For me, one of the key points to consider in a discussion of ethics and blogging is pretty far down their list: * Disclose conflicts of interest, affiliations, activities and personal agendas   more »

I am always amazed about the coolhunting qualities of the Finns. I am currently teaching our annual virtual COIN/Coolhunting seminar at Helsinki University of Technology and as happened to me the previous three times, the cool trends being set here just blow me away. It starts with well-known things like the Finns’ ubiquitous use of mobile technologies. Nokia communicators are everywhere. They are used as browsers in the restaurant, to call up Google and resolve the burning question of which is the oldest church in Finland. To find the restaurant in the first place, the communicator of course also includes a navigation system which easily guides us there through the narrow streets of Helsinki. And when we take a taxi back to the hotel, we pay the taxi driver using our cell phones. Quite different from the US where most taxi drivers in New York still want to be paid in cash!

Finns are also eager users of blogging and social networking. They were among the early adopters of LinkedIn, and they are currently actively embracing Facebook extensions and plug-ins. They even coined a new term for people who buy tech gadgets to obtain the right to belong to their own self-chosen digital tribe. “Yhteisöllisyys” comes from the term yhteisö which means “community” or “society” in Finnish. But as was explained to me, Yhteisöllisyys is more than just the Finnish word for community. It stands for a self-selected group of people who get part of their meaning of life from belonging to a loose association or virtual community sharing the same passion for a high-tech gadget. I am not sure if I understood the meaning completely, but from observing my son playing “world of warcraft” it seems to me that he is definitively part of that Yhteisöllisyys. It is not enough do be part of a virtual community, what counts is to be a passionate member of the virtual community. Surprisingly often, what Finns are passionate about becomes a trend very soon thereafter in the rest of Europe or in the US.

Last week, I contacted Digg.com in an attempt to find out some demographic information about their userbase. They have yet to respond. As I await either a tasteful form letter or hell freezing over, I thought it might be fun to share what I emailed over.   more »

Explore the history of Digg from the Bury Brigade to influencing political discussions.   more »

The IAOC is pleased to announce a mutual sponsorship agreement with the good people at Communitelligence. Both the IAOC and Communitelligence have conferences scheduled the same weekend but on different coasts. We encourage you to take your pick of these terrific learning and networking opportunities.



PR Online Convergence 07: Deploying New Media for Business Advantage, is a 3-day event, May 16-18, at the Universal Hilton in Los Angeles.  Communitelligence has generously offered a $300 discount to IAOC members -- but you must use the promotional code (uHw32) and you need to register soon. See my next post for program details.



The IAOC's Annual Conference is a two-day affair, May 17 & 18, 2007, at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey -- about 15 miles from Philadelphia. See the next post for program details.

Debbie Weil's questions about the advisability and ethics of ghostwritten CEO blogs raises a broader question about the future of blog standards. If blogs become as widespread as websites, will the same community standards be enforced (or enforceable)? Will the average reader know (or care) about the standards? Amy Gahran rightly pointed out in her comment that today ghost written blogs (or other types of phony blogs for that matter) will be outed by the blogosphere. That works in online communities where there are sufficient numbers of independent bloggers who care about such things. Isn't it possible, perhaps likely, that online environments will emerge where people are completely oblivious to today's standards?

Will there be different standards and expectations for different blogosphere communities? For example, do you distinguish between individual blogs with a single voice and group or corporate blogs? Even within individual blogs, there must be different levels of expectation for the personal musings blog, the citizen journalist blog, the industry expert blog, the enthusiast blog, or the CEO blog.

If you spend a lot of time reading, commenting and/or writing blogs, it's easy to assume that the blogosphere standards are universal. But when I step away from my computer and go out and talk to people, I find almost universal ignorance of a blog ethic. Whether I talk to students, or to engineers, or to managers ranging from manufacturing to services, I find many who read about blogs and hear about blogs in the mainline media. But very few say they actually read blogs. Fewer still get RSS feeds, or know what it is. Almost none have commented on a blog. I find far more students actively involved with social media like Facebook, MySpace and YouTube than with blogs. If blogging is to continue its torrid rate of growth, it seems to me the blogosphere may be approaching the point where it transitions from a small village ethic to a multi-layered urban ethic. What's your take?

Don Dunnington

Please join us July 17-21, 2006 for a blog program: PR is Getting Personal, with discussion leaders Joost van de Loo, Clo Willaerts and Dana Gornitzki

ABOUT THE TOPIC:
In today's networked world it is no longer a winning strategy to have a safe job and to trust in the authority of your company. Positions change quickly; your manager can become a freelancer, your supplier can be your client the next month.  Commercial communication is more and more becoming the ongoing dialogue between individuals that the Cluetrain Manifesto predicted. Direct-to-consumer PR is only a small element of this pattern.

As a result, personal reputation is now one of our most precious assets. Successful professionals do everything to be seen as trusted networking hubs. How will this change PR? Will our press releases become more 'fair and balanced'? How do we need to adapt our thinking?

ABOUT THE DISCUSSION LEADERS:
Joost van de Loo is a Marketing Strategist, who joined communication consultancy ZN following a career in journalism and marketing. He has a Master of Arts degree in International Journalism from the City University of London, and a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Delft University of Technology. In addition to work at ZN he currently sets up Distinct News International, a company that produces multi-media packaged television news features from India and China. He also consults for ETV and writes for UK-based Diplo magazine. Joost has worked for BBC Four television, the Amsterdam Weekly, Dynamic Zone, and KPN Mobile.

Clo Willaerts is marketing manager of Belgacom Skynet and an avid blogger.

Dana Gornitzki is a Canadian transplant currently living in London, England. A journalist and media expert, Dana's experience has covered the world of print, online and broadcast. From working with film festivals and inside a major public broadcaster to working with emerging brands, Dana's work has a focus of social interactions and its impact on the here and now. Currently, she is exploring the mobile space and is interested in that medium's far-reaching effects from social communities to advertising and consumption habits.

George Mason University’s Business Alliance is hosting "Blog This! The Good, the Bad, and Why It All Matters" this Thursday at their SmartTalk Breakfast in Tysons Corner, Virginia (near Washington, DC).

The program features Pete Snyder, New Media Strategies, Marshall Manson, Edelman, and Richard Shenkman, Editor, George Mason University History News Network, all nationally known interactive media experts.

IAOC members and guests are invited to attend this breakfast at the reduced Business Alliance member rate (simply type IAOC in the “guest of” box when registering online).

Don Dunnington
IAOC President

As I mentioned in a post on PowderandBulk.com, I was at the Powder Show exactly 10 years ago, introducing K-Tron International's first website (we now have about a dozen and the number keeps growing). Believe it or not, crowds gathered in our booth to see the Powder Show's first-ever demonstration of a website. I ran the demo from a CD because there was no broadband available then.

I'd say blogging for most businesses is at about the same point the World Wide Web was 10 years ago. It remains to be seen if business, especially small to mid-sized companies, will find the resources to enter the blogosphere to the extent they have embraced the web. I suspect that community sites like PowderandBulk.com, may become the preferred medium for most companies. Unlike the industrial "web malls" that had a brief but spectacular rise and fall, blogging communities will likely start slow and grow over time. They offer companies the opportunity to blog without the time and financial commitments, and legal risks, of hosting their own blogs. That may appeal to a broad range of companies.

Don Dunnington
IAOC President

I relish the opportunity to speak about blogging to a business audience, where nearly everyone—if not the whole room—is skeptical about the benefits of blogging for business. Now that the old media has discovered the new media, I find business managers and technical workers are at last curious, but still they remain skeptics and that makes for interesting discussions (if you give them a chance to talk as much as listen).

The challenge in breaking through their skepticism is explaining the value of "conversation" as it applies to blogging. While professional communicators, especially those already involved in producing content for websites, quickly comprehended and appreciate all the nuances of the online conversation, these are soft values that are hard for business people to accept on faith. And even if they grant that online conversations would be nice to have, they still have a hard time putting a value on it that would justify the resources required.

So last Wednesday I tried a different approach to the usual PowerPoint tour of blogs for beginners. In a session titled The Business Case for RSS and Blogs for Engineers and Managers in Industrial Companies at the Powder and Bulk Conference and Exposition ("The Powder Show") in Chicago, I turned off the PowerPoint, stepped out from behind the podium, and entered into a conversation with the audience.

I can't say that as a result anyone signed up on the spot to become a guest blogger on Joe Talyor's PowderandBulk.com weblog. But it felt like a success as measured by the active engagement of the audience during the talk, and feedback I received following the talk. I'd recommend you try it the next time you need to explain the blogosphere's "conversations" to a group of non-bloggers.

Don Dunnington
IAOC President

I asked Steve O'Keefe what we can do to help the people who have been devastated by Hurricane Katrina. "At this time," he replied, "I recommend donations to the Red Cross." He added, "...every state should ask what they can do *today* for the Gulf Coast."

Following are O'Keefe's top recommendations for online newsfeeds about New Orleans:

http://wdsu.com (good news blog)

http://wwltv.com (good news blog)

http://neworleans.metblogs.com/ (I've been blogging here, good integrator)

http://www.nola.com (has neighborhood blogs with good block-by-block info)

"Also let online communicators know that blogs have been a vital source of news and comfort for survivors and refugees!"

I just received this email from IAOC vice president Steve O'Keefe, whose home and office are in New Orleans:

Dear Friends, Family and Associates,

Patron Saint Productions' New Orleans office is closed due to Hurricane Katrina. I have safely evacuated to Nashville, Tennessee, and am available via e-mail and cell phone (I have been told it is difficult to reach my cell). My cell phone number is 504-715-3051.

As near as I can tell, Patron Saint Production's offices and the homes of all our staff and family members sustained little or no damage. We evacuated enough computer equipment to operate out of Nashville for as long as it takes to safely return to New Orleans. Our New Orleans office will re-open as soon as possible.

I will post updates to the Patron Saint Productions home page on a regular basis. What is happening in New Orleans is truly heartbreaking. Thanks for your concern, your condolences, and your prayers.

STEVE O'KEEFE
Executive Director, Patron Saint Productions, Inc.
Bywater Tech Center, 538 Louisa St, New Orleans, LA 70117 USA
Voice: (504) 947-4994 Fax: (504) 947-4984 Cell: (504) 715-3051

I recently found that both his cell phone service and website were not available. If you wish to get a message to Steve, you can leave a comment here.

I had a long phone conversation with Steve just last Friday. He was back from his summer authors' video tour and was eager to resume contributing to IAOC's blog. He planned to assume responsibility as "program manager/producer" starting in September, and I expect he will be back with us as soon as circumstances permit.

As the AuthorViews Summer Tour continues in Austin, Texas, IAOC vice president Steve O'Keefe interviews Electronic Frontier Foundation pioneer, iconoclast, and author Jon Lebowsky about his new book, Extreme Democracy. The book is a fascinating collection of essays on how technology is changing politics.   more »

I was in a marketing committee meeting last Thursday at the United Way of Gloucester County in New Jersey, when executive director Jere Hoffner called our attention to this poster.

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Elizabeth's discussion of communication models sent me back to the PR textbook I used in graduate school. Grunig and Hunt identified four PR Communication Models in Managing Public Relations [James E. Grunig and Todd Hunt, Harcourt, Bace Jovanovich (1984), p. 21].

The two earliest forms of PR communication, according to the authors, were one-way publicity (such as a publicist promoting a movie), followed by the less overtly commercial communication of one-way public information (such as may be practiced by a government public affairs officer).

Grunig and Hunt held that public relations functions at a higher level when it practices two-way communication. They saw corporate PR largely functioning at the level of two-way asymmetric communication, and some regulated utilities achieving the ideal of two-way symmetric communication.

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