Clippings: 28th Jan 2007

A few things to think about today as I contemplate life here in the glorious Adelaide Hills.

…by the way, big bad bald Mitch Joel is thinking of ‘trademarking’ “beautiful Montreal”, and Dan York in his report for For Immediate Release has the “serene and picturesque countryside of Vermont” so “glorious Adelaide Hills” seems to be the epithet du jour pour moi.

First cab off the rank…

I’ve been playing with this for a few days and just adore it — Launchy. Their homepage is crisp and clean, but more importantly the application itself is a dream to install and more importantly operate. It is soooo cool that I recommend everyone with Windows to grab a copy now. There’s even a page of hints and tips for super searching, checking the weather and even using the inbuilt calculator. Brilliant!

Colleague and unofficial mentor Shel Holtz asks if PR should be called a ‘profession’. Lots of interesting comments to the post, as well as the thought that should ‘business communicator” in general be called a ‘profession’. The argument revolves around a definition that includes both ‘standards’ for behaviour and research methodologies and theories. ‘Doctors’ and ‘Laywers’, it is argued by some, can be called ‘professionals’ because of the length and extent of their training, as well as the replicability of their research findings. Can the same be said for any of the BusComms offerings: marketing, PR, employee comms…

My erstwhile friend and colleague, Sydney-based Trevor Cook, asks if Adelaide is a city of losers. Pisshh posshh, Master Cook. Adelaide is a delightful city, especially if you have the mental and sensory capacity to appreciate the wonderfulness of the produce that emanates from our major wine regions: Barossa Valley, Clare Valley, McLaren Vale and further down the road the Coonawarra. Read a page full of praise for Adelaide, Trevor, and weep that no one loves Sydney so much (especially if they have to drive in it!).

Trevor again, this time pointing me off to the ANZ Bank who are joining the conversation by publishing podcasts. As they say, “we’ve developed a series of podcasts designed to provide information that is relevant and importantly, of interest to listeners – and we’ve injected a little bit of humour.” Good on ‘em — nothing beats a banker with a sense of humour; I should know, two of my best friends are or have been in banking, both with the ANZ!

Ted Demopolous has published a new book What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting: Real-Life Advice from 101 People Who Successfully Leverage the Power of the Blogosphere and very kindly sent me a copy, which I picked up yesterday. Like Mitch, I’ve only had a chance to skim read it (but I’m flatteringly mentioned on page 25). Nice one, Ted! Full book review coming shortly…

Courtesy of a nicely targetted email campaign that sees just about all of my friends and colleagues blogging about this, a superb business jargon dictionary. Going forward, I can see an above-board usage — your take?

Master Communicator Les Potter‘s new blog shines with insight and erudition. Natch. This particular post I’m linking to is about constructionist theory and Case-Based Reasoning (CBR). QED. I look forward to sharing PhD study notes and communication, psychological and learning theories with Les.

Thinking about quitting your job and working from home? Nick Usborne has just released the first of a developing series for people who are thinking of flying solo/soho. Advice from someone who has ‘been there, done that’ and got the t-shirt and the hat to go with it.

Marjolein Hoekstra yet again with a belter of a post (that means ‘great’) on 9 ways to be on top of publishing via RSS. Maybe it is the geek nature of her subject matter, but I am at a loss as to why more people don’t subscribe to her feed — she’s definitely worth it!

And finally…

Nothing to do with business communication, but thanks Trevor for pointing me off to this. “You might be surprised, for example, at the number of Margaret Thatcher’s underlings who had the hots for her.” A fascinating post that asks the question “Do rich women have better sex lives?” This is something the world needs to know…

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