Drew B's take on tech PR

My little quote in The Guardian

Following my 'review' of The Guardian's uber Web 2.0 feature yesterday, they've just taken my comments and used them in this piece here. Thanks to Jack Schofield for stopping by.

Guardian cover story good and bad

There's a whopper of a FIFTEEN PAGE Web 2.0 article on the cover of today's Guardian Weekend magazine. having just read it, I think it's good and bad.

Good? Well, for a 100 per cent consumer glossy mag to have a cover story this big and focused wholly on Web 2.0, profiling the heads of Digg, Writely, Bebo and Del.icio.us is fantastic for the industry, you can't complain. Geek culture is being sexed up here like it has been in the US, and I think that's cool.

Bad? Articles like this have been done before and better by other publications like the Business Week's Valley Boys article in August, this one from the FT in September, and too many to remember imho. 

But for a UK consumer audience, this Guardian piece is a tipping point. It's on the whole good, and it's great to read. If only for the entrepreneurs' predictions on the next big thing. (my favourite is Tariq Krim's Web 3.0)

The Guardian: A Bigger Bang

Arrival of the meganiche

Nice article in Wired on the long tail, or as they call it, the meganiche.

Now that a billion people are online, even sites aimed at a narrow slice of the Web audience can attract huge crowds. Make way for the meganiche!

I define a meganiche as a thin slice of the Web that nonetheless represents roughly a million users. The meganiche is something new, and it will have a lasting impact on online business and culture.

What makes PR fun?

What makes a good working environment?

David Ferrabee just blogged about this and says clean rooms, free brekky and a bar.
Ed Lee says two computer screens and a laptop.
One place I used to work would under-load you with clients, to give you more time and less stress.
Another place would give you flexi-hours and said you didn't have to wear a tie.
One of my clients is known for giving its staff a whopping great gadget fund as a perk.

What do you think makes it fun to work? Us bloggers love it so much we do it non stop, don't we?

Rubel - you like the travelling? Scobles - you like the fame? Stevo - you like being able to tinker with Technorati?

Upload social media conference / PR industry forum

There are a couple of events coming up that I'll be at.

Firstly, we're organising a breakfast briefing that will be taking place in the LEWIS Media Centre, called "the value of PR in an off and online world." It's on 22nd November and the agenda is here. A lot of our clients and industry contacts are coming, and the speakers include Virgin, salesforce.com and Net Reputation. Let me know if you want to come.

Also, I'm excited about speaking at the forthcoming Upload 2007 in London on 21st and 22nd Feb. It's a conference dedicated to social media, user-generated content and crowdsourcing, and it'll be a big one. I'm moderating the first panel session of the event, which is on identifying how media owners need to evolve their business model to embrace client hunger for new media channels. Dean Hawkins of Homechoice, Tobias Oswald of SevenOne Intermedia and Stephan Uhrenbacher of QYPE are in the panel. Then I'm moderating  the first session of day two, which is on the evolution of the media agency - evolving the traditional media agency model for the digital savvy generation of media and brand owners. With me on that one will be Bernard Balderston of P&G, Kieron Matthews of the Internet Advertising Bureau and Andrew Moody of ING Direct. You can register for that event here. 
 

links for 2006-11-03

• MSFT's China crisis
  Microsoft is threatening to pull out of China because if its censorship of bloggers and other myriad human rights abuses.
• Heckler thrown out of government event (video)
  Mike Stark, a University of Virginia law student, is escorted from the lobby of the Omni Hotel after his remarks to Senator George Allen during a campaign appearance Tuesday in Charlottesville.
• Internet forum promises democracy to the masses
  The inaugural meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) was opened in Athens yesterday morning by Greek prime minister Konstantinos Karamanlis amid proud claims that the forum represented a new level of democratic thinking at the top of the internet.
• Free introductory guide to social media
  Trevor Cooke has put together a thirty-page introduction to social media especially designed for corporates and other organisations wanting to get up to speed quickly.