ForbesOnTech

52 Churches at Churbuck.com; a true "Must Read" Blog Series.

One of the most interesting blogs I’m reading today is an ongoing series called 52 churches at Chubuck.com/wordpress. Written by David Churbuck, 52 Churches is a paean to church architecture, ecumenical differences and observations of a church’s congregants.

There is no visible religious preference in the 52 churches series.  What makes this one of the ”must reads” on the web is Dave’s intellectual curiosity, his encyclopedic-knowledge of religious architecture and history and a Hemmingway-like writing style that’s devoid of prejudice.

Initially limited to churches near Churbuck’s home on Cape Cod, David’s pilgrimage has taken him to California and most recently Istanbul where he’s posted entries on the Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque.

This series is so well written it outshines any of the other blogs I read.  And in a moment of honest disclosure, I must say I consider David Churbuck to be a good friend, an inspirational writer, And, a much trusted former colleague in the trenches of PCWeek.

Without further ado, I recommend you immediagtely go to: http://www.churbuck.com/wordpress/52-churches/

Jim Forbes 01/31/2010

If Bloggers Think They Are Entitled to Free Work Product From For-Profit or other non-Public Entities, They're Just Wrong

I was on Twitter yesterday and today, looking for some posts from this year’s Folio conference when I came across a short Twit from one of the “A-list” bloggers that I can’t let go of.

The A-lister I follow is an extremely gifted former software exec who in mid-life went back to school at Harvard. He’s actively blogging his year’s presidential campaign and sees no need to hide his partisan leanings. All that’s good and acceptable in the world of individual blogs,

However along the way this blogger has come to the conclusion that because the reports on things that interest him, he’s some sort of journalist and that the material that’s the basis of other journalists’ work product should be freely accessible to bloggers such as him.

            This particular blogger has been critical of Senator McCain’s and Senator Obama’s campaign organizations because they won’t let him in on teleconference calls, or that they don’t acknowledge his requests to participate.

            It’s this type of attitude and mistaken beliefs that colors much of social media today. I understand the questions that bloggers raise on getting the same access to events and news subjects as traditional press. I also understand some bloggers’ believe they’re actually reporters.

But guess what, they’re wrong. Dead wrong!

            Blogging isn’t reporting, it’s most often just journal writing. And many bloggers are little more than online diarists.

            And real world journalism isn’t an exercise in open source coding. Real world reporters aggressively guard their work product. And so do their employers. Real world journalism is also about profits.

            Any blogger that thinks they’re entitled to a reporter’s or producer’s work product (which includes material recorded or written in conjunction with a press conference or limited teleconference) needs to step  back from their keyboard and take a realistic personal inventory of what they’re doing, who their audience really is and what the reach and frequency is  of  their end product.

            Fortunately for many bloggers, real world media does acknowledge their efforts and infrequently includes their work in a published report. And in even more restricted cases a handful of organizations—including political campaigns and national political conventions have opened their doors to bloggers. But what those organizations don’t do is conceptualize bloggers as part of the traditional press.

            Bloggers entitled to free work product collected by a for-profit entity? What part of capitalism do some bloggers not understand?

            Maybe it’s going to change in the future, but in the real world, virtually all reporters work you’re their way up the ziggurat. You just don’t start at the top of a phenomena like social media and expect to axiomatically be granted the same access to individuals or material that a real world journalist has scrambled for tens of years or more to gain.

Bloggers may not like it. if so they can clench their little fists, stamp their tiny feet thunderously and cry as much as they want. That’s the way the world operates, even now in the Fall of 2008.—Jim Forbes, 09/22/2008.

(Mandatory disclosure: I was a simple reporter for most of  my 35-year career. I’m a blogger now, but the habits of years spent in newsrooms, at crime scenes, butt achingly boring city council meetings or Annual stockholders’ meetings, don’t die easily. I can’t think of a single reason why a for-profit organization would ever give me or any other blogger access to their work product material.)

When bloggers Cross Ethical Lines; Posing as Press but Selling Their Consulting Services

I’ve been thinking about something recently that makes me want to don my neatly pressed hair shirt and bay loudly.

            What’s got my shorts in a wedge isn’t the buffed up vole tunneling madly about two inches under the surface of my upper garden where the little bastard has destroyed my four nearly mature French beefsteak tomatoes, but rather a behavior I noticed beginning last year at two trade shows.

            That behavior is bloggers behaving badly, very badly. By and large most bloggers are treated like regular members of the press. And when they arrive at an event most behave like conventional reporters. Most, but not all, it seems.

            What I’ve noticed is a growing number of bloggers who get press credentials, show up at an event, grab food and USB-based press kits, file a few stories and then begin hawking their services as marketing consultants.

Such behavior is annoying.

            Here’s why: I’m a retired producer of Demo branded events.  By my count I produced and co-produced some 16 shows before I had a stroke in the hours right before I was to open a Demo show in

Arizona

in 2002. The stroke ended my career, but opened up the world of social media to me, which allows me to write about things I really care about and on which my audience and peers rate me as an “authority.”

            As a producer of Demo, I knew full well how much it costs to feed and hydrate members of the press – the total is north of $200 for the duration of the event. Most people who attend events like the ones I produced paid for the tickets. The press – and bloggers who are accredited as press – need only pay for the hotel fee. Everything else is free.

            Marketing people who attend the event and pay for their seats are there specifically to support a company, and sometimes to scout for new business. They are paying guests who are part of the value proposition of the show.

            Most members of the press, including bloggers who cover the event and its technologies, are also a very important part of the same value equation.

            But bloggers who gain admittance to the event under the cover of “registered press / bloggers”, then write only one or two stories and spend equal time pitching their for-profit consulting services to attendees, cross one of my hard ethical

boundaries. 

            I detest this behavior. If I were I still working and saw a blogger do this, I would firmly ask them to leave the event immediately and do my best to see they were never given a press pass, ever again.

At most events, consultants are paid attendees.  When consultants are there posing as bloggers/press to gain free admission, they cross a hard ethical line.

Enough ranting, it’s time to take off my scratchy hair shirt and put on a washed soft tie dyed t-shirt. Groovy, now things seem better. Jim Forbes 09/02/2008.

When Analyst Firms Get it Wrong-- Egg on the Face of the SJ Mercury News' Business Summary

I Just finished scanning Wednesday’s San Jose Mercury News daily business  summary when a piece on Hewlett Packard’s future use of the touch interface on forthcoming products caught my eye and jumped my blood pressure five points.

            Specifically what raised my hackles and blood pressure was an incorrect credit to Apple for its use of a touch interface. Hereto is what the Merc said:

            Because the finger-tapping interface used by Apple's iPhone has become so popular, Palo Alto-based HP is developing an array of touch-screen products of its own, including notebooks, which it hopes to get on the market within the next 18 months.

HP is chasing a trend. The number of touch-screen devices, including PCs, should more than double to 800 million by 2013, according to industry tracker iSuppli. Spending on touch-screen components likely will reach $6.4 billion, up 33 percent from $4.8 billion, over the same period, iSuppli said.

            It’s too bad the Merc’s Steve Johnson (who edits the summaries and its quoted analysts sources (at iSuppli) didn’t dig a little deeper. If they had they would have correctly credited Handspring Inc. (now part of Palm Computing) and Palm for pioneering touch interfaces on its aging Treo line nearly one-half to a full decade and half decade before Apple launched its touch enabled iPhone.

Furthermore, back in the days when Apple was still struggling with its first Macintosh, Hewlett Packard was manufacturing and marketing a line of PC monitors that incorporated touch technology.

I don’t begrudge Apple it’s successes with the iPhone and other products, but for an analyst firm such as iSuppli that’s quoted by any Silicon Valley publication to incorrectly claim companies such as HP, Fujitsu, Lenovo, or any of the other PC and PDA manufacturers are capitalizing on the success of Apple’s touch interface, is patently false.

But wait there’s more.  Microsoft, which makes a pen/touch interface for its Windows Vista, XP and Pocket PC operating systems has said that touch computing interface technology will become a standard feature in many of it future products.

I really hope the Merc corrects the item  and revaluates whether it should use market analyst firms that provide incorrect information.--Jim Forbes,08/06/2008.

 

 

Farewell Fake Steve-- Thanks for the Laughs

I guess it’s true; all good things sometimes come to an end. And it seems that the often-hilarious blog “The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs” has reached that point, according to its author, Daniel Lyons most recently of Forbes and now in the process of moving over to Newsweek.

            In his most recent post here, Lyons announced he was shutting down the Fake Steve Blog, but planned to replace it with one under his own name in the coming weeks.

            For it’s much of its life, the identity of Fake Steve was the subject of a grail-like quest for many of Silicon Valley’s hoi polloi A-list editors. Most of which incorrectly assumed that the author had to be an Apple insider or most likely one of the several editors who have long-standing relationships with the Cupertino, CA, electronics manufacturer.

            The quest took a turn for the bizarre when Forbes’ publisher, Richard Karlgaard, offered a reward for Fake Steve’s identity. Karlgaard apparently couldn’t imagine that the blog’s author was one of his own staffers, which elicited gales of laughter from the small handful of people --mostly former co-workers who recognized his writing style-- who had correctly guessed Lyons as its writer.

            While the Secret Diary of Steve Jobs may be gone, Lyons did a blog to book move, and is offering a bound collection of “best of” posts for $25. The smallish book is being produced by Blurb inc. and can be ordered through Lyon’s Fake Steve blog.

            So long Fake Steve.  I’ll miss the stories of you and Larry rocketing up to San Francisco to go paint balling. I honor the place where your humor and the milk shooting out my nose are one.

            And, Lyons you are one of the funniest reporters I ever worked with. You made trekking overnight from the Foster City PCWeek Bureau to the Prudential Building on Boylston in Boston bearable. Namaste, Dude—Jim Forbes, 07/10/2008

 

Corporate Social Media Mointoring-- Chapter Two from Dave Churbuck

Over at Churbuck.com is an excellent post here on monitoring blogs and how this process need not be based on paid applications that generate maps or Marshal McLuhan like colored Media Hot or Media Cold colored displays. Dave’s riff is suitable classroom material and goes well beyond the intro to corporate social media drek I’ve seen on the web for the last several years.

A statement Dave posted last night grabbed me: ”Sentiment metrics are particularly vexing, volume sentiments are crap. Be wary of tools that purport to deliver metrics. I subscribe to the manual scoring method of sentiment. If it really matters then the only viable way to tell whether a post is positive or negative is to read it and make the call. Doing so will entail enlisting the support of a team of monitors or moderators, or, if you are a sole operator, doing it yourself.

I suspect that very few corporations have “teams” assigned to monitoring blogs or, more importantly, have the bandwidth and authority to take action on problems as they appear in blogs.

In the end when it comes to Social Media and corporations the winners will have teams or one inspired individual that can drive solutions to problems or troublesome perceptions as they appear.

Reading Churbuck’s riff on advanced social media makes me wish I weren’t retired.  Well almost.—Jim Forbes 04/22.2008

{Mandatory Disclosure: Dave Churbuck and I were coworkers in the last century at PCWeek and are  friends.}

Twitter:Strangling the Bird,Or Not?

There are applications that come along and automatically generate buzz and applications that come and go very quickly.

            And this brings me to the social media phenomena Twitter. This 145-word cap limited application is quite the rage among A list bloggers. Contrarian that I am, I have a quite different view of it.  I’m not really very interested in whether or not some one is going to get a cup of coffee at Pete’s in Menlo Park, and I’m even less interested in the fact that they found a parking space right across the street from Pete’s on Santa Cruz Avenue. Twitter might as well be a grill- mounted loudspeaker hoi polloi use to broadcast their regal presence and progression to we lesser mortals, so that we can avert our eyes and bow in time.

            But I can see some uses for Twitter: A.) The best use of it so far was by Dan Lyons, writing from audience at Steve Jobs’ MacWorld opening speech in San Francisco, earlier this year. Lyon’s twitter feeds may have been the funniest things ever posted on the Internet. B.) If I were an executive at a hardware maker or software developer, I can see where my job would be made easier by Twitter, since it gives me a chance to have conversations about product performance, reliability and usability in real time with select customers. C.) The same argument holds true right now, moving into National elections. If I were on a campaign management staff, Twitter could be an important tool in gauging the effectiveness of a dynamic campaign, in real time;D) as someone who was searching for topical local news in the middle of a community-wide conflgration last Fall, I think a dedicated twitter channel could have be equally important to both citizens and first responders.

            I have seen Twitter put to effective use by two good friends who hold high-level marketing positions with PC manufacturing companies. Both use it to stay abreast of customer support issues—which may be one of the most important applications of this mini-Instant Messaging format.

            If I were still working as a producer on Demo Shows, I could see using a Twitter channel for communicating with my audience and for strategic market research, in real time.

            But do I care when someone is jumping into his or her car for a trip across SF Bay to go see a movie? Hell No! I don’t.

            None of this should be interpreted as dismissing the hard work developers have put into Twitter and Twitter applications.  I appreciate good softwaremuch more than most people.

            And I’ve been wrong about things before.  Just last week I was dismissive about my daughter’s chance to win a new car in a lottery. But,  early this morning I got an email from The Lovely Miss Amanda telling me how utterly surprised she was to find out she had just won a brand new 2008 Volkswagen Beetle.—Jim Forbes, 04/07/2008

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}

News.com's M. Reardon Blog on the Wireless Networks Future -- A Must Read

A blog entry By News.com’s Marguerite Reardon that appeared this morning here begs reading by anyone who’s interested in the future of cellular networks. Ms Reardon uses a filing by Verizon signaling its intent to open its network to unlocked devices as the basis for a well thought out riff on open wireless networks. I like it that she took the time to put two and two together in this entry to get to an important, but very obvious conclusion; open networks will foster creativity and the development of next generation devices and services. MsReardon’s blogs are one of a small handful of reporter social media essays I try to read. If you’re interested in the present and future status of wireless, I recommend her posts.

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.