Chrysler is the first American manufacture to offer iPod integration on their models. In 2006 over 40% of the cars sold in 2006 will offer iPod integration. They’ve sold over 42 million iPods, over 850 million songs, over 8 million videos. (From Steve Jobs keynote at Macworld via Engadget)
J-School head poo-poo’s political blogs
Cub Reporter Bob Hague sends along this link to an interview with James Baughman, head of Journalism/Communications at UW Madison. Bob says what started as a discussion of celebrity journalism spread to political blogs. Baughman thinks they’re going to be great for political geeks, but is pretty pessimistic about new media’s impact on the electorate. [Thanks, Bobby.]
PR Technology Panel
The big “PR technology” panel went off reasonably well today. Not my best showing but it’s been a while since I did one of these. [AUDIO: 5o min] I got a little distracted when my nano (which I was using for a timer) shut off. But it could have been worse. And the room was packed.
Tony Calandro did a nice overview of blogs, RSS, podcasting, etc. I added a few thoughts on podcasting. and Richard Callow (www.mayorslay.com) did convinced me that a smart politician with good people advising him/her can get a lot of mileage from blogging and podcasting. I was very impressed.
You can listen to the discussion if you care to download this 23 meg MP3 file. Questions from the audience were not mic’d so I left those off.
I came away with the sense that the PR community sort of knows what blogs and podcasts are… and want to know more. But they have miles to go. Controlling the message is hard-coded into their DNA and the idea of open, unfiltered, uncontrolled communication will make many of them –and their clients– uncomfortable for a long time.
You say you want a revolution
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned I’d been invited to be on a panel titled, “Revolution in PR Technology,” at joint meeting of the Community Service Public Relations Council and the St. Louis chapters of both the International Association of Business Communicators and the Public Relations Society of America.
I think the idea is to explain “how blogs, podcasting, wikis, RSS, and audio streaming technologies are transforming the world of communications.” The luncheon/panel is tomorrow in St. Louis and my contact emailed they have 260 people attending. Last time I spoke before 260 people was our high school production of Music Man.
Should be fun although I’m not sure I can explain podcasting in 15 minutes. The technical aspects aren’t complicated, but explaining why this is such a (potentially) disruptive technology is like tryin’ to tell a stranger ’bout rock and roll.
David’s coming along and we’re gonna try to sneak Andy in, so maybe between the three of use we can triangulate the panel on our respective blogs.
Squirt Cheese and the Declaration of Independence
I stand by my earlier assertion that my friend David is too funny for his job. Offered as Exhibit A, this excerpt from his recent post exposing the role of Squirt Cheese in the founding of this great country:
Jefferson was not only a deep thinker and philosopher, but also an inventor of the first order. Having developed a more effective plow, and the color now known as Yellow No. 5, Jefferson turned his attention to the culinary arts. During late nights at Monticello, discussing politics in his hemp laboratory with George Washington, Jefferson experienced what modern readers would call “the munchies.” Washington, unable to chew effectively with his wooden teeth, implored his friend to invent a softened snack. Jefferson turned his considerable talent toward solving that problem, and soon invented a whipped cheese product that he stored in wooden bottles. A pump mechanism forced the cheese out the top of the bottle, allowing it to be applied to breads, crackers, and pemmican.
If you need further evidence of David’s genius, I offer this: Of the nearly 25 million blogs crawled by Technorati, only 217 include a reference to pemmican. I rest my case.