One of the great things about RSS readers, and FeedDemon in particular, is how they enable you to see what’s going on in your areas of interest easily and quickly.
So in the space of 20 minutes or so this morning, I’ve got up to speed in most of the business, communication and technology areas that I’m interested in.
Quite a few items in my ‘Of Interest’ folder in FeedDemon. More still in specific watch lists I’ve set up to automatically track references to certain keywords and phrases.
Some of all this is worthy of commentary with full blog posts. Others, though, are more of the “now that’s interesting…” type of reaction that you might simply tweet about in 140 characters or less (as I do quite often, especially when time is short).
So regard this post as an extended tweet dump sort of thing as I relate some commentary on things that caught my attention today that might spark your interest.
First off, Edelman’s David Brain asks a very good question regarding cheating and lying in major sports: “If the result of a race in a car or on a bike can be predetermined by chemicals or espionage, then why the hell should we watch?” Thought provoking, as I’d ask the same question relating to TV.
Speaking of TV, the BBC Click programme has an 8-minute interview with Bill Gates in which the Microsoft founder talks about technology and education and how he sees his philanthropic activities. Good camera work and lighting that keeps Gates’ face on screen all the time so you can see his facial expressions as he talks. Just like being there.
Cynics and conspiracy theorists may well lump such a TV interview in with those issues of trust re David Brain’s post. But you gotta have some faith at some time, surely.
I watched this interview online not on TV. Does that therefore make it more likely I’d trust that medium? Hmm. It’s still TV, though, isn’t it?
Todd Cochrane has some interesting stats related to the Podcast Awards 2007 contest that illustrate a sorry state of affairs in the world of podcasting.
Among the stats Todd notes are that of the 4,097 podcasts nominated for this year’s awards, only 41% had a means for listeners to contact the host, whether by voice mail or email.
Assuming those podcasters really would like to hear from their listeners, that’s pretty silly. Check out FIR as we have so may ways to contact us that choosing which way is the only difficulty! (We’re nominated in those awards, btw.)
Via Andrew Smith, I learned a brand new phrase to describe one of the key roles of PR, which is:”triaging corporate snafus.” Referenced from a Forbes report about the PR business. As Andrew says, far more exotic-sounding than a good old “crisis communications consultant.” And I thought PR had the edge on obfuscation.
Something’s up with PodTech, says TechCrunch. The best line in Michael Arrington’s later post: “Never confuse TechCrunch with your PR or marketing team.”
There’s a kind of Twitter all over Europe, says Ewan Spence, with a link to a post that shows Twitterers almost everywhere in Europe. Says Ewan: “Growth in Twitter overall is roughly 2,000 new accounts created every day, and a total of 340,000 public Twitter accounts.” That’s overall, not just Europe.
Keeping up with it all is the thing and of course you can’t do that unless all you do is Twitter. I find that when I check in to Twitter (actually, via Twiktku not Twitter directly), I see the discussion/chat snapshot that occupies the space on my computer screen at that moment, that’s all.
Finally, missionaries are coming to Second Life according to Reuters, which reports that the Jesuits are urging fellow Catholics “not to be scared of entering the virtual world which may be fertile ground for new converts wishing to better themselves.”
Heh! I’d have thought some journalists might be more appropriate fodder for betterment.
