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	Phil's Blogservations Monday, October 31, 2005 Posted by philgomes 10:49 PM SNCR: How I Joined And Why SNCR: How I Joined And Why So, today marked the launch of the Society for New Communications Research, an organization that I am proud to join as a member of its advisory board. To investigate, develop, share and transfer in-depth and forward-facing insights resulting from our deep ongoing study, learning, and continuous mastery of new communications tools and technologies with the academic community and industry for the promotion of best practices. Longtime readers know that I've been kind of down on professional organizations for some time — almost as long as I've been in PR. Often, such efforts are either too much of a "reindeer game" or they're just another elbow-rubbing exercise. I even described my first interaction with one organization, in particular, as akin to "being stuck in an elevator with Betty White for four hours." So? What changed? This organization is multidisciplinary. I strongly believe that, in order for the PR profession to advance, people outside of PR and marketing need to be involved. SNCR has representation from the PR, PR services, journalistic, legal, and academic professions, among others. They approached me with specific ideas of what they are seeking to accomplish and how I might contribute. My participation with SNCR is commensurate with what I seek to accomplish at Annenberg, as well as at Edelman. Finally, I just like all the folks involved. Of course, I count Mike Manuel as a longtime fellow PR blogger. (And, I might add, the choice to have him head up the best-practices committee was an excellent one.) Ditto with Elizabeth Albrycht. Tom Foremski, whom I had the pleasure of meeting last winter, is a wonderful addition. I also had the pleasure of meeting Founder Jennifer McClure at Blog Business Summit this year. Anyway... Truly exciting times. Stay tuned for more. Posted by philgomes 11:00 AM Phil's Podservations, Episode 4 Phil's Podservations, Episode 4 The new edition is live, wherein I discuss the previous show's comments, play some guitar, and go back in time to the posts of old. Parties mentioned in this podcast: Donna Papacosta Eric Eggertson John Sun Edward Van Halen Judas Priest Andre Segovia Jakob Nielsen Ed Cafasso Madge Miller Sarah Lacy Salma Hayek Posts referenced: Jakob Nielsen On Weblog Usability Mistakes First post XP Tale Of Woe Big-agency/little-agency debate Blogservations shuts down Blogservations restarts Gomes Index Of Executive Happiness That Salma Hayek Post Runtime: 18:41 (Yeah, I know... I broke my 15-minute promise. I was on a roll. Sue me.) Manually download the podcast. Friday, October 28, 2005 Posted by philgomes 10:40 PM Forbes' Hit Piece On Blogs Forbes' Hit Piece On Blogs Wow... Um... Wow... Last night, I read the Forbes cover story on blogs. I saw the links to the story in various places and had to see it for myself. A quick Technorati search even uncovered this blog, apparently created just for the occasion. I remember when Douglas Rushkoff had his extremely critical (and ultimately correct) analysis of the AOL/TW merger spiked by The New York Times. Mr. Rushkoff said the Times told him that he "was misreading the landscape to such an extent that for them to publish such a view would be irresponsible." Someone at Forbes should've applied that test to this article's author, don't you think? The thing is, Forbes would've been one of the first magazines I might've guessed would appreciate the possibilities for business that blogs represent. I remember, in particular, when I gave a Forbes' reporter her introduction to wireless mesh networking and she said "Now this is something with the kind of subversive angle we like." The sidebars are just funny. "Fighting Back" is a manpage for squashing bloggers, using tactics that were rather dusty in the Nixon era. "Who is Pamela Jones?" forgets that the journalistic Ahab who attempted to get the dirt on the Groklaw host had more in common with tree-climbing paparazzi than anything else. The mob mentality the piece describes, I strongly believe, is an extreme. The writer apparently seeks to cast such activity as the norm. I didn't get any real sense that the article was framed as, say, a peek into a seedy underbelly of what has largely been a positive phenomenon. Had Forbes done that, they might've dodged a few arrows. And what's Forbes going to do to all of the people who are using bugmenot to get around their registration wall? Log IP addresses? Hunt them down? The article seems to say "Blogs are a threat, ye boardrooms everywhere. Here are the blunt instruments you can use against them." To those boardrooms, I say this: Follow this article's tenets and watch whatever goodwill you've earned fly down the drain. The people you most want on your side will stay away in droves. Thursday, October 27, 2005 Posted by philgomes 7:57 PM Random Thoughts -- Oct. 27, 2005 Random Thoughts -- Oct. 27, 2005 I learned something new today. I happened to walk into a room full of female colleagues during a brainstorm meeting. It's amazing what a guy can learn in those situations because, before this afternoon, I had never heard the term "coffee name". Apparently, it refers to a pseudonym women give to register person at a cafe. Evidently, when the barista calls out a woman's name so she can retrieve her coffee, some men use that quasi-introduction as an "in." Thus, a fake name. So... Ummm... "Judy", if that was your real name, I apologize. Posted by philgomes 4:51 PM Bacon's Survey: Similarities to Edelman/Technorati Survey Bacon's Survey: Similarities to Edelman/Technorati Survey There are times in this "perso-professional" blog where I must shift abruptly to the latter. This is one of those times. On Oct. 26, 2005, at 10:13 a.m. PDT, I received this in my inbox from Bacon's: Dear Mr. Phil Gomes Phil's Blogservations I am writing from Bacon's Information, a national source of media information for corporations and public relations professionals. We are asking for your help in updating our blog database by completing the following survey. This information will assist us in updating your FREE listing in Bacon's online media databases and print directories. Feel free to also include any contact preferences you have, including what types of information you would or would not like to receive from public relations professionals. You may reply to this e-mail, fax your updated information to 800-922-2477 or contact us at any time at blogs@bacons.com. Please contact me with questions or comments. Thank you. [Contact info withheld.] Steve Rubel and Steve Baker indicated that they received a similar email. As it turns out, the survey questions in the MS-Word document attached to the email are quite similar to the study my employer, Edelman, undertook with Technorati. (In any event... Sending unsolicited attachments, especially in virus-carriers like Word documents, is a tactical faux pas.) By way of examination... From the Bacon's survey: 11) When looking for product information, which do you consider the most reliable? Company press releases Company web sites Corporate Blog Other Bloggers Compare to a similar question from the Edelman/Technorati study, fielded Sept. 26: 16) When looking for product information, which do you trust most? Company press releases Company web sites Corporate Blog Other Bloggers Here, the Edelman/Technorati survey answers were clearly repurposed, even down to the miscapitalization of the word "blog". Another one of the Bacon's questions, received on Oct. 26: 10) How credible is a blog endorsed and produced by a company? Very credible Somewhat credible Occasionally credible Not credible And Edelman/Technorati's, fielded Sept. 26, with emphasis added: 14) What is the trustworthiness of a blog endorsed and produced by a company? Very trustworthy Somewhat trustworthy Occasionally trustworthy Untrustworthy Small degree of Thesaurus-play, but essentially the same question. Here's Bacon's question #5, received Oct. 26: 5) What can companies, organizations or PR Firms do to better communicate with you? And Edelman/Technorati's, fielded over a month ago: 5) What can companies/organizations and their PR representatives do to better communicate with you? Different punctuation. Slight rewording. Bacon's question #4... 4) Would you like product samples from companies in order to evaluate products on your blog? ...is absolutely identical to that of the Edelman/Technorati survey: 4) Would you like product samples from companies in order to evaluate products on your blog? NB: Though the similarities between the two surveys would indicate that perhaps some collaboration might have taken place, the Bacon's survey was not done in partnership with Edelman. Edelman did receive a note of apology from a Bacon's senior executive this morning PDT. Nevertheless, I felt the need to post this based on private correspondence I've received on this topic and to ensure that there weren't any misunderstandings. Tuesday, October 25, 2005 Posted by philgomes 9:32 PM Random Thoughts -- Oct. 25, 2005 Random Thoughts -- Oct. 25, 2005 Today over email, based on the description of blogs as a "big-ass threaded conversation" by Technorati's Dave Sifry: Phil: Am I allowed to say "big-ass threaded conversation" in any talks? *8-) Colleague: It depends on the order of the words. You can say "big-ass threaded conversation", but probably should avoid "threaded conversation about big asses." Phil: I've talked about five-assed monkeys on my podcast. Does that count? Colleague: Only to four-assed monkeys who feel slighted by omission :-) A blogged summary of a presentation by Karen Schneider on blogging ethics. (Hat-tip: David Weinberger.) Having a Flickr account drove me to buy a better digicam. I think my friends are irritated that I bring a camera everywhere now. Posted by philgomes 12:56 AM Google As Performance Art Google As Performance Art Among a great many other things, Harlan Ellison was famous for setting up his typewriter in storefronts and writing a complete story based on a suggestion from a fan. He'd post the pages on the glass as he finished them. It was performance art, really. Tonight in my Comm 599 class at Annenberg, the TA asked if someone would "Googlejockey" while he led the class in a discussion about social networks. I figured "What the hell." Basically, as the TA was leading the discussion, I used the computer to beam illustrative pages through the LCD projector and onto the screen. I'd have to say it was a uniquely enjoyable experience, though I tended to veer out-of-control at times. In addition to surfing the class towards serious stuff (like Bob Metcalfe's bio or the Bootstrap Institute), I'd make silent commentary about expectations and privacy by linking to Cliff Stoll's Silicon Snake Oil, 1984, or these kids with tinfoil hats. And, of course, when the question of "What regulatory body or (inter)national consortium would you trust most with the Internet?" came up, there was only one answer. Friday, October 21, 2005 Posted by philgomes 12:36 PM Random Thoughts -- Oct. 21, 2005 Random Thoughts -- Oct. 21, 2005 I've been asked about the cat trauma described in this post. The cat is fine now. He retaliated by waking me up with its braying meow at 5:00 a.m. Likely plans to do so through Sunday while its owner is in Chicago. Today in IM, Part One: [08:33] Phil: I don't have to dress all corporate, do I? [08:33] Colleague: nope -- "uber cool" dress code. jeans ok [08:40] Phil: so I can wear my "Shaft" t-shirt? [08:40] Colleague: you can! [08:41] Phil: I have quite a collection. [08:41] Colleague: they would love that [08:41] Phil: "Chicks Hate Me" [08:41] Colleague: nice [08:41] Phil: "Kid Tested, Satan Approved" Today in IM, Part Two: [10:08] Elysabeth: you are disruptive in a good way. [10:08] Elysabeth: love it. [10:08] Phil: Constructive disruption. [10:08] Elysabeth: YES [10:09] Phil: This is so getting blogged. Conversation today with Alyssa, an intern working in our health group: [Phil's computer freezes during time of critical need] Phil: Sh*t! Phil: [Pause] I'm starting to wonder whether I need a "cursing jar." Alyssa: You mean the kind where you put money in? Phil: Yeah. Alyssa: I'm going to Europe! YES! Yes, I do obtain permission to post these IM sessions and conversations. Thursday, October 20, 2005 Posted by philgomes 1:28 AM Random Thoughts -- Oct. 19, 2005 Random Thoughts -- Oct. 19, 2005 One comment-spam. Two drive-by, cut-and-paste pitches. Just uploaded photos from last night's meeting of LA podcasters. Got introduced a number of excellent folks, so now I'm introducing myself to their podcasts. Great stuff. Also got to meet Eric Schwartzman of Spinfluencer and "On The Record... Online" fame. At Eric's and group leader Lance Anderson's recommendation, I'm going to try my best to make it to the Portable Media Expo & Podcasting Conference. Expect an article about the LA podcast scene from Caroline Ryder in the LA Weekly. Tonight I played an MP3 of a supposed Russian exorcism. It scared the crap out of the cat. He attacked his own image in a floor-standing mirror a little while ago, running into it at full speed. It was better than TV. Wednesday, October 19, 2005 Posted by philgomes 8:56 PM Maybe Because It's Fun? Maybe Because It's Fun? Quite a conversation going on over at Matthew Podboy's blog about PR-blogging doyens, divas, and why PR people blog. Is it for the "blego?" The chance for us pseudo-Svengalis to step outside of the shadows? Let's put aside for a second the concept of a PR bloggger or a PR-person-who-blogs and ask ourselves: Can't PR people blog 'cause it's fun? Personally, I'd be very happy if more PR pros used their blogs for non-industry-related self-expression. Don't be afraid, people. It won't kill your career or our profession at large to loosen up a bit. I mean... You know what I write about and how I write it. You've seen the rest of the site, as gonzoid as it is. And, you know what? The world's biggest independent agency still hired me. I am mad with power. Simply mad, I tell you. All that aside, Matthew brings up a very good point: PR people weren't ever meant to be part of the story. Do we need to be open about what we do and how/why we do it? Absolutely, but there is a line and we need to keep an eye on where we are in relation to it. Tuesday, October 18, 2005 Posted by philgomes 7:22 PM Random Thoughts -- Oct. 18, 2005 Random Thoughts -- Oct. 18, 2005 Some miscreant comment-spammed me with an offer of a free iPod today. On my Christmas List: Nikola Tesla's death ray. (See the first bullet point to understand my desire for the item in the second bullet point.) A while back, I came up with the Gomes Index Of Executive Happiness to track the alarming frequency of the useless phrase "we are pleased" in press releases. I'm almost tempted to start an index of the term "{doesn't,don't,will not,won't,etc.} get it" used in blogs. (Ref. Podservations Ep. 2.) With no small amount of certainty or paranoia, some putz called the Larry Elder show yesterday claiming that Google was forcing its politics on him by making George W. Bush's online bio the top result for the search "miserable failure". I tried to call in to set this guy straight — that it's really not Google's doing, but rather the product of an online grassroots campaign — but I couldn't get the call screener to pick up the line after a number of attempts. Sorry. Posted by philgomes 1:24 PM Jakob Nielsen On Weblog Usability Mistakes Jakob Nielsen On Weblog Usability Mistakes Jakob Nielsen offers a list of ten blog usability mistakes. I've decided to use this as a gut-check on my own blog, since I really haven't paid too much attention to its design and usability. Now that the word "blog" shows up in my job description, I should probably be spending more time on this site. 1. No Author Biographies Yup. Got one. 2. No Author Photo Yup. Got one of those, too. Most people like it. Except my parents and other relatives. 3. Nondescript Posting Titles Well... I guess they're pretty descriptive. 4. Links Don't Say Where They Go I'm particularly conscious of this one — I hate the "here syndrome" — but sometimes the opportunity for subtlety is too good to pass up (e.g., "Some people think that we carry the souls of ancient aliens within us..."). 5. Classic Hits are Buried This is a really good idea. I'll plan to put a new section in the sidebar. 6. The Calendar is the Only Navigation Actually, a calendar-like navigation would be helpful here. The construction of my archive stinks, but I haven't had the presence of mind to fix it. 7. Irregular Publishing Frequency I suppose the "random thoughts" thing I've been doing is kind of a response to that. I actually received a compliment the other day from someone who was "impressed" with my recent output. I tend to think that my posting frequency is about commensurate with people's attention spans. 8. Mixing Topics Perhaps categories could help. And I haven't really gotten into the tagging thing, though I probably should. To tell you the truth, though, there is only one reason why this blog exists: Between my work life and my personal life (and the degree to which each enriches the other), I think that being me is just kind of fun and I try my best to make sure my blog reflects that. Some agree. Some disagree. I count both parties as frequent visitors. 9. Forgetting That You Write for Your Future Boss If said potential future boss disagrees with my response to point #8, I'm not sure I want to work for him/her. 10. Having a Domain Name Owned by a Weblog Service Philgomes.com has been around since about 1999 or 2000. I can't really argue with Mr. Nielsen that having the hosting service as your domain name will be the next "@aol.com" email address. Hat tip: CNET's Mike Yamamoto. Posted by philgomes 12:10 PM Striking A Blow For The Press News Release Striking A Blow For The Press News Release I'm just going to go ahead and say it. I've always thought that the "press-release-is-dead" crowd came off as awfully silly. The more extreme within that group take it a step further and say that, by extension, "PR is dead." This is often because their daily experience — our industry's fault, really — means that their working definition of PR often doesn't go much beyond "entity that creates press releases." As all media consumers know, groups are often characterized in the popular imagination by the most extreme and controversial of their members. We learn to live with it and try to dig deeper. Here's where I stand on this: News releases are just a tool. Like any other tool — Powerpoint, blog publishing software, syringes, handguns — there are: expectations surrounding their proper use, and strong possibilities for misuse. Richard Bailey offers four points as to why this old rusty hammer in the PR toolbox still has use. I'll add another one: The Street still recognizes releases as a form of official disclosure and, until such day as an executive blog posting or syndication-delivered item is conferred that status, such documents will remain. Wouldn't that be something the day we hear the talking head on Bloomberg TV say: We're nearing the close-of-market and we're eagerly anticipating the earnings from Acme Semiconductor. CFO Jerry Schmidlap is due to post the results on acmesemi-dot-com-slash-blog after the bell. (Assuming, of course, that homepages as most people currently understand them continue to be around.) Incidentally, I also agree with Stuart Bruce that "press release" is a rather inelegant term. "News release" is better, provided that it offers... well... "news." Monday, October 17, 2005 Posted by philgomes 3:47 PM Random Thoughts -- Oct. 17, 2005 Random Thoughts -- Oct. 17, 2005 From a Podservations listener via IM: "Good job getting Elysabeth Grant to do that voiceover... I could listen to her read a phone book." The quote at the beginning of my podcast is from Hellraiser III: Hell On Earth. I did have to edit it a little, though. The ads-in-my-podcast thing was a joke, people. Jeez... Lance Anderson muses about turning forty. (MP3, 8.4MB, Runtime: 17:03) 3D panorama of the Sedlec Ossuary in the Czech Republic. (Via BoingBoing. Make sure your browser has Java turned on.) My friend and Edel-colleague Leticia in Chicago went to the International Design Educational Meeting (IDEM), which actually took place in an old Belgian prison this year. Some of the participants put up a blog. In my IM: Just received an email with a funny blog description from a German friend... Thought I would share with you... "Hey- Blogs are pretty unknown here in Germany. People who know them often think it’s more about showing off, to present yourself, but nobody asked for it...They don`t know the great purpose we use it for ;)" ESA's Doug Lowenstein is speaking to my Comm 599 class at Annenberg tonight. This should be fun. I wonder what he'd think of this post. Saturday, October 15, 2005 Posted by philgomes 4:02 PM Phil's Podservations: Episode #3 Phil's Podservations: Episode #3 The new edition is live, wherein I discuss the most recent comments, the fact that Podservations now carries ads, and my thoughts on humor in the PR profession. Parties referenced in this podcast include: John Sun Jeremy Pepper Steve Rubel David Parmet Maud Purcell John Henry Newman My new Flickr page (Manually download the podcast.) Thanks again to Elysabeth Grant for the voiceover work. Runtime: 10 mins, 28 secs Enjoy! Posted by philgomes 12:01 PM NYT: "Print Needs Its iPod" NYT: "Print Needs Its iPod" Within this article, I found this paragraph particularly interesting: That is the future that newspapers have to prepare for. Readers no longer care so much who you [the publishing property] are, they just want to know what you know. I'll go a step further: They also just want to know that they're being heard during that "knowing what you know" process. This notion of descreased publishing brand value — somewhat debateable, really — creates an interesting client-service issue for quite a few PR folks, doesn't it? Far too often, PR people on the agency and corporate sides allow the success metric to descend to the level of simply getting that one hit in an executive's favorite national daily or business magazine. To not do so, even after attaining far more meaningful goals, is viewed as pathetic failure! I'm also not sure what this means for "San Francisco Cocktail Party Syndrome." This is characterized by an odd type of competitive cocktail conversation, most often observed in the Pacific Heights and Marina districts. In these social scenarios, one's perceived intellectual superiority is solely determined by the general esteem ascribed to the MSM source s/he consumes. Guest 1: "I read in the Rio Vista Telegraph-Press that the government is thinking of raising taxes on the middle class." Guest 2: "Well, I read that in The Los Angeles Times." Guest 1: "Atlantic Monthly..." Guest 2: "Harper's..." Guest 1: "Well... I think I also heard an interview on the topic with a legislator on NPR." Guest 3: "Well... In the Economist, they said that..." (Note: Know that I'm not making any value judgments on these media outlets myself. However, based on what I've observed over time, is how it often plays out. Loudly proclaiming that you listen to NPR or read the Economist tends to be played as the trump card in this peculiar little social game.) Have you noticed the same thing playing out in terms of people talking about what blogs they read? Update: Fixed spelling error, punctuation, and word repetition. Friday, October 14, 2005 Posted by philgomes 8:06 PM Random Thoughts -- Oct. 14, 2005 Random Thoughts -- Oct. 14, 2005 Dream goth-rock band: Vocals (Male): Andrew Eldritch (The Sisters Of Mercy) Vocals (Female): Cristina Scabbia (Lacuna Coil) Guitar: Daniel Ash (Bauhaus, Tones On Tail) Guitar: Robin Guthrie (Cocteau Twins) Bass: Tony Pettit (Fields Of The Nephilim, Rubicon, NFD) Drums: Nod Wright (Fields Of The Nephilim, Rubicon) "Volcanic ash is some of richest soil in the world. But absolutely nothing grows there while it is still smoldering." — Evelyn Rodriguez, Sept. 29, 2005 (Pettit and Wright of The Nephilim were the best rhythm section in the genre, bar none.) When you're shopping at the mall, I like to move your car. I hope that clears some things up for you. Thursday, October 13, 2005 Posted by philgomes 8:14 PM Random Thoughts -- Oct. 13, 2005 Random Thoughts -- Oct. 13, 2005 My dream classic hard-rock band, based on musicians who are still alive: Vocals: Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple Mk. II) Guitar: Michael Schenker (UFO, MSG) Bass: Steve Harris (Iron Maiden) Drums: Tommy Aldridge (Ozzy, Whitesnake, Black Oak Arkansas) Keys: Jon Lord (Deep Purple) Glenn Hughes and Tony Iommi are working together, which is unassailably cool. "Go On. Tell Them." Regarding the ten-pound chocolate bar in our office, I remember a friend once told me "Everything in moderation... Including 'moderation.'" I just took a salsa lesson in the company kitchen. Happy hour was sponsored by our office's diversity communications group. If you see any women walking around LA with a limp, then you've met one of my dance partners. Posted by philgomes 6:56 PM Branscum On Absolutes, Carr On Web 2.0 Branscum On Absolutes, Carr On Web 2.0 Sunday, Sunday, Sunday... Bloggers versus MSM... Your ticket pays for the whole seat, but you'll only need the edge! Deborah Branscum writes: I have never, ever understood the cult of professionalism adhered to by some journalists (bloggers have no journalism degrees, bloggers bad amateurs, bloggers threaten professionals, so must be crushed). Nor have I been on the bandwagon to eviserate those bastard pros that some "citizen journalists" have been riding for years. This either/or bullshit drives me nuts. It doesn't have to be a contest. But it is... True enough. I've been dealing publicly and privately with folks who artificially create mutually exclusive absolutes in order to make their point. It really does come off as shrill. You all know the type. Blogs are here. MSM is dead. Blogs are here. PR is dead. RSS is here. Email is dead. (Yes, I have heard this in the non-bulk-email sense and, even when appropriately applied, the argument falls apart in absolute terms.) The Galactic Empire is here. The Republic is dead. Maybe it's a coping mechanism, like stereotypes. In a world of info-over-stimulation, maybe our brains are just wired to work in this way. Deborah links to Nicholas Carr's well-written post about Web 2.0, which makes an attempt to peel away the neo-religious overtones that are often ascribed to the concept. I'm not sure I agree with the entire piece — connotatively, I might've picked a different term than "amoral", for example — but it's an excellent read. Posted by philgomes 1:18 PM A Complete History Of Online PR Blogging A Complete History Of Online PR Blogging As you can see in the discussion here, Constantin "Master Of Online PR's Blogging's Canonical List" Basturea has taken my PR timeline and put it on TheNewPR Wiki. I once described Jeremy Pepper as the "Harlan Ellison of PR bloggers". Owing to his dedication to aggregating PR blogging history, perhaps Constantin is our "Brian Aldiss". (Aldiss wrote one of the great histories of science fiction, The Tillion Year Spree.) My original post will have a link to TheNewPR Wiki. So, if you have a password for the wiki, add away! (Note this is not constrained to 2001-2003 like the first post was.) There are instructions on the site for those who don't have a password. Thanks to Constantin for putting this up, and for all of you who have participated. Posted by philgomes 11:25 AM Will The Real Tom Murphy Please Stand Up? Will The Real Tom Murphy Please Stand Up? Tom writes: But in the past week or so, the media in Ireland and the UK have been focussing in on an unsavoury Tom Murphy or to give him his full title, Tom “Slab” Murphy (no relation). He is the alleged chief of staff of the IRA and has been linked with some dodgy property dealings in the UK amongst other things. The story has been on every TV news bulletin, radio bulletin, broadsheet, tabloid and online news service over here. A friend of mine joked that soon I’d be getting a lot more “respect”. Although there’s little likelihood that we’d be mistaken for each other, and of course he could take major offence at being mistaken for a PR practitioner, it illustrates the vagaries of online reputation. So far, the only "Phil Gomes"-es I've heard from are a karate teacher in the pacific northwest, a blogger in Australia, and someone who screamed "I was going to do that, you bugger!" into my inbox, railing against "all you Silicon Valley types". "Gomes" is kind of like Portuguese for "Murphy", so I'm sure there are a lot more Phil Gomes'es than I realize. Wednesday, October 12, 2005 Posted by philgomes 9:07 PM Random Thoughts -- Oct. 12, 2005 Random Thoughts -- Oct. 12, 2005 Worst breakup line ever: "My need to engage in homicidal behavior on a massive scale cannot be corrected, but there's no other way to fulfill my needs." -- Patrick Bateman, American Psycho I can go see either Danzig or Bauhaus live in concert this Halloween weekend. Help me choose. My Chicago colleague Elysabeth is seeing Dead Can Dance for free tonight. Sixth row. She told me over IM. [13:28] elysabeth: i'm going to dead can dance for free tonight [13:28] elysabeth: 6th row [13:28] Phil: i hate you now. [13:28] Phil: you can't be on my kickball team anymore [13:29] Phil: SIXTH $%#@*ING ROW!?!?! [13:29] elysabeth: ha [13:29] elysabeth: yes [13:30] Phil: close enough to be blessed with Lisa Gerrard's awesome aura? [13:30] Phil: I quiver at the prospect. [13:30] elysabeth: someone asked me to go [13:30] elysabeth: :) [13:30] elysabeth: i'll give you a report tomorrow! [13:31] Phil: Report? [13:31] Phil: I WANT A BOOTLEG CD!!! [13:31] elysabeth: uh huh [13:31] elysabeth: ok [13:31] elysabeth: :) There is a ten-pound chocolate bar in this office's kitchen. Serving Size: 1.5 Ounces Servings Per COntainer: About 108 General Zod in 2008 Posted by philgomes 10:50 AM Oh, Now They Tell Me... Oh, Now They Tell Me... Late last night, I had the Annenberg Comm. 599 team in an MSN chatroom and noticed that our TA had logged onto his Yahoo IM account. Of course, I couldn't bring him into our chatroom so, as the team was kicking around ideas for our class project, I was passing relevant bits to the TA for feedback. Inelegant, yes, but we got somewhere. Today I read that MSN and Yahoo will make their IM technologies interoperable. Consumers using the Yahoo Messenger or MSN Messenger programs will be able to exchange instant messages, see the presence of their contacts, share emoticons and add friends from either service, the companies said. Interoperability is expected to kick in during the second quarter of 2006. Too late to help me near-term, but I'm glad it happened. Tuesday, October 11, 2005 Posted by philgomes 8:55 PM Random Thoughts -- Oct. 11, 2005 Random Thoughts -- Oct. 11, 2005 TigerDirect.Com was put on this Earth to tempt me. Even though Warren Cuccurullo is a better guitar player than Andy Taylor, the latter's work is iconic. My appetite for podcasts will force an upgrade from my 5GB MP3 player, but I'm not yet sure what I want. My only major requirement — aside from double-digit-gigabyte capacity — is that the host computer must see the MP3 player as just another USB storage device. I'm craving carnes vinho d'alhos, but the nearest Portuguese market is maybe an hour's drive away. The new Paradise Lost CD comes out in the states Nov. 1. Yes, I'm a fan. There aren't enough of us to get the band across the pond, though. Posted by philgomes 2:16 PM Lark And Israel On PR Advice Lark And Israel On PR Advice I've been thinking about this this exchange between Shel Israel and Andy Lark about "What PR must do". To Mr. Israel's fifth point, "Be out of control", Mr. Lark writes: While the Participatory Era has created an entirely new context for managing those communications we need a more intelligent response than this. On that basis alone, I wholeheartedly agree. People who have met me know of my "I hate to tell you there's no Santa Claus" speech. However, it's worth reading the rest of Mr. Israel's statement: Do not attempt to control message or timing as most agencies usually do. Just let employees and the company infrastructure express themselves in their own voices and in their own ways. Just make certain they know precisely what is NDA. Sound scary? Perhaps, but the blogosphere has been proving that the more you trust people, the more trustworthy they behave. I don't really think that Mr. Israel meant to be as devil-may-care as he sounds here. At least I hope he wasn't. My principal thoughts: This highlights why company policies in this regard are so important. They protect the employee just as much as the company, for one thing. There's more to those policies than simply telling your employees not to spill the beans. For one thing, there is a respect for standards of comportment in online communities that must be imbued in a company's staff. Control of timing is often necessary for business reasons. Sorry. Some of it's regulatory. Some of it owes to competitive pressures. A lot of folks seem to think that the culture around today's online communications means the death of the idea of "messages". I suggest maybe we need to make some kind of distinction between "messages" and "messaging". Here's a whack at it: "Messages": The articulation of thoughts, opinions, observations, beliefs, suppositions, and predictions, by a company, department, or (increasingly) employee about the industry/locale/world/whatever in which he/she/it operates. "Messaging": The rote, staid, over-iterated, dull, boring, scrubbed, excremental, buzzwordy, yawn-inducing, stercoraceous crud that has no place in the blogosphere and was quickly dying in any case. Back to Mr. Lark: So, maybe I am getting wrapped-up in semantics re: voice/message and tone. I don't think so though. Arguably, it's worth getting wrapped up in it. Words mean things. Monday, October 10, 2005 Posted by philgomes 7:13 PM More On The Is-Blogging-Journalism Debate More On The Is-Blogging-Journalism Debate This is an occasional thought-experiment topic of mine... According to this article from E&P: Bloggers would "probably not" be considered journalists under the proposed federal shield law, the bill's co-sponsor, U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar (R.-Ind.), told the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) Monday afternoon. What if the blogger is engaged in the activity of journalism? Why is it so hard for people to intellectually divorce the publishing mechanism from the activities that mechanism supports? Link courtesy of CNET's Declan McCullagh. Posted by philgomes 5:04 PM Well... Okay... Just A Second... Well... Okay... Just A Second... Thanks, Media Orchard — your post gave me a great laugh — but I think I need to be clearer about what my point was. I could repeat myself, or I can just paste here what I put on Constantin's blog (additional emphasis added): I appreciate that journalism is, in many ways, the art of compression and that business journalism can (and often must!) deal in very broad strokes. One manifestation of this is a need to seek out "who's number one". If there's one thing business journalism likes, it's a horserace, and Steve Rubel is the most visible by far. Of course, like any such approach, a degree of richness is lost. In this particular instance, though, it really did come down to Stephen Baker's word choice. Is my own post maybe a bit self-promotional? Perhaps. Some people in our profession do it several times a day and get a free pass, so I should be allowed some small indulgence. All that I'm saying is that I've had my hand in it a while, though with some bumps and false-starts along the way. (Being early often feels a lot like being wrong. I have stories... And scars.) I also wanted to give props to some the folks who have steadily and quietly offered thoughtful PR-related discourse. 'Nuff said. I'm not trying to get all Richard-"GNU-Linux"-Stallman about this, but the fact is that rich discussion in our profession has gone on for some time. And I'm not really calling out BusinessWeek for missing this. To do so would be almost as silly as chiding them for running that Jarvis-vs-Dell piece nine weeks after Jarvis' first post. It takes some amount of visibility to crest the radar of a publication like BusinessWeek — I once likened it to seeking a date with Salma Hayek — and, to tell you the truth, raw visibility has never been the raison d'etre of this blog. Before we all start worrying too much about whether I was the first PR person to set up a blog, let's allow this percolate a little bit and see what other links come in. (I really, really doubt I was the "first". I'll settle for "very, very early".) This does remind me... Before I set up a blog, I tried to have a regularly updated site feature called "ePRattle", which was a sloppy acronym for "Elevating the Public Relations Art Through Thoughtful Learning and Education". Rather than a "blog", I would edit the HTML as I found interesting stuff and FTP the page to the site — "Stone knives and bearskins", as Mr. Spock once said. However, between work and home, version control became a problem, to say nothing of the company firewall. (Some days it would let me through, other days not. Strange.) Blogger.Com helped solve a practical matter, as it turned out. In any case, back to work. Sunday, October 09, 2005 Posted by philgomes 3:50 PM A Rough Early PR Blog Timeline A Rough Early PR Blog Timeline This past week, quite a conversation erupted when Stephen Baker called Steve Rubel the "doyen" of PR bloggers. Not that it really matters, but here's a list of some of the earliest blogs either from PR people or about PR, in order of date of first post. I've constrained it to 2003 and earlier. It also suffers a bit from my own rusty memory. August 3, 2001: Phil Gomes (I'm proud to say, though please speak up if there are earlier ones and I'll post them here. You might also want to talk to Sam Whitmore at MediaSurvey, who said in his subscriber newsletter that I was the first to spot blogging as a "transformative force" in PR.) March 2002: Tom Murphy (Though his archive appears to be down.) July 27, 2002: Kevin Dugan September 9, 2002: James Horton Added 10/11/2005 December 13, 2002: Neville Hobson Added 10/10/2005 January 31, 2003: David Parmet (This is his personal blog. He makes a distinction from his PR blog, started in Feb. 2005.) Added 10/9/2005 February 2003: Ryan May (Minnesota PR) May 2003: Niall Cook (Link to archive is down.) Added 10/10/2005 May 8, 2003: Robb Hecht Added 10/9/2005 July 2, 2003: Jeremy Pepper July 3, 2003: G2Blog (Written by yours truly when I was with G2B Group — now Dryden Marketing Group — though I can't reproduce the archive here for legal reasons. Sorry, Constantin. Incidentally, Constantin's first post in January 2004 means he narrowly missed this list, but deserves mention anyway.) July 8, 2003: Stuart Bruce (Alas, he had a blog on Blogger.Com before that, but I can't find it. Jeremy points out the April 24, 2003, post on Stuart's old blog at Blogger.Com, pointing out that it was more of a political blog back then.) August 5, 2003: Elizabeth Albrycht August 7, 2003: Richard Bailey Added 10/11/2005 August 8, 2003: Philippe Borremans Added 10/10/2005 November 20, 2003: Trevor Cook Added 10/10/2005 I don't do a lot of chest-beating on this blog, but I think a timeline here is relevant. If you're a PR person and have had a blog that started in 2003 or earlier, send me a note. I'll add you to the list above and provide the date you were added. Please supply a permalink to your first post. UPDATE: This comment pretty much hit the mark. (And, no, the "Richard" here is very likely not Richard Edelman!) UPDATE 2: Check out TheNewPR Wiki. Constantin Basturea has put this list up there such that we can have a truly canonical list. Posted by philgomes 2:03 PM Podservations Delayed, And Other Thoughts Podservations Delayed, And Other Thoughts I've tried to keep a bi-weekly schedule with my Phil's Podservations podcasts, but the hardware is fighting me. I think that my trusty laptop here — the big-and-beefy kind marketed as a "desktop replacement" three years ago — is giving up the ghost. Bad fan, I think. Every time to try to get this thing to do anything computationally intensive (like a noise-reduction algorithm) the machine overheats and shuts down. I did manage to GIMP a logo. That's kinda cool. Fortunately, Tim is coming to my rescue. He's going to build me a smarter-than-God Shuttle PC with the latest Debian release and, in case I get scared, XP Pro as a boot option. Enough with the #$@%ing toys, already. I want a computer powerful enough to launch missle strikes with. The ThinkPad that Edelman outfitted me with will be fine for my portable computing needs. I am mad with power. Mad, I tell you. And I don't even have the computer yet. Wanted to put a shout out to the folks I met at the LA Podcaster's Meetup. Good times. The infamous LA traffic will probably conspire to keep me from the Orange County meetups you call home, but I'm looking forward to the next get-together. Saturday, October 08, 2005 Posted by philgomes 6:40 PM Remembering JFK To LAX Remembering JFK To LAX We were about an hour-and-a-half delayed. "Mechanical problems." The pilot backed away from the gate anyway, probably because it would go down in the tower's log as an "on-time departure". The passenger next to me recounted his stint in the Israeli army during the Six-Day War. ("The Syrians had captured me when I was a student. I was among the first group of hostages to ever be returned to Israel in one piece. It made me feel better to come back as an adult... and armed.") The guy in front of him was watching a DVD of The West Wing on his laptop. The guy to my left didn't speak English and my Spanish is meager at best. Type O Negative's October Rust was playing on my MP3 player. My girlfriend's girlfriend. She looks like you. My girlfriend's girlfriend. She's my girl too. As it turned out, Al Pacino was on the plane. I saw him go through the JFK inspection arch with a bunch of his handlers. While getting on the plane, I happened to walk past his seat on the way to coach. I let out a muted yell of "Attica!" He didn't seem to notice. Or maybe he wasn't Al Pacino. And maybe you've never even seen Dog Day Afternoon, in which case this story is probably completely lost on you. Anyway... Something else evidently happened, because my typed up notes from Thursday's panel look no better now than when I opened them up to edit them on my laptop during the delay. Soon. Friday, October 07, 2005 Posted by philgomes 8:52 PM More Survey Fun More Survey Fun Here's another one... I was curious as to whether there were any changes in the frequency of PR contact between the entire sample set and the "visibility-seekers". (Formerly designated "authority bloggers" until I found a better term.) Question to myself: "Did those who blogged to increase their visibility paint a bigger target on themselves for PR people?" Remember that one of the findings was that 48% of the 821-blogger sample reported never being contacted by PR. Well... After "Never," the gap greatly narrows between the master sample at the visibility seekers. The chart even shows that the visibility-seekers do in fact report more frequent PR contacts than the whole survey set. That's about as much as we can say, really, since the delta in the frequency comparisons from "less-than-one-week" on up fall within the margin-for-error. (More later.) As to what I see as some of the limitations of the survey: The margin of error is determined to be +/- 3.4%, which is fair. While it means that the horseraces in some of the findings could be considered a "tie" (especially in my re-cuts), the differences/similarities between the master set and the visibility seekers are nevertheless compelling. On the Thursday panel, we kind of got rubbed in the chest for the very constrained nature of question 16: "When looking for product information, which do you trust most?" MSM and especially online trades probably should've been represented in some form, so some can argue that the answer choices were a bit overly constrained. Robert French has some insightful ideas and, of course, Constantin Basturea is looking at all manner of blog surveys and how they're reported. (In fact, Constantin apparently strives to ensure that no survey gets a free pass!) Can the survey results presume to crack any gigantic nuts? No, but, as one of the survey's earliest critics posted in my comments, "We're all in the learning game". Robert French called the survey a "good first step" and, well, if most people can agree, then I'm satisfied with that for now. Ten yards at a time, gang. That's all I ask. Ten yards at a time. With the constructive comments we've received from bloggers, we'll hit another first down (at least!) next time. Thursday, October 06, 2005 Posted by philgomes 11:45 AM My Take On The Survey Results My Take On The Survey Results I just came back from a panel at the Harvard club, where Richard disclosed the findings of the Edelman/Technorati survey that was fielded last week. He was joined on a panel with Dan Gillmor, David Kirkpatrick, and Andrew Nachison. I'll be making sense of my play-by-play notes during my flight back to Los Angeles but, in the near term, I thought I'd try to do my own interpretation of the raw data. Yesterday afternoon, I had our IS department send me the raw, comma-delimited file of the submissions from all of the respondents. I've been entertaining myself by doing different cuts of the numbers. In particular, I was interested in drilling down on the responses from the 33.86% of those surveyed who said that the reason they blog was to help gain "visibility as an authority" in their respective fields. We'll call them "authority bloggers" for short. As one item of interest, note the difference in the frequency of posts: Takeaway: This group, generally, posts more frequently than the entire survey set. Part of being authoritative has something to do with how often one has something of value to contribute. Here's another fun one. The survey asked, on a scale of 1-to-10 with "10" being the highest, the amount of trust bloggers had in PR firms versus corporate contacts. Corporate-side contacts were deemed slightly more trustworthy than PR firms. This isn't surprising, though I thought that the difference was going to be much greater. However, as you can see among the Authority Bloggers, trust in agency reps and corporate-side contacts experiences a slight increase compared to the entire sample set. Note: I'm not a statistician, by any means. Just thought I'd have a little fun here. If there's something you're particularly interested in based on the survey, let me know. If I find your inquiry of mutual interest (I do have a day-job, ya'll!), I'll generate the chart and open it up to discussion. I'm sorry, but I can't email you the data file. UPDATE: I should probably indicate that "authority bloggers" is probably an inelegant term. "Visibility seekers" is a more accurate one, since I'm looking at the ones who blog with the intent to achieve visibility, rather than applying some arbitrary measure as to whether or not actual "authority" has been achieved. This will be reflected in my next cut of the data. OTHER UPDATE: I've changed the graphics accordingly. Wednesday, October 05, 2005 Posted by philgomes 4:34 PM IM: One-Billion-Strong In The Workplace IM: One-Billion-A-Day In The Workplace... ...and I swear to God I'm probably responsible for a full percentage point of that all by myself. According to a new report from analyst house IDC, instant messaging is now a standard piece of the corporate communication toolkit, with about 1 billion IMs sent every day between 28 million enterprise users. Article courtesy of CNET Posted by philgomes 4:04 PM Podservations: Send Me Your "Five-Assed Monkey" Moments Podservations: Send Me Your "Five-Assed Monkey" Moments My high school guidance counselor was probably right after all. Some people are out there talking about such compelling marketing metaphors as "The Long Tail" and the "ideavirus". I've got "The Five-Assed Monkey". As I mentioned in my most recent podcast, I've been approached both online and off regarding the parallel I drew in my first podcast between South Park's "five-assed monkey" and the over-marketing of incremental technology progress. So, I'm interested in your five-assed monkey moments... Stories of incremental progress described as monumental change. I'm particularly looking for in-the-trenches stories from PR and marketing, but all perspectives are welcome. Email me at the address in the sidebar or post your comments here. I will keep your identity top-secret unless otherwise given permission. By the way... The results from that Technorati/Edelman survey come out tomorrow. Monday, October 03, 2005 Posted by philgomes 4:32 PM The Reason I Started Shaving My Head Again... The Reason I Started Shaving My Head Again... ...is because it reduces any potential drag during these business trips. *8-) Headin' out to NYC after school. Shawn Hardin of Yahoo's Media Group is speaking to my Annenberg class tonight. Our class has also had the pleasure of talking to Howard Rheingold and Craig Newmark. Fascinating and illuminating discussions. As the cabbie who just dropped me off at school would say, "do svidaniya". Sunday, October 02, 2005 Posted by philgomes 7:55 PM Dan Gillmor Contributes To PR Week Dan Gillmor Contributes To PR Week PR Week is right to bring in a new monthly column from Dan Gillmor. I just caught the first installment. I particularly appreciated this perspective: A conversation doesn't mean total transparency, but it does mean a willingness to listen. We all have plenty to learn. There are those who believe that any business- or company-focusedblog that isn't composed of the raw, unrefined thoughts of the blogger is not a blog. Those people get my infamous "I hate to tell you there's no Easter Bunny" speech. There are others who believe that the only way a company can blog is if every post is scrubbed through PR people, lawyers, investor relations, and so on. Those people (who want to blog whether they really can/should or not) get my "put down that 'Blogs Will Change Your Business' issue of BusinessWeek because there's no slouch in having an online newsletter if blogging is not for you" speech. Yup... It's still about conversation. Posted by philgomes 12:24 PM Blog? Who? What? Blog? Who? What? I like to call Jeremy Pepper "the Harlan Ellison of PR bloggers", owing to his writing style, acerbic wit, and general capacity for stirring up the conversation. (Don't worry, J... It's a compliment. No, really. Ellison is on my Heroes page.) Jeremy rightly calls out the boilerplate tendency to use the word "blog" or "wiki" as a tonic to sex up otherwise bland PR plans. However, my main takeaway from the Reuters piece cited was very different. "Our research not only shows that there is no buzz about blogging and podcasting outside of our media industry bubble, but also that people have no understanding of what the words mean," [ad firm DDB London's Sarah] Carter said. "It's a real wake-up call." This is true. No argument there. But, to PR people, I say this: It's our job to understand new communications technologies and methods before they hit the mainstream. We're eventually going to get to the point, thanks to inevitable integration, where the average consumer won't know or care whether the online content that's being consumed came from a blog or an RSS feed or whatever. The fact that Aunt Gertrude doesn't know a blog from the growth on the right side of her face doesn't mean that she's not going to, at some point, get information that started in the blogosphere... where the PR person should have noticed it in the first place. (Ref.: Jarvis-vs-Dell and everyone-else-vs-Kryptonite.) HOME | OBSESSIONS | FAQ | HEROES | CAREER | BLOG | CONTACT Note that the views expressed on this site do not necessarily reflect those of Phil's employer, its business partners, its clients, or anyone or anything that doesn't come from Phil.	ABOUT THIS BLOG This blog not only discusses PR and media matters, but Phil's everyday observations about a variety of topics. EMAIL phil[at] philgomes[[dot}]com SYNDICATE Feedburner ARCHIVE YAHOO! IM SKYPE WISH LIST PITCH POLICY MY PHOTOS www.flickr.com Photostream RSS Enter your Email Powered by FeedBlitz COMMENT AND TRACKBACK POLICY Comments and trackbacks are unmoderated, though I will delete the patently offensive ones. Any comments and trackbacks are the opinions of the individual writer of those comments and trackbacks, and not those of Phil Gomes, his employer, its clients, or its business partners. If you have a bone to pick, bug the people who wrote the comment or trackback.