HR 1606

Excellent analysis of the Online Freedom of Speech Act from Jim Horton. It would have given bloggers the same media exemption from campaign finance laws enjoyed by General Electric, er, NBC. Its defeat is a blow to free speech in my judgment.

Public Service Announcements

DC Communicator Seminar Nov. 9

The DC Communicator is hosting its third free seminar Wednesday, Nov. 9, on the role and value of public service announcements in your communications program.

Join John Quinn, PSA director of WJLA-TV, and experts from EFX Media, Williams Whittle Associates, and West Glen Communications for this roundtable discussion on the latest PSA trends and how PSAs can help your organization reach your target audiences.

The seminar will be held at 1875 I St, NW, and starts at 12:15 p.m. Space is limited, so call WestGlen's Debbie Friez at (202) 429-2018 today for details.

DC Communicator

About interviews

Strategic Guy has a great rundown of things to keep in mind, this is my favorite:

Identify “power statements” that bring life to your key messages. I recently met with a company that says it designs and manufactures state-of-the-art proprietary hardware solutions (DC to 40 GHz) to facilitate broadband RF signal management for complex cable networks. What’s their power statement? As it turns out, if you’re watching cable television in North America the signal is directed by this company’s product.

Techno-speak does not impress anyone. I started Presto Vivace in part to liberate technology marketing from this sort of annoyance.

Tracking online influence

This company has developed a technology that can search, index, track, and summarize information on the Internet. Don’t know much about this, so I would be interested in learning from others' experience.

They have a blog; but since it is in Spanish, I can’t tell you much about it.

What's wrong with RFID in your passport

Properties of National ID Systems

The new RFID-enabled US passports will provide anyone who comes in contact with them with a new, globally unique number, and it will be impossible to know who is collecting that number, or how they'll use it. That is a poor design for a system.

It never ceases to amaze me that politicians vote for this sort of system. No one should know better how personal information can be abused than politicians.

Strategies for Creating Enterprise Collaborative Environments

NCC-AIIM Monthly Meeting
Thursday, November 10, 2005

Ronald Simmons, Program Manager

Knowledge Services Network, FAA

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has taken Knowledge Management theory and put it to work!! Each day, over 15,000 users in 1,500 teams across more than 150 FAA Business Units use FAA’s Knowledge Services Network (KSN) to carry out their mission more effectively.

Mr. Ronald Simmons, Program Manager for FAA’s Knowledge Services Network, will describe the virtual environment which has promoted more efficient business practices, document management, and collaboration within his organization. KSN has not only improved operations within the FAA, but it has also allowed the organization to better communicate with external customers, stakeholders, and partners.

Mr. Simmons will provide a brief overview of the environment, identify the strategies that contributed to success, contrast traditional deployment approaches with the KSN adoption approach, and describe the natural evolution of document management within the FAA. Anyone that is tasked with planning and/or implementing an enterprise content management system within a complex business environment will benefit from Mr. Simmons’ experience and insight.

KSN is based on Microsoft’s SharePoint collaboration suite. The program was recognized in 2003 with an “e-Gov Knowledge Management Award” and in 2004 with “Government Productive Solution Award”. Please join us to learn how the FAA has delivered this incredible service to its employees and constituents.

An analytical approach to the new PR

Society for New Communications Research Launches

Palo Alto, Calif. – October 31, 2005 – The Society for New Communications Research (http://www.sncr.org), a new international, non-profit think tank, was announced today. The group was formed to provide a forum for research and education and a source of expertise focused on the broad theoretical and practical implications surrounding new communications methodologies, tools and technologies.

The Society will study the impact of emerging modes of communication such as blogs, wikis, RSS, podcasts, videocasts, collaborative tools and the growing phenomena of participatory communications and their effect on traditional media, marketing, public relations and advertising, as well as their broader impact on business, politics, entertainment, culture, education, religion and society at large. Activities will include the development of in-depth research studies, whitepapers, case studies, best practices and standards; industry education, the publication of the Journal of New Communications Research and an annual research symposium and awards program.

From the remarkable team of Elizabeth Albrycht and Jennifer McClure.

Blogging emergency reponse

Nick Mudge has found the Miami-Dade Fire and Rescue blog. This is a great development in increasing public awareness of first responder issues. See also First Responder Coalition blog.

Pay extra for privacy

Microsoft propose business shift to online services

Bill Gates has announced a fundamental shift in Microsoft’s core business offering by announcing that the company will be launching a free online office application next year.

If I pay a license fee for application software installed on my computer, then only I know how I have used that software and the data I have produced. What Microsoft is proposing is free as in beer, not free as in speech. It will come at a price.

Acronym alert

ColdFusion Open-Source Project List

Everyday new acronyms are streaming into our copy. There ought to be some way to cut this down to manageable proportions.

The harsh rhetoric of techies

HOW TO Avoid Being Called a Bozo When Producing XML

Okay, I couldn't code my way out of a paper bag. But I cannot believe that this style of rhetoric is conducive to process improvement.

Figuring out AdSense

Google AdSense for Search versus AdSense for Content

I'd be interested in learning about the advertiser side of AdSense.

US Supreme Court lets telecommuter tax stand

High court won’t hear local case

The U.S. Supreme Court Monday refused to take up the case of a Nashville computer programmer who challenged New York’s taxes on his income while he worked from his Nashville home.

It should be born in mind that the US Supreme Court did not rule that this tax was advisable, nor even fair, simply that it did not violate the constitution.

Still, I don't understand it.

XML - Now A PR Technology

PR Machine

Similar to tagging on Technorati, data tagging is a new format for enhancing financial reporting data using eXtensible Mark-Up Language (XML) derivatives, such as XBRL. Tagging provides greater context to data through standard definitions that turn text-based information, into documents that can be more efficiently and effectively retrieved, searched and analyzed through automated means (like the Internet and blogs).

I have been remiss, I am going to have to start using tags.

The future of corporate blogging

Blogging Tools Need Integration

Unlike most of its popular rivals, the TypePad service from Six Apart Ltd. costs money. But with your subscription fee, which starts at $4.95 a month, you get free tools for creating and hosting your own photo albums _ and now a pair of programs for video.

The simpler of the two video programs comes from VideoEgg Inc. Go to http://typepad.videoegg.com, enter your account information and download a small plug-in for your browser.

I think smaller clients will want us to offer this as part of our service in the future.

PR blog surveys

Expert analysis from Robert French.

Paperboy

Newspaper Ad Circulars Find Their Way Online

Gannett, one of the nation's biggest newspaper publishers, said it would introduce a new service on its newspaper Web sites next month that displays banner ads that readers can expand into a virtual version of the weekly local circulars so familiar to offline newspaper readers.

Industry executives said the service, called PaperBoy, devised by a unit of Gannett called PointRoll, would give national advertisers a way to reach online readers in local markets with promotions tied to neighborhood stores.

Newspapers and their advertisers are going to do just fine.

Congratulations NYTimes.com

NYTimes.com Wins Big at ONA Awards

NYTimes.com won the General Excellence award, Outstanding Use of Multiple Media for its "Class Matters" series, and Breaking News for "Asia's Deadly Waves," the Web site's coverage of the Indian Ocean Tsunami. A table filled with Times staffers celebrated the awards.

They also have The New York Times latest headlines on a registration free RSS reader.

Boo

Happy Halloween

This Just In: Customers Hate Their Software Vendors

Joshua Greenbaum, Intelligent Enterprise

The last implementation was a total disaster. Of course, it was the implementer's fault, but let's not cloud the issue with facts. Anyway, it really is the vendor's responsibility to make sure that its partners are doing a good job. Being an enterprise software vendor means having to sell against the sins of the past every day. And the past was pretty sinful—software was expensive and hard to implement. And often still is.

Of all the work that IJIS does, none is more important than bringing together the users and vendors in the criminal justice technology community. Vendors do not always understand user requirements and users need to be educated on the available technology in order to make informed decisions. I really think IJIS can stand as a model to the larger technology community as to how we can work together to improve technology and its implementation.