The culture that surrounds technology is an interesting thing. There are dividing lines between the people who are “in” and everybody else. A little over a year ago I learned that the people who are “in” don’t use Microsoft Explorer for their browser…they use Firefox. Firefox introduced (or at least popularized) the tab browsing function which means you don’t have to use numerous individual windows running anymore but just his Ctrl+T (Apple+T for the Mac folks) and BOOM…a new window is ready to go in the original window you opened.

The Firefox guys really got it right when they started letting people create add-ons that let you do all kinds of stuff to customize your browser. Its popularity has soared and the Firefox users became evangelists for the browser.

Firefox just recently released version 2.0 and it seems very sweet as usual. Interestingly enough, there’s a new Microsoft Explorer now that strangely Firefoxish.

In the tech culture, there are a few products or services that elicit emotional responses from the user base. Apple computers tend to fall in this elite category. So does Firefox. I recommend Firefox because it’s a great browser…the coolness is just gravy.

Looks like the answer to that question is yes. I’ve seen several stories from the last two days about online video companies beginning to find ways to pay the people using their services.
Google Video’s doing it.
So is Metacafe.
Brightcove has joined the fray.
Revver’s been doing it for a while.
So here’s the big question. Where’s YouTube in all of this?

One strategy seems to be paying the top talents on a site (Google’s approach). The other is an ad revenue sharing system of some form or fashion (Metacafe and Revver). One thing is clear to me with all of this…2006 will be seen as the year online video really got cranked up. What’s your organization doing with it?

Last week I talked about attack blogs and some ways to survive them. One thing I thought of after writing the post is that there are some proactive measures that can be taken prior to a crisis situation to monitor the blogosphere for both good and bad things that might be said about your organization. Here are a couple of things you should do (and they won’t cost you anything):

• Search for your organization’s name in Technorati and Google’s Blog search. You want to do blog specific searches rather than just a simple Google search. This will cut out all the miscellaneous references from non-blogs.

• Search for key leaders names in Technorati and Google’s Blog search. Same reasons as above.

• Set up an RSS feed in Technorati for a search for all of the above. If you don’t know what RSS is check out this post. If so, Technorati has a cool feature that lets you retain any search as an RSS feed. If you do this you won’t have to keep doing the two bullet points above. You can bring the search results to you as often as you like.

Even if you’re not concerned about any type of crisis situation pertaining to blog discussions about your organization, I suggest you monitor this anyway. It will be a great way to learn for yourself what some people are saying about you (if anything) whether good or bad. It will also provide an opportunity to reach out to some like minded individuals.

If you’re doing this type of search for a business organization, you might find you’ve got some big fans of a product or service you provide. You should really try to tap into those people and build a relationship with them. They’re obviously natural evangelists. If you represent a church, you may discover some people in your congregation with unique gifts or compelling insight that would be an asset to your ministry. The point is you never really know what you’re going to find so keep an eye on it on a regular basis. All it will take is one good find to make it worth while.

I came across a short interview with Mena Trott, the president of Six Apart on Pod Tech last night. Mena was talking about their release of a new product called Vox. Vox sounds pretty interesting. From the sound of it, Vox wants to be a bit more family and friend focused than blogs and is therefore trying to corner the market on that type of blogging…or voxing. One of the key features it has is that it allows you to designate a privacy setting on each individual post. So if you want to make some posts public to the world and others limited to friends and family you can do that easily within the same interface.

It’s clear from spending a few minutes within Vox that they have focused on design in all areas. The template choices are much more graphically enhanced than about any other blog templates I’ve seen. Even the interface to post is highly stylized, which ads up to an inviting and engaging experience. Many of the designs seem to be aimed toward a female audience but I think it will appeal to a wide range of people. It doesn’t appear to have RSS feeds built into the posts, so that’s one strike against them in my view, but overall Vox makes a great first impression. I’ve set it up for my family and may start using it when our baby is born (and that may be sooner than we think). I’m looking forward to keeping up with Vox to see how it develops.

We are in new age of communication. It’s an age where an individual can communicate with the same impact as an organization. In fact, with all the skepticism about the slick and polished communications that come out of organizations, something from an individual may actually carry more weight because it’s considered more genuine and authentic.

With that in mind I’ve come across several situations over the last few months where the dividing line between the people who understand blogs and those who don’t has been quite stark. The fact of the matter is we are quickly approaching a time when any organization cannot afford to ignore or placate bloggers. I’ve always been very positive about blogging but there is a dark side as well. The dark side of blogging is rooted in attack blogs. Attack blogs can greatly disrupt an entire organization and any many cases the organization may never see it coming.

Here’s what really got me thinking about this: I know of three churches and a seminary that have been negatively affected by blogs. Two of the churches are in the Memphis area and have had a handful of church members firing away at church leadership for various reasons through their blogs. To this day the blogs have influenced these two particular churches to the point where one of them split and the other has had to hold public meetings to address the issues raised in the blog…and their issues are still not resolved even now.

I believe in both of these cases the churches had no idea what hit them. In fact, at first, an attack blog might not seem like a big deal. After all, it’s just one person, right? What can they really do to your organization? These churches could have very well thought that or may have said, “Who really reads this stuff?” or “Nobody will find this and if they do, they won’t really believe it.”

Most organizations have a communication plan in place if the local TV station shows up with a camera and reporter asking a bunch of questions. At the very least, the organization would feel a sense of pressure to formulate a plan of response to whatever the situation is. Attack blogs should be treated with the same sense of urgency as a TV crew in the front lobby. Both can create a public relations nightmare and both need a response sooner rather than later.

So what’s an organization to do if they’re not blog ready? Here are a few things to consider:

• Start your own blog now! - If you start a blog now, before a crisis or attack, you will have more credibility when/if an issue pops up. I personally think it’s a good idea to be blogging anyway, but now more than ever I’m convinced that it’s necessary for such a case as this. By starting now you’ll have an understanding of how the blogosphere works and will be better prepared if you ever need to respond to an attack or address a sensitive public issue.
• Tell the truth. - Here’s the deal about blogging…it’s a great medium that facilitates conversation and understanding, but if you’re not telling the truth about something, you’re going to wish you had never started blogging at all. Whether you get busted in your own blog’s comments or on someone else’s blog, I can almost guarantee you’ll be caught if you lie. If a member of your organization lies (in the blog or outside of the blog) the blog is a great place to address it by admitting it and apologizing quickly. There will be eventual forgiveness for a speedy and heartfelt apology, but there will be blood in the water if you try to cover it up…particularly for those of you in ministry.
• Everyone reads blogs during a crisis. - Even though the majority of people still don’t read blogs daily, when an organization is under attack by a blog, the attack blog WILL be read. It’s more accessible than the editorial page in your local newspaper and it will live online forever. Naturally people will be looking to see what the other side has to say which gives you the perfect opportunity to respond appropriately in your own blog.
• Ask for help. If you don’t understand how to get started or how to respond (if you find yourself in a crisis situation) find someone to help you get your hands around it. Even if it’s a college student who blogs for fun or someone who blogs about gourmet coffee, they will be better qualified to help you understand the magnitude of what you’re facing if you’re not a blogger yourself. They’ll not just help get you up and going but provide some insight into the culture.

I’m more convinced than ever that a blog is for every organization in some form or fashion. Just yesterday I was talking to a friend who’s a pediatric dentist. I was telling her that a blog will allow her to differentiate her practice from the others here in town. Whereas the other guys will give the standard “here’s what we do” and “here’s why we’re different” and “here’s where we’re located” information, a blog can say all of those things with personality. In fact, that’s exactly what sets blogs apart from standard websites…they have personality.

So, back to my friend…if she blogs on her site (and still says all the same things the other guys are saying) then she’ll be introducing herself (and therefore injecting her personality) to all those parents looking to find a dentist for their kids. This is the same thing as trying to sell something to someone in person rather than with a brochure or direct mail piece. If I get the chance to meet a person and try to sell to them while the competition only sent a brochure I really like my chances of success. Her blog is the closest thing she can get to being able to meet all these potential clients in person. Every other website is just putting out a digital brochure.

By the way, my friend doesn’t even have to be an avid blogger to win either. In her case she’ll be fine updating the blog every other week…just enough to keep it current, but more importantly to give that extra nudge to a person comparing information with the other guy’s brochure sites. Oh, and in no time her blog will be the top one in a Google search for dentist offices of any kind in this area. After all, Google does love blogs!

I’ve been chewing on the idea for this post for quite a while now and have been hesitant to ask this question…it’s a bit off topic but here it is: are Macs really that much better than PCs? Not software wise, that’s not really what I’m thinking about. I’m talking about the inherent components of the computers.

Here’s why I’m even thinking about this, I know several people(I’m thinking of four specific situations) where Mac owners have had trouble with their computers. Two of the situations were hard drives dying, one was a case of a bad processor, and one was a laptop that broke and the screen would no longer stand up on its own. But here’s the thing I noticed in these cases…the Mac owners were at most apologetic and at least hesitant to complain or say anything negative about their computers. Are Mac owners just more optimistic about the woes of computer hardware or have they taken a code of silence the rest of us don’t know about?

The Mac problems mentioned above represent a third of the people I know who use Macs, so in my world, one in three Mac users have had significant problems…and in three of the four cases the Macs were only a year old.

Let me state for the record (anyone keeping a record?) that I’m not against Macs by any means. I use one (iMac) at work every day and Apples were the first computers my family ever had…so I’ve been around them for 15 years and have always thought they’re good products. My question is simply this: do Mac owners defend their computers (or other Apple products for that matter) more than PC owners? If so, why?

I hope to get some good comments on this post but here’s my answer to these questions:
Yes, Mac owners defend their computers more than PC owners for three reasons…

Macs are cool: Macs are considered cool products. It’s not cool to say bad things about Macs. If Macs are what all the cool kids play with, then to say something against a Mac would be to stand against the cool (and be, therefore, uncool)…and who wants to be uncool?
Macs are chosen: Mac users choose their computers whereas PC users may just take what they can get (whether because they had no choice in the matter or went for the cheapest option their budget would allow). I think anyone who chooses a product on purpose will be more apt to defend the product even when it doesn’t work properly because it’s a reflection on their own decision making process.
Macs are work horses: One of the common denominators in all four cases of broken Macs I am aware of were on computers that were heavily used on a daily basis. I don’t know what the average PC user’s time spent on the computer is but would guess Mac users use their computers much more than PC users…leading to more wear and tear on the computer and the higher likelihood for problems.

Note: I bounced the idea for this post off two of the four Mac owners I mentioned in my broken computer sample and they both affirmed the fact that there is something to Mac defense. One was more quick to defend the Macs than the other but each felt at least some hesitation to really blame the computers. What did Apple do to get this kind of loyalty?

I’m about to finish Robert Scoble and Shel Israel’s book, Naked Conversations, and it’s been outstanding to read. Don’t let the name fool you…it’s about blogging with authenticity…not in the nude. I’ve already gotten five other people to order it (four at a church and a family member). Here’s a great list of tips from the book on from the chapter “Doing It (blogging) right.”

1. What’s in a name? Search engine results. - Your blog’s name can and should say a lot about who you are and will go a long way toward good Google juice.
2. Read a bunch of blogs before you start. - There was a great line in this section: “If you read 50 blogs for about two weeks and you still don’t feel you have something to write about, you probably aren’t going to be a good blogger.”
3. Keep it simple. Keep it focused. - Most people want McPosts, not Four Course Posts…keep that general idea in mind when you blog.
4. Demonstrate passion.
5. Show your authority.
   
6. Add comments.
7. Be accessible. - They recommend putting a phone number on your blog in addition to your email address…note my phone number now in my profile. Maybe Scoble will call me!
8. Tell a story. - Just tell your story. Tell the truth, but tell a story doing it.
9. Be linky. - Link to other blogs so you’ll have more hooks in the Google waters. Good quote in this one too…”Be the absolute best resource you can be for your readers, and they will reward you with lots of inbound links.”
10. Get out into the real world. - “If the only way people know you is through your blog, you become one-dimensional.”
11. Use your referrer log. - Check your stats tools to see how people are getting to your blog.

Today I had the chance to talk with some church staff guys about web 2.0 strategy…specifically online video and blogging (and the resulting combination of the two…video blogging). This church already spends significant effort on video work and weekly communications to their church members and community. Many churches these days are spending more time with video production but might not be thinking through making the most use of their efforts. The guys I spoke to today now realize that with a little more planning and about ten more minutes of video shooting each week they’ve got all the pieces for a video blog for extended outreach. I informed them about three things they’ll need to make sure are included to make it a full fledged blog:

• RSS feed to let people subscribe to the video blog
• Permanent link so it can be referred to by itself and referenced directly in the future
• Comments to get feedback from viewers

I recommended they set up a free blog on Blogger or Wordpress (both of which automatically give you the above components) and load their video to Vimeo as it’s done. The code provided Vimeo can be quickly loaded into either blog tool and they have an instant video blog!

I recently posted about three reasons TiVo is dying and doesn’t know it yet. I feel strongly that the influx of online video could do significant damage to TiVo’s business model, but my friend Chris is a big TiVo advocate and recently made me aware of some factors that play to TiVo’s advantage:

• High Definition – The quality of content on the web is still a step or two behind what’s available on your TiVo hard drive, thanks to the introduction of their new Series 3 recorder. Sure, watching 4 minute clips of The Killers performing on Jimmy Kimmel is one thing, but would anyone seriously want to sit through a 42 minute episode of Lost while enduring the quality of an online video clip?
• It’s Legal – It’s going to be especially interesting to see how online video is treated by the music/television/film companies that haven’t already given their blessing for usage of copyrighted material in user generated content. TiVo’s business is much cleaner, and that allows them to focus. These legal distractions may spell trouble for would be competitors.
• The Interface – No one disputes that TiVo’s user interface is the best in the business, but everyone knows that broadband content delivery is the future. Right now you can share photos, listen to podcasts or Internet radio and even check Yahoo traffic and weather, all from your TiVo box with a broadband connection, either wired or wireless. If TiVo can prove to be a forward thinking provider of broadband content, I believe their intuitive user interface gives them a slight advantage moving forward.