RSS Pad - Really Simple Syndication ... Really!

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.

The Tipping Point

I always love going to WebmasterWorld PubCon and all that it entails.  This morning I am at the WebmasterWorld Boston listening to Malcolm Gladwell, author of "The Tipping Point", a book that highlights great moments in history when great things begin to happen.

Malcolm spoke briefly on the first sporting event that was ever broadcast which was a championship boxing match involving Jack Dempsey in the early 1920s.  As the story goes there was a single RCA employee, David Burn, who could envision such an event, but ran into obstacles in his path at every turn.  He he was an early twenties employee with no resources or pull.  However, he on his own time persuaded somebody to basically steal a military radio transmitter.  He called up RCA sales reps and convinced them to place radios in public places like bars and restaurants.  He found someone who understood boxing enough to do radio commentary.  Again there had never been a live sports broadcasters before.

He finally pulled it all together.  The fight was broadcast live and Dempsey knocked his opponent out in the  4Th round, which was good because the transmitter blew in what would have been the 5Th round.  People from all over heard this historic event which was much greater than the single boxing match.

The great historic event was the launching of radio as a means to give live coverage of sports and other world events.  This was the "Tipping Point" in the radio industry.  The year that followed 1200 companies entered the radio industry and the demand for a radio in the home exploded.

So here we are in the modern world of RSS and lessons can be learned.  RSS has been around for a while yet it has only recently started to grab some lime light.  I would assess that we have seen some minor tipping points.  PRWeb and other early adopters have used RSS Since around 2001; Yahoo! in May of 2005 launched it's media RSS (mRSS) initiative; Blogging with RSS is the standard; A large number RSS aggregation tools have been developed in the last couple of years and the list could go on.

So what will be the next big thing that we could describe as a tipping point?  Will it be when every web-browser comes standard with an RSS newsreader not just as a plug-in?  Will it be when we no longer use email as we currently know it?  I don't know for sure, but one thing I do know is that by staying in tune with this industry we can be prepared to ride the next wave.

By the way, if you have not read "The Tipping Point" be sure to go out and get a copy for yourself.  The authors words are outstanding and the book will be a nice reminder of where we have come from and open your eyes to where we can go!

Essential of Business Blogging

Steve Broback and his BlogBusinessSummit team are putting on a great conference that they call the Essentials of Business Blogging.  The location of the event is the Westin Los Angeles.

We have only hit the first couple of sessions and the mentions on the power of RSS have been numerous.  What is great about it is that the attendees are a mix of bloggers and traditional businesses.  They want the visibility that RSS provides with Blogs being a vehicle.

One of the major tips that was given multiple times throughout the morning is that of using press releases.  Broback poked a little bit of fun at what some folks in the blog space said, "the press release is dead."  Broback explained that press releases, particularly those from PRWeb have huge link value for the blogs and will drive traffic to the blog.

Anil Dash, VP of Professional Products for Six Apart, the creators of TypePad referenced made specific reference to power of TrackBacks and their availability on PRWeb.  The TrackBacks allows for someone to track the conversation around a topic by linking the press release and the comments on the blogs.

All in all if you want to learn more about RSS in action do attend this event.

OPA 2006 London

The Online Publisher's Association (OPA) hosted what they termed as the forum of the future in London England at the Landmark Hotel.  The location was outstanding and brought all of the English charm that could be expected.  While this is not a travel blog it is worth noting that it was really cool!

Now to the business of RSS. The conference was filled with a large number of traditional journalists from the areas of print and broadcast alike.   The argument of of making content available for free verses subscription comes up.  Free can be powerful.

One thing that  is certain is that via RSS you can economically distribute a load of content and deliver it to users that want it.  This is a great way to get your message out and create a revenue on the back end as a result of the traffic.

I'm reminded of the rock music group "The Grateful Dead" who were known to not place restrictions on the audience recording their music.  As a result they had a very large grass roots adoption and sold millions of albums.

One of the other points that came out of the conference is that their is so much information on the web that it is more difficult to know what content is worth sifting through.  Tom Glocer of Reuters said something interesting in this regard.  Glocer said, "People have limited time and do not want to waste time looking for content....  Brands serve as a filter between supplier and consumer."

Another point that came out of the conference was that readers want three things:

1. Empowerment
2. Community
3. Be Entertained.

All three of these can be achieved much more quickly via RSS.  The user is empowered because they can receive the information that they want, when they want and on the device they want.  They can stay immediately current on something they are following via RSS that gives them a sense of community.  Of course they can be entertained all along the way.

Over all the conference was very worth while.  It was definitely operating on a high level in terms of the companies and executives that were in attendance, but it shows that RSS and Online publishing are becoming the norm.

 

 

Search Engine Strategies New York

Everyone in the SE/SEAM industry knows that when they attend the Search Engine Strategies (SES) conferences they will leave with more useful knowledge than they came with.  Hopefully nobody is so arrogant to assume they don't have anything to learn with the Internet landscape changing so rapidly.

That said one of the things that I learned at the SES New York was from some of the data that was presented the theme of "Vertical Creep" that was presented in a panel that Gord Hotchkiss of Enquiro participated in.  We generally understand the need to be found in more ways as people begin to exercise the new found technological freedom of receiving their information any old way that they want; be it by mobile phone, Blackberry, Treo,  blue tooth to their PDA, in their RSS newsreader, their desktop, their laptop their, iPod, or their.........

Bottom line there are numerous examples of what we see in the online area alone when it comes to written content like this blog, photos, online video, podcasts, etc and how the search engines are indexing and ranking results.  That said you need to be found in various verticals in order to maximize the online visibility of your message.

One example that I like is that of David McInnis  the founder of PRWeb.com and it's surrounding properties.  When you do a search for David McInnis you find that there are hundreds of thousands results of which hundreds if not thousands of those point to the David McInnis of PRWeb.  However, the thing that is striking is that the number one  Google result and the number four Yahoo! result is that of David's profile and photograph as it is found on PRWebphotowire.

At first you might think that it is the result of of vertical creep.  However, the relevance of the photo is really based on the organic currency that it has by being connected to the huge quantity of text associated with associated with David McInnis.   

The remarkable thing is that the PRWebphotowire site was launched in early January as a place where high-resolution photographs could be stored online for future retrieval.  However, the relevance that the photowire content can augment your text efforts.  While a picture can be worth a thousand words search engines don't read photographs.  They index text.

I won't pretend to understand the world of algorithms but a relevant photograph that is linked to legitimate and relevant text does very well.  Of course the photo without the associated text will likely not perform so well.  In the case of David McInnis there is a ton of relevant text that can be tied together.

So what does all of this have to do with RSS.  It is about getting the information that people want to them when they are looking for it. Next time you put out a press release take the time to use the PRWebphotowire service at PRWeb as well.  You will be glad you did.   

SyncateConference Rocks!

Yesterday's SyndicateConference showed right away that the conference has improved.  There were many return participants from the first one that was held during May of this year in New York.  This conference showed an interesting mix of folks who possessed expert, intermediate and novice levels of understanding as to what Really Simple Syndication (RSS)) is and does. 

It is really cool to find people who say something to the affect of "I don't know what this is, but I want to learn how to use it."  This attitude shows we are one more step closer to the universal acceptance of RSS and all it does to enrich our lives online.

If you thought about utilizing RSS in any form be sure to attend the SyndicateConference that will be hosted in the New York area again May 16-17, 2006.  I will be there to learn and share the wonderful world of RSS.

Academics for the RSS Industry

Northwestern University's Rich Gordon of the Medill School of Journalism gave a great overview of how RSS is changing mainstream media.  During the SyndicateConference he cited that many traditional media companies are concerned that if they should place their content into RSS/News Feeds that the value of their content would be valued less.  What they are missing he said was that their is a need for high quality content on the web.

One of the things that he pointed out is that their is a lot content on the web that may have no value to anyone other than the author and a few friends and family.  He further shared that there is a lot of very good high quality content on the web that would not have ever been published in the mainstream media and now is only available because of RSS and blogging.

Regarding the concerns of copyright issues on the web he suggested that publishers consider making their content available when it is able to generate more traffic to the website.  He further stated that when content is being used inappropriately that you should defend it vigorously.  Gordon said that copyright laws apply both on and off the web.

According to Gordon the use of a headline and linking back to the website it came from would be acceptable.  What is unknown is if when you add the edit summary, or the first paragraph if that is acceptable or not.  Gordon followed up with that by saying he was unaware of a case that had made it all the way through the courts that addressed this to provide a bright line of what is acceptable.

Gordon recommended that you place the terms and conditions of use of all of your RSS/News Feeds on you website so that you can clearly direct parties as to what you deem as acceptable. 

The other item that Gordon urged is that whenever you do use content from an RSS/News Feed is that you give it proper credit and provide a link back to it.  By doing this it will be good for the industry as a whole.