planet sab

I give up, content is still king

Last month I pointed out that there is more to great content, namely publishing mechanisms, content form and limited time on the side of the recipient. While that is still true, some observations and pointers.
I am way behind on the Newsgang since my commute was unstable this week and the weekend packed with, sorry, more important issues.
Instapaper, the new "read later" link collector, which I use more often then posting items to del.icio.us with a "toread" tag, is at this time filled with some 20 links and I am doubtful I'll ever get to them. But the art of collecting was just made easier...

Meanwhile, I did read the Story of Chez, former CNN news producer, you should too. "Fuck yous" like this one always excite me because I look forward to what will rise from the ashes. Not CNN's ashes, that's for sure.

Also, this stellar remake of Back to the Future found me, the only member of the Facebook Group "All I Know About the Space-Time Continuum I Learned From Back to the Future" I know. I was a serious BttF-addict in the past, know all three movies pretty much by heart and this brought back some quality memories. What's more, the performance of the "first McFly born in the West" is Oscar-worthy.

Finally, I feel very humbled by receiving several requests per week to upload my Speaking English Podcast to a variety of new video hosting services, content collectors and other sites. While I understand that  they are mainly looking for content providers that can guarantee some kind of consistency and have a back-log consider my ego comforted. Of course, it does not hurt that subscribers surged another 20% last week, and no, we are not talking about from 20 to 24.
I feel like I am not that far away from finding the sponsor needed to do with more focus and increase production value, but then it might just have to be the other way round, I might have to increase production in order to secure the sponsor. We'll see about that, because as much as I like putting myself out there contentwise, I am getting loads of content from a certain 6-months-old myself and the priorities are more than "crystal-clear", to quote Marty McFly.

Technorati Tags: bttf, content

Worth remembering

I just printed out this bit by Seth Godin and posted it to my monitor:

If you buy my product but don't read the instructions, that's not your fault, it's mine.
If you read a blog post and misinterpret what I said, that's my choice, not your error.
If you attend my presentation and you're bored, that's my failure.
If you are a student in my class and you don't learn what I'm teaching, I've let you down.

Worth remembering. Exceed expectations. Overfull requirements. Anticipate. Humble Pie.

Need feedback on Speaking English Podcast website

I have received a lot of emails and chat comments about the Speaking English Podcast,  for which I am very thankful and flattered, and I feel like more and more this is becoming the audience's show, the way it should be.

However, I feel that the website needs some upgrading, which I will work on in the next two weeks. Most likely I will chose another Typepad theme which should fit the nature of the content better – video. Do you have any suggestions as to what I should also change? Is a feature missing? Would you keep the archive the way it is arranged now? Do I need categories?

Let me know, thanks


Technorati Tags: speakingenglishpodcast

One vote at a time

Even if I am German and living I don't know how many miles away from the United States, this year's US election finds me quite fascinated and engaged. I'd have to go back to the beginning of my American Literature studies and the 1996 election where I was a guest at the America House Hamburg, witnessing at night how Clinton got re-elected.

This year, with a different, more adult look at world politics and especially on the last eight years, I find myself rooting for Barack Obama, hoping for change, to steal some of his keywords. If you have 20 minutes, watch this piece by Lawrence Lessig, on why he is for Obama and not Hillary Clinton.



Technorati Tags: obama, uselection

You can call me legendary: my ooVoo-Nights

First of all apologies to Marshall Kirkpatrick. His myoovooday session was the one I could actually attend without setting my alarm clock, but I missed it due to stupidity.



That said, call me legendary, please, it must be true, because Joseph Jaffe does ;-)



Lots of fun Sunday night and yesterday night, joining Joseph and Mitch Joel for their promo-session on ooVoo.



I am not sure this is THE future, but definitely a great tool to hold private conferences, send video messages and chat. Where is the difference to Skype? First off, the 6-people video conference seems a major advantage. The alpha Mac version I am using is a bit heavy on the CPU, but the quality of video and audio was great. The difference to iChat on the Leopard? Can't tell, because I am still on Tiger.

I did check for friends via Gmail-addressbook dump in, some usual suspects are already in (you can see Shel Holtz in one screen shot, and I missed Neville Hobson in the Kirkpatrick session), from Germany so far only Oliver Gassner. The 6-person chat needs a fair bit of moderation, but otherwise is good fun, we talked about Social Media vs. Social, music and blogging CEOs. Check it out. (Mac version via the myoovooday-Website)

Myoovooday is actually a neat idea, getting several celebreties to agree to talk to the blogosphere, hats off to Crayon (don't worry, audio comment will follow).



Technorati Tags: oovoo, myoovooday, jaffejuice, mitchjoel

The New Apple Macbook Air - NOT

Video of his Sony Vaio by Mitch Joel of Twist Image and Six Pixels of Separation. (Link to Mitch's post about the movie.)

Technorati Tags: macbook, air, apple, sony, vaio

last.fm – A great idea, but the learning curve is not good enough

Before I start complaining:
last.fm is a great service. It let's me listen to music I like, give some input about my likes and dislikes and also get recommendations for artists I am not yet familiar with but might like. And I will keep using last.fm, sure. (well, until something better comes along I guess).

But after some heavy use over the last weeks it is obvious that the algorithms still need a lot of tweaking.
Some points of issue:
- Why does the program not know what my "loved" tracks are when they come up again? I should not need to "love" them again.
- I often start my program with an artist. Why does last.fm almost always offer the same track to start? More randomness!
- It would be much better if the source album is clear - often a studio album cover is shown but track is obviously live or a record from 1960 shown but the track a remix.
- The free streaming service (last.fm-blog, lifehacker, mashable) but the way to get there is not intuitive enough and should be available through the app, too.
- Why, oh, why am I getting the same tracks again in one sitting, and in the same running order as well. To make me switch channels? Believe me, I did.
- Sometimes the algorithm is a bit too narrow, or does not "learn" enough from my likes and dislikes. If I skip David Lee Roth for the umpteenth time, should the program not be able to guess that I don't care too much for his music? Even though other bands from that field are liked ones?

Granted, the perfect playlist is one created by me. But the "love" and "hate" buttons suggest a learning curve which I wish would be much better...




Technorati Tags: lastfm, music, playlist

Great podcast on PR in the blogosphere

Shanna Hunt from Hill & Knowlton and He who shall not be named have a great conversation, Shanna especially shares a lot of insight. Later Jonathan Brown joins and offers down-to-earth perspective on Twitter. Podcast link, "blog"-entry.


Technorati Tags: gillmor, pr, blogosphere, newsgang

Reading list: Join the Conversation

Thanks Joseph for the review copy of your new book. I will review it ASAP and give my spare copy away. If you are interested, leave me a comment.

Technorati Tags: unm2pnm, jointheconversation

1, 2, 3 a-click

Just a quick pointer to a Gillmor post. Gillmor-esque as usual, but one could very well argue that a Rubel-esque "How GMail is my nerve-center/heart/GTD/everything environment" is hidden between the cryptic words. The post also shows that one of my questions at the Apple store was right on the money: How many Safari windows can I have open at the same time on the iPod Touch? Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, that leaves you with: 4
Click. Rock.