·:[ roarweb dot com ]:·
• • • • •

Tonight I’m at Blogging 101 at the International Internet Marketing Association (IIMA). Arieanna Foley and Tris Hussey are presenting.

The IIMA has chosen an interesting format for this event. It’s hands-on with everybody having their PC station. Arieanna and Tris are taking the audience through the basics of blogging from both an informational perspective and on a practical “click there” level.

On Wednesday they will be back with an advanced blogging session (SOLD OUT)

roar at roarweb dot com

This post moved from Blogger on December 6, 2005! Thanks to Arieanna and Tris for their ideas.

Business Week wrote, under the heading “The Business Of Blogging” (Dec 2004): “A new medium, though still a work in progress, is coming into being.“

When I wrote my first blog post (note: different domain than my current blog) - September 2, 2004 - a bit earlier than the Business Week article was published, blogging was still something “new” to many in the Vancouver business community. Now it seems to be gaining respect as a valuable tool.

Not that we have not had people around blogging for some time (Wikipedia suggest we go back to 1994) - I’m still a newbie in that sense - but the exposure blogging is currently getting in our local marketplace seem to me to indicate we are now past the early Introduction Life Cycle stage and are moving into Growth.

For example, Technorati’s Dave Sifry wrote in an October 17th post that Technorati is now tracking nearly 20 million weblogs and that this number seems to double every 5 months. He goes so far as to indicate they see 33,000 new posts every hour! Growth allright.

What do I mean when I say blogging is gaining respect in Vancouver? I’m suggesting this based on the number of events local marketing related organizations are doing on this subject at the moment.

I currently serve on the Board of Directors for the IIMA and left the Board of BCAIM earlier this summer. The frequency of blogging related events is higher than I’ve ever seen before and thus I conclude we’re at a new stage for blogging.

Instead of proving my point by showing both 2004 and 2005 data on blogging events, I’ll just show some of the events I have noticed over the last few weeks:

-BCAMA, October 12: Hyperfragmentation: The Rise of Personalized Media, presented by Rick Sanderson and Barbara Davidson of OMD Vancouver.

- HTCE/STC, October 15: Online Influence: What Blogs Mean to Your Business, presented by Susannah Gardner

- IIMA, November 28: Blogging 101 and November 30: Advanced Blogging, presented by Arieanna Foley and Tris Hussey

- BCAIM, December 1: Blogging Demystified, presented by Darren Barefoot.

- Banf New Media Institute, December 4-8: Blogs and Dogs

- Northern Voice, Feb 10-11 2006: Moose Camp and Blogging Conference

I’m sure there are others. In any case, it looks like growth and respect to me.

roar at roarweb dot com

Note: This post moved from Blogger December 6, 2005

Gerald Bauer, organizer of the Vancouver Blogger Meetup Group and o-organizer of the Vancouver Web 2.0 Forum (Van2) told subscribers to the Van2 e-mail(!)list about a Boris Mann post to the Bryght Blog. Under the heading of “Web 2.0 and
Personal Brand Development Presentation” Boris passes on some good advice to the people at Sunaptic Solutions.

Boris writes: My take on Personal Brand Development? A respected, well-know employee is a credit to their employer, just as working for a high-profile company reflects well on the employee. Forward thinking companies should encourage and reward personal brand development.

Boris also points us to a post on “Personal vs. Professional Identity” by Francois Nonnenmacher who concludes: “The message: Guard your identity and don’t mix it up with your company’s identity. Otherwise, you risk being “disappeared” if you leave your job or get fired.“.

Both Boris and Francois have some good points. For an individual it is very important to keep a focus on your professional brand. Having a brand makes it much easier to make employment changes when you like. It also helps should you prefer to become a self-employed “consultant”.

Their analysis is not complete though. If you are THE BRAND, then any company you start might die with you. Since you are the only valuable element, you’ll have nothing to pass on, nothing to sell should you so wish to. While I have not read the E-Myth book I believe one of their conclusions is that you need to work ON your business, not only IN it.

Developing a personal brand is important for those that want to better control their careers. It is important though, for most entrepreneurs that one day would like to retire and see an ongoing return on their investment, that the Corporate Brand is developed as well.

Boris goes on and lists some good advice about getting domain names (I’ve been happy with MyDomain) and hosted blogging services (I’m still using Blogger and are very ready to move on. I want a tool where I can use categories for my postings!).

I’d like to add another piece of advice to the Sunaptic folks: To make me believe you know what is going on you will need to keep your corporate web site up to date! January 2004 news should not be your latest piece now in November of 2005!!

In fairness, it’s easy to end up as Sunatic with old content. My old web site, which has not been updated since I shut my consulting practise down to take “a job”, currently shows 2004 news as latest entry as well. I must update it one of these days. Funny, in my first go as a blogger I wrote an article on keeping your image up to date.

roar at roarweb dot com

Note: This post moved from Blogger on Decemebr 6, 2005

RED HERRING: The state of Texas sued Sony BMG Music Entertainment on Monday for allegedly installing spyware through its copyright protection software on music CDS, making it the first state to bring legal action against the music giant in the month-old controversy.

In a previous article RED HERRING reported that Computer Associates (CA) had discovered that Sony installed - without the user permission - a rootkit on the users computers.

I’m glad the State of Texas are joining those that sues Sony. It is not that I want to limit Sony’s right to protect its copyrighted products, rather I believe it is important that full disclosure takes place BEFORE the purchase.

With disclosure, we, as consumers, can then decide if we want to purchase the product or not.

Over the years I have enjoyed making my own music mix tapes and CDs from materials I have purchased. I’d probably change my music buying habits if I’ll have to pay every time I make a new mix. I’d probably download just a few songs - with the likely result that the performers (and their record companies) would get less exposure and less royalties.

This is about more than digital rights though. In a Internet 2.0 world information spreads through communities at a blazing speed. We already see how blogs are starting to influence public opinion - or at least bring issues to light. For any company to be successful in this environment they will have to be honest and open about their product offerings - “side effects” and all.

It doesn’t matter if you sell a digital product or physical products such as cars, vacuum cleaners or clothing. Honesty is required - shady business practices will surly be exposed.

In my November 10 posting (Security vs. Productivity) I wrote about Paul Wing’s Risk definition: “Risk is … not consistently meeting business objectives and there being an adverse impact”. I guess Sony misjudged this one. And messing up the uninstaller kit didn’t help.

Will we ever learn? Maybe, with governments getting involved the stakes are higher and we’re more likely to see companies “think twice” before embarking on similar adventures.

roar at roarweb dot com

Blog while you jog: People run to new My Opera Community:

Maybe old news for many, but still interesting. Opera has also hired a prefessional blogger.

Oslo, Norway - October 19, 2005

“Opera Software today invites everyone on the Web to experience the new My Opera Community. The new site extends the reach of today’s social Web by allowing members to blog and upload photos directly from their mobile phones.”

roar at roarweb dot com

Note: This post moved from Blogger to WordPress on December 6, 2005

I occasionally read the e-mails I receive from the Ziff Davis Web Buyer’s Guide. The Skype headline caught my eye and I decided to take a closer look.

Skype End User Licence Agreement
Article 4 Permission to Utilize
4.1 Permission to utilize Your computer. In order to receive the benefits provided by the Skype Software, You hereby grant permission for the Skype Software to utilize the processor and bandwidth of Your computer for the limited purpose of facilitating the communication between Skype Software users.
4.2 Protection of Your computer (resources). You understand that the Skype Software will use its commercially reasonable efforts to protect the privacy and integrity of Your computer resources and Your communication, however, You acknowledge and agree that Skype cannot give any warranties in this respect.”

When I signed up for Skype I was a bit concerned about this. The agreement did not limit the use of my computer to my own use of Skype. I still signed up. The computer I use for Skype is not a part of an enterprise network and thus a limited security risk.

I can see the issue on an enterprise level though.

It also brings to mind other “enterprise” issues. A few years (late 1990s) ago I was researching chat and message boards for use in communicating with a distribution network of financial advisors. The research did not take very long - the corporate IT department had shut down any access to chat forums and I was not about to take them on to get access to such tools for the marketing and sales departments. Maybe I should have, but with limited resources you have to “pick your fights”. The bottom line is that IT ended up deciding on my communication strategy - without discussing the impact with me as a user

roar at roarweb dot com

Note: This post moved from Blogger December 6, 2005

Last night I attended a event hosted by the Society for Technical Communication (STC) and the High-Tech Communicators’ Exchange (HTCE) - “Online Influence: What Blogs Mean to Your Business”. It was a great event with good food and friendly people.

Susannah Gardner, co-founder and creative director of Hop Studios Internet Consultants and the author of “Buzz Marketing With Blogs for Dummies” presented.

Susannah listed 10 Strategic Benefits of Blogging:
- Search Engine Marketing
- Direct Communications
- Branding
- Competitive Differentiation
- Relational Marketing
- Exploiting the Niches
- Media and PR
- Reputation Management
- Position Expert Status
- Building Trust

I missed Community Development on her list. I guess it depends on what level you measure as many of her benefits should also be the result of proper Commuinity Building.

You can find the rest of her presentation here

roar at roarweb dot com

Note: This post meved from Blogger December 6, 2005

Yesterday I took some time to attend the Transend Security and Privacy Symposium 2005. Transend is using this symposium as an opportunity to present itself to the local (Westcoast) IT community. I’m not sure if they felt the event was a success - the number of empty seats seemed very high to me.

Anyway, the symposium had some interesting speakers. Bob Hansmann of Trend Micro told us how it now takes less than 4 days from a patch is released until a new virus attacking the specific security issue can be found. That is less time than it takes most companies to install a new patch. He also mentioned that the challenge is one of security vs. productivity. Speaking to secuirt practitioners he said: “Your job is not to keep a virus from spreading, but to keep productivity up”.

Dick Hardt of Vancouver based Sxip Identity Corporation presented his Identity 2.0 presentation. Well worth a look if you have not seen it already. If you are a blogger, check out their Sxore product.

Dina Palozzi of Bank Of Montreal discussed the importance of the KISS principle when it comes to collecting data. She suggested that understanding the information is critical from a privacy and security perspective. She felt we needed to look at:
- What is collected?
- How is it used?
- Who is responsible
- Where is the information stored

She also said that information must be managed according to business objectives, customer expectations and legal requirements. She furthermore pointed out that accountability for protecting information cannot be outsourced.

Micael Milligan of Kasten Chase brought us from the information itself to the business consequences of poor information management. He suggested 20% of customers has terminated relations with a company with security breaches.

Representatives from the BC and Alberta Privacy Commissioners/Offices mentioned that 95% of all security breaches are due to human breaches. The Albertans also name names when it comes to judgements and orders from the commissioner.

There was other interesting presenters as well. For me, with a background in financial services marketing, it was interesting to note the Risk definition from Paul Wing of Great-West Life: “Risk is … not consistently meeting business objectives and there being an adverse impact“. Thus risk is more than IT/S risk - we also need to take into account all processes that are impacting how we perform compared to our business objectives.

roar at roarweb dot com

Note: This pos moved from Blogger December 6, 2005

Vancouver Sun: “Canadian software companies bullish”

Expectations are for increased IT spending by business, doubling revenues

This is great news for Canadian businesses. We’re seeing the same trend in Vancouver as well, technology companies are busy hiring and securing new office space.

“What we are seeing is an interest on behalf of the ISVs [independent software vendors] to be able to capitalize on IT as a strategic asset,” said Dixon. “They are developing solutions for customers so those customers can get more out of their IT today.

“It is about making innovative new investments in IT to realize new business opportunities.”

Basic business lesson?
1) New investments should help realize new business opportunities! (Makes sense to me. Applies to both customers and vendors)
2) Customer focus is a good thing! (Amazing how much more willing people are to buy something that actually solves their problems or helps them gain an advantage. Let us never forget this!)

“…Canadian companies are finally following their American neighbours and becoming more aggressive in using new technology to gain a competitive advantage, improve efficiencies and bolster the bottom line.”

Did you notice “finally”?

In any case …
[928 companies * $12.2 million/ea] => a nice increase over 3 years. And with customer focus and solutions that actually solve strategic challenges we might even see the growth continue.

roar at roarweb dot com

Vancouver Sun: “Stray e-mails”

Stray e-mails is a problem. Especially if you are on the senders’ side. I’m sure most of us at some point have ended up including too many people (”reply all”??) or misspelling a domain name.

An article in the Vancouver Sun today underlines the importance of spelling e-mail addresses right and not expecting e-mail messages in general to be “secure”. To me the story also raises a question about ethics.

The owner of the infrastructure.ca domain has “for several years” (WHOIS says the domain was registered in 2000) been getting misdirected e-mails, [some] containing inside information about the Liberal government.

Sender beware! You never know who will be reading your e-mails!

On the other hand, this could have been an easy problem to fix for the domain owner - especially after several years of “problems”.

Some issues to consider:

1) He probably used the “catch-all” setting for e-mail, limiting the number of valid e-mail adresses would have been simple.
2) He could have deleted the e-mails. Instead it looks like he read every little detail.

The owner is now negotiating with the Canadian government for them to purchase his domain. He’s been asking $70,000! This amount has now been reduced to $25,000. The offer from our government: $5,000!

As people are likely to continue mistyping domain names, I suggest they use an outside agency to set the value. A Google search on Domain Valuation lists quite a few providers that is willing to do this.
This will make sure the asking price is not seen as black-mail and the offer price is not seen as a “cover-up”.

For the rest of us, we need to make sure we use the right e-mail addresses, not send confidential materials by e-mail …. and maybe delete incoming e-mail not intended for us? Telling the sender their e-mail went astray is a nice thing to do as well, but maybe not that practical for higher volumes.

Oh yes, if you are interested in politics … you might want to read the whole article on your own.

roar at roarweb dot com

Note: This post moved from Blogger on December 6, 2005