beyondthemba

Podcasting Goes "Mainstream"

Link: The Cult of Mac Blog. - Podcasting

A great article on the "mainstreaming" of Podcasting. Seems that Volvo has just struck a deal to host a podcast and more will follow. The "unwired" "timeshifting" audience will be addressed through Podcasting. More to follow....

Blogging and Corporate America

A lot of articles have been written recently about blogging and your Internet presence. I think that all professionals need to look at this and continue to evaluate how information about you, on the Internet, will be used.

The Austin American Statesman discusses this issue in their recent article, "Blogs can get you hired or fired". In this article they show examples of employees who have been fired for the blogs they keep and also some who have been hired and promoted due to the blogs. Either way there is one thing that is clear: if you maintain a presence on the Internet you should assume your employer or prospective employer will know it and read it.

This is not a bad thing. I have long thought about social networking on the Internet through areas such as blogging and networking sites such as Linked in and Plaxo. Both offer you a place to maintain a very visual presence on the Internet. The key is that you must understand that everything you do is a candidate to be front page newspaper reading. So, here are some tips:

1. Never divulge confidential information about your company on the Internet. With or without blogs, this is bad form and could be illegal.
2. I would suggest you save your corporate complaining for other forums. "Going public" is not only foolish but detrimental to your career. It is also, quite frankly, immature. If you have issues with your employer, deal with them one on one.
3. Use a blog to express your interest in a topic and to generate robust dialogue about key topics. Try to avoid a fight on the Internet. It is not worth it and generally is not good form. Debate topics (whether from hobbies, work, political etc.) but do not "go negative" if you can help it. If you are running the blog, you may want to moderate comments so you can just avoid fights with people who are trying to pick them.
4. Do not blog on company time unless your company has policies permitting it and encouraging it. Remember, you are at work to do work and add value to the company, not to self promote.
5. Do not "whistle blog". If you have issues about discrimination or other illegal activity at work, go through proper channels to get those resolved.

Following these guidelines, I think that blogging not only is a good activity but it shows you are at the forefront of technology and social networking.

Safe blogging!

Open Source Radio - KYOURadio.com

Technology continues to search for more and more freedom enabling the individual to take more and more control of the environment. Today I learned of "Open Source" radio. This is the next evolution of Podcasting.

Basically, you can create your own radio show via PODCAST then upload it to KYOUradio.com. Here they will evaluate it and ensure it meets FCC requirements. If they approve it, they will publish the PODCAST as a "show" on the open source radio.

This is a fantastic idea. Think about how MOSAIC and APACHE were built with open source coding. It opened up a whole new world of innovation. Lets see if open source radio does the same thing.

Los Alamos Director Resigns - Due to a Blog?

From the New York Times comes news (Reg, required) that Los Alamos director Dr. Peter Nanos has resigned. He was under intense pressure from the employees at Los Alamos.

The interesting part of this is that a community of employees got together and interacted via a blog called "Lanl The Real Story". They talked a lot about the issues at this laboratory and they openly had called for his resignation. In one entry after his resignation, it was posted, " Step One has been accomplished".

Is this the start of employees using blogs to influence the governance structure of their company? I understand this is somewhat unique in that it is a governmental agency, run by  a university and virtually all the employees are PhDs and researchers, but this is where trends tend to come from.

If blogging occurred in the early '90s could the employees of Enron and Worldcom affected the company earlier and prevented it from disaster?

Relationship Marketing Through Blogs

Over at WON news, Wayne Hilbert writes about Blogs as a way to maintain the relationship and communication with your customer. This is a very interesting topic. Will customers want to "interact" with companies via the web blog? Here are some questions which still need answering:

1. Will customers want to interact with you using this electronic medium? I think the answer is absolutely yes but it will take time as the "digital" generation enters the workforce. There is a convergence which will occur and, overtime, digital interactions (Blog, web, SIMS) will outperform other methods. It will become the preferred method.
   
   Why? Because it allows you, the user/customer, to "time shift" your interaction. This is the Tito Generation after all!
2. How will companies control this? Today, there are very tight controls on the web site and everything is "approved" before the customer sees it. This has the benefit of ensuring the brand is not tarnished by "wildcat" loggers but it also has the problem of making the communication far too slow. The normal "give and take" of human interaction will answer this question. When?
3. Will the communication add value? By adding value, I mean translate into an economic benefit for both you and your customer? Or, will the blog become a "graffiti board" for adults?

I am sure there are a lot more questions to be answered. These are just a start.

Hat tip: Jim Berkowitz

Business Blogging is Becoming Mainstream

Once Business Week starts doing it, everyone will get into the act. Blogging is now going mainstream with BW's blog. Is it just me or was it more fun when only a handful knew what a Blog was?

RSS Feeds May Be The True Innovation

The issue with the internet since its founding is the that the idea of "surfing", while interesting and fun for your 15 year old, is a productivity hog at work. Along comes RSS feeds.

For those who do not know (If you are reading this, you must know) a RSS feed is basically a XML publication of your website, blog or other internet presence. You "publish" the RSS feed and readers "subscribe" to it and bring it into an aggregator like Bloglines or Newsgator. 

Globelogger has an entire site dedicated to this phenomenon and discusses how RSS feeds will make the CEO more efficient and it will make the push of Corporate Information more efficient. Brian Carroll discusses how to push sales leads out from Salesforce.com to the sales force. Why have them hunt and peck for leads when they can get a published feed sent to them as it is updated?

There is a big future in blogging and at least as big of a future in RSS feeds (especially when it becomes fully integrated into major collaboration software tools). Your homework: Think of the following collaboration streams and how this technology can apply:

• Customer -  Supplier
• Corporate - Associate
• Associate - Associate

Blogging at Work

Fast Company has a discussion thread going concerning blogging at work and the ability for a company to "censor" your blog. This comes off of high profile cases concerning a blogger at Google who was fired and one at technorati who was asked to stop.

My opinion is that if you associate yourself, either in your profile or in your writings, with your company then you are tacitly speaking for the company (despite the disclaimers). Once you do that you invite their participation and should not be surprised that they do participate. 

This is no different, by the way, with open speech as well. If I were to write a letter to the editor to my local newspaper and started saying all the things that are wrong at my company I am sure they would have something to say about it. Rightfully so.

Having said that, I do believe that most companies are woefully ignorant concerning the power of blogging and how to use it and therefore do not have good policies around it. They are "making it up as they go along" like corporations have done with most technologies.  They need to get in front of this one.

Blogs Will Change Your Business

Link: Blogs Will Change Your Business.

Blogging truly will change your business. I wrote about the three streams of blogging back in December.

• Company to employee
• Company and employee to customer/supplier
• Employee to employee

On December 31st, I wrote about this use of blogging and like most Internet applications, the business use of blogging will grow.

Change or get left behind.