February 2006 - NevilleHobson.com

The Hobson & Holtz Report – Podcast #115: February 27, 2006

Content summary: New Communications Forum this week; Eric Schwartzman interviews Elizabeth Albrycht; Google Page Creator update; social software in the enterprise – Niall Cook on intranets; using RSS without knowing it; PR how-to’s from Jeremy Zawodny; Lee Hopkins report; listeners’ comments discussion; the FIR Frappr community; the music; and more. Show notes for February 27, 2006 Welcome to For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report, a 91-minute podcast recorded live from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and Concord, California, USA. Download…

Diem carp’d

Hugh and I were exchanging some emails about my little faux pas over my previous post about Edelman (re a story that turned out not to be true). Mea culpa, said Hugh. A kind response, but it was more to do with my own ‘click-and-post’ behaviour rather than ‘click-and-read-everything first.’ Precisely the kind of thing that’s ammunition for those who delight in pointing out the lack of responsibility exhibited by some bloggers in posting without fact-checking. But it’s an easy…

Edelman ramping up social media expertise

First it was Phil Gomes last August. Then it was Guillaume du Gardier in October. And then Steve Rubel this month (starting today, in fact). All three communicators, bloggers I know and major influencers in social media and PR, were snapped up by Edelman. And the PR group’s objectives are pretty clear (transparent, as befits the blogosphere), according to CEO Richard Edelman: What do we hope to achieve together? In short, we want to persuade our corporate clients to commit…

Microsoft’s Apple-style word of mouth

If you pay attention to what’s going on in the broad tech world (Tech Memeorandum is a great way to get the hum of some opinion), you can’t help but notice things like the growing buzz about Microsoft’s Origami during the past few days. Like at least half the blogosphere and some mainstream media, I’ve taken a look at the teasing video showing Origami in action (full instructions via Bink). Ooh, I want one of these! And there’s a good…

Four steps to overcome collaboration obstacles

A thoughtful feature in the Financial Times discusses the question of why in-house collaboration in organizations is so difficult, with the consequent impact on effective working. The article highlights some accepted theories about this, including these: [The first theory] is that most companies have “first generation organisation structures and second generation management capabilities”. Internal synergies will only come with the right organisation structure – overlapping accountabilities for products, geographies and functions – and when managers have acquired the right skills…