Prompt Communications

Welcome

Thanks for reading this edition of the Prompt Communications newsletter.

This week we're sad to say farewell to Roman Hasenbeck, our intern for the past three months, who is heading back to Germany to continue his studies in International Business. As well as holding the office high scores for both Tennis and Golf on the Nintendo Wii, Roman has contributed enormously to several large projects for our clients during his time here. We all wish him every success.

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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US Media News

By Tarryn Morley

CMP Technology has launched its newest online resource for small and medium sized business and IT decision makers. The site, bMighty.com, focuses on integrating technology into the running of small business and aims to help small companies use technology to compete with large ones. The site includes columns, blogs, original market research, webcasts and podcasts, features, product reviews, and profiles on "Mid-Market Heroes" who successfully utilize technology.

Judy Mottl has been appointed primary blogger for the newly revamped SmallBizResource. She covers technology news with a particular focus on IT-related issues for small businesses. Mottl has most recently served as editor in chief of FierceCIO and IT Wireless.

Another staff member has resigned from Portfolio in a series of departures from the recently launched magazine. Jeffrey Chu, a senior associate editor at Portfolio, has left to work at Fast Company, a monthly magazine for entrepreneurs and business people. He begins his role as senior editor at Fast Company on Sept. 4.

FierceMarkets has launched FierceTelecom, a free daily e-newsletter and Web site covering latest news, trends and technology for telcos and public network service providers. Dan O'Shea has been appointed editor of FierceTelecom. He previously served as editor of Telephony magazine.

UK Media News

By Tarryn Morley

The Financial Times has undergone several changes recently. Former FT West Africa correspondent, Dino Mahtani, is now energy correspondent at the paper. Gautam Malkani, business life features editor, is on a year's leave. James Boxell, previously defence industries correspondent, has replaced Emiliya as deputy UK companies editor. Mychasuk is now editing the FT's new people column.

David Litterick, currently Wall Street correspondent at The Daily Telegraph, is returning to London in September to edit the Questor column and cover private equity at the paper. He will be replaced by James Quinn, who starts in New York on 3 September.

The editor of London's financial freesheet City AM, David Parsley, announced this week that he is resigning for family reasons. During his two years as editor, the paper has grown significantly with circulation breaking 100,000 this year. News editor David Hellier will take over as acting editor.

Google Newshas started including links to YouTube videos from several of its content partners, including Reuters, Hearst and CBS. The service is part of a test programme being offered only in the US, UK, and Ireland, although Google hopes to offer it in other countries and languages in the near future.

Enterprise Technology News

By Lance Concannon

All your content are belong to Google*

Google Apps provides a great alternative to the ubiquitous Microsoft Office. The suite of web based office applications provides more than enough functionality for most users, it ensures your documents can be easily accessed from any computer with web access and, best of all, the standard edition is free to use.

All good so far, but according to ZDNet's Joshua Greenbaum, it turns out that there's a pretty nasty catch to this deal.

Greenbaum claims that Google's terms and conditions include a clause which grants the company rights to use your content for their own marketing purposes. His interpretation of the twisty legal wording is, admittedly, up for debate, but as the writer points out, any organisation which uses Google Apps without getting clarification on what specific rights Google is claiming over their content could be taking unnecessary risks with their intellectual property.

Vista service pack coming soon

The Register reports that Microsoft plans to release Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista early in 2008, and that a beta version of the upgrade patch will be made available within the next few weeks. Because of the popularity of Windows XP and the general intransigence of corporate IT managers, Microsoft has had a tough job convincing businesses to migrate to the new desktop operating system. Conventional wisdom dictates that it's better to wait for the first service pack release before adopting any new version of a Microsoft operating system, so it's likely that the company will enjoy more success with Vista following this release.

Microsoft has also announced the third and final service pack for Windows XP, which will address a number of outstanding bugs and security issues. Rumours that the pack will also introduce a new feature to display subliminal "upgrade to Windows Vista today" messages remain unconfirmed.

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Consumer Technology News

By Lance Concannon

Nokia just won't let it go

"People like phones, right, and they like games too, so why don't we make a mobile phone with a handheld games console built in?"

You can't fault Nokia's logic, but sadly things never really worked out too well for the idiosyncratic N-Gage device, despite the company's never-say-die attitude to the games market. This week we learn that Nokia is giving the N-Gage trumpet another blow, resurrecting the brand as an online mobile gaming platform, rather than a specific piece of hardware. What does that actually mean? Owners of compatible Nokia handsets will be able to log onto an N-Gage branded portal and download games to play on their phones.

Of course, the real story here is that Nokia seems to have launched some new thing called Ovi, which sounds to us rather like the kind of mobile internet services that are already on offer from most mobile network providers. This kind of platform / network / content shotgun approach suggests to us that Nokia has a pretty good idea that mobile internet is about to get very big, and wants to make sure it's got plenty of fingers in all of the pies in time for the inevitable gold rush.

Flying cars, about time!

Back in the fifties the egg-heads promised us that we'd all have flying cars in the future, and we all thought: finally science is contributing something useful to society. But here we are in the 21st century, and we're all still driving around on four wheels like cavemen. Frankly, it's an embarrassing failure for the scientific community and an affront to the dignity of all mankind.

That could all be about to change thanks to the efforts of science hero, Dr Paul Moller, whose company, Moller International, has been working on the development of flying cars for several years. The company's main product, the M400 'SkyCar' is still several years away from production, but Moller says its smaller M200X will be launched in a couple of months. The M200X looks more like a flying saucer than a car, and can perform vertical take off and landing. Powered by eight engines, it's not exactly economical, and at the moment nobody's quite sure what kind of license you'll need to fly the thing, but it's definitely a step in the right direction.

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Web 2.0 Watch

By Fiona Blamey

You don't need to have read Jeremy Paxman's soul-searching MacTaggart lecture from the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival to know that the British television industry is in a flap.

Shrinking audiences, more channels competing for the same viewers and the increasing popularity of the internet, mp3 players and mobile phones were making life difficult for broadcasters even before the phone voting and documentary falsification scandals.

Now some producers, entrepreneurs and advertisers are trying to recapture lost TV audiences by bringing professional television content into the world of online social networking.

June saw the launch of Where Are The Joneses?, a 'webcom' created by TV production company Baby Cow and digital agency Imagination. And earlier this month, Bebo launched its teen drama KateModern, produced by the team behind hit YouTube drama lonelygirl15.

The Joneses are sponsored by Ford, whose S-MAX car features in every episode, while KateModern has struck deals with a number of household brands whose products will be written into the script, just like in the original 'soap' operas.

Both programmes air in 2-5 minute episodes and are highly interactive, with viewers able to suggest programme ideas and, in the case of the Joneses, submit scripts and appear in the show. The Joneses is a particularly comprehensive case study in using social media to engage and involve viewers, with the characters writing blog posts, sending Twitter updates, mapping their whereabouts on Platial and networking with their fans on Facebook.

Despite their similar approaches, the programmes have fared very differently. KateModern saw 3 million hits in its first three weeks and has amassed what looks like a genuine Bebo fanbase. The Joneses have fared significantly less well, with viewer figures for each episode rarely exceeding 1,000, a Facebook fanbase of 368 people, and 136 followers on Twitter.

This may be because KateModern is firmly embedded among its target audience of teenage Bebo users, while the Joneses have to compete for attention in the wilds of YouTube. And while dramas tend to unify audiences, comedies are divisive; different people find different things funny. I'm also not sure that the Ford logo looming over Where Are The Joneses does it any favours: what discerning television viewer wants to feel like they're watching an extended advert?

But it's early days for 'television 2.0', and the makers of Where Are The Joneses and KateModern are charting a course that will deliver valuable lessons in how to keep audiences entertained in a fragmented, multi-platform world. Whether Ford will see any sales from its investment is a different matter.

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Website of the Week

By Lance Concannon

The first ever dot-coms

Not really a website this week, but an interesting forum post we spotted. Somebody's gone to the trouble of compiling a list of the first 100 dot com domain names ever to be registered on the internet. Where possible they've also linked to the earliest known snapshot of the domain stored in the internet archive. Fascinating stuff for anybody with an interest in the history of the internet. In case you were wondering, the first domain name on the list is SYMBOLICS.COM, which was registered in March 1985.

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