High-Tech PR Blog >> Beyond the Hype

The Olympics and life without the First Amendment

I can't wait until the Olympics as I'm a sports nut and love watching international competition. I'll also be tuned into what should be an interesting back story of how the Chinese government will treat international journalists there. If tidbits passed along to me in the last two days are any indication, we'll get a very good glimpse into what life would be like without freedom of speech or the press.

From a story on the AFP wire this week:

China will censor the Internet used by foreign media during the Olympics, an organising committee official confirmed Wednesday, reversing a pledge to offer complete media freedom at the games.

"During the Olympic Games we will provide sufficient access to the Internet for reporters," said Sun Weide, spokesman for the organising committee.

He confirmed, however, that journalists would not be able to access information or websites connected to the Falungong spiritual movement which is banned in China.

Other sites were also unavailable to journalists, he said, without specifying which ones.

This followed a story first reported in the Asian Wall Street Journal last Friday that several accredited foreign journalists and television camera crews were assaulted or detained when they attempted to cover a small "riot" that broke out among 30,000 people lined up to buy Olympic event tickets. There were other reports that police demanded they delete the footage of the fracas.

Once the full media contingent is in force by the time the Games start a week from tomorrow, the question is whether police and the government are going to continue their crack down, or provide the media freedom we all expect. It will be interesting to see.

Greed is Good

Last night I attended a MassNetComms gathering of 100+ people, hosted at Battery Ventures, which included a panel of investors offering perspective on wireless, networking and telecom opportunities. John Dix, editor-in-chief of Network World, hosted a lively, optimistic discussion that kept coming back to mobility and video. In particular, challenges to be tackled, according to this group, are monetization of content; getting content from our computers to our TVs; and watching the smaller video players (e.g. Joost) figure out ways to get access to more content so that they can effectively compete with the big cable and service providers. These themes are pretty consistent with what we are seeing from our clients that play in the video and content arena, and the media and analysts who are writing about the space.

On the state of the IPO market (or lack thereof) an amusing yet hopeful quote was offered, "Fear is temporary. Greed is eternal." God bless Gordon Gekko.

Dix closed the discussion with two statements he asked the panelists to complete:

Bill Gates comes out of retirement to do what?  Answers ranged from,"take over as CEO of Apple" to "appear in Dancing with the Stars as JLo's partner, doing a spirited rendition of the tango."

Facebook becomes profitable by...?  Answers ranged from "It's not going to happen" to "It sells to Martha Stewart and is renamed Lacebook."

Clearly at this point the group was ready for the beer and barbeque that was waiting outside. However, if you would like to play the game and complete either or both of these statements, please give us your best shot.

Happy 50th NASA! What you've meant to us.

In the course of work on a client's news announcement today, I learned from a colleague that today marks the 50th anniversary of when President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which spawned the creation of NASA. I wasn't alive at the time, but I find the period of history and the motivation behind the Act's passage fascinating. We were falling behind the Soviets in the space race. This country was shocked by the launch of Sputnik and it brought into immediate realization that a dramatic turnaround was needed to reassert our scientific and engineering dominance. 

Being in the high-tech and life-sciences industries, we have great reason to celebrate this birthday. It has been argued a great deal over the years how important the set of government initiatives that included NASA was to spawning an era of technological innovation unequaled in history. This included the creation of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), which eventually created the Internet; education programs intended to train a new generation of engineers; and significantly increased support for scientific research.

More importantly to us and our business, however, about 10 years after the creation of NASA, it launched the NASA Innovative Partnerships Program, which has been the central link between the agency and the commercial sector. In particular, this program has provided incentives through investments for the private sector to come up with inventions that could benefit NASA, as well as provide access to NASA inventions that commercial companies can use to create new innovative products. NASA publishes a publication annually called Spinoff "featuring successfully commercialized NASA technology."

This article lists 10 of the more interesting NASA inventions that we use every day. The ones that apply to me include water filters, ear thermometers, cordless tools and satellite radio/TV. It also includes long-distance telecommunications on the list, giving some insight into how important NASA has been to accelerating this industry.

So, while NASA symbolizes our scientific and technology leadership over the past 50 years, the question is whether we can maintain it. The government has reduced the role it plays, and we're in a period of time when there is less and less interest in math and science in schools and enrollment in computer science programs is way down. What is it going to take for us to maintain our leadership? Can the private sector alone ensure this will happen, or does the government need to play a similar role it did in the 1950's in catalyzing a renewed focus, perhaps around something like alternative energy or nanotechnology? What do you think?

Is there an Amex and MasterCard of Social Networking?

 

I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members.
Groucho Marx

In her post last week about social networking overload, MSNBC.com columnist Eve Tahmincioglu evokes the Brady Bunch episode where high school freshman Marcia Brady joins too many clubs and gets overwhelmed. Instead of the Brady Bunch, I thought of the Groucho quote above when I was pinged by a former co-worker, Tim Scannell, a couple weeks ago on Plaxo Pulse. "You're just joining Plaxo? Where have you been?" This message followed within days of a funny Plaxo Pulse invitation from consultant and blogger John Patrick, with this message: "Hi, Lois, I see you joined Plaxo. Connect if you want. Not sure it really does anything for either of us, but what the heck. John."

I laughed out loud at John's message and, of course, connected with him. I also nodded in silent agreement as I did so. Tim's message prompted me to get defensive, explaining in a reply that I had been on the edges of Plaxo for years and accepted people's address and job title changes and complying with their requests for my updates. Recently, however, with the move to Plaxo Pulse, I got an invitation from a former colleague that seemed to require that I sign on before I could do the polite thing and connect with the person. Ever since I did that, I have been receiving messages from people who think I just joined. And then Tim thought I was late to the party. I hate to be late for anything!  [Note to Plaxo: why do I have to click on the "you have a message" URL twice each time to get to the actual message? First time always lands me on the intro/aren't we wonderful page.]

Eve's blog post lays out the dilemma nicely -- how many social networking sites and services can you really manage? How many do you really need? Chris Shipley told me she finds FriendFeed helpful and I admit I am checking it out, but I'm leery to get too involved with another one. At one point I signed up for Gather, but quickly found that the posts were very long and like discussion boards and I simply didn't have the time to participate properly. (For the same reason I have not taken up golf -- I don't have the time to do it right.) And one of my former work colleagues sent me an invitation (twice now) to join Naymz, another group which describes itself as a reputation network. I tried to figure out a way to politely decline without causing offense, like I nicely decline additional store credit cards and loyalty programs I don't have time to track. I have this fear that if I made one false move, I'd be signed up and getting pinged by yet another group of people -- or the same people on this new network.

I agree with Eve that LinkedIn seems like a good one for career research -- either hiring or getting hired. Facebook is a fun way to stay in touch with friends and colleagues. I've used it occasionally for business purposes. But one of my friends said it has helped him build an audience for his writing, as he can quickly notify many people who like him and like his work that he has a new offering.

I think we need to figure out which are the American Express and MasterCards of the social networking sites. I'm willing to carry two cards and a couple store cards, maybe, but if I need a second virtual wallet to track my sites, I'm probably not going to do any of the social networking there justice.

By the way, I would bet Groucho would be on Facebook, but his updates would be private.

PopTech's Call to Bloggers

This week, I received an email from Pop!Tech promoting their new blog group focused on innovation.  According to them, "The Pop!Tech blog is a place to learn about and discuss the ideas shaping our collective future – as well as track the amazing people and projects driving the Pop!Tech community – and we want you to join the conversation!"  They also asked for bloggers to put it on their blog rolls, so we have done that here.

So if you know any entrepreneurs, scientists or CTO's whose ideas on innovation should be shared with others, tell them about it.  Get them to comment on current posts, or volunteer to be a guest blogger.

P.S. One of the posts spotlighted a new community that has a new spin on journalism.  Spot.us, which is slated to launch this fall, presents the idea of crowd funded journalism.  The idea is that journalists present story ideas, members of the community vote on those that they want to see, and provide the funding for them to be done.  What do you think?  It will be interesting to see this play out.

How About a PR Whitelist Instead?

It's been very interesting lately to see signs of mid-life (?) crisis blossoming in the blogosphere.  Om's well-covered wakeup call over the holidays and his nicely written self-assessment of how he needed to revisit all aspects of his life, including the race to be the most prominent blog in the industry, is at the forefront of my mind. Jason Calacanis has abandoned blogging and now is using a personal email list to share information and ideas -- at least I think he is, given that Clark Kent was one of the "reporters" in the press Q&A he included with his announcement on his blog.  [I sat near Jason at the D Conference in May and the man never lifted his head; he was either tweeting or live-blogging non-stop.  No wonder he is feeling burned out.]  And now Robert Scoble has added his ponderings to the mix.  I thought his assessment of losing the joy of tech blogging and getting swept up in the "echo chamber" of Silicon Valley (this phrase was used by one of the many many commenters to his post) and the competitive nature of scooping other A-list blogs on the same announcements was interesting.  He said he wants to get back to his original purpose in blogging -- sharing the wonder of technology and the possibilities of new technologies with other techies.  I can respect that.

But then he added the thirty lashes to my industry:

Tech blogging has become way too controlled by PR agents. You might not realize it, but the top blogs are contacted by PR folks dozens of times per day. This is why you’ll see 15 stories all appear on Techmeme at the same time. All with the same news. Only a few of whom slow down to ask “is this really useful.”

See, we’ve all learned that getting out in the first two minutes is worth a lot of traffic. Particularly if you are writing about an Apple news release.

Watch on Wednesday afternoon as the press, er bloggers, all file the same news story, albeit each with a different sensationalized headline. I’ve played that game and done it as well as anyone.

It is unfortunate that we get tarred with the same brush, as if we are all exact duplicates of each other doing exactly the same types of mindless, uninformed spamming that have been driving tech media crazy since I was in a journalist's chair before starting our agency.

I have to respectfully disagree and suggest that bloggers don't blame PR for the shifts in their profession.  Yes, it is becoming more business-oriented because, guess what, we all have to put food on the table and figure out how to make a buck.  It has become more quasi-news and scoop-oriented because of the crazed desire to be on the top blog list and Techmeme leaderboard, to attract the top advertisers/sponsors, to be invited to all of the top conferences and to replace the traditional media.  The problem is that my Bloglines "morning read" playlist looks a lot like the product listings we used to churn out when I was the software editor of Computerworld 25 years ago.  We used to race each other to the press rooms for typewriters (yes, it was a long time ago) so we could be first to announce the next new version of IBM's MVS operating system or to describe this new phenomenon, a spreadsheet.

But that wasn't the fun part of the job.  The more thoughtful pieces that allowed you to analyze a product area or a segment of the market and provide context as well as news were always my favorite.  And they still are as I scour the blogs for context as well as quick and dirty content. 

And to the bloggers who are rethinking their lives and their blogs, may I respectfully submit that they look beyond their immediate surroundings for interesting companies and developments in high technology.  There are amazing companies all over this country doing very innovative things.  They may not be at all of the A-list shows or at the right parties, but they are creating some of the cool stuff that Scoble and others want to know about and should be writing about. The agencies like us who represent lots of innovators are respectful of the media, whether they are writing for print, online, broadcast or blogs.  We help our clients share news and insights the right way.  We understand that "less is more" when it comes to working with the media.  Heck, I wrote an article about the 5 Rs of Successful Media Relations many years before blogs were even a gleam in an A-lister's eye. 

The 5 Rs are: Read (the target media before considering a pitch), Respect (the media's time, deadlines and competitive pressures), Respond (on a dime),  Realize (not every announcement or initiative is newsworthy no matter how much our client wants it to be), Relate (it is all about relationships.) 

Our people have been trained on these principles.

So, in summary, many of us "get it" and would appreciate being added to a PR Whitelist instead of being subjected to another blanket attack.  The media who do the kind of filtering I used to do when I received tons of emails and calls from PR people daily have been rewarded with productive relationships with people who do a lot of legwork for them and connect them with great sources and great stories. 

"The Lois Paul Building"

Our blog recently crossed the one year milestone.  We are now celebrating a new anniversary - the one year mark of the company sign on our Boston office building (in Woburn, MA).  I've heard from Lois countless times over the past year about how many people have called or e-mailed her out-of-the-blue to complement her on the sign, as our location, near the junction of Route 128 and I-93 and its positioning on the building makes it highly visible. 

The sign even is making our building a landmark.  I get my car serviced at the Nissan dealership in town, which is very convenient because of the courtesy shuttle service it provides to and from the office.  The last time I brought my car in and took the shuttle to the office in the morning, the driver asked me where I was going.  When I gave him our address, 150 Presidential Way, he replied, "Oh, the Lois Paul Building."  I guess I won't need to give the address anymore.

It's only appropriate then to make the sign even more visible by using the new feature in Google Earth that allows user-generated models of locations to be submitted to Google.  Thanks to our in-house digital media expert, Tom Raymo, our sign and building are there for all to see.  If you have Google Earth installed, clicking on this link and the image immediately below should allow you to "fly in" to see it.

Answer Might be Blowing in the Wind

It was hard to miss T. Boone Pickens' PR blitz earlier this month that kicked off his campaign to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil and increase windfarm production. With all eyes on the explosive cost of oil, Boone explains why gas prices are so high and states that we are past the point of no return with cheap oil. He said it will stay where it is or get worse based on new demand from China and India and a finite supply of oil.

With 60 years in the oil business, he did a good job getting his message across until he told Bloomberg last week that he won't put windfarms on his ranch, "because I think they are ugly." Now, call me crazy, but I don't care how rich and powerful you are - everyone needs PR help avoiding landmines if you are kicking off a PR campaign to drive excitement around a new multi-billion dollar effort. He clearly didn't go over his talking points before making this comment, and this isn't exactly the best way to get his neighbors and future customers clamouring about for windfarms.

But seriously, I do hope his effort is successful, despite the cynicism around "clean tech." I was reading "The Onion" this weekend, one of my favorites you may notice as I have a tendency to keep referencing it. It has a humorous article about the need for another bubble. 

"According to investment experts, now that the option of making millions of dollars in a short time with imaginary profits from bad real-estate deals has disappeared, the need for another spontaneous make-believe source of wealth has never been more urgent."

Although this was an exaggeration, for those of us living in the technology market we all know there is an element of truth to this. Mark Veverka of Barron's has already cast his doubts on clean tech last year, calling it a "fuzzy business category" in a blog explaining that saving humanity and making profits are rarely intertwined.

I see what he's saying, but I think T. Boone might be onto something. Global warming is finally accepted by society as a real problem, and whenever I read articles like the one I did yesterday pointing out anxiety-ridden tidbits like a quarter of the world's oil is shipped through a narrow passage called the Strait of Hormuz between Israel and Iran, I tend to get a little antsy for other energy sources for the world.

Remembering Patrice Burkett

Only a few months after learning of the passing of Sue Schauppner, another member of the LP&P family has sadly succumbed to cancer. Patrice Burkett worked with us in the mid-90s and became a mentor and friend of mine almost immediately. Her spirit and smile were always bright, and she was always in the mood for a good laugh. At the same time, she was level-headed and smart with her advice.

I learned of Patrice's passing this past weekend from a colleague who shared the following: "She was a tremendous example of courage and perseverance, and kept her upbeat attitude no matter what."

For those of you that knew Patrice, her obituary includes information on services scheduled and where donations should be directed.

Beyond the Hype is mobile!

The excitement for the iPhone 3G around the office is palpable.  There are plenty of people that have been holding onto creaky and clunky Blackberrys for over a year now just waiting for an iPhone that would allow the same kind of access to e-mail that Blackberry has had.  Obviously, it's now here and we're in the midst of testing support for it. 

At the same time, we have more and more people using Blackberrys, and I've even noticed that some have opted to buy the Pearl as their next phone.  RIM spent millions on TV advertising during the recent NBA playoffs with spots clearly targeting everyone except the business people that have made Blackberry as popular as it is.

The media hype surrounding the iPhone 3G, which has included more comparisons between iPhone and Blackberry, indicates that the all-out war on the smart phone front is just gearing up.  While hype is one thing, my own observations as described above indicate a distinct reality as well.

So, we figured that there's no better time than now to offer a mobile version of our blog.  Using the great service MoFuse, we did just that and are pleased to announce it here.  Below is a preview of what our mobile blog looks like on an iPhone.  To access it, type (and bookmark!) this URL into your Blackberry or iPhone browser, and enjoy the easy navigation and fast load it provides:

http://loispaul.mofuse.mobi

We hope you like it and welcome any feedback you'd like to provide.