RSS Pad - Really Simple Syndication ... Really!

Blog Business Summit

BBS was worth the time and money to atttend.  I will post more about the last conference at the PRWeb Blog

Jeff Jarvis: The Un-Keynote

Jeff Jarvis was the SyndicateConference opening "Keynote" and he did something I have not ever observed.  He brought the power of social media live and real-time.  In fact no equipment was involved outside of a sometimes faulty microphone.

He started his presentation with the typical Power Point slide that had a not so typical message.  The first slide said, "Conferences suck."  The second said, "Panels suck."  The third slide said "Keynotes suck."  So what did he do?  He brought forward a number of talking points and then engaged the audience in the conversation.  In fact thought leaders such as David Sifry, CEO/Founder Technorati and David Weinberger.

This set up a situation where real problems and challenges in the Web 2.0 space were brought up and answered.  Jarvis became a combination of Keynote and Moderator and kept the conversational tone of the audience moving forward so that everybody was able to take away something of value.

All in all it was a great format though a little unusual for the "Keynote" we can dub Jeff Jarvis as the "Un-Keynote" and I must say that he innovates and does it well.

RSS Roundtable New York (May 16th)

Look forward to May 16Th in Manhattan.  We will see another RSS Roundtable dinner.  All the details are on Bill Flitter's Pheedo Blog.  If it is anything like the last event it should be a great time.  The RSS Roundtable will be going on in conjunction with the SyndicateConference.

If you ever wanted to hear bleeding edge discussion on a really cool technology then you should make every effort to get there.  Simply email Bill AT Pheedo.com and if it isn't full then hopefully you will be there.  Don't wait too long or you might miss out and I do mean miss out.  Having participated in the last one I truly can't wait for the discussion that will be had in New York.

The last one was a full house so make your plans now and it has the promise of some great food to boot.

RSS Roundtable

Last night I had the opportunity to enjoy a lot of lively discussion on the theme of RSS.  Bill Flitter of Pheedo organized a great dinner event along with RSS based topics regarding the industry as a whole.  In attendance were such RSS notables as Steve Gillmor of ZDNet, and Scott Rafer of Feedster fame, David McInnis of PRWeb, among others, approximately 40 attendees in all.

Subjects ranged from advertising in RSS, RSS spam filters being created, and of course the demise of emails.  While the participants expressed divided views on certain matters the general rule as it pertained to RSS is that it is here to stay and will continue to flourish as more cool technologies and applications are developed.

Steve Gillmor made the statement, "Most people don't realize it, but RSS is controlling everything."  While I don't know if it controlling everything just yet I am amazed at the many ways it affects the way information is shared.  In our Web 2.0 world RSS allows for us to track packages in UPS, get the latest NBA scores and stay up to the minute on stock prices.  I have to say Steve's comment may be a little early, but only a little.  Pretty soon it may be just so prevalent that even though the average information consumer has no idea what RSS is they will be gaining nearly all of there most relied upon information via this cool technology that we love to debate.

I have to give a big shout out to Technorati for while a representative from there was not available that evening they were frequently discussed as a top tool in the RSS industry.

My hat is off to all those that attended and especially Bill Flitter and the Pheedo gang for coordinating it.

Scoble, Zawodny and Cutts

Sitting at WebmasterWorld Boston, better known as PubCon  this morning I am being treated to a morning session with the "Super Bloggers of Search."  This is an all star lineup that includes Robert Scoble of Microsoft, Jeremy Zawodny of Yahoo! and Matt Cutts of Google.  PubCon's fearless leader Brett Tabke introduced the lineup and added a little humor when he realized that he scheduled three West Coast guys for a 9:00 AM East Coast meeting.

All three of them indicated in there respective forms that blogging is here to stay.  Interesting enough they also did not realize how quickley it would take off and in Scobles case he has some 40 thousand subscribers.  One of the important things that Zawodny noted was that it is important to not let it affect what you say and do simply because there are thousands of eyes on you.

Scoble also spoke to the power journalists that follow Technorati and how a blogger with five subscibers can affect a news story as much a major blogger.  So one person who says their X-Box is crashing in their blog can be picked up by the journalist via Technorati and result in a news story.

Scoble responded to corporate policy that governs blogging and he said the one rule is, "BE SMART!" or as the Public Relations team at Microsoft reitterated for him, "Don't be stupid!"  Scoble understands the importance of this as he provides insight to Microsoft from a video blog perspective via Channel9 MSDN.

Both Cutts and Zawodny indicated that they have policies that are about two pages long that indicated basically the same thing.  In essence don't reveal internal information that should remain confidential, i.e. finacials.  Zawodny said that Yahoo!'s policy is available online.

While I have met Cutts and Zawodny in the past I have not met Scoble before today.  I have to admit it was a treat to see these three together and observe their banter and humorous interactions.  I have to applaud Tabke for pulling all three of these "Super Bloggers" together.

I think it demonstrates how RSS is really changing the landscape on so many fronts.  RSS really allows for some fast paced distribution of information in real time or near real time.  This is what allows for Scoble to address 40 thousand subscribers in an instant.  Better still as Matt Cutts put it, it provides for an "authentic voice... there is room for groups, and room for press releases and there is room for blogs"

Of course being intimately involved with PRWeb, an early adopter of RSS I couldn't agree with Cutts more.  You have to love this Web 2.0 world that we are in.

At this point in the technology cycle you have to look at RSS as a gift.