Content summary: Judging the IABC Gold Quill Awards; is Google Juice the ultimate measure of success?; the rise of memetrackers; Glenfiddich starts a blog; Warren Bickford shouts out; Lee Hopkins reports; listeners’ comments discussion (flying above the radar; Bugmenot; the last word on Wal-Mart/Edelman?; Apple customer service policy); the FIR Frappr community; PRSA/IAOC conference; the music; and more.

Show notes for March 20, 2006

Welcome to For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report, an 87-minute podcast recorded live from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and Concord, California, USA.

Download the file here (MP3, 35MB), or sign up for the RSS feed to get it and future shows automatically. (For automatic synchronization with your iPod or other digital player, you’ll also need a podcatcher such as the free Juice, DopplerRadio, iTunes or Yahoo! Podcasts, or an RSS aggregator that supports podcasts such as FeedDemon).

Listen to this podcast now:

In This Edition:

Intro:

• 00:29 Neville introduces the show; what the show’s about; how to give your feedback; show notes
• 02:02 Congratulations to Lee Hopkins – celebrating one year in the blogosphere

News and Commentary:

• 03:34 David Phillips reports – Rupert Murdoch embraces the web and Microsoft embraces publishing; the digital divide is disappearing from view
• 08:35 Shel spends two days judging the 2006 IABC Gold Quill Awards
• 20:47 Is Google Juice the ultimate measure of success?
• 30:20 The rise of memetrackers like Digg and Memeorandum, and soon AOL’s Netscape, are a growing new way of delivering news and information – can there be a balance between computer algorithms and people’s choices?
• 44:36 Glenfiddich starts a blog – how does it measure up?
• 54:27 Warren Bickford shouts out!
• 54:42 From Our Correspondent Down Under: Lee Hopkins – my blog’s 1 year anniversary; Arle De Geus and the Marxist reality of today’s business world; Ron Shewchuk and the future of employee comms; Press Release: Internet stops for 24 hours; new psychology blog

Listeners’ Comments Discussion:

• 63:16 Rob Safuto flies above the radar now
• 65:03 Pachey gets into Comment is free via Bugmenot
• 67:04 Terry Fallis with the last word (perhaps) on the Wal-Mart/Edelman blogger outreach controversy
• 75:46 Dan loves the show, says MacFan is wrong about Apple’s customer policy (show #120) and Lee’s comments were fightin’ words
• 76:38 Howard Harawitz comes out of hibernation with some pithy comment on the Apple story

Outro:

• 79:07 Shel wraps the show; let us know your views about today’s discussions; how and where to send your comments; where to find the show notes; Neville’s solo on Thursday’s show
• 81:23 The growing FIR Frappr community
• 81:56 Shel’s presenting a keynote at a PRSA/IAOC conference in Philadelphia on Friday, with Neville joining in via Skype plus video
• 83:11 Outro podsafe music from the Podcast Music Network – Perfect Design by Laura Cheadle

Links for the blogs, individuals, companies and organizations we discussed or mentioned in the show are posted to the FIR Show Links pages at The New PR Wiki. You can contribute – see the home page for info.

If you have comments or questions about this show, or suggestions for our future shows, email us at fircomments@gmail.com, or call the Comment Line at +1 206 222 2803. You can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments, if you wish (max. 3 minutes / 5Mb attachment, please!). We’ll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.

So, until Thursday March 23…

(Cross-posted from For Immediate Release, Shel’s and my podcast blog.)