May 7, 2007
New Blog
I have a new blog I am using. Check it out: www.nickmudge.info
1:07am | open government | Comments Off
May 19, 2006
Length of Tenure For State CIOs
Some good blogging and comments on length of tenure for CIOs on Wayne Hall's blog.
May 8, 2006
Public CIO Blog
Tod Newcombe, the editor of Public CIO magazine, has been writing some good stuff on his new Public CIO blog.
April 28, 2006
2,500 web pages bookmarked in del.icio.us
For some reason I really get a kick out of the total number of web pages I've bookmarked in del.icio.us. My bookmarks in del.icio.us have turned into a database of useful references that I've found on the web. It's like valuable property, and it's like my memory. My own web cache. Yea, del.icio.us is cache for humans.
Today I reached 2,500 web resources bookmarked. The last time I wrote about this was a 1000 bookmarks ago in December 2005 on my other blog. Since I first began using del.icio.us it has become a better and better service.
April 24, 2006
Jonathan Schwartz Becomes CEO of Sun Microsystems
April 21, 2006
Software Definition For Weblog
This article about how to use a wordpress blog as a content managment system has a good definition that sums up the blog software. From Weblog to CMS with WordPress:
For those who have been living on a different planet, a weblog (or blog) is an online diary that contains a series of posts displayed in date order (newest first). In addition, blogging software usually provides an archive mechanism for filing away old posts, permalinks (human-readable URLs for each post), some means of classifying posts, a search engine, RSS feeds, and other goodies. However, the key factor is ease of use for web novices: allowing the creation of web pages using a WYSIWYG editor and without requiring any knowledge of HTML, CSS, FTP, or other acronyms.
2:37pm | web technology - blogs | no comments
Govsphere Growing
David Fletcher: "Each year, the number of political and government blogs grows at a rate faster than the previous."
2:27pm | government resources - egovernment - blogs - open government | no comments
April 4, 2006
UK Government Official Starts Blogging
From Neville Hobson:
Looking for something on one of the British government websites, I came across this - the blog being written by David Miliband, Minister of Communities and Local Government.
Not only a government minister but also a member of the Cabinet, the committee at the center of the British political system and the supreme decision-making body in government.
Just started blogging publicly in March.
Found it through Barbara Haven, a blogger and employee at the California Department of Technology Services.
12:36pm | government resources - egovernment - blogs - open government | no comments
March 31, 2006
One of the Better Press Releases — Good Job Motorola
Awhile back Motorola released one of the better press releases that I've seen issued from a vendor. This one: Pennsylvania County Launching $5 Million Motorola Data Communications System.
It's written like a real story. It's got a timeline. It gives the facts that we care about -- like what is happening and what the deal is and where things are at. Though some puffiness could be cut out, it doesn't clobber you with branding and adjectives that don't mean anything.
I ran it on govtech.net and it got good web traffic.
It is also a good story because it is something that is actually being done in government. I rarely care much about press releases only about new products and services available, unless there is something particularily unique or interesting or important about them for government. Commonly it's only a story when government buys or does something with a service or product.
Words and Phrases in PR That Should Be Banned
I think I want to start a list of words used in PR and press releases that should be banned.
Here's the start. These words should be banned:
Simple to use. Something being promoted should be simple to use, so no use in saying so.
Affordable Duh.
Next generation Ick.
More to come.
March 30, 2006
Tech and Publishing Guys
What's in a name? A lot. The podcasting and AJAX revolutions were mainly linguistic phenomena. Suddenly there were words that crystallized ideas and patterns of behavior that had been evolving for years. We won't solve our problems by coining new buzzwords. But awareness of what our words condition us to think, and not think, has never mattered more.
Over the past few years, blogging has really taken off. A few days ago Doc Searls was pondering that he used to be in the Technorati Top 100 and now he’s not. Why? There’s all kinds of other stuff people are blogging about: “celebrities, politics, sex and other topics that float atop the polular mainstream media charts.” I’m at 3000 and something on the Technorati list, but still I get multiple tens of thousands of page views per month. Clearly, people at the top are getting a lot more.
Blogging as we knew it is done. The pioneering stage is over. The early adopter-early majority stage is here.
March 27, 2006
How to Get a News Website To Pick Up Your Press Release
Vendors need to write better press releases. Why is it that companies write poor press releases when they are trying to get the word out about something, or just promote their company? Seems like if they wanted to get the word out or promote themselves, they'd write a good story.
With many press releases it seems like the PR writers are playing a contest of how many times they can get the name of the company or the company's products in the press releases. Sure the company wants to see their names a lot, but do readers? Do editors?
As an editor, I play the reverse contest, what's the fewest mentions I can muster. But I am happy to mention a company name and link to the company's website once, and even more if it is appropriate. Can't we get along? It would make both of our lives easier.
When I first started work as a full time online editor about 2 years 3 months ago, my boss told me that a big reason a lot of press releases aren't very good is because they have to be approved by lots of people before they are released, and so they get changed around and added to and deleted from etc. to make everybody involved happy. And if a press release involves multiple organizations then all the organizations have to have their say too, and maybe they all have to be happy about it as well. What a mess.
Things need to be written for the publications you want to pickup your stuff. But more importantly, they need to be written for the readers. Most press releases look like they are written for the companies that wrote them. You don't write things for yourself because that's not the public you are trying to reach.
I bet you could just forget about your company, forget about your products, and just write a good story about the area of expertise that your company is in, and that would be far more successful in generating interest in your company and products than some dull product-oriented press release written in terms a lot of people probably wouldn't understand. Any editor worth anything that uses the story would be happy to mention the company and link to the company's website.
March 14, 2006
Fletcher, Scoble, Forrester Report, Blogging, Govtech and Del.icio.us
Wayne Hall points out David Fletcher has a new post about Utah IT.
I liked Scoble's post today about blogging. I like the small things in blogs.
Forrester has come out with an interesting report about social computing. I think this is some interesting traction if Forrester is giving it thumbs up.
From the executive summary:
Individuals increasingly take cues from one another rather than from institutional sources like corporations, media outlets, religions, and political bodies. To thrive in an era of Social Computing, companies must abandon top-down management and communication tactics, weave communities into their products and services, use employees and partners as marketers, and become part of a living fabric of brand loyalists.
I've heard that word of mouth is the most effective form of promotion or dissemination. I'm certainly more interested in what the people around me have to say about things than what I see on TV. I feel the same way about blogs. So this makes sense to me. It seems to me however that the internet and electronic communication gives individual word of mouth a microphone it never had before, and which has always been the great advantage of mass communication mediums.
Kansas City Star has a good piece on blogging.
I found the Kansas City Star story and Forrester report from Steve Rubel's Micro Persuasion, which I'm liking.
I recently sent some emails to some bloggers and I got emailed back. I love it so much. That's one of my favorite things about blogs and the blogosphere is that when you are looking at a blog, the person is right there, ready to talk to you -- they are talking to you. If you are there, being a person, the person on the other end is there for you to talk to. I've had some of the best communication/email exchanges with bloggers. Connections are pure joy.
I told Alice Marshall about Govtech's new buttons. Government Technology has added a "Bookmark to Del.icio.us" button to all the news stories on the homepage, and to the GT Mag stories, and the Digital Communities stories.
The eRepublic IT department also recently informed me that they are also adding the del.icio.us bookmark to all the stories in the content categories, such as E-Government, GIS, Homeland etc. I think this is really cool, and I think this will then encompass all the stories on govtech.net. One of the things I've wanted and I know executives at eRepublic (the parent company) have wanted was to build more of a community around the subject of egovernment and technology in government on the internet. There are bloggers around interested in technology in government, so I think this is a nice step in the direction of involving govtech more with people online. Government Technology has also added a feedback button, so people can now easily send feedback about articles.
March 10, 2006
Public CIO — New Website!
I you haven't yet, check out Public CIO's new site. It has some nice new features, including a nice new look that is consistent with the hardcopy magazine, Thought Leadership Profiles, a new search engine, and you can comment on the articles now.
You can also expect magazine stories to be added more frequently because the Public CIO magazine is being published every 2 months now instead of 3.
