Hothouse BlogFest ’05 (Sydney Australia)
June 24, 2005
Hothouse hosted the best catered, free seminar I’ve been to in a long time. The event was "BlogFest ’05" and was located at the lovely Westin hotel in central Sydney (Australia) yesterday morning.
There was a farily good turn out with around 100+ attendees, but then again the hot breakfast on the very cold Sydney morning probably had a lot to do with that.
Speakers:
Simon Van Wyk – CEO – Hothouse
Mark Jones – IT Editor of the Australian Financial Review
Mike Walsh – News Limited
Mike Walsh – News Limited
Brad Howarth – Freelance Jounalist – Lagrange Consulting
Andrew Sorensen – Deacons law firm
Here are the summaries of some of the points spoken about at the event:
Mark Jones – IT Editor – AFR
http://filtered.typepad.com/markjones/
http://filtered.typepad.com/markjones/
* Pointers to Cluetrain
* journalism vs blogging – Sees them as 2 seperate entities (sorry buddy but I disagree here. I really see that the line between journalist & citizen journalism is very grey if not non-existant).
* Blogging is a personal publishing system
* blogs take time (tell me about it)
* post short stories often
* great quote from Rupert Murdoch "Consumers want control over the media, instead of being controlled by it."
* converstions matter
* Mentioned podcasts & www.thepodcastnetwork.com got a plug.
* Commented on how RSS was like Pointcast…. (hmmm didn’t PointCast bite the big one?)
Mike Walsh – News Limited
http://www.fourth-estate.com/
* journalism vs blogging – Sees them as 2 seperate entities (sorry buddy but I disagree here. I really see that the line between journalist & citizen journalism is very grey if not non-existant).
* Blogging is a personal publishing system
* blogs take time (tell me about it)
* post short stories often
* great quote from Rupert Murdoch "Consumers want control over the media, instead of being controlled by it."
* converstions matter
* Mentioned podcasts & www.thepodcastnetwork.com got a plug.
* Commented on how RSS was like Pointcast…. (hmmm didn’t PointCast bite the big one?)
Mike Walsh – News Limited
http://www.fourth-estate.com/
* Talk titled Web 2.0 beta
* 21% use web as primary source of news
* Commented on the The Annotated times site http://annotatedtimes.blogrunner.com/
* mentioend digital social networks with examples of Cyworld, Linkedin
* Concept of Web 2.0 being – .mylife .news .connect .filter .remix
* Discussed issue of how Firefox with plugin can strip ads and content off websites and "there is nothing web designers can do about it"
Brad Howarth – Freelance journo
http://lagrangepoint.typepad.com/
* 21% use web as primary source of news
* Commented on the The Annotated times site http://annotatedtimes.blogrunner.com/
* mentioend digital social networks with examples of Cyworld, Linkedin
* Concept of Web 2.0 being – .mylife .news .connect .filter .remix
* Discussed issue of how Firefox with plugin can strip ads and content off websites and "there is nothing web designers can do about it"
Brad Howarth – Freelance journo
http://lagrangepoint.typepad.com/
1st, great to see you’re finally blogging Brad welcome to the conversation!
* Discussed infamous Kryptonite bike lock example
* Don’t fake it like Mazda tried to do in the US
* Blogging is word of mouth on steroids
* Don’t fake it like Mazda tried to do in the US
* Blogging is word of mouth on steroids
Simon Van Wyk – CEO – Hothouse
Impromptu comedy spot: Simon started his presentation then suddenly looked blankly at the audience and said…
"Sorry, can I stop this for a sec as I think this is my old presentation. I don’t think i’ve got the right laptop"
(So always ensure you practise safe laptop presentations kiddies!)
* The personal face of blogging. Gave example of Bob Lutz, head of GM
* Tracking success for a blog
– links not traffic
– ratings with rss aggs
– number of comments
– quality of sites linking
– # of trackbacks
– influence your blog has – (getting quoted in press and main stream blogs)
* Mentioned the http://www.truthlaidbear.com/ site
* Tracking success for a blog
– links not traffic
– ratings with rss aggs
– number of comments
– quality of sites linking
– # of trackbacks
– influence your blog has – (getting quoted in press and main stream blogs)
* Mentioned the http://www.truthlaidbear.com/ site
* "Blogging is not for everyone, it’s just another form of communication" (er, say what!?!?)
Andrew Sorensen – Deacons lawyers
Overall Andrew was very good as he explained the issues very well and with good relevance. Highly recommend using Andrew if you are looking for a legal company that has their finger on the pulse about blogging legal policies
Overall Andrew was very good as he explained the issues very well and with good relevance. Highly recommend using Andrew if you are looking for a legal company that has their finger on the pulse about blogging legal policies
*blogging the legal issues (Cameron got a mention! "example of an employee leaving Microsoft Australia for a posting on their blog")
* Issues to be aware of:
– defamation
– breach of confidentiality
– missuse of copyright
– discrimination
– illegal content
* Non legal – You company’s reputation
* What is your company’s policy? Is there one?
* Senior management blogging needs stricter control than other employees. (Due to fiduciary requirements)
* "Dont blog when angry" (LOL at this one)
* Mentioend the progression of the technology blogs – podcasts – "blogvision" (ok that’s new?!?)
* Issues to be aware of:
– defamation
– breach of confidentiality
– missuse of copyright
– discrimination
– illegal content
* Non legal – You company’s reputation
* What is your company’s policy? Is there one?
* Senior management blogging needs stricter control than other employees. (Due to fiduciary requirements)
* "Dont blog when angry" (LOL at this one)
* Mentioend the progression of the technology blogs – podcasts – "blogvision" (ok that’s new?!?)
A good selection of speakers, but I thought there was some crucial things missing such as:
-
No-one talked about permanent links and why they are so important to blogging. That they are extremely search friendly for one.
-
Blogging is a very easy thing to get into. No mention at all of the different types of free sites avaiable to get a blog going.
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How Blogs help your website’s searchablility on search engines for their markets.
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Link blogs are a great way to get starting without having to do the content yoruself.
-
Blogs are part of a bigger service to your customers so you can converse more freely with them.
Hothouse will host the AV of the presentations on their site in the near future
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