Flack's Revenge

Words that Sparked a Tech Revolution

There was a good editorial in the  NY Times that related the power a couple of simple words can have in fomenting a revolution.

The cited example was "Carbon Footprint."  In the piece "Some Doubts Upon Entering a New Carboniferous Era,"  Verlyn Klinkenborg describes how these two words have had a dramatic impact on how we think and talk about global warming.  Verlyn wrote:

Has any phrase in the English language ever spread more quickly than “carbon footprint”? There are contenders ... but they don’t reflect the potential revolution in consciousness that carbon footprint suggests. ...[It] captures something we’ve never really had a simple phrase for before: the measurable totality of ... what your way of life actually costs the planet.

You feel as though you’re reducing global warming by saying it.... Which is why advertisers are saying it everywhere...

The swiftness of this change in consciousness — and the linguistic change that goes with it — is staggering. And a little worrying.

The takeaway message is cautionary and cynical. Verlyn urges the reader not to place too much equity in the phrase, and mocks the companies that have co opted it in their marketing. 

Yet the bigger point - that word choice can really alter how we act and think, and  what would seem to be an otherwise trivial decision like pairing two words together can have drastic implications  - is spot on, and this led me to wonder whether there are some analogous terms in the realm of IT that have led to a revolution in our world views.

Two that come to mind are Web 2.0 and Cloud Computing.  Both are amorphous.  There are no standards or well-defined specs that define either.  Although many vendors are riding these trends, no buyer goes to a website or the IT store to buy Web 2.0 or cloud computing.

The staying power of Web 2.0 has been pretty amazing.  One would think we would have upgraded to Web 3.0 by now (see my previous post for some reasons I think this has not happened).

Seemingly more a philosophy then hard tech, the ideas behind Web 2.0 have gone on to spawn all types of 2.0 offshoots: Collaboration 2.0,  Enterprise 2.0, Government 2.0, etc.

Cloud computing seems to be rising quickly (no pun intended), replacing earlier terms like utility computing, on-demand, grid computing, etc.  It seems to be stickier, maybe because the idea of drawing computing resources from the sky paints such as pretty picture, and lends itself to nice metaphors and imagery.  It is a convenient and compelling device.

Of course, the phrase Carbon Footprint itself is not removed from IT (see  my post It IS Easy Being Green in Tech).  However, there (at least to my knowledge) have not been any new phrases specifically for IT in this realm that so neatly and compellingly describe the greening of the data center.

Also, it can be kind of a chicken or egg question.   Did the revolutions come first, and tech terms follow along, or were the words instrumental in advancing thinking and hence tech development?

What are your thoughts?  Are there other tech terms that sparked revolutions in tech?

Movin' on Up

I have tried to avoid some of the annoying tics I see on some other blogs such as name dropping and obsessing over the blog and its relative perch in the scheme of things.  Just the same, I think it is important to note that Flack's Revenge has achieved a milestone, as it (along with my contact profile) was apparently just added to Cision's MediaSource media tracking database this week.

And this, after I just added them to the PR Death Watch list last Friday.  Interesting timing, probably just a coincidence. 

Well, I actually really should thank them - they do not seem to be dead at all, judging from my traffic logs, which show a definite spike this week, from lots of new people coming from the service.  Maybe Cision wanted to show me that they don't just track the A list blogs by adding FlacksRevenge.  I was obviously wrong, Mea Culpa, and thanks Cision folks.

My summary on the service is pretty accurate and blissfully short on details such as lots of contact info.  Having said that, I did receive my first pitch, which is a watershed moment for FR, I suppose.

Anyway, it is a surreal experience, knowing that so many PR eyeballs are ogling my blog like some cheap piece of fruit.  I wrote a post last year called I am in PR, Why  Should I blog?  Another reason that I did not mention back then is that blogging gives PR people a taste of what it is like to walk in a journalist's shoes.    (Tom Foremski listed more good reasons in this post).  And getting listed in MediaSource and starting to get pitches really completes the picture for me.

Time to put on my Sunday finest and finally move forward on some planned improvements (such as chucking the vanilla Typepad blog design template for something more interesting) if I want to keep some of this newfound attention. 

Thanks for stopping by,  hope you subscribe (point your newsreader to this link) and continue to enjoy this blog.  Also, if you'd like to follow my musings on Twitter, please click here.

Welcome to the Machine

Welcome to the Machine

I delivered a seminar to the Fusion PR staff last week, and re-played at this session the by-now-famous video by KSU Professor Michael Wesch, the Machine is Us (above), as part of a crash course in the power of Web 2.0 for some of our newer staff.   The video is both a beautiful and hypnotic work, and within a few short minutes helps viewers understand what all the excitement is about.

Take a look at this if you haven't seen it already, trust me,  you will enjoy it as have countless others (it rises to the top of the search results when you plug the phrase "Web 2.0" into YouTube).

And, as reports emerged earlier this week (see ValleyWag) of how Wikipedia scooped NBC in getting key details of Tim Russert's death online hours before the network, I am reminded of how eerily efficient a communications mechanism this new Web has become.  Sure, this has implications for PR, as I often blog about, but goes well beyond this field and other communications fields to have a dramatic effect on society at large.

This new Web is equal parts crystal ball (see my post on crowd sourcing news and prediction markets) and the collective subconscious (Wikipedia definition) that Jung said unite's Mankind - the subconscious made real in software code, routers communications networks, driven by the people who use it, reflecting their thoughts, predictions and obsessions.

Goodbye, Tim and George

Goodbye, Tim and George

First Tim Russert and then George Carlin - it has been a rough couple of weeks as we have lost two icons that I grew up with and loved - both suddenly and unexpectedly, both from heart problems, and now we have heavy hearts.

I loved to watch Tim because I love politics.  To me, he showed no obvious bias and seemed to be equally tough on both Republicans and Democrats.  Although some identified him with the left (righty hot head Mark Levin called the show "Meet the Depressed"), Tim's trademark confrontational but plain-spoken style seemed to be both feared (by those who went before him) and respected by all.

It was only during the many eulogies after his sudden death that I learned that Tim was  a PR guy for Pat Moynihan at one point early in his career.

Carlin - what can you say about him but that he was a comedic genius.  I sometimes found his radical anti-business, anarchist views a little grating, but that is quibbling.  His contributions to the world of comedy and our culture are incalculable.

Although I am sure he'd rip apart the world in which me and my readers live in (his riff on "soft language," which was mentioned in his NY Times obit - see the YouTube video  - comes close), I loved George for his love of words.  He was the ultimate everyman hipster, his timing and delivery impeccable and his material original and cutting.

PR Death Watch Continues

The PR death watch continues.  On a Foremski-inspired rampage, I have previously gone after some sacred cows (see Death of Media Relations) and nothing can stop me now.  After all, what could a blog called Flack's Revenge possibly be about if not rage and score settling (see Revenge top 10)?

The latest victims are various types of contact databases.  If I were a vendor of software systems designed to track and organize people - HR systems, recruiting software, sales contact management systems,  directories, etc. - I would be very nervously  looking over my shoulder right now at social networking technologies like Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.

New technologies are starting to make inroads, as part of a so-called Enterprise 2.0 movement, bringing the benefits of social applications to all types of organizations.

In the PR realm, vendors of the systems PR people have traditionally used to track media contacts should take note, as these are increasingly looking static and long in the tooth.

We had an educational workshop at Fusion PR this week about social media and social networking tools for PR.  During the session many chimed in that they are finding that LinkedIn and Facebook offer good ways to review journalist profiles.

Continuing on the subject of social networks, this excerpt from my post Have you Friended a Journalist Today described how social network updates were put to use in lieu of the typical press release distribution and publishing exercise.

In Good Use  of Social Networking Sites in Business, Harry Chen blogged about an entry from another site in which the commenter observed that social networks have become a kind of portable contact management system and PR machine:

I’m feeling pretty empowered, because on the day I launched my new company, about 800 key contacts in my network were immediately notified when I updated my profile. It was better than a press release, because the people who really mattered were the ones that were first informed.

And in this post I called out  Laura Fitton as an example of a PR person who has mastered Twitter.  As she related in her Tech PR War Stories interview Twitter Magic, Laura has  built an impressive Twitter following.  She said in the podcast that one use for Twitter is to get an extra level of familiarity about a reporter, by reviewing Twitter updates before briefing.

Of course, many journalists have their own blogs - what better way to get to know a journalist than to review their blog posts?

Speaking of bloggers, Vocus and Cision have been adding bloggers that are not traditional journalists to their systems.  But do these systems offer the same types of useful information as Technorati, in terms identifying not just the A list, but also B list bloggers, by subject, authority, who links to whom, etc?

Granted, the traditional systems do offer real advantages in terms of database and reporting functionality, and in providing important contact details like phone and email when available.  We have gotten very good use out of them over the years, and continue to do so.

But, as I said in this post, some are suggesting that these systems offer the media and bloggers ways to opt out, to combat the problem of pitch spam.  And the profiles found in these systems are increasingly looking out of date. 

Like other contact systems, and other facets of old school PR,  media tracking databases need to adapt or get out of the way.

So, This Client Walks into a Conference...

My client, an old school, sales-oriented, serial tech entrepreneur type attended a seminar put on by MarketingProfs last week about social media and marketing.  He said he wanted to update his skills and learn about some of the new tools and technologies for marketing.

It sounds like they put together a really nice program up there in Boston.  Long story short, my client found the social media religion there and came back a new man. On our weekly PR call we compared notes on some of the new PR options available; my client was really pumped up about the possibilities.

Our PR team was glad that we had taken the time to learn about some of the new social media PR techniques and tools, and that we could have an intelligent conversation and discuss the possibilities (I should point out that it is a relatively small program, and much of our time to this point has been consumed by more traditional PR activities).

It just goes to show you, your client can be a perfectly reasonable old school type who embraces traditional PR one day, then drinks the Kool Aid and wakes up a Twitterin', Stumble-ing, Digg spewing maniac the next.  And when that happens, hopefully you will be  ready, or better yet, proactively lead them toward new tactics in the first place.

Fake Steve Jobs, Real Newsweek Gig

The NY Post covered recent editorial moves that should be of interest to tech PR people.

Dan Lyons, the ex-Forbes writer and Fake Steve Jobs guy is moving to Newsweek, according to the NY Post Media Ink piece Job for "Fake Steve Jobs."

According to the article:

Lyons will replace veteran tech writer Steve Levy, who jumped to Wired.

Vendor Briefing Tips, via Byte & Switch

Those in Tech PR who cover data storage should be very familiar with the online publication Byte & Switch.  In The Vendor Pitch Revisited, Mary Jander wrote there today about pet peeves for vendor briefings (thanks, Bennie, for pointing this out).

You don't need to be in storage PR to appreciate the tips, they are pretty applicable to tech PR in general.

Some fall under the category of common courtesy and common sense. E.g she implores vendors to be respectful of reporters who might be trying to follow along and understand complex information on the other end of the phone, sometimes without the benefit of having any briefing materials, or a PowerPoint or press release.

Here are a few of the other tips from her list:

DON'T treat the listener like a student or employee. Some vendors simply want to scroll through slides at their own pace, even if they say, "Feel free to interrupt." Some pretend not to hear a question. Some say, "Got that?" after each slide, as though speaking to a subordinate. All of it gets a raspberry.

DON'T use the speaker phone. Vendors love speakerphones, perhaps because it gets more people on the call while allowing them to control the "message" from a remote office... Usually, these sessions wind up as a chorus of anonymous voices or just plain screaming matches -- to say nothing of the pathetic stage-whispered side conversations that somehow get passed along despite the technology. Forget it.

DON'T have participants use cellphones. See reference to audio quality above. And bluntly, anyone who can't take the time out for a call isn't worth mine.

DON'T try to control the message. In-house performance tests, commissioned survey results, and "coin operated" analyst comments fall into this category. Nobody believes them, so why waste time on them?