The many conversations in recent weeks about blog censorship in China won’t lead to any meaningful conclusions, I reckon. While the first amendment rights to free speech that many bloggers passionately post about is a US concept (and hardly likely to make inroads in China any time soon), it is something I also strongly believe […]
Category: Business
Dell isn’t listening
If you’ve been following Jeff Jarvis’ interesting experiences in his dealings with Dell, the PC maker, in trying to get his laptop repaired, Christopher Carfi has a great commentary in his latest podcast that extends this story, looking at what Dell’s done with their US customer support forums. It seems to me that Dell has […]
GM’s advice to would-be corporate bloggers
To any senior executive on the fence about starting a corporate blog, Bob Lutz, the Vice Chairman of General Motors, has one word of advice: Jump. Writing in Information Week, Lutz says a blog provides no better opportunity to engage in an open dialogue and exchange of ideas with customers and potential customers, illustrating his […]
Now a potential PR issue for Land Rover
It looks like Adrian Melrose’s sorry tale of his experiences with his Land Rover Discovery just took a turn for the worse. From a post this morning on Adrian’s blog: […] So after months of campaigning for Land Rover to take me seriously about the defects in my first Discovery 3 and to agree to […]
The multi-billion dollar Harry Potter phenomenon
Visiting the news shop in my local neighbourhood this lunchtime, I noticed the new Harry Potter book on display in the window. Heh! ‘Noticed’ isn’t the word – this display took up the whole window area. Other displays inside the shop as well with copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Princeeverywhere you looked. Today […]
Mobile phone growth key driver for videocasting
Mobile phone sales will exceed one billion handsets a year by 2009 as they become the most common consumer electronics device with 2.6 billion people worldwide using one by then, according to a survey by IT industry analysts Gartner published yesterday, says a Reuters report. Many of these devices will be smartphones with big colour […]
Blog campaign backs Land Rover into a corner
Adrian Melrose’s The Truth About the Land Rover Discovery 3 campaign has shifted up a gear – and Land Rover still don’t appear to be paying attention. This is to do with a very unhappy Land Rover customer and how he’s using his blog as part of his attempts to get satisfaction to his grievances […]
Senior executive bloggers make the case for blogging
One of the most well-researched and -written feature articles I’ve seen in mainstream media about executive blogging is published in the 25 July issue of US News & World Report. Entitled Blogging Bosses, the 5-page feature on the website studies senior executives in US organizations with analysis and discussion on why they blog, the effects […]
Blogging a business closure
BL Ochman writes about her client and friend, Paul Purdue, founder of iFulfill.com, who is in the midst of every entrepreneur’s nightmare – he’s going out of business, and he’s using his blog to chronicle what he calls "the demise." This is a brave thing to do. Having read Paul’s announcement on Tuesday, I admire […]
Newsworthy 30-7-05
> Is Skype up for sale? Is Google the likely buyer? Or Rupert Murdoch, who almost bought it last week for $3 billion? Growing speculation and some rumours in the past few days. Robert Scoble links to a few discussions. Stuart Henshall in Skype Journal links to a few more. Meanwhile, Skype continues looking after […]
Reputation at risk from third parties
A story in the Motoring section in Saturday’s Daily Telegraph highlights how simple things that go wrong can become the big things in a customer’s mind that marrs an overall positive impression of an organization and its brands. The story is about writer Patsy Weaver’s mixed experience on a visit to the Mercedes-Benz factory in […]
The judgment of Michael Jackson
BBC News: Michael Jackson’s latest greatest hits album has sold just 8,000 copies in the US in its first week of release, reaching number 128 in the chart. The Essential Michael Jackson is the star’s first release since he was cleared of child abuse a month ago. […] Jackson faces a struggle to repair his […]
More disruption from Skype
Now this looks compelling – a Skype phone that you use to make and receive phone calls on a wireless network without needing a computer. Jaanus at Share Skype has been playing with a prototype: […[ It looks and feels much like a recent mobile phone and the basic controls for using the interface are […]
Oracle’s content management moves
As the blogosphere continues to grow and companies consider the large-scale business benefits of blogs as integrated elements of enterprise collaborative-working tools, how significant, I wonder, is this news of Oracle’s acquisition of a small company called Context Media, reported by CNET News: […] The purchase gives Oracle software designed specifically for moving documents between […]
Podcasting the way it was meant to be?
I guess we’ll find out on Friday.
Smart companies stimulate disruptive thinking
How do large companies continue to innovate and respond rapidly to new opportunities as if they were start-ups, asks the Financial Times? By developing a corporate culture in which innovative opportunities are spotted, nurtured and championed in an entrepreneurial manner, the paper says. In short, a culture that is "intrapreneurial". In a lengthy feature, the […]
Blogs part of new media monitoring service
Factiva is looking to cash in on companies wanting to monitor what bloggers are saying about them, with a new service that searches blogs and message boards. Revolution magazine reports that the company has built the facility into its Factiva Insight: Reputation Intelligence service, which monitors mainstream media. As the result of a partnership with […]
Newsworthy to start the day 9-8-05
> The driving force behind the spectacular market debut of shares in the Chinese search engine company Baidu.com on Friday was its resemblance and ties to Google, whose own offering created a sensation last year, analysts said over the weekend. Shares in Baidu soared Friday on the Nasdaq stock market in one of the most […]
Pay-for podcasts look likely
iLounge: Piper Jaffray senior analyst Gene Munster expects revenue from Apple’s 20 iTunes Music Stores to account for 5 percent of the company’s revenue in 2006. "Assuming 133 million iTunes downloads in the June quarter and applying that across the reported 6.2 million iPod shipments, Apple is averaging 6.1 iTunes downloads per iPod (based on […]
A great conversation-starter
I’ve just ordered another batch of business cards featuring one of Hugh McLeod‘s satirical cartoons from gapingvoid. I’ve quickly gone through over 100 of these cards since my first order earlier this year. In my experience, they are a terrific conversation-starter. I’ve yet to encounter some one who doesn’t ask about the cartoon when I […]