Center for Society, Law & Justice

University of New Orleans (UNO), Center for Society, Law & Justice (CSLJ)

Activities

* Manage justice technologies training that educates senior justice managers to deal with integration and training that allows office personnel to create power user groups for justice organizations
* Research into project management training resources
* Developing a framework for the debate of ethical issues in privacy regarding the ''philosophy'' of information access
* Develop briefing booklets regarding justice integration issues for general circulation

Products

* Partnership to deliver an intense project management training with university credit through the Integrated Justice Information Systems (IJIS) Industry Working Group (IWG) and Auburn University
* Development of technical assistance support for medium and rural justice agencies to increase their capacities to integrate systems

Constituencies

* Criminal justice executives
* Criminal justice trainers
* Criminal justice consortiums
* Medium to small justice agencies with minimal ICJS capacities
* Criminal justice chief information officers

Katrina has left many losses and disruptions in its wake. This is only one.

This is the time to be meticulously correct

Post-disaster contracting rush leads to confusion

Emergency situations can make a complicated procurement process even more confusing. The Federal Acquisition Regulation, the guiding document for federal purchases, disperses its rules on emergency procurement throughout the verbose document, making it difficult for officials and contractors unfamiliar with emergency procurement law to figure out exactly what they can and cannot do.

Given the atmosphere is spectacular ill will between Federal and Gulf Coast authorities it is crucial that contractors refrain for exploiting this situation or fail to give value.

In praise of DC SPIN and SQA

DC SPIN and SQA require their speakers to bring copies of their presentations for attendees. In addition to making it easier to follow along with the speaker, it facilitates note taking. With the basic presentation in front of you, you can concentrate on the details and nuances of the speaker’s presentation. It makes original reporting and blogging much easier. If you are planning on making a presentation, make copies available beforehand. It’s easy publicity.

What is the difference between unqualified and qualified datatypes?

Unqualified Datatypes are those for which no restrictions have been applied. Qualified Datatypes are those for which some restrictions have been applied.

Courtesy of Mark Crawford of LMI Government Consulting

Homeland security blog

W. David Stephenson blogs on homeland security et al.

With a goal of "making homeland security everyone's business," Stephenson Strategies' W. David Stephenson blogs on homeland security strategies, emphasizing empowering the public, creative use of technology, win-win public/private collaborations yielding security and economic benefits, and protecting civil liberties. CIO.com says: "Google 'homeland security blog' and security consultant W. David Stephenson's site tops the list. If you like blogs.. updated nearly every day, Stephenson's your man, providing links and analysis of current homeland security topics."

Civil service blogosphere

Nick Mudge has created this very useful list of government blogs. Now if only someone would create an RSS reader like the one for PR blogs.

Winslow Homer

I went to see the Winslow Homer exhibit at the National Gallery. Homer is a truly American artist, not just in his subject matter, but in his whole attitude.

Homer painted ordinary people going about their daily tasks in a way that endowed them with dignity. His respect for workers comes through in every painting. Particularly striking was the juxtaposition of Autumn with The Blackboard. It is quite obvious which lady he preferred.

So far as I know, Homer was the only white artist of the nineteenth century capable of painting Afican Americans without indulging in hideous sterotypes. The faces on these children are natural. You can almost imagine the plight of enslaved children running towards the Union Army and offering to do any little task that might earn a few coins.

Massachusetts chooses open source

Massachusetts mandates open-format docs, edges toward Linux

The state of Massachusetts will revamp its digital output during the next 16 months to create only open-format documents and is increasing its use of Linux and free and open source software (FOSS) among its workers, the state's chief information officer told DesktopLinux.com Thursday in a conference call.

CIO Peter Quinn challenged Microsoft and other companies who sell software that uses proprietary document formats to consider enabling open-format options as soon as possible. Quinn said that "government is creating history at a rapidly increasing rate, and all documents we save must be accessible to everybody, without having to use 'closed' software to open them now and in the future."

This will be a very closely watched implementation.

Edit-
Microsoft Blasts Massachusetts' New XML Policy
Massachusetts to Adopt New Data Standards
Massachusetts Information Technology Division

Last Katrina post

This will be my last Katrina post as this is a blog devoted to PR and technology. But I would like to offer some observations on the PR side of this tragedy. Now is the time to be cooperative and generous. Anyone who exploits this tragedy or is even perceived to be less than cooperative will be judged very harshly, if not in a court of law, then in the court of public opinion. The Gulf Coast is home to some of the greatest musicians who have ever lived. Those who fail to respond appropriately to this tragedy can look forward to inspiring searing blues ballads. Do you want your future grandchild to watch some future teenage idol belt out some ballad that holds you in scorn?

When The Levee Breaks

If it keeps on rainin', levee's
goin' to break
If it keeps on rainin', levee's goin' to break
And the water gonna come in, have no place to stay
Well all last night I sat on the levee and moan
Well all last night I sat on the levee and moan
Thinkin' 'bout my baby and my happy home
If it keeps on rainin', levee's goin' to break
If it keeps on rainin', levee's goin' to break
And all these people have no place to stay
Now look here mama what am I to do
Now look here mama what am I to do
I ain't got nobody to tell my troubles to
I works on the levee mama both night and day
I works on the levee mama both night and day
I ain't got nobody, keep the water away
Oh cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do no good
Oh cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do no good
When the levee breaks, mama, you got to lose
I works on the levee, mama both night and day
I works on the levee, mama both night and day
I works so hard, to keep the water away
I had a woman, she wouldn't do for me
I had a woman, she wouldn't do for me
I'm goin' back to my used to be
I's a mean old levee, cause me to weep and moan
I's a mean old levee, cause me to weep and moan
Gonna leave my baby, and my happy home

Hurricane season

As the tragedy continues to unfold on the Gulf Coast, we should keep in mind that hurricane season is not over and additional major storms are expected. Some of my out of town readers must be wondering what if this happened to Washington, DC.

Hurricanes are rare in Washington, and when they do come they have usually weakened to tropical storms. But we are occasionally hit. Unlike New Orleans, the poor people live on the higher elevations and the rich live near the river. The State Department, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are all located in what is known as Foggy Bottom. Speaks for itself. The famous Watergate complex is located, as its name suggest, right next to the Potomac River.

Hurricane Agnes was a tropical storm by the time it rolled across Washington, but the flooding was extensive. The Pentagon, which sits on a rise, was spared, but all the surrounding roads were flooded. The whole area along both sides of the river was flooded. In Georgetown everything below M Street was covered with water. In the unlikely event that Washington is hit, things will play out very differently than the Gulf Coast.

Aftermath ii, the refugee crisis

It is now obvious that thousands of gulf coast residents will have to resettle elsewhere. Their homes are gone and those areas will be uninhabitable for months to come.

From what I can tell the port of New Orleans will be closed for months and all of its shipping business rerouted. That means ports such as Norfolk and Baltimore will see a marked increase in business. They will need dockworkers and related trades. There ought to be a way to put unemployed gulf coast shipping workers in touch with employers at the other ports.

This is just one example of what needs to be done. Shel Holtz has two posts about cummunicators looking to relocate.

We need the online job networks such as Monster.com and others to come forward and develop a special section for gulf coast residents seeking to relocate. We need the Red Cross to assist with relocation grants (not loans). Of course they can’t do that without our generous support.

Patently counter productive

Tim Bray received an email from the Patent Office’s new PR firm touting their Stop Fakes website. It is written in the energetic style of hype PR:

And the email itself? Here’s a sample: “Can bloggers help? Yes! The USPTO is well aware of the impact bloggers have and the important role they play. As an online opinion leader you can help small businesses protect the intellectual property of small businesses in one of several ways: Write about the site in your blog...” ...

So, let’s put this simply. Dear USPTO, you’re lying. If you actually read bloggers you’d know that the few who write about you think you’re part of the problem, not part of the solution

I think the tone of the USPTO pitch is a trifle condescending. When I pitch bloggers I treat them the same way I treat journalists. Even if they are amateurs, it is an error to suppose they are flattered to receive a pitch from a professional flack. Quite the reverse in fact.

Having said that, I think Mr. Bray is a little harsh. This site offers a general introduction to the patent system and its advantages for small business. Even if you think our current system has, er, room for improvement, this site strikes this observer as a good, if incomplete, introduction.

Here is how I might have written it:

Dear _______, Too often small businesses fail to file for patents because they don’t understand how patents can protect their business. The USPTO has developed a website for small businesses to give them an introduction to the patent process and describe its advantages.

I would not make this pitch to tech blogs. Instead I would send it to marketing, legal, venture capital, and small business blogs, who are less likely to take such a harsh view of the Patent Office.

Edit-
v-Fluence Responds to Tim Bray and shows a lot of class.

Aftermath

Katrina Blog

Slidell Hurricane Damage Blog

WLBT Skycopter view of damage at Gulfport, Mississippi

Pictures of Katrina's destruction.

Map of area of destruction

Nobody ever won a war with their customers

DRM doesn’t scale

I recently got the Gotham Gal a new Mac mini for her office. I signed her up for iTunes and configured it to use the same account everyone uses. She bought some music and when she went to play it, she got the message that the account can only serve 5 users. So she bought the music, paid for it, and she can't even play it on her own computer. That's the DRM wreaking havoc on our home music system.

I am old enough to remember 45’s. They were great; you just bought a song if you liked it and could play it on any record player. The only defect was that sometimes you liked songs that were never released as singles. Digital music gets passed all that because you can make any mix that suits your fancy. If the entertainment conglomerates would stop trying to control this and offer the digital version of the 45, fully portable, they could make a fortune. They are controlling their industry to death.

Enterprising law enforcement agencies use new technologies to spur cross-border data sharing

Alan Joch, Federal Computer Week

Although XML was first adopted by commercial businesses in the 1990s, law enforcement IT managers worldwide soon embraced it as a tool for smoothing processes such as the distribution of police arrest reports to prosecutors or officers in other jurisdictions. But for years, "it was missing a vocabulary for law enforcement," Wormeli said.

That missing link came with Global Justice XML (GJXML), an XML adaptation created by the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Justice Programs and the Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative, a consortium of 32 local, state, federal and international justice organizations.

GJXML provides a data model, a data dictionary and schemas tailored to law enforcement. Those tools free agencies from writing custom interfaces for data sharing. "It's being adopted by law enforcement at breakneck speed," Wormeli said.

Who's on first

Washington Technology

Law enforcement IT industry group Integrated Justice Information Systems Institute, Ashburn, Va., expanded its board of directors, adding six new members: Gerry Wethington, vice president for homeland security, justice and law enforcement at Unisys Corp.; Mike Byrne, executive director of homeland security and justice at Microsoft Corp.; Mike Lyons, chief executive officer of VisionAir Inc., Castle Hayne, N.C.; Morgan Wright, global industry solutions manager at Cisco Systems Inc.; Glenn Archer, CEO of ChoicePoint Government Services, part of ChoicePoint Asset Co., Alpharetta, Ga.; and Steve Mednick, a lawyer specializing in technology-related contract negotiation and related issues.

Calendar cards

It is time to select the Presto Vivace, Inc. calendar card. Let me know if you have any opinions.

Earth 2006

Cosmic Globe

Waterfall

Marble Holidays

Press release websites

Someone on the PRSA discussion list was kind enough to send out this list-

http://www.pr-archive.com/submit

http://www.e-xl.com/submit

http://www.goarticles.com/ulogin.html

https://uadm.arrivenet.com/index.php?o=/steps.php&m=nosession

http://www.express-press-release.com/

http://www.cybernewsnetwork.com/

http://ezine.net/modules.php?name=Submit_News

http://www.i-newswire.com/submit_free.php

http://www.press-world.com/add

http://www.free-press-release.com/

http://www.prweb.com/

http://www.indymedia.org/en/index.shtml

http://www.kazor.com/businessPR/newsPR.htm

http://www.mediasyndicate.com/index.php

http://www.usanews.net/

http://www.out2.com/copyroom/home.asp

http://www.click2newsites.com/press.asp

http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/

http://www.pressmethod.com

http://www.prleap.com/

http://www.malebits.com/

http://www.pressbox.co.uk/

http://www.prfree.com/

http://www.theopenpress.com/

http://www.webwire.com/

http://www.fivestarpress.com/

http://press.xtvworld.com/

http://www.clickpress.com/releases/index.shtml

http://www.free-news-release.com/Submit.aspx

http://www.bizeurope.com/pressrelease.htm

http://www.prminds.com/submitpr_free/submitpr_free.php

http://www.dime-co.com/submitpress.html

http://www.businesshighlight.org/

http://www.bigarticles.com/cgi-bin/add.cgi?d=1

http://www.pr9.net/

http://www.addpr.com/addrelease.php

http://www.aall-dreamlands.com/submit1.htm

http://www.transworldnews.com/modules.php?name=Submit_eNews

How banks should correspond with their customers

Preserving the Internet Channel Against Phishers

The four steps:

* No HTML email. HTML email opens all sorts of possibilities for hiding things. Train your users to expect short and simple messages.

* No links in email. Always refer to the bookmark you encourage users to create from their paper statements.

* All your websites must belong to you, and show up under your domain. Do not acclimatize users to treat other URLs as yours. If you get your users used to sites with names like "cb.pharmphr33.supersecure.com," then you shouldn't be surprised that they don't get worried when they are phished there.

* Fire people who violate these rules. Give a substantial finders fee to the first person who reports the violation. Give the money to both employees/whistleblowers and customers.

From Adam Shostack, who is learning how to talk to marketers.

Katrina

Hurricane Katrina regional imagery, 2005.08.27 at 1415Z. Centerpoint Latitude: 24:16:29N Longitude: 84:18:58W.

Federal architects ready glossary of terms

David Perera, Federal Computer Week

The federal Chief Architects Forum has posted working draft definitions of 175 enterprise architecture terms on its public wiki site.

Volunteers from industry and government are working to define the most common architecture terms, from “application” to “Extensible Markup Language schema.” “Having support helps,” said Ira Grossman, chairman of the forum.

Because the wiki is a public site, people can immediately start commenting on the definitions, but a formalized process will be set up in the next two or three months, Grossman added. Further rounds of rewriting, editing and reviewing still need to be completed, he said.

As Americans, we can be very proud that our government has set a new precedent for open discussion for software standards. I trust others will embrace this approach.

Justice tackles standards for computer-aided dispatch systems

Joab Jackson, Government Computer News

Two law enforcement government bodies have assembled a committee to address the problem of making computer-aided dispatch systems interoperable.

The Advisory Committee on Law Enforcement IT Standards, as the new group is known, should have draft standards ready within a year, said Paul Wormeli, executive director of the Integrated Justice Information Systems (IJIS) Institute.

Why this matters.

Identity theft, it gets more serious

National Center for State Courts blog

Identity Theft Alert: Courts Beware

It seems that the latest target for those in the identity theft business is the jury system, as Jur-E was made aware of two separate cases this week in which jury programs were being used as a vehicle for obtaining individuals' personal information.

It could hardly be more serious.

Call for Speakers, AIIM 2006 Conference

Welcome to AIIM's Call for Speakers

This year we are especially interested in receiving submissions from the public sector (local, state, and federal governments.) For 2006, our re-charged, revved up Conference sessions will be divided into five themes:

• Content Management Architecture, Infrastructure, and Applications
• Data, Image, and Content Capture: The On-Ramp to an ECM Solution
• Centralizing Your Assets: Store, Retrieve, and Preserve
• Communicate, Collaborate, and Manage - "Can You Hear Me Now?"
• Making the Invisible Visible: Measure, Monitor, and Analyze

Deadline for submitting your presentation proposal(s) is September 19, 2005.

GJXDM National Virtual Help Desk Open for business

The IJIS Institute

The IJIS Institute has announced the opening of a GJXDM national virtual help desk to serve developers in government and industry who are working on implementing the Global Justice XML Data Model (GJXDM). More than a conventional help desk, the GJXDM Help Desk will contain a significant knowledge base that users can access over the web, and then submit unanswered questions via the web or telephone. The help desk is staffed in three levels of response. Level 1 will be staffed directly by the IJIS Institute to provide the basic responses to questions and build the knowledge base in addition to managing the project. Specific domain expertise will be available as Level 2 support from the National Center for State Courts and SEARCH, the national consortium on integrated justice. Further support from technical expertise of member companies and the Georgia Tech Research Institute will be available for the most difficult technical questions.

The goal of the help desk is to get answers back to developers within 24 hours wherever possible. The operation will keep open hours of 8 am to 8 pm eastern time to ensure service to the west coast during afternoon hours.

This could be the model for many other federal/state/local iniatives.

Is there any reason not to respond to an inquiry?

John Wagner asks a question on his blog:

Question for you PR spokespeople: If a blogger called you today and wanted a comment on an issue involving your company or your client, would you return the call? Would you go on record with a blogger?

How would a non-response ever serve a client’s interest? And since when were flacks too great and grand to talk to anyone? As for going on the record, is there any other way to go?

Innovation at Work: DC Government's Integrated e-Document Management Program

NCC-AIIM Monthly Meeting, Thursday, September 15, 2005

Bill Zybach, DC Office of the CTO

Like other government entities, the District of Columbia (DC) has seen the volume of unstructured content in their business documents and communications grow exponentially. While this content is generated electronically, it is not currently managed in a manner that enables business users and decision-makers to easily access critical embedded information. The DC government decided they had to do something. The objective of the resulting initiative is to develop an Integrated e-Document Management (IeDM) strategy to address strategic, process, organization, performance, and technology issues. The project includes four phases. Phase I - Analysis and Strategy, was completed on July 26th; 2005. Phase II - Policy, Pilots, Architecture and Solutions is planned to be completed in November 2005. Phase III - Initial Deployment within Pilots will follow. A final Phase IV will focus on a phased in DC Government enterprise Deployment.

This presentation will discuss the tangibles (the deliverables to date) which include the Current state assessment, Document and records standards review, Strategic options for implementing an IeDM strategy across the District, Select pilot applications, Cost benefit analysis and a Deployment strategy for effectively implementing the IeDM strategy across the District. Even the intangibles will be discussed and that's no ordinary story.

Rob Pegoraro talks about reviewing consumer technology

During his appearance before CPCUG, Rob Pegoraro spoke generally about his beat, story selection and his views on technology. He is looking for consumer technology that is past the early adopter stage but not quite mass market. He described his bias and being in favor of ease of use; he is not enthusiastic about products which require extensive tinkering. Pegoraro indicated that anytime he spends more than thirty minutes setting up, it is unlikely to be a friendly review. Apparently it is customary for companies’ PR departments to offer a special technical support lines for journalists in a hurry. Friends, if a journalist won’t be able to make deadline with your regular technical support, that is a clue your technical support is inadequate.

Note - Pergoraro spoke disparagingly of the PR department PowerPoint presentations and large media kits that invariably accompany product shipments. I have never heard a reporter say a kind word for media kits, except for the online variety, so why do we keep sending them?

Missing the point

Arianna Huffington has started a series styled the Judy file, consisting of droppings from New York Times’ anonymice. Imagine what it is like to be Bill Keller right now, wondering which reporters are dishing dirt. Imagine what it is like to come under unjust suspicion for leaking. What are the chances that the anonymice have created an atmosphere of distraction and distrust? Now you know what the worker bees in your government have been putting up with for the last thirty years.

It is remarkable to go to a Washington IT event when one of these scandals is breaking. In the same room you have the worker bees for the government agency issuing subpoenas, the worker bees for the agency receiving subpoenas and the marketing representatives from the litigation support software companies. Mostly everyone is oblivious to the passing storm; but tension is not far from the surface. Industry analysts that have spoken to such groups will tell you that Washington, DC audiences are like no other.

Huffington makes it embarrassing clear that she has no idea what this story is about with this unseemly offer:

And for any employees of the Alexandria Detention Center who may have been monitoring the Bolton-Miller visit: feel free to give us a call or drop us an e-mail. The Judy File promises to protect your identity... even if it means taking the cell next to Judy’s.

It was soon followed by this clarification:

that it is the policy at ALEXANDRIA not to give out the names of visitors (in fact, the deputy we spoke with there said that he wasn’t sure they would give it out even with a subpoena).

This story is partly about reporters and editors who thought their stories were more important than the law. The proper operation of our jails is far more important than Huffington’s ridiculous little blog. It is not morally acceptable to openly solicit the employees of correctional institutions to violate procedures. Huffington needs to clean up her act.

Bob Somerby comments.

Global PR Blog Week 2.0 and the image of the PR industry

The public does not like us. They think we are sneaky, manipulative and duplicitous. We are supposed to be in the business of making a good impression on the public; yet the public does not like us. It’s embarrassing. How can we change it?

Some have said we should find a way to drive out the bad apples and end bad practices. I just don’t think that is possible. Bad clients hire bad practitioners.

What I do think is possible is to educate the public about the ordinary business of professional communications. That is part of what Global PR Blog Week 2.0 is all about. For one week, September 19 - 23, fifty-three PR professionals from twelve counties will present seventy-one articles about communications and public relations. It will all be online and free to the public. Anyone will be able to read it and judge for themselves the nature of our work. I think the public will be pleased.

Get ready to pitch

USA Today to Launch Technology Magazine in October

Looks like it is is going to be consumer oriented. With a $4.95 cover price it is difficult to see how it is going to compete with Tom’s Hardware or the gadget blogs. But after years of watching magazines fold it is thrilling to see a new title launch.

Mike Manual speculates on the future of PR

PR Remixed, Mashed-Up.

As the media landscape continues to divide and audiences become increasingly fragmented, is it that far fetched to think the boundaries between what may now be separate, unrelated industries will soon blur? Perhaps even become one? Case in point, as companies look for new ways to directly engage with customers online, it doesn’t take a big leap of the imagination to think that customer service and PR may soon cross paths, err, mash-up. Gasp!

I think he’s on to something.

Why the future belongs to open source

SchoolNet Namibia

Since February, 2000, close to 450 schools have received free hardware, free training on the OpenLab operating system and subsidized telephone service to help get the nation's young people online. It's all part of the plan to empower youth through internet access.

Through a number of ambitious strategies such as its adoption of a Linux Terminal Server thin-client networks, its dedication to the open source movement and its fledgling wireless and solar plans, the prize-winning operation has begun to realize a vision of Namibia where all students have not just access to the internet, but the skills to participate in the digital revolution.

It’s not just that the operating system is free, it’s that these schools can make whatever modifications to the source code they deem necessary. This is the next generation of programmers and they are unlikely to have much patience with the inconvenience of proprietary systems.

So much for Virginia gentility

iBook sale frenzy

Asian diversification hits Treasuries

Jennifer Hughes, Financial Times

Foreigners did not seem too enthused by US Treasuries in June, according to data on Monday that underlined a recurring theme of recent months – fears that China’s revaluation and a more general trend towards diversification might mark a turning point in Asian central bank buying of US assets.

The Treasury’s monthly portfolio flow data showed overseas investors bought a net $7.9bn of US Treasuries, the lowest level since September 2003.

A bad sign. A very bad sign.

Restraint of trade?

IceRocket to stop listing Blogger blogs

Mark Cuban of Ice Rocket has noticed that Blogger hosts a lot of dubious blogs. But is also hosts this one and hundreds of thousands blogs talking about everything from the war in Iraq, to marketing, to technology to every imaginable subject. I think it would be a pity if Ice Rocket users were to lose access to this conversation. Certainly Blogger needs to be aggressive against those who abuse its terms of service, but to cut off the free service is to cut the very quaility, along with its ease of use, that makes Blogger such a force for free speech.

Some quality investment blogs hosted by Blogger:

Calculated Risk

The Housing Bubble

Mish’s Global Economic Trends

Not good for public relations

From IABC Café comes this great moment in media relations:

A friend of mine is the producer of a TV show. She recently received an email from a PR consultant pitching an idea for a story. She wasn’t interested in the story, so she deleted the email.

Ten minutes later, the PR consultant rang her and asked, “Why did you delete my email? You only read it for two seconds!”

That was absolutely correct. My friend did delete the email. And yes, she only had the email open for 2 seconds. My friend was starting to freak out. “How did this guy know all this?” she asked me.

Easy: the PR guy was using a program, like ReadNotify, which tracks in some detail what happens to the email when it hits the recipient’s email box ...

NoVaSQL August meeting

Via .Net Delirium:

The Northern Virginia SQL Server Users Group meeting is Monday August 22, 2005 at 7:00 PM.

The AT&T Government Solutions Headquarters
1900 Gallows Road Vienna, VA 22182

The topic for our meeting is:

The lifecycle of SQL code: Development, packaging, distributed deployment and querying solutions in MS-SQL farms.

VoIP and emergency response

Global IP Alliance Joins Forces With Henning Schulzrinne in Call for Development of IP-Based, Globally-Oriented, Next-Generation Emergency Response

The Global IP Alliance noted that, simply making the existing 9-1-1 system in the United States work for today's VoIP users is not satisfactory, even as it may be a suitable stop-gap measure for those consumers who have already migrated over to VoIP services as a replacement for their former POTS service.

Can’t figure out what, if any, impact this would have on computer aided dispatch.

Easier said than done

How to NOT edit yourself

DO NOT EDIT as you write! This is the biggest time-waster on earth. If you really want to avoid the task at hand, then go ahead and examine each and every sentence under a microscope as soon as you type it. But if you want to actually finish your piece of writing some day, don't edit yourself until you complete at least some semblance of a first draft.

Computer rage

The Problem:

Computer rage is becoming a big problem in our world today. Men and women are taking out their frustrations on the computer; and unfortunately, sometimes misdirecting it to other people. In the work place and at the home, more and more people are smashing their computer screens, beating on the keyboard, and throwing the computer out the window. What is to be done? Should we calm the user, control their behavior, and channel their anger to different outlets?

Analysis of an online survey

Bloggers don’t have editors or advertisers

Google has recently announced they won’t talk to CNET in retribution for a story CNET ran about the privacy problems created by Google. Their British sister publication ran a hilarious commentary on it.

Reaction from blogosphere has not been good. Most PR Pros seem to think this was not a smart move of Google’s part.

I think the days of killing stories are over. This is the kind of story any blogger could have done and no doubt many will link to the original story. How does Google propose to respond?

The best thing Google can do is address the privacy concerns raised by this and other articles.

How open systems gain adoption

A Venture Captialist

Then yesterday, this same friend told me that she had been doing research on a trip to Vietnam and came across this great blog called Sticky Rice.

And she mentioned that all the photos in Sticky Rice come from Flickr, so she could click through and see all the photos of Vietman taken by the Stickyrice guy.

I pointed out to our friend that she could go one step further and check out all the photos in Flickr that are tagged with the word vietnam.

The day before The Gotham Gal told the same friend that she should go do a delicious search on vietnam and vietnamese food.

None of this would be possible with passwords and closed systems.

Slowly but surely consumers are being taught the value of open systems that the hackers intuitively understood 40 years ago.

Good news on the security front

New Microsoft security system scours Web

AUGUST 10, 2005 (TECHWORLD.COM) - Microsoft Corp. has taken the wraps off a new security program that uses automated "HoneyMonkeys" to patrol the Web, seeking out sites that automatically install malicious code on Windows XP systems.

In its first month, the Strider HoneyMonkey research project located 752 Web addresses linking to 287 sites that could automatically infect unpatched machines, Microsoft said. The project also discovered an attack that could penetrate a fully up-to-date Windows XP Service Pack 2 system using a previously unknown vulnerability.

Microsoft first discussed the HoneyMonkey program in May and last week published a research paper discussing the details.

The project is relatively limited in scope; It only looks for code that can be installed with no user interaction, leaving out the more sophisticated and increasingly successful attacks relying on social engineering -- attacks such as phishing.

This could be part of the answer. Well done Microsoft.

A bad joke

Ragan has seen fit to launch a blog on government communciations from a senior level unidentified source. Notice that it is a blog on government communciations, no where do they actually assert that is is written by a civil servant. The author is a senior level unidentified source. Senior level what? Ragan does not say. The author could be a senior level anything.

B.L. Ochman also has her doubts.

I am flattered to be quoted in his first post, even without attribution:

I have heard pr people say, “If you can’t say it on the record, you shouldn’t say it at all.” The reason they say this is because they confuse going off the record with leaking. …

I have lived in the greater Washington, DC area almost all my life and I am perfectly familiar with all the sophist distinctions-without-a-difference in this nasty game.

Going on background can legitimately accomplish at least two things. It can allow you to explain a complex situation in detail without having to worry that little bits and pieces of your explanation are going to end up in quotes—out of context—with your name attached, thereby making you look like an idiot.

Any reporter who is capable of twisting your words for the purpose of making you look like an idiot is quite capable of burning a source

Edit-
Shel Holtz comments. Shows a lot of class too.

Edit ii-
Colin McKay comments.

Steve Crescenzo explains the necessity for pseudonymous blogging.

Deep Background responds.

When corresponding with customers

Don't Use Email Like a Stupid Person

Oh, incidentally, adding my name, social security number, pet's name, or our special shared icon to the email does more harm than good. Please don't.

Fix your email.

ODSL launches patent repository for open source community

Tash Shifrin, ComputerWeekly

Open Source Development Labs, the trade body for Linux research, has launched a patent commons project, providing a central repository of software patents and patent pledges to make access easier for the open source development community.

I am unclear as to why this is not a contradiction in terms.

Cable TV’s big problem

Google Betas Video Upload Program

Al Gore's Current TV is partnering with Google, and if the Google Beta is a success, he won't need cable TV to carry his programming. In fact, cable TV could become rather irrelevant if this web-based on-demand video succeeds.

Anyone with a backhoe in Herndon, Virginia can do this

A credible plan to take down the Internet

What’s wrong with this picture?

Revolution in PR Technology: How Blogs, RSS, Wikis and Podcasting Are Transforming Corporate Communications

If you’re trying to figure out the most effective ways to plug blogs, RSS, wikis and podcasting into your PR strategies to achieve amazing results, PR University’s intensive one-day workshop on how to take command of these exploding technologies is your answer. This high-level forum will focus on exactly how these technologies are revolutionizing corporate messaging and how you can harness them—now. This is a singular opportunity to meet, question and learn with and some of the world’s leading experts—all in one place. You’ll hear from: Steve Rubel, David Berger, Mark Jen, Brooke Gladstone, Pete Blackshaw, Craig Newmark, Sally Falkow, Bill Flitter, Eric Schwartzman, Dan Forbush and Jay Stockwell. These workshops will be held on September 9 at the Crowne Plaza Times Square in Manhattan and on September 16 at the Hilton Hotel and Towers in San Francisco. For full details, phone 1-800-959-1059 or use the button below, but—be advised—space is limited, and these workshops are guaranteed to fill up fast.

Blogs get more commonplace

Blogs written by women were among the top categories of blogs visited, topped only by political blogs, “hipster” lifestyle blogs, and tech blogs.

New Communications Forum - Blog University

Peter Jennings

Peter Jennings Dies at 67

Aug. 7, 2005 — ABC News Anchor Peter Jennings died today at his home in New York City. He was 67. On April 5, Jennings announced he had been diagnosed with lung cancer.

He will be missed.

How to get customer feedback

Sponsor a forum. My client, Biztrans, hosts a forum where customers can discuss their equipment.

Biztrans Wi-Fi Forum

The Resource Shelf

Because it’s your stuff

And you don’t want anyone poking around in your stuff.

Communicating is more about listening than speaking

Management Myth #7: The Talkers are Competent

Don't let someone's ability to speak well confuse your judgment of their technical abilities. (And if you're not a technical manager, learn the product and how the product is created so you can have reasonable conversations about how your staff is working.) Listen to what people say in your one-on-ones. See what they accomplish and when. See when they are stuck. Use this kind of data to determine how well a person is succeeding. Then you'll know if all they have is hot air, or if they are competent.

It Takes a Discerning Eye to See Through Laptop Lingo

Rob Pegoraro, Washington Post

Laptops now advertise hard drives of 60, 80 or 100 gigabytes, but you always get less than that. First, everybody in the industry uses a definition of "gigabyte" that artificially pads out the size of the drive by about 7 percent. (The laptop reviews on Page F7 list the correct figures.) Second, many vendors of Windows laptops use some of the hard drive to hide a set of system-recovery programs, including a backup copy of Windows, instead of providing those on separate CDs or DVDs.

Meet Robert Pegoraro at CPCUG

Monday, August 8, 2005, 7-10 pm
Location: Washington Gas, 6801 Industrial Road, Springfield, Va

How Personal Technology Products Are Reviewed
Rob Pegoraro, Personal Technology Editor, The Washington Post

We all read product reviews; besides shaping our purchases and dealings with technology, they often determine product and company success or failure. The Washington Post's Rob Pegoraro has covered personal technology for more than a few years and shared more than a few opinions with readers. An always-engaging speaker, he'll describe how he reviews products, including selecting review items, dealing with vendors, structuring and performing reviews, and enjoying reader feedback.

AIIM CMS Road Show

At the Content Management Solutions Seminar we'll show you how to:

- Reduce costs by reducing the time it takes to process applications, orders, and forms

- Ensure paper and electronic documents are securely stored and retrievable in accordance with industry and government regulations

- Capture information and documents automatically

- Allow customers, partners, and employees to collaborate on documents

- Retrieve documents whenever you need them, from wherever they are stored

September 28th, Washington, DC

Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill
400 New Jersey Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20001
Telephone: 202-737-1234

Union Station is the nearest metro stop.

ASPMA.com

ASPMA.com analyzes hundreds of thousands of blogs in (almost) real-time to determine the topics that are gaining momentum, losing popularity, or eternally ubiquitous.

Readers, do you have any opinions about this?

Analyst relations, different from dealing with reporters

From Tom Murphy’s indespensible PR summary, we learn of David Rossiter’s post on the difference between communicating with industry analysts and the press.

Journalists are interested in getting coverage. That is their raison d’etre. Good stories – and especially scoops - lead to a healthy career. Poor stories – or worse, no stories – mean the journalist loses their job. However, while media coverage is important to many IT companies can it really compare to the influence that analysts can bring to bear?

Analysts are interested in gaining market insight. It puts them in a better position to advise their clients on how to gain strategic advantage. And that’s critical.

Businesses are taking a cue from bloggers with a new way of distributing information.

Thomas Claburn, Information Week

The Integrated Justice Information Systems Institute, whose members are IT companies that support law-enforcement and Justice Department operations, uses RSS and Atom feeds that came built into its blogging software from Traction Software Inc. to keep committee members up to date on recent developments. "Some of our more technical committees that had some familiarity with RSS saw immediately how they could use that inside their workspace to provide a publish-and-subscribe capability so they don't have to rely on going hunting to see if there's something new in their committee work," executive director Paul Wormelli says.

The institute uses grant money to help state and local agencies adopt new technology, and committee members regularly publish papers that require comment from members in other locations. The benefit Wormelli sees is that information distribution becomes automatic. "No one has to initiate the distribution of information using an RSS feed," he says. "The main purpose is to put things in an E-mail form without anyone having to take the action to do that, and to not force stuff on people that they don't want to take the time to look at."

The quality of the transmission is more important than the range of the microphone

Minority Leader Harry Reid clearly recognizes the value of lefty blogosphere, or netroots as some are calling it. He has done interviews with Buzzflash and Dohiyi Mir. If you want to get your point across, a sympathetic interviewer may be a better venue than Sunday morning TV. Business can learn a lot from this.

Thai Blog

KM never ending
Check out the blog roll.

Another PR Resource

PR Corner

From an investor's point of view

All things RSS

Weblog Ethics Survey Results

From the always insightful Flack Life, we learn about the results of the Ethics in Blogging Survey. What surprised this observer is that when they asked about the subjects of blogs they did not include business.

Herding cats

We are organizing Global PR Blog Week 2.0. It promises to be much bigger and more sophisticated than the original event. Once again Constantin Basturea is doing most of the heavy lifting for the technical side of the event. I can see why his clients like him, for he is truly a shining light in our industry.

Truly bold

Beware of phantom stock regulators, officials warn

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Con artists are setting up Web sites for fake U.S. regulatory agencies to lure stock investors, many from overseas, into fraudulent transactions, officials from New Jersey to Montana warned on Thursday.

These "phantom regulators" -- with names like the International Compliance Commission and the Securities Protection Agency -- have been brought to the attention of actual regulators, the officials said.

Right up there with his prediction that blogs will replace press releases

Blog Search Will Soon Be Extinct

Call for participation: Security 2005 Conference & Exhibition

Security 2005 Conference & Exhibition: Homeland, Cyber, and Information Assurance

November 29-30, 2005
Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
Deadline for Abstract Submission is Wednesday, August 24, 2005

This annual conference brings together government and industry professionals to discuss priorities, programs and practical strategies to meet the evolving challenges of information and homeland security. The program is designed to address the current concerns of government managers responsible for information assurance, secure information sharing, information technology security, as well as a range of homeland security operations, including critical infrastructure protection, border and transportation security, risk assessment and mitigation, continuity of government, and other critical national security mandates.

As a companion event to the Security 2005 Conference and Exhibition, FCW Events also will host a one-day seminar on Thursday, December 1st to address “Identity Protection and Management for Government”

Nick Wingfield on how reporters use blogs

Just got this email from the Infocom Group.

Wall Street Journal Tech Scribe Reveals How Journalists Use Blogs in Reporting — and What PR Practitioners Should Do About It

According to the most recent Annual Euro RSCG Magnet Survey of the Media, conducted in partnership with Columbia University, more than half (51%) of journalists use Weblogs regularly — with 28% relying on them for day-to-day reporting. Sounds like an impressive — perhaps even inflated — statistic, right?

Not according to Wall Street Journal tech reporter Nick Wingfield. “Those findings sound conservative — particularly when applied to tech journalists,” he says. “In my case, I’m definitely part of the crowd using them in [my] reporting. Do my colleagues in Detroit check the auto industry blogs? Maybe not as much. What about reporters in DC — do they go to the political blogs? Probably.”

Wingfield’s point: “Certain industries and beats have embraced the medium more quickly than others. For example, the reporter who covers agriculture and farming probably isn’t going to find as much information for reporting in blogs. But in tech beats — it’s become part of the job. There are a lot of superb blogs out there and many [of us] are cherry picking out interesting stories there.”

Digging deeper, Wingfield reveals the following ways journalists actually use blogs during reporting — and shares a word of caution geared toward PR practitioners seeking to include blogs in their media relations efforts:

1. Journalists use blogs as tickler files when researching stories. “Blogs break big news on occasions,” says Wingfield. “That’s really useful to us. For example, the blogs were abuzz during the week of January 10th with leaks about what Apple’s product plans were. People have dissed blogs about being hit-and-miss in terms of accuracy — but in that case, they really shined. They [blogs like ThinkSecret and MacInsider] had the most amazing product leaks I had seen, including [information about the] Mac Mini and the iPod Shuffle.”

In addition: “In the days before blogs, trade pubs and newsletters would pick up on these types of stories — and the mainstream media would pick up the trades as tip sheets and not give them credit,” Wingfield recalls. “Crediting has gotten better, but the point is that these [blogs] can help us research story ideas. In this case, I didn’t really use [ThinkSecret or MacInsider] as tip sheets to do my story — but it helped me be prepared.”

He adds this caveat, however: “The Journal broke the Apple Intel [chip] news two or three weeks before they announced the deal. We broke it — and the blogosphere reacted, so it goes both ways.”

2. Journalists use blogs as sounding boards. “I also use blogs to see and hear how people in this fairly technical area think about a [certain product or announcement],” Wingfield continues. “Blogs will debate the merits and demerits of deals between companies, for example. They’re not research tools exactly, but they give you a sense of what people think. Also, after our story [ran], I went to those blogs to see what their reactions were to it.”

3. Journalists use blogs as digests of the day’s news. “Blogs also do good jobs of surfacing other stories in the mainstream media that I may not have caught,” Wingfield says. “This is useful in the RSS era — I have a newsreader cherry picking headlines from blogs and it saves me a lot of time. I also see the things they are linking to on other sites that I might not have hit myself.”

4. Journalists don’t “flog the blog” — they see blogs as useful websites. “The term ‘blogs’ is meaningless in a way,” Wingfield says. “Once they’ve become a useful tool, they’re really just a bunch of websites with useful information. They bear little resemblance to the epitome of blogs — which is a very personal, introspective diary. The blogs reporters use aren’t that.” His point: “It’s silly to conflate useful websites with real news information and rumors with those other kinds of sites.”

So what does all of this mean to PR practitioners? “Employee blogs, CEO blogs and other types of sites might be good tools for PR people to reach out [to their publics],” Wingfield says. “But whatever you [put online] has to have real information, be entertaining and original — and it can’t just communicate the corporate mainline. In addition, blogs are not a substitute for building relationships with reporters. They may help get information out — but you still [need to call the media],” he concludes.

Dr. Vincent Tortoriello

Enforsys President Dr. Vincent Tortoriello Appointed to Prestigious Advisory Committee

WHIPPANY, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 27, 2005--Enforsys Systems Inc., a leader in public safety software development specializing in information sharing and mobile reporting for law enforcement agencies, today announced that company president Dr. Vincent Tortoriello has been named a full time member of the Law Enforcement Information Technology Standard Advisory Committee of the Integrated Justice Information Systems (IJIS) Institute. ...

As one of the founders of Enforsys, Tortoriello has played a key role in working as the domain expert in the development of the company's various technology products and services. With a PhD in Chemical Engineering, he also served as a police officer for over 20 years during which he received awards for Life Saving, Meritorious Service and Exceptional Duty.

The creative friction

Shel Holtz informs us that Newsweek is listing to top ten articles most linked by bloggers. Not as thorough as the annotated New York Times, but very useful. We are all learning about how to have this online conversation.

Buttering up the press

Jim Horton points to a story of a reporter who was canned for accepting gifts. Bribery subverts the very thing that make PR possible, editorial integrity.

There are legitimate ways of buttering up reporters and editors. Write them congratulatory letters when they win something for their reporting. All reporters want readers, use your blog to link to their stories. (This works with industry analysts as well.) Recognize the work of their professional societies and trade groups. These are all legitimate ways flacks can cultivate relationships that do not compromise editorial integrity.

IJIS uses the power of blogging

From b.spirit -

Paul Womeli’s Tech Notes:

Bill Machrone, whose column has appeared in PC Magazine for over 20 years, writes in his August 9 column about the correlation between collaboration and information sharing functions often provided by expensive content management software and the same capabilities provided by blogging software. He describes the typical needs for collaboration including "built-in reader commentary, RSS syndication, template-based article entry, and the ability to make style changes without having to find and replace across every HTML page." and points out that most blogging software fills the bill.

There are powerful features of enterprise class blogging software tools that go beyond Machrone's observations and begin to build the basic collaboration and information sharing capability that members of any particular community of interest seek. At the IJIS Institute, we adopted a secure enterprise blogging software package made by Traction Software which we use for multiple important purposes. First, it totally defines our web site using a customized skin that we had Traction create for us. While our web site looks and acts like a conventional web site, it is actually built with the blogging software and everything on the public web site is just composed of articles (posts) in the Traction software. This makes the update and maintenance of the pages trivial, as MS Word documents can simply be copied into the web pages and uploaded with a mouse click eliminating all the work of HTML encoding and placement (although it is very easy to add HTML formatting).

The importance of definitions

Alex Hoffman:

I always find definitions important because all too often I find myself talking at cross purposes with others, because we are actually talking about different things. Part of the problem is that one really needs to clarify the perspective or audience the definition is addressing. For example to a .NET developer, a component might be "an object that implements IComponent", whereas, to a general audience a component might be "something that is a part of a larger system or structure".

Part of the reason this blog regularly posts definitions is to create a handy resource for this author for the precise meaning of IT terminology. Much of the bad writing in tech comes form this misuse of terminology.

Some advice to PR agencies

Use a hyperlink.

More on press releases

Dan Gillmor is not thrilled with our military putting the same made up quote in two different press releases. He goes on to make some very entertaining observations about quotes in press releases:

Look, PR people make up quotes all the time. It's part of their job.

If you're in the news business you see this stuff all the time. I mean, when a corproate CEO is quoted as saying, "I am gratified by the performance of our frabjab-widget business unit during the quarter, when the trajectory of widget sales continued to move in a favorable direction," you can be fairly sure that this line was written, not uttered, and not by the guy being quoted. ...

For example, it strains my brain to imagine that John Lee, senior vice president, CNN Newsource Sales, really told a PR person: "A more useful Web site continues CNN Newsource’s leadership position in communicating with affiliates, ensuring that they have all the information they need as quickly and reliably as possible from CNN. This newly designed interface is an easy-to-navigate portal that connects affiliates to the world of news. It is an efficient, intuitive, one-screen, information portal that lets each desktop user get immediate, topical information that they need from CNN to produce their local newscasts.”

Just rolls right off the tongue, doesn't it? The only human-sounding aspect of that quote is the bad grammar.

All this makes me think that Kevin Dugan may be on to something when he suggests sending out press releases in a podcast/mp3 file.

If everyone listened to their news releases before sending them out, I suspect their quality would improve dramatically.

The ever quoatable BL Ochman

The business press is discovering BL Ochman.

Chicago Tribune

Before you launch your blog, research existing blogs, noting what you like or don't like about other blogs. And make sure you have something to say. Think about what you're going to write about and why anybody would read it, Ochman said.

If you don't think you can sustain an interesting, updated blog, the medium might not be effective for your company, Weil said. "This is such a cool phenomenon, but as the buzz quiets down, it's going to be `Oh, yeah. I have to keep it up,'" she said, noting, "Not everyone likes to write."

Red Herring

B.L. Ochman, founder of WhatsNextOnline.com, has studied Internet trends since 1995. Ms. Ochman, who uses her blog to drive traffic to her web site or to sell her books, is convinced that blogging is the future of corporate marketing. She points to the Paris-based CEO Bloggers Club, made up of European CEOs who post at least twice a week. “For whatever reason… they’re blogging to communicate with their customers,” she says. “Some of what they write is bull---t, but some of them really get into” discussions with readers.

Now that she’s famous, hope she won’t forget her friends.

IJIS helps build the National Sex Offender Public Registry

National Sex Offender Public Registry Goes Live

In a press conference July 20th, Assistant Attorney General Regina Scholfield announced that DOJ had met Attorney General Gonzalez's stated objective of having at least 20 states live in the National Sex Offender Public Registry. Schofield noted that the goal could not have been met without the direct paricipation and support of the private sector (as contributed by IJIS Institute member companies).

The OJP press release was issued to inform the public of the availability of the new NSOPR site which is now live. Many IJIS Institute member companies "adopted" states and volunteered to help set up web services to connect the existing state registries to the national registry.

What is OPML?

Outline Processor Markup Language

An XML format for outlines. Originally developed by Radio UserLand as a native file format for an outliner application it has since been adopted for other uses, the most common being to exchange lists of RSS feeds between RSS aggregators.

Now you know.

Responding to the pitch plague

John Waggner points to Kevin Dugan’s 12 News Release Alternatives. My personal favorite:

6) Podcast/mp3 File: We're all listening to podcasts and can think of news that might be effective in this format. If everyone listened to their news releases before sending them out, I suspect their quality would improve dramatically.

Congruatulations Neville Hobson

Today marks the first birthday of this blog - one year ago today, NevOn opened its doors on TypePad.

Redefining the government/university research partnership

The Federal Demonstration Partnership

The Federal Demonstration Partnership is a cooperative initiative among 10 federal agencies and 98 institutional recipients of federal funds; its purpose is to reduce the administrative burdens associated with research grants and contracts. The interaction between FDP’s 300 or so university and federal members takes place in FDP’s 3 annual meetings and, more extensively, in the many collaborative working groups and task forces that meet often by conference calls in order to develop specific work products. The FDP is a unique forum for individuals from universities and nonprofits to work collaboratively with federal agency officials to improve the national research enterprise. At its regular meetings, FDP members hold spirited, frank discussions, identify problems, and develop action plans for change. Then these new ways of doing business are tested in the real world before putting them into effect.

Edit-
Promoted from comments, National Grants Partnership, a very handy resource.

National Information Assurance Training and Education Center

Software process improvement blogs

When I first started blogging there were a few project management blogs, but no process improvement blogs. I recently found a few:

OOAD, AOP and Design Patterns

Ingenieria de Software / Software

Cirrus Minor

knowledgecorner

Alex Hoffman Weblog

Return on Information Security Investment Resources

Drakeview

Process improvement blues

The Frameworks Quagmire

Next National GJXDM Developer Training

The IJIS Institute

In conjunction with the CTC 9 conference, the next national training program for developers in the use of the GJXDM will be held September 15-17 in Seattle. The course announcement contains instructions for registration and obtaining hotel accomodations.

Why interoperability matters

Take a Look At Your 911 Systems

By 911, I mean your public safety systems used by first responders for near real time operations (say Computer-aided Dispatch) and the police and fire records databases.

1. Until 9/11 (the event), these have been local systems, aka, vertical smokestacks, with little interoperation even across neighboring jurisdictions.

2. Public safety is a late adopter market with a lifecycle at about 12 years long (time from purchase to retirement). This means that technologies taken for granted on the public Internet are not used widely for public safety systems (security concerns aside for the moment).

3. 9/11 was the wakeup call the industry needed to finally take the issue of interoperability seriously and begin to work on standards for CAD-to-CAD (APCO 36) and database interchange (GJXDM).

That is why the work of this committee is so critical.

How long must we sing this song?

Several blasts hit Egyptian Red Sea resort

A series of explosions hit the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm al-Sheikh early Saturday, killing at least 49 people and wounding 150 others, witnesses and police said.

Such is the hubris of violence.

Dilbert on RSS

From Devi0s:

The unofficial Dilbert RSS feed

XBRL and section 408 of Sarbanes Oxley

Bill Zoellick

Daniel Roberts of Grant Thornton used part of his time during last week's panel presentation to argue that there is indeed such a motivation. Roberts acknowledged all of the official reasons for the SEC voluntary program--testing technology features, uncovering software available for data tagging, finding out how mature the taxonomies are, discovering how deeply data will be tagged, assessing the amount of effort required to tag the data, and--of course--assessing the utility of the tagging for the SEC. However, in Roberts' view these official reasons leave out the BIG reason that the SEC needs XBRL. According to Roberts, the SEC needs XBRL so that the agency does not end up buried in a mountain of paper (or PDF or HTML -- which are largely the same thing when it comes to analyzing financial reports) and with keeping the SEC out of trouble with Congress.

According to Roberts, the SEC now receives a million pages of newly filed information every day. Given this enormous stream of data, the SEC is currently able to review the financial statements from only about 18% of the companies submitting filings each year. Roberts directed attention to the language of Section 408 of the Sarbanes Oxley Act, which reads, "In no event shall an issuer required to file reports under section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 be reviewed under this section less frequently than once every 3 years." If the SEC is currently doing only 18% of the companies a year, and they are required to review every company no less frequently than every three years, well ... do the math.

Further, given the outcry from companies having difficulty meeting SEC deadlines under the Sarbanes Oxley Act, Roberts said that it was highly unlikely that the SEC would want to report back to Congress with the news that the SEC, itself, was not able to meet the requirements of the Act.

Peter Derby, Managing Executive for Operations and Management at the SEC, talk about the SEC's XBRL initiative at the 11th International XBRL conference

Extensible Business Reporting Language

Blogging government and technology

Nick Mudge’s Government and Technology Weblog

Behind the Curtain at TCG, Ideas about research related IT, grants management, and government's use of technology

Defenestrated, A delicate blend of eGov, grants management, technology, Britain, and the arts, with a dusting of random weirdness

Open letter to journalists

I have a client who you have never heard of, a client with a good story. You don't subscribe to our RSS feed because you have never heard of us. How do I tell you about the client's story? Give me an alternative and I will never send another press release.

Edit-
Nooked RSS Directory could be part of the answer.

PR business practice follies, connecting the dots

Shel Holtz is on target when he says that Jeremy Zawodny’s call for a email block list for tech oriented PR firms is a wake up call.

Holtz:

The practitioners who apply this shotgun approach to getting ink are damaging the profession. There are thousands of clued-in PR professionals who would target a journalist (or an influential blogger like Zawodny) only after doing his homework and determining that the reporter and the story are a good match. A blacklist would catch all those legitimate queries in the same filter as the “pitch spam.” Not only would the pitch never reach the target, but the journalist could miss a story in which he’s actually interested.

So why do PR shops engage in a practice which they know is ineffective to the point of being counterproductive? This post from Michael O’Connor Clarke may offer a clue:

If It Moves, Bill It!

Irregular, creative, or downright unethical billing practices are the dirty secret in too many PR agencies. Some of them don’t even realize they’re doing it – or they just don’t recognize that what they’re doing would, at best, raise serious questions were their clients to find out.

Could it be that some PR firms are sending out press releases just to be able to bill clients for stories they know will never be placed? I certainly hope not.

Clever blog name

A Nation of the People and IP Addresses

How to hype your conference

Invite bloggers. Works for seminars too.

Shari Kurzrok

I would like to join Jeremy Pepper and others in making an appeal for Shari Kurzrok of Ogilvy PR Worldwide, who is in urgent need of a liver transplant.

We might also take this occasion to reflect on the wisdom of permitting theocrats to determine our policy on stem cell research.

Spanish Language RSS Reader

Feedness

The value of internal blogs

b-spirit

Rather than trying to generate ideas in meetings, Ms. Cronin-Lukas advises, companies should create an internal blog on which employees can share ideas. A blog allows employees to show tangible evidence of their thinking and expertise, getting ideas out of their heads and putting them to work for the company.”

This is my view. On the other hand, one can just imagine a Dilbert satire of internal blogs.

Blogging for Business, Kyle Wingfield, The Wall Street Journal

First Response Coalition Blog