ForbesOnTech

Why Lab-Based Reviews Hurt Notebook Marketing -- Part II

Looking critically at the coverage of Intel’s Centrino 2 announcements this week leaves me solidly convinced that the PC Press is stuck in a rut racing head first over a cliff.

            Let me ‘splain: Beyond a certain point increases in the speed of a processor are as fractionally important as the actual speed improvement. Based on about 20 years of testing notebooks, I never once encountered a new processor that was 15 or 20 percent faster than a previous family member deliver the same level of increased usability of system throughput.

            I know this and magazine tech editors know it too, yet they continue to parrot Intel and other manufacturer’s claims that a bump up in speed is equivalent to the Second Coming.

            What’s important today isn’t processor speed, it’s the new capabilities included in core logic that accompanies many new processor launches. And it’s this last set of capabilities that get the shortest shrift from computer magazine editors.

            What I find really annoying are editor’s spending three of four paragraphs to statistically quantify increases in processor speed as demonstrated by the performance results of obscure software benchmarks or battery run down loop tests.

            The real news in most processor manufacturer announcements is the new features made possible by the addition of new capabilities in core logic or related chipsets.  And it’s this part of the computer trade press’ coverage of Intel’s Centrino2 announcement that demonstrates how stuck the press is in it’s old lab-based methodology.

            Let’s consider for a minute that Intel claims its new core logic improves graphics performance and enhances Bluetooth connectivity. Both of these features help to enhance the user experience—a critical component in the “What makes a good notebook” success equation.

            In the lab-based quantification model used by most computer magazines, they may chart graphics performance but most often leave out specific examples of what that number means to a user.

            I’ve become an NCO in the Bluetooth Borg Army and I’m extremely interested in whether or not Centrino 2-based systems improve my Bluetooth experience. Again, lab-based magazine benchmarks omit any quantification of this feature, or of improvements made to 802.11 components in new notebooks based on Intel’s recently announced products.

            The use of Power Point decks by product marketing managers to highlight features may actually hinder product launches. As someone who sat through more than a thousand such pitches I always found hands on demonstrations by product designers to be a much more effective demonstration mechanism. A couple of examples: two of the pros who fueled my interest in notebook technology were IBM Think Pad Brand Manager Kevin Clark (now with Lenovo) and Gary Elsasser then with Toshiba (now a VP with Gateway/Acer). Both of these professionals knew their products inside and out and related the benefits of those features to the user experience. Those two professionals weren’t the only ones whose work on product introductions turned dry marketing matrix entries into important points in the user experience. 

            Two other people who deserve mentioning are: Guy Kawasaki --A member of Apple’s second-generation evangelist staff-- and Dave Winer --founder of Living Videotext (now the voice of blog site Scripting.com). Both were the kings of positioning a product based on suitability or usability without ever dipping into the bag of dry as dust performance metric results.

            The lab-based mentality that permeates most of today’s computer magazines may have suborned, marketing efforts that emphasize the user experience over performance metrics. Most of today’s notebook marketing is done using presentation graphics software, which does absolutely nothing to illustrate how a set of features binds a user to a brand or particular machine.

            And that’s my take on notebook marketing.

            Damn the metrics! Now sit down in front of a notebook and see why you like the experience. Now  vote with your pocketbook, not a year’s subscription to a product based on dead trees and testing methodology from the last century.—Jim Forbes on 07/18/2008

 

           

Search Engine Input as a Predictor of Election Results? --Oh My!

Up in Los Angeles yesterday afternoon, I listened as two major radio hosts aired a claim by Yahoo could predict primary election results by monitoring incoming queries.

            The two talk show hosts immediately jumped on Yahoo’s claim, getting a Yahoo spokeswoman on the phone during their broadcast to explain how search could be used to predict election results..

            I listened with amazement as the two radio hosts completely missed what the Yahoo spokeswoman was saying.  What annoyed me is that they seemed incapable of understanding that Yahoo was only talking about incoming searches it was fielding, not all Internet searches.

            At first, I thought their excitement over Yahoo’s claims might have caused them to overlook what Yahoo said. I listened carefully as the spokeswoman again explained Yahoo’s discovery.  And yes, at the end of one spoken sentence, the drill down: searches on our service had been said.

             The two talking heads on KFI AM radio still missed what Yahoo had said and motored on to talk and speculate about the implications of using search results as an election prediction tool. Looking at search queries, as a predictor is a fascinating idea, particularly when it includes the top-ranked search engine.

            It’s just too bad that the talking heads didn’t have either the sense, or the job-related experience to take their thinking a step further by calling Google’s PR department for comment or to get comparable results from their searches.

            All of this makes me wonder: At a time when legions of print reporters are out scrambling for a handful of PR jobs, why aren’t more of them looking to talk radio news for employment?.

            As I listened to the banter on talk radio about Yahoo’s claims, 35 years of reporting experience went into overdrive. The bottom line, however, was very clear, KFI’s two on-air talkers didn’t realize they had just glossed over a topic that could fill an entire week’s worth of shows. More’s the pity though, cause it’s just this sort of topic that keeps me interested in the long-term implications of search engines and how they are changing our lives.—Jim Forbes 05/07/2008

TechCrunch50 to Overlap DemoFall 08

Some say, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” For others, however, imitation is merely a shortcut to a bank’s merchant window without investing first in creativity, original thought, or shouldering the load of those who popularized a category or event.

            All of which brings news that a competitor to Demo has announced its event will overlap DemoFall08, in early September. The competitor is TechCrunch 50, the second incarnation of a show that first appeared on the scene last year after its founders, Jason Calacanis of Tech Crunch and Michael Arrington, used Demo 2007 to announce that they too were hosting a technology showcase. One big difference between the two shows is this: Unlike Demo, Tech Crunch doesn’t charge its featured stage presenters a Demonstrator’s fee..

            Let me digress a moment and make a mandatory disclosure: My name is Jim Forbes and I am a retired Demo producer who developed DemoMobile (now known as DemoFall) and helped Chris Shipley, the executive producer of Demo, select companies for and produce the larger Demo shows. I had a stroke moments before I was to have opened Demo in Phoenix and am now retired. I have no fiduciary relationship with Demo or its direct and indirect parent entities: IDG (which owns Network World) and the GuideWire Group, which Chris Shipley co-founded.

            In a statement posted on the GuideWire Group’s blog Wednesday, here Demo’s Ms. Shipley questioned the timing of Tech Crunch50, suggesting it would force entrepreneurs to chose one event over the other and suggesting that forcing start-ups to make such a choice wasn’t a good decision. Ms. Shipley also posted that Demo08 generated more than 200 million media impressions for its hand-selected spots and explained how Demo supports its companies in preparing for the event. Ms. Shipley also questioned why TechCrunch50 was copying Demo’s “rulebook and other guidelines.”

Michael Arrington says that he and Jason Calacanis “liked the Demo model but don’t like the ‘payola’ idea of demonstrators paying.”

A call to TechCrunch 50 co-sponsor Jason Calacanis was not returned.

In various blog postings on sites such as ValleyWag last year, other writers have come to acknowledge the benefits of Demo’s high production values as well as the effort its support staff take to train demonstrators. Last year a ValleyWag editor suggested Demo’s demonstrator fee showed audiences that its companies had “skin in the game” and were well prepared for the event.

At 18 years, Demo is the oldest technology showcase. TechCrunch isn’t the first competitor that’s tried to unseat Demo.  Three other events have come and gone, and Demo now also faces some competition from the Wall Street Journal’s All ThingsD conference, which is produced by WSJ staffer Walt Mossberg and former WSJ staffer-turned-author Kara Swisher. Another contract staffer involved in AllThingsD previously had been the president of IDG Executive Forums, which produced Demo before it was incorporated into IDG’s Network World business unit.

            Both Demo and TechCrunch appear to have the same format: stage presentations by companies with products grouped by category, and panels of VC or business development executives. In its first five years, Demo had a slightly different format that allowed audience members to ask onstage demonstrators questions (a format borrowed from Agenda, which like Demo was also started by industry pundit Stuart Alsop but was produced through much of its life by IDG Executive Forums).

            Under Ms. Shipley, Demo has become a “community” with a high number of returning attendees and serial entrepreneurs who have used the show to launch multiple companies. One of the major changes Ms. Shipley has made to increase Demo’s presence and sense of community has been the addition of a video library of Demo presentations that can be viewed at www.Demo.com.

            Competition makes for better products. While Demo may be the oldest show, there’s still enough room in the technology industry for new blood. I have no problem with competition, the real issue here is when competition is based on cookie cutter marketing plans that don’t give credit where its due. —Jim Forbes 04/02/2008

Advanced Social Media and How to Do It-- a Real World Decision Tree Explained

Preparing to talk to students about going beyond the basics of social media in a corporate setting, you quickly discover there are almost not only are specifics about social media programs hard to find, but getting working pros to talk about what they’re actually doing can be like pulling abscessed teeth in a Great White Shark.

            I understand the reason for this: Individual social media programs are most often tightly linked to strategic marketing efforts and few companies really want to share inside information.

Or,so I thought until this morning when I read Dave Churbuck’s blog here and stumbled on a social media plan tailored for the ThinkPad maker Lenovo and its pavilion at the forthcoming Olympic games in Beijing.

Churbuck’s post  is the best example I’ve ever seen on planning and initially executing social media programs. Mr. Churbuck knows of what he speaks. He's Lenovo's vicce president of global web marketing. He patiently takes the reader through a specific campaign's decision tree, quickly stating why he chose one path or tactic over another. I’m sure Churbuck read his post very carefully before putting it up. It doesn’t contain proprietary information; it’s just the sort of thing a working professional thinks about when they get beyond basics. What I also liked about this particulr post was its presentation, which is like a well thought out text book chapter.

I’m a big believer in the “learn by doing” education model and this post is good enough for two days worth of lectures at any college teaching osocial media and contemporary or future marketing.—Jim Forbes 03/19/2008

{Mandatory disclosure: Dave Churbuck and I were coworkers at PCWeek in the Eighties and remain friends}

Those Who Can, Do...Those Who Can Not, Sell Basics; Social Media Today

There’s something of a disconnect in corporate social media between experienced practitioners and consultants hoping to sell their expertise to potential clients. Working practitioners are critical of some because the latter still emphasizing basics while the pros are searching for help in untying some of the knots that bind the adoption and implementation of corporate social media programs.

I understand the positions of both groups: those who are implementing social media programs don’t want to pay for knowledge and services that they have outgrown or developed originally themselves; and consultants make money by selling basic knowledge and capitalizing on subsequent expertise.

The pros know about word press and are looking for insight into some very complex organizational issues: How does n organization Measuring the effectiveness of corporate social media; How do you decide who’s allowed to become the voice of a company; what internal organization do they come from and what department and to whom do they report?

I have immense respect for the tiny group of working executives who have found ways to incorporate social media as a public corporate face. Today, every member of this new category of communicator is hard at work trying to make social media an effective corporate tool. What most of the pros don’t have time for are consultants with old, basic “how-to“, information.

I don’t have a lot of sympathy for third-party consultants trying to peddle social media technology that never gets much deeper than an overview book that incorporates the word “Dummies” in its title.

The chasm between those who have “done it” and those who want to sell or promote services that tell corporations “where to, and how to” begin is immense. The bridges that cross the unconnected walls appear to be being built by early corporate implementers, not many of today’s consultants.

While social media is important, some of the companies that could benefit the most from it are also the least likely to implement it. Take for example the pharmaceutical and medical device industries, each of which have multiple layers of hyper protective managers whose job is to make sure that a public comment doesn’t incur the formidable wrath of a governmental agency, citizen watchdog group, medical professional association or “college.”

Having worked for one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the US as a communicator, I vividly remember writing as many as 15 drafts of a statement about how a new drug could benefit certain types of patients ands having to justify every implied statement in a press release to a very senior executive whose job was to shepherd the new drug through a large national clinical trial. But looking back across th e years I believe that the pharmaceutical and related industries may be the best example of a category that needs to jump into social media.

While most competent third-party marketing consultancies are capable of launching social media campaigns there are a handful that may be much more capable than run of the mill agencies. The ones that stand out away above the crowd are those who specialize in “public affairs.” and which have the requisite experience in identifying, motivating and assisting internal corporate “champions,” and not just middle of the litter VPs or directors of marketing.

In the Darwinist world of husbandry, “champions” often go on to become very profitable “sires.” I believe this will carry through into social media, where senior and vetted managers who have established social media campaigns and who understand how to thread their way through the sometimes Byzantine world of corporate politics will go on to run successful consultancy practices and head new corporate departments that ease access to customer and the providers of goods and services. Whatever their path, they will most likely be able to write their own compensation packages, and be able to work where they want.

And that’s my screed for this week.--Jim Forbes 03/05/2008.

Microsoft Expands DreamSpark Academic Evangelism Program--Wouldn't it be Nice if Others Joined In

Microsoft pulled another of its feet onto the academic computing bandwagon with the announcement this week of DreamSpark, a philanthropy program aimed initially at college students but which will eventually include high schoolers as well, according to the online version of PC Magazine.

Microsoft’s Bill Gates announced new details of the program during a speech at Leland Stanford Jr. University on the San Francisco Peninsula earlier this week. DreamSpark has already provided software to about 35 million students worldwide, Gates said, adding that the program will be enhanced to include more college and some high school students in the future.

click here for PC Mag's original story.

Some of the titles that will be given to students free of charge include the 2005 and 2008 editions of Visual Studio, 2005 Developer’s Edition of SQL Server and the Standard Edition of Windows Server, according to PC Mag. Students will also be given access to Microsoft X-box development tools and the company’s game developmenyt community, the magazine says.

While much of Microsoft’s philanthropic efforts have been aimed at individual colleges and universities, the company has a long history of academic evangelism and has been a co-sponsor with hardware maker Hewlett Packard of large academic computing grants in the past.

DreamSpark’s sheer size-- more than 35 million students have benefited from the program-- is astounding.

Academic evangelism isn’t limited to immediate gratification. In decades past, companies such as Hewlitt Packard and Techtronic helped create entire generations of equipment buyers and brand specifiers by exposing young students to professional-level test and measurement systems through academic evangelism programs. In the 1980’s Apple made significant inroads into academic computing through its conspicuous evangelism.

The two companies in today’s market that have active and high profile academic evangelism programs are Hewlett Packard and Microsoft. Both companies have dedicated staff members who run their companies programs in this category.

The pay-off associated with academic evangelism isn’t immediate. Rather it happens years later when former students enter the job market and begin buying IT or engineering test equipment on behalf of their employers.

However, I believe there is at least one category of computer technology that could reap an immediate benefit from academic computing evangelism. That category is pen-based computing. And, looking out over today’s landscape the one company I hope jumps directly or indirectly on this bandwagon is Demo 2008 standout Live Scribe,

here

makers of the Pulse Smart Pen. -- Jim Forbes 02/19/2008

Follow Up on Demo 2008 Now!--Getting a Bigger Bang For Your Buck

The absolute best way to get the most out of your Demo 08 experience is to take the time to review the people your company met with at Demo and systematically begin follow-up conversations.

Here are some tips that can help you get the biggest bang for your Demo 2008 buck.

1.   Organize the business cards and contact information you gathered at Demo.

a.   Do not limit your contact lists to reporters, editors, bloggers, and venture capitalists.

b.  Wherever possible make sure the member of your company that met with someone initiates follow-up contact.

2.   Designate one person to monitor and track conversations with people you met at Demo.

a.  Make sure you monitor blogs for mentions of your company or its technologies.

1. Treat bloggers the same as reporters. Make contact with them and stay in touch after the show.

2.     Don’t be afraid to offer press and bloggers additional information on your company or its technologies.

3.     Bloggers are more apt to focus on single companies or technologies, than print reporters.

4.     Reporters, editors and bloggers who attend Demo write “trend” stories that may include your and other company’s products that serve a common market or need. Make sure you can differentiate your product when it’s part of a larger crop of products.

a.     Trend stories often appear weeks and months after the end of Demo.

b.     Be prepared to provide writers with information about your technologies or news about your company that occurred after the show.

2. Meet with all of your Demo 08 attendees as a group to discuss follow-up conversations and activities.
3. Make sure third-party marketing agencies that may have supported your Demo08 presence are included in follow-up activities

4.           Stay in touch with the producers of Demo. Let them know of funding events, product updates or licensing agreements.  This information is published regularly in the electronic version of DemoLetter.

Now that you’re home from Demo, breathe deep and get back to work on your products and technologies. --Jim Forbes 02/07/2008

*Becky Sniffen of MCPR2.net contributed to the original version of this post.

(Mandatory disclosure: I was a Demo producer and editor of DemoLetter and DemoMobile Letter before I retired several years ago. I am not now affiliated with Demo. See you at DemoFall 2008.—jmf)

My List of Great Demo 2008 Companies Continues to Grow

I came home from Demo 2008, took two Tylenol for a blown out left knee and promptly went to bed; for almost a full day. Now that I can hobble around ising my trusty five year old shillelagh It’s time to finish my thoughts on a couple of the companies I saw at Demo this week.

            First up is Education.com’s School Finder. A product I wish I had access to in 2002 when my beautiful daughter, the lovely Miss Amanda, was getting ready to go away to college.  School Finder is a parent’s dream: it lets you match your kids’ needs to college offerings and the local environment. When School Finder goes live in about two months, it will have information on about 100,000 public and private schools. I was impressed by this start-up’s deep well of information on various colleges and their locations.  I quickly realized how valuable this site and tool would have been back in 2002, when (based on bad advice) she chose a Boston area women’s university whose classes were seldom transferable. School Finder is just one of Education.com’s offerings. It also offers modest on-line tutoring, and electronic learning. This site already has great traffic numbers. The addition of School Finder to its offerings will bolster both its position and usefulness, creating even more unique visitors. I think Education.com and School Finder may be one of the jewels of Demo 2008.  I really wish it had been around five years ago, when I was a parent trying to help my soon to fledge daughter pick a college that met her needs and expectations.  Oh, prior to moving to go to school in Boston, my daughter had never experienced a real snowstorm.

            I’m a sucker for mobile applications and Ribbit’s Amphibian, a web telephony application made me realized just how important the personal information provided in our profile information files have become when we connect with friends or potential business associates on the phone. Imagine getting a phone call from a potential client and suddenly being presented with personal information from their FaceBook page. I understand the need to connect with people in order to sell or convince someone of a value proposition, and Ribbit’s Amphibian is the first example I’ve seen of an application that gives me access to someone’s web presence, while I’m talking with them on my mobile phone.

            It’s this type of application that highlights the need for new mobile phone plans that offer affordable internet access as part of business or high-minute plans. I believe that platforms like Ribbit and apps like Amphibian also work best with cell phones with large screens, which facilitate more complete information displays.

            CellSpin is another mobile-based application I liked at Demo 08. This startup is one of the several companies that have been in development for almost two years. What CellSpin does that’s unique is it allows you to post and synchronize you posts to multiple outlets with an absolute minimum of user intervention. For example, if you wanted to post something to Blogger, eBay, FaceBook, Flickr, Live Journal, Picassa or YouTube, you could do so with a minimum of clicks and all your files would be automatically synchronized. Of all the products at Demo 08, I had the most experience with CellSpin. I like its ultra clean interface, and its promise of simultaneously posting virtually all media types (including video and audio) to multiple sites with one or two clicks.

            I love great mobile technology and Skyfire, a downloadable browser for mobile phones just knocked my socks off. My ongoing complaint with the Internet experience on so-called phones is that it just plain sucks. I’ve sat by and waited, and waited for freaking ever for some pages to load on various smart phones and in many cases just walked away from the experience rather than endure the tedious experience of taking advantage of the web on cell phone. Skyfire changes that. I was blown away by this company’s pavilion-demonstration that after only two minutes left me wishing that my antique cell phone would support the Skyfire browser.

            Unlike other browsers for mobile phones, Skyfire supports dynamic Flash, Ajax and Java technologies, which allows smart phones running this new browser to deliver a desktop-like computing experience.

            If there was one technology and company from Demo 08 that is worth watching, it’s Skyfire.

            A quick note pertaining to CellSpin and Skyfire.  Both of these companies are tying their success to third-party cellular networks and smart phone manufacturers. It’s one thing to develop and introduce a product with obvious advantages and little cost adders and an altogether different thing to score a huge win with that product.

            The problem here is that start-ups are ill equipped to navigate the treacherous rocks and shoals that provide safe harbor for key decision makers that can guarantee and provide a safe birth in this industry segment.

            What I’ve seen over the years is a long line of entrepreneurs network with B-School buddies who work for telcos, thinking such people will become their allies in driving adoption.  The problem with this thinking is the ultra conservative nature of telco management.  That B-school chum who is your champion may have a sexy title, but the  reality is not very promising: the champion’s name on an org chart is five cells off center and at least as many levels down from the decision makers and check signers.

            There are at least three domestic cellular network companies that appear to be aggressively courting new technologies: AT&T, Sprint and Verizon immediately come to mind. I rank Sprint at the top of this list followed by Verizon and AT&T.

            Well, I’ve run out of time for this post, so up on ForbesonTech it goes.—Jim Forbes, recovering from my favorite technology show, Demo on 1/31/2008.

{ mandatory disclosure, I am a retired producer of Demo shows as well as the editor of the printed and electronic versions of DemoLetter. I have no fiduciary or other ties with Demo, or any of its parent organizations. But I am one of the few people who has run a Demo show and sat through thousands of meetings with companies during the selection process of the show.  There, I’ve said it. I’m still proud of it—jmf}

Funniest Twitter Feed Ever--Fake Steve at Apple's Jobs Keynote

I recently told some friends that hell would freeze over before I used twitter.

Well, el Diablo has on his thermals because I spent most of this morning reading a twitter feed from a former co-worker whose nom de blog is Fake Steve Jobs.

            It was the funniest stream I’ve ever seen.  I could easily imagine myself back in the old days sitting in a meeting with fellow PCWeek staffer Dan Lyons quipping wise beside me.  And making me aspirate coffee and then having it come out all brimstone-like from my nose.

At one point today I was laughing so hard at FakeSteve’s twitter feed I almost had an incontinent moment.

Over the years, I’ve covered a lot of Apple announcements and sat in absolute amazement as the fanboys and girls cheered every scripted moment of Apple’s Dear Leader remarks.

Looking back over a lifetime covering technology I really wish the over the top satire of Fake Steve Jobs had appeared much sooner. But, through the fog of more than two decades I distinctly remember sitting in a cubicle in PCWeek’s home office on Boylston St. in Boston on my monthly trips in from the West Coast Bureau and laughing very hard at the high satire of two fellow staffers, Dan Lyons and Dave Churbuck.

For a good laugh, go here.

What makes Fake Steve Job’s blog even funnier is this: until today its author had never been to an Apple press conference.—Jim Forbes 01/15/2003.

Blog Monitoring; Its Understood by Soon to Graduate Students

A         fter speaking about Web based businesses and interactive marketing to a group of college students lastweek I was asked a question that I’m still thinking about:  How does a business or organization combat blogs?

            When I was asked the question the two words that immediately came into my mind were; “honesty” and “transparency.” At first I thought I may have short changed the students with my answer so I tried to draw out more information.

            Most of the students used as their example a company whose products or services were being hammered by bloggers.  The specifics led me to believe that they were talking about a particular computer company.

            Over coffee after class, I told the students that they could not have picked a better example. As a direct result of comments made by bloggers the company (Dell) was beginning to open up its kimono by beginning a corporate blogging campaign.

            Honesty in corporate blogging is an easily understood concept. I explained that most corporations use blogs to highlight elements of their business and to open up communications channels with existing and potential customers.

Corporate blogs that put a face or a name to a company go a long way to creating an aura of transparency with customers. It also helps to highlight steps a company may be taking in response to “negative” blog posts.

            Several of the students wanted hard examples of what the advantages of corporate blogging on what specific programs companies have instituted to deal with blogs – including those that may be counter to corporate messages or marketing campaigns.

            The best examples I could site quickly site are found on Dave Churbuk’s blog under his“Interactive marketing”category here and on Rob ORegan’s Magnosticism blog in sections dealing with corporate journalism (sample here).

Another blog that touches on this concept is Constantine Von Hoffman’s business and networking site (here). Earlier this year I also suggested Naked Conversations by Shel Israel and Robert Scoble as a text the class might be interested in reading.

            Not one of the students I talked to suggested or seemed to seriously consider countering negative blog posts with counter attacks. I suspect that there’s an instinctive awareness of basic public opinion among young people that have grown up with social media that helps them understand that exchanges of bodily fluids with online polecats is a wasted effort.

            I was pleasantly surprised to learn that some of the students looking into the impact of “corporate journalism” (social media) already understood the importance of monitoring blogs, a concept Dave Churbuck and others have advocated for more than a year on various blogs.  In addition to search-based blog monitoring tools, many students were aware of the value of mini-chat platforms such as Twitter as one of a growing number of methods for assessing attitudes and comments about new products or technologies.

            I came away from this post classroom conversation with a couple of strong impressions:

+The oncoming generation is incredibly aware of social media’s potential.

+This about-to-be released crops of young professionals may be more equipped to deal with new marketing paradigms and tools than any other group of soon-to-graduate students than colleges have produced in the last decade.

+Finally, if I were producing any event today that launched new technologies—including blogging tools like Buzz Logic—I would make an effort to set aside a block of seats for students and instructors from colleges that are  teaching social networking.

I was asked a simple question before I slipped my notebook into my backpack and tottered back to my car for my trip home:  What corporations are using social media effectively?

The two that stand out today are Hewlett Packard and Lenovo, both of which I feel meet the various criteria for open, honest, transparent blogging. And the proof of this is the fact that both of entities publish contact information for their corporate bloggers and provide an atmosphere where the bloggers quickly respond to comments and questions from existing and potential customers.

              More than anything else, up and coming students I’ve dealt with understand that social networking is an element of being a responsive company not a point destination.—Jim Forbes, 12/05/2007.

{Mandatory disclosure:  I worked with Rob ORegan and Dave Churbuck while I wrote for PCWeek. I consider both to be good friends and authorities on social networking—jmf}