Students: Help Me Help You
Students: Help Me Help You
As many of you know, I make it a personal policy to always make time for students. I call it the "Dimebag Darrell Rule", in honor of the late Pantera/Damageplan guitarist whose Rule-Number-One was (I'm paraphrasing) "Make time for the folks who came to see you, no matter how tired you are at the end of the show."
(Well... He also recommended taking acid for long bus trips, but we won't take it that far...)
Anyway, this all means that I'll happily volunteer to help if your assignment or project requires you to interview a PR professional, survey him/her, ask him/her to fill out a questionnaire, etc.
As the end of the school year nears, the number of these requests predictably increases. Well and good — it's to be expected. However, an increasing number of these... Read more...
Phil's Blogservations, Today, 1:11pm
Top Blogger Pay Controversy - Pat Phelan
I'm a big fan of Pat Phelan, one of Ireland's top entrepenuers and also one of Ireland's top read bloggers. Pat just set a cat among the pigeons in one of his latest posts: Flixwagon pay bloggers, non disclosure from bloggers or Flixwagon Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Yesterday, 7:20pm
FishWrap: The First Rule of PR . . . Kevin Maney's Briefs . . . Fortune's Brainstorm
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Yesterday, 2:45pm
Friday News Watch: Intel Turns 40 . . .
News Links for Silicon Valley and beyond... Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Yesterday, 1:11pm
Instructor's Notebook: "Collaboration" Or "Cheating?"
Instructor's Notebook: "Collaboration" Or "Cheating?"
A scientist-turned-business-leader acquaintance of mine once said, "In the workplace, they call it 'collaboration'. In academia, they call it 'cheating'." Preferring an environment where the free exchange of thoughts and ideas was actually encouraged, this scientist went into industry and hasn't looked back.
So I wonder what I'm to make of the case of Chris Avenir. To oversimplify, Ryerson University has told him:
Study group wherein it's entirely possible that solutions for chemistry and math problems are freely swapped: Perfectly okay.
Study group on Facebook, where it is demonstrably clear that no solution was traded, only helpful tips (as in any IRL study group):... Read more...
Phil's Blogservations, Yesterday, 1:12am
The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #363: July 17, 2008
The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #363: July 17, 2008 Read more...
a shel of my former self, Yesterday, 12:14am
GOOG Continues to Out Compete its Partner Sites
Google [GOOG] second quarter financial report disappointed Wall Street causing its shares to fall in after-hours trading. It also disappointed its partner sites that run Google advertising. Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jul 17, 9:36pm
Lunch with Applied Materials: Looking to the Sun for New Business
Semicon West, the massive chip manufacturing show is in town this week. Applied Materials [AMAT], the world's largest chip equipment company, has chosen this week to highlight its solar electronics. It is using its chip manufacturing expertise to build very large solar electric panels. Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jul 17, 8:33pm
Sam Whitmore at Night: Media Struggling with Media Formats . . . and Leaving the Blogging Life
I'm a huge fan of Sam Whitmore and his Media Survey. Sam watches the media and spots all the early trends. I ran into Sam outside the Rockit Room Wednesday evening and just happened to have my video camera with me. Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jul 17, 7:51pm
Thursday Afternoon News Watch: AMD CEO Resigns, GOOG Dissapoints, MSFT's Big Expenses, IBM Beats Forecasts
Advanced Micro Chief Steps Down After Another Loss Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jul 17, 7:41pm
Join Bryan Person and me for dinner on Monday, 7-21
Geek dinner set for Town Hall in San Francisco Read more...
a shel of my former self, Jul 17, 1:12pm
Thursday Watch: Most Online Communities Fail . . .
News Links for Silicon Valley and beyond... Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jul 17, 3:26am
Thinning The Herd
Thinning The Herd
Mine may not mean much to some of you, but I do have plenty of friends.
Technorati Tags:
blogstorms, web2, sheep Read more...
Phil's Blogservations, Jul 16, 1:11am
Anderson Defends Investing in the Long Tail
Harvard Business Review published a feature article by Anita Elberse: Should You Invest in the Long Tail?. Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jul 15, 9:31pm
Instructor's Notebook: PROpenMic Launches
Instructor's Notebook: PROpenMic Launches
From over at the Edelman Digital blog:
Bravo to Robert French, who launched PROpenMic — a Ning-based network for students and educators.
In just a few days, well over 130 members have signed up. It will be exciting to see this grow over time.
Read the rest in the complete entry.
Technorati Tags:
education, Read more...
Phil's Blogservations, Jul 15, 1:12pm
Been Busy... Sorry...
Been Busy... Sorry...
Let's see... Where was I?
Well... There was the awesome Digital Bootcamp at UGA, where I got to meet Robert French and Kaye Sweetser (and even Edel-colleague Steve Field) for the first time, among many others.
Five days later, we held three-hour seminar with Edelman's management on Wednesday. (I wrote up some parts of it on Edelman Digital's blog, Authenticities.) Was great to meet Terry Heaton and Korey Coleman (they were on a panel w/ Dr. Kaye and Edelman's Tiffany Fessler), having followed them online for a... Read more...
Phil's Blogservations, Jul 15, 1:12pm
Instructor's Notebook: Redefining "History"
Instructor's Notebook: Redefining "History"
From the Edelman Digital blog:
In my opinion, the invention of the integrated circuit is at least as groundbreaking as that of the radio or telegraph. However, I suspect that these names are passed up in communications history course because they are what many would call "technology history" not "communications history".
More at the Edelman Digital blog, and in the PROpenMic Forums. (Members only.)
Technorati Tags:
pr, Read more...
Phil's Blogservations, Jul 15, 1:12pm
PROpenMic's "Ask Phil" Group Hits 100 Members
PROpenMic's "Ask Phil" Group Reaches 100 Members
Many thanks to the students, faculty, and practitioners who have made this experiment such a rewarding experience for me.
Of course, a special thanks to Robert French for taking the initiative to get this all started.
Technorati Tags:
propenmic, pr,... Read more...
Phil's Blogservations, Jul 15, 1:12pm
Tuesday News Watch: YHOO, MSFT and Icahn Continue Spatting . . . [Don't they have any businesses to run?]
News Links for Silicon Valley and beyond... Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jul 15, 4:44am
Intel Centrino 2.0 : Social Networking = 25 % of Internet -[ We're not in Kanasas Anymore . . .]
[Intel is a sponsor of SVW] Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jul 15, 4:34am
Gone Fishin'
Gone Fishin'
No Internet. No cellphones. Smoke signals don't even make it to the altitude I'll be at.
See you July 21. Read more...
Phil's Blogservations, Jul 15, 1:11am
FIR Cut: HR and Corporate Social Networking
FIR Cut: HR and Corporate Social Networking Read more...
a shel of my former self, Jul 15, 1:11am
The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #362: July 14, 2008
The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #362: July 14, 2008 Read more...
a shel of my former self, Jul 15, 1:11am
BoomTown Says TechCrunch Likely Next to be Acquired
Kara Swisher got a great scoop last week with Guardian Media's $30m acquisition of PaidContent and now says that TechCrunch has been in talks with Time Warner's AOL. Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jul 14, 4:00am
Monday News Watch: Female CEOs in Silicon Valley Down to Zero
News Links for Silicon Valley and beyond... Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jul 14, 3:08am
Priorities
Priorities
For more than just the very minor paternal reasons, I can tell you that it was a great NewComm Forum this year. (I'm a founding fellow of the nonprofit that puts on the forum, SNCR, though I only have a very small role in the conference itself.) This year's Forum was light-years ahead of the conference-sprawl that was 2007's event in Las Vegas. Smaller group, far greater impact, passion, and thoughtfulness.
For me, it started on Tuesday with a great group of folks who attended my Tuesday workshop. Then I got to see the folks that Read more...
Phil's Blogservations, Jul 14, 1:11am
Don’t leave this voice mail
There will always be people who do this, won’t there? Read more...
a shel of my former self, Jul 14, 1:11am
Leaving Edelman
Leaving Edelman
After two-and-a-half years at Edelman, I've decided to pursue other opportunities.
In a couple of weeks, I will be joining Korey, Carlyle, Cyrus, Leon, and Co-Host 3000 at Spill.Com — a movie review community site based on the animation work of Korey Coleman. Read more...
Phil's Blogservations, Jul 12, 1:11pm
George Wright Of WillItBlend.Com Answers PROpenMic's Questions
George Wright Of WillItBlend.Com Answers PROpenMic's Questions
I offered the PROpenMic membership an exclusive opportunity to get questions in front of George Wright, the man behind BlendTec's successful "Will It Blend?" videos.
The following was recorded (and edited in under an hour... buya!) at John Gerstner's "Executing Social Media" conference in Pasadena this week. Read more...
Phil's Blogservations, Jul 12, 1:11pm
Re-Exploring "The Uses Of Argument"
Re-Exploring "The Uses Of Argument"
(NB: This has been cross-posted to Authenticities, the Edelman Digital blog.)
As many who know me have heard by now, I harbor a somewhat strong dislike for marketing books. This aversion started around 1995, when I was first exposed to the genre, and has only softened occasionally since. (The most recent concession: Matt Mason's excellent The Pirate's Dilemma, after enjoying a speech by the author at a client event.)
That's not to say that I somehow believe such works don't have value. It's just that I prefer to obtain inspiration from other corners. Often, I hope that I can move forward by going back, "fishing where the fishermen ain't" as I've Read more...
Phil's Blogservations, Jul 12, 1:11pm
FIR Interview - Peter Shankman of Help A Reporter Out
FIR Interview - Peter Shankman of Help A Reporter Out Read more...
a shel of my former self, Jul 11, 10:19pm
FishWrap: First time ever on stage: Kara versus Walt . . . and tales of Euro Domination
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jul 11, 4:13pm
Friday News Watch 2: UK Guardian Buys PaidContent for $30m ... More Euro Buys Ahead?
The UK newspaper group Guardian Media paid $30 million for PaidContent, a media company founded by Rafat Ali and which publishes a popular newsletter and web site covering the media industry. Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jul 11, 2:43pm
You Fell For The MacWorld Keynote Wikipedia "Leak"
You Fell For The MacWorld Keynote Wikipedia "Leak"
The bottom of the talk page is high entertainment.
Technorati Tags:
steve jobs, macworld, Read more...
Phil's Blogservations, Jul 11, 1:12pm
Friday News Watch: Die! iPhone Mania! Die! Die! Die! . . .
A tidal wave of iPhone stories Thursday swept away many other news stories. I hope the iPhone mania will die very soon but it probably won't. Here is some of the iPhone coverage plus a few stories not about the iPhone. Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jul 11, 1:11am
The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #361: July 10, 2008
The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #361: July 10, 2008 Read more...
a shel of my former self, Jul 10, 9:25pm
Thursday Watch: Fake Steve Jobs Gives Up . . . the Real Steve Jobs Keeps on Going
Dan Lyons, the former Forbes writer and soon-to-be Newsweek writer, announced Wednesday in a rambling post that he's shutting down the tech industry phenomenon known as The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs. After it launched in 2006, the blog quickly became a must-read for anyone intrigued by Apple, its mercurial founder, and Silicon Valley in general.
Fake Steve Jobs calling it a day
The ‘Fake’ Steve Jobs Is Giving Up Parody Blog
NYT:
Yahoo Is Inviting Partners to Build on Its Search Power Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jul 10, 5:36am
Intel CMO on the "Fog" of Online Marketing
On a recent visit to Intel as part of the Intel Insider group, Sean Maloney, Intel's CMO, talked about online marketing. Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jul 9, 10:01pm
FIR Interview: Al Comeaux, Sr. VP, Corporate Communications, Sabre Holdings
FIR Interview: Al Comeaux, Sr. VP, Corporate Communications, Sabre Holdings Read more...
a shel of my former self, Jul 9, 1:11pm
Wednesday Watch: Patching a HUGE Security Flaw at the Heart of the Internet ... and other news links for Silicon Valley and Beyond
I'm amazed that his story has been so lightly covered. Security researchers have uncovered a huge security problem to do with the core name servers that direct ALL Internet traffic including emails! Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jul 9, 3:46am
Chief Marketing Officer - Toughest Job Around . . .
Chief Marketing Officer or VP of Marketing/Communications has to be one of the toughest jobs around these days. Why? Because of the massive fragmentation going on in media and communications. Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jul 8, 11:49pm
Should Southwest blog its response to its latest controversy?
The airline set the stage when it blogged the Kyla Ebbert story. Does that create an obligation to blog all such incidents? Read more...
a shel of my former self, Jul 8, 9:50pm
FIR Interview: Robert Cox, president, Media Bloggers Association
FIR Interview: Robert Cox, president, Media Bloggers Association Read more...
a shel of my former self, Jul 8, 8:26pm
The Vanishing "Hero Inventor"
The Vanishing "Hero Inventor"
It's always fascinated me that people know the names Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, but give blank stares at mention of Robert Noyce and Jack Kilby. The two men invented the integrated circuit "separately together" — Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductor, Kilby at Texas Instruments — and are pretty much responsible for damn near everything you currently enjoy that has an antenna or wire coming out of it.
It's a shame that we don't lionize inventors the way we used to decades ago. However, if pressed, I'll admit that interest in Dean Kamen's work comes... Read more...
Phil's Blogservations, Jul 8, 1:11pm
Tuesday Watch: News Links for Silicon Valley and Beyond . . .
Silicon Valley and beyond . . . Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jul 8, 4:21am
Tim Ferriss: Technology is a Great Slave but a Terrible Master
We have more productivity applications than we can shake a stick at, but do we have the right attitude and aptitude to use them well? I struggle with this all the time and I know most people in Silicon Valley do the same. Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jul 7, 1:12pm
What Price The Prank? Time Will Tell...
What Price The Prank? Time Will Tell...
Brian... Hey, man... You're a good dude... I remember when we used to correspond back when I was helping to (re)launch startups in Silicon Valley and you were an assistant editor at Wired. I even remember running into you at the airport on the way to CES in 2004. You had taken particular notice of my somewhat clunky iRiver iGP-100 MP3 player, the one that looked kind of like a blue-and-silver hunk of mountaineering gear with an LCD screen. Sorry we lost touch.
Nice guy. Thoughtful. Always probing questions. Genuine interest in the subject matter.
But... Sweet Buddha on a big buttered biscuit, do you have any idea what the potential liability is here?
I hope no... Read more...
Phil's Blogservations, Jul 7, 1:11pm
The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #360: July 7, 2008
The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #360: July 7, 2008 Read more...
a shel of my former self, Jul 7, 1:11pm
Monday Watch: Silicon Valley news links . . .
News links for Silicon Valley and beyond . . . Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jul 7, 3:50am