For the past few weeks, I've been trying out the closed beta versions of QumanaXP, an offline blog editing tool that is available in versions for Windows and Mac platforms.
While I've not been using it for every post I've been writing to my blogs - I've been mixing and matching between ecto for Windows, my long-time offline editor, and RocketPost which I'm also trying out - QumanaXP is very impressive.
The latest beta 3.0.0-b1 reflects some serious development work over previous betas - they do listen to the testers - and shows a strong commitment by Qumana to produce a reliable tool for blogging that will stand up well against the competition.
One thing I'm very pleased (and relieved) to see is that a major issue with posting to TypePad blogs has been resolved with this latest beta. Until now, if you posted to your TypePad blog, any category you'd set in your post would not carry through to final publish. This for me was a complete show-stopper for QumanaXP. From my email conversations with the developers, it appeared that this was a TypePad issue, not a QumanaXP one. Either was, they've fixed it.
I also tried QumanaXP with my WordPress blog - works perfectly including with categories.
Today QumanaXP goes into public beta, meaning anyone can download the beta and take it for a spin. It will be formally launched at the Northern Voice 2006 community-based blogging and personal publishing conference taking place today and tomorrow in Vancouver, Canada.
But don't wait - download the beta now! Try it for yourself. You might also want to take a look at the contest Qumana has launched as part of their incentivizing bloggers to use their tool ;)
I'll be posting more detailed commentary about QumanaXP soon.
BBC journalist Paul Reynolds regards the blogosphere as a source of criticism that must be listened to and as a source of information that can be used.
In a lengthy article on the BBC News website, Reynolds presents a number of examples to back up his conclusions that mainstream media has to sit up, take notice and develop some policies to meet the challenges presented by an alternate news and information channel - an "army of irregulars," as he puts it.
It's a two-way street, in my view - bloggers need to reach out and build connections with the mainstream media, too. With this in mind, Reynolds' concluding commentary is especially worth paying attention to:
[...] Richard Sambrook, head of the BBC World Service and Global News Division (who runs a blog himself) accepts that the BBC needs to do more.
"The BBC should proactively engage with bloggers. This is a new issue for us. Some departments look at blogs, though haphazardly. But it pays dividends. The BBC is a huge impersonal organisation. It needs to come out from under its rock," he says.
As for using blogs as a source he says: "The key is careful attribution. It would be a big mistake for the MSM to try to match the blogs, but they can teach us lessons about openness and honesty. The MSM should concentrate on what it can do - explain, analyse and verify."
Eleven podcasts so far, each one providing a worthwhile learning experience on wide-ranging topics relating to society, business and technology.
The latest one, IBM and The Future of Privacy, is a great example of how any organization can use this medium to address what might seem to be a pretty dry subject in a way that captures and holds a listener's attention. Engages the listener, in other words.
From the broad communication point of view, this series also demonstrates how podcasting can subtly reinforce a company's credibility and authority about the subject being addressed. And it doesn't matter how big or small the company is - you don't need to be a global corporation like IBM to realize the benefits from podcasting.
Not only that, it enhances one's overall perceptive view of that company and how it gives you another choice of getting hold of information and opinion in a way that gives you additional insight into the company and some of its people.
If the podcast is also one element among other open and connected communication channels - as is the case with IBM - then you have another good foundation for building sustainable relationships with your audiences (who then become participants).
Click on the image to see the slightly larger (and better in-focus) original on Flickr. And take a look at the comments there to get a sense of who's missing from this visual list. I love the creator's response to some comments: "the logo map's a beta, too."
A number of these logos are of names that are already getting quite well known among a broader and more mainstream audience beyond the tech evangelist arena. Names like Blogger, FeedBurner, NewsGator and Delicious. Which of the others will become as familiar, I wonder, and how soon.
Mozilla released an update to the Firefox browser earlier this month which, the release notes say, provides improved stability, improved support for Mac OS X, fixes for several memory leaks and several security enhancements among other things.
Notwithstanding the security fixes, I'm not upgrading to this latest version 1.5.0.1 yet. The reason? If I do, some essential plugins (aka extensions) will stop working.
Every couple of days, Firefox pops up a dialog (the image you see here) reminding me that the new version is available. Every time it does, I click on the 'later' button as the dialog tells me some plugins won't work. Clicking on 'show list' displays them - googlebar 0.9.15.07, SpellBound 0.7.3 and Mozilla Spellcheck Libraries 1.0.1.0 (the latter two in particular being essential to have, and have working).
There may be others but these are the ones on my system that Firefox says won't work if I upgrade.
This situation is always a pain as it occurs with each Firefox update. If a plugin doesn't work, this is Firefox's advice in known issues:
If you find that your favorite Extension or Theme has not been updated to be compatible with this release of Firefox, write the author and encourage them to update it.
Right. So in the meantime, I'd have to do without their functionality.
This post isn't really the rant it might seem to be. It's just that I wish this dance between Mozilla and the developers of plugins would get more in sync.
So I'll wait until the popup doesn't tell me about things that won't work.
Content summary: Nvidia and its PR agency are accused of unethical viral marketing; follow-up to Google’s removal of BMW from its search; Gallup assesses the importance of blogs to web users; your value decreases the longer you’re unemployed; NPR opens the podcast floodgates; new services from Odeo; a report from Dan York; listeners' comments discussion (time for effective communication in the EU; opening a window on culture; a report on the separation of PR and marketing); the music.
Show notes for February 9, 2006
Welcome to For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report, a 73-minute podcast recorded live from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, and Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
00:28 Shel introduces the show; what the show's about; how to give your feedback; show notes; what’s in today’s show
News and Commentary:
02:26 The dark side of viral marketing - are graphics card maker nVidia and PR firm AEG engaging in underhand practices in gamers' forums and employing some peculiar PR tactics to respond to such accusations? We discuss wide-ranging commentary from Christopher Carfi, Thomas Hawk and the Digg crowd, adding our own perspectives as we ask: What should nVidia do to address this issue, and is such activity symptomatic of business un-ethics today? We also discuss a Wall Street Journal story today regarding FON and positive commentaries by bloggers who don't fully disclose their interests.
40:16 A Gallup report provides some answers to the question on how many people are reading blogs - is that even the right question? How this fits in with ideas from PR bloggers like Steve Rubel on developing new metrics about blogs and communication measurement
44:06 The longer you're unemployed, the more your value decreases, according to a report from the Royal Economic Society
Links for the blogs, individuals, companies and organizations we discussed or mentioned in the show are posted to the FIR Show Links pages at The New PR Wiki. You can contribute - see the home page for info.
If you have comments or questions about this show, or suggestions for our future shows, email us at [email protected], or call the Comment Line at +1 206 222 2803. You can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments, if you wish (max. 3 minutes / 5Mb attachment, please!). We'll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.
[...] There is now a "Reply" button under the audio player on Odeo pages. This way, when you record and share an Odeo with people, they will be able to record a response. (You'll get email notifications of this activity so you can keep up with the conversation.)
I definitely want to see how Shel and I can implement this feature for For Immediate Release. Our podcast is listed with Odeo so you can also subscribe to it there. We've already added an instant-play feature to the podcast blog (just click to listen to a show); if we can also provide a way for listeners to easily make an audio comment there and then, while the impulse to do so is hot, that would be terrific.
Odeo has also introduced a rather neat audio messaging service where you can record a message and send it to someone. And you don't need to have an account with Odeo to use this service.
Second Chance Tuesday: The Web is back. Not that it actually went away, but you'd be forgiven for thinking so given the doom and gloom surrounding the dot.com industry over the last few years. [...] We're going to party like it's 1999.
Second Chance Tuesday? As The Times succintly explains, this is the next stage on from First Tuesday, the internet networking business that typified the dot-com boom. Can a dot-com collapse be far behind? asks The Times rhetorically, answering its own question with "Time will tell, but some think there are definite similarities between today and those heady times in 1999."
If 1999-style partying typifies Second Chance Tuesday's focus, then a collapse looks pretty immediate. If Web 2.0 is the focus, then forget the partying and get those beta offerings out there into market right away and join the conversations, Web 2.0 style.
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