According to the exclusive story from Next Generation , in the next 48 hours there will be an announcement on the cancellation of E3 , which "in its present form, has been cancelled for next year and the foreseeable future." According to ARS Technica , the show is not being cancelled but rather downsized, due to the show-within-a-show that E3 was becoming: it was the back channel meetings that were the real events. Okay, I came back from the last E3 all full of fun and excitement. Nothing is more exciting that seeing a big show, a la Comdex . The buzz, the excitement, the press ... it's like CES is. But, the other flipside is that working at the last CES , it became apparent that the show has become too big - and, that is pretty much what killed Comdex . Not that that is going to stop me from going to CES, but it will be for client work again. Just not that into Vegas to go for my own enjoyment.... Did I get that vibe at E3? No, because if I can walk a show floor in a day...

I tend not to post about politics, because politics are personal and not something for a blog - unless, of course, you are a political blogger. This past Friday I went to see John Rendon of the Rendon Group speak at the Long Now Foundation on the long view on terrorism, and winning the war. I went on assignment for an article for O'Dwyer's - when it is up, I will highlight what I wrote there. But, one thing stuck in my mind, and hit home this weekend when Newt Gingrich was on Meet The Press . Two great posts from the Seattle Times blogs - one from an interview with Newt , and then a synopsis of his TV appearance - do a better job at giving background. During his speech, Rendon noted that: The issue is that we are in a peacetime government and home front, but with a wartime military - there is a disconnect between the two. That has always been an odd thing to me. During war time, we have always given up things on the home front, but this time you really cannot tell we are ...

With the love of all that's YouTube, the hubbaloo over the Rocketboom/Congdon saga , vlogs are now more a part of mainstream media. Plus, with companies like 88SLIDE making vlogs that are slick looking and reflect mainstream gameshows , does this mean that vlogs have made it, and the general public is going to start downloading (iTuning?) in droves? Well, after the great Scoble hiring saga (everything is a saga tonight, because it has been a long day), Podtech.net looks to be taking podcasts and now vidcasts quite seriously. They've bought two of my favorite vidcast star/producer: Irina Slutsky (who always manhandles me on IM) and Eddie Codel . Geek Entertainment TV is now part of the Podtech network , with the official announcement . I asked uber- SL 'er and podcaster, Eric Rice , for a quote: this shows how vlogging is just normal media. Video is just media, sometimes we like to see, not hear. And other times, it's reversed. Wow, we're pretty normal after a...

Dell enters the blogosphere . Bloggers go wonky ; prove Forbes right . More thoughts later ... . Tags: dell , dellhell , dell hell , jeff jarvis , buzzmachine , a-list bloggers , blogging , public relations , PR , marketing , marcom , asshole , blogosphere , Forbes , snarky

88SLIDE : the daily one minute trivia challenge is one podcast that I catch every day. It's a one-minute game show ... and I love game shows. Total gameshow junkie. Always have been. Plus, a total useless data / information / trivia junkie. I coulda been a contender on Jeopardy . But, was always too lazy. I spoke to Noah Bonnett (on the left, with the beautiful hostess, Rachel), the producer/founder of the one-minute trivia show. If you haven't watched it, go check it out and then I'll wait for you to come back. Okay, done? So, Noah's background is working at a production company in LA , Endemol (they do Extreme Makeover: Home Edition , Fear Factor , Deal or No Deal . His experience was on game shows. He met the host, Rachel, when she came to do a pilot for MTV that Noah shot, they stayed in touch and he reached out to Rachel to see if she would be interested in doing the same thing, but as a video podcast - a one minute game show, that turned into 88SLIDE . If you l...

Okay, not the cheeriest post title, but with the firing/quitting of Amanda Congdon from Rocketboom , it speaks volumes. And, it says something I have said to people about themselves, their blogs, and their jobs: everyone is replaceable. Yes, it's not a cheery thought, but think about it. At the end of the day, it comes down to the client/company. Do I know what the problems were with Congdon and Baron? No, not at all - and none of us are privy to those discussions. But, we can all agree that 51 trumps 49 in percentage. And, the fact is that I was never a big watcher of Rocketboom, so this does not affect me much. If I want my pretty vloggers, I have Rachel at 88Slide and AmberMac - and I think they both are much more talented than Rocketboom (I was alive in the 80's, so I already saw those skits, thank you). I almost forgot to mention the hottest - and one I've known the longest - Irina Slutsky of Geek.tv . But, man, I always try to keep the personal out of the blog. ...

American Apparel gets it. Heh. Bet you didn't think you would read that on my blog. But, they get it beyond their very cool store in Second Life , but they get blogs and the new PR in the blogosphere. Yes, I linked to the Weronikia Cwir's comment on my post on their store in SL. Which, btw, is the first Google link to her full name (pretty neat). Why do they get it? Well, just like the first post, I was contacted by Cwir - but this time she emailed me directly to address the issues I brought up in my post about what's wrong with American Apparel . I wish she had posted her comments on the post, but I understand why she did not. But, here's a lesson for any corporation in working with blogs. Monitor the blogosphere. Cwir had noted I had written once about American Apparel, and within a couple hours, had come back to check the blog. Respond in kind. Whether it is a comment on the blog, or an email to the blogger, be proactive. It's like a Blog SWAT team - fin...

The lessons we can learn in the real world are pretty applicable to the PR world. Quickly, think of how you are treated at any place you might go into - a store, a restaurant, a doctor's office. If you are treated well, you think better of the place and tell others. If you are treated poorly, you are unhappy with the experience, you walk away slightly miffed and that's it. Oh,and you tell people. Well, that's pretty much how PR should be thinking of what it is doing. It does not matter the content delivery system - blogs, podcasts, television, mainstream media - but we are trying to tell a story and present a positive side of the story. So, couple weeks ago I was heading out to a friend's niece's birthday party out in Berkeley. And, here's a great example of two incidences on why the customer experience influences decisions, and cements views and opinions. The first is buying a birthday gift for her at American Apparel , and the next is me going to Everett &...

Okay, so this happened on Monday, but I was in WOMMA mode and am just posting about this. Whomever nominated me for the Best PR blog in Marketing Sherpa : Thanks!! Now to my readers, go vote if you want to help me out. Voting ends Monday. If not, keep reading away, and have a great weekend!

The past weekend - not the last one, but the weekend before - I went to Vloggercon . After that week, I had continued talks with Dina and Michael from Blip.tv about what they are doing, been talking to the Podtech.net (there's me and John Furrier at Vloggercon) people for ideas and further discussions on what they are doing, and then went to the Blip.tv/ Dabble party and spoke with GeekTV 's Eddie Codel - all about video blogs and what is going on with them. But, one thing that I noted to Rohit Bhargava - who was at Vloggercon for a client - was the missing PR people. Yes, there were PR people at the show ... but mostly for clients. And, full disclosure - I wasn't there for a client, but to learn. Where we the PR people that were there to learn more? Why weren't there more PR people there learning about video blogs, and what is being said, how the technology is changing, and what we can do with video blogs. Rohit has a great post on his observations from Vloggercon...

A couple week's ago, Scoble came to the office and we were talking post-speech about some issues, the Bay Area and the fun of all that could be. Yes, this was prior to the big Vloggercon news. We also talked about Second Life (SL), and I brought up that I had just bought an Adidas shirt for my character. Yes, that's me as Ezekial Goodllife looking at an SUV, in my Adidas shirt. What are the implications in a virtual world in regards to trademarks and copyrights? I bought this shirt in SL, but I really, really doubt that Adidas put it out, that Adidas is getting money for it, and that Adidas was contacted about the shirt. We all see how YouTube has both handled and mishandled copyright rights, but how is it going to work in a virtual world, where people make clothes and other items to sell to others. For example, that shirt only cost me $50 Linden Lab dollars. Since I knew Linden Labs was going to be speaking at the next Third Thursday , I waited to blog about the trademark...

From the weekly Sam Whitmore's Media Survey teleconference ... Forbes Magazine (famously known for its bloggers attack!! story ) managing editor Dennis Kneale: There are none I religiously read, but I do read Gawker and Romenesko for media coverage. The WSJ daily coverage is more informative for what is going on than any blog. ValleyWag from that 20-year old kid – why should I turn to that for insight or information? So, yes, I am on these teleconferences and I figured this would be a fun question to ask different reporters (what blogs do you read?), as it was asked prior at a PRSA event , and the answers were interesting. Sam Whitmore also has a great Podcast for PR people here .

You get IM'ed a hot story/breaking news from a source. You sit on the IM, but shoot it out to a couple people. You get home from dinner, and the hot story's subject posts . That's how it always is. Congratulations Om, and best of luck. And, well, this post of yours made my day today.

Sitting at the Vloggercon show again, and I came to hear on the panel on Net Neutrality - an area that really does interest me, mainly because of the deafening silence in the Web 2.0 community. Huge silence. Why? Fear. Narcissism. Ignorance. Politics. Apathy. I am not sure which one, although I do think it is each one. I think that Web 2.0 is afraid to take a stand on Net Neutrality - or join the voice in SaveTheInternet or Pulver's Save the Net - because it might offend a potential purchaser/corporate overlord. I think they are narcissistic because they just do not care because they think it does not affect them. I call ignorance (or, stupidity) because they do not understand the issue. I call it politics, because they are playing politics in the flip game. I call it apathy, because I just do not think they care about the issue. The point is that I searched through Technorati , and could not find the usual Web 2.0 suspects writing, but just pointing people to fun videos that...

Silicon Valley Watcher: Microsoft's top blogger Robert Scoble is leaving.... I can neither confirm nor deny this story, but I can say that I spent some time with Robert both today at Vloggercon (to the left, with Eric Rice ) and in Seattle for work, and we discussed life and work, and revolutions in the life cycle. I would not betray a conversation had in private, though, with someone I consider a friend. As for leaks, I think that as PR people, we protect information that we are given, whether it is related to work or is private. If this was from a private conversation, or overheard, for shame on those that ran with the story or helped spread it immediately. If there's a choice between friendship and an exclusive, I will take friendship any day. Scoble is a great guy, and where ever he is will benefit from him, his honesty, his personality. There's alot being written right now , but I think Robert himself has the best post on the subject . Update: Well, I talked to two o...