops) but this will be the follow-up (and same music, too!) Technorati Tags: social media, social networking, michael seaton, speed of change, pace, digital media, youtube, lee hopkins, business communication, word of mouth Courtesy of my colleague in arms Michael Seaton comes a breath-taking video on the pace of social media and social networking. You may have seen the ‘shift’ video (I play it all the time in my workshops) but this will be the follow-up (and same music, too!) Technorati Tags: social media, social networking, michael seaton, speed of change, pace, digital media, youtube, lee hopkins, business communication, word of mouth tag:odeo.com,2009-09-06,25082564 Sun, 06 Sep 2009 10:38:51 -0700 no Better communication results youtube, Social networking, social media, miscellaneous, tools, PACE, digital media, word of mouth, micro-blogging, Business Communication, speed of change, michael seaton http://odeo.com/episodes/24964789-BCR-050-On-Papershow-and-mobileblackbox Today’s excitement-packed video highlights my receding hairline and confirms my need to incorporate a ‘mad professor’ look to my outfit. Perhaps I could become the Professor Julius Sumner Miller (that’s him in the photo) of the Web2.0 world… But back to the video… I talk about a new product sent to me called ‘Papershow’ which I have yet to road test and I express envy over a friend’s recent purchase and imminent arrival of a FM transmitter that will actually work in a car, the mobileblackbox V6000FM. BCR050 at YouTube Next video: the results of my road test of the Papershow kit and no doubt something else with which to keep you enthralled. Not. Technorati Tags: mobileblackbox,papershow,professor julius sumner miller,jsm,why is it so,communication,business communication,lee hopkins,v6000 Today’s excitement-packed video highlights my receding hairline and confirms my need to incorporate a ‘mad professor’ look to my outfit. Perhaps I could become the Professor Julius Sumner Miller (that’s him in the photo) of the Web2.0 world… But back to the video… I talk about a new product sent to me called ‘Papershow’ which I have yet to road test and I express envy over a friend’s recent purchase and imminent arrival of a FM transmitter that will actually work in a car, the mobileblackbox V6000FM. BCR050 at YouTube Next video: the results of my road test of the Papershow kit and no doubt something else with which to keep you enthralled. Not. Technorati Tags: mobileblackbox,papershow,professor julius sumner miller,jsm,why is it so,communication,business communication,lee hopkins,v6000 Today’s excitement-packed video highlights my receding hairline and confirms my need to incorporate a ‘mad professor’ look to my outfit. Perhaps I could become the Professor Julius Sumner Miller (that’s him in the photo) of the Web2.0 world… But back to the video… I talk about a new product sent to me called ‘Papershow’ which I have yet to road test and I express envy over a friend’s recent purchase and imminent arrival of a FM transmitter that will actually work in a car, the mobileblackbox V6000FM. BCR050 at YouTube Next video: the results of my road test of the Papershow kit and no doubt something else with which to keep you enthralled. Not. Technorati Tags: mobileblackbox,papershow,professor julius sumner miller,jsm,why is it so,communication,business communication,lee hopkins,v6000 tag:odeo.com,2009-08-14,24964789 Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:21:10 -0700 no Better communication results communication, marketing, videoblog, BCR podcast, tools, jsm, Business Communication, why is it so, papershow, professor julius sumner miller, v6000, mobileblackbox http://odeo.com/episodes/24901620-BCR-049-On-blublocker-sunglasses-raybans-and-being-colour-blind I love my blublocker sunglasses, really I do; they make driving in the hills and on the freeways an absolute joy. But when I drive in the cities I have to put them aside and don my trust raybans. Why? Because I’m red and green colour-blind, that’s why! The blocked-out blue makes it harder to see the green traffic lights (although I have no problem seeing the red lights!) My youtube video:   I had a great tweet from some blublockers retailers: @BluBlockersRock: @leehopkins Hey! Check out our BluBlockers site http://www.BluBlockersRock.com – I like your YouTube video! Cool – thanks, guys and girls!   Technorati Tags: blublocker,rayban,sunglasses,color-blind,colour-blind,traffic lights,driving,lee hopkins I love my blublocker sunglasses, really I do; they make driving in the hills and on the freeways an absolute joy. But when I drive in the cities I have to put them aside and don my trust raybans. Why? Because I’m red and green colour-blind, that’s why! The blocked-out blue makes it harder to see the green traffic lights (although I have no problem seeing the red lights!) My youtube video:   I had a great tweet from some blublockers retailers: @BluBlockersRock: @leehopkins Hey! Check out our BluBlockers site http://www.BluBlockersRock.com – I like your YouTube video! Cool – thanks, guys and girls!   Technorati Tags: blublocker,rayban,sunglasses,color-blind,colour-blind,traffic lights,driving,lee hopkins I love my blublocker sunglasses, really I do; they make driving in the hills and on the freeways an absolute joy. But when I drive in the cities I have to put them aside and don my trust raybans. Why? Because I’m red and green colour-blind, that’s why! The blocked-out blue makes it harder to see the green traffic lights (although I have no problem seeing the red lights!) My youtube video:   I had a great tweet from some blublockers retailers: @BluBlockersRock: @leehopkins Hey! Check out our BluBlockers site http://www.BluBlockersRock.com – I like your YouTube video! Cool – thanks, guys and girls!   Technorati Tags: blublocker,rayban,sunglasses,color-blind,colour-blind,traffic lights,driving,lee hopkins tag:odeo.com,2009-08-02,24901620 Sun, 02 Aug 2009 20:32:53 -0700 no Better communication results driving, marketing, BCR podcast, sunglasses, traffic lights, blublocker, color-blind, colour-blind, rayban http://odeo.com/episodes/24901622-BCR-048-Praising-great-customer-service-%E2%80%93-is-it-THAT-HARD Another in what may well turn out to be a long line of my videos pointing out how hard some Aussie companies make it for their customers to leave positive feedback. I come to praise Caesar, not bury him — but some companies don’t let me do either.   Technorati Tags: bcr048,customer service,qantas,australia,business communication,feedback,lee hopkins Another in what may well turn out to be a long line of my videos pointing out how hard some Aussie companies make it for their customers to leave positive feedback. I come to praise Caesar, not bury him — but some companies don’t let me do either.   Technorati Tags: bcr048,customer service,qantas,australia,business communication,feedback,lee hopkins Another in what may well turn out to be a long line of my videos pointing out how hard some Aussie companies make it for their customers to leave positive feedback. I come to praise Caesar, not bury him — but some companies don’t let me do either.   Technorati Tags: bcr048,customer service,qantas,australia,business communication,feedback,lee hopkins tag:odeo.com,2009-08-02,24901622 Sun, 02 Aug 2009 20:24:14 -0700 no Better communication results feedback, Australia, BCR podcast, customer service, PR, Business Communication, qantas, bcr048 http://odeo.com/episodes/24868695-BCR-047-16th-July-2007 And yet more on creativity: does age matter?   BCR 047 video over at YouTube  Technorati Tags: creativity, creative, sir ken robinson, the element, age, ageist, ageism, business communication, lee hopkins And yet more on creativity: does age matter?   BCR 047 video over at YouTube  Technorati Tags: creativity, creative, sir ken robinson, the element, age, ageist, ageism, business communication, lee hopkins And yet more on creativity: does age matter?   BCR 047 video over at YouTube  Technorati Tags: creativity, creative, sir ken robinson, the element, age, ageist, ageism, business communication, lee hopkins tag:odeo.com,2009-07-16,24868695 Thu, 16 Jul 2009 02:48:22 -0700 no Better communication results BCR podcast, Creative, age, creativity, ageism, Sir Ken Robinson, Business Communication, the element, ageist http://odeo.com/episodes/24868696-BCR-046-15th-July-2007 And musing on ‘creativity’ as a result of Sir Ken Robinson’s book, The Element. What creativity-channelling tricks do YOU use to bring forth the flow? I ‘>BCR 046 video on YouTube  Technorati Tags: video, creative, creativity, sir ken robinson, element, the element, channeling, channelling, muse, business communication, lee hopkins And musing on ‘creativity’ as a result of Sir Ken Robinson’s book, The Element. What creativity-channelling tricks do YOU use to bring forth the flow? I ‘>BCR 046 video on YouTube  Technorati Tags: video, creative, creativity, sir ken robinson, element, the element, channeling, channelling, muse, business communication, lee hopkins And musing on ‘creativity’ as a result of Sir Ken Robinson’s book, The Element. What creativity-channelling tricks do YOU use to bring forth the flow? I ‘>BCR 046 video on YouTube  Technorati Tags: video, creative, creativity, sir ken robinson, element, the element, channeling, channelling, muse, business communication, lee hopkins tag:odeo.com,2009-07-16,24868696 Thu, 16 Jul 2009 02:44:35 -0700 no Better communication results video, BCR podcast, Creative, element, public speaking, creativity, muse, channeling, Sir Ken Robinson, Business Communication, the element, channelling http://odeo.com/episodes/24868697-Isobel-Redmond-%E2%80%93-leader-of-SA%E2%80%99s-opposition I normally don’t get involved with politics, as long time readers of this blog know, but those who follow South Australia’s (or even Australia’s) politics could not have failed to notice that there’s been a bit of argy-bargy going on within the Liberal Party in the last few weeks. I’m not going to comment further, save to suggest that if you want to know more, you google it yourself; “Liberal party AND Hamilton-Smith” should do it. The new Leader of the Opposition is Isobel Redmond. Not only is she the MP for the area in which I live, but I also had the good fortune to be able to interview her three years ago, as part of a series of interviews I conducted for my colleague-in-arms Ross Monaghan. I found Isobel to be charming, self-deprecating and passionate about making change. Here’s what I said at the time: I recently interviewed my local MP, Isobel Redmond, about how she communicates to her diverse constituency of 1,000 square kilometres and around 20 different communities. My goo... I normally don’t get involved with politics, as long time readers of this blog know, but those who follow South Australia’s (or even Australia’s) politics could not have failed to notice that there’s been a bit of argy-bargy going on within the Liberal Party in the last few weeks. I’m not going to comment further, save to suggest that if you want to know more, you google it yourself; “Liberal party AND Hamilton-Smith” should do it. The new Leader of the Opposition is Isobel Redmond. Not only is she the MP for the area in which I live, but I also had the good fortune to be able to interview her three years ago, as part of a series of interviews I conducted for my colleague-in-arms Ross Monaghan. I found Isobel to be charming, self-deprecating and passionate about making change. Here’s what I said at the time: I recently interviewed my local MP, Isobel Redmond, about how she communicates to her diverse constituency of 1,000 square kilometres and around 20 different communities. My good friend Ross Monaghan over at theMediaPod has posted the interview and found some fascinating background material that I wish I’d uncovered before I interviewed her — damn you, Monaghan! {smile} This is a great interview to listen to for many reasons: Isobel has a fascinating background She doesn’t strike you as your ‘typical’ MP She shares a controversial opinion about ‘communication’ in general that will both shock many and find equally as many who agree with her She sheds fascinating light on the current ‘Industrial Relations’ legislation that is such a bone of contention for the Australian unions at the moment (and interestingly, Barry Haas, the MP for the mammoth Western Australian mining region ‘Kalgoolie’ has asked every single member of his constituency for concrete proof of skullduggery and thievery of employees and their rights by employers (ABC’s PM report mp3) — so far not one person has come forward, perhaps validating Isobel’s opinion, based as it is on around 30 years of legal experience, including industrial law, that the IR laws are actually really tough on employers not employees, and that the only reason people are scared is that the unions have mounted a far more successful PR campaign) She has equally controversial opinions about PR and the perception of the South Australian nuclear waste dump facility (that got cancelled). I cannot recommend highly enough you listen to this interview. Not because of me, but because of what absolute ‘gems’ Isobel shares about the political life (it’s not all fun and games). You can download the podcast from Ross’ site – and have a read of his shownotes too, they’re a cracker! I for one wish Isobel every success in her new role. Technorati Tags: Isobel Redmond, abc, barry haas, parliament, pm report, ross monaghan, shadow attorney general, south australia, themediapod.net I normally don’t get involved with politics, as long time readers of this blog know, but those who follow South Australia’s (or even Australia’s) politics could not have failed to notice that there’s been a bit of argy-bargy going on within the Liberal Party in the last few weeks. I’m not going to comment further, save to suggest that if you want to know more, you google it yourself; “Liberal party AND Hamilton-Smith” should do it. The new Leader of the Opposition is Isobel Redmond. Not only is she the MP for the area in which I live, but I also had the good fortune to be able to interview her three years ago, as part of a series of interviews I conducted for my colleague-in-arms Ross Monaghan. I found Isobel to be charming, self-deprecating and passionate about making change. Here’s what I said at the time: I recently interviewed my local MP, Isobel Redmond, about how she communicates to her diverse constituency of 1,000 square kilometres and around 20 different communities. My good friend Ross Monaghan over at theMediaPod has posted the interview and found some fascinating background material that I wish I’d uncovered before I interviewed her — damn you, Monaghan! {smile} This is a great interview to listen to for many reasons: Isobel has a fascinating background She doesn’t strike you as your ‘typical’ MP She shares a controversial opinion about ‘communication’ in general that will both shock many and find equally as many who agree with her She sheds fascinating light on the current ‘Industrial Relations’ legislation that is such a bone of contention for the Australian unions at the moment (and interestingly, Barry Haas, the MP for the mammoth Western Australian mining region ‘Kalgoolie’ has asked every single member of his constituency for concrete proof of skullduggery and thievery of employees and their rights by employers (ABC’s PM report mp3) — so far not one person has come forward, perhaps validating Isobel’s opinion, based as it is on around 30 years of legal experience, including industrial law, that the IR laws are actually really tough on employers not employees, and that the only reason people are scared is that the unions have mounted a far more successful PR campaign) She has equally controversial opinions about PR and the perception of the South Australian nuclear waste dump facility (that got cancelled). I cannot recommend highly enough you listen to this interview. Not because of me, but because of what absolute ‘gems’ Isobel shares about the political life (it’s not all fun and games). You can download the podcast from Ross’ site – and have a read of his shownotes too, they’re a cracker! I for one wish Isobel every success in her new role. Technorati Tags: Isobel Redmond, abc, barry haas, parliament, pm report, ross monaghan, shadow attorney general, south australia, themediapod.net tag:odeo.com,2009-07-09,24868697 Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:19:50 -0700 no Better communication results Podcasting, interviews, Politics, abc, parliament, South Australia, ross monaghan, shadow attorney general, Isobel Redmond, themediapod.net, barry haas, pm report http://odeo.com/episodes/24752205-pssst%E2%80%A6-just-between-you-and-me-%E2%80%93-I-love-Microsoft I have spent the better part of a day wrestling with a printer issue. My trusty office-strength Lexmark  Optra T614 laser printer wouldn’t print double-sided, even though every ‘flag’ in the entire universe told it to. I even went and somehow corrupted the print spooler so that no printers showed at all and I couldn’t add any. Grrrr… Much wailing and gnashing of teeth here at BetterComms Towers as our entire IT staff (me, Boof and Ratbag - my two trusty and faithful killer attack labradors) laboured long and hard to get things right. In the end I did the unthinkable – I visited the Microsoft Help site. Thirty seconds later I was reading an article that claimed it would solve all my problems. Devotees of mid-period Rolling Stones will remember the girl with far-away eyes and how Country Mick ran a succession of red stop signs because of a tangentially-similar claim. So I clicked on the ‘fix this problem’ button which came with the following promise: Fix it for me   To fix t... I have spent the better part of a day wrestling with a printer issue. My trusty office-strength Lexmark  Optra T614 laser printer wouldn’t print double-sided, even though every ‘flag’ in the entire universe told it to. I even went and somehow corrupted the print spooler so that no printers showed at all and I couldn’t add any. Grrrr… Much wailing and gnashing of teeth here at BetterComms Towers as our entire IT staff (me, Boof and Ratbag - my two trusty and faithful killer attack labradors) laboured long and hard to get things right. In the end I did the unthinkable – I visited the Microsoft Help site. Thirty seconds later I was reading an article that claimed it would solve all my problems. Devotees of mid-period Rolling Stones will remember the girl with far-away eyes and how Country Mick ran a succession of red stop signs because of a tangentially-similar claim. So I clicked on the ‘fix this problem’ button which came with the following promise: Fix it for me   To fix this problem automatically, click the Fix this problem link. Then click Run in the File Download dialog box, and follow the steps in this wizard. Fix this problem Note The Fix it solution can be run in either Light mode or Full mode. Light mode makes changes to the spooler that should not require you to make any additional changes. Full mode will restore the print spooler to default settings and require that you reinstall your printers. Note This wizard is temporarily in English only. However, the automatic fix also works for other language versions of Windows. Note If you are not on the computer that has the problem, you can save the automatic fix to a flash drive or to a CD, and then you can run it on the computer that has the problem. Now go to the "Did this fix the problem?" section. I am joyously delighted to report that it bloomin’ well DID fix my problem – well, almost. I decided to take the radical step of turning my printer off and on and trying my double-sided printing again. Chuffin’ Nora! Printer compliance once again reigns in BetterComms Towers. As Country Mick said, “Thank you Jesus, Thank you Lord.” To which I add, “Thank you, Microsofties” Technorati Tags: microsoft, tech support, microsofties, lexmark, optra, t614, printer, spooler, rolling stones, business communication, lee hopkins, bettercomms I have spent the better part of a day wrestling with a printer issue. My trusty office-strength Lexmark  Optra T614 laser printer wouldn’t print double-sided, even though every ‘flag’ in the entire universe told it to. I even went and somehow corrupted the print spooler so that no printers showed at all and I couldn’t add any. Grrrr… Much wailing and gnashing of teeth here at BetterComms Towers as our entire IT staff (me, Boof and Ratbag - my two trusty and faithful killer attack labradors) laboured long and hard to get things right. In the end I did the unthinkable – I visited the Microsoft Help site. Thirty seconds later I was reading an article that claimed it would solve all my problems. Devotees of mid-period Rolling Stones will remember the girl with far-away eyes and how Country Mick ran a succession of red stop signs because of a tangentially-similar claim. So I clicked on the ‘fix this problem’ button which came with the following promise: Fix it for me   To fix this problem automatically, click the Fix this problem link. Then click Run in the File Download dialog box, and follow the steps in this wizard. Fix this problem Note The Fix it solution can be run in either Light mode or Full mode. Light mode makes changes to the spooler that should not require you to make any additional changes. Full mode will restore the print spooler to default settings and require that you reinstall your printers. Note This wizard is temporarily in English only. However, the automatic fix also works for other language versions of Windows. Note If you are not on the computer that has the problem, you can save the automatic fix to a flash drive or to a CD, and then you can run it on the computer that has the problem. Now go to the "Did this fix the problem?" section. I am joyously delighted to report that it bloomin’ well DID fix my problem – well, almost. I decided to take the radical step of turning my printer off and on and trying my double-sided printing again. Chuffin’ Nora! Printer compliance once again reigns in BetterComms Towers. As Country Mick said, “Thank you Jesus, Thank you Lord.” To which I add, “Thank you, Microsofties” Technorati Tags: microsoft, tech support, microsofties, lexmark, optra, t614, printer, spooler, rolling stones, business communication, lee hopkins, bettercomms tag:odeo.com,2009-06-23,24752205 Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:14:57 -0700 no Better communication results microsoft, customer service, tools, printer, rolling stones, tech support, Business Communication, bettercomms, optra, lexmark, t614, spooler, microsofties http://odeo.com/episodes/24752206-The-secret-business-of-social-networking I recently gave a two-hour workshop presentation to a fabulous group of HR pros at the AHRI 2009 Conference in Sydney. Here’s the presentation; I strongly suggest you download the slides (they are PowerPoint 2007 format) as there are some key slides at the end of the slide deck that I ran out of time to give justice to, and that don’t show on the slideshare presentation. The secret business of social networking: AHRI 2009 Conference View more OpenOffice presentations from Lee Hopkins. Technorati Tags: #ahri, AHRI, social networking, social media, business communication, lee hopkins I recently gave a two-hour workshop presentation to a fabulous group of HR pros at the AHRI 2009 Conference in Sydney. Here’s the presentation; I strongly suggest you download the slides (they are PowerPoint 2007 format) as there are some key slides at the end of the slide deck that I ran out of time to give justice to, and that don’t show on the slideshare presentation. The secret business of social networking: AHRI 2009 Conference View more OpenOffice presentations from Lee Hopkins. Technorati Tags: #ahri, AHRI, social networking, social media, business communication, lee hopkins I recently gave a two-hour workshop presentation to a fabulous group of HR pros at the AHRI 2009 Conference in Sydney. Here’s the presentation; I strongly suggest you download the slides (they are PowerPoint 2007 format) as there are some key slides at the end of the slide deck that I ran out of time to give justice to, and that don’t show on the slideshare presentation. The secret business of social networking: AHRI 2009 Conference View more OpenOffice presentations from Lee Hopkins. Technorati Tags: #ahri, AHRI, social networking, social media, business communication, lee hopkins tag:odeo.com,2009-06-23,24752206 Tue, 23 Jun 2009 06:25:02 -0700 no Better communication results Social networking, social media, tools, public speaking, Business Communication, #ahri http://odeo.com/episodes/24752207-See-me-at-the-Melcrum-Strategic-Comms-Management-Summit-September-in-Sydney M y very fine friends at Melcrum are running another of their superb, packed-out strategic communication summits here in Australia – 15-18 Sept in Sydney. Well, the 16th and 17th are the summit ‘proper’, the 15th is a pre-summit workshop day with Melissa Dunn from Gallup Consulting and Bill Quirke (see below) and the 18th is a full day workshop on Social Media run by yours truly, but I know that you wouldn’t want to miss out on anything over the four days. Here’s the line-up: Melissa Dunn from Gallup Consulting “The 12 conditions that matter – what leaders need to know” pre-summit workshop Bill Quirke of Synopsis Communication Consulting “Leading engagement: how to get buy-in from business leaders to drive engagement” pre-summit workshop Danielle Koopman from Tourism Australia “The best social and viral media campaign in the world? Outcomes of the ‘Best Job in the World’ campaign” Herna van Reenen from Siemens “A picture of the future” Jonathan Champ from QBE Australia “Delivering ‘... M y very fine friends at Melcrum are running another of their superb, packed-out strategic communication summits here in Australia – 15-18 Sept in Sydney. Well, the 16th and 17th are the summit ‘proper’, the 15th is a pre-summit workshop day with Melissa Dunn from Gallup Consulting and Bill Quirke (see below) and the 18th is a full day workshop on Social Media run by yours truly, but I know that you wouldn’t want to miss out on anything over the four days. Here’s the line-up: Melissa Dunn from Gallup Consulting “The 12 conditions that matter – what leaders need to know” pre-summit workshop Bill Quirke of Synopsis Communication Consulting “Leading engagement: how to get buy-in from business leaders to drive engagement” pre-summit workshop Danielle Koopman from Tourism Australia “The best social and viral media campaign in the world? Outcomes of the ‘Best Job in the World’ campaign” Herna van Reenen from Siemens “A picture of the future” Jonathan Champ from QBE Australia “Delivering ‘strategic communication’ one tactic at a time…” David Miller from the ATO “The ATO’s challenge” Nigel Haworth from Westaff (Australia) “Exploring engagement as an emotional state” Shannon Kliendienst from Leighton Contractors “Communicating effectively with a hard-to-reach workforce” Mike Tancred from the Australian Olympics Committee “Communication challenges – the Beijing Olympics” Alison Brown from IBM Australia “Hitting the restart button: Redesigning communication systems to reflect the reality of today’s working environment” Emma Rugge-Price from GE Australia & New Zealand “Meeting customer needs during rapidly changing times” Sam Werner from Zurich Financial Services Australia “Reconnecting: Getting the Chief Executive back in the room” Justin Gehde from the Department of Justice, Victoria “Effective compliance communication CAN change behaviour” Brian Giesen from Ogilvy PR, Ogilvy 360° Digital Influence “Yamming it up! Internal Comms & Web 2.0” and the must-not-miss keynote speaker is Bill Quirke, a master communicator and highly respected communication strategist from the UK (he’s worth the admission price alone, let alone the other speakers!). Bill is one of the IABC’s six “All Star Speakers” and a regular on the international speaking circuit; he’s also the author of numerous books on communication strategy and how to turn strategy into action. Then on the 18th I’m running a full-day workshop on Social Media, wherein you can find out how to harness social media and do more with less. Look, if you really just want to see me and not attend the full Summit you can, but I reckon you’d be a mug to miss out on the others… You can download the summit brochure as well as find out more about each of the speakers and their sessions on the Melcrum site. FREE MELCRUM MEMBERSHIP WHEN YOU ATTEND THE SCM SUMMIT At the SCM Summit not only will you hear two days of best-practice case studies and receive practical tools to immediately help you, but you’ll also become a Melcrum member FREE (usually $845 + GST) — which means you’ll get 12 months of help through Melcrum’s Strategic Communication Management Journal AND the Internal Comms Hub member-only website! Go on, click on the link and find out more… you know you want to! See you there! Technorati Tags: melcrum, strategic communication summit, bill quirke, danielle koopman, herna van reenen, jonathan champ, david miller, nigel haworth, shannon kliendienst, mike tancred, alison brown, emma rugge-price, sam werner, justin gehde, brian giesen, melissa dunn, sydney, social media, workshop, lee hopkins, business communication M y very fine friends at Melcrum are running another of their superb, packed-out strategic communication summits here in Australia – 15-18 Sept in Sydney. Well, the 16th and 17th are the summit ‘proper’, the 15th is a pre-summit workshop day with Melissa Dunn from Gallup Consulting and Bill Quirke (see below) and the 18th is a full day workshop on Social Media run by yours truly, but I know that you wouldn’t want to miss out on anything over the four days. Here’s the line-up: Melissa Dunn from Gallup Consulting “The 12 conditions that matter – what leaders need to know” pre-summit workshop Bill Quirke of Synopsis Communication Consulting “Leading engagement: how to get buy-in from business leaders to drive engagement” pre-summit workshop Danielle Koopman from Tourism Australia “The best social and viral media campaign in the world? Outcomes of the ‘Best Job in the World’ campaign” Herna van Reenen from Siemens “A picture of the future” Jonathan Champ from QBE Australia “Delivering ‘strategic communication’ one tactic at a time…” David Miller from the ATO “The ATO’s challenge” Nigel Haworth from Westaff (Australia) “Exploring engagement as an emotional state” Shannon Kliendienst from Leighton Contractors “Communicating effectively with a hard-to-reach workforce” Mike Tancred from the Australian Olympics Committee “Communication challenges – the Beijing Olympics” Alison Brown from IBM Australia “Hitting the restart button: Redesigning communication systems to reflect the reality of today’s working environment” Emma Rugge-Price from GE Australia & New Zealand “Meeting customer needs during rapidly changing times” Sam Werner from Zurich Financial Services Australia “Reconnecting: Getting the Chief Executive back in the room” Justin Gehde from the Department of Justice, Victoria “Effective compliance communication CAN change behaviour” Brian Giesen from Ogilvy PR, Ogilvy 360° Digital Influence “Yamming it up! Internal Comms & Web 2.0” and the must-not-miss keynote speaker is Bill Quirke, a master communicator and highly respected communication strategist from the UK (he’s worth the admission price alone, let alone the other speakers!). Bill is one of the IABC’s six “All Star Speakers” and a regular on the international speaking circuit; he’s also the author of numerous books on communication strategy and how to turn strategy into action. Then on the 18th I’m running a full-day workshop on Social Media, wherein you can find out how to harness social media and do more with less. Look, if you really just want to see me and not attend the full Summit you can, but I reckon you’d be a mug to miss out on the others… You can download the summit brochure as well as find out more about each of the speakers and their sessions on the Melcrum site. FREE MELCRUM MEMBERSHIP WHEN YOU ATTEND THE SCM SUMMIT At the SCM Summit not only will you hear two days of best-practice case studies and receive practical tools to immediately help you, but you’ll also become a Melcrum member FREE (usually $845 + GST) — which means you’ll get 12 months of help through Melcrum’s Strategic Communication Management Journal AND the Internal Comms Hub member-only website! Go on, click on the link and find out more… you know you want to! See you there! Technorati Tags: melcrum, strategic communication summit, bill quirke, danielle koopman, herna van reenen, jonathan champ, david miller, nigel haworth, shannon kliendienst, mike tancred, alison brown, emma rugge-price, sam werner, justin gehde, brian giesen, melissa dunn, sydney, social media, workshop, lee hopkins, business communication tag:odeo.com,2009-06-21,24752207 Sun, 21 Jun 2009 19:51:06 -0700 no Better communication results sydney, social media, workshop, tools, internal communications, lee hopkins, public speaking, David Miller, Business Communication, melcrum, shannon kliendienst, nigel haworth, strategic communication summit, danielle koopman, bill quirke, herna van reenen, emma rugge-price, jonathan champ, brian giesen, melissa dunn, justin gehde, alison brown, sam werner, mike tancred http://odeo.com/episodes/24717995-Social-Media-is-punk-rock-you-sh-t-head That Glaswegian Melbournite and angry middle-aged PR practitioner Gerry McCusker has co-created a superb video on the similarities and differences between social media and punk rock. For your humble aging rock star whose words you are currently reading, Gerry is absolutely spot on. Like Gerry, I presented at the recent #iabc09 conference in San Fran (“man”), and I can certainly concur that punk rock and my presentation met in a holocaust of violence: I had several people spit on me One kicked me in the shins, then threw up on me The majority of the audience (all seven of them) swore at me afterwards. But, in the tradition of all good punk rockers, I had my revenge: on the flight back from LAX to SYD (on a A380 no less!) I had the pleasure of spitting on an infant that exercised its lungs rather vociferously for many hours on end. To add delight to piquancy, I then flicked the ears of two separate toddlers on the SYD-ADL leg who belted out their frustrations at a volume level that ev... That Glaswegian Melbournite and angry middle-aged PR practitioner Gerry McCusker has co-created a superb video on the similarities and differences between social media and punk rock. For your humble aging rock star whose words you are currently reading, Gerry is absolutely spot on. Like Gerry, I presented at the recent #iabc09 conference in San Fran (“man”), and I can certainly concur that punk rock and my presentation met in a holocaust of violence: I had several people spit on me One kicked me in the shins, then threw up on me The majority of the audience (all seven of them) swore at me afterwards. But, in the tradition of all good punk rockers, I had my revenge: on the flight back from LAX to SYD (on a A380 no less!) I had the pleasure of spitting on an infant that exercised its lungs rather vociferously for many hours on end. To add delight to piquancy, I then flicked the ears of two separate toddlers on the SYD-ADL leg who belted out their frustrations at a volume level that even Barnesy at the height of his powers would have been proud of. At the risk of causing a torrent of abusive comment and email, I wonder why airlines allow toddlers and infants to fly, seeing as how the vast majority of them suffer excruciating pain in their ears as a result of the changing air pressure. I honestly do feel sorry for the poor little rug rats. The fact that their screaming also causes excruciating pain on all surrounding passengers is inconsequential; it is massively cruel that parents inflict the cause of the pain on their offspring. Perhaps there is another one of those senseless and futile Facebook groups in the offing… And, like Gerry, I wish I could shake this damn jet lag! Technorati Tags: gerry mccusker, punk, music, infant, baby, pain, cruelty, a380, flying, #iabc09, social media That Glaswegian Melbournite and angry middle-aged PR practitioner Gerry McCusker has co-created a superb video on the similarities and differences between social media and punk rock. For your humble aging rock star whose words you are currently reading, Gerry is absolutely spot on. Like Gerry, I presented at the recent #iabc09 conference in San Fran (“man”), and I can certainly concur that punk rock and my presentation met in a holocaust of violence: I had several people spit on me One kicked me in the shins, then threw up on me The majority of the audience (all seven of them) swore at me afterwards. But, in the tradition of all good punk rockers, I had my revenge: on the flight back from LAX to SYD (on a A380 no less!) I had the pleasure of spitting on an infant that exercised its lungs rather vociferously for many hours on end. To add delight to piquancy, I then flicked the ears of two separate toddlers on the SYD-ADL leg who belted out their frustrations at a volume level that even Barnesy at the height of his powers would have been proud of. At the risk of causing a torrent of abusive comment and email, I wonder why airlines allow toddlers and infants to fly, seeing as how the vast majority of them suffer excruciating pain in their ears as a result of the changing air pressure. I honestly do feel sorry for the poor little rug rats. The fact that their screaming also causes excruciating pain on all surrounding passengers is inconsequential; it is massively cruel that parents inflict the cause of the pain on their offspring. Perhaps there is another one of those senseless and futile Facebook groups in the offing… And, like Gerry, I wish I could shake this damn jet lag! Technorati Tags: gerry mccusker, punk, music, infant, baby, pain, cruelty, a380, flying, #iabc09, social media tag:odeo.com,2009-06-16,24717995 Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:32:01 -0700 no Better communication results music, marketing, social media, punk, videoblog, miscellaneous, baby, flying, infant, pain, A380, cruelty, gerry mccusker, #iabc09 http://odeo.com/episodes/24693592-BCR-042-My-impressions-of-iabc09 Many thanks, far too many to actually count, must go to the following for their unbelievable kindness, generosity and goodwill. In no particular order except for the Holtz’s at the top: Shel  & Michele Holtz @allanjenkins Karoline Hausted Bryan Person Sallie Goetsch and Stefan Didak Donna Pepsicola Papacosta Adrian Copley Stacey Thornberry Janna White Kare Anderson Bruce the barman at the Marriott Hotel, San Francisco Barbara Gibson Neville Hobson Sasha the killer attack guard dog Mrs BetterComms Technorati Tags: @shel, michele holtz, bryan person, allan jenkins, @allanjenkins, sallie goetsch, stefan didak, donna papacosta, donna pepsicola, adrian copley, stacey thornberry, janna white, kare anderson, bruce, marriott hotel, barbara gibson, neville hobson, mrs bettercomms, business communication Many thanks, far too many to actually count, must go to the following for their unbelievable kindness, generosity and goodwill. In no particular order except for the Holtz’s at the top: Shel  & Michele Holtz @allanjenkins Karoline Hausted Bryan Person Sallie Goetsch and Stefan Didak Donna Pepsicola Papacosta Adrian Copley Stacey Thornberry Janna White Kare Anderson Bruce the barman at the Marriott Hotel, San Francisco Barbara Gibson Neville Hobson Sasha the killer attack guard dog Mrs BetterComms Technorati Tags: @shel, michele holtz, bryan person, allan jenkins, @allanjenkins, sallie goetsch, stefan didak, donna papacosta, donna pepsicola, adrian copley, stacey thornberry, janna white, kare anderson, bruce, marriott hotel, barbara gibson, neville hobson, mrs bettercomms, business communication Many thanks, far too many to actually count, must go to the following for their unbelievable kindness, generosity and goodwill. In no particular order except for the Holtz’s at the top: Shel  & Michele Holtz @allanjenkins Karoline Hausted Bryan Person Sallie Goetsch and Stefan Didak Donna Pepsicola Papacosta Adrian Copley Stacey Thornberry Janna White Kare Anderson Bruce the barman at the Marriott Hotel, San Francisco Barbara Gibson Neville Hobson Sasha the killer attack guard dog Mrs BetterComms Technorati Tags: @shel, michele holtz, bryan person, allan jenkins, @allanjenkins, sallie goetsch, stefan didak, donna papacosta, donna pepsicola, adrian copley, stacey thornberry, janna white, kare anderson, bruce, marriott hotel, barbara gibson, neville hobson, mrs bettercomms, business communication tag:odeo.com,2009-06-12,24693592 Fri, 12 Jun 2009 00:20:40 -0700 no Better communication results miscellaneous http://odeo.com/episodes/24692468-3D-virtual-worlds-%E2%80%93-my-iabc09-presentation This is the presentation I gave at the #iabc09 world conference, which I put up on slideshare, where you can download the pdf should you wish. You can also download the comic/newsletter I refer to, The Amazing Adventures of Penny & Isabella , as an example of how to use 3D virtual worlds for communication ‘cut-through’. Enjoy! 3d Virtual Worlds - presentation at IABC09 World Conference View more Microsoft Word documents from Lee Hopkins.   p.s. Many thanks to Roo Reynolds for allowing the use of slides from his presentation to Warwick University. Technorati Tags: #iabc09, 3d, virtual worlds, second life, secondlife, roo reynolds, business communication This is the presentation I gave at the #iabc09 world conference, which I put up on slideshare, where you can download the pdf should you wish. You can also download the comic/newsletter I refer to, The Amazing Adventures of Penny & Isabella , as an example of how to use 3D virtual worlds for communication ‘cut-through’. Enjoy! 3d Virtual Worlds - presentation at IABC09 World Conference View more Microsoft Word documents from Lee Hopkins.   p.s. Many thanks to Roo Reynolds for allowing the use of slides from his presentation to Warwick University. Technorati Tags: #iabc09, 3d, virtual worlds, second life, secondlife, roo reynolds, business communication This is the presentation I gave at the #iabc09 world conference, which I put up on slideshare, where you can download the pdf should you wish. You can also download the comic/newsletter I refer to, The Amazing Adventures of Penny & Isabella , as an example of how to use 3D virtual worlds for communication ‘cut-through’. Enjoy! 3d Virtual Worlds - presentation at IABC09 World Conference View more Microsoft Word documents from Lee Hopkins.   p.s. Many thanks to Roo Reynolds for allowing the use of slides from his presentation to Warwick University. Technorati Tags: #iabc09, 3d, virtual worlds, second life, secondlife, roo reynolds, business communication tag:odeo.com,2009-06-11,24692468 Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:08:11 -0700 no Better communication results second life, 3d, virtual worlds, public speaking, secondlife, Business Communication, Second Life & 3D virtual worlds, #iabc09, roo reynolds http://odeo.com/episodes/24688492-Day-05-of-the-Grumpy-Old-Men-Tour What’s been bigger than Ben Hur? The sheer joy of being on The Grumpy Old Men Tour, that’s what! Here’s the video of our final day, where we wrap up what the tour has meant to us and thank some of the uncountable numbers of fine folks who have made this trip such a blast. We know we’ve inadvertently missed some names out, for which we are truly sorry! Both I and Allan would finally like to thank our closest allies: our partners. Without the support and forbearance of Vicki (Mrs BetterComms, the CFO of BetterComms World Domination Enterprises) and Christine, we hate to think how much trouble we could have gotten into! Click To Play Technorati Tags: @allanjenkins, allan jenkins, #gom09, #iabc09, road trip, coos bay, @oregonkat, karin hogh What’s been bigger than Ben Hur? The sheer joy of being on The Grumpy Old Men Tour, that’s what! Here’s the video of our final day, where we wrap up what the tour has meant to us and thank some of the uncountable numbers of fine folks who have made this trip such a blast. We know we’ve inadvertently missed some names out, for which we are truly sorry! Both I and Allan would finally like to thank our closest allies: our partners. Without the support and forbearance of Vicki (Mrs BetterComms, the CFO of BetterComms World Domination Enterprises) and Christine, we hate to think how much trouble we could have gotten into! Click To Play Technorati Tags: @allanjenkins, allan jenkins, #gom09, #iabc09, road trip, coos bay, @oregonkat, karin hogh What’s been bigger than Ben Hur? The sheer joy of being on The Grumpy Old Men Tour, that’s what! Here’s the video of our final day, where we wrap up what the tour has meant to us and thank some of the uncountable numbers of fine folks who have made this trip such a blast. We know we’ve inadvertently missed some names out, for which we are truly sorry! Both I and Allan would finally like to thank our closest allies: our partners. Without the support and forbearance of Vicki (Mrs BetterComms, the CFO of BetterComms World Domination Enterprises) and Christine, we hate to think how much trouble we could have gotten into! Click To Play Technorati Tags: @allanjenkins, allan jenkins, #gom09, #iabc09, road trip, coos bay, @oregonkat, karin hogh tag:odeo.com,2009-06-11,24688492 Thu, 11 Jun 2009 01:46:15 -0700 no Better communication results videoblog, road trip, allanjenkins, allan jenkins, coos bay, #iabc09, #gom09, @oregonkat, karin hogh http://odeo.com/episodes/24688493-BCR-041-Gila-Fox-and-new-communication-media Gila Fox - @valpakcoupons Gila Fox is just one of the hundreds of very bright and erudite folks I met at #iabc09 world conference. She runs the Twitter account @valpakcoupons for Cox and Valpak and has fascinating insights into how and how not to use Twitter. Gila also shares with us how her colleagues are using these new communication landscape tools. I was personally delighted to see that her business card announced her as a ‘Communications Generalist’; in this age of increasing specialisation and unnecessary ‘boxing in’ of one’s skills, abilities and attitudes (and I think of Sir Ken Robinson’s excellent Closing Address today and his brilliant book, The Element: How finding your passion changes everything) her employer recognises the value of having someone who can turn their considerably skilled and passionate hand to a wide variety of communication tasks. I hope that what Gila shares will encourage you to consider taking up some of these new tools and seeing for yourself how th... Gila Fox - @valpakcoupons Gila Fox is just one of the hundreds of very bright and erudite folks I met at #iabc09 world conference. She runs the Twitter account @valpakcoupons for Cox and Valpak and has fascinating insights into how and how not to use Twitter. Gila also shares with us how her colleagues are using these new communication landscape tools. I was personally delighted to see that her business card announced her as a ‘Communications Generalist’; in this age of increasing specialisation and unnecessary ‘boxing in’ of one’s skills, abilities and attitudes (and I think of Sir Ken Robinson’s excellent Closing Address today and his brilliant book, The Element: How finding your passion changes everything) her employer recognises the value of having someone who can turn their considerably skilled and passionate hand to a wide variety of communication tasks. I hope that what Gila shares will encourage you to consider taking up some of these new tools and seeing for yourself how they can revolutionise your organisation and how it communicates with all of its stakeholders, both inside and outside of itself. You can download our ten-minute chat for later listening, or not take advantage of the power of rss subscription and ensure you automatically and painlessly catch each new edition of my podcast and vidcast in iTunes as and when I publish them. Technorati Tags: gila fox, @valpakcoupons, sir ken robinson, ken robinson, element, book, stakeholders, business communication Gila Fox - @valpakcoupons Gila Fox is just one of the hundreds of very bright and erudite folks I met at #iabc09 world conference. She runs the Twitter account @valpakcoupons for Cox and Valpak and has fascinating insights into how and how not to use Twitter. Gila also shares with us how her colleagues are using these new communication landscape tools. I was personally delighted to see that her business card announced her as a ‘Communications Generalist’; in this age of increasing specialisation and unnecessary ‘boxing in’ of one’s skills, abilities and attitudes (and I think of Sir Ken Robinson’s excellent Closing Address today and his brilliant book, The Element: How finding your passion changes everything) her employer recognises the value of having someone who can turn their considerably skilled and passionate hand to a wide variety of communication tasks. I hope that what Gila shares will encourage you to consider taking up some of these new tools and seeing for yourself how they can revolutionise your organisation and how it communicates with all of its stakeholders, both inside and outside of itself. You can download our ten-minute chat for later listening, or not take advantage of the power of rss subscription and ensure you automatically and painlessly catch each new edition of my podcast and vidcast in iTunes as and when I publish them. Technorati Tags: gila fox, @valpakcoupons, sir ken robinson, ken robinson, element, book, stakeholders, business communication tag:odeo.com,2009-06-11,24688493 Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:19:29 -0700 no Better communication results Podcasting, interviews, book, BCR podcast, element, Sir Ken Robinson, Ken Robinson, Business Communication, @valpakcoupons, stakeholders, gila fox http://odeo.com/episodes/24688494-BCR-040-Shel-Holtz-at-iabc09 Shel  Holtz The guy is a true hero to many of us in the business communications industry. A tireless supporter of others, a true gentleman and a font of wisdom and knowledge, Shel Holtz is one of my personal “one day I hope to be even half as good as him” type of individuals. Luckily, I have finally got to meet him and during a discussion in a noisy bar we entered into a discussion about 3D virtual worlds and the presentation I gave at the #iabc09 World Conference. So I stuck my new and much-loved easi-speak mic in front of him and captured some more gems from the man. The result lies before you: be gentle with that audio file, Virginia! You can download it for later listening, or else subscribe to my podcast/vidcast rss feed in iTunes and get each and every occasional podcast/vidcast almost as soon as I publish it – lucky you.  You also want to do yourself a MASSIVE favour and buy a copy of his latest book, Tactical Transparency: How Leaders Can Leverage Social Media to M... Shel  Holtz The guy is a true hero to many of us in the business communications industry. A tireless supporter of others, a true gentleman and a font of wisdom and knowledge, Shel Holtz is one of my personal “one day I hope to be even half as good as him” type of individuals. Luckily, I have finally got to meet him and during a discussion in a noisy bar we entered into a discussion about 3D virtual worlds and the presentation I gave at the #iabc09 World Conference. So I stuck my new and much-loved easi-speak mic in front of him and captured some more gems from the man. The result lies before you: be gentle with that audio file, Virginia! You can download it for later listening, or else subscribe to my podcast/vidcast rss feed in iTunes and get each and every occasional podcast/vidcast almost as soon as I publish it – lucky you.  You also want to do yourself a MASSIVE favour and buy a copy of his latest book, Tactical Transparency: How Leaders Can Leverage Social Media to Maximize Value and Build their Brand. It is a MASTERPIECE of clear, concise and up-to-date information about how transparency, which is the new world order of business, needs to be managed and how to do so. I LOVE the book and cannot recommend it highly enough! Technorati Tags: shel@, shel holtz, 3d, virtual worlds, easi-speak, easispeak, business communication Shel  Holtz The guy is a true hero to many of us in the business communications industry. A tireless supporter of others, a true gentleman and a font of wisdom and knowledge, Shel Holtz is one of my personal “one day I hope to be even half as good as him” type of individuals. Luckily, I have finally got to meet him and during a discussion in a noisy bar we entered into a discussion about 3D virtual worlds and the presentation I gave at the #iabc09 World Conference. So I stuck my new and much-loved easi-speak mic in front of him and captured some more gems from the man. The result lies before you: be gentle with that audio file, Virginia! You can download it for later listening, or else subscribe to my podcast/vidcast rss feed in iTunes and get each and every occasional podcast/vidcast almost as soon as I publish it – lucky you.  You also want to do yourself a MASSIVE favour and buy a copy of his latest book, Tactical Transparency: How Leaders Can Leverage Social Media to Maximize Value and Build their Brand. It is a MASTERPIECE of clear, concise and up-to-date information about how transparency, which is the new world order of business, needs to be managed and how to do so. I LOVE the book and cannot recommend it highly enough! Technorati Tags: shel@, shel holtz, 3d, virtual worlds, easi-speak, easispeak, business communication tag:odeo.com,2009-06-11,24688494 Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:13:01 -0700 no Better communication results Podcasting, interviews, BCR podcast, 3d, virtual worlds, shel holtz, Business Communication, shel@, easispeak, easi-speak http://odeo.com/episodes/24688495-BCR-039-Bryan-Person-Donna-Papacosta Donna Papacosta and Bryan Person One of the many amazing pleasures I was generously granted by attending the #IABC09 World Conference was finally meeting friends with whom I have been corresponding for many years but never met face to face. Two such friends are Bryan Person and Donna Pepsicola Papacosta, the Canadian chanteuse behind the wonderful trafcomnews podcast. Bryan decided to interview Donna about podcasting for his daily audio show, the Daily Boo. I decided to stick my marvellous new easi-speak microphone in between the two of them and capture what they said. The result lies before you: gentle with that audio file, Eugene! You can download it for later listening, or else subscribe to my podcast/vidcast rss feed in iTunes and get each and every occasional podcast/vidcast almost as soon as I publish it – lucky you.  And on top of such gifts, I’d recommend you check out Bryan’s excellent vidcasts as well… Technorati Tags: donna papacosta, bryan person, @trafcom, @bryanpe... Donna Papacosta and Bryan Person One of the many amazing pleasures I was generously granted by attending the #IABC09 World Conference was finally meeting friends with whom I have been corresponding for many years but never met face to face. Two such friends are Bryan Person and Donna Pepsicola Papacosta, the Canadian chanteuse behind the wonderful trafcomnews podcast. Bryan decided to interview Donna about podcasting for his daily audio show, the Daily Boo. I decided to stick my marvellous new easi-speak microphone in between the two of them and capture what they said. The result lies before you: gentle with that audio file, Eugene! You can download it for later listening, or else subscribe to my podcast/vidcast rss feed in iTunes and get each and every occasional podcast/vidcast almost as soon as I publish it – lucky you.  And on top of such gifts, I’d recommend you check out Bryan’s excellent vidcasts as well… Technorati Tags: donna papacosta, bryan person, @trafcom, @bryanperson, byper, podcast, easi-speak, easyspeak, iabc, #iabc09 Donna Papacosta and Bryan Person One of the many amazing pleasures I was generously granted by attending the #IABC09 World Conference was finally meeting friends with whom I have been corresponding for many years but never met face to face. Two such friends are Bryan Person and Donna Pepsicola Papacosta, the Canadian chanteuse behind the wonderful trafcomnews podcast. Bryan decided to interview Donna about podcasting for his daily audio show, the Daily Boo. I decided to stick my marvellous new easi-speak microphone in between the two of them and capture what they said. The result lies before you: gentle with that audio file, Eugene! You can download it for later listening, or else subscribe to my podcast/vidcast rss feed in iTunes and get each and every occasional podcast/vidcast almost as soon as I publish it – lucky you.  And on top of such gifts, I’d recommend you check out Bryan’s excellent vidcasts as well… Technorati Tags: donna papacosta, bryan person, @trafcom, @bryanperson, byper, podcast, easi-speak, easyspeak, iabc, #iabc09 tag:odeo.com,2009-06-11,24688495 Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:11:32 -0700 no Better communication results podcast, Podcasting, interviews, BCR podcast, bryan person, iabc, bryanperson, #iabc09, easi-speak, donna papacosta, @trafcom, easyspeak, byper http://odeo.com/episodes/24682638-Day-04-of-the-Grumpy-Old-Men-Tour I know, it’s been ages! Blame the #IABC09 conference – there’s been far too much going on! Here’s day 4; the final day wrap-up will be posted shortly, once we finalise some important web addresses… Technorati Tags: iabc, #iabc09, coosbay, coos bay, allan jenkins, @allenjenkins, bonettis restaurant, social media, case study, oregonkat, twitter I know, it’s been ages! Blame the #IABC09 conference – there’s been far too much going on! Here’s day 4; the final day wrap-up will be posted shortly, once we finalise some important web addresses… Technorati Tags: iabc, #iabc09, coosbay, coos bay, allan jenkins, @allenjenkins, bonettis restaurant, social media, case study, oregonkat, twitter I know, it’s been ages! Blame the #IABC09 conference – there’s been far too much going on! Here’s day 4; the final day wrap-up will be posted shortly, once we finalise some important web addresses… Technorati Tags: iabc, #iabc09, coosbay, coos bay, allan jenkins, @allenjenkins, bonettis restaurant, social media, case study, oregonkat, twitter tag:odeo.com,2009-06-10,24682638 Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:55:49 -0700 no Better communication results twitter, social media, case study, videoblog, public speaking, coosbay, iabc, allan jenkins, coos bay, #iabc09, @oregonkat, bonettis restaurant, @allenjenkins http://odeo.com/episodes/24654427-Day-03-of-the-Grumpy-Old-Men-Tour WHAT A DAY! Yesterday we met some amazing folks and had a phenomenal dinner, courtesy of the ever-brilliant Katherine Hoppe. YouTube only lets us upload 10 minutes – but we had an 19-minute edited highlights video; 10 minutes doesn’t do it all justice, but we will have to live with it. When I get the chance I will upload some photos to Flickr, and I know that @allanjenkins has a ton of photos to upload too. Today we spoke to a great bunch of business people from Coos Bay and surrounds… video to come tomorrow. Stand outs for Day 3 include SpinReel ATV and Katherine Hoppe, who has organised the whole region to rally around making @allanjenkins and I feel ‘special’. We feel SO loved!! Here’s yesterday: Technorati Tags: social media, coos bay, coosbay, katherine hoppe, oregonkat, allan jenkins, @allanjenkins WHAT A DAY! Yesterday we met some amazing folks and had a phenomenal dinner, courtesy of the ever-brilliant Katherine Hoppe. YouTube only lets us upload 10 minutes – but we had an 19-minute edited highlights video; 10 minutes doesn’t do it all justice, but we will have to live with it. When I get the chance I will upload some photos to Flickr, and I know that @allanjenkins has a ton of photos to upload too. Today we spoke to a great bunch of business people from Coos Bay and surrounds… video to come tomorrow. Stand outs for Day 3 include SpinReel ATV and Katherine Hoppe, who has organised the whole region to rally around making @allanjenkins and I feel ‘special’. We feel SO loved!! Here’s yesterday: Technorati Tags: social media, coos bay, coosbay, katherine hoppe, oregonkat, allan jenkins, @allanjenkins WHAT A DAY! Yesterday we met some amazing folks and had a phenomenal dinner, courtesy of the ever-brilliant Katherine Hoppe. YouTube only lets us upload 10 minutes – but we had an 19-minute edited highlights video; 10 minutes doesn’t do it all justice, but we will have to live with it. When I get the chance I will upload some photos to Flickr, and I know that @allanjenkins has a ton of photos to upload too. Today we spoke to a great bunch of business people from Coos Bay and surrounds… video to come tomorrow. Stand outs for Day 3 include SpinReel ATV and Katherine Hoppe, who has organised the whole region to rally around making @allanjenkins and I feel ‘special’. We feel SO loved!! Here’s yesterday: Technorati Tags: social media, coos bay, coosbay, katherine hoppe, oregonkat, allan jenkins, @allanjenkins tag:odeo.com,2009-06-05,24654427 Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:04:27 -0700 no Better communication results social media, videoblog, miscellaneous, PR, clippings, micro-blogging, allanjenkins, coosbay, allan jenkins, coos bay, @oregonkat, katherine hoppe http://odeo.com/episodes/24644379-On-the-road-again-%E2%80%93-Jenkins-IABC09-and-moi So, here I am enjoying a quiet bourbon on the rocks with Jenko as I end Day 2 of the epic tour that has already been named ‘The Grumpy Old Men Tour’ by Bryan Person. T-shirts and other merchandise available shortly… Here’s the video from Day 1 of my trip – please excuse my otherwise impeccable appearance; it’s funny what 30 hours of being in flying baked beans and airport terminals can do to a man’s composure. And then, because I know you cannot survive without knowing what happens next, here’s Day 2: We are eager to get to Coos Bay and meet up with the crew there!!! Technorati Tags: #gom09, #iabc09, bryper, bryanperson, allan jenkins, coos bay So, here I am enjoying a quiet bourbon on the rocks with Jenko as I end Day 2 of the epic tour that has already been named ‘The Grumpy Old Men Tour’ by Bryan Person. T-shirts and other merchandise available shortly… Here’s the video from Day 1 of my trip – please excuse my otherwise impeccable appearance; it’s funny what 30 hours of being in flying baked beans and airport terminals can do to a man’s composure. And then, because I know you cannot survive without knowing what happens next, here’s Day 2: We are eager to get to Coos Bay and meet up with the crew there!!! Technorati Tags: #gom09, #iabc09, bryper, bryanperson, allan jenkins, coos bay So, here I am enjoying a quiet bourbon on the rocks with Jenko as I end Day 2 of the epic tour that has already been named ‘The Grumpy Old Men Tour’ by Bryan Person. T-shirts and other merchandise available shortly… Here’s the video from Day 1 of my trip – please excuse my otherwise impeccable appearance; it’s funny what 30 hours of being in flying baked beans and airport terminals can do to a man’s composure. And then, because I know you cannot survive without knowing what happens next, here’s Day 2: We are eager to get to Coos Bay and meet up with the crew there!!! Technorati Tags: #gom09, #iabc09, bryper, bryanperson, allan jenkins, coos bay tag:odeo.com,2009-06-02,24644379 Tue, 02 Jun 2009 23:11:31 -0700 no Better communication results videoblog, clippings, public speaking, allan jenkins, coos bay, bryanperson, bryper, #iabc09, #gom09 http://odeo.com/episodes/24616499-BCR-038-Interview-with-Jay-Berkowitz I t was my extreme pleasure to finally meet Jay Berkowitz recently. We were both speaking at the fabulous Affili@SYD conference and between presentations we grabbed 10 minutes to interview each other about the state of social media in 2009.   You can either download the interview [8.8mb, mp3] directly or else subscribe to my podcast feed and get it and all future podcasts automatically in your podcast catcher of choice. Jay is an extremely engaging and knowledgeable speaker – as his presentation below testifies – and if ever you get the chance to catch him ‘live’ you are in for a treat. His re-working of some of the websites in the presentation below is brilliant. Australia Affiliate Sydney Ten Super Success Strategis For Internet Marketing View more OpenOffice presentations from tengoldenrules. Technorati Tags: @jayberkowitz, jay berkowitz, affili@SYD, affiliate marketing, interview, tengoldenrules, podcast, business communication, Lee Hopkins I t was my extreme pleasure to finally meet Jay Berkowitz recently. We were both speaking at the fabulous Affili@SYD conference and between presentations we grabbed 10 minutes to interview each other about the state of social media in 2009.   You can either download the interview [8.8mb, mp3] directly or else subscribe to my podcast feed and get it and all future podcasts automatically in your podcast catcher of choice. Jay is an extremely engaging and knowledgeable speaker – as his presentation below testifies – and if ever you get the chance to catch him ‘live’ you are in for a treat. His re-working of some of the websites in the presentation below is brilliant. Australia Affiliate Sydney Ten Super Success Strategis For Internet Marketing View more OpenOffice presentations from tengoldenrules. Technorati Tags: @jayberkowitz, jay berkowitz, affili@SYD, affiliate marketing, interview, tengoldenrules, podcast, business communication, Lee Hopkins I t was my extreme pleasure to finally meet Jay Berkowitz recently. We were both speaking at the fabulous Affili@SYD conference and between presentations we grabbed 10 minutes to interview each other about the state of social media in 2009.   You can either download the interview [8.8mb, mp3] directly or else subscribe to my podcast feed and get it and all future podcasts automatically in your podcast catcher of choice. Jay is an extremely engaging and knowledgeable speaker – as his presentation below testifies – and if ever you get the chance to catch him ‘live’ you are in for a treat. His re-working of some of the websites in the presentation below is brilliant. Australia Affiliate Sydney Ten Super Success Strategis For Internet Marketing View more OpenOffice presentations from tengoldenrules. Technorati Tags: @jayberkowitz, jay berkowitz, affili@SYD, affiliate marketing, interview, tengoldenrules, podcast, business communication, Lee Hopkins tag:odeo.com,2009-05-27,24616499 Wed, 27 May 2009 08:09:25 -0700 no Better communication results podcast, Podcasting, Interview, BCR podcast, affiliate marketing, Business Communication, affili@syd, jay berkowitz, tengoldenrules, @jayberkowitz http://odeo.com/episodes/24616500-Affili-SYD-my-presentation-on-Social-Media A 90 minute presentation shrunk to 45 minutes – yes, it CAN be done, Virginia! This was my presentation at the absolutely superb Affili@SYD conference in Sydney recently, talking about social media and how affiliate marketing can best make use of the phenomenon. Enjoy! Social Media And Affiliate Marketing View more Microsoft Word documents from Lee Hopkins. Technorati Tags: affilate marketing, #affili@SYD, #affiliatSYD, social media, business communication, Lee Hopkins A 90 minute presentation shrunk to 45 minutes – yes, it CAN be done, Virginia! This was my presentation at the absolutely superb Affili@SYD conference in Sydney recently, talking about social media and how affiliate marketing can best make use of the phenomenon. Enjoy! Social Media And Affiliate Marketing View more Microsoft Word documents from Lee Hopkins. Technorati Tags: affilate marketing, #affili@SYD, #affiliatSYD, social media, business communication, Lee Hopkins A 90 minute presentation shrunk to 45 minutes – yes, it CAN be done, Virginia! This was my presentation at the absolutely superb Affili@SYD conference in Sydney recently, talking about social media and how affiliate marketing can best make use of the phenomenon. Enjoy! Social Media And Affiliate Marketing View more Microsoft Word documents from Lee Hopkins. Technorati Tags: affilate marketing, #affili@SYD, #affiliatSYD, social media, business communication, Lee Hopkins tag:odeo.com,2009-05-27,24616500 Wed, 27 May 2009 02:28:47 -0700 no Better communication results social media, public speaking, Business Communication, affili@syd, affilate marketing, affiliatSYD http://odeo.com/episodes/24589650-Publish-your-digital-portfolio-online As part of my university guest lecturing, here’s the presentation I was due to give the other night but couldn’t get to the lecture on time because of various commitments. In the presentation I provide details and a case study on publishing a digital portfolio online — including to blogs, web1.0, and social networking sites. My apologies to the students who came in especially for the lecture only to find it was cancelled at short notice. Publishing A Digital Portfolio View more presentations from Lee Hopkins. Technorati Tags: web2.0, web1.0, media, networking, social, blog, publishing, digital, portfolio, publish, web10, web20, business communication As part of my university guest lecturing, here’s the presentation I was due to give the other night but couldn’t get to the lecture on time because of various commitments. In the presentation I provide details and a case study on publishing a digital portfolio online — including to blogs, web1.0, and social networking sites. My apologies to the students who came in especially for the lecture only to find it was cancelled at short notice. Publishing A Digital Portfolio View more presentations from Lee Hopkins. Technorati Tags: web2.0, web1.0, media, networking, social, blog, publishing, digital, portfolio, publish, web10, web20, business communication As part of my university guest lecturing, here’s the presentation I was due to give the other night but couldn’t get to the lecture on time because of various commitments. In the presentation I provide details and a case study on publishing a digital portfolio online — including to blogs, web1.0, and social networking sites. My apologies to the students who came in especially for the lecture only to find it was cancelled at short notice. Publishing A Digital Portfolio View more presentations from Lee Hopkins. Technorati Tags: web2.0, web1.0, media, networking, social, blog, publishing, digital, portfolio, publish, web10, web20, business communication tag:odeo.com,2009-05-20,24589650 Wed, 20 May 2009 20:27:50 -0700 no Better communication results Media, networking, Blog, Publishing, web2.0, digital, miscellaneous, social, portfolio, publish, web1.0, Business Communication http://odeo.com/episodes/24581803-links-for-2009-05-19 Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and Proximity :: Presentation Zen Sample pages from Chapter six of Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery by Garr Reynolds (tags: design presentationzen presentation powerpoint image impact) How-to: 3 ways to identify a font online - Identifont, Type Navigator, WhatTheFont! " WhatwasIthinking.co.uk As a designer, it is your job however to make sure you are using the right font, or the closest font possible if that fails. Here are three great websites to help you on your search… (tags: fonts design on-line webdesign) Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and Proximity :: Presentation Zen Sample pages from Chapter six of Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery by Garr Reynolds (tags: design presentationzen presentation powerpoint image impact) How-to: 3 ways to identify a font online - Identifont, Type Navigator, WhatTheFont! " WhatwasIthinking.co.uk As a designer, it is your job however to make sure you are using the right font, or the closest font possible if that fails. Here are three great websites to help you on your search… (tags: fonts design on-line webdesign) Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and Proximity :: Presentation Zen Sample pages from Chapter six of Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery by Garr Reynolds (tags: design presentationzen presentation powerpoint image impact) How-to: 3 ways to identify a font online - Identifont, Type Navigator, WhatTheFont! " WhatwasIthinking.co.uk As a designer, it is your job however to make sure you are using the right font, or the closest font possible if that fails. Here are three great websites to help you on your search… (tags: fonts design on-line webdesign) tag:odeo.com,2009-05-19,24581803 Tue, 19 May 2009 08:05:42 -0700 no Better communication results clippings http://odeo.com/episodes/24563113-Affili-SYD-6-slideshare-minutes-video-marketing I’ve just uploaded my 10-minute presentation on using video marketing within a social marketing environment to drive affiliate marketing reach. My presentation was part of a panel discussion with Jay Berkowitz, Laurel Papworth and myself at the rather superb Affili@SYD conference a couple of days ago. Watch the slides and listen to my sweet dulcet tones Affili@SYD 10 minute presentation View more presentations from Lee Hopkins.   Laurel’s presentation is up on slideshare too, although without audio, alas… But you can read what the slides all mean over on her post about it all. Jay’s superb keynote address not yet up on slideshare; I’ll let you know when it is (give the man a break – he’s on holiday and travelling!). In the meantime check out Jay’s other slideshows – I thoroughly recommend you watch, take notes and watch again for the gems you missed the first time around! Technorati Tags: jay berkowitz, laurel papworth, affili@SYD, conference, affiliate marketing, slideshare, b... I’ve just uploaded my 10-minute presentation on using video marketing within a social marketing environment to drive affiliate marketing reach. My presentation was part of a panel discussion with Jay Berkowitz, Laurel Papworth and myself at the rather superb Affili@SYD conference a couple of days ago. Watch the slides and listen to my sweet dulcet tones Affili@SYD 10 minute presentation View more presentations from Lee Hopkins.   Laurel’s presentation is up on slideshare too, although without audio, alas… But you can read what the slides all mean over on her post about it all. Jay’s superb keynote address not yet up on slideshare; I’ll let you know when it is (give the man a break – he’s on holiday and travelling!). In the meantime check out Jay’s other slideshows – I thoroughly recommend you watch, take notes and watch again for the gems you missed the first time around! Technorati Tags: jay berkowitz, laurel papworth, affili@SYD, conference, affiliate marketing, slideshare, business communication, Lee hopkins I’ve just uploaded my 10-minute presentation on using video marketing within a social marketing environment to drive affiliate marketing reach. My presentation was part of a panel discussion with Jay Berkowitz, Laurel Papworth and myself at the rather superb Affili@SYD conference a couple of days ago. Watch the slides and listen to my sweet dulcet tones Affili@SYD 10 minute presentation View more presentations from Lee Hopkins.   Laurel’s presentation is up on slideshare too, although without audio, alas… But you can read what the slides all mean over on her post about it all. Jay’s superb keynote address not yet up on slideshare; I’ll let you know when it is (give the man a break – he’s on holiday and travelling!). In the meantime check out Jay’s other slideshows – I thoroughly recommend you watch, take notes and watch again for the gems you missed the first time around! Technorati Tags: jay berkowitz, laurel papworth, affili@SYD, conference, affiliate marketing, slideshare, business communication, Lee hopkins tag:odeo.com,2009-05-14,24563113 Thu, 14 May 2009 15:57:23 -0700 no Better communication results conference, marketing, lee hopkins, public speaking, Slideshare, affiliate marketing, Business Communication, laurel papworth, affili@syd, jay berkowitz http://odeo.com/episodes/24563114-Social-Media-the-new-business-communication-landscape I t is, you know… we are now operating in a new business communication landscape that eats dinosaurs for breakfast. I’ve just finished writing a report into the business use of Social Media for Ark Group. In the report I look at the key features of and how business communicators can position themselves and their companies to best navigate the new landscape; yes, there is a map and others have safely traversed the landscape before you! Scoot over to my report and if you are early enough you will be able to take advantage of the pre-launch deal Ark Group have going: pick up my report AND the also-excellent report on Social Media by fellow compatriot and top bloke Ross Monaghan of Deakin University for a bargain price! The message for business communicators is simple: Hundreds of millions of people throughout the world have made the switch to ‘Social Media’, also known as ‘Web2.0’. They are participating in global and local conversations about anything and everything. They are your cus... I t is, you know… we are now operating in a new business communication landscape that eats dinosaurs for breakfast. I’ve just finished writing a report into the business use of Social Media for Ark Group. In the report I look at the key features of and how business communicators can position themselves and their companies to best navigate the new landscape; yes, there is a map and others have safely traversed the landscape before you! Scoot over to my report and if you are early enough you will be able to take advantage of the pre-launch deal Ark Group have going: pick up my report AND the also-excellent report on Social Media by fellow compatriot and top bloke Ross Monaghan of Deakin University for a bargain price! The message for business communicators is simple: Hundreds of millions of people throughout the world have made the switch to ‘Social Media’, also known as ‘Web2.0’. They are participating in global and local conversations about anything and everything. They are your customers, employees, shareholders — indeed, everyone. If your organisation is not committed to engaging with the world through this powerful new medium you are going to get left behind as the old communication tools lose their relevance and effectiveness. If your means of communication is out-of-date, so is your organisation. So stop making excuses. Embracing social media is easy and it is liberating. You have nothing to lose but boredom. Here’s the table of contents: Chapter 1: The birth of social media Chapter 2: The virtual world Chapter 3: Social marketing Chapter 4: Social media strategy Chapter 5: The three social media tools and the seven social networking sites you need to know about Chapter 6: Everything old is new again Appendix: Recommended resources and glossary All in all, 126 pages of wisdom, insight and invaluable time-and tears-saving tips, tricks and tools. Check it out — you’d be made to go anywhere else. Technorati Tags: social media, ark group, ross monaghan, deakin university, Lee hopkins, strategy, social media strategy, social networking, social marketing, virtual world, social media tools, business communication I t is, you know… we are now operating in a new business communication landscape that eats dinosaurs for breakfast. I’ve just finished writing a report into the business use of Social Media for Ark Group. In the report I look at the key features of and how business communicators can position themselves and their companies to best navigate the new landscape; yes, there is a map and others have safely traversed the landscape before you! Scoot over to my report and if you are early enough you will be able to take advantage of the pre-launch deal Ark Group have going: pick up my report AND the also-excellent report on Social Media by fellow compatriot and top bloke Ross Monaghan of Deakin University for a bargain price! The message for business communicators is simple: Hundreds of millions of people throughout the world have made the switch to ‘Social Media’, also known as ‘Web2.0’. They are participating in global and local conversations about anything and everything. They are your customers, employees, shareholders — indeed, everyone. If your organisation is not committed to engaging with the world through this powerful new medium you are going to get left behind as the old communication tools lose their relevance and effectiveness. If your means of communication is out-of-date, so is your organisation. So stop making excuses. Embracing social media is easy and it is liberating. You have nothing to lose but boredom. Here’s the table of contents: Chapter 1: The birth of social media Chapter 2: The virtual world Chapter 3: Social marketing Chapter 4: Social media strategy Chapter 5: The three social media tools and the seven social networking sites you need to know about Chapter 6: Everything old is new again Appendix: Recommended resources and glossary All in all, 126 pages of wisdom, insight and invaluable time-and tears-saving tips, tricks and tools. Check it out — you’d be made to go anywhere else. Technorati Tags: social media, ark group, ross monaghan, deakin university, Lee hopkins, strategy, social media strategy, social networking, social marketing, virtual world, social media tools, business communication tag:odeo.com,2009-05-14,24563114 Thu, 14 May 2009 11:57:09 -0700 no Better communication results Podcasting, strategy, Social networking, Blogging, marketing, social media, videoblog, tools, PR, social marketing, lee hopkins, virtual world, book review, Business Communication, social media tools, Second Life & 3D virtual worlds, Social Media Strategy, ark group, deakin university, ross monaghan http://odeo.com/episodes/24492232-Business-Revenue-2-0-my-brain-hurts A link from Laurel Papworth to her social media course on Scribd started my brain whirring and eventually melting under the strain. Laurel is giving her content away for free, as her post on her own blog clearly explains. After I had signed up to Scribd in order to be able to download it, I started reading the ‘about’ page, trying to figure out what Scribd was and why it existed. Call me old fashioned, but I still don’t understand. Here’s old-school thinking (i.e. before Web2.0 and social media): Your intellectual property is your most valuable asset; choose wisely how you freely give it away lest you have nothing left to sell. Here’s new-school thinking: Give everything away. For free. Am I missing something or are we on the verge of another ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’ moment as we were in the dotcom boom period? So… “Q: Does anyone see any value in Scribd? Is everyone going mad giving away all their IP for nothing these days?” I posed the question out on Twitter and as luck would have... A link from Laurel Papworth to her social media course on Scribd started my brain whirring and eventually melting under the strain. Laurel is giving her content away for free, as her post on her own blog clearly explains. After I had signed up to Scribd in order to be able to download it, I started reading the ‘about’ page, trying to figure out what Scribd was and why it existed. Call me old fashioned, but I still don’t understand. Here’s old-school thinking (i.e. before Web2.0 and social media): Your intellectual property is your most valuable asset; choose wisely how you freely give it away lest you have nothing left to sell. Here’s new-school thinking: Give everything away. For free. Am I missing something or are we on the verge of another ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’ moment as we were in the dotcom boom period? So… “Q: Does anyone see any value in Scribd? Is everyone going mad giving away all their IP for nothing these days?” I posed the question out on Twitter and as luck would have it two of the smartest people in Aus social media jumped on it straight away: Gary Hayes and Laurel Papworth. Said Gary: “1) the best things in life (social media) are free 2) those who contribute freely to the cloud will reap greater rewards in time” Said Laurel: “the reason I am giving away my Social Media courseware for download http://twurl.nl/7w7htz is that the revenue lies elsewhere…”, following up with, “think of the music industry. Or blogs No different Look to Freemium or Experiential revenue streams… ;)” David Wallace also replied to my question with a link to an interesting resource, a slidedeck about revenue models for advertisers in this brave new world. My mind a-whirring, I set off in search of some of Laurel’s own slideshows, knowing that somewhere she had created a presentation about revenue models online. I eventually found it and her ‘Social Media Revenue’ masterpiece is below. Social Networks Monetized Revenue View more presentations from Laurel Papworth.   Laurel’s presentation led me to an equally mind-shifting presentation by David Cushman: Why Traditional Ad Models will not work in social networks (and what will…) View more presentations from David Cushman.   Yes, I have purchased and read ‘Here Comes Everybody’; yes, I have purchased and read ‘buy.ology’; yes, I have purchased and read ‘The Impulse Factor’; yes… ditto with ‘The World is Flat’, ‘click!’ and at least a dozen more in the last eighteen months… And I was about to call out ‘the Emperor has no clothes on!’  when I remembered that I had already seen and been involved with a very successful version of this model, proving that if you think it through deeply enough you will come up with a potential winner. Mark Joyner, for those who don’t know the name, is the Grand Poobah of online marketing; he has invented more revenue models and marketing/advertising technology than can be believed. He is also one of the most amazing online marketers because he seriously over-delivers on his promises. Really. A little while ago I stumbled upon the Simple.ology website and since it was for free and being run by Mark, I figured I’d sign up and see what he was up to. I have since become a Simple.ology addict, completing my 15-minute Daily Target Praxis every day (and noticing the drop in output on those rare days when I don’t complete it). You’ll have to sign up for Simple.ology 101 to find out what a ‘Daily Target Praxis’ is, but in years of searching for ways to better organise myself, after years of spending hundreds of dollars on books, tapes, cds, dvds, seminars and software, I found the solution that works for me for free. I guess when the pupil is ready… Anyway, I’m not going to spoil the surprise by detailing here what the revenue model is, for two fairly good reasons: I could be wrong, therefore I don’t want to appear a prat; You have to see for yourself and as it is free to participate there’s no risk to you and a ton of fantastic material to come your way over time, again all for free. I’m still not 100% convinced that the idea of giving away one’s IP is entirely the way to go – after all, does that mean that I should just release the entire content of my to-be-published-next-week report on social media for Ark Group (that will sell for around AUD$700) in the hope that Gary is right and that I’ll eventually “reap greater rewards in time”? By doing so I put at risk royalty income from the sales of those reports. But if ‘community’ is the way of the future (of revenue generation, and I’m quite prepared to believe it is if someone can provide with with sufficient evidence, taking into account that I don’t have a server farm like Flickr or YouTube on which to host a zillion gigabites of data), then is the ‘next step’ for businesses—after they have respectfully entered into and embraced the social media milieu—to set up communities themselves, or haphazardly follow the disintegrating and re-generating communities of interest around them. Too many people lost too many livelihoods during the dotbomb era and I’m not convinced that this ‘give it all away’ model is completely dissimilar. How does one eat whilst waiting for those greater rewards? However, I am old enough to know that history, whilst oft repeating itself, also shows us that genies, once out, never go back into their bottles. Web2.0 is here to stay and so new content models are going to continue to be tried out until ‘Joe EveryBusiness’ can see one that finally brings a reasonable benefit. What say you? Technorati Tags: laurel papworth, gary hayes, garyphayes, simpleology, david wallace, dnwallace, ark group, social media, content, revenue model, income, business communication A link from Laurel Papworth to her social media course on Scribd started my brain whirring and eventually melting under the strain. Laurel is giving her content away for free, as her post on her own blog clearly explains. After I had signed up to Scribd in order to be able to download it, I started reading the ‘about’ page, trying to figure out what Scribd was and why it existed. Call me old fashioned, but I still don’t understand. Here’s old-school thinking (i.e. before Web2.0 and social media): Your intellectual property is your most valuable asset; choose wisely how you freely give it away lest you have nothing left to sell. Here’s new-school thinking: Give everything away. For free. Am I missing something or are we on the verge of another ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’ moment as we were in the dotcom boom period? So… “Q: Does anyone see any value in Scribd? Is everyone going mad giving away all their IP for nothing these days?” I posed the question out on Twitter and as luck would have it two of the smartest people in Aus social media jumped on it straight away: Gary Hayes and Laurel Papworth. Said Gary: “1) the best things in life (social media) are free 2) those who contribute freely to the cloud will reap greater rewards in time” Said Laurel: “the reason I am giving away my Social Media courseware for download http://twurl.nl/7w7htz is that the revenue lies elsewhere…”, following up with, “think of the music industry. Or blogs No different Look to Freemium or Experiential revenue streams… ;)” David Wallace also replied to my question with a link to an interesting resource, a slidedeck about revenue models for advertisers in this brave new world. My mind a-whirring, I set off in search of some of Laurel’s own slideshows, knowing that somewhere she had created a presentation about revenue models online. I eventually found it and her ‘Social Media Revenue’ masterpiece is below. Social Networks Monetized Revenue View more presentations from Laurel Papworth.   Laurel’s presentation led me to an equally mind-shifting presentation by David Cushman: Why Traditional Ad Models will not work in social networks (and what will…) View more presentations from David Cushman.   Yes, I have purchased and read ‘Here Comes Everybody’; yes, I have purchased and read ‘buy.ology’; yes, I have purchased and read ‘The Impulse Factor’; yes… ditto with ‘The World is Flat’, ‘click!’ and at least a dozen more in the last eighteen months… And I was about to call out ‘the Emperor has no clothes on!’  when I remembered that I had already seen and been involved with a very successful version of this model, proving that if you think it through deeply enough you will come up with a potential winner. Mark Joyner, for those who don’t know the name, is the Grand Poobah of online marketing; he has invented more revenue models and marketing/advertising technology than can be believed. He is also one of the most amazing online marketers because he seriously over-delivers on his promises. Really. A little while ago I stumbled upon the Simple.ology website and since it was for free and being run by Mark, I figured I’d sign up and see what he was up to. I have since become a Simple.ology addict, completing my 15-minute Daily Target Praxis every day (and noticing the drop in output on those rare days when I don’t complete it). You’ll have to sign up for Simple.ology 101 to find out what a ‘Daily Target Praxis’ is, but in years of searching for ways to better organise myself, after years of spending hundreds of dollars on books, tapes, cds, dvds, seminars and software, I found the solution that works for me for free. I guess when the pupil is ready… Anyway, I’m not going to spoil the surprise by detailing here what the revenue model is, for two fairly good reasons: I could be wrong, therefore I don’t want to appear a prat; You have to see for yourself and as it is free to participate there’s no risk to you and a ton of fantastic material to come your way over time, again all for free. I’m still not 100% convinced that the idea of giving away one’s IP is entirely the way to go – after all, does that mean that I should just release the entire content of my to-be-published-next-week report on social media for Ark Group (that will sell for around AUD$700) in the hope that Gary is right and that I’ll eventually “reap greater rewards in time”? By doing so I put at risk royalty income from the sales of those reports. But if ‘community’ is the way of the future (of revenue generation, and I’m quite prepared to believe it is if someone can provide with with sufficient evidence, taking into account that I don’t have a server farm like Flickr or YouTube on which to host a zillion gigabites of data), then is the ‘next step’ for businesses—after they have respectfully entered into and embraced the social media milieu—to set up communities themselves, or haphazardly follow the disintegrating and re-generating communities of interest around them. Too many people lost too many livelihoods during the dotbomb era and I’m not convinced that this ‘give it all away’ model is completely dissimilar. How does one eat whilst waiting for those greater rewards? However, I am old enough to know that history, whilst oft repeating itself, also shows us that genies, once out, never go back into their bottles. Web2.0 is here to stay and so new content models are going to continue to be tried out until ‘Joe EveryBusiness’ can see one that finally brings a reasonable benefit. What say you? Technorati Tags: laurel papworth, gary hayes, garyphayes, simpleology, david wallace, dnwallace, ark group, social media, content, revenue model, income, business communication tag:odeo.com,2009-04-23,24492232 Thu, 23 Apr 2009 06:47:37 -0700 no Better communication results marketing, social media, customer service, tools, PR, ethics, income, content, micro-blogging, David Wallace, Business Communication, laurel papworth, Revenue Models, simpleology, Revenue Model, gary hayes, ark group, dnwallace, garyphayes http://odeo.com/episodes/24489071-IABC-World-Conference-getting-closer The line-up of stars at this year’s IABC World Conference is starting to really excite me. Not only will yours truly be there, waxing lyrical about Virtual Worlds, but good friends like Gerry McCusker from Melbourne, my personal hero Shel Holtz and twice Emmy-winning Kare Anderson from San Francisco, Neville Hobson, Steve Crescenzo, David Grossman, Carol Kinsey Goman (I publish many of her articles over on my business communication articles website), Bryan Person (‘Bryper’ to we his friends), Les Potter, and Angela Sinickas will be there too. All people who I respect immensely for their understanding of the art of communication, not just within the business context but in the rest of what we laughably call ‘life’. I’m road-tripping with friend and podcasting co-star Allan Jenkins, which I am really looking forward to, and we’ll be stopping in at Coos Bay for a couple of days, naturally! Looking forward to meeting the natives of Coos Bay and seeing if they are as friendly as their ou... The line-up of stars at this year’s IABC World Conference is starting to really excite me. Not only will yours truly be there, waxing lyrical about Virtual Worlds, but good friends like Gerry McCusker from Melbourne, my personal hero Shel Holtz and twice Emmy-winning Kare Anderson from San Francisco, Neville Hobson, Steve Crescenzo, David Grossman, Carol Kinsey Goman (I publish many of her articles over on my business communication articles website), Bryan Person (‘Bryper’ to we his friends), Les Potter, and Angela Sinickas will be there too. All people who I respect immensely for their understanding of the art of communication, not just within the business context but in the rest of what we laughably call ‘life’. I’m road-tripping with friend and podcasting co-star Allan Jenkins, which I am really looking forward to, and we’ll be stopping in at Coos Bay for a couple of days, naturally! Looking forward to meeting the natives of Coos Bay and seeing if they are as friendly as their outreach campaign would suggest I’m looking forward to meeting colleagues from around the world in the corridors, sharing ideas, laughing at our own appalling jokes, generally enjoying just ‘being’ amongst like-minded, passionate communicators. And it’s all less than six weeks away – bring it on!!! Download a pdf of the conference brochure Technorati Tags: iabc, shel holtz, gerry mccusker, kare anderson, neville hobson, steve crescenzo, david grossman, carol kinsey goman, bryan person, les potter, angela sinickas, allan jenkins, coos bay, iabc world conference, san francisco, seattle, business communication The line-up of stars at this year’s IABC World Conference is starting to really excite me. Not only will yours truly be there, waxing lyrical about Virtual Worlds, but good friends like Gerry McCusker from Melbourne, my personal hero Shel Holtz and twice Emmy-winning Kare Anderson from San Francisco, Neville Hobson, Steve Crescenzo, David Grossman, Carol Kinsey Goman (I publish many of her articles over on my business communication articles website), Bryan Person (‘Bryper’ to we his friends), Les Potter, and Angela Sinickas will be there too. All people who I respect immensely for their understanding of the art of communication, not just within the business context but in the rest of what we laughably call ‘life’. I’m road-tripping with friend and podcasting co-star Allan Jenkins, which I am really looking forward to, and we’ll be stopping in at Coos Bay for a couple of days, naturally! Looking forward to meeting the natives of Coos Bay and seeing if they are as friendly as their outreach campaign would suggest I’m looking forward to meeting colleagues from around the world in the corridors, sharing ideas, laughing at our own appalling jokes, generally enjoying just ‘being’ amongst like-minded, passionate communicators. And it’s all less than six weeks away – bring it on!!! Download a pdf of the conference brochure Technorati Tags: iabc, shel holtz, gerry mccusker, kare anderson, neville hobson, steve crescenzo, david grossman, carol kinsey goman, bryan person, les potter, angela sinickas, allan jenkins, coos bay, iabc world conference, san francisco, seattle, business communication tag:odeo.com,2009-04-22,24489071 Wed, 22 Apr 2009 18:14:47 -0700 no Better communication results seattle, san francisco, public speaking, shel holtz, Business Communication, kare anderson, neville hobson, bryan person, iabc, gerry mccusker, les potter, angela sinickas, david grossman, allan jenkins, carol kinsey goman, coos bay, steve crescenzo, iabc world conference http://odeo.com/episodes/24461971-Lee-on-the-radio-fantastic-black-plastic-part-2 As promised, here’s the interview I enjoyed today with Tom from Radio Adelaide. As Peter Godfrey says, A growing number of people are using the latest social networking site, TWITTER to communicate all manner of messages… from political announcements to the mundane conversations. Premier Mike Rann is fond of ‘tweeting’ on Twitter, as is cyclist Lance Armstrong, and Vogue Magazine intends using Twitter for updates during Australian Fashion Week - although that one has ruffled feathers with the discovery of a ‘fake’ Vogue Twitter page. So for the un-initiated, what can, or can’t Twitter do? Social media expert, Lee Hopkins explained… As promised, here’s the interview I enjoyed today with Tom from Radio Adelaide. As Peter Godfrey says, A growing number of people are using the latest social networking site, TWITTER to communicate all manner of messages… from political announcements to the mundane conversations. Premier Mike Rann is fond of ‘tweeting’ on Twitter, as is cyclist Lance Armstrong, and Vogue Magazine intends using Twitter for updates during Australian Fashion Week - although that one has ruffled feathers with the discovery of a ‘fake’ Vogue Twitter page. So for the un-initiated, what can, or can’t Twitter do? Social media expert, Lee Hopkins explained… As promised, here’s the interview I enjoyed today with Tom from Radio Adelaide. As Peter Godfrey says, A growing number of people are using the latest social networking site, TWITTER to communicate all manner of messages… from political announcements to the mundane conversations. Premier Mike Rann is fond of ‘tweeting’ on Twitter, as is cyclist Lance Armstrong, and Vogue Magazine intends using Twitter for updates during Australian Fashion Week - although that one has ruffled feathers with the discovery of a ‘fake’ Vogue Twitter page. So for the un-initiated, what can, or can’t Twitter do? Social media expert, Lee Hopkins explained… tag:odeo.com,2009-04-17,24461971 Fri, 17 Apr 2009 00:32:09 -0700 no Better communication results interviews, twitter, BCR podcast, tools, public speaking, book review, Radio Adelaide, peter godfrey http://odeo.com/episodes/24460941-Lee-on-the-radio-that-fantastic-black-plastic I was on Radio Adelaide again this morning, talking about Twitter. I don’t have a copy of that interview yet (coming shortly), but in the interim here’s an interview I did back in February with them. As Peter Godfrey’s blog says, The bush telegraph once provided the best means of spreading news and information, but we’ve almost come full circle with a different form of bush telegraph playing a significant role while spreading news on the Victorian bush fires. Social media played a significant role in keeping the country up to date on the situation as it un-folded. Over the internet images, maps, fire warnings and more were spread at a surprisingly quick rate via Twitter, Flicker and on-line forms of traditional media. Featured in this interview- Lee Hopkins from the UNISA School of Communication. He begins by explaining the similarity between Citizen Journalism and Social Media. download interview I’ve also included an interview I gave to ABC Radio South East in early July last year... I was on Radio Adelaide again this morning, talking about Twitter. I don’t have a copy of that interview yet (coming shortly), but in the interim here’s an interview I did back in February with them. As Peter Godfrey’s blog says, The bush telegraph once provided the best means of spreading news and information, but we’ve almost come full circle with a different form of bush telegraph playing a significant role while spreading news on the Victorian bush fires. Social media played a significant role in keeping the country up to date on the situation as it un-folded. Over the internet images, maps, fire warnings and more were spread at a surprisingly quick rate via Twitter, Flicker and on-line forms of traditional media. Featured in this interview- Lee Hopkins from the UNISA School of Communication. He begins by explaining the similarity between Citizen Journalism and Social Media. download interview I’ve also included an interview I gave to ABC Radio South East in early July last year, where I talk about Social Networking. I was on Radio Adelaide again this morning, talking about Twitter. I don’t have a copy of that interview yet (coming shortly), but in the interim here’s an interview I did back in February with them. As Peter Godfrey’s blog says, The bush telegraph once provided the best means of spreading news and information, but we’ve almost come full circle with a different form of bush telegraph playing a significant role while spreading news on the Victorian bush fires. Social media played a significant role in keeping the country up to date on the situation as it un-folded. Over the internet images, maps, fire warnings and more were spread at a surprisingly quick rate via Twitter, Flicker and on-line forms of traditional media. Featured in this interview- Lee Hopkins from the UNISA School of Communication. He begins by explaining the similarity between Citizen Journalism and Social Media. download interview I’ve also included an interview I gave to ABC Radio South East in early July last year, where I talk about Social Networking. tag:odeo.com,2009-04-16,24460941 Thu, 16 Apr 2009 18:58:48 -0700 no Better communication results Interview, interviews, twitter, BCR podcast, tools, clippings, public speaking, abc local radio, Radio Adelaide, radio announcer, peter godfrey http://odeo.com/episodes/24429151-Melcrum%E2%80%99s-new-%E2%80%98Transforming-your-intranet%E2%80%99-research-report-free-extract-available Courtesy of my good friend and definitely fine fellow Alex Manchester comes word that Melcrum have released their latest report: Transforming your intranet. Contributors include Alex himself (already making the report a ‘must buy’: what he doesn’t know about intranets can be written on the head of a pin), plus other chapters and contributions written by Martin White, Toby Ward, Dave Wallace, Euan Semple and your humble scribe. Companies included as case studies in the report include BSI Group, BSkyB, IKEA, Sabre and Sun Microsystems and a whole lot of others. As Alex says, “with a bucket load of stats from the associated survey (with over 1200 responses), there’s a massive amount to glean from it.” Alex points out that there’s a free extract you can download [pdf] to get a ‘feel’ for how damn good Melcrum reports are, and how good Alex is as a writer and technologist (he co-wrote some of the material in the sample). What I didn’t know was that you can find a great introduction... Courtesy of my good friend and definitely fine fellow Alex Manchester comes word that Melcrum have released their latest report: Transforming your intranet. Contributors include Alex himself (already making the report a ‘must buy’: what he doesn’t know about intranets can be written on the head of a pin), plus other chapters and contributions written by Martin White, Toby Ward, Dave Wallace, Euan Semple and your humble scribe. Companies included as case studies in the report include BSI Group, BSkyB, IKEA, Sabre and Sun Microsystems and a whole lot of others. As Alex says, “with a bucket load of stats from the associated survey (with over 1200 responses), there’s a massive amount to glean from it.” Alex points out that there’s a free extract you can download [pdf] to get a ‘feel’ for how damn good Melcrum reports are, and how good Alex is as a writer and technologist (he co-wrote some of the material in the sample). What I didn’t know was that you can find a great introduction to the report on Iowa’s IABC (International Association of Business Communicators) site. Cool. Don’t forget, the sample report is here, and the full report is here. Go get ‘em, tiger! Technorati Tags: alex manchester, melcrum, iabc, intranet, euan semple, dave wallace, toby ward, martin white, report Courtesy of my good friend and definitely fine fellow Alex Manchester comes word that Melcrum have released their latest report: Transforming your intranet. Contributors include Alex himself (already making the report a ‘must buy’: what he doesn’t know about intranets can be written on the head of a pin), plus other chapters and contributions written by Martin White, Toby Ward, Dave Wallace, Euan Semple and your humble scribe. Companies included as case studies in the report include BSI Group, BSkyB, IKEA, Sabre and Sun Microsystems and a whole lot of others. As Alex says, “with a bucket load of stats from the associated survey (with over 1200 responses), there’s a massive amount to glean from it.” Alex points out that there’s a free extract you can download [pdf] to get a ‘feel’ for how damn good Melcrum reports are, and how good Alex is as a writer and technologist (he co-wrote some of the material in the sample). What I didn’t know was that you can find a great introduction to the report on Iowa’s IABC (International Association of Business Communicators) site. Cool. Don’t forget, the sample report is here, and the full report is here. Go get ‘em, tiger! Technorati Tags: alex manchester, melcrum, iabc, intranet, euan semple, dave wallace, toby ward, martin white, report tag:odeo.com,2009-04-08,24429151 Wed, 08 Apr 2009 22:43:16 -0700 no Better communication results intranet, tools, book review, melcrum, repor, iabc, martin white, euan semple, toby ward, alex manchester, dave wallace http://odeo.com/episodes/24412118-Why-Allan-Jenkins-and-I-are-going-to-Coos-Bay My colleague in crime, arch rival and nemesis, and international man of mystery Allan Jenkins has penned an absolute bottler of a post about how by simply ‘staying awake’ to the new communication landscape a picturesque hamlet on the west coast of America is about to be a lot more famous. Because I’ve been tied up writing a huge manuscript (and still writing it, so yes I missed the deadline), I’m taking the massive liberty of re-posting Allan’s exposition in its gorgeous entirety. If you are a student of written communication you will have before you the writing of a Master Communicator — take note of his clarity, conciseness and erudition; he constructed a story in far less words than I would have rambled with (as indeed I am doing now). Over to Allan: Why Lee Hopkins and I are going to Coos Bay, Oregon When Lee Hopkins and I decided to “road trip” from Seattle to San Francisco this year, we turned to social media – Twitter, Facebook, Tripadvisor – to help us plan the trip (w... My colleague in crime, arch rival and nemesis, and international man of mystery Allan Jenkins has penned an absolute bottler of a post about how by simply ‘staying awake’ to the new communication landscape a picturesque hamlet on the west coast of America is about to be a lot more famous. Because I’ve been tied up writing a huge manuscript (and still writing it, so yes I missed the deadline), I’m taking the massive liberty of re-posting Allan’s exposition in its gorgeous entirety. If you are a student of written communication you will have before you the writing of a Master Communicator — take note of his clarity, conciseness and erudition; he constructed a story in far less words than I would have rambled with (as indeed I am doing now). Over to Allan: Why Lee Hopkins and I are going to Coos Bay, Oregon When Lee Hopkins and I decided to “road trip” from Seattle to San Francisco this year, we turned to social media – Twitter, Facebook, Tripadvisor – to help us plan the trip (which we are still planning). Since neither of us has been to the Pacific Northwest, it seemed sensible to ask our networks. Where to go? What to see? We also asked “What towns should we stop in?” One respondent on Twitter was @travelcoosbay of Coos Bay, Oregon (pop. 15,000), who suggested we drop into that town for the night.  I thanked @travelcoosbay & made some offhand remark that if Lee Hopkins podcasted from Coos Bay, it would become a famous(er) place. Here’s where our road trip planning started becoming a case study in novel ways to use social media. Many towns confronting the prospect of a couple of social media nerds passing through would simply point the way to the Motel 6 about an hour down the road. But @travelcoosbay replied that Coos Bay, Oregon is a pretty attractive place & that we would be simply cheating ourselves to miss it. To prove the point, they set up a Flickr account dedicated to demonstrating to Hopkins how beautiful the area is. Well, fair enough. Except Hoppo and I are not strangers to “pretty” places. He lives in the glorious Adelaide hills, in South Australia, and I live right on the ocean on Denmark’s prettiest island. We can show you natural beauty from here to Christmas. We asked, in some roundabout way, if the people were as nice as the local scenery. After all, social media is all about communing with people. Their reply was to take it to the streets. They thoughtfully included me (and rightly so, since I am driving and can take us to Boise, instead, if I have a mind to. Which I don’t). What are we to do? We are self-confessed social media enthusiasts – companies even hire us to advise on social media – and here an entire town is using Twitter and Flickr to get us to show up for a night. Well, we did what anyone would do. We hemmed and hawed. Didn’t commit ourselves. Kept our options open. Kept our powder dry. Then they took it to YouTube.   Well, I don’t know about you, but I’d feel churlish and dead to all human emotion if we didn’t go to Coos Bay after that volley of invitation. Truth is, we were pretty warm  on Coos Bay from the start – I won’t say “You had me at hello,” but we were warm. After that blast, we just rolled over and submitted. And that’s why Lee Hopkins and I are going to Coos Bay this summer. Social media at its small town best While we are there, we are going to give a talk about social media to local businesses. But it seems to me Coos Bay’s promoters have a pretty good handle on social media already: 1. They were watching Twitter for any reference to the Oregon coast by potential tourists. 2. They responded immediately with a very low key “you might be interested in us, if you are passing through” approach. Enough to pique my interest without “selling” me. (And this is not just me… this is routine). 3. When I responded and added a “wink,” they were ready to add Flickr to the equation – and ask locals to get involved. And locals started Tweeting me. 4. A big sense of humor, but always on message — “you’ll love it here.” 5. And a “coup de grace” – taking it to YouTube with an ironic, fun on-message invitation. We may not meet any of those people this summer , but we want to meet all of them. 6. @travelcoosbay (and the person behind @travelcoosbay, on her own twitter account) have become a part of my daily Twitter stream on topics far removed from this trip. Through @travelcoosbay, I have “twittermet” several others who are, like me, interested in using social media to promote small town and rural tourism. What has this cost Coos Bay? Not a dime, really. Some time on the part of @travelcoosbay, of course. What has it cost Hopkins and me? Not a dime, really. Benefits? At the very least, Coos Bay gains two new fans and whatever we spend there (and I should add here that some of our expenses will be covered in Coos Bay in exchange for our presentation). Hopkins and I get to stay in a town where the welcome mat is already out for us & meet some people we never would meet “just passing through.” For a few 140-character exchanges on Twitter and a YouTube video, that’s not bad going for either side. del.icio.us Tags: coosbay,leehopkins,allanjenkins,tripadvisor,bluehighways Technorati Tags: coosbay,leehopkins,allanjenkins,tripadvisor,bluehighways Posted by Allan Jenkins on March 31, 2009 at 12:46 AM in Social Media, Travel | Permalink Technorati Tags: coosbay, leehopkins, allanjenkins, tripadvisor, bluehighways My colleague in crime, arch rival and nemesis, and international man of mystery Allan Jenkins has penned an absolute bottler of a post about how by simply ‘staying awake’ to the new communication landscape a picturesque hamlet on the west coast of America is about to be a lot more famous. Because I’ve been tied up writing a huge manuscript (and still writing it, so yes I missed the deadline), I’m taking the massive liberty of re-posting Allan’s exposition in its gorgeous entirety. If you are a student of written communication you will have before you the writing of a Master Communicator — take note of his clarity, conciseness and erudition; he constructed a story in far less words than I would have rambled with (as indeed I am doing now). Over to Allan: Why Lee Hopkins and I are going to Coos Bay, Oregon When Lee Hopkins and I decided to “road trip” from Seattle to San Francisco this year, we turned to social media – Twitter, Facebook, Tripadvisor – to help us plan the trip (which we are still planning). Since neither of us has been to the Pacific Northwest, it seemed sensible to ask our networks. Where to go? What to see? We also asked “What towns should we stop in?” One respondent on Twitter was @travelcoosbay of Coos Bay, Oregon (pop. 15,000), who suggested we drop into that town for the night.  I thanked @travelcoosbay & made some offhand remark that if Lee Hopkins podcasted from Coos Bay, it would become a famous(er) place. Here’s where our road trip planning started becoming a case study in novel ways to use social media. Many towns confronting the prospect of a couple of social media nerds passing through would simply point the way to the Motel 6 about an hour down the road. But @travelcoosbay replied that Coos Bay, Oregon is a pretty attractive place & that we would be simply cheating ourselves to miss it. To prove the point, they set up a Flickr account dedicated to demonstrating to Hopkins how beautiful the area is. Well, fair enough. Except Hoppo and I are not strangers to “pretty” places. He lives in the glorious Adelaide hills, in South Australia, and I live right on the ocean on Denmark’s prettiest island. We can show you natural beauty from here to Christmas. We asked, in some roundabout way, if the people were as nice as the local scenery. After all, social media is all about communing with people. Their reply was to take it to the streets. They thoughtfully included me (and rightly so, since I am driving and can take us to Boise, instead, if I have a mind to. Which I don’t). What are we to do? We are self-confessed social media enthusiasts – companies even hire us to advise on social media – and here an entire town is using Twitter and Flickr to get us to show up for a night. Well, we did what anyone would do. We hemmed and hawed. Didn’t commit ourselves. Kept our options open. Kept our powder dry. Then they took it to YouTube.   Well, I don’t know about you, but I’d feel churlish and dead to all human emotion if we didn’t go to Coos Bay after that volley of invitation. Truth is, we were pretty warm  on Coos Bay from the start – I won’t say “You had me at hello,” but we were warm. After that blast, we just rolled over and submitted. And that’s why Lee Hopkins and I are going to Coos Bay this summer. Social media at its small town best While we are there, we are going to give a talk about social media to local businesses. But it seems to me Coos Bay’s promoters have a pretty good handle on social media already: 1. They were watching Twitter for any reference to the Oregon coast by potential tourists. 2. They responded immediately with a very low key “you might be interested in us, if you are passing through” approach. Enough to pique my interest without “selling” me. (And this is not just me… this is routine). 3. When I responded and added a “wink,” they were ready to add Flickr to the equation – and ask locals to get involved. And locals started Tweeting me. 4. A big sense of humor, but always on message — “you’ll love it here.” 5. And a “coup de grace” – taking it to YouTube with an ironic, fun on-message invitation. We may not meet any of those people this summer , but we want to meet all of them. 6. @travelcoosbay (and the person behind @travelcoosbay, on her own twitter account) have become a part of my daily Twitter stream on topics far removed from this trip. Through @travelcoosbay, I have “twittermet” several others who are, like me, interested in using social media to promote small town and rural tourism. What has this cost Coos Bay? Not a dime, really. Some time on the part of @travelcoosbay, of course. What has it cost Hopkins and me? Not a dime, really. Benefits? At the very least, Coos Bay gains two new fans and whatever we spend there (and I should add here that some of our expenses will be covered in Coos Bay in exchange for our presentation). Hopkins and I get to stay in a town where the welcome mat is already out for us & meet some people we never would meet “just passing through.” For a few 140-character exchanges on Twitter and a YouTube video, that’s not bad going for either side. del.icio.us Tags: coosbay,leehopkins,allanjenkins,tripadvisor,bluehighways Technorati Tags: coosbay,leehopkins,allanjenkins,tripadvisor,bluehighways Posted by Allan Jenkins on March 31, 2009 at 12:46 AM in Social Media, Travel | Permalink Technorati Tags: coosbay, leehopkins, allanjenkins, tripadvisor, bluehighways tag:odeo.com,2009-04-05,24412118 Sun, 05 Apr 2009 16:22:17 -0700 no Better communication results videoblog, tools, PR, micro-blogging, nonverbal communication, TripAdvisor, allanjenkins, coosbay, bluehighways, leehopkins http://odeo.com/episodes/24348746-Norton%E2%80%99s-2009-Online-Family-report Symantec have today released their 2009 report into life online (you know, that thing we do between interruptions). Nearly seven in 10 online adults say that the Internet has improved their relationships.  And it’s no wonder: those who have friends online have an average of approximately 41 online friends, 49 percent have a social networking page, and 24 percent sometimes share secrets online.  In fact, the Internet has become such a central vehicle for communication and connection that about six in 10 online adults say they could not live without it (I’m one of them!) Indeed, 92% of Australians believe that the benefits of the Internet outweigh the risks. Key findings of this highly-readable and well-designed report include: Can technology buy you love?  7 out of 10 adults across the world say the internet has improved their relationships (but not in Australia, where nearly 60% say it has not improved it – Mrs BetterComms would agree with that) Do you know where your... Symantec have today released their 2009 report into life online (you know, that thing we do between interruptions). Nearly seven in 10 online adults say that the Internet has improved their relationships.  And it’s no wonder: those who have friends online have an average of approximately 41 online friends, 49 percent have a social networking page, and 24 percent sometimes share secrets online.  In fact, the Internet has become such a central vehicle for communication and connection that about six in 10 online adults say they could not live without it (I’m one of them!) Indeed, 92% of Australians believe that the benefits of the Internet outweigh the risks. Key findings of this highly-readable and well-designed report include: Can technology buy you love?  7 out of 10 adults across the world say the internet has improved their relationships (but not in Australia, where nearly 60% say it has not improved it – Mrs BetterComms would agree with that) Do you know where your kids are online? 6 out of 10 parents feel that kids spend too much time online and they only know the half of it – online is the new hangout for kids! In Australia, for example, over half the parents think their kids spend between 1-25 hours per week month online, where the reality is a staggering 49 hours per week month – and Aussie kids believe that they don’t spend enough time online! So you think you are secure? 99% of adults globally think they are secure online, yet 14% of adults in Australia have been hacked and 1 in 3 have lost valuable data Aligned with that are some equally interesting stats, such as half of online adults use webcams and social media, and nearly a quarter of the online population use Twitter or similar micro-blogging platforms. With Twitter’s online growth averaging 33% month-on-month I don’t think it will be long before that figure reaches 50%… Great quote: “My fiancé and I lived in the same neighbourhood for 10 years but never crossed paths until we ‘met’ online. It took an online dating site to bring us together.” - Female, 28, United Kingdom The kids are alright In what can only be described as a welcome snub to Senator Conroy’s nonsense about the Australian Federal Government needing to be the Nanny for our children’s online behaviour, the report highlights that parents themselves are very willing to accept responsibility for monitoring their children’s online activities, and enforcing family rules where necessary. 7 in 10 kids have rules for using the Internet; and parents and kids concur that they are following the rules 80% of the time 70% of parents are now talking to their kids about online safety (up 20% from last year) 90% of parents worldwide see that it’s their responsibility to keep their kids safe online “While technology may buy you love, only you can keep yourself and your family safe online,” said Janice Chaffin, group president of Symantec’s  Consumer Business Unit.  “The Internet has become a regular part of our daily lives and has created unprecedented opportunities to connect — from ‘Webcaming’ with grandma, to texting with classmates, to rekindling old flames.  These survey results are an especially important reminder for parents to know where their kids are — whether online or offline.” In a seeming disparity with the recent Nielsen-Online report [pdf, opens in new browser window] which showed that the internet has replaced tv as the most-consumed medium (and perhaps reflective of demographic differences between the two surveys and therefore not necessarily a contradiction), Norton found that the trusty old telly is still the number one ‘habit’ of teenagers (my own stepkids would probably rather watch me die than give up their Home and Away, Packed to the Rafters, etc.) Data backup More worrying is the number of adults who still do not back up data Yes, I’m as guilty as any of you on this, and yes, I have many tears to attest to it. I know back up constantly to two different sources. See my friend Sallie Goetsch for more info on backing up data. Anti-virus and net safety Globally, two out of ten netizens still don’t have security software installed and of those that do, two out of ten don’t run virus scans frequently. My stepkids are as guilty as my wife on this – no matter how many times I plead with them, they never bother even ‘auto-updating’ as it slows them down from doing what they came to the computer to do. Arghh!!! Since I installed Norton Internet Security 2009 over two months ago I have been stunned by how quickly it keeps everything tip top – I cannot recommend the software highly enough. Yes, I am VERY aware how bloated and resource-hogging Norton anti-virus software used to be. I was given a review copy of NIS09 by Norton, which comes with a one-user-only licence (the retail product gives you a three-user licence). It runs so quietly in the background of my not-so-fast-these-days desktop that I truly don’t know it’s there. I’m so impressed I’m going to buy the full retail version so that I can protect my notebook and my wife and Princess Buttercup’s laptops. Yes, spend my own money – I can’t give higher praise than that! There has also been the occasional meme running around that virii are actually concocted by security companies to keep them in business – I cannot comment on that, except to say it’s highly unlikely to be true. The blogosphere is far too good at ‘naming and shaming’ disreputable business practice these days. So if you think that anti-virus software is a bit of a waste of time, consider this: 711,912 new threats in 2007 compared to 125,243 in 2006 Web users can increasingly be infected simply by visiting everyday sites Identities (including yours) are being sold online these days – it’s big business and it pays to protect yours. Regional/country differences The report also breaks down some of the differences between regions/countries. Here’s the key findings for Australia: Among all the countries surveyed, Australia’s online parents are most likely to agree, "I always know what my children are looking at online (86%); however, only two-thirds (65%) of Australian kids agree with the statement, "my parents know what I am looking at when I am online." This is the largest gap in all countries. Confidence in the knowledge of what their child does online is highest in Australia (86%) Australian adults are most likely to believe that children spend too much time online (65% agreement compared to the UK, France, Japan, India) Along with India, adults in Australia are most likely to agree that the Internet has eased the learning process (89% India, 86% Australia) Though 90% of Australian youth agree that the Internet has made learning much easier for children today, 63% feel that email, instant messaging, text messaging and posting on social networking web sites or blogs make it harder for children today to learn to write well Online Australian adults are most likely to report the Internet is slow (34%) and one in three (72%) feel this slowness has to do with their Internet connection [what? that figure makes no sense – I am waiting on clarification from David Freer, Symantec’s VP Consumer, Asia Pacific and Japan on this statistic]  of those who reported that the internet was slow, 72% feel that this slowness has to do with their Internet connection Australians rank their cars at the top of their list of things that they can’t live without (50%), followed by Internet access (46%) and TV (45%) Australia ranked third in the list of countries in which online adults are most unaware of services like Twitter, which allow short but frequent contact between individuals (Sweden [30%], the U.K. [27%], Australia [25%]) Survey methodology The survey was conducted online in 12 countries (United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, China, Japan, India, Australia, and Brazil). Of those who took part, there were 6,427 adults 18 years old and older (including 1,297 parents of children ages 8-17) and 2,614 children aged 8-17 who spend one or more hours online each month. All of which means it’s fairly representative of online behaviour. David Freer of Symantec Interview with David Freer, Symantec VP Consumer, Asia Pacific & Japan I interviewed David about the report (but before I noticed the statistical anomaly noted above); here’s what he said. At Symantec, our vision is that people should be able to work and play freely in a connected world. We have commissioned the global Norton Online Living Report for the second year to monitor and provide insight into how people are living with technology. Specifically we examine the rapidly changing technology landscape, the Internet and its use and the social impact on individuals and families lives in order to continue to deliver on that vision. This year, in addition to examining trends around how we live with technology, we undertook segmentation analysis of the online population. We captured how families use communication technologies such as email, instant messaging and social networking sites, differently and how their use may impact their relationships with each other. Adult interest and knowledge of the Internet and online communication tools, as well as their satisfaction with their family relationships, were measured. We also found a unique segment we call the E-family with tight connections in both technology and relationship. This segment was prominent in emerging countries like China, India and Brazil roughly in 25 percent of the population versus 14 percent globally and 11 percent locally in Australia. These families usually consist of a strong family connection, and the use of available tools on the Internet such as instant messaging, social networking and other mediums to stay in touch. It was positive to see that 23 percent of Australian children are ‘friending’ their parents online (on social networking sites or IM for example) and 22 percent of kids are connecting with their grandparents online, which is above the global figure of 10 percent. Consumers in our survey also described scenarios where friends and families are either spread throughout the country and the Internet has allowed more regular contact with loved ones or it’s allowed them to reconnect with old friends or flames! But the bottom line is almost all of our 9000 adults and youth in 12 countries agreed the benefits of the Internet outweigh the risks! Regardless of the type of connection be it IM, text or twitter; who you are connecting with from co-workers, parents and kids to friends; from secrets to touchy subjects the internet has redefined how we connect and maintain our relationships. The E-family is a beacon of tight connections from tech to relationships. Kids are as active as ever making friends, using technologies to develop relationships but both parents and kids agree they are spending too much time online and potentially wasting time. There are positive signs between parents and kids online with more interaction, discussion about rules and “friending” of each other going on. Supervision and parental controls continue to be hard. And a security paradox remains that solved can help many work and play a little more freely online. If you are interested in reading Norton’s rather good report you can head to www.nortononlineliving.com. Technorati Tags: symantec, norton, virus, security, report, anti virus, david freer, nielson online Symantec have today released their 2009 report into life online (you know, that thing we do between interruptions). Nearly seven in 10 online adults say that the Internet has improved their relationships.  And it’s no wonder: those who have friends online have an average of approximately 41 online friends, 49 percent have a social networking page, and 24 percent sometimes share secrets online.  In fact, the Internet has become such a central vehicle for communication and connection that about six in 10 online adults say they could not live without it (I’m one of them!) Indeed, 92% of Australians believe that the benefits of the Internet outweigh the risks. Key findings of this highly-readable and well-designed report include: Can technology buy you love?  7 out of 10 adults across the world say the internet has improved their relationships (but not in Australia, where nearly 60% say it has not improved it – Mrs BetterComms would agree with that) Do you know where your kids are online? 6 out of 10 parents feel that kids spend too much time online and they only know the half of it – online is the new hangout for kids! In Australia, for example, over half the parents think their kids spend between 1-25 hours per week month online, where the reality is a staggering 49 hours per week month – and Aussie kids believe that they don’t spend enough time online! So you think you are secure? 99% of adults globally think they are secure online, yet 14% of adults in Australia have been hacked and 1 in 3 have lost valuable data Aligned with that are some equally interesting stats, such as half of online adults use webcams and social media, and nearly a quarter of the online population use Twitter or similar micro-blogging platforms. With Twitter’s online growth averaging 33% month-on-month I don’t think it will be long before that figure reaches 50%… Great quote: “My fiancé and I lived in the same neighbourhood for 10 years but never crossed paths until we ‘met’ online. It took an online dating site to bring us together.” - Female, 28, United Kingdom The kids are alright In what can only be described as a welcome snub to Senator Conroy’s nonsense about the Australian Federal Government needing to be the Nanny for our children’s online behaviour, the report highlights that parents themselves are very willing to accept responsibility for monitoring their children’s online activities, and enforcing family rules where necessary. 7 in 10 kids have rules for using the Internet; and parents and kids concur that they are following the rules 80% of the time 70% of parents are now talking to their kids about online safety (up 20% from last year) 90% of parents worldwide see that it’s their responsibility to keep their kids safe online “While technology may buy you love, only you can keep yourself and your family safe online,” said Janice Chaffin, group president of Symantec’s  Consumer Business Unit.  “The Internet has become a regular part of our daily lives and has created unprecedented opportunities to connect — from ‘Webcaming’ with grandma, to texting with classmates, to rekindling old flames.  These survey results are an especially important reminder for parents to know where their kids are — whether online or offline.” In a seeming disparity with the recent Nielsen-Online report [pdf, opens in new browser window] which showed that the internet has replaced tv as the most-consumed medium (and perhaps reflective of demographic differences between the two surveys and therefore not necessarily a contradiction), Norton found that the trusty old telly is still the number one ‘habit’ of teenagers (my own stepkids would probably rather watch me die than give up their Home and Away, Packed to the Rafters, etc.) Data backup More worrying is the number of adults who still do not back up data Yes, I’m as guilty as any of you on this, and yes, I have many tears to attest to it. I know back up constantly to two different sources. See my friend Sallie Goetsch for more info on backing up data. Anti-virus and net safety Globally, two out of ten netizens still don’t have security software installed and of those that do, two out of ten don’t run virus scans frequently. My stepkids are as guilty as my wife on this – no matter how many times I plead with them, they never bother even ‘auto-updating’ as it slows them down from doing what they came to the computer to do. Arghh!!! Since I installed Norton Internet Security 2009 over two months ago I have been stunned by how quickly it keeps everything tip top – I cannot recommend the software highly enough. Yes, I am VERY aware how bloated and resource-hogging Norton anti-virus software used to be. I was given a review copy of NIS09 by Norton, which comes with a one-user-only licence (the retail product gives you a three-user licence). It runs so quietly in the background of my not-so-fast-these-days desktop that I truly don’t know it’s there. I’m so impressed I’m going to buy the full retail version so that I can protect my notebook and my wife and Princess Buttercup’s laptops. Yes, spend my own money – I can’t give higher praise than that! There has also been the occasional meme running around that virii are actually concocted by security companies to keep them in business – I cannot comment on that, except to say it’s highly unlikely to be true. The blogosphere is far too good at ‘naming and shaming’ disreputable business practice these days. So if you think that anti-virus software is a bit of a waste of time, consider this: 711,912 new threats in 2007 compared to 125,243 in 2006 Web users can increasingly be infected simply by visiting everyday sites Identities (including yours) are being sold online these days – it’s big business and it pays to protect yours. Regional/country differences The report also breaks down some of the differences between regions/countries. Here’s the key findings for Australia: Among all the countries surveyed, Australia’s online parents are most likely to agree, "I always know what my children are looking at online (86%); however, only two-thirds (65%) of Australian kids agree with the statement, "my parents know what I am looking at when I am online." This is the largest gap in all countries. Confidence in the knowledge of what their child does online is highest in Australia (86%) Australian adults are most likely to believe that children spend too much time online (65% agreement compared to the UK, France, Japan, India) Along with India, adults in Australia are most likely to agree that the Internet has eased the learning process (89% India, 86% Australia) Though 90% of Australian youth agree that the Internet has made learning much easier for children today, 63% feel that email, instant messaging, text messaging and posting on social networking web sites or blogs make it harder for children today to learn to write well Online Australian adults are most likely to report the Internet is slow (34%) and one in three (72%) feel this slowness has to do with their Internet connection [what? that figure makes no sense – I am waiting on clarification from David Freer, Symantec’s VP Consumer, Asia Pacific and Japan on this statistic]  of those who reported that the internet was slow, 72% feel that this slowness has to do with their Internet connection Australians rank their cars at the top of their list of things that they can’t live without (50%), followed by Internet access (46%) and TV (45%) Australia ranked third in the list of countries in which online adults are most unaware of services like Twitter, which allow short but frequent contact between individuals (Sweden [30%], the U.K. [27%], Australia [25%]) Survey methodology The survey was conducted online in 12 countries (United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, China, Japan, India, Australia, and Brazil). Of those who took part, there were 6,427 adults 18 years old and older (including 1,297 parents of children ages 8-17) and 2,614 children aged 8-17 who spend one or more hours online each month. All of which means it’s fairly representative of online behaviour. David Freer of Symantec Interview with David Freer, Symantec VP Consumer, Asia Pacific & Japan I interviewed David about the report (but before I noticed the statistical anomaly noted above); here’s what he said. At Symantec, our vision is that people should be able to work and play freely in a connected world. We have commissioned the global Norton Online Living Report for the second year to monitor and provide insight into how people are living with technology. Specifically we examine the rapidly changing technology landscape, the Internet and its use and the social impact on individuals and families lives in order to continue to deliver on that vision. This year, in addition to examining trends around how we live with technology, we undertook segmentation analysis of the online population. We captured how families use communication technologies such as email, instant messaging and social networking sites, differently and how their use may impact their relationships with each other. Adult interest and knowledge of the Internet and online communication tools, as well as their satisfaction with their family relationships, were measured. We also found a unique segment we call the E-family with tight connections in both technology and relationship. This segment was prominent in emerging countries like China, India and Brazil roughly in 25 percent of the population versus 14 percent globally and 11 percent locally in Australia. These families usually consist of a strong family connection, and the use of available tools on the Internet such as instant messaging, social networking and other mediums to stay in touch. It was positive to see that 23 percent of Australian children are ‘friending’ their parents online (on social networking sites or IM for example) and 22 percent of kids are connecting with their grandparents online, which is above the global figure of 10 percent. Consumers in our survey also described scenarios where friends and families are either spread throughout the country and the Internet has allowed more regular contact with loved ones or it’s allowed them to reconnect with old friends or flames! But the bottom line is almost all of our 9000 adults and youth in 12 countries agreed the benefits of the Internet outweigh the risks! Regardless of the type of connection be it IM, text or twitter; who you are connecting with from co-workers, parents and kids to friends; from secrets to touchy subjects the internet has redefined how we connect and maintain our relationships. The E-family is a beacon of tight connections from tech to relationships. Kids are as active as ever making friends, using technologies to develop relationships but both parents and kids agree they are spending too much time online and potentially wasting time. There are positive signs between parents and kids online with more interaction, discussion about rules and “friending” of each other going on. Supervision and parental controls continue to be hard. And a security paradox remains that solved can help many work and play a little more freely online. If you are interested in reading Norton’s rather good report you can head to www.nortononlineliving.com. Technorati Tags: symantec, norton, virus, security, report, anti virus, david freer, nielson online tag:odeo.com,2009-03-23,24348746 Mon, 23 Mar 2009 09:46:09 -0700 no Better communication results interviews, Security, tools, report, virus, symantec, norton, anti virus, nielson online, david freer http://odeo.com/episodes/24329035-Conroy-and-ACMA-are-RIGHT-to-ban-%E2%80%99em I took a look at the list of websites that ACMA and Senator Conroy are allegedly banning during their tests of his internet filtering software – and he’s right to ban some of them! Imagine what horror could await the eyes and minds of our innocent young if they were to access images like THESE: From a dental website. Obviously the man is smiling because…   This woman, who is a patient at the same dental clinic, obviously has a towel to her face because… Obviously this photo of a little girl brushing her teeth is highly… No wonder this Australian dentist is smiling; after all, all of his staff are also highly paid secret members of… I don’t know what the owners of this dog and cat boarding kennel in the northern part of Australia were thinking, but obviously something very animal is at the heart of it all This canteen lady surely knows how to use a spoon and fork – she allegedly offers her ‘canteen management’ services all over one particular Australian state, having several qua... I took a look at the list of websites that ACMA and Senator Conroy are allegedly banning during their tests of his internet filtering software – and he’s right to ban some of them! Imagine what horror could await the eyes and minds of our innocent young if they were to access images like THESE: From a dental website. Obviously the man is smiling because…   This woman, who is a patient at the same dental clinic, obviously has a towel to her face because… Obviously this photo of a little girl brushing her teeth is highly… No wonder this Australian dentist is smiling; after all, all of his staff are also highly paid secret members of… I don’t know what the owners of this dog and cat boarding kennel in the northern part of Australia were thinking, but obviously something very animal is at the heart of it all This canteen lady surely knows how to use a spoon and fork – she allegedly offers her ‘canteen management’ services all over one particular Australian state, having several qualifications and taken various volunteer roles on the ????? Association of School Tuckshops. A likely story! This European restaurant clearly serves up more than just foreign food! “Restaurace se nachází v chebské m?stské ?ásti Háje, 1km od hrani?ního p?echodu Svatý K?íž. V naší restauraci vám nabízíme široký sortiment pokrm? z ?eské a minutkové kuchyn?.” Well, that’s what THEY say…!     And we all know that the mozilla application ‘seamonkey’ is actually a front for a gun-smuggling regime working out of a local convent…  Here’s the sort of page you might want to look for at that organisation that posts about leaks on their wiki: My Melbournian mate Jim Stewart of Stewart Media posted a video about the whole schmozzle… “Australia Blacklists Free Speech” You NEED to watch Jim’s video! Jim also points to http://www.siteblocker.org and a place to find out what you can expect once a Government filter goes live. I found the alleged list on a wiki that deals with leaked information – the sort of information that Governments sometimes prefer you not to know. If you search Google for an organisation (they usually have a domain name ending in .org) and something like, oh… say, wiki, or leaks, or some combination like that, you will probably find it. Mind you, the site might be down because the server has crashed under the weight of people accessing it… I found a surprisingly large number of the ‘naughty’ sites had actually disappeared, their domain names now the property of hosting companies who used them to run harmless link pages and Google ads. But the sites still remain in the ‘blocked’ list – it would appear that little attention is paid to making sure the list is current. You can also find a great background to the whole mind-numbingly dumb internet filter concept at Wikipedia – visit this page before ACMA ban it! I love this snippet from the Wikipedia page: The IWF blacklist will form part of the mandatory blacklist used in Australia, but it has caused disruption in the UK. In December 2008, hybrid filtering technology implemented by UK providers [60] caused disruption of Wikipedia operations in the UK when a Wikipedia page was added to the IWF watchlist. [61] When Wikipedia blocked UK vandals by their IP address, this block affected all users coming from these IP addresses. As these IP addresses belonged to the filter proxies, all Wikipedia users in the UK attempting to edit an article without a login name were blocked. Some proxies also collapsed under load generated by Wikipedia traffic. [62] After widespread coverage, IWF removed the Wikipedia page from its blacklist: "IWF’s overriding objective is to minimise the availability of indecent images of children on the internet, however, on this occasion our efforts have had the opposite effect … We regret the unintended consequences for Wikipedia and its users." [63] OOOPSIES!! But don’t worry, that would never happen here, would it?! Technorati Tags: conroy, jim stewart, stewartmedia, censorship, filter, internet, internet filter, wikipedia, acma, ban, pornography, block, dangerous, senator conroy, australia, cluelessness I took a look at the list of websites that ACMA and Senator Conroy are allegedly banning during their tests of his internet filtering software – and he’s right to ban some of them! Imagine what horror could await the eyes and minds of our innocent young if they were to access images like THESE: From a dental website. Obviously the man is smiling because…   This woman, who is a patient at the same dental clinic, obviously has a towel to her face because… Obviously this photo of a little girl brushing her teeth is highly… No wonder this Australian dentist is smiling; after all, all of his staff are also highly paid secret members of… I don’t know what the owners of this dog and cat boarding kennel in the northern part of Australia were thinking, but obviously something very animal is at the heart of it all This canteen lady surely knows how to use a spoon and fork – she allegedly offers her ‘canteen management’ services all over one particular Australian state, having several qualifications and taken various volunteer roles on the ????? Association of School Tuckshops. A likely story! This European restaurant clearly serves up more than just foreign food! “Restaurace se nachází v chebské m?stské ?ásti Háje, 1km od hrani?ního p?echodu Svatý K?íž. V naší restauraci vám nabízíme široký sortiment pokrm? z ?eské a minutkové kuchyn?.” Well, that’s what THEY say…!     And we all know that the mozilla application ‘seamonkey’ is actually a front for a gun-smuggling regime working out of a local convent…  Here’s the sort of page you might want to look for at that organisation that posts about leaks on their wiki: My Melbournian mate Jim Stewart of Stewart Media posted a video about the whole schmozzle… “Australia Blacklists Free Speech” You NEED to watch Jim’s video! Jim also points to http://www.siteblocker.org and a place to find out what you can expect once a Government filter goes live. I found the alleged list on a wiki that deals with leaked information – the sort of information that Governments sometimes prefer you not to know. If you search Google for an organisation (they usually have a domain name ending in .org) and something like, oh… say, wiki, or leaks, or some combination like that, you will probably find it. Mind you, the site might be down because the server has crashed under the weight of people accessing it… I found a surprisingly large number of the ‘naughty’ sites had actually disappeared, their domain names now the property of hosting companies who used them to run harmless link pages and Google ads. But the sites still remain in the ‘blocked’ list – it would appear that little attention is paid to making sure the list is current. You can also find a great background to the whole mind-numbingly dumb internet filter concept at Wikipedia – visit this page before ACMA ban it! I love this snippet from the Wikipedia page: The IWF blacklist will form part of the mandatory blacklist used in Australia, but it has caused disruption in the UK. In December 2008, hybrid filtering technology implemented by UK providers [60] caused disruption of Wikipedia operations in the UK when a Wikipedia page was added to the IWF watchlist. [61] When Wikipedia blocked UK vandals by their IP address, this block affected all users coming from these IP addresses. As these IP addresses belonged to the filter proxies, all Wikipedia users in the UK attempting to edit an article without a login name were blocked. Some proxies also collapsed under load generated by Wikipedia traffic. [62] After widespread coverage, IWF removed the Wikipedia page from its blacklist: "IWF’s overriding objective is to minimise the availability of indecent images of children on the internet, however, on this occasion our efforts have had the opposite effect … We regret the unintended consequences for Wikipedia and its users." [63] OOOPSIES!! But don’t worry, that would never happen here, would it?! Technorati Tags: conroy, jim stewart, stewartmedia, censorship, filter, internet, internet filter, wikipedia, acma, ban, pornography, block, dangerous, senator conroy, australia, cluelessness tag:odeo.com,2009-03-19,24329035 Thu, 19 Mar 2009 07:24:37 -0700 no Better communication results Politics, tools, ethics http://odeo.com/episodes/24326878-Norton%E2%80%99s-2009-Online-Family-report Symantec have today released their 2009 report into life online (you know, that thing we do between interruptions). Nearly seven in 10 online adults say that the Internet has improved their relationships.  And it’s no wonder: those who have friends online have an average of approximately 41 online friends, 49 percent have a social networking page, and 24 percent sometimes share secrets online.  In fact, the Internet has become such a central vehicle for communication and connection that about six in 10 online adults say they could not live without it (I’m one of them!) Indeed, 92% of Australians believe that the benefits of the Internet outweigh the risks. Key findings of this highly-readable and well-designed report include: Can technology buy you love?  7 out of 10 adults across the world say the internet has improved their relationships (but not in Australia, where nearly 60% say it has not improved it – Mrs BetterComms would agree with that) Do you know where your... Symantec have today released their 2009 report into life online (you know, that thing we do between interruptions). Nearly seven in 10 online adults say that the Internet has improved their relationships.  And it’s no wonder: those who have friends online have an average of approximately 41 online friends, 49 percent have a social networking page, and 24 percent sometimes share secrets online.  In fact, the Internet has become such a central vehicle for communication and connection that about six in 10 online adults say they could not live without it (I’m one of them!) Indeed, 92% of Australians believe that the benefits of the Internet outweigh the risks. Key findings of this highly-readable and well-designed report include: Can technology buy you love?  7 out of 10 adults across the world say the internet has improved their relationships (but not in Australia, where nearly 60% say it has not improved it – Mrs BetterComms would agree with that) Do you know where your kids are online? 6 out of 10 parents feel that kids spend too much time online and they only know the half of it – online is the new hangout for kids! In Australia, for example, over half the parents think their kids spend between 1-25 hours per week online, where the reality is a staggering 49 hours per week – and Aussie kids believe that they don’t spend enough time online! So you think you are secure? 99% of adults globally think they are secure online, yet 14% of adults in Australia have been hacked and 1 in 3 have lost valuable data Aligned with that are some equally interesting stats, such as half of online adults use webcams and social media, and nearly a quarter of the online population use Twitter or similar micro-blogging platforms. With Twitter’s online growth averaging 33% month-on-month I don’t think it will be long before that figure reaches 50%… Great quote: “My fiancé and I lived in the same neighbourhood for 10 years but never crossed paths until we ‘met’ online. It took an online dating site to bring us together.” - Female, 28, United Kingdom The kids are alright In what can only be described as a welcome snub to Senator Conroy’s nonsense about the Australian Federal Government needing to be the Nanny for our children’s online behaviour, the report highlights that parents themselves are very willing to accept responsibility for monitoring their children’s online activities, and enforcing family rules where necessary. 7 in 10 kids have rules for using the Internet; and parents and kids concur that they are following the rules 80% of the time 70% of parents are now talking to their kids about online safety (up 20% from last year) 90% of parents worldwide see that it’s their responsibility to keep their kids safe online “While technology may buy you love, only you can keep yourself and your family safe online,” said Janice Chaffin, group president of Symantec’s  Consumer Business Unit.  “The Internet has become a regular part of our daily lives and has created unprecedented opportunities to connect — from ‘Webcaming’ with grandma, to texting with classmates, to rekindling old flames.  These survey results are an especially important reminder for parents to know where their kids are — whether online or offline.” In a seeming disparity with the recent Nielsen-Online report [pdf, opens in new browser window] which showed that the internet has replaced tv as the most-consumed medium (and perhaps reflective of demographic differences between the two surveys and therefore not necessarily a contradiction), Norton found that the trusty old telly is still the number one ‘habit’ of teenagers (my own stepkids would probably rather watch me die than give up their Home and Away, Packed to the Rafters, etc.) Data backup More worrying is the number of adults who still do not back up data Yes, I’m as guilty as any of you on this, and yes, I have many tears to attest to it. I know back up constantly to two different sources. See my friend Sallie Goetsch for more info on backing up data. Anti-virus and net safety Globally, two out of ten netizens still don’t have security software installed and of those that do, two out of ten don’t run virus scans frequently. My stepkids are as guilty as my wife on this – no matter how many times I plead with them, they never bother even ‘auto-updating’ as it slows them down from doing what they came to the computer to do. Arghh!!! Since I installed Norton Internet Security 2009 over two months ago I have been stunned by how quickly it keeps everything tip top – I cannot recommend the software highly enough. Yes, I am VERY aware how bloated and resource-hogging Norton anti-virus software used to be. I was given a review copy of NIS09 by Norton, which comes with a one-user-only licence (the retail product gives you a three-user licence). It runs so quietly in the background of my not-so-fast-these-days desktop that I truly don’t know it’s there. I’m so impressed I’m going to buy the full retail version so that I can protect my notebook and my wife and Princess Buttercup’s laptops. Yes, spend my own money – I can’t give higher praise than that! There has also been the occasional meme running around that virii are actually concocted by security companies to keep them in business – I cannot comment on that, except to say it’s highly unlikely to be true. The blogosphere is far too good at ‘naming and shaming’ disreputable business practice these days. So if you think that anti-virus software is a bit of a waste of time, consider this: 711,912 new threats in 2007 compared to 125,243 in 2006 Web users can increasingly be infected simply by visiting everyday sites Identities (including yours) are being sold online these days – it’s big business and it pays to protect yours. Regional/country differences The report also breaks down some of the differences between regions/countries. Here’s the key findings for Australia: Among all the countries surveyed, Australia’s online parents are most likely to agree, "I always know what my children are looking at online (86%); however, only two-thirds (65%) of Australian kids agree with the statement, "my parents know what I am looking at when I am online." This is the largest gap in all countries. Confidence in the knowledge of what their child does online is highest in Australia (86%) Australian adults are most likely to believe that children spend too much time online (65% agreement compared to the UK, France, Japan, India) Along with India, adults in Australia are most likely to agree that the Internet has eased the learning process (89% India, 86% Australia) Though 90% of Australian youth agree that the Internet has made learning much easier for children today, 63% feel that email, instant messaging, text messaging and posting on social networking web sites or blogs make it harder for children today to learn to write well Online Australian adults are most likely to report the Internet is slow (34%) and one in three (72%) feel this slowness has to do with their Internet connection [what? that figure makes no sense – I am waiting on clarification from David Freer, Symantec’s VP Consumer, Asia Pacific and Japan on this statistic] Australians rank their cars at the top of their list of things that they can’t live without (50%), followed by Internet access (46%) and TV (45%) Australia ranked third in the list of countries in which online adults are most unaware of services like Twitter, which allow short but frequent contact between individuals (Sweden [30%], the U.K. [27%], Australia [25%]) Survey methodology The survey was conducted online in 12 countries (United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, China, Japan, India, Australia, and Brazil). Of those who took part, there were 6,427 adults 18 years old and older (including 1,297 parents of children ages 8-17) and 2,614 children aged 8-17 who spend one or more hours online each month. All of which means it’s fairly representative of online behaviour. David Freer of Symantec Interview with David Freer, Symantec VP Consumer, Asia Pacific & Japan I interviewed David about the report (but before I noticed the statistical anomaly noted above); here’s what he said. At Symantec, our vision is that people should be able to work and play freely in a connected world. We have commissioned the global Norton Online Living Report for the second year to monitor and provide insight into how people are living with technology. Specifically we examine the rapidly changing technology landscape, the Internet and its use and the social impact on individuals and families lives in order to continue to deliver on that vision. This year, in addition to examining trends around how we live with technology, we undertook segmentation analysis of the online population. We captured how families use communication technologies such as email, instant messaging and social networking sites, differently and how their use may impact their relationships with each other. Adult interest and knowledge of the Internet and online communication tools, as well as their satisfaction with their family relationships, were measured. We also found a unique segment we call the E-family with tight connections in both technology and relationship. This segment was prominent in emerging countries like China, India and Brazil roughly in 25 percent of the population versus 14 percent globally and 11 percent locally in Australia. These families usually consist of a strong family connection, and the use of available tools on the Internet such as instant messaging, social networking and other mediums to stay in touch. It was positive to see that 23 percent of Australian children are ‘friending’ their parents online (on social networking sites or IM for example) and 22 percent of kids are connecting with their grandparents online, which is above the global figure of 10 percent. Consumers in our survey also described scenarios where friends and families are either spread throughout the country and the Internet has allowed more regular contact with loved ones or it’s allowed them to reconnect with old friends or flames! But the bottom line is almost all of our 9000 adults and youth in 12 countries agreed the benefits of the Internet outweigh the risks! Regardless of the type of connection be it IM, text or twitter; who you are connecting with from co-workers, parents and kids to friends; from secrets to touchy subjects the internet has redefined how we connect and maintain our relationships. The E-family is a beacon of tight connections from tech to relationships. Kids are as active as ever making friends, using technologies to develop relationships but both parents and kids agree they are spending too much time online and potentially wasting time. There are positive signs between parents and kids online with more interaction, discussion about rules and “friending” of each other going on. Supervision and parental controls continue to be hard. And a security paradox remains that solved can help many work and play a little more freely online. If you are interested in reading Norton’s rather good report you can head to www.nortononlineliving.com. Technorati Tags: symantec, norton, virus, security, report, anti virus, david freer, nielson online Symantec have today released their 2009 report into life online (you know, that thing we do between interruptions). Nearly seven in 10 online adults say that the Internet has improved their relationships.  And it’s no wonder: those who have friends online have an average of approximately 41 online friends, 49 percent have a social networking page, and 24 percent sometimes share secrets online.  In fact, the Internet has become such a central vehicle for communication and connection that about six in 10 online adults say they could not live without it (I’m one of them!) Indeed, 92% of Australians believe that the benefits of the Internet outweigh the risks. Key findings of this highly-readable and well-designed report include: Can technology buy you love?  7 out of 10 adults across the world say the internet has improved their relationships (but not in Australia, where nearly 60% say it has not improved it – Mrs BetterComms would agree with that) Do you know where your kids are online? 6 out of 10 parents feel that kids spend too much time online and they only know the half of it – online is the new hangout for kids! In Australia, for example, over half the parents think their kids spend between 1-25 hours per week online, where the reality is a staggering 49 hours per week – and Aussie kids believe that they don’t spend enough time online! So you think you are secure? 99% of adults globally think they are secure online, yet 14% of adults in Australia have been hacked and 1 in 3 have lost valuable data Aligned with that are some equally interesting stats, such as half of online adults use webcams and social media, and nearly a quarter of the online population use Twitter or similar micro-blogging platforms. With Twitter’s online growth averaging 33% month-on-month I don’t think it will be long before that figure reaches 50%… Great quote: “My fiancé and I lived in the same neighbourhood for 10 years but never crossed paths until we ‘met’ online. It took an online dating site to bring us together.” - Female, 28, United Kingdom The kids are alright In what can only be described as a welcome snub to Senator Conroy’s nonsense about the Australian Federal Government needing to be the Nanny for our children’s online behaviour, the report highlights that parents themselves are very willing to accept responsibility for monitoring their children’s online activities, and enforcing family rules where necessary. 7 in 10 kids have rules for using the Internet; and parents and kids concur that they are following the rules 80% of the time 70% of parents are now talking to their kids about online safety (up 20% from last year) 90% of parents worldwide see that it’s their responsibility to keep their kids safe online “While technology may buy you love, only you can keep yourself and your family safe online,” said Janice Chaffin, group president of Symantec’s  Consumer Business Unit.  “The Internet has become a regular part of our daily lives and has created unprecedented opportunities to connect — from ‘Webcaming’ with grandma, to texting with classmates, to rekindling old flames.  These survey results are an especially important reminder for parents to know where their kids are — whether online or offline.” In a seeming disparity with the recent Nielsen-Online report [pdf, opens in new browser window] which showed that the internet has replaced tv as the most-consumed medium (and perhaps reflective of demographic differences between the two surveys and therefore not necessarily a contradiction), Norton found that the trusty old telly is still the number one ‘habit’ of teenagers (my own stepkids would probably rather watch me die than give up their Home and Away, Packed to the Rafters, etc.) Data backup More worrying is the number of adults who still do not back up data Yes, I’m as guilty as any of you on this, and yes, I have many tears to attest to it. I know back up constantly to two different sources. See my friend Sallie Goetsch for more info on backing up data. Anti-virus and net safety Globally, two out of ten netizens still don’t have security software installed and of those that do, two out of ten don’t run virus scans frequently. My stepkids are as guilty as my wife on this – no matter how many times I plead with them, they never bother even ‘auto-updating’ as it slows them down from doing what they came to the computer to do. Arghh!!! Since I installed Norton Internet Security 2009 over two months ago I have been stunned by how quickly it keeps everything tip top – I cannot recommend the software highly enough. Yes, I am VERY aware how bloated and resource-hogging Norton anti-virus software used to be. I was given a review copy of NIS09 by Norton, which comes with a one-user-only licence (the retail product gives you a three-user licence). It runs so quietly in the background of my not-so-fast-these-days desktop that I truly don’t know it’s there. I’m so impressed I’m going to buy the full retail version so that I can protect my notebook and my wife and Princess Buttercup’s laptops. Yes, spend my own money – I can’t give higher praise than that! There has also been the occasional meme running around that virii are actually concocted by security companies to keep them in business – I cannot comment on that, except to say it’s highly unlikely to be true. The blogosphere is far too good at ‘naming and shaming’ disreputable business practice these days. So if you think that anti-virus software is a bit of a waste of time, consider this: 711,912 new threats in 2007 compared to 125,243 in 2006 Web users can increasingly be infected simply by visiting everyday sites Identities (including yours) are being sold online these days – it’s big business and it pays to protect yours. Regional/country differences The report also breaks down some of the differences between regions/countries. Here’s the key findings for Australia: Among all the countries surveyed, Australia’s online parents are most likely to agree, "I always know what my children are looking at online (86%); however, only two-thirds (65%) of Australian kids agree with the statement, "my parents know what I am looking at when I am online." This is the largest gap in all countries. Confidence in the knowledge of what their child does online is highest in Australia (86%) Australian adults are most likely to believe that children spend too much time online (65% agreement compared to the UK, France, Japan, India) Along with India, adults in Australia are most likely to agree that the Internet has eased the learning process (89% India, 86% Australia) Though 90% of Australian youth agree that the Internet has made learning much easier for children today, 63% feel that email, instant messaging, text messaging and posting on social networking web sites or blogs make it harder for children today to learn to write well Online Australian adults are most likely to report the Internet is slow (34%) and one in three (72%) feel this slowness has to do with their Internet connection [what? that figure makes no sense – I am waiting on clarification from David Freer, Symantec’s VP Consumer, Asia Pacific and Japan on this statistic] Australians rank their cars at the top of their list of things that they can’t live without (50%), followed by Internet access (46%) and TV (45%) Australia ranked third in the list of countries in which online adults are most unaware of services like Twitter, which allow short but frequent contact between individuals (Sweden [30%], the U.K. [27%], Australia [25%]) Survey methodology The survey was conducted online in 12 countries (United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, China, Japan, India, Australia, and Brazil). Of those who took part, there were 6,427 adults 18 years old and older (including 1,297 parents of children ages 8-17) and 2,614 children aged 8-17 who spend one or more hours online each month. All of which means it’s fairly representative of online behaviour. David Freer of Symantec Interview with David Freer, Symantec VP Consumer, Asia Pacific & Japan I interviewed David about the report (but before I noticed the statistical anomaly noted above); here’s what he said. At Symantec, our vision is that people should be able to work and play freely in a connected world. We have commissioned the global Norton Online Living Report for the second year to monitor and provide insight into how people are living with technology. Specifically we examine the rapidly changing technology landscape, the Internet and its use and the social impact on individuals and families lives in order to continue to deliver on that vision. This year, in addition to examining trends around how we live with technology, we undertook segmentation analysis of the online population. We captured how families use communication technologies such as email, instant messaging and social networking sites, differently and how their use may impact their relationships with each other. Adult interest and knowledge of the Internet and online communication tools, as well as their satisfaction with their family relationships, were measured. We also found a unique segment we call the E-family with tight connections in both technology and relationship. This segment was prominent in emerging countries like China, India and Brazil roughly in 25 percent of the population versus 14 percent globally and 11 percent locally in Australia. These families usually consist of a strong family connection, and the use of available tools on the Internet such as instant messaging, social networking and other mediums to stay in touch. It was positive to see that 23 percent of Australian children are ‘friending’ their parents online (on social networking sites or IM for example) and 22 percent of kids are connecting with their grandparents online, which is above the global figure of 10 percent. Consumers in our survey also described scenarios where friends and families are either spread throughout the country and the Internet has allowed more regular contact with loved ones or it’s allowed them to reconnect with old friends or flames! But the bottom line is almost all of our 9000 adults and youth in 12 countries agreed the benefits of the Internet outweigh the risks! Regardless of the type of connection be it IM, text or twitter; who you are connecting with from co-workers, parents and kids to friends; from secrets to touchy subjects the internet has redefined how we connect and maintain our relationships. The E-family is a beacon of tight connections from tech to relationships. Kids are as active as ever making friends, using technologies to develop relationships but both parents and kids agree they are spending too much time online and potentially wasting time. There are positive signs between parents and kids online with more interaction, discussion about rules and “friending” of each other going on. Supervision and parental controls continue to be hard. And a security paradox remains that solved can help many work and play a little more freely online. If you are interested in reading Norton’s rather good report you can head to www.nortononlineliving.com. Technorati Tags: symantec, norton, virus, security, report, anti virus, david freer, nielson online tag:odeo.com,2009-03-18,24326878 Wed, 18 Mar 2009 22:42:36 -0700 no Better communication results interviews, Security, tools, report, virus, symantec, norton, anti virus, nielson online, david freer http://odeo.com/episodes/24317530-Why-design-undergrads-should-social-network As part of a series of guest lectures I’m giving to undergraduates at UniSA, here’s the slides from last night’s lecture on Social Networking. Apologies; there’s no audio but at least the slideshare presentation has the youtube videos we watched. 2009 - Electronic Publishing on the Internet Lecture 03 View more presentations from Lee Hopkins. Technorati Tags: slideshare, design, undergraduate, unisa, social networking, social media, business communication As part of a series of guest lectures I’m giving to undergraduates at UniSA, here’s the slides from last night’s lecture on Social Networking. Apologies; there’s no audio but at least the slideshare presentation has the youtube videos we watched. 2009 - Electronic Publishing on the Internet Lecture 03 View more presentations from Lee Hopkins. Technorati Tags: slideshare, design, undergraduate, unisa, social networking, social media, business communication As part of a series of guest lectures I’m giving to undergraduates at UniSA, here’s the slides from last night’s lecture on Social Networking. Apologies; there’s no audio but at least the slideshare presentation has the youtube videos we watched. 2009 - Electronic Publishing on the Internet Lecture 03 View more presentations from Lee Hopkins. Technorati Tags: slideshare, design, undergraduate, unisa, social networking, social media, business communication tag:odeo.com,2009-03-17,24317530 Tue, 17 Mar 2009 05:25:50 -0700 no Better communication results Design, Social networking, social media, public speaking, undergraduate, Slideshare, Business Communication, unisa http://odeo.com/episodes/24317531-2DMNZ-Keynote-Australia-and-Social-Media As part of the 2nd Digital Media Summit I recently attended in Auckland, New Zealand, I presented on the current state of social media in Australia. I included some of my own ‘journey’ as a reference for others who may be at the start of their own foray into social networking and self-publishing. 2009-2ndDigitalSummit-NZ View more presentations from Lee Hopkins. The slides are over on slideshare and you can download a pdf of the slide deck from there if you want. Further reflections on the two amazing days I spent in the land of the long white cloud will come shortly… A twitter stream of the event (#2dmnz) is available, but foolishly I forgot to bring up the stream until after lunch on the first day. DOH! Technorati Tags: #2dmnz, digital media, new zealand, nz, social media, social networking, australia, communication, business communication, lee hopkins As part of the 2nd Digital Media Summit I recently attended in Auckland, New Zealand, I presented on the current state of social media in Australia. I included some of my own ‘journey’ as a reference for others who may be at the start of their own foray into social networking and self-publishing. 2009-2ndDigitalSummit-NZ View more presentations from Lee Hopkins. The slides are over on slideshare and you can download a pdf of the slide deck from there if you want. Further reflections on the two amazing days I spent in the land of the long white cloud will come shortly… A twitter stream of the event (#2dmnz) is available, but foolishly I forgot to bring up the stream until after lunch on the first day. DOH! Technorati Tags: #2dmnz, digital media, new zealand, nz, social media, social networking, australia, communication, business communication, lee hopkins As part of the 2nd Digital Media Summit I recently attended in Auckland, New Zealand, I presented on the current state of social media in Australia. I included some of my own ‘journey’ as a reference for others who may be at the start of their own foray into social networking and self-publishing. 2009-2ndDigitalSummit-NZ View more presentations from Lee Hopkins. The slides are over on slideshare and you can download a pdf of the slide deck from there if you want. Further reflections on the two amazing days I spent in the land of the long white cloud will come shortly… A twitter stream of the event (#2dmnz) is available, but foolishly I forgot to bring up the stream until after lunch on the first day. DOH! Technorati Tags: #2dmnz, digital media, new zealand, nz, social media, social networking, australia, communication, business communication, lee hopkins tag:odeo.com,2009-03-17,24317531 Tue, 17 Mar 2009 05:12:16 -0700 no Better communication results Podcasting, communication, Social networking, Blogging, marketing, social media, new zealand, Australia, videoblog, PR, digital media, lee hopkins, public speaking, micro-blogging, nz, Business Communication, Second Life & 3D virtual worlds, #2dmnz http://odeo.com/episodes/24263743-Why-design-undergraduates-should-blog 2009 - Electronic Publishing on the Internet View more presentations from Lee Hopkins. (tags: socialnetworking socialnetworks) Here???s the slidedeck from my presentation on Tuesday 3rd March to some final year undergraduates at UniSA, all of whom are taking the ???Electronic Publishing on the Internet??? course. There???s also a sound file, but I???m having ???technical challenges??? with slideshare and libsyn playing together, so I haven???t been able to create a SlideCast yet. You can download the mp3 file [27.5mb] anyway if you want to attempt to guess which slide goes with which bit of the audio??? Stay tuned, because in a fortnight I???m running another session with these students, this time on Social Networking and some of the networks they may not have heard of but should be involved with. Then, in late May I???ll be back with them to talk about how to get their digital portfolio published. Yes, slidedecks of those two sessions will be forthcoming??? Technorati Tags: slidesh... 2009 - Electronic Publishing on the Internet View more presentations from Lee Hopkins. (tags: socialnetworking socialnetworks) Here???s the slidedeck from my presentation on Tuesday 3rd March to some final year undergraduates at UniSA, all of whom are taking the ???Electronic Publishing on the Internet??? course. There???s also a sound file, but I???m having ???technical challenges??? with slideshare and libsyn playing together, so I haven???t been able to create a SlideCast yet. You can download the mp3 file [27.5mb] anyway if you want to attempt to guess which slide goes with which bit of the audio??? Stay tuned, because in a fortnight I???m running another session with these students, this time on Social Networking and some of the networks they may not have heard of but should be involved with. Then, in late May I???ll be back with them to talk about how to get their digital portfolio published. Yes, slidedecks of those two sessions will be forthcoming??? Technorati Tags: slideshare, slidedeck, powerpoint, social networking, social media, undergraduate, presentation, libsyn, mp3 2009 - Electronic Publishing on the Internet View more presentations from Lee Hopkins. (tags: socialnetworking socialnetworks) Here???s the slidedeck from my presentation on Tuesday 3rd March to some final year undergraduates at UniSA, all of whom are taking the ???Electronic Publishing on the Internet??? course. There???s also a sound file, but I???m having ???technical challenges??? with slideshare and libsyn playing together, so I haven???t been able to create a SlideCast yet. You can download the mp3 file [27.5mb] anyway if you want to attempt to guess which slide goes with which bit of the audio??? Stay tuned, because in a fortnight I???m running another session with these students, this time on Social Networking and some of the networks they may not have heard of but should be involved with. Then, in late May I???ll be back with them to talk about how to get their digital portfolio published. Yes, slidedecks of those two sessions will be forthcoming??? Technorati Tags: slideshare, slidedeck, powerpoint, social networking, social media, undergraduate, presentation, libsyn, mp3 tag:odeo.com,2009-03-04,24263743 Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:18:00 -0800 no Better communication results mp3, Social networking, marketing, social media, PR, presentation, powerpoint, public speaking, undergraduate, Slideshare, slidedeck, libsyn http://odeo.com/episodes/24253085-Why-design-undergraduates-should-blog 2009 - Electronic Publishing on the Internet View more presentations from Lee Hopkins. (tags: socialnetworking socialnetworks) Here’s the slidedeck from my presentation on Tuesday 3rd March to some final year undergraduates at UniSA, all of whom are taking the ‘Electronic Publishing on the Internet’ course. There’s also a sound file, but I’m having ‘technical challenges’ with slideshare and libsyn playing together, so I haven’t been able to create a SlideCast yet. You can download the mp3 file [27.5mb] anyway if you want to attempt to guess which slide goes with which bit of the audio… Stay tuned, because in a fortnight I’m running another session with these students, this time on Social Networking and some of the networks they may not have heard of but should be involved with. Then, in late May I’ll be back with them to talk about how to get their digital portfolio published. Yes, slidedecks of those two sessions will be forthcoming… Technorati Tags: slideshare, slidedeck, powerpoi... 2009 - Electronic Publishing on the Internet View more presentations from Lee Hopkins. (tags: socialnetworking socialnetworks) Here’s the slidedeck from my presentation on Tuesday 3rd March to some final year undergraduates at UniSA, all of whom are taking the ‘Electronic Publishing on the Internet’ course. There’s also a sound file, but I’m having ‘technical challenges’ with slideshare and libsyn playing together, so I haven’t been able to create a SlideCast yet. You can download the mp3 file [27.5mb] anyway if you want to attempt to guess which slide goes with which bit of the audio… Stay tuned, because in a fortnight I’m running another session with these students, this time on Social Networking and some of the networks they may not have heard of but should be involved with. Then, in late May I’ll be back with them to talk about how to get their digital portfolio published. Yes, slidedecks of those two sessions will be forthcoming… Technorati Tags: slideshare, slidedeck, powerpoint, social networking, social media, undergraduate, presentation, libsyn, mp3 2009 - Electronic Publishing on the Internet View more presentations from Lee Hopkins. (tags: socialnetworking socialnetworks) Here’s the slidedeck from my presentation on Tuesday 3rd March to some final year undergraduates at UniSA, all of whom are taking the ‘Electronic Publishing on the Internet’ course. There’s also a sound file, but I’m having ‘technical challenges’ with slideshare and libsyn playing together, so I haven’t been able to create a SlideCast yet. You can download the mp3 file [27.5mb] anyway if you want to attempt to guess which slide goes with which bit of the audio… Stay tuned, because in a fortnight I’m running another session with these students, this time on Social Networking and some of the networks they may not have heard of but should be involved with. Then, in late May I’ll be back with them to talk about how to get their digital portfolio published. Yes, slidedecks of those two sessions will be forthcoming… Technorati Tags: slideshare, slidedeck, powerpoint, social networking, social media, undergraduate, presentation, libsyn, mp3 tag:odeo.com,2009-03-04,24253085 Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:18:00 -0800 no Better communication results mp3, Social networking, marketing, social media, PR, presentation, powerpoint, public speaking, undergraduate, Slideshare, slidedeck, libsyn