I have returned!

Okay, so I took a little unexpected break from the blog, but I have since been re energized with some Social Media Fuel and have decided to return to posting. With the idea that social media is rapidly growing, probably even faster than I can imagine, I thought it might be interesting to anyone out there looking at expanding their knowledge of "PR 2.0" by checking out just some of the sites that I subscribe to (not that I know even close to everything about new media communications, but I do have a pretty heavy new media diet).

I’ve included just about everything in my regular new media diet, not just things PR related. Hopefully this will give some newcomers to the new media world an easy way to get their feet wet, as well as give some "veterans" an idea of what else there is out there that they may not have stumbled upon yet.

What else is everyone subscribing to? Leave responses in the comments.

Communities I belong to
Digg
Del.icio.us
New Media Release Google Group
Flickr

Podcasts I Listen to/watch
For Immediate Release – The Hobson and Holtz Report
New Comm Road
This Week in Tech - TWiT
NPR – On the Media
Steve Garfield's Video Blog
TEDTalks
The Show with Ze Frank
Ask a Ninja
Diggnation

Anti-DRM Day

Protect your freedom!

As dubbed by Defective By Design.org, today, October 3, 2006, is "Anti-DRM Day." With recommended demonstrations, protests, stickers, flyers... the whole shebang... I am still not that sure of the effectiveness of today's "theme" especially when tossing around the misleading phrase of "digital freedom". To me at least, it gives the impression that we should toss DRM out the window all together, while it is far more logical to urge content producers to use DRM to manage the rights of musicians, artists, and thier own copyrights through a compromise of each groups interests rather than enforcing secretive, and sometimes immoral and illegal, restrictions on how consumers can use content that the rightfully purchased.

Why was Oct 3 picked anyway? Does it have some significance?

Anyway, while the program lacks any clear strategy or objective (not necessarily a bad thing), I do think they are heading in the right direction. Education is the first step toward having any sort of change in how DRM is treated by media companies. Not only does the general public need to know what exactly it is they are paying for with each$.99 iTunes purchase, but a greater understanding of the implications of DRM, the limitations it puts on the content that you "purchase" (in the most severe of cases, a purchase can more closely resemble a rental agreement without the buyer's full understanding of how the content is allowed to be used).

If I tell my technophobic-girlfriend about DRM by explaining merely that it is the technology that Apple puts on iTunes songs that limits you to use it on X computers and burn it to CD X times, she'll just shrug her shoulders. But if she finds out that playing a CD on her computer can secretly install software that will monitor her content usage as well as open up her system to a slew of viruses and hackers, she might pay a little more attention.

If the RIAA/MPAA are so concerned with piracy, would it be such a bad idea to act ethically and with honest concern for the relationships that they have with their customers rather than bully them around and anyone who stands up against them a pirate, criminal or a thief? Not that content producers/distributors don't have a right to protect their content... but if you push your entire customer base into corner, and someone is bound to push back.

Hopefully the video industry will not muck it up as badly as the music industry has. ..

Links:

http://defectivebydesign.org/en/node
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=3705

Technorati Tags: anti drm day, Jameson Bull, DRM

Andy Rooney made me dumber

While doing some casual chanel surfing tonight, I happened to stumble upon Andy Rooney's daily rant on 60 Minutes.I hadn't actually seen his segment in five years or so, but I was really glad that I hadn't because my brain went numb for a good 20 minutes after the show and it almost completely washed away my faith in network news.

Not only did Andy just miss the boat with his rant on Spinach, the day after the F.D.A gives the OK to eat it again, but his two minute verbal vomit lacked event the slightest hint of intelligence, insight, or even respect for the program's viewers.

Check out the text version here.

I'm not sure if the aging viewers of 60 minutes demand that this junk, or if the show's producers are too stuck in tradition to actually offer their viewers that might enlighten or even improve their daily lives. Either way, I don't see myself trying to swallow that much garbage anytime soon unless I develop some masochistic tendencies.

Tecnorati Tags: andy rooney, vegitarian

My absence

Okay, so maybe my promise to up my posting frequency hasn't been completely fulfilled. I used to look forward to blogging, but now it seems to have become more of a chore than a hobby.

I'm not sure if it is because I am actually working in PR now and have got exhausted that it is the last thing I want to think about when I get home at the end of the day, my disappointments with Blogger Beta, or just the fact that I'd rather not blog at all than do poorly researched, bland, and uninteresting posts about developments in the PR/new-media worlds.

When I first got into blogging, I made sure that it was something I enjoyed. I am hesitant to completely abandon this method of personal expression, but would rather look into new ways to refine jamesonbull.com/blog.

Maybe this will become my comments on my adventures in triathlon, political views, making fun of the disgusting and insulting junk that local news stations spew every day... or whatever it is that is on my mind at the time...

I'm not expecting this to die, but would rather expand it, mold it, shape it, and just have fun with it. I'm still tossing a few ideas around in my head, but I'll let you know what I settle on.

Podcamp Boston!

Okay, so my posts could not have been more infrequent... and I don't plan on keeping such a low profile much longer, but I will blame it on having to deal with the stresses of moving to a new apartment...

Anyway, I'm at PodCamp Boston and it is pretty fun so far. Its great to see a lot of the vidcasters whose feeds I subscribe to in person, as well as hear attach some faces to the voices that I hear in some of my fav podcasts.

Anyway, just thought I'd give an update while I am on my lunch break of PodCamp Day 1.

More to come!

Technorati tags: podcamp

Ze is on a Roll

It seems like Ze Frank is on a roll this week, or maybe I just like that I hadn't watched the show in a few days so got a nice 20 minute block of Ze on my drive to work this morning. He is a funny/insightful quote machine!

Here are some of my favs so far..

"Just be yourself. Unless you're an asshole."
"I wonder what would happen if I brought an empty bottle of Gatorade onto the plane but then left with it full."
"Although reclining your [airplane] seat is technically your right, just like free speech, if you exercise it too your limits everyone around you will think your an asshole."

Tracking my site with ClickDensity

I'm tracking the clicks on the homepage of my website with a free 30 day trial of Clickdensity. The service is pretty cool. Go click around on my homepage and I'll share the heatmap on the blog once the 30 day trial is up. (I know its a little stalkerish, but that's why I'm promising to share the results after).

It'll be pretty cool to see how people are clicking around my site and maybe it'll even convince me to redesign it to make it easier to navigate.

Now go click!

Hello Real World

Tomorrow morning is my first day of post-grad employment. I am really excited (and only a little nervous) about starting my three month interview internship with Lois Paul & Partners tomorrow. Wish me luck!

This starbucks ad seemed to fit my mood pretty well, even though I'll most likely be sipping a Dunkin' Donuts iced coffee on my way to Woburn tomorrow morning.

Dear Floyd:

You are a hero. You are a two-wheeled animal. You are an inspiration, but effective communication 'aint your thang. That is fine. You are an athlete. Take Lance's advice. Let your critics speak, but never let their attacks go unanswered.

Fire whoever told you to stop allowing comments on your blog. Stop making it so difficult to believe that you are truly innocent.

If you honestly deserve that yellow jersey, don't let anyone ever speak otherwise unless they have just cause. If you did anything at all illegal, honesty is your best friend at this point.

Best Wishes,

Your Loyal Fan (for now)
Jameson Bull

Technorati tags: blogging floydlandis

Will PR steal my soul?

PR in general certainly doesn't have the greatest of reputations. While the industry has done plenty of good, people always seem to remember Firestone before they remember Johnson & Johnson.

It is always frustrating when people people I meet ask what I do and they have such a rudimentary understanding of the PR industry that I am forced to use ugly words like "publicist" and "spin doctor" just to get both of us on the same page. I've even been guilty of pretty grotesque comparisons between PR and Marketing/Advertising just because I lacked the time an energy to educate the world about the industry.

From my perspective (however biased or just plain inaccurate it may be), there is a clear division between Publicists, and Professional Communicators. I hope working at Lois Paul & Partners doesn't turn me into a slave to the clip book and I am actually able to retain my soul and not end up on this list.

I think I will make looking in the mirror to make sure I still have a reflection a new party of my nightly routine. Crossing my fingers....

The Right to Blog

It has now been six months since I started this blog. I decided it was about time that I reevaluate my objectives and policies for posting. Any similarity to these principles are clearly intentional as I used them as the starting point to my own.

While I do veer off the main topics of new media, communications, and Public Relations from time to time, my opinions and reflections on advances in each of these areas are the primary focus if this online space. It is my full intention for this space to be a reflection and extension of some of my own values: honesty, creativity, trustworthiness, loyalty, and fairness.

Privacy: I will respect the privacy of all those who contribute information to my posts. I will create a clear division between personal communication and blog related communication. No information received through a casual conversation will be fair game for blogging unless given the full consent of my source.

Kindness: I will do my very best to refrain from causing any undue harm to any party involved in any of my blog posts. Beyond the cardinal rule of not posting anything that will get anyone fired or killed, I will do my best to keep in mind the interests of those mentioned in my posts.

Linking: Since this blog doesn't exactly reveal breaking news, I will continue to give credit to all the sources of my information through linking to the original site. It is just as important to explain my opinion as it is to reveal the sources of information that have brought me to my conclusions. All relevant information pertaining to each post will be included through links to outside sources.

Transparency: I will clearly state all the sources of my information as well as have a clear division between opinion and fact. I will not use unnamed sources. Any direct quotations will reflect the exact phrasing and ideas of those quoted and I will do my best not to take any information out of context where it may be misleading.

Accountability: I will take credit for any and all of the effects of what I write. I will hold myself fully accountable for my posts and will do all in my power to repair any harm to innocent parties. Needless to say, I will also take full credit for any of the positive impacts, if any, which result from my blog. I will boast with brevity and humility.

Corrections: While I do my best to ensure the truth of my posts, I will make corrections as soon as I become aware of any factual errors, or completely remove any posts whose information is grossly inaccurate or damaging information.

These principles may need revision from time to time, and changes will be made as needed. If you catch me breaking any one of these principles, I want to know. (Remember the accountability part?)

Technorati tags: blogging ethics principles

First Video PR Pitch: Gouge my eyes out!

5WPR claims the first ever online video pitch. I don't really need to explain much about this... but I'm just glad that i wasn't holding anything sharp. Gouging my eyes out has never been more appealing. Apparently PR practitioner is now the equivalent of crappy infomercial producer.

I found the video blogged here.


Check out the original video here.





Technorati tags: 5W PR Video Pitch

Is Jobster the MySpace of job sites?

Jobster is an interesting idea, allowing job searchers to use tags, aggregated job postings, and even allows people to give the inside scoop on what exactly it is like to work at a company, beyond what you can learn from the corporate website.

I love that Jobster seems to have embraced this web 2.0 culture and has given a personality to not only job applicants, but to the companies looking to fill open positions. The personal information that it offers about companies answers many of the typical questions I ask when networking with PR practitioners, and all without finding the closest Starbucks to meet at.

I have been nothing but disappointed by Monster and Career Builder, but have found countless leads and have gotten at least half of a dozen interviews through CraigsList. It seems like the number of applicants is high enough, and the price is low enough, that it may be difficult for employers to make the switch. It doesn't look like a replacement of any of the job sites out there already, but definitely looks like a great new tool to toss into the mix.

I like the idea behind Jobster, but am a little suspicious on it's ability to get enough traffic from both job searchers and employers to take any significant market share from CraigsList. We'll see how their marketing and PR efforts work to build a strong community around what they are offering. Hey, maybe I'll even find my next job (assuming I don't stay around Lois Paul & Partners) on Jobster.


Technorati tags: jobster craigslist monster career builder

Meet me at Podcamp Boston

I'll be at Podcamp Boston Sept 9 and 10. It is a free conference for podcasters and podcast enthusiasts and should be a pretty fun time. I'm excited by the attendee list so far with names like Bryan Person, Steve Garfield, it will definitely be exciting. If you are going to be in the Boston area, join the list and sign up at the site wiki.

Check out the info and keep checking back for a location at the site.

Technorati tags: podcamp boston

Buying Social Media

Last week’s big Web 2.0 story, Jason Calacanis tries to buy the top Digg/Flickr/Del.icio.us users. I may be a little slow to respond, but here are my $0.02.

Ever since I first heart Netscape Executive Calacanis on Episode 57 of TWIT, I wasn’t exactly a huge fan. I’m not sure if it was his voice, what was clearly not made for radio, or the way he seemed more interested in milking money off of the Web 2.0 revolution rather than creating something worthwhile to contribute to the movement, but he clearly didn’t fit in with the rest of the panel.

Not only does the new Netscape site blatantly steal Digg’s design, layout, and structure, but it fails to even bring anything original to the idea of a social news website. Now Calacanis offers to pay off the top Digg users to join his site? I guess it makes sense that Calacanis can’t build a site that will foster web-based social groups when he doesn’t even understand why so many people visit dig each day to post, comment, and of course, digg.

Kevin Rose has called out Calacanis on Diggnation, Leo Laporte has clearly picked sides, and as far as me, I think he is just a douchebag. There are few ways to rectify someone going beyond trying to create productive competition and stealing your intellectual property. At least it is comforting to know that Calacanis can’t even hire someone to get it right.

Calacanis, go back to the magazine business.

Technorati Tags: Calacanis, Digg, Netscape

Best Week Ever

This has been a pretty busy week, hence my rather disappointing posting performance. Sorry about that everyone, but other ventures have taken me away from my laptop for a brief period.

Sunday I completed my first triathlon, check out my flickr page for a few pictures shot by my gracious girlfriend. Monday I received a pretty awesome birthday present of being offered an internship position at Louis Paul & Partners’ life science practice, which I accepted shortly thereafter.

Now I am on an Amtrak train headed from Boston to Hartford to meet up with my big brother for his bachelor party and maybe spend some time with a few hometown friends this weekend.

I am very excited to see the end of my employment drought as well as being able to share my experience as an LPP intern. WOOT WOOT! Expect to hear my first day reactions once I start on August 14.

Will consumer creaded media content increase media literacy? My ramblings...

This Friday's The Show got my gears turning all weekend and I haven’t quite been able to get them to stop. I haven’t quite answered the questions that have come out of this discussion that I’ve been having with myself, but let's see where this takes me...

(rant)

It is undeniable that blogs and internet culture are changing not only in how news is spread, but also in the voice that is used to tell it (not to mention the voices speaking back at the author in story comments).

Paul Grabowitz spoke with Steve Garfield about how consumer created news should be posted on websites right up top along with traditional news content. How easily will the average reader be able to distinguish unbiased, sufficiently researched and balanced news coverage of a story from the subjective ideas communicated through a blog on the same subject? Will blog posts ever be able to be completely integrated into traditional news content without a distinct division that editorial and advertising has requiered?

As the youth Internet culture becomes more and more accustomed to learning about the world around them through My Space and their friend's blogs, will they begin to distrust the traditional media that so distantly resembles the media channels that they are so used to (even more than the rest of society already does)?

My experience conducting journalistic interviews and reporting stories for print publications has certainly changed the way that I interpret news content (as well a fostered a strong distain of 90% of local news programming). Will the Internet culture's access to blogging have any significant affect on they way they interpret news content? (I sure hope that www.nytimes.com never resembles a My Space page... ugh).

The fact that HTML coding and website design were once powerful skills that separated internet media producers from consumers but now it has even begun to integrate into IM slang to the point where (/rant) may some day be as common as ROFL and WTF, is pretty wild.

Sure Dell's blog sucks, but at least they are communicating in a medium where we can call them out on it publicly. THAT is cool.

The average man’s ability to create his own media content will hopefully increase his media literacy, changing the way the entire internet culture consumes and interprets the news media. And in any case, media literacy is good for everyone. The news media may be the fourth estate, but it is only as powerful as the public's ability to interpret and formulate their own educated opinions based on the content.

(/rant)

I appologize for the completely random chain of ideas, but I was in the mood to publish all ideas that have been fueling my brain for the past few days in more of a mental regurgitation than anything else. I hope I didn't give anyone a headache. I will now return to my regularly scheduled and fully thought out posts.


Technorati Tags: Media Literacy, Ze Frank

Dell's one2one Blog

Dell responded to criticisms from Shel Holtz, Steve Rubel, and Jeff Jarvis about its new blog, one2one. The H&K blog also added it's two cents.

While it is pretty hard to argue on behalf of Dell, I am glad to see that they are at least responding to the comments out there in the blogosphere. I hope that they master the transition between brochure writing and blog writing very soon.

There certainly is endless potential for this blog to help bring Dell out of some pretty mucked-up situations, but if they don't improve their posts it could turn into a big threat. Blogging is an excellent communications tool, as has been proven thousands of times, but only if you know how to do it right. (I surely not perfect, but at least I try and don't blatantly ignore the commonly accepted rules of blogging.)

Technorati Tags: Dell, one2one



Andrew talks about the recent turmoil at Rocketboom UPDATED

Andrew Baron of RocketBoom tells his side of the story. His transparency and honesty definitely takes him out of the "evil business man who killed rocketboom" light.

The audio quality is awful for the first minute, but just grit your teeth and bear it.

I sincerely hope that Andrew is not surprised that he has been painted in such a bad light. If you do your business is vlogging, and you refrain from being completely transparent during a time of crisis, I begin to doubt how thoroughly you understand the medium.

I am not saying that Andrew did anything wrong, or was "the evil business guy who killed RB," only that he should not be surprised by the image that has been given to him. In a time of crisis, the party who is most transparent will almost always appear in a better light. Typical "no comment" syndrome.

I do wish both Amanda and Andrew the best, and hopefully they'll throw all of this behind them, realize how silly this is, and get back to the daily vids.

The brevity/conservativeness of the message that he mentions leaving on the rocketboom website just made him seem sketchy and impersonable in my opinion. I wish he could have done a better job of explaining his position, but I am sure he will take advantage of his opportunity to tell this side of the story on Monday.

National Semiconductor fails to follow through

National Semiconductor can't seem to follow through with it's PRWeek cover story. They gained phenomenal press for "equipping" all of its 8,500 employees with video iPods as a reward for their best financial year ever, but the tables have turned.

Apparently their iPods were not gifts, but were merely company property that they would allow for personal use. When 35 employees at their Arlington plant were fired, National Semiconductor asked for the iPods back.

It is one thing to pull a stunt to show how well your company is doing and show your appreciation to your employees, but it is a whole different ballgame when your initial intentions are not 100% honest and you must knowingly dance around the issue with the language in your press releases.

Amanda Congdon: Unboomed

I was a little concerned with Rocketboom's random field correspondent run last week, but when it failed to return to its regularly scheduled programming on Monday morning, the questions began to fly.

Unfortunately, it looks like Amanda's regular position in front of the map has come to an end. www.rocketboom.com offers one explanation from the show's producer, Andrew Baron, but Amanda offers a much different, and much longer explanation of the split at her blog.

Amanda's transparency clearly makes Andrew look like the bad guy here, despite her relentless compliments of his contributions to RB. This split obviously brings up questions about the figure of video blogging since Rocket Boom was likely the most mainstream of any video blog out there, but I have full faith that Amanda and video blogging will bounce back from this whole incident.

Children's Hospital Boston's Online News Room

I had the opportunity to meet with Anna Gonski, Senior Writer in the Children's Hospital Boston Public Affairs department. Besides offering me some great insight into how she got started with her own career in PR we had an interesting discussion about the Hospital's online newsroom.

Check it out here: http://www.childrenshospital.org/newsroom/Site1339/mainpageS1339P0.html

I was really impressed that the newsroom has everything from an RSS feed, high-res images, embargoed releases, and everything else that an eager reporter could ask for. It is always good to see a PR department filling their newsroom with all this wonderful web-communications technology and creating a newsroom that is actually appealing to reporters, rather than a graveyard for old static press releases.

Being Blogging Evangelists

In Tony's recent post/ad at Tech PR Gems, he talks about the need for PR practitioners to be not only knowledgeable about RSS/blogging/podcasting, etc. but serve as evangelists for this next-gen communications tools.

While I agree, I think one point was left unstated. Even as we continue or begin our path as blogging experts (rather than merely specialists), we must spread the power and importance of this communication with more than just our PR peers. Echoing blogging's benefits within our industry will only distract us from the obstacles that it can help us overcome.

Becoming Web PR experts is a worthy goal, but when we are the only ones with the expertise and are authoring blogs for R&D directors and CEOs, and are the funnel through which all Web communications must flow, it can be the beginning of a very large problem.

Blogging is not just for PR pros. Blogging is for anyone with something to say, and we are simply more likely than others to be the one to show them how to say it.

Naked Conversation Quote

"Blogs humanize companies, or at least the people who work inside of them. Your blog lets your potential customers see who the person on the other side of the desk is before then engage you in potential business. It accomplishes much of what the photo, diploma, or trophy in your office or cubicle does for visitors. It lets people know you just a little bit." -Robert Scobel and Shel Israel, Naked Conversations, p. 27

I ran across this quote while doing some beach reading and through it really exemplified the whole purpose of my blog if you interchange "company" with "me" and "customers" with "employers."

I like to think that this endeavor adds of what is so difficult to communicate through the traditional resume and cover letter and is able to truly show my passion for Public Relations and next-generation communications. Now it is just a matter of finding the right position for what I have to offer.

When it is not all about quantity

Why Blog Post Frequency Does Not Matter Anymore

Sure, search engines love blogs, and the more posts you create, the more that is available for Google to dig through. Some blogs even follow The New York Times motto to posting, all the news that is fit to print. When you are posting your news on the internet, EVERYTHING fits.

I probably run across dozens of blog-worthy items every day, but the last think I want JamesonBull.com/blog to become is a unmanageable database of every blog-worthy thought I've ever had. I've had to unsubscribe from several blogs and podcasts just because I couldn't find enough hours in the day to stay on top of every post, but then again, not every blog expects its readers to keep up with every single post, I'm sure engadget doesn't.

So, while I must admit that my posts have gotten a little skimpy in the past few weeks since my move out of Syracuse, I hope that my posts are infrequent enough to give you digestible little bites of my life as a beginner in the PR industry and my thoughts on new media.

Consider yourself fixins

I feel obligated to update all the faithful jamesonbull.com/blog readers on the status of the "make the earth a sandwich project."

Project: COMPLETED

Congratulations world, you make one helluva sandwich.

It takes a community to make the earth a sandwich...

A few weeks ago Steve Rubel wrote about how podcasts or video blogs are inherently less of a social media than text blogs.

Tomorrow may be an excellent representation of exactly how wrong I think he is. Ze Frank, of www.zefrank.com/theshow is having fabuloso friday. For the past few days, viewers have edited a wiki script for Ze to follow on Friday’s show.

Not only is the show going to be completely viewer-created, but The Show also has such an active comment section that viewers fight to the first poster and be crowned the day’s King of the Comments. Ze has also initiated a “make the world a sandwich” project asking viewers to document themselves placing bread the ground and documenting it on a world map, hoping that two of the slices will fall on opposite sides of the earth, thus creating an Earth sandwich.

Sounds pretty social to me… but hey… I just like sandwiches, so I’m biased.

Bostonian or Bust

So I have finally made my way to Boston. My frustrations with trying to land myself in the Boston agency world while still in Syracuse, New York forced me to make a very welcome change, packing my VW Jetta to the brim with everything I own and planting a new set of roots in Somerville, MA.

I've heard far too many times about how the sporadic and unpredictable hiring trends of PR agencies. When work comes and there aren't enough people to fill the account, they need the staff, yesterday. So that is my current plan of action, be visible, and be available.

At the very least, it will save me from my four hour road trips between Syracuse and Boston for a 30 minute interview.

Should you fear consumer media?

Today's rocketboom got me ranting....

I don't think that "real" media should be too concerned until your average joe can begin making a career from sydicating their own content.

Obviously, it is possible for a select few right now, but there are very few (I assume). Once jounalists can quit their jobs and leave the newsroom for their living room, i think they begin to be very very worried.

But as far as right now, I think the people that are afraid of it, don't fully understand consumer generated media and what it is all about. Once they do begin to understand it, they'll understand how big the fire is under their butts encouraging them to produce better content.

Comment Issues

I have noticed a problem with the comments, aka, they are not working. The issue is currently being worked on, but until I am able to clear up the issue, I have returned to a different blogger template.

Hopefully this will alleviate the issue.

Interview with John Cass

John Cass interviewed me Monday, May 1 about my background in PR and my experience so far in blogging.

Check out the transcript here. Enjoy!

Naked Conversation in my mailbox

I recently got the book “Naked Conversations” in the mail from half.com. As my Master’s program is winding down, I think I will finally have time to read it since it has been on my “to-read” list since it came out.
Last night I only made it through the introduction before falling asleep, but it, along with my conversation on Monday with John Cass of Backbone Media, has gotten me really excited about reevaluating my blog and beginning to “blog smarter.”
I still consider my blog in the infancy stages and am sure that its tone and direction will see some changes in the coming months, and I will likely try to incorporate many of the things I am reading in the book into my blog and will see where it takes me. I’ll also be working to build a bigger audience and do some blogger outreach (per advice of John).
Don’t fret; you’ll be kept up to date on all changes and blog evolutions as they come.

Where PR programs fail their students

I stumbled on this post from Todd Defren of SHIFT Communications.

I agree with much of what he says, but am still pretty disappointed that he fears hiring PR newbies. While both of my PR programs have had a strong hold on both theory and current practice, they occasionally lack sufficient attention to business side of the industry that likely leaves Defren loathing hiring PR newbies.

Business etiquette and how recent graduates should conduct themselves in the work environment are things that are often skimmed over in PR management courses, but fail to sufficiently take hold unless they are able to actually use what they've learned in an internship or other professional experience.

While the world of PR academics is certainly not without its failings, there is one thing that academics seem to teach far better than most in the industry: research and evaluation. It is always disappointing to see superbly run campaigns whose final measurement is nothing more than counting media placements or TV time instead of trying to quantify relationships built or changes in the opinions and knowledge of key publics.

I still agree with Defren on many of his points, but when your own industry is not without its own failings, the rocks you throw should not be too heavy.

Serving up cable: A la carte

Choosing from the cable menu.

While serving cable A la carte may have its benefits, it is putting the scare in the niche channels. All I know is that if given the opportunity, I’d pay for mostly all niche channels and only a small hand full of major networks.

Podcasting: social and multidirectional?

Micropersuasion's Steve Rebel recently published a post about the qualifications of podcasting as a social medium.

Podcasting today, is undeniably a less social medium than blogging is, but that does not mean that podcasting lacks the ability to surpass blogging’s ability to perform as a social medium. Podcasting certainly lacks the ease of use that has brought blogging as far as it has come, but boats many advantages that blogging lacks. Blogging is far less of a mobile media, and for lacks the ability to communicate with audio and video.

Far more can be communicated through one’s voice and facial expressions than may ever be communicated through a keyboard.

"No medium is inherently social. Each medium that gets utilized is as social as the creator wants it to be."- Rob Safuto

I think that as time goes by, podcasters will begin to make their content more and more community driven. Blogging communities certainly did not exist at the birth of the medium, but grew as blogging did.

Blogs, podcasts, wikis, etc are simply places where it is possible for people to gather and talk about similar topics and create digital communities. Just because a blog exists, does it automatically make it a social medium? No. Granted the current state of podcasting is far less social than blogging is today, but the advantages that podcasting has over blogging gives it some pretty big opportunities for growth.

No love for the RIAA

RIAA sues family that doesn't own a computer.

It is hard to violate file sharing or copyright infringement laws when you are not connected to the internet, let alone don't own a computer. Is this story even serious? Granted, the RIAA has not made a point of being friendly with music fans anywhere over the past few years, criminal or otherwise, but seriously, do they really understand what they are doing?

With all the DRM and file sharing suits flying around these days, the RIAA and the MPAA are turning into pretty dirty words. Personally, I haven’t really understood why the general public hasn't begun to throw up their arms and bring some attention to the ridiculous things that they are doing. I am all about managing copy written content, but seriously, when "rights management" is nothing more than a laundry list of restrictions on how and when you can use the content that you paid for, someone is beginning to overstep their bounds.

Hopefully this is just a simple mistake that slipped through the legal department without enough research, but at the very least it is a funny story.

The Philips Ad Enforcer

While the growth of on demand media is everywhere through VOD, DVR, iPods, RSS.... Philips has a patent pending for technology that would prohibit people with Tivos and DVRs to fast forward through commercials.

While some have already said that this looks like one step closer to a Clockwork Orange advertising model where we all have our eye lids peeled back and our faces locked in place in front of the television screen, I think it is more of a sign of advertisers' ignorance than anything else.

If this technology was ever actually put into place, customers would run away from your product as fast as they possibly could, with me leading the stampede. You can't give customers all the benefits of a digital video recorder, only to realize how much you have pissed off your second most important public, your advertisers, and have to take it away and lose your most important public, your own customers.

With Tivo secretly deleting certain shows after a designated amount of time and this new emerging technology developed by Philips, I'm not even sure how I feel about cable in general anymore. I've got Netflix, podcasts, IPTV, and Comedy Central's Motherload do I even need to be shoveling out another $50 a month just for a bucket load of channels I rarely watch and better reception? Hmm.... I'll have to get back to you on that one.

-Jamie

Fishing for a career, blog style

It looks like someone has decided to take my secret and spread it to everyone. How inconsiderate! Haha.

While I have been subscribing to a whole mess of blogs and PR podcasts for a while now, I am still pretty fresh on the blog writer side of things. It has definitely given me some idea of what it is like and what types of things to consider when creating different posts. While at this stage, this is more of an experiment than anything else, but I think it is going pretty well.

Disagree? Comment.

Calling all Boston Bloggers...

Susan Getgood wants the Boston PR community to get together on April 29th on Saturday evening. If you are interested Susan asks that you send her an email or post a comment on her Boston announcement post.


If I am in there area, I will definitely be in attendance. Maybe I'll see you there.

My trip to Boston

Three days in Boston, and it went amazingly.

Weather? Amazing. People? Amazing. Boston Marathon? Three days too late. I wish it was on Friday instead of Monday so I could have seen it, but I guess it was for the best, since it would have put a big wrench in my schedule and made walking around pretty hard.

Every PR agency I visited was amazing and I made me SO excited about moving to Boston next month. So if we met last week and you are reading this, thanks for everything and hopefully we will be meeting again before too long.

Peter Reid? Unfortunately that was the only one out of my dozen appointments around the city that had to get cut because I was just so exhausted by the time Friday night came around. Sure I was disapointed, but for my job-related road trip, if I'm able to get all my job stuff done, I'm happy.

ALSO! I think I fixed my RSS feed so all you beautiful people out there can get a fresh batch of jamesonbull.blogspot.com delivered to your desktop whenever it comes out. I must admit, it is the first time I have initiated an RSS feed, so if it breaks or doesnt work, let me know by email or post a comment.

Mixing Business and Triathlon

As mentioned in the previous post, this is going to be a crazy week. Thankfully, I was tipped off by a member of the Wheelworks Multisport team that the three-time Ironman champion, Peter Reid, is going to be at Belmont Wheelworks to speak on Friday. Best of all, it is my favorite price, free.

I figure too much business isn't good for the body. It should be a good time and it will be interesting to hear what a guy with this much experience has got to say.

Check back for my reactions next weekend.

Crazy Schedules

My schedule has been pretty crazy lately, and most of it has been scheduling and rescheduling my visit to Boston, Mass. next Thursday and Friday. It has been quite an experience trying to juggle a whole mess of different appointments scattered around the Boston area, but so far it looks like everything is under control.
I have been increasing my triathlon training and am on my way out the door to the pool as we speak, but I should have time for a more satisfying post later on today. Be patient kids. I heard it is a virtue.

-Jameson Bull

Newsvine Response

In the Newsvine story's comments, I asked:

Is there some reason that Newsvine is not naming the company? Not that I'm about to start a boycott, I'm just more interested than anything else.

Here is Newsvine's response, also found in the story comments:

Mike D. :I'm not mentioning company names because my goal is not to out anybody here. It's apparently pretty common and it's not illegal, so I just wanted to point it out for people who weren't aware of it, and point out the fact that we are against it.

While it may not have been what I was looking for, I do understand Newsvine's interest in not starting a finger pointing game.

BTW: I love a news organization that not only allows comments on its stories, but actually responds to them in a timely manner. Did someone say "two-way symmetrical"? J. E. Grunig what?

Newsvine how I love thee

So apparently Newsvine got approached by a big media company, offering them payment for placement of their articles on the site. It has turned into quite a little scandal in the Newsvine world.

But the one thing that surprised me, Newsvine skirted around naming the company that was playing this journalistic payola game. While I may still be partially covered in my bubble 'o academia, to me, paying journalists to sprinkle quotes from employees and executives throughout your article is likely the second easiest way to get fired short of plagiarism.

Let’s get back to the problem at hand. Wouldn't it be ethical for Newsvine to shine some light on this ethical disturbance and publish the organization that offered the payment as well as give them a chance to explain themselves and offer their side of the story to this discussion? If what Newsvine says is true, there is little doubt about the ethical problems that this company is dealing with, but perpetuating the raping of the news media isn't exactly the most ethical either.

I am by no means asking Newsvine to hang anyone from the gallows; I am merely inviting the accused to join in the discussion.

Oh, hi blogosphere.

Here I go, entering the blogosphere, but why? Well, let’s start with my initial motivations that drove me to starting my own blog. In the interest of transparency, I'll run through my whole process I went through before writing this post.

I've dabbled in the whole blogging thing a few times before, but nothing that lasted more than a few posts. As a part of my graduate course in Designing Interactivity, I was given the assignment of creating a website. Since my graduation date is speeding quickly toward me, I chose to focus the site (which is due out shortly) on my academic and professional PR experience by flexing my intellectual muscles. I figured that ranting about current events and talking about their PR implications would be a pretty good way to do so.

While initially, it seemed like a pretty good idea, I quickly realized that it was about the most unoriginal idea that I had come up with lately. Everybody and their mother was doing the same thing, so I decided to do a 180 and do something that no one else had yet to do, talk about the trials and tribulations of Jameson Bull, the graduate Public Relations student and soon-to-be Public Relations professional.

I plan on stumbling in between sharing my experiences as a graduate student in the cultural mecca of Syracuse, NY, commenting on developments in the Public Relations profession, and occasionally mixing it up and throwing in the random and completely unrelated topics about life in general (all while trying to avoid turning this into an online diary which might make me sound like a 14 year-old girl).

Whatever this turns into, I'll keep it interesting. I promise.