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| 10th August 2007 |
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Prompt Communications Newsletter
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Dear Reader,
Welcome to another edition of the Prompt Communications newsletter. This week sees Google offering people featured in news stories the opportunity to have their say by leaving comments on the Google News aggregation service. Quite how Google plans to manage this complex and controversial undertaking is as yet unclear, but it's certainly going to make the world of news publishing a lot more interesting if the company can get it right.
For any feedback on our newsletter, or to discuss how we can help you with your technology PR, marketing, social media and blogging consultancy, copywriting or surveys, please email me at hbutters@prompt-communications.com. We are always delighted to hear from you.
Best regards,
Hazel Butters
Prompt Communications
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Enterprise Technology Update
By Lance Concannon
Oracle offers Linux enhancements to the community
At the LinuxWorld conference this week Oracle announced that it will make several of its Linux based projects available to the community under the GNU General Public Licence. These projects include a number of Oracle's home grown enhancements to the open source operating system including the new Btrfs file system which offers better scalability, simplified management, and a range of features not currently available in Linux. Oracle will also port systems management tool, Yast, to it's own flavour of Linux and Red Hat's Enterprise Linux.
The company also announced six new Validated Configurations - tested and certified Linux technology stacks - bringing the total to over 30.
SOA worth investment, says survey
According to a survey of 400 companies carried out by Aberdeen Group, companies which do a proper job of deploying Service Oriented Architecture are almost certain to have seen a reduction in the cost of application development. However, large numbers of organisations are merely deploying average or sub-standard SOA infrastructures, and as a result of this are failing to realise any significant return on investment.
The survey found that only 20% of organisations had implemented SOA infrastructures that could be counted as best in class, while 50% fell into the average category and 30% were laggards. Amongst the best in class group, 89% reported an increase in customer satisfaction, in the average group 69% reported an increase and only 14% of the laggards noticed an improvement. ZDNet's Joe McKendrick has the full story on his blog.
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Marketing Update
By Elissa Fry and Lisa Facinelli
An alternative to music piracy
After an eight month delay, Cnet News.com reports that SpiralFrog has started beta testing of its ad-supported, free music download site. The supposedly unobtrusive advertisements will be shown to users while the music is downloading. SpiralFrog is promoting the site as a legal way to download music, free from worry about lawsuits.
However, placing ads on this site might be a good move for marketers who are discovering that Americans are spending less time with media, but consumers may not be so happy with the limited amount of songs available. Apparently, only Universal Music Group is on board, and it is incompatible with the iPod.
Social networks deemed safe places to advertise by Bebo
After the fiasco of Facebook being used to create a profile page for a well known British far-right political party, Bebo has been quick to reassure advertisers that social networks are still a good place for brands to promote themselves. According to New Media Age online, Bebo, the UK's largest social network, has called upon other social media sites to make their networks cleaner and safer by implementing better filtering technologies.
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US Media Report
By Tarryn Morley
Fans of the blog the Secret Diary of Steve Jobs finally learned the true identity of writer this week. Daniel Lyons, a senior editor at Forbes magazine, has been posing as one of Apple's founders for more than a year on the popular blog. The identity of "Fake Steve" was revealed by Brad Stone, from New York Times. The real Steve Jobs and Bill Gates have admitted to reading the blog. Forbes is planning to move the Secret Diary to Forbes.com by September.
Larry Greenemeier is leaving InformationWeek on August 10 to join Scientific American as an editor covering technology. Greenemeier has served as an editor at large at InformationWeek since 1999. He has covered a variety of technology issues for InformationWeek, including IT services, outsourcing, microprocessors, Linux, government technology and the Department of Homeland Security.
Rebecca Dana has been appointed as a media industry news reporter for The Wall Street Journal. Previously, she covered the media industry for the New York Observer.
Jim Impoco has left Conde Nast Portfolio just as the magazine finalised its second issue. Impoco officially left his role as deputy editor on August 7.
UK Media Report
By Tarryn Morley
The Guardian's international news digest, Guardian Weekly, has relaunched its website with a focus on first-person news reports and social networking. The site features content from the Guardian, the Observer, and syndicated content from Le Monde and the Washington Post. Readers are able to create their own unique profiles, discuss stories with other readers, and comment on articles on the site.
Harsundip Singh has been appointed as managing editor of Incisive Media's new magazine Mortgage Risk. Singh was previously the news editor of Niche Mortgages and BestAdvice.net. She has also worked for Mortgage Strategy and Mortgage Introducer.
International Custody & Fund Administrationmagazine has undergone a major revamp for its tenth anniversary. ICFA was bought by Incisive from MSM International in December last year and is now part of Incisive's Investment Division. ICFA is published bimonthly and covers middle and back office issues related to the global securities industry.
WEKA is changing the name of PC Magazine Linux to linuxlife. The change will take place from the issue published on 5 October, after which linuxlife will be published six times annually with a circulation of 50,000.
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Consumer Technology Update
By Sean McManus and Lance Concannon
Photos to be obsolete in a snap?
The BBC reports that researchers at Carnegie Mellon University are developing software that can automatically remove unwanted elements from photographs and replace them. The example given is a photo of a bay, shot from behind a mountain. The software removes the meddlesome rock and replaces with a clear shot of the sea from an image library.
In the same way that professional comedians don't steal each other's jokes, there's an ethic that professional photographers should not copy each other's angles. Taking a photo is about composition and being in the right place, as much as it is about using a camera. And, like the secret of great comedy, the secret of a great photo is timing. So what's left when you take away the need to be in the right place at the right time? Stock photography. Photos edited like this won't be faithful souvenirs of what the photographer saw, so what's the point of taking them?
Google News offers right to reply
In a move which could have a potentially massive impact on the way we think about news reporting, Google News will offer those featured in news stories the ability to post their comments. Ars Technica reports that as of this week the popular news aggregation service will allow people who are mentioned in stories to offer their own thoughts on the stories. Initially the experiment will be limited to the US version of Google News.
This could be a very big deal. At the moment all Google News really does is pull together stories from a bunch of different news sources and present them to users in a nicely organised format. But by including this kind of commentary, the service will be adding significant value to those stories which will not be available at the original sources. We wouldn't like to hazard a guess at how this might play out because the possibilities are endless, but the reaction of the media which supplies those newsfeeds to Google in the first place will be interesting to watch.
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Web 2.0 Watch
By Fiona Blamey
Prompt Blog Monitor shortlisted for award
Some Web 2.0 news of our own for a change this week: Prompt has been shortlisted for the B2B Marketing Awards, due to be held in November.
We entered our Blog Monitor product in the category of 'Best New B2B Marketing Product or Service'. The Prompt Blog Monitor is a web portal that we customise for each client, which lets them track coverage of their brand and products across a wide range of social media platforms, from blogs and podcasts to online video-sharing sites, photosets and 'citizen journalism' sites.
We provide each subscribing client with daily email alerts and weekly reports to let them know who's talking about them, and how influential those people are. We also make recommendations for engagement when appropriate.
We're chuffed to have been shortlisted as we've put a lot of thought and effort into building this product. We're already helping a very diverse set of clients to understand what's being said about them in the social media world - which is the first step towards engaging with audiences on social media platforms.
For those clients who choose to engage further, we offer a portfolio of social media services ranging from blogging consultancy to the creation of professional podcasts and advice on the most effective use of social networking platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
The awards ceremony will be held at The Brewery in the City of London on 1st November this year. Wish us luck!
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Best of the 'Net
By Sean McManus
Constantcomedy.com
This site aims to build a community around amateur comedy videos. Users watch the same clips at the same time and vote on which ones stay on the site and which are booted off. Comedians can upload their sketches and receive comments and ratings on their films. It's a bit odd seeing stand-up on the screen without canned laughter, so the subtle character-led routines work much better than those packed with obvious jokes. Especially when they leave a long pause for your laughter to subside.
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Tech Toon
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