Show notes for March 3, 2005 Welcome to For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report, a 33-minute conversation recorded live from a hotel room in Chicago, IL with recorded input from Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Download the file here (MP3, 13.3MB), or sign up for the RSS feed to get it and future shows automatically. […]
Category: Communication
BBC call for ‘citizen journalism’
If TV broadcast networks hope to have a future, they must decentralize and "democratize" their most jealously-guarded public service – placing news production literally in the hands of consumers. So says Pat Loughrey, BBC Director of Nations and Regions, quoted by InternetWeek in speaking on Wednesday at the DVB World 2005 conference in Dublin: [This] […]
There is no template for executive blogs
A story in the Financial Times earlier this week (title: “Why executives should steer clear of the blogosphere” – paid sub needed to read it) took a critical look at a few blogs by senior company executives, and mentioned a senior HP exec with a blog that I hadn’t seen before. The FT commented (some […]
IBM has 2,800 internal blogs
Like many companies, especially in the tech industry, IBM is no stranger to public blogs with more than 20 employees listed at the developer blogs’ portal. What I doubt is known at all is how deeply IBM has embraced blogging within the organization. According to Philippe Borremans, PR Manager at IBM Belgium & Luxembourg, writing […]
New domain address for NevOn
From today, this blog has a new address: http://www.nevon.net/ This reflects domain mapping I’ve implemented at TypePad. The underlying TypePad address is still there and will continue to work. Links to existing posts, the RSS feed, etc, all will continue to work. So you need do nothing if you prefer not to. One consequence of […]
BBC News editor starts some conversations, but it isn’t blogging
Peter Clifton, editor of the BBC News website, has started writing commentaries that “looks back at the week in the newsroom – and tackles some of your questions.” I’ve seen a couple of blog posts about this, which talk about it as blogging. Well, by any stretch of the imagination, blogging it certainly isn’t. This […]
The globalization of English
Newsweek has an excellent feature article in the 7 March issue (this week) of its international edition on how the English language is evolving and changing the way we communicate. The article says "non-native English-speakers" worldwide now outnumber native ones 3 to 1. In Asia alone, Newsweek says, the number of English users has topped […]
The Hobson and Holtz Report – Podcast #13: March 7, 2005
Content summary: A discussion about IBM’s 2,800 internal blogs – how do they enable collaboration in the workplace?; and a 38-minute conversation with Robert Scoble, Microsoft’s "geek blogger" – on evangelism, anti-marketing, blogging, RSS and reading feeds, email mailing lists, relationships with colleagues, internal blogs at Microsoft, The Red Couch book project, a blogging ombudsman, […]
An open conversation with Robert Scoble, Microsoft geek blogger
Yesterday, Shel and I interviewed Robert Scoble, the Scobleizer, in our bi-weekly podcast show, For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report. In a 38-minute conversation, we discussed a wide range of topics, including evangelism, anti-marketing, blogging, RSS and reading feeds, email mailing lists, relationships with colleagues, internal blogs at Microsoft, The Red Couch book […]
IABC Chair blog can succeed
Fellow IABC member and blogger Allan Jenkins posted a scathing commentary about IABC and Chairman David Kistle yesterday (and has attracted a bit of flack in the comments to his post as a result). What especially caught my attention in Allan’s post was his comments regarding the IABC Chair blog. Allan writes: […] While an […]
Two surveys about RSS
RSS services company Nooked is sponsoring two surveys about RSS. The first, for analysts, journalists and bloggers, aims to learn more about how these groups of influencers use RSS. The second, for public relations and marketing communicators, aims to determine the rate of adoption of RSS in the PR/marketing arena. As an added incentive to […]
Cisco breaks new ground with government affairs blog
Networking company Cisco Systems launched their first public blog last month. It’s a very interesting blog as it’s not the type of blog that would immediately spring to mind. Called the High Tech Policy Blog, it’s owned by Cisco’s Worldwide Government Affairs department and clearly forms a key element of the company’s overall lobbying and […]
Coming soon – Skype voice messaging rollout, SkypeIn numbers
More interesting developments with Skype. Stuart Henshall reports in the new Skype Journal that Skype’s voice messaging service currently in beta trial could be rolled out soon. New information on Skype’s website has pricing details: The price for Voicemail is 5 Euro for a 3 month subscription or 15 Euro for a 12 month subscription. […]
Starting a conversation with smart women
Today I have the honour of being featured on Lip-Sticking in the first interview about Smart Bloggers. Yvonne DiVita recently interviewed me by email and posted that interview this morning. I had the great pleasure of meeting Yvonne at the New Communications Forum 2005 conference in California last January. Thanks, Yvonne. I think we’ve started […]
The Hobson and Holtz Report – Podcast #14: March 10, 2005
Content summary: Listeners’ comments about the interview with Robert Scoble; how to get podcasts automatically with podcatcher software; discussion about the Robert Scoble interview; a new PR blog and a resurrected one make their debuts; communication consultancies focused on new-media channels; IABC; a little rant about Blogrolling. Show notes for March 10, 2005 Welcome to […]
SkypeIn beta launched
Things move very quickly these days, especially in the technology industry. No sooner had I posted commentary yesterday about more developments at Skype including SkypeIn – the new pay-for service from Skype, where you can get a phone number and people can call you, expected to be launched soon – than a tip-off from a […]
New business podcast show launched
A new business-focused podcast launched yesterday – The BizBlog Show, presented by Jeremy Wright and Tyme White. It’s a promising new entrant into the burgeoning business podcasting space. As the name implies, this show’s primary focus is on business blogging. The first show, a bit under 30 minutes, has great sound quality and a good […]
Roddick activism site lacks the human touch
I came across an unusual website today, that of Anita Roddick, the founder of The Body Shop. Roddick is probably best known these days for her strong views and stand on environmental and other social issues. That stand and those strong views permeate the website. From the site description: […] Think of this website as […]
Why SkypeOut calls sound different
Now this is useful to know – a simple explanation as to why a phone call via SkypeOut doesn’t always have good audio quality. I’m thinking in particular of the interview with Michael Wiley of GM that Shel and I did last month for our bi-weekly podcast show. Shel and I were on Skype and […]
The Hobson and Holtz Report – Podcast #15: March 14, 2005
Content summary: A new phone-in comment service now available; listeners’ comments: on sound quality, a suggestion for interview transcriptions; customer service and the Technorati example, government lobbying and Cisco’s new blog; the revolutionary fervour of blogging and the evolutionary development of mainstream media; ethics in PR; IABC: leadership and transparency in discussion. Show notes for […]