May 2006

I stumbled across Jet Set Lara when I read on Maryam Scoble’s Blog about Lara’s conclusion that Robert Scoble is sexy.

My original thought when I was reading Lara’s blog was, “what an innovative business blog!” Yes, her business is illegal and even morally repugnant to some, but she’s using her blog the same way most business bloggers do: to build relationships with potential customers. What’s more, the blog serves to extend her brand to an even wider audience than those who can afford her $10,000 a day compensation structure.

After reading through her blog, I must say that Lara reminds me a great deal of Inara Serra, the fictional high-class courtesan on Joss Wheadon’s tragically cancelled show, Firefly (iTunes). I suppose that’s the sort of personality that these women must cultivate. Still, her classy image makes me wonder what she does when the typical human disasters - food poisoning, a huge zit, stretch marks - strike.

Image of Inara Serra via Morena Baccarin, the actress who plays her.

Following up the [BusinessWeek article on Boeing's blogs](http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_21/b3985098.htm), Anil posted [an interview with me](http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/news/2006/05/go_out_and_get.html) about the rest of the Boeing blog story and how it’s a great example of going out and getting better.

[Aeronaut](http://aeronaut.ca/), a blog by Eric Gideon that’s about aviation and design, [posts on how](http://aeronaut.ca/journal/industry-blogs-take-off) Boeing has the blog advantage in the aviation industry. Agreed! I think one of the biggest lessons for Boeing and other industries is that they can be nimble in the blogosphere. Go out, try it, adapt, listen to the audience, and continue to improve. That’s what Boeing has done with [Randy's Journal](http://boeing.com/randy), [Flight Test Journal](http://www.boeing.com/commercial/777family/200LR/flight_test/), and more to come.

The Times’s technology columnist, David Pogue writes about [being blogged in the blogospere](//www.nytimes.com/2006/05/11/technology/11POGUE-EMAIL.html) and criticism of Ultra-Mobile PCs. Admittedly, I had to check myself during the buzz about Origami to not blurt out really negative posts and ask things like, “and what problem does this solve?” To me, the problem with Origami goes to what Apple does and does very well, “to continue to pursue devices with one primary feature and not focus on multiple functions in one device” and to “create the best products.” I wrote about that this morning on my [personal blog](http://texturadesign.com/2006/05/apples_secrets_and_stale_chips_1.htm) while reflecting on the 18 month [book](http://www.blogbusinessbook.com/) process.

Anyway, back to Pogue, he discusses how flops happen and the direct honestly of Microsoft’s bloggers that management apparently didn’t bother to listen to, ask, or they didn’t tell.

Pogue also finally launched [a real blog](http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/). Considering the baffling, double-secret probation method of viewing the content on the Times, I’m not sure if you can see it or not without a subscription and that select thingy.

Be forewarned: this is another “we talk about this in The Book” plug, but it’s interesting anyway so read on!

So basically what’s happened is that some really cool people have created a mashup that makes it super easy to put Yahoo! local maps on your iPod.

This is what we call really good content on demand. Grab the maps, change the format, get out the door and drive with the Pod (that’s what all the cool kids call ‘em now).

Via digg.

I’ve been waiting for quite a while for social networking applications to start throwing instant messaging into the mix. After all, there really isn’t any better social network than my AIM buddy list.

AOL and MySpace are the big heavy hitters in this arena, AOL with its hugely popular Instant Messenger network and MySpace with it’s huge social network are both vying for the undivided attention of tweens, teens, college students and young professionals. AOL is preparing to launch a social networking system based on its instant messaging system, while MySpace has already launched its instant messaging system. Unfortunately, when I tried to launch the MySpace instant messaging program to check it out, I got this message from Tom, “The IM is busted. It’s not working. It is going to take a few weeks to fix. I will post an announcement when its (sic) fixed. - Tom.”

Meanwhile, a cool new Instant Messaging/Social Netoworking Application has entered the fray. imeem is still in its beta version (very, very beta), but it’s incredibly promising. Of course, there are a lot of twists and turns ahead in the quest to create the perfect social network, but at this point, I’d say the smart money is on imeem.

Why? The success of any new social networking application rests squarely on its ability to reach critical mass quickly enough to keep the early adopters interested while simultaneously attracting new users. After all, what’s a social networking application if none of your friends are on it? imeem is the only social networking/IM application out there at the moment that allows you to interact with all your buddy lists (from AIM, ICQ, MSN, ect.) while simultaneously using the social networking features with those people who already use that part of the service. It’s the single most compelling feature that imeem offers, and it may help sustain the small startup while the 200 lb. gorillas bludgeon one another.

In addition, imeem integrates blogging into the mix. Users can post blog entries directly on their imeem profiles. It’s already a much better blogging application than the crappy one on MySpace. But it simply won’t do for any serious blogger. imeem needs to move quickly to allow users to integrate other RSS feeds into their profiles like ziki does.

Finally, unlike either AIM or MySpace, imeem actually gets the need for a clean, pretty, simple graphical user interface (GUI). Like the iPod and the forthcoming controller from Nintendo, imeem is intuitive and simple to use - while both AIM and MySpace are often clunky, counterintuitive and downright difficult to look at.

I might be an idiot for saying that a little startup can take on two behemoths, but I’m really looking forward to finding out.

Update 3:00 p.m. Here’s the link to AIMPages.

Management consultant, author, and blogger Jeff Angus has a new title called Management by Baseball, and as an avid reader of management books, I was eager to dive into it.

I’m a firm believer of Aristotle’s words that to be a master of metaphor “is the mark of genius,” and feel that a properly applied analogy is perhaps the most valuable of all teaching tools. To me, war has always seemed to serve as a superior metaphor for business than sports, but recognizing both are well aligned, I wanted to see how Angus mapped baseball to management.

So far, I am not disappointed even though I am not particularly knowledgeable about baseball. I suspect that a manager well versed in the game would find the book riveting.

He hits his stride early with an example that will apply to many corporate blogging initiatives. On the subject of managing your talent, Angus cites an incident at a Seattle Mariners game where manager Maury Wills signaled slugger Jeff Burroughs to steal second base. Wills was talented at stealing bases and thanks to wishful thinking projected his inherent ability onto Burroughs, who did not share that strength. Burroughs was slightly injured as a result, and was tagged out.

We’ve seen avid corporate bloggers try to get specific co-workers to blog because they thought they’d have a lot of good content to contribute, as they project their own enthusiasm onto others. The result is often disappointing, as their posting frequency can be dismal. They may have good content, but have little enthusiasm for posting. It appears a far better approach is to find someone who is eager to post, and then help them develop high-value content.

Gizmodo reported today that Warner Brothers will make their movies and television shows available to Bittorrent users.

For those of you who don’t know, Bittorrent is one of the most relentlessly popular P2P file sharing systems - used most often by college students and young professionals. It’s a fast, easy way to get one’s hands on the latest releases of premium channel shows like The Sopranos, The L Word, or Big Love - illegally of course.

This newest initiative by Warner Brothers will allow Bittorrent users the option of buying torrent files used to download their movies and televisions shows directly from the content provider. To my knowledge, it’s the first initiative by a major entertainment industry player to use a technology already popular with illegal downloaders for legitimate content downloads. It’s a brilliant way to offer users content on demand in a format they’re already used to.

TV Guide has always been good at moving its brand forward at the pace of technology. Its website provides much of the same useful content as the magazine, while driving subscriptions and sales at the newsstand.

Now the publication is attributing increased traffic to its site to the use of a network of blogs with open comments and a community-building initiative that allows users to build their own blogs, says Diva Marketing.

The publication is also moving toward providing its content on mobile phones, which is an excellent example of the content on demand phenomenon that we talk about in our upcoming book.

PS: Can you tell we’re excited about the book?

I got two great headlines from Steve Rubel today. One is about Dave Winer’s new platform for sharing OPML files. In a nutshell, an OPML file is an exported list of all the RSS feeds you subscribe to. When you upload your exported OPML file into Winer’s database, others can browse through your list of feeds and find new and interesting feeds to subscribe to.

Anil Dash talked about OPML in his talk at our seminar. He thinks they’re a big part of the future of the Web, and it seems like Rubel agrees. I like his conclusion that OPML aggregators like this one will allow marketing types to get a better read on what blogs are influential. The problem with this of course is that so far the site’s top 100 list is all “big head” and not Long Tail. I’d like to see people be able to tag each individual feed, creating a folksonomy that will hopefully help the real gems of the “Long Tail” rise to the top.

The other headline from Rubel today announced that the BBC had launched its own API for developers and creators of mashups. This is something we talk about at length in Chapter nine of our upcoming book. Part of offering content on demand is giving developers/mashup people the opportunity to create new ways of using and cross-referencing that content.

Way cool!

Update 9:11 p.m. PST: Neville Hobson has a great post about OPML and its uses.

Want to be ready for the coming wave of surfers actively searching for content with their phones? Start blogging. Thanks to the highly structured content that the blogging engines create, content authored by bloggers is much more easily digested and presented by cellphone browsers, and a variety of add-on tools and services exist to make that content even more accessible to devices other than PC’s. Reformatting traditional sites to be viewed on mobile devices is generally much more complicated.

In the Wall Street Journal Article, The Next Tech Battle: Internet Searches on Cellphones, reporters Cassell Bryan-Low and Kevin J. Delaney

claim that “The push by the world’s biggest Internet search firms to dominate what customers see when they turn on their cellphones has accelerated in recent months with Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. all striking deals with service providers and others in the cellphone industry.”

About 14.6 million smart phones were shipped world-wide in the fourth-quarter of 2005, nearly double that of the year-earlier period, according to U.K. research firm canalys.com Ltd.

In the article Steve Ballmer is quoted as saying “The leading edge battleground between us and Google in local search really will come on the phone.”

The Media Bloggers Association reported yesterday evening that Warren Kremer Paino Advertising (WKPA) had withdrawn its claim against Maine blogger Lance Dutson.

We offered some analysis of this case just a few days ago, and it looks like WKPA arrived at the same conclusion we (and many other blog-savvy communications types) did: don’t sue a blogger unless your case is airtight. There are many other more productive ways to combat an Internet detractor.

I have only one bone to pick with Dutson. In his post celebrating the withdrawal of the multimillion dollar lawsuit, he wrote, “This will make the Cinqo de Mayo celebration tonight that much sweeter (and may even mean it starts earlier) for the Dutson clan.”

We at the BBS are all glad to know that Mr. Dutson is celebrating. But for the record, it’s spelled Cinco de Mayo. Still, given all he’s been through - we might just need to give Mr. Dutson a free pass.

Via Tailrank.

Some commenters have recently been critical of NPR’s blog Mixed Signals for their use of an ever-rotating panel of temporary bloggers that have included many of their illustrious on-air personalities.

“Ya’ll need to find a REGULAR blogger(s), and quit treating this thing as a ‘by the way,’” wrote commenter “Scott” this past Monday.

Today, NPR’s current blogger Ken Rudin responded.

First, props to Rudin for his well thought-out response to the detractor. He gets a “take that, detractor!” award. Reasserting the importance of the conversation between the blogger & the commenters was also a good move.

But beyond that, I have a suggestion for NPR. Perhaps instead of rotating a all your different personalities, you could have them all blog at the same time, kind of like Byron & Steve & I take turns posting over here. You could still have one “blog host” who is responsible for most of the posting and for framing the discussion, but open up posting rights to a group of people and let all those compelling perspectives that Rudin refers to bump up against each other in the blogosphere.

Engaging in a cold war with the spammers today, I let a comment in because the idiot spammer forgot to put in the URL. So, when that dear idiot comes back to check the post, he’ll be all like, “aargh, forgot the URL,” and won’t get his 4 cents a click to put on his porn account.

ClickZ reports that ABC’s website has crashed twice while streaming two of its most popular shows, Desperate Housewives and Lost on its website.

The original idea, which we applauded here at the Blog Business Summit, was to offer the content to users for free on demand, paid for by advertising.

But ABC definitely didn’t prepare for the kind of bandwidth usage they would be experiencing while streaming the shows. What’s more, when a company spokesperson was contacted by ClickZ, she said she had no knowledge that the site had shut down.

Businesses that decide to provide content to their users this way will want to take a lesson from the ABC story. If you’re going to provide new content or a new service on your site you need to be prepared for the increased demand on your servers, and if the servers crash - for heaven’s sake, make sure your public relations department at least has a statement to make.

This vacuum of information from ABC is only going to spur the blogosphere to buzz more, and under no circumstances can that be good for ABC.

Via Digg

We know, we know, you’ve all been dying for a sneak peak at Publish and Prosper: Blogging for your Business a Peachpit/New Riders Voices that Matter book due out in just a few weeks.

We are very happy to now be able to offer a sample chapter of the book over at our book site.

The sample chapter is Chapter 1: Meet the Blogs, in which the authors introduce readers to the blogosphere.

Enjoy, folks!

People approach me all the time asking whether the blogosphere might be right for their business, and if so, how they could get started. The answer is different for every company.

In many cases though, sponsored blogs are a great option for companies that don’t have the time or the skill set to start a blog themselves. A sponsored blog is a bit like a magazine with a specific topic that targeted a limited audience. This is also known as The Long Tail. Let’s use the fictitious Chewing magazine that Calvin from the old Calvin & Hobbes cartoons used to read as an example:

(This image via Gregarius. Other comics involving Chewing can be found here and here.)

If Calvin were around today, it’s likely that he’d be reading Chewing online as a blog that was sponsored by one of the major chewing gum companies as a way to target its audience and extend its brand into the blogosphere without actually blogging itself.

This can also work when a company wants to benefit from the power of the blogosphere without giving its employees the opportunity to blog. After all, a publicly traded company would be in a lot of hot water with the SEC if an employee inadvertently wrote something forward looking on the blog that wasn’t released through official channels.

So if you’re interested in blogging for your business, but you’ve determined that it might not be a natural fit for your employees, a sponsored blog might be the right option for you.

And as a blatant plug for our services, I’d like to point out that we’ve got some experience with this kind of thing, having built and maintained inFlightHQ - which is sponsored by Connexion by Boeing. Let us know if you’d like to talk more about sponsored blogs by leaving us a comment or using our contact form.

The blogosphere has been abuzz the last few days with the story of an ad agency, Warren Kremer Paino Advertising (WKPA) that is suing a blogger, Lance Dutson of Maine. The issue in dispute is Mr. Dutson’s coverage of the work that the agency was doing for the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development.

In one particularly ridiculous mistake, WKPA created an ad that referred readers to a sex chat line instead of the actual information line for Maine tourism. In order to cover the mistake on his blog, Dutson pulled the ad from the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development website and republished it on his blog. WKPA holds a copyright for that advertisement.

Dutson also claimed that WKPA had made grievous mistakes in the way that they conducted their Google advertising, allowing people within the State of Maine to see and click the ads on Google. He argued that this was an unwise allocation of the tax money being used to pay for the ads - which were intended to encourage tourism - and that they competed unfairly for attention with ads placed by Maine businesses looking for customers within the State of Maine, including his own clients.

There are a number of other facts in dispute in the suit (PDF), which claims copyright infringement, defamation and trade libel/injurious falsehood against Mr. Dutson for his coverage. I haven’t the time or room here to rehash every factoid. There are many other sources, including Dutson himself that tell the complete story already. I don’t want to be an echo chamber.

What I do want to do is explore why WKPA filed this lawsuit in the first place. To this end, I chatted with a couple of lawyers - my father and uncle, if truth be told. Both of them confirmed what I already knew: truth and the expression of a personal opinion are both absolute defenses against defamation claims.

What’s more, under Sullivan vs. New York Times, there has to be acutal malice for a public figure - which WKPA may be - to claim libel. For actual malice to apply here, Dutson would need to have known that his claims against WKPA were false. However, whether WKPA can be considered a public figure, and whether Dutson knew the claims were false are issues of fact for a jury to find.

Also in question is Dutson’s use of material for which WKPA holds a copyright - the ad with the sex chat number that he republished to illustrate his point. What is not clear is whether his republication of the ad in question falls within the parameters of fair use. This is also an issue of fact for a jury.

It’s possible that WKPA and its lawyers believe that they have a valid claim against Dutson, but as Steve Rubel has already told us, suing bloggers is such a bad public relations move that unless they had a very clear cut case against Dutson, it would be a terrible idea to sue him. And in this case the merits of this lawsuit are far from clear.

But what I find particularly interesting about this entire issue has very little to do with the merit or lack thereof of the lawsuit:

Tom McCartin, president of WKPA, is most concerned about Mr. Dutson’s public posts because if potential clients search for the agency online, they will likely see Mr. Dutson’s critique-filled blog before the agency’s own Web site. As a result, Mr. McCartin says his business, which sees capitalized billings in the $40 million range, has been hurt. And he wants to protect his reputation. (From AdAge)

What this basically tells me is that apart from being incredibly naive about the potential for backlash in the blogosphere, WKPA is also ignorant of the way that search engines work and why blogs are more powerful than traditional Websites when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO). Indeed, a Google Search of WKPA’s name reveals numerous sites positioned ahead of the firm’s actual website. If McCartin is really concerned about his site’s page rank and performance on Google, his firm should start its own blog.

At first I believed that the relative lack of merit in this suit meant that WKPA was using the courts to intimidate detractors while gathering inbound links, and didn’t expect to win their case. But having explored the issue further, I can only conclude that WKPA has no idea what they have gotten themselves into. Their naivete about the blogosphere and search engines leads me to believe that they are simply using outdated legal tactics in a new world where they don’t work anymore.

My verdict: Just Plain Stupid.

Via TailRank.

Byron has posted over at the blog book blog about our book going to press today!

We’re all very excited to see the finished product.

Representative Ed Markley (D-MA) recently introduced a bill designed as a response to the COPE Act that is being backed by the telecommunications companies.

The basic argument is about whether Congress will change the rules and allow ISPs to accept payment from wealthy companies to make their websites load faster. Opponents say that it would create an inherent dichotomy in the Internet between the haves and the have-nots, and that this would be antithetical to the spirit of the Web.

What I want to know is, what does Sir Tim Berners-Lee think of all this?

Via Digg.