Monthly Archives: May 2010

What Does It Mean To Be “Critical”? Wired Column On Facebook Privacy Questioned

Posted on by Kathy E. Gill

Updated to provide additional context: 6.31 pm Pacific
Sometimes, you just need to read a conversation thread in a single post to be truly boggled.

I’ll preface this exchange by noting that I read the Wired column under discussion (What if the Facebook (Un)Privacy Revolution Is a Good Thing) prior to this exchange: my take-away at the time was that Fred Vogelstein falls into the tech-world equivalent of Jay Rosen’s “church of the savvy“, a term Rosen uses to describe the “belief system that binds together our political press corps in Washington.”

Here’s an excerpt from the article: Continue reading →

Calling BS. Period.

Posted on by Kathy E. Gill

Positioning himself somewhat as a “curmudgeon,” Scott Berkun launched a one-man attack on puffery of all kinds in his Social Media Club Seattle talk Tuesday evening, How to call BS on a social media guru.

The talk title — intentionally provocative — suggested Berkun would zero in on inflated social media egos. Instead, Berkun gave a creative, compelling and humorous call for critical thinking skills. Without using that phrase, of course, which I think is probably the kiss of death in advance copy.

Continue reading →

Facebook’s Principles, Deciphered

Posted on by Kathy E. Gill

The Washington Post recently opened its editorial page to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg. The Washington Post Chairman, Donald E. Graham, is a member of Facebook’s board of directors; friends in high media places.

Here are the principles under which Facebook operates, according to that op-ed. I’ve copied Mark’s bullet points and added a bit commentary to help you decipher the message. Continue reading →

Why Is AT&T Thumbing Its Nose At The Copyright Office?

Posted on by Kathy E. Gill

Tech news sources report that AT&T is about to settle a class action suit regarding unlocking cellphones, with Apple iPhones exempted. Engadget writes that AT&T would be required “to provide an unlock code for just about any phone it has sold since March 12, 1999.”

What I don’t understand is why a law suit was necessary. In 2006 the Copyright Office ruled that cell phone companies had to allow customers to unlock their phones when it authorized an exemption to the DCMA regarding “cell phone firmware that ties a phone to a specific wireless network.” PC World reported at the time that cell phone companies had been arguing that their software should be considered a copyrighted work. The Copyright Office disagreed: Continue reading →

Twitter Account Spoofs BP PR Efforts

Posted on by Kathy E. Gill

Updated 25 May
The advice is so old that it is trite: to conduct an effective crisis communications campaign, communicators have to be present and conversant in the channels/communities/media where they need to talk to people before disaster hits.

And a second piece of advice is also so tired that it seems trite: secure your company’s brand name whenever there’s a new technology. With web sites, I was advising folks in the mid-90s to secure the .com, .org and .net associated with their names … as well as logical “spoof” names. And that was when it cost bucks to secure names!

But it seems no one at BP had taken either adage to heart before last month’s explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.

In researching Business Week’s top 100 brands, I learned last year that BP had lost @bp, legitimately, to Brian Pendelton. The company has owned @BP_America since 12 August 2008, but didn’t really use the account until this month. This week someone began making hay with @BPGlobalPR (established 19 May 2010). In fact, although the account is less than a week old, it has three times as many followers as @BP_America.

Continue reading →