Todd Defren on PR Editing Wikipedia
October 19, 2006 by Robert · 9 Comments
Todd Defren has kindly mentioned me at his blog - PR Squared - regarding whether or not PR practitioners should be allowed to edit the Public relations entry at Wikipedia.
First of all, thank you, Todd. Your article was very interesting. I am flattered by your endorsement, too. Not sure I’m worthy, but grateful for your kind comments.
Looking at the PR entry at Wikipedia, I see it has had 75 edits (or attempts) since October 1. Most have been reverted.
However, I wouldn’t touch that entry with a 10-foot mouse pointer. The ideal behind Wikipedia is great. The reality of Wikipedia is sometimes irrational and always unpredicatable. There is legitimately valid information in there. But, to assure you are getting valid information users must fisk out the details on every entry. Wikipedia cannot possibly have enough editors to keep up with all those articles.
Robert Scoble Interviews Australian Wiki Providers
October 9, 2006 by Robert · 4 Comments
We have discussed wikis in class. The most recent example, aside from our own exercises, relates to a former student that pitched wikis to her new bosses - Wall Street lawyer-types doing mergers and acquisitions.
Her bosses took her suggestion to heart and, as she recently reported to me, they have the IT department working on implementing them for their business practices.
Robert Scoble’s ScobleShow offers an interesting interview with Mike Cannon-Brookes, CEO of Atlassian and Jonathan Nolan, director of Atlassian’s developer relations. Their firm is offering “Enterprise Wikis, Project Management, Bug Tracking … (or) enterprise software solutions to the world’s leading organisations.”
Cannon-Brookes made one remarkable statement. He revealed that among Atlassian’s customers “pretty much every major American investment bank is a customer.” He also noted that SAP and Oracle are customers of his company.
So, students may gain a little insight into who and why companies are using wikis from this interesting interview. Go watch it, please.
Update: Speaking of wikis, here are two Peanut Butter wikis from UK educators Richard Bailey and Philip Young. These are fine growing resources. The mediations - Resources for students of PR, Journalism, Social Software, Media Ethics and the PR BOOKS - Recommended sources for public relations wiki. And, as always, we can not forget the NewPR/Wiki from Constantin Basturea.
Seeking Suggestions :: Social Media for Promotion of Nonprofits
May 10, 2006 by Robert · 6 Comments
Social media will be incorporated into a summer project I’m working on for Easter Seals Camp ASCCA. I know you’ve seen me write about Camp ASCCA often, but this summer - get ready - you’ll see it a lot here and at the Camp ASCCA Web site.
I honestly believe that this will be the largest nonprofit use of social media (blogs, podcasts, video, forums and more) that has ever been attempted (aside from political sites and some national / international NPO sites). But, I can’t say that for certain until I do some more research. You can help, if you like. Do you know of any site for a nonprofit organization that has posted this much, this often and using online communication?
Below you will see an outline of what our plans are and how we seek to accomplish these tasks. I have abbreviated the plan as it is actually written out and is 12 pages - single-spaced - in a Word document. I’m still working on it, too.
Here, in a nutshell, is what we’re going to try. I’d love to receive your feedback, suggestions and criticisms.
ASCCA is a nonprofit organization and resources are limited. They have devoted two internships (paid) to the process. The students will receive free housing, meals and $1,000 per month (the same salary camp program staff receive). That, I believe, is a remarkable commitment.
Beyond that, ASCCA has invested in two multimedia computers, digital audio recorders, video recorders (straight to MPEG) and software. I am donating the use of a digital video camera, digital photo camera and a digital audio recorder, too. This should enable the interns to easily capture, and quickly edit, the content they capture. More on that below.
- Two interns will run the operation. Their work hours are quite different from other jobs. They will follow, essentially, the same day that all of the campers and staff do - 7:00 AM until 10:00 PM each day. The camps traditionally run from Sunday at Noon until Friday at Noon.
- In an attempt to be realistic, I am seting an initial “minimum” number of blog postings at four per day. Actually, I believe it could be 8 or more per day.
- Posts will be a combination of audio, video, photos and text.
- VIDEO: Our initial goal is to do short video pieces and they will be loaded up to our Google Video site and YouTube. These will highlight the program areas from lakefront and the pool to horseback riding and high adventure. We have over a dozen activity areas, so content will be widely avaialable.
- AUDIO: These will be short interviews with campers, parents, counselors and visitors. The length will not, I pray, go beyond 10 minutes each. These will be hosted on our servers and delivered through the Wordpress Podpress plugin and iTunes.
- PHOTOS: Digital cameras will be used to capture dozens of photos each day. They will highlight four main areas: programs, camper/counselor relationships, barrier-free architecture incorporated into activities and cabin life. These will be hosted on our servers and in our Flickr Pro account.
- WRITING: These will be observations by the interns about Camp ASCCA and the experiences of the campers and staff. Visitors (fund raising) will also be highlighted. We want honest observations. ASCCA has always been about the reality of abilities - not focusing on the disabilities. We want to offer answers/solutions which allow people with disabilities to participate. We don’t want any “poor pitiful crippled children” stories. Those always irk me.
I realize that is a lot of uploading. Now the sad news. One of the limitations we have at a camp is our location. We have satellite web access. That means that uploading is essentially dial-up. Camp is 10 miles from the nearest highway. A squirrel on the phone line can cause havoc. We may actually drive into town for the uploading of the video, audio and photo files. The only alternative is to keep the phone lines running all night.
With few exceptions, opensource software will be used for all of these projects. We have a wiki (PmWiki), CRM (SugarCRM), calendars (30boxes and Google Calendar), forums and/or alumni database (phpBB), eLearning (Moodle), photo albums (Flickr and Gallery 2), video (Google Video and YouTube) along with Wordpress blogs and plugins.
The students have already used much of the software and they have seen the rest of it in action.
New releases will be delivered via a blog newsroom setup to the state and southeastern publications serving our campers hometowns. Most of these are mid-sized to small publications and usually appreciate the content. High resolution photos will accompany the stories created by the interns. Where possible, audio actualities will be included and sent to their local radio stations. Small town radio still does radio news, you know.
I am not sure what, if any, value online press release delivery services could offer us, but we may try them. We’ll likely only use the free services, unless someone wants to spot us for free access to a paid service. That would be a blessing.
Contacts will be made to these local news organizations and offer them email notification of stories or RSS feeds. They’ll likely prefer the emails, as most of the releases will be specifically targeted by locality.
Side projects include populating the Moodle eLearning site to help expand ASCCA’s appeal to school teachers in the areas of environmental education.
Among our many goals are: considerable search engine placement and optimization, increased visibility in online social media communities, a rebirth of ASCCA’s regional media releases, active involvement with our primary audiences (people with disabilities, parents, caregivers, teachers, therapists/medical, other nonprofits and our alumni - campers, staff and volunteers).
Yes, we will be pitching - news outlets and bloggers. We will be commenting in other blogs and developing relationships with sites/blogs addressing disability issues.
We are also interested in online fundraising, but that will come down the road. We want to develop a strong respectable presence online, first.
OK, that is a brief (believe it or not) synopsis of what we’ll be doing this summer. What do you think? I’m reserving some comments I have until I hear from you.
HigherEd BlogCon :: New Media in Communications; Resources for Further Learning
April 19, 2006 by Robert · Comments Off
HEBCWednesday, April 19, 2006: New Media in Communications; Resources for Further Learning
Blair Fannin
Texas A&M University System
AgNews - Texas A&M
Brendon Connelly
George Fox University
Brendon’s Blog - SlackermanagerSean McKay
George Fox University
Sean’s Website
How Can I Learn More About New Media?
Dan Karleen
Thomson Peterson’s
Brendon Connelly and Sean McKay :: George Fox University Does Wikis Right :: Podcast
HEBC George Fox University is doing great things with wikis. Meet Brendon Connelly and Sean McKay. They can help you get started with wikis, too.
“A wiki is a collaborative web-based content management system in which all users can edit the web pages that are part of the site. Wikis provide a flexible and adaptive web-based environment for admissions (and other higher-ed) departments to develop knowledge bases and repositories of group experiences … Because of its nature, a wiki web site evolves over time and adapts to work with the content that its users contribute.”
Brendon Connelly
George Fox University
http://www.slackermanager.com/
Sean McKay
George Fox University
http://academic.georgefox.edu/~smckay/
There is a screencast in “.mov” format available to compliment the PDF.
And, we have a podcast that I recorded with Sean and Brendon awhile ago. Sorry for the delay in sharing it, but - as with Nancy Prater’s podcast - I’ve experienced a computer crash and had to retreive and restore a great deal of information - plus, buy new software.
Now, this is not your usual podcast. The files were corrupted, but I could recover their voices. So, what you hear are their responses to my questions. I have tried to make it comprehensible. If you download their PDF file and read that, then listen to the podcast, I believe it can work for you. Think of these as audio notes on how they got into the wiki business at George Fox University.
The podcast link is below (23 minutes). Please visit Sean and Brendon’s presentation, too. Using Wikis to Facilitate Communication, Collaboration, and Knowledge Sharing Among Admissions and Administrative Personnel.
A Smart Company Grabs the Brass Constantin
April 4, 2006 by Robert · 2 Comments
Constantin Basturea. He is the brass ring of online PR conversations and body of knowledge. I have long admired, respected and appreciated his herculean online efforts.
The New/PRWiki is just one of his progeny. Constantin was one of the founding members of Global PR Blog Week, created and administers the Bloglines PR Blog List and the PubSub PR Community List. Those are just a few of his accomplishments. Impressive. Very impressive!
A smart company steps up and grabs the brass ring - Constantin. Congratulations to Converseon, too.
Converseon is a new breed of communications agency that capitalizes on the changing ways consumers and businesses gather, synthesize, share and act on information.
A smart new breed, in fact. They are lucky to have him.
Constantin shares the news on his blog and via email this morning.
I could not be happier, Constantin. You are very deserving of this new opportunity. Best wishes for your continued success!
HigherEd BlogCon Starts Today!
April 3, 2006 by Robert · 3 Comments
Today marks the launch of HigherEd BlogCon, 
“an online event focused on how new online communications technologies and social tools are changing Higher Education. The month-long event begins with a week of presentations about the impact of new tools on teaching and the learner.”
Please visit HigherEd BlogCon and see some truly wonderful examples of social media and online strategies being used around the web.
This is “a fully web-based event focused on how new online communications technologies and social tools are changing Higher Education. Except as noted, presentations are offered free of charge.”
Link Love :: With a positive purpose
March 27, 2006 by Robert · 2 Comments
Scott Baradell, Media Orchard, wants some Link Love, so I’m sharing it with him.
This is a wonderful opportunity to revisit a project that I think has promise and virtue for everyone that chooses to participate.
with wanting links, they have their place.
But how about giving back?
Let us revisit Operation Link Love - PR Bloggers “Pay It Forward” and Give Back. Read that post and the associated links to see what the project is all about. Or, go straight to The NewPR/Wiki page for all the details.
This is a project all about links that can serve a positive purpose. I hope you will get involved. Write about the viability of social media for nonprofits. Find a nonprofit blog that you can add to the wiki list. Link to them, and I bet they will link back. So, everyone wins.
I’m working on a fix for the image code. For now, feel free to hotlink to the image above.
WOM and Wikis - infOpinions? del.icio.us links for 2006-02-22
WOM, or word of mouth, is quite popular these days. They have their own association - WOMMA.
I have concerns about WOM (as it is being discussed by some today) as well as guerilla marketing. I don’t see these issues being discussed as transparently as I believe they should be. Now, I may have missed some posts by some people, to be sure. But, some of those I have found are even a bit - frightening.
…WOM,
by those that practice and evangelize it as a tactic,
requires a clear statement of transparency by the firm practicing it…
WOM is by far the marketing tactic most susceptible to error, inaccuracy and transparency woes, in my opinion. The simplest illustration would be the old game of putting 20 people in a circle and letting a story filter around from one to the other. Just give the first participant a scripted three or four paragraph story and let them whisper it to the next in line. When the 20th recipient of this story recites her/his version to the group, you can be assured of giggle and groans. Happens every time.
Now, take that and magnify it with millions of blogs. Sure, with blogs you do have the longtail back to the original link (sometimes). But, let us not forget that bloggers are *not* journalists and do not play by any rules.
The argument I hear most often to counter these concerns is “caveat emptor” - let the buyer (reader) beware. But, we went away from that years ago, didn’t we? Now it is “let the seller beware” and that means social responsibility and transparency from business, government and nonprofits. Is the globe - or clock - spinning backwards?
Guerilla marketing has problems, too. The instance I think of most often is the paid participant that wanders into a coffee shop and sits down with a laptop. They begin either playing with software or surfing a particular site. Another paid participant comes in and sits near the first to casually sit, first … then observe the other … finally to ‘vocally’ call attention to what they are doing. This brings in the ‘marks’ at surrounding tables to look in and, perhaps, participate.
Kindly put, this is a flim-flam. Blatantly stated - it is a flim-flam… even if the ‘marks’ are made aware at the end of the exercise. A blog seeking to do the same, it no different - really. So, where are the statements by those espousing blogs and these tactics? Not enough talk about it from the most highly visible bloggers, in my opinion.
I have an email exchange from Matt Galloway, the developer of our first link’s site - Buzz-o-phone. Now, be sure that you understand *I do not* claim that Matt is guilty of the above infractions … nor, do I believe his intention is to cause harm. But, whenever I see these kinds of tactics unveiled, it makes me think of damage control and contingency planning. I will post the conversation with Matt - with his permission - later on.
Wikis are the focus of our second link. Elizabeth Albrycht has a great article about wikis in business. And there is a new ‘wiki search engine’ at Qwika. So, check both of them out. Elizabeth’s article should be required reading - not only for my students - but every person interested in online communication and collaboration.
- Welcome to Buzz-o-phone!
How would you counsel businesses to approach this new feed of consumer backlash for their product(s), service(s), brand(s) or company?
(tags: buzz CSR CSM customers complaints PR public+relations)
- Qwika - a wiki search engine
Qwika is a search engine designed specifically to search wikis. Our aims are to cover all sizeable wikis in all sizeable languages, translate them, make them easily findable in the shortest possible time.
(tags: wiki search wiki+search)
Wiki Links and NYC’s David Parmet
January 30, 2006 by Robert · Comments Off
An all wiki weekend. From the biggest wiki of all to AJAX wiki browser software and geography for wiki contributors, these are some interesting links to visit.
And, one final post that is interesting - as a tribute to David Parmet, New York’s smartest PR blogger. The comments are kind of funny.
infOpinions? del.icio.us links for 2006-01-30
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Interesting. Read the comments by digg site members.
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AJAX software for browsing Wikipedia
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Geographical mapping tied to wikipedia posts.
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This is good. A perfect case study for comments - good and bad. We’ll make this a nice lil’ case study for class.
WikiStudies :: Defining a research problem
January 24, 2006 by Robert · 4 Comments
Five good links for you today. We have been discussing Elizabeth Albrycht’s wiki study post at CorporatePR. Her list of WikiStudies links at del.icio.us is particularly interesting. So, the students will be considering the first steps of forming research questions along those lines and posting about it in their blogs. The will be following the principles outlined in their text.
from experiences (your readings), from media
turn broad topics into questions…
Another great blog I suggest you check out is the new Graduate Observations of Public Relations at WordPress.com. OK, not that new, but new to my students. Check it out. Glad to see some grad students blogging. Congrats!
infOpinions? del.icio.us links for 2006-01-24
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About Wikis: A good overview of the functionality of a wiki and how to best set one up.(tags: wiki collaboration)
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A wiki for your desktop. Just found this and thought I’d give it a try.(tags: wikistudies)
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“A public relations resource from Richard Laermer and Kevin Dugan, since January 2006. Read our Wrath.”
