Category Archive for ‘Blogging’ at Broadband and Me

Archive for the 'Blogging' Category

I’m alive!

Published

on 19 January 2007

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Just in case you thought I had vanished off the face of the planet. I’m here and still thinking about the world. Small companies certainly demand more of your time than bigger one, both mentally and physically. And I have to admit to saying that a new role means having to learn and experience more than I thought I would have to 10 months ago. But is all good.

Travel is a fascinating business online and I’m just not sure that I entirely grok it yet - its not my comfort zone or its in American English or something. People don’t talk about web 2.0 they talk about travel 2.0 - I think its to try and make them sound different but I’m not sure. As I’m now one of the online travel people (well sort of) I shouldn’t alienate them but there you go…

Still want to actually do a travel business blog but haven’t had the opportunity to get it off the ground. Still want to do lots of whizzy things with the www.explore.co.uk website (with the rest of the team) but not quite yet, and still want to do sexy things with technology in general but again its not really happening.

Some companies are waking up to the blogosphere

Published

Paul

on 16 February 2006

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Guardian Unlimited Technology | Technology | The ringmaster of the blogosphere

Guardian do Technorati and apprarently interview Dave Sifry. Lots of basic stuff but some little nuggets. This is a model that Johnnie and James promote and one I have also done some (read: a little) work on, with them:

Another development concerns who is using Technorati, alongside all those bloggers checking their links and the time-challenged looking for news. “We have a lot of companies that use this service who want to be able to track ‘what are people saying about my company? What are they saying about my products? Hell, what are they saying about my competitor’s products?’” Other regular visitors include the “cool-hunters”, desperate for the next trend in music or fashion, and journalists seeking stories and sources.

Explore

Published

Paul

on 16 February 2006

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Elephant Odyssey - Sri Lanka Family Holidays Worldwide - EXPLORE! Family Adventures - Tour Itinerary#map

Yesterday I had a meeting at Explore, an Adventure Holiday company based in Farnborough. I was really impressed with their passion for authentic holidays, their desire to be environmentally responsible, particularly in their host countries and encouraging their clients to do so too.

By operating in small groups, we minimise the impact on the local culture and resources, whilst blending in more easily.

We issue our travellers with clear guidelines on responsible tourism. These cover a variety of issues from litter and waste disposal in remote areas, to begging and artefacts. We encourage customers to buy local crafts and support local skills, but never to buy products that exploit wildlife or the harm the habitat.

We use locally owned suppliers wherever viable to provide and run services. This ensures that the local economy benefits directly. We also expect local suppliers to meet our standards, with particular consideration for the environment.

When recruiting Tour Leaders, we assess their environmental credentials and then train them to our own standards. They are also required to complete a Responsible Tourism Audit on each tour.

And lastly about their passion for their customers. They want to engage with them and create value.

I was impressed. I hope they were too.

In the meantime go and visit their site because there are some amazing holidays. I’m considering the Elephant Odyssey around Sri Lanka. (well when I have saved up for it

Blogosphere growth

Published

Paul

on 7 February 2006

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State of the Blogosphere, February 2006

Some facts in summary from Dave Sifry, blogging on the Technorati blog about the state of the blogosphere:

Technorati now tracks over 27.2 Million blogs

The blogosphere is doubling in size every 5 and a half months
It is now over 60 times bigger than it was 3 years ago
On average, a new weblog is created every second of every day

13.7 million bloggers are still posting 3 months after their blogs are created

Technorati tracks about 1.2 million new blog posts each day, about 50,000 per hour

Over 81 million posts with tags since January 2005, increasing by 400,000 per day

The state of growth is absolutely staggering, but perhaps the more interesting stat is around the number of people still posting after 3 months. The fact that tagging is taking off also gives rise to the importance of such ideas. Its an area that businesses could pay much more attention to in terms of their websites.

Where is the Internet going?

Published

Paul

on 2 February 2006

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Cross posted from What if…? project � Blog Archive � Where is the Internet going?

Quoted from Revolution Magazine this highlights the growing importance of the Internet and blogging:

According to a new research by the European Interactive Advertising Bureau, the average European internet user spends 10 hours and 15 minutes online a week; a 17 per cent rise on 2004 and a 56 per cent rise on 2003. As reported on Revolution, With the exception of early mornings (6am to 10am), the internet is the second most-used medium throughout the rest of the day. The research also found blogging is becoming more popular, with 13 per cent of European users regularly contributing to online blogging sites�Meanwhile, 12 per cent of users download podcasts at least once a month, 10 per cent make phone calls over the web, and 29 per cent download music at least once a month.

Ten years ago, I had never been on the Internet. Five years ago I had never heard of blogs. Three years ago I had never downloaded a song. Two years ago I had never heard of podcasting. One year ago I had never made a phone call over the Internet.

By next year I expect to have all my music and maybe my video on a hard-drive and using my PC to record media stream via the web (or through Digital TV if IPTV is not here). Most content of which I expect to be made by ordinary people not media companies. And if they are made by media companies then I will pay to view not be funded by advertising. This could cause huge changes in the way marketing and business work particularly in the media arena.

Are you ready for it?

If not I suggest you take a look at the What if Project blog to see a workshop that could help you.

[Update: Also noticed this interested conversation over on Joi Ito's blog on Radio being killed by MP3 players]

Podcasting - start the conversation

Published

Paul

on 2 February 2006

in Blogging

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Guardian Unlimited Business | Business latest | Publishers and politicians want a word in your ear

And before I forget - from yesterday’s Guardian, an exciting little piece around podcasting and how its being used by print publishers:

“[Podcasting] is all about updating the brand and creating a buzz around content,” says the head of the Association of Online Publishers, Alexandra White. “It’s part of a general shift in the way people consume content from passive to more on-demand.”

And:

Get yourself on iTunes and you’ve instantly got a potential 42-million-plus audience.” says Computing magazine technology editor Chris Green

Although this article isn’t pitched this way - imagine as a small business having access to that potential market. Now admitedly only a small percentage are going to listen to your podcast but 0.01% is still a big number for a small business’ marketing reach. Of course this isn’t traditional marketing I’m talking about - its more about establishing a connection with your customer and getting across who you are and what you do as a business. And most importantly interacting with them and starting a conversation.

(So yes I need to eat my own dog food and do something myself)

So as Johnnie might say: “Yes, and..?

The power of blog

Published

Paul

on 1 February 2006

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Via Hugh at Gapingvoid
Creating Passionate Users: Naked Conversations on a Bus

Blogs let the “little guy”, from a cowboy horse whisperer, or a geek who can make your life a little simpler develop a global microbrand. That means they can keep doing what they love–what they’re passionate about–rather than, say, working 60 hours a week elsewhere and leaving no time for doing the things that help teach, inspire, or entertain the rest of us.

I’ve yet to get Naked Conversations (I’m not on the preview list unfortunately) and really do want to read it. AS Kathy points out later it would provide lots of ammo for convincing the sceptical out there. There is no magical wand to wave. Hugh underlines this:

It seems to me what a lot of people are hoping for from the whole blogging-as-marketing thing is a tested method that is (A) easy to implement, (B) easy to replicate and (C) easy to sell to their boss. Good luck.

But it is cheap, it isn’t difficult to understand and it is extremely powerful. And you can always get people like me to help (plug plug).

What if?

Published

Paul

on 31 January 2006

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What if…? project

In March, Stuart and Nick (with help from others) plan to undertake some workshop in and around Sunderland and Newcastle:

“new and different workshops for businesses to attend. The idea is to suggest some of the knowledge and skills that might be useful now and in the future.”

They are planning on using a viral campaign of short movies, probably more like vodcasts of a sort, to promote the workshops and stimulate response.

The workshops will be in the areas of:

Creativity and Innovation
Environmental futures
Futures Thinking
Networks and Networking

Personally I wish I lived close by so I could take sometime to enjoy the input. In fact I’d quite like to deliver some of the content
Its support like this that can really make the difference for small businesses, helping them to work on areas that normally they would never usually consider and rarely look at it detail, as they are too busy running the day to day business to worry about the future. Having worked with and for Stuart, I can highly recommend watching him present and if his enthusiasm doesn’t convince you nothing will.

(note: I set up and am administering the whatifproject blog for Stuart and Nick)

Podcasting for SMEs

Published

Paul

on 31 January 2006

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I’ve recently been working on blogging and podcasting topics for clients and have put together a paper on podcasting and Vodcasting or videoblogging. If anyone is interested in speaking more on the topic of how this could help you as a small business then just drop me a line to contact[at]betaroad.

Having had a look at a number of vodcasts and podcasts lately and practcing my own private home podcasts with the children - it is really exciting how easy and effective that these media can be at getting across complex ideas in a simple way and how they can bring an idea or concept to life. My aim in the near future is to get some publishable podcasts together, interviewing a few colleagues about specific topics which interest me.

In the meantime its worth looking at the BMW vodcast.

Its RSS feed is found here for you to subscribe or its homepage is here which explains a little more about how to watch, if you don’t already know.

Podcasting Stormhoek

Published

Paul

on 27 January 2006

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Johnnie Moore’s Weblog: Stormhoek: The Podcast

Johnnie and James interview James Korman of Stormhoek - well worth the listen for how Stormhoek has taken blogging to its core (after hooking up with Hugh Macleod).

The podcast is here and the show notes can be found by clicking the link above. Great work by the Open Source duo!

Broadband and Me

Archive for the 'Blogging' Category

I’m alive!

Some companies are waking up to the blogosphere

Explore

Blogosphere growth

Where is the Internet going?

Podcasting - start the conversation

The power of blog

What if?

Podcasting for SMEs

Podcasting Stormhoek

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