The New Rules of Marketing and PR

Posted by Joe Panettieri

Greetings from Dublin, Ireland, where I’m covering a Cisco partner event. During the flight here I read a few more chapters of a rather compelling book, “The New Rules of Marketing and PR.” It should be required reading for everyone in high-tech media — from editors to reporters to PR to marketing folks. The author, David Meerman Scott, describes in detail how blogs, wikis, podcasts and other new media are changing the rules of PR and marketing. Let me give you a few prime examples.

Right now, I’m sitting in a conference room waiting for a Cisco press briefing to begin. A few other reporters here have laptops, but most are carrying pens and paper. How old school. By the time today ends, I will have posted multiple blog entries on TechIQ, while my media rivals are still formulating what to write about today’s event. And through big content distribution networks like SeekingAlpha.com, our coverage reaches millions of Google and Yahoo visitors every day.

The examples don’t end there.

Never Forget

Posted by Joe Panettieri

As the sun was rising this morning, my flight was on final descent for Dublin, Ireland. Although I slept most of the flight, it was impossible not to think of those lost on 9-11-2001. When I booked this flight from New York, I purposely chose a Sept. 10 (rather than Sept. 11) departure date — though I’m not sure why. I can’t really capture my feelings about 9-11 in a blog, so perhaps it’s easiest to just link to a column I wrote days after the terror attacks. I will never forget.

Remembering….The Bell System

Posted by Mike Perkowski

I never thought I’d get inspiration for a blog entry when I went to the gym yesterday, but an innovative t-shirt caught my eye — and reminded me of life before, and after, “Divestiture.”

For those of you above a certain age, you’ll remember Divestiture (perhaps not fondly). For the rest of you, Divestiture officially happened on January 1, 1984, when AT&T broke off its local/regional operating companies into independent businesses. The T-shirt in question at the gym reminded me of one particular Bell Operating Company’s evolution since then.

The Best Killer Web App

Posted by Mike Perkowski

In the mid-90s, it was Web browsing. By 2000, it was CRM. More recently, it was managed services. But I’m here to say, without reservation, that the number-one application for the Web today is……Fantasy Football.

For those who think that Fantasy Football is nothing more than the most vivid example of men failing to get past their inevitable state of arrested development, you’re wrong. (Well, mostly so.) FF may be the greatest way to use up all that bandwidth the industry built out before the Internet bubble burst — at least from late August through early February, when the football season is raging.