With Valentine's Day but a sweet memory this week, I thought we'd take a look at the other side of love, divorce, and the dubious role Facebook can play in the ensuing battles. PC World has published a great article "Marriage On The Rocks? Better Stay Off Facebook" that cites some frightening facts for all the Facebook fanatics out there.

According to a survey by the American Academy of Matrimonial Layers (AAMl), 81 percent of its members have, in the past five years, seen an increase in the number of divorce cases using social networking evidence.

Facebook leads the pack with 66 percent of survey respondents citing it as the primary source. MySpace and Twitter made a splash as well, with 14 percent and five percent, respectively.

So, as we are always warned, watch what you do on social networking sites! Not only could bad behavior cost you your job, your friends, or your relationship, it could lead to nasty divorce court problems and "evidence" you probably don't want anyone to see.

-posted by Stephanie

It's a digital dilemma that has an outspoken tech entrepreneur comparing content aggregators and search engines to vampires, and newspapers to zombies. Keynoting the recent OnMedia conference in New York, chairman of HDNet and Owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, made a bold statement. According to AdWeek, Cuban essentially said content aggregators and search engines are vampires, and newspapers are the chesty blondes who fall victim to their charms -- and ultimately get bitten. Cuban particularly called out Google as a Web giant that continues to reap benefits off of the valuable content that traditional media companies produce either through search or Google News .



“At some point, you would think that the vampires run out of victims—people to suck. Because they run out of content. But that never happens in the vampire story. What happens is, someone drives a stake through their heart. That’s the only way to stop a vampire,” said Cuban.

Which brings us to the next point Cuban addressed: the proverbial silver bullet. Here's what Cuban had to say about that;

“Look for new opportunities. The iPad is, the Kindle isn’t. The Kindle just reprints what you already do. The iPad represents a new way to present information and, most importantly, sell ads against your content. The Kindle looks nice, it’s portable, but ultimately, it looks like a first generation product that has no future. The iPad will allow content companies to present their work in a new way, and most importantly, sell ads against it.”

However, Cuban's bold vampire/zombie comparison isn't the first time something like this has been uttered. According to Crain's New York Business, in a keynote address to the PricewaterhouseCoopers Entertainment and Media Outlook last year, Dow Jones CEO Les Hinton compared Google to a vampire, sucking the blood out of the newspaper industry.

How did I come up with all of this information you may ask? I did a Google search:)

We've got our newest version of Twilight brewing on the Web and I for one am interested in if and/or how the Zombies will come back from dead.

-posted by Andrew

In a move to get more personal, Bill Gates, the now Co-chair and Trustee of The Gates Foundation, has emerged with a new Twitter page and a web site dubbed "The Gates Notes."

The software-mogul-turned-philanthropist's Gates Notes site appears to be a repository for his thoughts on the range of topics from education to energy. The site is separated into sections like "What I'm Thinking About," "What I'm Learning" and "My Travels." On the site's home page, there is a brief explanation of it saying;

"Every January, Bill writes an Annual Letter, which includes his thoughts on the work of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and progress it is making toward achieving its goals. Interest in the 2009 Annual Letter was one reason Bill decided to create the Gates Notes website."

That annual letter came out January 25 this year.

Bills Gates' Twitter page @BillGates went live on the microblogging site on Tuesday, January 19 with this tweet: "'Hello World.' Hard at work on my foundation letter — publishing on 1/25." Gates was welcomed to Twitter almost immediately with a tweet from actor Ashton Kutcher, the unofficial ambassador of the microblogging site. At last check on Wednesday, January 20, just one day after joining Twitter, Gates had more than 240,000 followers. And since I love cyber-snooping, I wanted to take a look at who Gates was following. It was an interesting mix of organizations like relief organization UNICEF, celebrities like actor Ashton Kutcher and techno-geeks like CNET's Ina Fried. With only 40 people Gates was following as of late January, must be quite an honor to have the world's richest person following you!

While I'm certain Gates isn't developing any of the content for The Gates Notes or @BillGates, I'm relatively sure Gates has a decent amount of input (i.e. final say) into what is being published. Not sure what the driving impetus was for the new Internet push, but it certainly couldn't hurt The Gates Foundation's efforts. In this day and age, it appears nothing's off limits and everything needs to be open for the public.



-posted by Andrew

Think you know what website usage dominates today's business users and which one takes up the most bandwidth?  Well, think again. While Google and Yahoo sit close to the top on both fronts, it's that gosh-darn Facebook ruling supreme for site visits and YouTube stealing first for bandwidth consumption.

Ann Bednarz summarizes nicely in a new article: "In recent research from Network Box, the company analyzed traffic to 19 billion URLs through its global security operations centers over a five month period. It ranked the top five Web sites visited from business addresses by volume of traffic. By its measurements, 5.8 percent of all Web traffic from business networks is to Facebook – which is higher than to any other Web site. Google ranked second at 4.1 percent, followed by Yahoo’s Yimg image server (3.1 percent), Yahoo (2.7 percent) and Doubleclick (1.7 percent).

Network Box also ranked Web sites by the bandwidth they use. In that tally, YouTube topped the list, consuming 7.8% of corporate bandwidth to download videos. That’s followed by Facebook (4.4%), Windows Update (3.8%), Yahoo’s Yimg image server (2.8%) and Google (2.7%)."

Does this demonstrate a total failure of usage policies in business today? Or, does is simply shed light on the fact that most businesses consider certain social media outlets acceptable destinations during business hours?  Don't lie, you're a member of Adam West's Fan Page... and how could you not be. He's super!



-posted by Justin

Interesting and slightly amusing article posted on MediaPost's Online Spin - and in honor of our colleague Justin's recent nuptials, I will blog about it.

The author of the article, Joe Marchese, is getting married this Saturday, and he describes the important role social media played in the planning of the wedding. Faccebook allowed him to reach out to almost every friend or family member he wanted to invite (to get addresses, share info and pester for RSVPs), Pandora and iTunes helped him find music they would like for their playlist and a Twitter vote helped them choose a song for the procession. Additionally, Joe used Twitter and Facebook to find recommendations for his honeymoon and plans to use iPhone apps for advice while they are traveling.

Joe ends his article with the question "How did people do all of this before social media?"

As someone who planned their wedding pre-Twitter-mania (2007, aghast!), I can answer that. Hardly any of my family members were on Facebook, so I had to use the phone and my mother to get addresses, call for RSVPs, share information, etc. I looked through pages and pages of lists of "popular wedding songs," added most of them to my "do not play list" and found the rest of my music via movies a love (namely Father of the Bride, My Best Friend's Wedding, etc. etc.)... which didn't even end up mattering because my DJ only played two songs from the list and instead filled the rest of my reception with such favorites as "Baby Got Back." Anyway, my point is, it sounds like social media really is taking out some of the blood, sweat and tears of planning weddings, or really any event, as people and resources are more accessible on a wider scale.

But I guess we'll have to see what Justin's take on this is when he returns from his honeymoon... hopefully recovered from the trials and tribulations of planning the big day. And good luck to Joe over at  Online Spin - may his big day be a success!




-posted by Stephanie

CNN has posted a HILARIOUS article called "The 12 most annoying types of Facebookers." To the uninitiated Facebooker, this article may not make much sense, but I assure you, it is dead on. The article lists 12 Facebook "types," all annoying of course, any by golly I have at least one friend who falls into every category. From "The Let-Me-Tell-You-Every-Detail-of-My-Day Bore" to "The Bad Grammarian," I've seen it all. 

Other annoying Facebooker types include (humorous and detailed descriptions are found in the article):
The Self-Promoter
The Friend-Padder
The Town Crier
The TMIer
The Sympathy-baiter
The Lurker
The Crank
The Paparazzo
The Maddening Obscurest
The Chronic Inviter

I'm sure everyone has fallen into one of these categories at least one time or another. So, which one are you? 



-posted by Stephanie

I found this recent WSJ article very puzzling.  It talks about the effects of social media on learning... well kind of. That's what the title implies, but then the extremely high level research basically just states the obvious: if you interact with content socially, you have a better chance of learning and retaining that content.  Well, duh. Thank you Captain Obvious.  We often point out good articles and interesting information. I had to take this opportunity to give the WSJ two thumbs down... or maybe I just wasn't able to interact with the information enough.



-posted by Justin

BSkyB (also known as British Sky Broadcasting) will launch Europe's first 3D television channel in the UK next year - offering movies, sports and entertainment programming. According to an article in the UK's Guardian, BSkyB, a satellite broadcaster that thinks 3D TV may be reality within the next few years, is planning to get moving on an all-3D channel, after getting a major boost in subscribers to its Sky+ HD set-top box, which is also capable of broadcasting in 3D. Once the channel is available, customers can use their current Sky+ HD box, but will need to get a special televisions set, and will need to get their own 3D glasses. 

With this on the horizon, I think it's time UK designers start work on lines of fashionable 3D glasses - right? If people are going to be able to watch 3D TV at home all the time, disposable paper glasses just won't do... 

If this works out well, it might not be long until we, here in America, are crowding around our own TVs to catch a baseball game in 3D.

-posted by Stephanie

Slate V (the online video magazine from editors of Slate, one of five online properties produced by Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive) has a fun video up today, in honor of the Apollo 11 moon landing anniversary, that takes a look at how today's media might cover the news if it happened in 2009. Many of the clips, including those of celebrities saying how amazing the news is, were actually taken from media coverage of the 2008 presidential election and are in reference to President Obama.

Watch the video here.

-posted by Stephanie

Twitterature, coming soon from Penguin Books. According to Mashable, Twitterature, the brain child of some University of Chicago freshmen, takes the classics and cuts them down into twenty Twitter-length tweets. So the great works of Shakespeare, for example, would be reduced to twenty tweets, 140 characters or less of course.

According to the creators, these "hipster's Cliff Notes" are the "birthday, Christmas, Hanukah and 4th of July for ever hip young person between the ages of 18 and 35 in this country"... quite a bold statement I'd say. Another example of Twitter infiltrating everything from television shows to classic literature!

-posted by Stephanie

Social Media is really this complex. This image, courtesy of Brian Solis, does a good job of showing just how insane this universe is. Now spend the next year figuring out what this means!  Good luck.



-posted by Justin

Oh how the mighty are falling....continue to fall... or are on there way to falling hard. You get my point. Mainstream media outlets continue to believe in a failed business model that doesn't address the realities of online information. For the past several years, we've watched as other new-media groups are able to maintain a more effective silo of news content (by trolling and pirating content), and more often than not, when they repackage it, it's just as compelling as some of the premier outlets (ie, major city news outlets, etc.). Sooo, it's nice to see a major high-end magazine change it's model before all the wheels come flying off (even if it's a year or two too late).

Newsweek announced that they are completely changing their business model and strategy. They will still deliver a print version (although it will undergo a massive redesign), but will also broaden the online content and cut certain elements, such as entertainment. Its new site just launched on the 15th. Check it out... it's a step in the right direction.



-posted by Justin

@VoxusPR is currently one of the top 50 elite profiles in Tacoma, Wash., according to TwitterGrader.com, with an overall rank of 100,543 out of nearly 2 million Twitter profiles. TwitterGrader allows Twitter users to enter in their screen names (and the names of others) into its algorithmic generator and find out how each user ranks on the Twitter scale. According to Mike Volpe, vice president of marketing for HubSpot (TwitterGrader's parent company), the grades are generated by taking the following into account:

1. Number of followers
2. Number of followers that your followers have (the power of your network)
3. Quantity and pace of updates
4. Additional proprietary analysis

Find out how you rank!

-posted by Shawnna

According to CNN, the company that owns the Chicago Sun-Times and 58 other newspapers and online sites said Tuesday it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The Sun-Times Media Group, Inc. said it would continue to operate its newspapers and Web sites as usual while it improves its cost structure and stabilizes operations. Tuesday’s announcement comes amid a raft of newspaper closings and cuts that has seen the end of The Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Colorado; The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and The Christian Science Monitor.
Cue music. Dum, dum, dum, another one bites the dust.



-posted by Justin

No, not the country, the man!

According to S.I., the NBA slapped Mavericks owner Mark Cuban with a $25,000 fine Sunday for publicly criticizing the officials after Denver's 103-101 win over Dallas. Cuban used Twitter to complain after Friday's game that Denver's J.R. Smith was not called for coming off the bench to taunt Antoine Wright after he missed a shot near the Nuggets bench.

Cuban said in another posting Sunday that he "can't say no one makes money from twitter now. the nba does."



-posted by Justin

Can you explain what this is?  Couple hints.  It has to do with Twitter and is in German.  Viel Glück



-posted by Justin

In 1999, CBS took a huge gamble that some would argue is paying off. They payed $6 billion for the exclusive rights to the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament for 11 years.

As my old news director used to like to point out (by point out, I mean write numerous memos) these exclusive rights also prohibited anyone excluding CBS, its affiliates and its partners from even mentioning the term "March Madness." Well... that hasn't necessarily been that enforceable, but what has stuck is millions of people tuning in to watch the tournament either on TV or the Internet.

Internet viewing has skyrocketed since CBS launched MMOD (March Madness On Demand) back in 2006. In fact, Last year 4.8 million unique visitors used the service, a 164 percent increase over 2007. Advertising revenue reached $30 million this year, a 30 percent increase over last year. However, those numbers pale in comparison to the ad revenue generated by the TV games at $643 million from advertisements last year, and expecting a similar take this year.

Now the New York Times is speculating that the growth of online video may actually be problematic for CBS. True, it owns the Internet rights to the tournament and if the company can make extra money from online video while keeping its TV revenue steady, its not-very-lucrative rights contract could still turn into a moneymaker. But online revenue could come at the expense of eroding tournament revenue for the company’s cash cow, its television business. Last year, the tournament averaged 10 percent fewer viewers than in 2004, according to Nielsen. That drop in viewership could ultimately hurt its TV ad sales.

And you thought the action was just on the court. March Madness...



-posted by Andrew

Listen up all. This just in from the most wired city, our city, Tacoma!!!

From TechFlash:

If you missed the Wired report on Sunday, two English majors from UPS (University of Puget Sound) in Tacoma won the top blog awards at the South By Southwest conference happening this week in Austin.Seniors Nick Martens, 21, and Kevin Nguyen, 22, beat pro bloggers to win the best blog category with "The Bygone Bureau: A Journal of Modern Thought."

They're the two in the big photo on Wired's blog from Sunday's award ceremony.



Bygone Bureau was started in 2007 as "a journal of modern thought, specializing in travel writing and cultural criticism."

It would have been a good name for the online version of the P-I.

Pretty sure I've seen these two throwing back pints at E-9, talking about modern thingy stuff....like, "what if beer made world peace possible?"

-posted by Justin

In honor of the final edition of the Seattle Post Intelligencer...


Watch Journalism (1940) in How to Videos  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

-posted by Paul

The Seattle Post-Intellingencer says it will print its last edition today, Tuesday, March 17, ending a 146-year run. The paper's owner, the Hearst Corporation, said the P-I will become the nation's largest daily newspaper to shift entirely online. Hearst's decision to abandon the print product in favor of a Web-only version is the first for a large American newspaper, raising questions about whether the company can make money in a medium where others have come up short. Seattle follows Denver in becoming the second major city this year to lose a daily newspaper. The Rocky Mountain News closed after its owner, E.W. Scripps Co., couldn't find a buyer. In Arizona, Gannett Co.'s Tucson Citizen is set to close Saturday, leaving one newspaper in that city.

Sad.



-posted by Justin

A man accused of threatening the life of a Tacoma judge showed up at the Tacoma News Tribune yesterday. In exchange for his story, he requested a ride to the courthouse.  Check out the video interview shot in a car by TNT staffers: http://www.thenewstribune.com/topstories/story/646146.html

Now that's new-age reporting.

-posted by Lindsay

The Daily Show tries to tackle Twitter: 

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=219519&title=twitter-frenzy

Hilarious! 

-posted by Shawnna

At VOXUS, we love many things. Beer at the Swiss, AP style, Macs, blue birds, Platinum Reign recording artists, midget pickles, and yes, TechFlash.  So, when the opportunity presented itself to write a caption for a cartoon on TechFlash (spoofing the Milt Priggee mosquito Bill Gates TED incident cartoon), we had to dive right in.  For God's sake, the winner got a Tech Flash t-shirt, do you need more motivation.  Well, my colleague Andrew and I put our awesome minds together and come up with winning caption.  After voting was through, we slaughtered the competition (we secured 78 votes, to other entries 11 and 7 votes) and we received the much anticipated congratulatory email from editor, Todd Bishop. But we must give credit where credit is due.  Thanks to Twitter and Facebook, many colleagues and friends cast a vote (hopefully for us). These tools allowed us to rally the troops and instantly garner votes.  Once again, social media shines!!

Enjoy:



-posted by Justin

Yet another reason why Facebook users should be cautious.




After this photo appeared on his Facebook page, Kevin Colvin was fired from his job.  Why?  Because he'd told his boss he needed to be out of the office to attend to a family emergency.  He may be unemployed, but now he's famous...in makeup.  And a tutu.

-posted by Rachel

While the Seattle PI might is on the chopping block thanks to the Hearst Corporation, it is apparently only the first of a series. The New York Times reports today that the SF Chronicle is next, with more or less the same rationale -- lack of profitability -- that Hearst gave for the PI.

Hearst said in its statement that The Chronicle, which it bought in 2000, lost $50 million last year and has lost money every year since 2001. Among the changes the company said it wants to see is “a significant reduction” in its union and nonunion employees.

So the paper’s basically never made any money since being bought, and now Hearst must suddenly either get out of its union contracts or shut it down. Interesting.

-posted by Paul

According to Parks Associates, casual gaming revenues will top $1 billion by 2013. The new report cites social networking and community features as enabling gaming companies to expand. To help show this growth, Parks' sent out this wickedly complex graph with their report summary. I know, I know, too complex. Let me help. This graph shows... wait for it... one more second... oh, hell, I'm just gonna say it, "this graph sucks." I give it my gold star for worst visual representation of data --- EVER!! Do you really need this graph to demonstrate a simple fact (i.e., by 2013 gamers will more than double).



You can purchase (or see the summary) the entire report titled "Networked Gaming: Driving the Future II" at http://parksassociates.ecnext.com/coms2/summary_0256-11124_ITM


-posted by Justin

Think it's not a small world? Think again. A National Post reporter is probably on the hot seat with his employers today because he forgot one of the cardinal rules of the Internet: what you say will be recorded (and discussed) for some time to come. David George-Cosh, a tech writer for one of Canada's biggest publications, used Twitter to take on April Dunford, a marketing consultant in Toronto. He wasn't happy with her lack of response to his phone call, and her annoyed posting to Twitter. The exchange via Twitter (a free microblogging site), is fascinating to read.

Everyone makes mistakes -- but hopefully, they aren't all as public as this one, which will probably end up in any number of text books on social networking and marketing.

By the way, if you use Twitter and want to follow us, we're @voxuspr.

-posted by Rachel

Uber blogger Jason Kottke, commenting on a post by Dan Lyons (of Fake Steve Jobs fame), makes an interesting analogy about the ability to monetize blogging:

As businesses go, blogging is a lot like shining shoes. There are going to be very few folks who own chains of shoe shining places which make a lot of money and a bunch of other people who can (maybe) make a living at it if they bust their ass 24/7/365. But for many, shining shoes is something that will be done at home for themselves because it feels good to walk around with a shiny pair of shoes. Everyone else will switch to sandals (i.e. Twitter) or sneakers (i.e. Facebook) and not worry about shining at all.

-posted by Paul

As a celebrity news connoisseur, I'm always keen to check out the latest gossip sites or magazines, especially if they offer funny commentary or up-to-the-minute pictures. In an effort to stay current, MSN (www.msn.com) has introduced a new kid to the block (pun intended). Microsoft's online service, is launching Wonderwall, in conjunction with Hollywood television producers Lloyd Braun and Gail Berman, and designed by a founding editor of VH1's Best Week Ever blog. Wonderwall looks like a wall with of tons of photos, graphics and features, and is meant to resemble the image-filled pages of a glossy magazine. BusinessWeek profiled the new site this week and the article includes some interesting statistics about online gossip sites, including the facts that 84% of people on the Internet (men and women!) visit an entertainment site every month, meaning the entertainment category is more popular than social networks, retail and other traditional news outlets. No specific date has been given for the official unveiling of Wonderwall, but a beta version is now up at www.wonderwall.com.

-posted by Stephanie

NBC has reported rising mobile video viewership numbers, thanks in part to its Emmy award-winning Thursday night comedy lineup.  According to a TV Week article, the network is reporting that its mobile video viewers in late 2008 doubled from the previous year. With a growing number of viewers watching "30 Rock," "The Office" (two of my favs) and others, NBC has earned its #2 position for mobile video usage behind Viacom. These numbers indicate that big laughs = big mobile video viewership.

Now if it were just a little easier to deliver a hit comedy show...





-posted by Lindsay

What to do? You've got a flight the evening of Super Bowl Sunday. As luck would have it, I was that person boarding my flight during the 4th quarter of last Sunday's epic Super Bowl XLIII battle between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals.

With all of the back and forth, one can only call friends and family so many times for updates. So, what did I do you ask? I turned to my Windows Mobile Phone and ESPN's mobile web sports page. The live scoreboard for the Super Bowl refreshes every 15 seconds which means you're getting almost instantaneous updates. My colleague Lindsay Stril blogged about Sprint recently offering a similar service along with past Super Bowl video highlights. However, exactly what was transpiring was up to my imagination. That's because as far as I can tell, there's no service that actually offered up live video of Super Bowl XLIII. How 1999 is that? With advertisers shelling out nearly $3 million for a 30-second TV ad, you've got to think there's some financial incentive to offer up live video of one of, if not the biggest sporting event in the world.

Are you ready for some football on your mobile phone? I am.

-posted by Andrew

Got a note from USA TODAY reporter Byron Acohido last week -- he and his colleague, Jon Swartz, are relaunching the Zero Day Threat book blog but with a different focus. They now plan to blog more directly to the tech security community by making their publication a venue for sharing useful security information.

-posted by Rachel

For all of us kids who had paper routes as our first jobs, take note: the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News are stopping home deliveries except for Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. At least, that's the plan that's expected to be announced as Gannett Co. continues to struggle with profitability in key markets. It's a move that we all knew newspapers would eventually be forced to make...and yet, none of us probably thought it the end would come this quickly.

-posted by Rachel

The 2nd Annual Open Web Awards, sponsored by Mashable, has issued a call for nominations. Through November 16, you can nominate a company for recognition in any of the 26 categories that range from photo sharing and dating to online games and travel.

-posted by Rachel

It was bad enough that John Cook and Todd Bishop, two of our favorite reporters and bloggers at the Seattle P-I, left the publication earlier this month to join a new initiative at the Puget Sound Business Journal. And kudos to them, it sounds like an exciting venture! But recently, I got word that Cherie Black, the P-I's health reporter and blogger, has also left for greener pastures. AACK.

Earlier this year, the P-I started offering itself as a home for citizen bloggers with columns ranging from Jason McBride's "Eating Weird" to Carolyn Chambers Clark's "Relationship Repair." Maybe this is how it plans to continue to develop new media without replacing departing staff members.

-posted by Rachel

Merlin Mann over at 43folders had a very interesting post on what makes a good blog.

Good blogs are the product of “Attention times Interest.” A blog shows me where someone’s attention tends to go. Then, on some level, they encourage me to follow the evolution of their interest through a day or a year. There’s a story here. Ethical “via” links make it easy for me to follow their specific trail of attention, then join them for a walk made out of words.

There's a lot of interesting information in the full article, all of which is useful in understanding not "how do I get my blog noticed" (which is what most of these types of articles focus on) but more "how do I have a blog that doesn't suck."

Good reading.

-posted by Paul

My former coworker-turned-full time blogger, Deb Hamilton, has hit the big time. She was quoted in a Newsweek article this past weekend -- and I can understand why. She's now the leading expert in developing bento lunch boxes for U.S. schoolchildren. (A bento is a Japanese box lunch.) I've written about her blog site before, but you should check it out at www.lunchinabox.net.

This is a shining example of how the media world has changed to enable someone to take a passion (in this case, an interest in healthy and portable lunches) and turn it into a full-time career.

-posted by Rachel

The NY Times has an interesting article up about journalistic ethics on the campaign trail. You may recall a recent flap over Bill Clinton's critique of a Vanity Fair article as "sleazy" and "slimy" during an interview. Or Obama's comments about how frustrated Pennsylvanians "get bitter, they cling to guns or religion."

Turns out that both of these were the result of amateur reporting by a single individual.

The woman, Mayhill Fowler, who calls herself a citizen journalist, wore no credential around her neck and did not identify herself, her intentions or her affiliation as an unpaid contributor to Off the Bus, a section of The Huffington Post. While her digital audio recorder was visible in her left hand during that encounter last Monday, she says, she did not believe Mr. Clinton saw it. “I think we can safely say he thought I was a member of the audience,” she said in a telephone interview on Friday.

This has created quite a stir in journalistic circles, with many opposed to the practice, including Newsweek columnist and reporter Jonathan Alter. Others, not so much...

But to Jane Hamsher, a onetime Hollywood producer who founded Firedoglake, a politics-oriented Web site that tilts left, Mr Alter’s rules of the road are in need of repaving. For starters, she said, the onus was on Mr. Clinton to establish who Ms. Fowler was before deciding to speak as he did. That he failed to quiz her at all, Ms. Hamsher said, was Mr. Clinton’s problem, not Ms. Fowler’s. As a result, Ms. Hamsher said, the public got to experience the unplugged musings of a former president (and candidate’s spouse) in a way that might never have been captured on tape by an old boy on the bus like Mr. Alter. “It’s hurting America that journalists consider their first loyalty to be to their subjects, and not to the people they’re reporting for,” she said. Told, for example, that the Times ethics policy states that “staff members should disclose their identity to people they cover (whether face to face or otherwise),” Ms. Hamsher was dismissive.

To be blunt, I call Bullshit! on this one. As someone who has worked alongside the media for more years than I care to remember, I can say that there are clear ground rules. For example, we counsel our clients to be aware that everything they say in an interview may be "on the record" even if they ask that it not be. But it must, MUST, always be made clear that this is in fact an interview, because on the other side of this slippery slope is Paparazzi journalism. And that's not the type of media environment I want to live in.

The press has enough credibility problems as it is, they don't need amateurs that don't know how to play by the rules. If you want to write and publish for yourself, go right ahead (it's called blogging). But if you're going to tape record someone for an interview that you are using in the article, you make it clear at the start. Period.

-posted by Paul

Our friends Byron Acohido (who lives just up the road) and Jon Swartz, two reporters with USA Today, have launched their book, Zero Day Threat. It's got an intriguing subhead: "The Shocking Truth of How Banks and Credit Bureaus Help Cyber Crooks Steal Your Money and Identity." Wired is running an excerpt that explains how Mr. O, a Nigerian national, created the largest data security breach in history when he hacked into the confidential information of 4.3 million individuals held by ChoicePoint. Fascinating stuff.

-posted by Rachel

For those that participate in the blogosphere – and by participate, I don't mean just "read" – there is a definite symmetry to the comments section. Comments typically start with a somewhat reasoned argument, and eventually devolve into comparing the author to Hitler by page 11. Paul Graham has written an interesting essay on disagreement on the web that makes compelling reading:

If we're all going to be disagreeing more, we should be careful to do it well. What does it mean to disagree well? Most readers can tell the difference between mere name-calling and a carefully reasoned refutation, but I think it would help to put names on the intermediate stages. So here's an attempt at a disagreement hierarchy.

(via DaringFireball)

-posted by Paul

Interesting development overseas...the French courts have ruled against a blog aggregate site, Fuzz, for printing a link pointing to an article containing details of the private life of actor Olivier Martinez. In typical French hyperbole, this judgment is being called "a black day for the French web." The courts held the website editor, Eric Dupin, liable for collecting and publishing links to articles of questionable validity, even though he didn't initially write the articles. (For those of you not familiar with Fuzz, it's similar to any aggregate site, such as Digg.) One of the reasons this story is interesting: the French court is saying that blog aggregators have the same level of journalistic responsibility as writers of original content. If you can read French, you can find more details in Le Figaro.

-posted by Rachel

Blogs are obviously gaining in stature and influence compared to traditional media. This recent article by The Guardian offers up their list of the 50 "most powerful" (seemingly a euphemism for "most influential") blogs today. We regularly read a number of these, which makes us powerful by extension, right? Shockingly, this blog isn't on the list. Clearly an oversight. Maybe we're on the "most easily distracted" list.

-posted by Paul

John Gruber over at Daring Fireball rips into Wired for the (at least in his opinion) decreasing quality of the articles Wired magazine. His current target: the cover story by Leander Kahney on Steve Jobs.

For instance, Kahney writes:

Everybody is familiar with Google’s famous catchphrase, “Don’t be evil.” It has become a shorthand mission statement for Silicon Valley, encompassing a variety of ideals that — proponents say — are good for business and good for the world: Embrace open platforms. Trust decisions to the wisdom of crowds. Treat your employees like gods.

To which Gruber responds:

What do any of these things have to do with “evil”? Who, prior to Leander Kahney here in this piece, has decided that this is what Google means by not being evil? These three things may well be apt descriptions of Google’s corporate strategies (although it’s debatable), but they’re unrelated to Google’s “Don’t be evil” mantra. Mediocre employee cafeterias are evil?

I have to admit that I don't find this piece to be one of the better articles to come out of Wired... it is clear to me that Kahney started with a highly questionable theme (that Apple is judged "irredeemably evil" in light of the tech industry's thorough embrace of Google's mantra), and refused to let it go no matter how torturous the metaphor became later in the article. As a writer, I have run into this issue myself – sometimes your initial enthusiasm blinds you to thematic and structural issues down the road. Yet one would hope that Kahney's editors could work with him to improve the piece before publication. That appears not to have happened in this instance.

-posted by Paul

This gets very, very awkward.

Yes it does.

-posted by Paul

Used to be going green was associated with either 1) hippies 2) Kermit the Frog.  Not anymore.  Now awards about going green (i.e... environmentally friendly) are as mainstream as "best dressed" or "most likely to succeed."  Case in point, Washington CEO Magazine, that's best known for its "Best Companies To Work For" Awards.  Now the magazine is launching its first ever "Green Washington" Awards.  Submissions are due by March 21st and the magazine says the awards "will recognize companies and organizations whose initiatives and actions shape, educate and provide a catalyst for environmental sustainability -- clean technology, recycling, carbon footprints, and more -- in Washington state."

Apparently, it's easy (and cool) being green these days.

-posted by Andrew

Blogs are becoming more and more powerful every day. It looks like super-blogger Perez Hilton, aka Mario Lavandeira, is once again parlaying his widespread influence into a new job. First it was VH1 specials and guest appearances on television shows, now, as the New York Times was first to report, Hilton is negotiating a deal that would give him clout at Warner Brothers Music. On his gossip blog, Perez often blogs about new artists, usually unknown and sometimes unsigned, and songs that he thinks his readers will enjoy. With 2.8 million visitors each month, these postings get a lot of exposure, so much so that the blog has been credited with these relatively unknown artists breaking into the top 10 on iTunes and gaining priceless exposure with club promoters and record labels. If the deal goes through, Hilton will be using his keen ear to bring these future stars to the Warner Brothers label.

And to think, it all started with a blog...

-posted by Stephanie

So we all know that, unfortunately, it's sometimes the PR department or agency's job to keep reporters away from top company honchos. That's why I'm so impressed with the Wall Street Journal's Kara Swisher, who pens the "Boomtown" column for the WSJ's blog, All Things Digital. She wanted to meet Yahoo's chief, Jerry Yang, and was denied access through normal PR channels. She found out that Yahoo had offered a lunch with Jerry as a prize in the DonorsChoose blogger challenge. While she didn't win, it was a creative way to try to gain access to a notoriously inaccessible person. And kudos to the All Things D staff for continuing its fundraising efforts -- you can learn more here.

-posted by Rachel

This week, Fred R. Shapiro, editor of the Yale Book of Quotations, came out with his top 10 quotes for 2007.

Number 1 on the list wasn’t George Bush, Britney Spears or even a little known scholar… rather a senior at the University of Florida. His quote now heard around the world was “Don’t Tase Me Bro” while being hauled away by campus police during a speech by Senator John Kerry.

Two things struck me with this quote… the first was the use of the word “bro”. No way would anyone have cared about this quote unless the student hadn’t used the word “bro”. The second… how a little known person became so famous. In this age of information where a couple words can make you instantly known around the world thanks to the web and YouTube, this student has a claim to fame that should be reserved for heads of state and such.

Keep in mind… this is the most quoted person of 2007… ahead of such outspoken people like Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Makes you wonder who'll be the most quoted person of 2008…

-posted by Andrew

Matthew Mullenweg, the founder of the software WordPress that runs much of the world's blogging sites, had one of the funniest blog entries (http://photomatt.net/) of the new year so far. Matt names the top ten folks who emailed him the most in 2007 -- and his mom ranked third. I'm not sure who I got the most email from, but it might very well be the person in Nigeria needing help to launder money. I bet Matt's Mom is a lot more interesting.

-posted by Rachel

Kingston resident and Pulitzer Prize winner Byron Acohido, who now writes for USA Today has co-authored a new book with USA Today tech writer Jon Swartz on security threats to sensitive data and financial transactions. Due to be released in April, Zero Day Threat explores how banks and credit bureaus are actually helping cyber crooks steal personal identities. Barnes & Noble will carry the book, and it's garnering rave reviews from security consultants who know the industry well. Local residents may remember Acohido in the mid 1990s as the then-Seattle Times reporter who broke the story on design flaws with Boeing's 737, causing a massive (and expensive) recall and replacement effort.

-posted by Rachel

David Berlind, formerly an editor and blogger at CNET (parent company to ZDNet) for the last 10 years, has moved on -- and his new gig is pretty impressive. He'll be joining CMP as the executive director of the Interop conference. Hope he loves Las Vegas...you can read more.

-posted by Rachel

Rhonda Wickham over at Wireless Week recently posted the top ten shows mobile subscribers viewed in September 2007. Reality shows Deal or No Deal, Big Brother 8, America's Next Top Model, Dancing with the Stars and The Biggest Loser took five of the top ten. NBC edged out other major networks with three of the top ten. See the full list and the top ten YouTube videos for September here.

-posted by Lindsay

Everyone's gotta have a marketing niche. The National Science Foundation, the Public Library of Science and the San Diego Supercomputing Group are debuting SciVee, which is being billed at the YouTube for scientists. SciVee enables researchers to upload technical papers and video presentations that demystify the more complicated topics. First up: “Structural Evolution of the Protein Kinase-Like Superfamily.” I don't think Obama girl has a lot of competition here...yet.

-posted by Rachel

As a writer for WIRED, Josh Davis has covered the Internet from top to bottom. Now he has a new challenge: in 12 months, find the next big thing in the Web 2.0 world and turn it into something at the level of YouTube and Flickr. He'll be using his own money to start but, in return, hopes to witness at ground zero how the pressures of running a startup can be rewarding. Initially, he's selecting three startups to help find initial funding: one in the UK, one from a digitally developing country (think Estonia) and one from anywhere else. He'll negotiate his own equity in each firm (this is where the reward comes in). Patrick Sullivan at lov.li, who used to be with our friends at Marqui is helping Josh out and posted more about the project at LinkedIn. This is one of the more intriguing projects I've heard about lately.

-posted by Rachel

Interesting article in the NY TIMES on the new wikiscanner service, which identifies the source of edits to various Wikipedia entries. This of course means that anyone can track changes made by non-objective parties – for example changes made by an ExxonMobile employee regarding the Valdez spill. It brings to light interesting questions regarding the ethics and objectivity involved in writing and editing Wikipedia entries. We often get involved in the creation of wikis on various client products, etc., but if our employees or clients ever edit a particular entry written by somebody else, I would hope that they identify themselves and work through the sites "talk" mechanism. Still, interesting reading...

-posted by Paul

Here's an added take on our earlier post about Pepcom... We occasionally are asked by clients whether or not they should consider participating in additional paid opportunities to meet with the press while at major trade shows such as CES and CTIA. There are always several functions being offered, such as breakfasts, cocktail hours, etc. One organizer I've been asked about is Pepcom (www.pepcom.com), one of the more aggressive marketers of these types of functions. I think Pepcom just made my answer to clients a little easier in the future, as the company has majorly ticked off a very influential reporter -- David Berlind of CNET and ZDNet, who is calling for a professional boycott of all future Pepcom press events. Suffice to say, Pepcom just shot itself in the foot by trying to pull a power play on a journalist...you'd think the company would more highly value its core constituency.

-posted by Rachel

There's an old adage from the bygone era when print journalism used to be, you know, printed... "Never argue with a man that buys ink by the gallon." Well, apparently the owners of the Pepcom trade events have never heard of this. At least, that's the only way to explain their threat to "ban all CNET and ZDNET journalists" from the trade events they sponsor. In a nutshell, Pepcom got its panties in a bunch when CNET hosted a free after-the-event get together, presumably because it was parasitic in regard to the Pepcom event. Which is ironic coming from a company that makes its living putting on "sub-events" that take advantage of such shows as CES and CTIA. For more, read this post from ZDNet's David Berlind.

-posted by Paul

Redfin has a post up highlighting the recent NakedTruth event. This is how the media works.

-posted by Paul

I'm sorry to read today that the Fake Steve Jobs, an anonymous blogger who took on the persona of Apple's egotistical CEO Steve Jobs, has been outed by the New York Times. It's a sad day for VOXUS founder Paul Forecki, who reads Fake Steve and has written about him in our blog. He's probably at the local watering hole now, toasting to his memory...which is why I'm left to write this update. BTW, it turns out the blogger is a well-respected technology reporter that we've worked with in the past; kudos to him for creating an alter-ego and keeping it a secret for more than a year.

-posted by Rachel

According to reports in the New York Times and on Forbes.com, business publishing mainstay Business 2.0 magazine's September issue could be its last. Even though the tech industry is cranking and start-ups proliferating, some of our favorite print publications (e.g. Red Herring) are not benefitting. On the upside though, sites such as GigaOm and PaidContent are growing. Nothing (yet) quite compares though to landing, and literally touching, that Business 2.0 cover story. If it's true, we'll miss you.

-posted by Adrienne

As PR professionals, we often hear that reporters are beseiged with story pitches...and while I know that's true, here's the proof. One of the video clips making the rounds on YouTube right now documents an intrepid filmmaker's impromptu visit to the newsroom at the Seattle P-I in order to pitch a story. And what's his idea? Nothing less than the 100th clip he's producing for the YouTube site -- which he believes (?) is breaking news. Major props to the reporter covering the Internet beat, Monica Guzman, for the way she handled being ambushed at her desk. I would have laughed him out of the building.

-posted by Rachel

Proving that you can track and measure just about anything... I present to you America's Top 10 Bloggiest Neighborhoods. The Pearl in Portland is #6. (via Kottke)

-posted by Paul

A new subscription-based magazine targeted at people who blog. I'm really not sure what to think of this. (via Kottke)

-posted by Paul

A story Friday on CNNMoney.com reported that prominent PR firm, Edelman was recently busted for “faux blogging” on behalf of its client, Wal-Mart. It’s a shame that the employees (named by first AND last name in the article) chose this unethical shortcut and risked the progress of its Working Families Behind Wal-Mart campaign. While it’s clear that blogs (like every other medium) can be manipulated, the popular form of communication should not be discredited, rather only placed in the hands of responsible individuals.

-posted by Lindsay

InfoWorld reported a great story on Friday concerning the recent data theft at AT&T. Here are the facts:

-AT&T website hacked
-Perpetrators get personal data on 19k customers
-AT&T shuts down site and contacts authorities
-Perpetrators use information for phishing scam and contact most of the 19k via email
-AT&T decides to notify customers several days later via email about the theft

Ted Sampson of InfoWorld makes a good point here about email: "Real nice, guys. Sending such an important message to your customers via e-mail, which could easily be confused as spam or, hey, a phishing attempt, is simply irresponsible. Rather, I think the company should have been forthcoming and let the media do its job in helping alert customers to what was happening to their data. Yes, it would have taken some lumps in the process, but now, I'd say it's in for a few more."

My take: Is there irony here -- shouldn't a phone company have called its customers??? And perhaps Ted's a little too high on his horse. You couldn't pay me enough money to rely on the media to keep me informed with objective useful information. Sure, this article was great, after the fact. If AT&T officials had reported this to the press looking for a helping hand, what headline do you think would have snagged more readers (remember it's not about doing the right thing, it's about readership):

"AT&T Neglects Web Security - Loses 19k Personal Customer Records"

or

"Alert AT&T Customers - Your personal data may have been stolen"

-posted by Justin

Spanish soap opera/novela fans, take heart: Azteca America, one of the two largest producers of Spanish language television content, launched new affiliate KHCV Channel 45 for the Seattle to Olympia market this week.

-posted by Rachel

There's a discussion going on about different types of bloggers. Some characterize it as reporters versus editors, others as referential versus experiential. You'll see both on this blog, as we generally help identify someone else's NW news, but occasionally provide commentary of our own. I think both aspects are useful, but blogs certainly do tend to trend toward one or the other. Perhaps you'll find the perspective interesting as you think about the types of blogs you personally prefer...

-posted by Paul

Pharmaceutical Discovery magazine is returning in May after being on hiatus since its sale to CHI last year. New editor Malorye Branca, who we worked with when she was at Bio-IT World, promises that there will be opportunities for contributed articles (technical briefs or essays) and says that she's currently looking for stories on cutting edge tools for drug discovery and development. These can be case studies or oulines of novel approaches in translational research.

-posted by Rachel

Earlier this week, Cambridge Healthtech Institute (CHI) announced that it had acquired Bio-IT World's media and event properties, formerly a part of the IDG family. It's an interesting shift given the fact that Bio-IT World's premier event, Life Sciences Expo, is just four weeks away.

Although CHI has said that 13 of the staff members at Bio-IT World will be remaining with the publication, there have already been some departures. Our best wishes to Sal Salamone, who left Bio-IT World this week to pursue freelance opportunities. We've worked with Sal for many years at this publication and others such as BYTE, Internet Week and Network World. We'll look forward to hearing more about his new adventures.

-posted by Rachel