News that Apple's new podcast subscription service is being delayed until June because Apple needs to tweak the Apple Podcasts app is a good reminder of how important the user experience is and ensuring it delivers on expectations. It's also a great illustration of how a market moved. In the early homebrew days of podcasting, it was common for many podcasts to sound like they'd been recorded in the back of a garden shed on a rainy day, or the recording was somehow transmitted from the far … [Read more...] about Moving the podcast market
Social Media
FIR 205: Are NFTs nifty or not?
The topic of NFTs - non-fungible tokens, to use its full name (one that confounds many people) - occupies a large part of the conversation in the March episode of For Immediate Release: The Hobson and Holtz Report that Shel and I recorded last weekend. We had a lively discussion, contributed to in part by Chip and Dan chipping in from the chat in our YouTube channel where the discussion was being streamed live, aided greatly by all the analyses, narratives and opinions by others published in … [Read more...] about FIR 205: Are NFTs nifty or not?
SDF 44: Facebook and the robber barons are at it again
Last week Facebook announced that it had decided to up the ante in its fracas with the Australian government and ban mainstream media news on its platform. The move meant that all Facebook users - not just Australians - would not be able to share or view news on Australian news Pages on Facebook. This move by Facebook was in response to the Australian government introducing a new law that would force Big Tech to pay media companies a fee to include their news in their users' news … [Read more...] about SDF 44: Facebook and the robber barons are at it again
FIR 203: Insurrection and Sea Shanties
'Trust' was the major theme for discussion in the January episode of The Hobson and Holtz Report podcast aka FIR 203 that Shel and I recorded last weekend and published on Monday. It underpinned all other topics we discussed as we started the episode reviewing the key analysis in the Edelman Trust Barometer 2021 - the report concludes that there is a 'crisis of leadership' with a growing trust gap and declines in trust worldwide; and without a trusted leadership source to look to, people … [Read more...] about FIR 203: Insurrection and Sea Shanties
Post Trump, a better system must start in America
The eye-opening scenes of hundreds of people storming the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on Wednesday January 6 - broadcast live and shown on television screens around the world - will have significant effects in the long term on society in general in ways that are hard to immediately imagine or understand. In the US, outrage at what happened that day is growing as greater clarity emerges on those events that many see as encouraged by President Trump. 'Insurrection' and 'sedition' are two … [Read more...] about Post Trump, a better system must start in America
FIR 197: A better social network
The July 2020 episode of The Hobson and Holtz Report, aka FIR 197, features Neville and Shel discussing… Emotional Intelligence as an Internal Communications focusAI avatars as a new tool for training and marketingThe latest TikTok newsWhat a better social network might look likeThe rise of Virtual and Augmented RealityThe staggering jobs challenge the world is facing Dan York reports on making video calls better, apps that keep copying each other, Amazon’s new live-streaming for … [Read more...] about FIR 197: A better social network
FIR 196: Speak up, Twitter
The June 2020 episode of The Hobson and Holtz Report features Neville and Shel discussing… Their appearance on Joe Jaffe’s broadcast showA report on the all-virtual IABC World ConferenceTwitter’s move to let users record and tweet audio (but only on iOS for now)Three new blockchain developments of interest to communicatorsFlipboard’s new Storyboard featureA user email that prompted Merriam-Webster to update a dictionary definitionHow Wikipedia became a battleground for racial … [Read more...] about FIR 196: Speak up, Twitter
FIR 192: The latest employee revolt
The February episode of “The Hobson & Holtz Report” features Neville and Shel discussing these topics: The Houston Astros’ owner hosts a clinic on how not to deliver an organizational apologyOracle workers are the latest to engage in employee activismFacebook has way more users than Instagram but Instagram is number one in some important metricsAn IPO filing lists the company’s influencers as a potential threatHow brands should handle communications during the coronavirus epidemicTwitter … [Read more...] about FIR 192: The latest employee revolt