Iotum's Voice Mashup "ConCast"

Today, Iotum put a great idea into practice, and may have a new product on their hands - the "ConCast". I love it, and think they're on to something good here. This was their first ConCast, and is a great way to demonstrate their conference calling application that's been running on Facebook for a few months now.

The idea was this - a half hour scheduled concall/audio webinar - with a roundtable speaker format. Voice mashups was the topic, and the call was led by none other than Thomas Howe - who else? Joining Thomas was Alec, Andy Abramson and Jim Courtney. They all chimed in at various points, and about two dozen people were in and out listening to the discussion. You could tell they were doing that because in the background you kept hearing that "ping" sound that tells you when someone has joined or left the group.

I wasn't able to be on the call as I had a concall of my own going this morning, but I got a chance to listen to the replay, which you can do as well. You can find it on Alec's post, along with his post-game review. The session runs about 27 minutes, and if you're interested in mashups, this is about as good as it gets for listening to people who are living it.

Great going, guys, and I hope you have more of these soon! And, the faster you build up your numbers, the faster you'll attract sponsors and then you'll have a money-maker on your hands - that's the kind of mashup we're all after...


Technorati tags: Alec Saunders, Jon Arnold, Facebook, voice mashups, Thomas Howe, Iotum

Hey, I'm #26 on the Top VoIP Bloggers List...

VoIP-News is one of the best portals out there for tracking trends in our space. A couple of weeks back they posted their 2007 list of top 25 VoIP blogs. The usual suspects were there, and most of them noted the kudos on their blogs - why not?

As you likely know, I don't follow the news as closely as most bloggers do, and I post when I can and when it makes sense. So, true to form, I'm late to the party with this item as well, as the buzz is long passed for most 2007 lists.

However, at least I'm at the party, and wanted to share this update with you. VoIP-News updated their list the other day, and I've been added, which makes me #26 on a list of 25. Am not sure what that really means, but I'll take it, and am certainly very happy to be included in such stellar company. I guess this means I've got nowhere to go but up - if I want to crack the top 25 list, I'll need to improve/expand my coverage this year. Guess I'll put that on the to-do list....

Technorati tags: VoIP-News, Jon Arnold, VoIP blogs

Alec Saunders' Privacy Manifesto

Really thoughtful post today from Alec Saunders that I want to draw your attention to.

Anyone who is concerned about what Facebook's Beacon initiative could lead to, or how they recently handled uber-blogger Robert Scoble should read Alec's post. Actually, it's a guest post on GigaOm, which is a great way for Alec to give back and support Om Malik as he recuperates - am not going to go there right now. I certainly wish a speedy and safe recovery for Om, and in his absence, people like Alec are stepping up and providing fresh content for his site.

I don't have much to add, and Alec does a great job laying out some of the key issues around Internet privacy, and more importantly proposes some rules of conduct and engagement - his manifesto - that would have prevented these from becoming bad situations.

As with any good blog post, the best indication of its impact is in the comments, and there are quite a few of them - well worth reading, and an indication that Alec has tackled this issue very well.

Furthermore, if you surf over to Alec's own blog, you'll see an updated post where he talks about the aftermath of this morning's post, and how the very comapanies he discussed are now part of DataPortability.org, a working group to establish guidelines and best practices for porting data from one site to another.

Great stuff, Alec - all in a day's work....


Technorati tags: Alec Saunders, Jon Arnold, GigaOm

2007 Highlights - Part 2

Yesterday was Part 1 of my 2007 highlights, and here's my review for the second half of the year. Hope you enjoy these, and maybe you were at some of these.

That's it for my 2007 review. Time to move ahead and get going on 2008.....


My Kitchener/Waterloo Mini-Tour, Waterloo - with John Tennant and Mark Whaley (he was on the ICF panel from the PTC event that was in yesterday's post - and now winner of world's most intelligent broadband community!)




Telus/RIM launch of their worldphone BlackBerry, Toronto.



Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown. We all need a break, and this was one of mine this summer. The "Red Sox Holy Grail" was a personal highlight for me, and I just had to put it in here - the bloody sock, Curt's cleats (say that one 3 times fast), and the ball, all from their 2004 WS championship. I can die happy now.



Fall 2007 TMC ITExpo, Los Angeles. Chris Lyman, enthusiastically telling me the virtues of his company, Fonality!



IT Expo, Los Angeles - Andy Abramson's client/blogger dinner.



Ottawa Venture Technology Summit, Ottawa




BroadSoft Connections, Phoenix. Scott Wharton moderating a session, and a view of the grounds where the event was held at the Biltmore. I sure could get used to that...






Fall VON, Boston - Jeff Pulver's keynote



My Skype Mobility session


Happy Town - talk about being in the right place at the right time...




Nokia Siemens Mobile Experience Demo, Toronto. Very cool FMC apps, done here in real time.




Avaya Canada Analyst Day, Toronto. CEO Mario Belanger kicking things off.




Cisco C-Scape Analyst Conference, San Jose. John Chambers doing a Telepresence demo on stage with 3 different speakers.





Technorati tags: J Arnold & Associates, Jon Arnold, blogging

2007 Highlights - Part 1

Am slowly getting back to a working groove, but really won't be fully back til Monday once everyone's out of the house and back at school. Don't know about you, but I've been using some of this down time to not just reflect on 2007, but also about where I'm looking to go in 2008. It's both easy and hard being an independent, and a priority for me this year will be to deepen many of the relationships that I built in 2007, and that's already happening in the first few days of the new year.

I'm also trying to find a better way to balance all the proprietary consulting work I do for clients along with the public things I do that keep me visibily involved - conferences, blogging, podcasts, etc. With all the back and forth with my recent posts about whether the Facebook phenomenon is good or bad for blogging, I've really got to consider this more closely and see if FB can help me manage that balance. All suggestions are welcome!

Ok,enough self-reflection - time to move on to the scripted part of this post. I've been off the blogs for most of the break, but have seen a few year-end summaries, predictions, etc. I could spend a lot time doing the same, but I've decided to do a photo review instead. Others have already done the same - really liked Jeff Pulver's photolog post - and I'm doing mine in two parts.

Over the course of 2007, I've mostly been using the Nokia N93 and Nokia N95, and that's what these photos were taken with. The fun part of being an indie is attending a variety of events - some are very analyst-centric, and some are very media/press-centric. I'm a bit of a chameleon, and work out of both camps, so I get to a wider range of things than a straight-up analyst or journalist would get to. And sometimes I get to go to things just because I'm a "blogger" - although these days I'm not really sure what that term really means.

This is especially true since I'm based in Canada. Most of the industry people my paths cross up here are only focused on the home market, whereas I try my best to keep on top of the U.S. as well. So, this is one of the few blogs where you'll see a healthy mix of what's going on in Canada as well as the U.S.

Whatever - listen - I'm just one guy. I don't have a company sending me places - it's up to me to make all this stuff happen, and I'm grateful to have been able to see so many things in 2007. I can only hope that the song remains the same in 2008, and I look forward to sharing my adventures with you as they happen.

So, in today's post, here's Part 1 - my year in pictures - basically the first half of 2007. It will give you a flavor of the events I participated in and the places I was lucky enough to travel to. I could tell you a lot more and show you a lot more pictures about any of these, but not here. By all means, feel free to search my blog for the original posts these came from for more. Otherwise, maybe there's a book in this somewhere.....


Aloha! Can't think of a better way to start 2007 being based in the Great White North, eh - the Pacific Telecom Council conference in Hawaii. And, yes, I got an authentic Hawaiian shirt there that I hope will come in handy one of these days...



The ICF panel at PTC. This is the Intelligent Communities Forum, where they were announcing the finalists for their annual awards. As it turns out, Waterloo, Ontario came out the winner, chosen as the #1 intelligent community in the world. Go Canada.........




TMC's ITExpo, Fort Lauderdale. I chose this photo of colleague Moshe Maeir (with Rich in the background)since he was nice enough to post it on his year-end review - thanks Moshe!



Deloitte's 2007 Predictions event, Toronto. Group shot of their team, including keynoter Guy Kawasaki. He's quite the hockey junkie - and he's from Hawaii - who knew?- so they gave him an customized Leafs jersey as a nice thank-you. I'm starting to see a Canada-Hawaii theme happening here - strange....




Launch event for BlogTV.ca, Toronto. This sure was fun, and Canada was the first market Israel-based BlogTV expanded to. Unfortunately, the project was canned in the fall - easy come, easy go. BlogTV is going strong in the U.S., but it came later. I guess we were the guinea pig, but didn't quite get it right - gee, where have we heard that before here in Canada?



Microsoft Canada's launch event for adCenter, Toronto. Don't mean to nitpick, but if this is for Canada, shouldn't they spell it "adCentre"? I'm told life is in the details.....




Cisco's Channel Partner Summit, Las Vegas. From what I've seen, nobody stages a big event like Cisco.




MetaSwitch Forum, Orlando, with Martin Taylor. If you're into Harleys, you should check out my post about this event - really...




IT360 Conference, Toronto. Don Tapscott talking about Wikinomics and his vision for our Web 2.0 world.




ANPI AGM, San Diego, with CEO Dave Lewis.



Canadian New Media Awards, Toronto, with Adam Froman, CEO of Delvinia


Microsoft Surface, Toronto. We were lucky enough to get a private, 1 on 1 demo of this very cool look at what being connected will really mean, and what the coffee table of the future is going to look like. Max got to have the fun, while I took the photos.




Aftermath of a heavy summer storm, Toronto. Taking a drive about our neighborhood following a very intense storm, I came across some of the damage and for 5 minutes, felt like a roving TV reporter. Here's one shot of a mature tree being fully uprooted and crashing on top of van in someone's driveway. Thankfully, nobody was hurt, but as you can see, it also took down all the Hydro wires, and went a long way to explaining why our phone lines went dead - but of course, my VoIP lines were working fine...



Microsoft Canada's Unified Communications launch, Toronto. With Michel Burger, CTO and a glowing Microsoft blue cocktail....



Mitel Forum 2007, Las Vegas. Mitel's brain trust taking questions from the analyst community.




Part 2 is coming tomorrow, stay tuned....


Technorati tags: J Arnold & Associates, Jon Arnold, blogging

Is Facebook killing blogs? The conversation continues....

I really wasn't planning on posting much at all this week, and just got on the PC now for a quick scan of email and blog stuff before heading off to the same family get-togethers all of us are about to start doing.

I see that Jeff Pulver posted a nice follow up today to my post from Friday about this topic.

Sure glad to see the dialog continuing, which really is the point of blogs in the first place, right?

For anyone following this topic - and I really think I'm hitting on something here - it's clear from Jeff's experiences that the conversations are shifting from the blogs to the social media sites, namely Facebook. What's a blogger to do? Jeff has built up a fantastic network of engaged "friends" on FB, and by rights, he should be getting great conversations going there. What's really amazing is not how big his network is - and lots of avid FB'ers have large networks too - it's how quickly he's done it. Again, nothing unusual there in the FB world, but I'm sure Jeff would agree, he's built up a large following there much faster than it took on his blog.

I don't know about you, but I'm still not sure what to make of all this. I still stand by my position that FB could well be killing blogs, but of course it's not so simple. FB is just another forum for communicating, but it's much more social, whereas blogs are really all about the writing - and for some, the photos too. That's the primary reason we go to blogs - to read what the thought leaders are saying. That's not why we go to FB - we go there to be social, and if we happen to see something interesting to read, well, we'll do that too.

It really doesn't matter where the conversations are taking place - as long as they're happening - that's what I think is important. So, again, Jeff's posing a valid question about why the comments have fallen off at his blog, but at least people are still talking - so no harm, really.

All I can say from here is that as this trend continues - and why shouldn't it? - blogs are going to just look so 1.0. For me, it doesn't matter, since I don't anticipate becoming a rabid FB user. I'm pretty old school, and the blog is where my public writing goes, and I don't see anything changing that.

For Jeff and all the others who are big on FB, no doubt this has to be creating some dissonance, and I guess you just go with the flow. As Jeff says, some posts he duplicates on FB, but only a few - you just have to experiment and see what happens. Nothing wrong with that.

The ones I worry about are those who are trying to build businesses around blogging, where the name of the game is attracting sponsors and/or advertisers. Social networking sites will only continue to fragment readership, so if eyeball and page counts are materially important to you, I suspect you have a bigger problem on your hands than what Jeff has been sharing with us.

That's my piece on this for now, but I'm all ears if you want to keep this dialog going. I'd love it if you did, but in my case, you'll have to do it here, not on FB! :-)

Over and out for now. No idea when I'll be blogging next, hopefully before the year is out.

All the best for the holidays!


Technorati tags: Jeff Pulver, Jon Arnold, blogging, Facebook

Is Facebook killing blogs?

Real interesting post from Jeff Pulver yesterday. Titled 'where have all the comments gone?', Jeff raises some troubling points about the impact that Facebook is having on where the best conversations are taking place. It's a valid lament for any high traffic blogger who regularly generates a healthy flow of reader comments - which I think is the true measure of what a blog is really worth.

This isn't a problem for me, as I don't have A-list traffic, so I don't get the volume of readers that usually yields the stream of comments that make blogs a much more interesting read. To some degree, this is by choice, as I don't take advertising or get into the SEO game, so as a matter of course, my blog will never show up on mainstream radar. However, I'm happy to have a small core following, and I get my share of reader input, both online and offline. Of course, Jeff doesn't take advertising either, but he's a globetrotting icon who attracts attention wherever he goes.

And that's the dilemma Jeff is sharing with us. The blog has been his soapbox for years, but since he's become enamored with Facebook this year, he'll be the first to tell you that's where his day starts now, and that's where he's spending his online/public time. So it's no surprise that that's where the conversations are happening now. His post touches on many facets of this issue, and as anyone who has taken the Facebook plunge knows, its pervasiveness has basically changed our behaviors. It's become the hotspot to meet, be seen and see who's doing what. It's a lot more fun, sexy and less work than a blog, and the expectations certainly aren't very high for what goes on there.

The blog is still a much better forum for articulating ideas, but sites like Facebook really are more engaging, and certainly have a great sense of immediacy. At any given time of the day, the chances of finding your posse are far great there than on your blog, so that's where the comments are going.

I can totally understand Jeff's issues, and others do too based on the comments he's received on this post. Interesting that a post that asks where have all the comments gone, is in fact, generating lots of comment for Jeff. That aside, it addresses some of the realities of trying to maintain an active, engaged presence in multiple places, whether real or virtual.

The big takeaway from all this is that FB is not really built for this type of dialog, and there's pretty good evidence from the threads running through Jeff's post that fixing this would be a good idea, making FB that much more powerful as a central meeting place. On the other hand, that may NOT be what FB has in mind as it might introduce elements that take away from what's already working so well. That's their problem to solve, and I have no doubt that the mashup community is coming up with all kinds of ideas/widgets/add-ons/whatevers.

I'm more of a casual FB user, so it's not keeping me up at night, but it sure will be interesting to watch if Jeff's dilemma is the catalyst for some potentially disruptive change with FB. The title of my post is more likely to keep me up at night, and I'm sure it holds true for any blogger who is living multiple online lives via FB, Myspace, Twitter, etc. If this is where people are really investing their online energies, it doesn't bode well for traditional blogs like mine.

Makes you wonder if blogs are going the way of print media and other 1.0 media. I sure hope not, and would like to think the world still needs forums like these for personal expression that runs longer than IM-style messaging. Much like the way LinkedIn is becoming more social media-friendly to stay relevant, Jeff's post is a wakeup call to say that blogs need to evolve too. Interesting times, no?


Technorati tags: Jeff Pulver, Jon Arnold, blogging, Facebook

Busy, busy, busy - aren't we all?

Seems everyone is racing to get stuff done - and shop - before the week is out. Definitely not business as usual, and it's been tough on the blogging front. There are only so many hours in a day, and right now I've been in a quiet zone for fulfilling projects, and my focus has shifted to business development.

That's what pays the bills, and blogging only happens once this is under control. All I can say is that it's been a very productive 2 weeks, and my pipeline for repeat work and new clients is very strong going into 2008, so I'm going to look forward to some real time off over the next week or so.

I've got speaking gigs and conference bookings lined up through April, and invariably other things will come up as 2008 gets going. They always do, right? Also, the IP Convergence TV portal is really coming along - we just updated it this week, and the content quality keeps getting better and better. Will have some good news to report soon about some collaboration work we'll be doing around an upcoming conference.

With that said, I do have some blog posts in the works that I plan to get written over the next few days, so here's a peek at what's coming...

- Palm Treo 755p reviews. Max and I have had this smartphone on trial for just a short time. His review is almost done, and mine will be done shortly - look for these soon.

- Nokia N95 review. I've been using this phone for a while now - Max did his review a while ago. My review has been sketched out in a journal, and I'll type it up over the break as well.

- Year in review - photo highlights. Never done this before, but it recently dawned on me that I've been to a lot of neat places and events this year. I always take photos, and thought that would be a fun way to look back on the ground I've covered this year.

Technorati tags: IP Convergence TV, Jon Arnold, J Arnold Associates

IP Convergence TV Updates Posted

Wearing my Community Advocate and Portal Editor hat for the IP Convergence TV portal, it's my duty - and pleasure - to let you know the latest update is running live now.

Not only is there new content, but the look and feel of the website has been updated. It's more user-friendly, but still a work in progress. I can tell you that traffic has been building nicely, and we're getting some great feedback from both vendors and carriers.

Two things in particular to draw to your attention....

1. My feature has been been converted from a podcast to a blog. So, my existing podcasts have been transcribed, and can be found in a new section called the Convergence Blog. My latest posting is an extended review of some recent research from Deloitte that I posted about here on my own blog a couple of weeks back.

The Convergence Blog is very early stage, though, and the look/feel will definitely be evolving - please bear with us. For those of you who were following my podcasts on the portal, I should add that all the posts on this blog can still be heard. Just like I do on this blog, the Convergence Blog posts are audio-enabled courtesy of Odiogo. I think this is a great application, and recommend it for any blogger.

2. In terms of new content, there's a new white paper from AudioCodes, 3 new video interviews conducted by Erik Larsson, and 3 new Guest Opinion pieces from some very good writers/industry players... Thomas Howe, Dean Bubley and Bob Emmerson.

I hope you read 'em all, and sign up at the site to get alerts on our updates. Got a lot in the pipeline already for the next update, so if you're following convergence technologies - IPTV, FMC, IPTV, IMS - you should find this a useful resource.


Technorati tags: IP Convergence TV, Jon Arnold, J Arnold Associates

Don't copy my posts verbatim - please...

Plagiarism is never a good thing, and it�s pretty hard to detect for blogs. Can�t say I�m a magnet for the New York Tmes, but it sure looks like I�ve been found in academic circles. This is a very low level incidence of plagiarism, and I�m only posting about this to show how the Internet can work in very unsuspecting ways.

There are no commercial interests at stake, and this was probably done by a grad student, so there�s no point in naming people here. It�s nice to be noticed, for sure, but the writer in me says it�s a matter of principle when your stuff is lifted verbatim and not credited. To be fair, I've certainly had people approach me for permission to cite my writing and even my pictures. That�s fine � as long I know what they�re doing with it, I have no objection.

Am not quite sure how all this unfolded, but basically, the Professor was doing a Google search on some entries for this student's paper, and.... a blog post of mine turns up. Very strange. From what I can tell, the quote was not used in a telecom/tech context, so it's a bit mysterious to me. Regardless, I just think it's neat that the prof used Google as a sort of fact-checker - I suspect this is becoming standard practice in university these days with so much stuff out there for sale online - and then found me, of all people. Even more interesting is what connection this student was trying to make between my quote and their paper. I still don't know, and it makes me wonder if students are so enamored with the paint-by-numbers process of 'writing' papers, that they can't even tell any more which stuff is actually theirs.

I'm still trying to get to the bottom of this, but it also appears that the student didn't cite me because it was from a blog, and didn't need to be cited. Aha - now we're getting to the crux of the matter. I think that a lot of people think that if it's on the Net, it's free for the taking - public domain. Hmmm. Very muddy water there for sure. Of course, if it was paid content, they wouldn't think twice about not citing it. But then, students can't afford to access paid content, so let's not go there. No, they will graze from free sources, but don't you think there's a disconnect here if university students have so little regard for blog posts. I guess they just see it as personal opinions that are freely shared - which is largely true for blogs.

Many questions to consider here - how do you decide if a blog is real writing or just chatter, who really should decide this, how do you acknowledge usage, etc. Definitely a brave new world, especially for anyone who values the creative process and the power of the written word for conveying ideas.

Well, I'm not about to tackle this now. I'm in San Jose this week at Cisco's analyst conference, and I've been flying all day, and am quite tired. Anyone out there who wants to take a stab at this is more than welcome, and I'll continue this dialog when the storyline becomes clearer.

Technorati tags: blogging, Jon Arnold

Blogging Has Some Side Benefits - Being on TV!

This is a fun post, really. Just sharing with you one of the payoffs that can come from blogging. I sure don't do it for the money - don't know anybody who does. The only monetization scheme of note that I participate in is with Newstex, who has been tracking me for almost 2 years. If you scroll down the right margin of my blog page, you'll see a blue Newstex box. Just click on that, and you can learn more about it.

Anyhow, I recently got my current royalty report, and I've earned a whopping $28.42. As you can tell, my blog doesn't carry ads, and I don't really take advantage of the web tools you need to build online traffic, so I have no expectations of turning my blog into a money machine. If that was my business, I'd be doing things very differently, that's for sure.

That aside, I'm happy to say that my blog does generate regular inquiries from people/companies wanting to know about my services and the things I do to make a living as Principal of J Arnold & Associates. And a good portion of those have turned into paying clients, including two this week already. So, if you're wondering if blogging is worth it, that's a hands-down yes, at least for me.

I'm posting now to tell you about a nice side benefit that's come from blogging. I get to be on national TV, but not to tell the world about VoIP. Get this - our national broadcaster - the venerable CBC - has been airing a show since March of this year called Test the Nation. It's an IQ-type quiz show that originated in Holland back in 2001, and the format has been used in some 40 countries, although I don't think it's in the U.S. yet.

The show works on a team concept and 2 teams face off against each other. So, guess what - one of the teams for the upcoming series is.... bloggers. I've been back and forth with CBC on this for a bit now, but I'm on the team. The new series airs on January 20, 2008, and the overall theme is 21st Century knowledge. I'm pretty solid aside from up to the minute stuff, so I'll be leaning on my kids to make sure I'm schooled in all the latest cyberknowledge.

This sure should be fun, and for a change, blogging leads to something totally unexpected, and something I wouldn't be doing otherwise. It's one thing to be on business TV talking about telecom, but an IQ quiz show? Why not, right? So, if you have aspirations of getting on national TV, blogging might be your ticket. I've got no idea what kind of questions they'll be asking, but I sure hope they have something about VoIP - I'll be ready for that! :-)

Technorati tags: Test the Nation, Jon Arnold, J Arnold & Associates, CBC TV

Jeff Pulver's PR Challenge

Didn't get a chance to post yesterday, and was coming up pretty empty most of today. Is it just me, or was there absolutely nothing interesting going on today? Sure looked that way to me. I guess coming back after Thanksgiving everyone is bearing down hard in their jobs this week, and not having much time to stir the blogosphere pot.

Anyhow, I did find Jeff Pulver's post today worth noting. Jeff has definitely had an on-again off-again relationship with PR firms, and I'm sure that's how a lot of people feel. Regular followers of Jeff's blog will be familiar with posts he often puts up in advance of his conferences, giving PR firms some advice on how best to prospect during and around his events.

So, in today's post, Jeff lays it all out on the line. He's very direct in what he wants/expects and what he doesn't. I'm sure anyone reading through this will recognize at least one if not more of the issues Jeff has with PR firms. On the other hand, as some of the comments indicate, Jeff's overall expectations are bit idealistic, but that's ok. The client is certainly entitled to his opinion, and if you make your wish list clear, then hopefully,this will attract the right kind of agency who will cater to those needs.

It's no different than online dating. You're trying to find a complementary partner, and whether your needs/wants make sense to the general public, at least you're laying the specs out there. This approach will likely limit the field of agencies willing to work this way, but how else will you get what you want?

I'm sure there are lots of agencies who will say they know more about how to define a client's PR needs - and meet them - than the client, and they have a business to run too. Obviously, Jeff has been down this road enough times to conclude that these agencies are few and far between, so he's got a pretty good idea of what hasn't worked.

So, what to make of Jeff's post? Is it just a rant about PR, or a not-so-subtle RFP/RFI? I think it's both, and he's just setting the boundaries now. Of course, the PR agency must also accept that Jeff has an opinion and isn't afraid to use it. So, if you don't deliver, the very blog that got you the job will also serve to broadcast your shortcomings (although I know Jeff has the good sense to protect the innocent by leaving them nameless). So, if you're up to the challenge and are willing/able to play by Jeff's rules, you just might have a new client. Any takers?


Technorati tags: Jeff Pulver, Jon Arnold, public relations

When Bloggers Don't Play Fair

I'm a writer at heart, and take pride in using language to convey ideas and engage readers. Fellow blogger Tom Keating had a very forthright post on Friday that outed one blogger lifting content from another blogger without due acknowledgement.

Tom is very good at fact-finding and getting to the bottom of things, and his post is a must-read for a blow-by-blow expose on how easy it is to plagarize on the Internet. It's very tempting to do this since the chances are slight you'll be found out. On the other hand, your work is out there for all to see, and if someone - like Tom - connects the dots and does some reverse engineering, you're totally exposed, with your credibility ruined in front of the online world, and in real time to boot. That's a tough road to come back from.

Great work, Tom! I haven't had a chance to post this until now, but it's been on my mind, as I'm sure it would be for anyone who takes their writing seriously, and the obligation that bloggers have to police themselves. I still believe there is a valuable distinction to be made between bona fide journalists who must pass editorial muster before being published, and bloggers who are just writing for themselves, and may only have a passing regard for accuracy, integrity, clarity and objectivity.

Just as compelling as Tom's post, by the way, are the comments, which include two contrite responses from the guilty party. Seems like this has been a cathartic experience from him, but based on the other comments there, this is not such an isolated incident.

Call me old school, but the Internet is still the Wild West, and Tom's post is another reminder of the cardinal rule to "know your source". The Web may confer legitimacy for a lot of people, but not me. If you read a post from a source you don't know that well, and it sounds eerily familiar, there's a good chance that your instincts are right.


Technorati tags: Tom Keating, Jon Arnold

I'm on Facebook Now!

People have been leaning on me to get on Facebook for a while now, and I've finally succcumbed, just before VON.

Well, I'm also doing it now in honor of the founders who have an incredible goldmine, now that Microsoft is investing dot.com kind of dollars for a tiny sliver of this thing. It's an amazing example of the power of a good idea and being in the right place at the right time.

So, with 200,000 people jumping on this train every day, I'd better get on before I start to look like more of a Luddite than I already am. If you do the math, that's 2.3 sign-ups EVERY SECOND of every day. That sure is a nice curve to be riding.

These are Skype-like growth metrics, of course, and it will be interesting to see how Facebook's trajectory unfolds, especially now that Skype and MySpace are hooked up, and Microsoft has skin in the game.

I mention Skype for another reason. It's all about ease of use. Took me about 10 minutes to set up a basic Facebook profile last night, and right away I had friends, and a bunch more in my inbox this morning. As I recall, it took my son Max about the same amount of time to set himself up on Skype. To me, more than anything, it's ease of use and simplicity that make these things successful. From there, it's all about who can build an engaged community, and of course, laying the foundation for the advertising that will inevitably monetize this and make billionaires out of the founders.

So far, I just see one glitch in the ease-of-use department, but I know it's there for a reason. Want to find me on Facebook? Go to the site, and try.

What do you get? 144 Jon Arnolds. Yup - I'm certainly not alone. Good luck finding me, especially if you're not yet a member. The site only lets you search through the first 3 pages of "Jon Arnold", and I'm not there. So, I guess resistance is futile - you will be assimilated. If you really want to find me, you've gotta join up. So, join up, and let's be friends. Or, drop me a line and I'll send you an invite!


Technorati tags: Facebook, Jon Arnold, Skype, MySpace

Odiogo - Read Me, Hear Me, Feel Me...

Tommy can ya hear me? Couldn't resist that one, but you get the idea.

Last week, I posted about Odiogo, and how you can voice-enable your blog posts. I think it's a great idea, now my blog is on the bandwagon. They've be very helpful getting this set up for me, and the posts that I've listened to sound really good.

So, you can now get my posts anywhere, any time, on the go - with Odiogo - hey, that's got a nice ring to it....

Just click on the widget and you're good to go with an RSS feed - it's in the right hand column, at the end of the "Categories" section.

I should add that Odiogo is catching on a bit. I picked it up from Jeff Pulver, and fellow blogger Moshe Maeir has it going on his now.



Technorati tags: Odiogo, Jon Arnold, audio blogging

Odiogo - Listening to Blogs - Why Not?

I came across a post from Jeff Pulver the other day that really caught my eye, and I wanted to share it here.

His post was about a company called Odiogo, and they use text-to-speech to automatically convert your blog posts into audio posts. I think that's a great idea, and am going to look into this for myself.

Jeff provides a link where you can listen for yourself. There's also an audio sample on the company's website. The meter and cadence of the speaking is a bit robotic, but you can certainly follow the narrative. For people who don't have time to read your posts, or have a long commute, this is a great way to get your content out there and reach a broader audience. As with regular blogs, you can set up RSS feeds and subscribe to your favorite blogs who are using it. Download the files before hopping on the train or plane, and you'll never miss a post from your favorite bloggers.

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea. The website even tells you how to embed ads in your audio posts, so you can truly maximize your revenue potential, if that's what you're into.

Ideally, bloggers would voice record their posts so their followers can hear them in their natural voice, but who has the time to do that? Odiogo is an automated process, so you make a bit of a trade off in not having to do any extra work to extend your reach as opposed to strengthening your personal brand with your own audio posts. For most of us, the trade-off is a small price to pay.

I also like the fact you can do this with articles as well, so for people like me who write beyond the blog, Odiogo allows me to get a lot of content out there in a new format without a lot of extra work.

Thanks for the post, Jeff! I see that Odiogo is based in Jerusalem, and it looks like all your recent travels there are yielding some nice finds.


Technorati tags: Odiogo, Jon Arnold, Jeff Pulver

Nokia N95 Blog Coverage

Just a quick note to say that the recent reviews my son Max did for the Nokia N95 - both written and video - have now been posted to the Nokia N95 Blog.

As mentioned in previous posts, this is a terrific program put together by Andy Abramson, and it's a great way to track all the reviews from people in the Nokia blogger relations program.



Technorati tags: Nokia N95, Jon Arnold, Andy Abramson

Back to Work

Well, all good things must come to an end, and one has to work to make a living. Takes some time to get back into the swing of things, and to ease into blogging again, thought I'd share some fun and cool photos from our driving trip through Southwestern Ontario. It's summer, and I'm sure these are images we can all enjoy. Burgers, ice cream, cool cars, the beach and baseball. Am I missing anything here?

Photos courtesy of my Nokia N93, and I'm just flashing a few here. Lots more if anyone's interested. Enjoy, and then get back to work!


Classic burger joint at the Leamington ferry landing for Pelee Island. Looks like something out of Happy Days....



Such a charming, quaint place....




I know what you're thinking...


Not those Cone Heads --- these Cone Heads...



RM Classic Cars. If you're into vintage cars, you'll probably know about them. This is truly one world-class operation, right in the heart of Blenheim, Ontario. Huh? Who knew? Incredible place, and well worth the visit. Here's just a taste of what we saw on display. They sure don't make 'em like they used to, but if you have a couple of million to really impress your friends, you've come to the right place...










Sunset on the beach at Grand Bend....




Last stop - the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in St. Marys. I'll bet you didn't know we had one, eh? It's pretty small, but worth the visit. They're actually fundraising now to build a bigger facility, and they're waiting to take your call now. I'll also bet you didn't know that the first recorded baseball game took place nearby in 1838. Learn something every day.

Oh - next stop - Cooperstown this Friday. So in the space of a week, we'll have visited both HOF's. The main difference? No way you can get a parking spot under a shady tree 10 feet from the front door of Cooperstown --- but you sure can in St. Marys, pretty much any time of the day.


Babe Ruth display. Did you know he hit his first professional home run here in Toronto?




Vintage Blue Jays and Expos jerseys...

Down Time

We all need time off, and it's my turn. We're doing a family road trip next week, and beyond that, I'm not exactly sure what we'll be up to. Definitely won't be blogging, so things will be quiet here next week. Should be back posting on August 6. Have a good week!

Max's Nokia N95 Written Review

When you're too busy to post, the next best thing is to post other people's stuff! Well, that's my story today, but if you follow the Nokia NSeries phones, you'll like this one.

Followers of my blog know about my oldest son, Max. He's doing reviews regularly, and we recently did a videocast review of the Nokia N95 on BlogTV.ca. He also has his own blog, and his written review of the N95 was posted today.

Reading his review, I especially agree with his comment about the stereo quality for music. Max uses high energy rock music for his ringtone, and as they say in Spinal Tap, he sets the volume to 11. He has a habit of leaving his phone at the top of the stairs, and when his friends call - at all hours - we almost have a heart attack with this sudden blast of mega-noise. Isn't being a parent fun?

Anyhow, thought I'd pass it along - hope you like it!



Technorati tags: Jon Arnold, Max Arnold, Nokia N95