Podcasting, fresh off the presses
Posted Monday, June 27, 2005 at 10:17pm in Blogging | Leave a Comment
I’ve been on the waiting list for around two months now, but I’ve finally received the Todd Cochrane book, Podcasting–the do it yourself guide from Amazon. And after five minutes of brief scanning, it looks like it may be an interesting read. It’s 281 pages, lots of diagrams and explanatory pictures, ideal for my holiday.
Todd is the founder of the Geek News Central blog as well as his personal blog. To give you a brief run-down on what he covers:
1. Listening to the podcast revolution
2. Joining the revolution: Your own podcast
3. Recording your podcast and performing post-production tasks
4. Hosting and preparing to publish your podcast
5. It’s show time
These chapters are broken into subsections also (too many to list!)
Yes I know! I probably could have found all of this info on the web, but I tend to absorb literature better when I read a hard copy.
UK & US PR blogs number comparison
Posted Thursday, June 23, 2005 at 5:03pm in Blogging, Business | 5 Comments
From the Bloglines PR bloglist developed by Constantin Basturea (I believe). I’ve tallied the number of PR blogs from the UK and the US to compare (in numbers) how we differ.
PR practitioners blogging:
UK = 19 US = 64
Blog consultants:
UK = 3 US = 25
Corporate PR blogs:
UK = 4 US = 33
PR education blogs:
UK = 5 US = 6
Clearly a big difference in terms of numbers, showing how the majority of the UK hasn’t quite recognised blogging as a communication tool just yet. What is promising though are the UK PR education blogs, only one behind the US. I hope in the near future, that blogging & podcasting become part of a PR degree, and in my opinion, I can see it happening.
Microsoft start with the RSS
Posted Wednesday, June 22, 2005 at 4:48pm in Blogging | Leave a Comment
Microsoft has launched its first online RSS aggregator–Start. Currently in preview status, the Start team are still working on one or two issues, including firefox support. To view it you need IE.
RSS, what is it?
Posted Tuesday, June 21, 2005 at 8:02pm in Blogging | Leave a Comment
In the three short months I’ve been blogging, I’ve learned a great deal about the use of RSS and its potential as a communication channel, but lately, it seems as though every week there is a new super duper application or software programme that’s going to change the way we use it. So to be honest, I’m getting confused! So in order to build my knowledge on RSS, I’m going to start from the beginning. I’ll post a series of short posts on the subject, including what it is, its history, its uses, its importance, the future of it and how it will be used in PR related issues.
Basically my reasons for doing this are for my own benefit, so I won’t be going into it too technically and I’m not expecting to be quoted as an expert on the subject just yet. But if you spot any mistakes, or feel I missed out an important point, the feedback would be appreciated.
What is RSS?
RSS is an acronym, but depending on who you ask or which website you read, it may stand for Really Simple Syndication, Rich Site Summary or RDF Site Summary. The most used term would probably be the former of these three.
RSS is a text based format, a type of XML. You may have noticed these three letters (XML) before, as RSS feeds are often labelled this ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú although not highly important, worth mentioning all the same. Another note of equally unimportance is the different versions of RSS. There are five:
1. 0.90
2. 0.91
3. 1.0
4. 0.9x
5. 2.0
RSS feeds (which are also called RSS channels or RSS files) usually contain a title, a summary (or indeed the full article) and a link to a URL. To read an RSS feed you need an RSS reader. Again, these are known under different names: RSS aggregator, news reader or news aggregator. These are applications specifically used to read RSS feeds, and come in two types: software that you download, and online readers.
If you track several feeds, the use of an RSS reader is a necessity. RSS readers are set up to check for new items in the feeds you are subscribed to. This means that fresh news comes to you, rather than you going to the news. Thus saving a tremendous amount of time, time you would have used sifting through websites with no guarantee of new and updated information.
RSS feeds can also come via email, if you subscribe a feed to various services like My Yahoo! or my MSN, you will receive a periodical digest of your subscriptions.
Next article: The history of RSS
A rant on journalists
Posted Wednesday, June 15, 2005 at 9:41pm in Blogging, PR General | 3 Comments
The names have been changed to protect the innocent. (And the guilty!)
It went something like this:
Reception: “Hi Stephen, there’s a journalist from the Journal called Nikki on line 2 asking for John.”
Me: “OK, John isn’t in at the moment, so I’ll take the call. Thank you.”
Me: “Hi Nikki, John isn’t in the office at the moment, can I help with anything?”
(Long pause)
Nikki the journalist: “Erm…do I know you?”
Me: “I don’t think so, can I take a message to pass on to John?”
Nikki the journalist: “Well if I don’t know you, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t call me by my first name.”
Me: “Erm..OK. What would you like me to call you?”
Nikki the journalist: “Mrs Smith.”
Me: “Ok Mrs Smith, can I take a message to pass on to John?”
Nikki the journalist: “No.”
(Slams down phone and I’m left with “beep, beep, beep” in my ear.)
Right, I know sometimes there’s a little conflict and perhaps rivalry between journalists and PR people, but to be blatantly rude and obnoxious is something else. As a professional, what does she stand to gain by being socially incontinent? In future, if I have a good story, would she be the first on my press release distribution list? Me thinks not.
From my minimal experience, I’m beginning to think that some journalists just can get to grips with the idea of shared back scratching.