$46,000 and a cup of coffee will get you Desirable Roasted Coffee

Just kidding... we don't blog for benjamins at Desirable Roasted Coffee -- everybody knows that!

But this nifty applet believes the Coffee is worth nearly $47K. Yeah, like I can take that to the bank.

Tip of the hat to the Antipodean Wildman.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 06:37pm in Blogging for Benjamins, Blogging for the Sheer Hell of It, Desirable Roasted Coffee | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (2) | TrackBack (0)

Lesson for Communicators: Grassroots Tsunami Team Remobilizes For Katrina

What can ordinary people do in the face of catastrophe?

Jeremy Pepper and Richard Edelman believe natural disasters are events that leave bloggers and wiki-builders powerless.  Warren Bickford believes there's little that IABC can do. (Addendum: Jeff Jarvis is hard at work with a coterie to solve the next disaster -- Jeff, why don't you and your group help solve this one first: Keep reading for how you can volunteer.)

Nothing could be further from the truth: bloggers can make a difference. While I agree with Pepper that few bloggers seem to be doing more than complaining about government efforts,  I'd like to point out a huge exception.

I've written earlier about the incredible South East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami blog/wiki effort that went into action hours after the tsunami. Grassroots- organized using blogs, wikis, IM, and Skype. And effective at a time with most governments and relief organizations were in shock.

The same team has swung into action with the Katrina Help blog and wiki. The team, spanning three continents, including professional communicators, has used the blog, the wike, IM, and Skype to set up:

• A comprehensive blog, operating since August 29th.
• A wiki, updated seemingly hourly, with job offers, transportation offers, housing offers, updated emergency management information, info about conditions on the ground. Comunicators: PR-blogger Constantin Basturea is one of the moderators.
• A PeopleFinder effort to help locate missing persons and reunite them with families. They need volunteers, including communicators!
• A ShelterFinder effort: ditto above, you can volunteer.
• A KatrinaHelpLine, staffed 24/7 by volunteers. This is Skype-based, with a New Orleans area Skype-in number (+1 504 208 1564).

So what can IABC and its members, PRSA and its members, any communicator -- or any one of us, for that matter, do to help this effort?

• Well, we can donate your time. Plenty of information about that on the Wiki.
• We can also donate money or services to keep the effort going. It's a volunteer effort, and they are using free software (Blogger, Skype, etc) but there are some hosting costs. You can read more about their needs here. Microcontributions or contributions-in-kind appear welcome.

The lesson here for communicators? Bloggers and micro-media users -- real communicators -- can make a difference. It's a question of rapid organization and will. We don't have the tools is no longer an excuse for us.

Via Conversations with Dina and other sources.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 11:32am in Blogging for the Sheer Hell of It, Citizen Journalism, Communication, Current Affairs, IABC, Katrina, PRSA, Social Tools, South, Tsunami | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (5) | TrackBack (2)

More Reboot 7.0 Notes: Loïc Le Meur on the European Blogosphere

I know, I know, Reboot 7.0 has been over for three days, and few notes from me.

On Day 2, Loïc Le Meur, the European guy for SixApart (makers of my fine blogging platform), gave us a run-through on the state of the European Blogosphere.

Or, rather, tried to. Loïc is one of these super-enthused speakers who, in the flurry of thinking faster than he can speak, tends to start down one fascinating trail, only to abrubtly choose another. Five trails followed to completion would be great content; 10 trails started and abandoned is like going to a tapas bar and not being allowed to eat.

Further, he was using his wiki as both the presentation to us and speaker notes for himself, which always means a lot of cursors flying around the screen, three-four pages in quick clicking succession, only to have the wrong page show up. Followed by furious back-clicking and re-clicking. I don't know about the rest of the room, but by the end, I was a twitching bundle of nerve.

But... he had some cool notes to impart.

The best way to get at them is to visit his European Blogosphere Wiki, where you can, of course, make corrections and additions.

A few notes:

• Note the differences in the number of bloggers in different countries: 3 million in France, 600,000 in the Netherlands, and 5,000 in Denmark. He may be right (after all, he sells blog platforms), but the numbers seem hinky to me. Accepting his arguments about France, for now, it's still hard to imagine there are 120 times more bloggers in the Netherlands (or 120 times fewer in Denmark): the countries are somewhat similar in population, cultural attributes, and adaptation of technology.
• He argues France is heavy in bloggers largely because of French culture and tradition of debate. Well, I don't know if you've been in an Irish pub lately, but if tradition of debate were a criterion, Ireland should be thick with bloggers. Mystery to me.

Le Meur gave us several case studies. The one that caught my eye was that of La Fraise, the brainchild of Patrice Cassard.

Cassard likes tee-shirts. Likes odd tee-shirts. He started showing his best ones on his site... and people started asking where they could buy them. A problem, since they were custom-made.

Now, most people would rapidly come up with the idea of starting an online tee-shirt store. But Cassard goes further: he lets readers come up with designs, and lets readers vote on the ones they like best. Cassard creates the winners in limited, and pricy, editions (and a few lucky voters get theirs for free).

And who generates the buzz? The lucky tee-shirt wearers who now have begun sending Cassard photos of them in their shirts.

How quirky is that?

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 03:57pm in Bloggers, Blogging, Blogging for Benjamins, Blogging for the Sheer Hell of It, Citizen Journalism, Reboot 7.0, Technology | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (2) | TrackBack (0)

Reboot: We Don't Have the Tools is OUT as an Excuse

Yesterday and today were given over to the Reboot, a European meet-up of the mash-up of society and communication and technology (with a fairly strong tilt to technology). Two days of bang bang bang sessions punctuated networking, getting acquainted and getting to grips (sort of) with where micromedia is leading us.

I didn't blog directly, but many others did (not all results will be about the conference but pick around). I do better waiting for the serendipity to happen.

I'll post highlights as I get my head around them. Here's the first in a series:

We don't have the tools is OUT as an excuse

Dina Mehta's presentation used as its case example the South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog Dina helped organize. Incredible. The team used free (or nearly so) collaborative tools (Skype, IM, IRC) to put together a blog that attracted 1 million visits in the first week. And as the contributions and comments to the blog began (quickly) to become unwieldy, they created sub-blogs, and then a wiki to categorize the information.

The team was flat, without titles, with immense passion and, apparently little recourse to sleep. What's key here is that drive and brains and a willingness to collaborate, not expensive tools and committees, created this site.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 11:05pm in Bloggers, Blogging, Blogging for Benjamins, Blogging for the Sheer Hell of It, Citizen Journalism, Communication, Copenhagen, Reboot 7.0, Technology | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (2)

How to Use Comments to Win Friends and Influence People (in 10 Easy Lessons)

Note: I was going to link to sterling examples of both camps, but decided it would be impolitic and tacky.

I find it distressing, but instructive, to realize my blogging peer group -- the people who write about professional communication and technology -- can be divided into two groups:

Blogging-for-Benjamins & Blogging-for-the-Sheer Hell of It

The Blogging-for-Benjamins crowd is all about site traffic. These are the people who are stingy about full RSS feeds because they hope you'll click-through (and then click on the ads on their site). These are the folks who obsess about how Technorati views them (Lord knows I do).

Some of these people write great content... but that's incidental to eyeballs (and ad-clickthroughs) and getting on the "A-List" (almost better: getting an A-lister to link to them). Some were taken in by the recent Blogebrity joke.

Before blogging brought them public, these people were high-school hall monitors, active in college student government, and could always be counted on to collect the boss' bag from the baggage carousel ("No, let me get that, R.J.").

The Blogging for the Sheer Hell of It Group might also worry about site traffic and blego, but you'd never know it. They just crank out good content about our profession, eschew ads and truncated feeds, and go on their merry way. They might be deeply troubled by their Technorati standing, Lord knows I am, but you aren't going to hear about it.

They are also about community. Conversation. Cluetrain. Let's talk!

A roundabout approach to the troubling, though amusing, posts at James Farmer's Blogsavvy. James is Blogging for the Sheer Hell of It guy, which is ironic since he writes  entirely for the Blogging for Benjamins crowd. His posts "Arguments for Getting Rid of Comments" and "Arguments for Keeping Comments" will surely become well-thumbed pages in the Blogging for Benjamins playbook.

Let's take a peek at why James says you should not have comments on your blog:

Argument number 1: The more comments you have the less links you’ll get - Comments lose you ranking

I’m quite serious about this. Do you really think that Dave Winer would get so many links if he allowed comments of his site? To take this down to a smaller (and perhaps more important) level, say there’s a writer who you’re really into who posts some really interesting material but doesn’t allow comments, if you want to respond then you’ve gotta do it on your blog, which gives you more links, a wider audience and…

Well, no, actually, I think Dave Winer wouldn't get so many links if he were not Dave Winer. And, to take this down to a more important level, I sometimes comment on someone's blog, sometimes post about their blog, sometimes do both. Comment facility rarely plays a role (indeed, I'm less likely to read a blog, in the first place, that does not allow comments).

Argument number 3: You’ll look the opposite of a loser - pseudo a-listing yourself

Again, I’m quite serious here. The majority of blogs that don’t allow comments are ‘A’ listers. If you don’t allow comments you are genuinely giving out the impression that you have such a significant audience / group of people wanting to interact with you that you just don’t have the time for them or the stress that all that fame brings along. Plus (and this is a pretty big plus) you won’t have that big ol’ list of (0 comments) one the majority of your posts… not a good look!

Let's parse Farmer: a) set up a blog, a website whose only purpose is to allow you to converse with others; b) turn off the conversation function; c) presto, you appear to be so popular that you can no longer take time to converse. What am I missing here?

The idea, apparently, is that it's sufficient to appear an A-lister. But who is so easily fooled? Anyone who's moved to Washington, DC (or any other capital), single, and is in need of a social life (and self-validation), will inevitably learn of the "send your card to the embassies" trick. That is, send a polite note praising the policies of an obscure country and the playful antics of its leaders to the local embassy. About a week later, you will begin receiving invitations to its receptions. Now send the same note to 100 other embassies. You'll get about 500 invitations a year to embassy receptions. You still won't be a Washington A-lister.

Let's take a look at why Farmer says we should allow comments:

Argument number 3: I’m feeling a little emotional - the value of “Thanx :o)”

How do you feel when you get an SMS? Probably pretty subliminaly excited and contented (someone is connected with me, is taking the time to communicate with me) and almost certainly not well informed (well over 50% of SMS contain no ‘valuable’ information whatsoever). That’s because the major value SMS has given us is allowing us to send emotional messages to each other really really simply with minimum hassle (quite different to the challenges of a phone call). Comments do this to. That someone has taken time out to read what you’ve written and respond to it is an incredible emotional buzz and something that, without comments, you’ll be missing out on.

I don't know about the rest of you, but most SMS's I get a) give me no frisson whatsoever and b) generally contain valuable, even vital, information such as "I hope you did not forget my mother is coming for dinner; you should start the grill now if you did." I am, generally, also up to the challenge of a phone call, having mastered the telephone during the Johnson Administration.

Another thing. I invite comments, and am pleased that commenters were moved or irritated enough to take the time to comment. But I've never gotten an incredible emotional buzz. Clearly, my commenters lack EQ and imagination.

Argument number 5: Validity and growth - what is it that you want?

I argued yesterday that there there was nothing more likely to turn a potential reader into just another surfer than a plethora of (0 comments) tags attached to your posts. However, conversely there’s nothing that say interest / authority like a ton of (15 comments) tags. Add to that the fact that you’re missing out on the chance to develop on your posts with your comments and in doing so develop your own understanding of the area… and why on earth would you want to turn off comments on your posts?

Sign me on for validity, every time.

Frankly, I wish the Blogging for Benjamins crowd would just go away. But, failing that, I hope they continue to amuse me.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 09:40am in Blogging, Blogging for Benjamins, Blogging for the Sheer Hell of It, Is Tedious in the House? | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (4 ) | TrackBack (0)