Flack's Revenge

Sniping Between Major Tech Blogs Reveals Intensely Competitive Nature of Tech News

A series of blog posts and comments revealed how intensely competitive, and sometimes deeply personal the world of tech news can be. It started out as a rant about broken embargoes, and devolved into trash talking between players from two major tech blogs.

Ryan Lawler, a TechCrunch blogger wrote this piece, which said that an unnamed blog violated an embargo, causing him some angst and jeopardizing his plans to cover the same news.  He apparently took some heat for this post and followed it up with this mea culpa on his own blog: Exclusive - Area blogger Wishes He Had Done Some Things Differently.

I have written about the press embargo (see this post for a definition, and some context).  I've had some fun with the topic, after all, this is tech news, not stories about global economic concerns, or ending war or world hunger (it used to be amusing to watch Michael Arrington get so exercised about them when he was running TechCrunch, before the AOL acquisition.  Many incorrectly assumed that what he said back then - basically, that TechCrunch will not do embargoes - is still true; it isn't)

Yet, I should not (and don't) take the topic too lightly; our clients rely on our ability to get news out, in a way that satisfies their goals and at the same time helps journalists. The embargo is an important tool in our arsenal.

You can get a sense of the stakes, and how strongly the bloggers feel by reading the comments section of the post that started the whole thing, which shows trash talking between Lawler and GigaOm editor Tom Krazit (as it turns out Lawler used to work for GigaOm - the other blog involved, which was not named at first; this might explain why the exchange seems personal).

The posts give you a glimpse, as Lawler says, into how the tech news "sausage is made."

Social Media Marketing Insight: Big Data Challenge and Opportunity

My monthly content marketing column today focuses on trend tracking in the social media wild.

It shouldn't be hard to do this, right? Everywhere you look you see various trending reports, and there are many services which aim to index, organize and take the pulse of online content and interactions. However my quest to get information in a certain way proved to be very frustrating, and in studying this I came to better understand what is needed to glean useful intelligence from that vast Petri dish we call the social, real time Web. It is the ultimate big data challenge.

My inquiries gave me the chance to catch up with Jure Leskovec, a Stanford Universtiy researcher whom I spoke with for a series of posts on this blog, and today's column. Jure and his team have an impressive workbench and process, as I explained in my post: Study Indentifies Popularity Curves for Online News.

Over a number of projects they have taken a microscope to millions upon millions of archived tweets and blog posts to study cause and effect in the spread of information, and how online influence works.

But how to study trends on live data in real time or almost real time?   It is another question altogether. When I spoke with Jure for my column, he explained some of the obstacles, relevant areas of study and technology, and also took some time to explain his latest paper (which explored how information spreads when it originates within networks vs. topics introduced from outside sources, like mainstream media).

The challenges are not insignificant - they push technologies related to AI, semantic search, storage, processing, cloud and unstructured data analytics past the current limits.

You can read more about what I was trying to accomplish in my column; hopefully, vendors are paying close attention, as I provide a wish list of functionality that I believe most social media marketers would find to be very useful

The opportunities are clear: as more conversations and information migrate online, the prize will go to those who can get there first, in terms of gleaning useful info, and acting on it. The data are there, but the ability to understand it can remain frustratingly out of reach.

Absurd to Call Samsung Customer Service Issue a "Tech PR Fail"

The Twittersphere lit up yesterday over a piece in the NY Times. The Haggler consumer advocate column reported a customer service issue involving a Samsung printer. The problem escalated, a PR person somehow got caught in the middle, and before you knew it, people were flagging this as another instance of tech PR gone wild.

I share the link and a few excerpts to illustrate:

Q: In September 2010, I bought a Samsung all-in-one laser printer. It performed well until early 2012, when Samsung changed something... the cartridges have the same name and product number, but they no longer work with my printer... in other words, the change instantly made a relatively new printer obsolete

A: ...When the Haggler wrote to Samsung, a woman....who works for the public relations firm... sent an email that said should be attributed to a "spokesperson" for the company.... "We are sorry to hear of the problem... To the best of our knowledge the problem described is an anomaly... we have since offered a courtesy on-site repair" A technician visited the customer at no charge.

The printer was ultimately replaced.  No harm no foul, right?

Not so fast, there was not such a happy ending here; getting resolution took some teeth pulling and was very frustrating for the customer; it wasted time and got the Haggler involved in the first place. The Haggler endured some aggravation, too (well, at least he filled some white space with the sad story). And Samsung and its PR firm (named in the column) got unwelcome attention.

The Haggler ended the piece with the swipe:

Less than illuminating... but a fitting end to Samsung's ham handed approach to public relations

Really?!!! Seems to me that this was a customer service issue turned into a PR issue because a publication and PR person got involved. Is the Haggler advocating better PR or better customer service? Should Samsung have performed differently or better because suddenly the NY Times was involved?

I am not necessarily defending Samsung; shame on them for not jumping on the problem and resolving it more quickly. The hapless PR person was caught in the middle, please Haggler (and people everywhere) don't shoot the messenger.

And Haggler, why not demand to speak to a customer service manager, surely you have a little clout? Let's please call a customer service issue for what it is and not take cheap shots at easy targets.

NY Tech in Numbers Infographic / Thank You, Summer 2012 Interns

At Fusion PR, we've enjoyed watching the growth of the NY tech scene in recent years.  Our home office is here in the city, as are a number of clients, so we have front row seats.  I and others at the agency like to attend the local networking and educational events, and read about the latest developments in the media.

I have wanted, for awhile, to quite literally chart the growth of NY tech, not just with words but images too.  The plan has been to tell the great story that is unfolding via a series of infographics.  I am sharing the first one with this post; it was created by our NY summer interns. The infographic shows the state of NY tech in numbers.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank our summer interns.  The group this year has been nothing short of exceptional.  Each and everyone has helped us in our efforts to deliver the best results possible for our clients.

So, thank you, Carole Bersillon, Hannan Ben Slimane, Laura Baumann, Rachael Barhelmes, and Alyzeh Ashraff.  We hope you stay in touch and come back!

NY Tech Updates, via NY Daily News

My girlfriend and I stayed at her beach house on Long Island for a few days. It was nice to enjoy time in the sun, on the beautiful beach at Smith Point.  I generally fight wind, sand and ocean spray while trying to read the newspaper there.  After leafing through the NY Times (my favorite), I read the NY Daily News (hers).

During this trip I zeroed in on the following NY tech-related stories in the News. Please see excerpts below in italics; visit the links to get the full articles::

A "Nerd Bus" to Connect High-Tech Hubs 

New York’s senior senator is calling for a “Nerd Bus” that would link up high tech hubs in Brooklyn and Queens with Roosevelt Island — and help some of the city’s brightest bulbs get around town.

“New York is seeing a major tech boom, with Brooklyn and Long Island City leading the way,” Sen. Chuck Schumer said. “And now the new Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island is going to be a game changer that further cements New York’s position as a leader in tech.

In a letter to the MTA, Schumer asked that transit officials consider “connecting these two new proposed bus routes” and looking into extending into Long Island City and Roosevelt Island once the Cornell campus construction is completed.

Whiz Kids call the Shots in NY's Tech Talent Chase

The city's tech sector employed 120,000 as of 2010, up 30% from 2005, according the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC).

The Bloomberg administration, which is pushing to pump up the city's tech economy, is working to fill the talent gap. Last week, it gave $15 million in financial help to Columbia University to help expand its engineering school.

That's on top of $100 million awarded to Cornell University and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology to help fund an engineering campus on Roosevelt Island. NYU's also adding a tech outpost in Downtown Brooklyn.

In all, the three projects are expected to more than double the city's existing number of full time graduate engineering students.

Columbia University Joins Movement to Make NY a Center of High Tech Innovation 

It started with Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to offer land on Roosevelt Island and $100 million in infrastructure to whoever had the best idea for a genius-magnet graduate school.

Cornell, with an Israeli partner, won. But the city didn’t give up on the runners-up .

Next came NYU, leading an international consortium to build a Center for Urban Science and Progress in downtown Brooklyn. Then there was the New York Genome Center, which signed a lease on a Tribeca building .

Now, we welcome Columbia to the party. It’s plunking down at least $80 million — along with $15 million in city money — for an institute that will develop groundbreaking social media technologies, design environmentally friendly infrastructure — even think through how to make financial markets work better.