All the news is fit to know
Posted Wednesday, January 18, 2006 at 5:03pm in Blogging, Media, PR General | 4 Comments
Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with news in the technology sector as the speed of new developments seems phenomenal. You can guarantee that from one day to the next, there’s a major player like Google, Microsoft or Yahoo! announcing a new service or an acquisition. Not to mention the smaller sized companies all bringing relevant, exciting news to the forefront also. Only yesterday, BuzzMetrics’ acquisition of Intelliseek was the hot topic of discussion, but guaranteed, by next week we’ll have moved on light years in terms of progression. It’s a very exciting time indeed!
Sometimes it can be too exciting and we (or perhaps just me?) forget that the offline world still exists and news is still taking place in other sectors also. I say this because just yesterday I was chatting to my friends at university and we were discussing recent developments in the mainstream news and to my embarrassment I was woefully behind. Of course, if I were to mention one or two recent technology news items, they would no doubt look at me a little strange and puzzled, but this moment got me thinking a little.
It’s no secret that being up-to-date on news events and aware of the news agenda is one of the most important behaviours of a PR practitioner. I think that one of the great parts of the job is to be essentially adaptable and knowledgeable. Particularly in agency work where you have to learn not only your own market but your client markets too. I’ve heard numerous PR pro’s comments saying the great thing about the job is that no day is the same, and in the little experience I’ve had, I would agree.
So to be ‘adaptable’ and ‘knowledgeable’ we must surely have to take our information from all areas? Whether it be tech news, politics, mainstream, international, national or regional. And receive our news fix from all media including TV, radio, print and online. Even reading news from other countries can’t do any harm.
With this in mind, my feed subscriptions have been edited accordingly; I’m now subscribed to more regular news including international, national and regional and I’m going to dedicate more time to regular news. I’ll still be keeping up-to-date with tech news - it’s far too exciting not to, but in order to get a well rounded view of all news in general, it’s got to be obtained from everywhere.
Create RSS without a blog
Posted at 3:02pm in Blogging | 1 Comment
FeedXs is a new way of producing your own content syndicated with RSS without the need for a blog. In other words, you type what you want in your personal interface on the FeedXs site and you’re given a feed to share with friends, relatives or work colleagues. You can also publish directly from MSN Messenger.
I like how they’re exploring new avenues with RSS but at the same time wonder if it would be more practical to use the good old email or in fact a private blog? Good call though.
The Long Tail book is nigh
Posted at 9:46am in Blogging | Leave a Comment
Chris ‘The Long Tail‘ Anderson has recently finished his manuscript. That’s one book I will be buy when available.
Research shows the UK has an appetite for mobile TV
Posted at 9:38am in Blogging | Leave a Comment
Both the BBC and the Financial Times are reporting that people in the UK would welcome TV streamed to their phone.
A trial carried out by O2 in London revealed 83% of the 18 - 44 year olds set they were satisfied with the service while 76% said they would take up the service within a year.
From a PR point of view this could be yet another channel to reach your audience, which goes back to the fragmentation of delivering the message.
We could also start to see a mobile phone TV war with Sky TV beginning to move into the mobile phone services.
Kensington laptop lock. The new Kryptonite?
Posted Tuesday, January 17, 2006 at 10:17pm in PR General | 5 Comments
While scanning my digg feed I came across this video (edit: which has been around for nearly a year - possibly longer) of a guy breaking into a Kensington laptop lock with nothing more than the cardboard from a toilet paper roll and sticky tape. (edit: And the problem has been addressed since.)
It doesn’t take a genius (edit: or someone who should do their research first) to see similarities between this and the Kryptonite case - if it’s real of course.
The guy even mentions that the company partly insures your computer if it gets stolen while the lock is being used, providing that there is evidential damage to the lock. Well, this hack doesn’t leave any damage what-so-ever work anymore. I hope Kensington’s PR company is was prepared.