Just in case you’d forgotten why design was invented… February 8, 2008
Posted by David Petherick in : Authority, Emedia, Fun, Managing Data, News, Web Audit , add a commentI couldn’t quite believe that an organisation had spent time, energy and money, but still expected me to read this web page…
I am speechless, and glad that some people study design, typography, and measure the effectiveness of how they present their messages.
I am not even providing a link to this to protect the guilty - please believe, I did not make this up. Ok - it’s here, more or less.
Plain Speaking on Microsoft / Yahoo merger from Marc Andreessen February 5, 2008
Posted by David Petherick in : Authority, BlackStar, Blogs, Emedia, News, plain english , add a commentI’m grateful to Jason Calacanis of Mahalo for bringing this to my attention - a refreshing take on what the proposed Microsoft/Yahoo merger might mean for Silicon Valley startups.
Just a fine example of plain speaking and logic. Read “Silicon Valley after a Microsoft/Yahoo merger: a contrarian view“
Edinburgh Book Festival: Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood virtually, really, meet Roza Nazipova. August 16, 2007
Posted by David Petherick in : Authority, Blogs, Emedia, Fun, Media 2.0, Networks, News , add a commentEdinburgh’s fantastic International Book Festival was buzzing last night, as a sell-out audience of 600 witnessed the first ever Canadian-Scottish translatlantic book signings, when Canadian Author Alice Munro, in the Bayfield Bookshop, Bayfield, Ontario, signed books for audience members in Edinburgh, using author Margaret Atwood’s amazing “Long Pen”.
The signings followed a hilarious and witty interview between the two authors, both from Canada, which included live questions from the Edinburgh audience.
Due to obvious time restraints, there were only a limited number of signings available, and high-tech met low-tech as audience members queueing for entry were handed raffle tickets for the chance to have a book signed, and Margaret Atwood, inventor of the Long Pen, and a distinguished novelist herself, drew the numbers from the hat.
Just 30 lucky audience members then were able to have their book placed on the amazing “long pen” device, and see and talk to the author signing their book from Canada - who naturally could see and talk to them - all of which was live, broadcast onto large screens, as part of the evening’s event. These tete-a-tete chats will also be added to the Long Pen web site, so that audience members will have the ability to share their chat with the author with a wider audience.
Roza Nazipova, my wife and business partner, asked a question during the audience questions sessions, which was largely, but charmingly, sidestepped by Alice Munro - as to her favourite Scottish or Russian authors, but she did confess to be working on writing about a Russian historical figure. Roza was lucky enough to have her number chosen for a book signing. In one of those odd coincidences in life, so too was a Canadian girl directly behind Roza in the queue, performing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, a lifelong fan of both authors, and who had the sequential ticket above Roza’s winner (103 just for the curious numerologists among you). Naturally, she had booked her ticket online… but due to a glitch somewhere, had initially received the wrong tickets - but still, here she was. Roza had queued for five hours in June to make sure she had tickets for this event. It all seems to have been worth the effort.
Here is the signing taking place, and Roza Nazipova talking to Alice Munro:
Here is the signature (the book’s action begins in Edinburgh):
And here is Margaret Atwood adding her signature and inscription:
And this is the full inscription, which reads:
‘Alice Munro
and Margaret Atwood
did via LongPen on
August 15 2007′
A big thank you to Catherine Lockerbie, Edinburgh Book Festival Director, and all of the technical staff, for a long anticipated event that will be long remembered - not just for its novelty, but also for the wit, charm and humour of these two amazing authors.
And just think of all those air miles saved… 
>> Edinburgh Book Festival
>> Edinburgh Festival (Pocket Tweetmap Edition)
Speaka No Evil: Help stop cyberbullies today with Speaka Points! August 7, 2007
Posted by David Petherick in : Authority, Blogs, Fun, Media 2.0, Networks , add a commentI hate bullies, bigmouths and know-it alls who bash people - especially those new to forums, social networks and community web sites. So you and I are going to gang up on those bullies! (And we’re also going to be nice to people who are good guys and girls).
If you feel someone has made a particularly good or bad contribution on a blog, forum or social networking site (or indeed anywhere online), why not award them ‘Speaka’ points?
Simply add the appropriate good or bad image by using the code
<img src=”http://speaka.org/minus3.gif”>
right the way up to
< img src=”http://speaka.org/plus3.gif”>
in your web comments. Simple.
You may also want to link to http://speaka.org/noevil as a reference, where you will find other tools, full codes for links, and other information.
We’re already planning Russian and Spanish versions. Sponsorship, if you are a non-evil corporation, is possible. Your suggestions are welcome.
“Try nice - you’ll like it.”
David Petherick | I am the Digital Biographer
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BBC News: Meet the digital biographer. July 16, 2007
Posted by David Petherick in : Authority, Digital Biography, Emedia, Networks, News, Online Communities , add a comment
Having been interviewed by the BBC last week, the results appeared online at the BBC website today. The article focuses on my work for Thomas Power at Ecademy who reveals that I am the “digital biographer” who helps to manage his online presence.
I am glad I managed to embed the term “digital biographer” in the mind of the interviewer, and was delighted it made its way into the headline. (Not least because I now own digitalbiographer.com)
It does sound a little more literary and glamorous than ‘blog butler’ or ‘cyberspace concierge’ I think!
>> Read the full article ‘Meet the Digital Biographer’ at the BBC Web Site
You’re a Nobody unless your name Googles well - Wall Street Journal May 9, 2007
Posted by David Petherick in : Authority, Emedia, Networks, News, Online Communities, Reports , add a commentIt’s official - well, it is if you rate the Wall Street Journal’s front page as authoritative - if your name doesn’t Google well, you can have problems with your credibility - and not just with prospective employers.
You’re a Nobody Unless your Name Googles Well published on the 8th of May 2007, cites the example of Abigail Garvey, who, when she adopted the married name of Wilson, began to be questioned on publications she listed on her CV (résumé) because they weren’t finding the publications in online searches.
In the age of Google, being special increasingly requires standing out from the crowd online. Many people aspire for themselves — or their offspring — to command prominent placement in the top few links on search engines or social networking sites’ member lookup functions. But, as more people flood the Web, that’s becoming an especially tall order for those with common names. Type “John Smith” into Google’s search engine and it estimates it has 158 million results. (See search results.)
Ask.com estimates about 7% of all searches are for a person’s name, and more than 80% of executive recruiters said they routinely use search engines to learn more about candidates, according to a recent survey by ExecuNet. ExecuNet published “Growing Number Of Job Searches Disrupted By Digital Dirt” in June of 2006, which found that “35% (of executive recruiters) have eliminated a candidate from consideration based on the information uncovered online - up significantly from 26% just one year ago.
So, aside from naming your children carefully after a Google search, and including your full name in all online postings, how can you reach the top of Google?
The answer is actually very simple: Join Ecademy for Search Success: - Just create an online profile at Ecademy, and within as short a timescale as a few weeks, by following simple techniques to add structured information to your profile, and adding blogs and marketplace content relevant to your expertise within Ecademy, Google will rank your name, link to your web content and web sites. The cost is minimal - £10 ($20) a month lets you raise your visibility, as well as become part of a strong business network that’s been growing quietly and organically since 1998, when social media really was not on anyone’s radar.
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US Lawyers suing YouTube infringe YouTube trademark with class action website May 6, 2007
Posted by David Petherick in : Authority, Blogs, News, Online Communities, Reports , add a comment
A little blog can go a long way….
I’ve caught the attention of franticindustries.com with my suggestion that YouTube sue the lawyers trying to sue them.
Youtube, as I reported here yesterday, are being sued by The English Football League and Bourne Music in what their lawyers hope will become a class action lawsuit. However, they have seen fit to set up a web site at http://www.youtubeclassaction.com/ which invites others to join in if they have a complaint against YouTube infringing copyright.
Stan Schroeder at Franticindustries.com has published my suggestion that YouTube should sue these lawyers for infringement of the YouTube trademark - as the domain name appropriates the YouTube name. Stan agrees that a cease and desist letter would be an appropriate response to these people. I wonder if it will happen - I know that Stan’s blog gets around 100,000 monthly unique visitors, so at least it might cause pause for thought in the YouTube legal department.
Are there any trademark experts or lawyers who would like to give an opinion on the matter?
![[speaka's plain english blog]](http://searchsuccess.net/images/cc-speeka-100wh.gif)
David Petherick | Profile Makeover | Makes words make sense
MySpace to be renamed NewsCorpRevenueMakerSpace March 21, 2007
Posted by David Petherick in : Authority, Blogs, News, Online Communities , add a commentDigital Music News reports that MySpace has blocked artist/apparent pornstar Tila Tequila from posting an Indie911 Hoooka widget/MP3 store on her MySpace page, and apparently, MySpace is considering banning other third-party music widgets as well. MySpace makes revenue when a sale is made through the MyStore/SnoCap widget it promotes, but does not get a cent from the Indie911 Hooka widget.
One of MySpace’s strengths is that you can create and modify an online presence without needing to know any code, and can embed your other online presences into the MySpace page using all sorts of widgets - independent and official. If MySpace restricts and proscribes the content one can add, there will be a significant backlash from MySpace users, and MySpace has already allegedly removed blog content from Tila Tequila’s page.
Although I sense a certain amount of “news engineering” behind Tila’s promotion of Indie911, and I can understand MySpace wishing to maximise revenue - if the site restricts how content can be displayed on its pages, and perhaps more specifically, if it restricts what content can be displayed, then it is in trouble. If MySpace actually means NewsCorpApprovedRevenueandContentSpace, it will surely die.
We all know web sites like MySpace need a revenue model - but this could be a meltdown model, as there are a lot of independently minded people on MySpace who are all perfectly capable of moving their content to other networks, and, like Tila, to draw traffic to their their own independent blogs. In 2007, we can all publish our content freely (and through multiple channels) - it’s Web 2.0 guys - big media trying to make us think and act as they dictate is so very last century.
MySpace need to remember that the most important element of any social network is the content the members of that network create, and the sense of community that their interaction around that content creates. Try to control or curb that content, and you are taking away the very reason many will have joined the network in the first place - to express themselves freely. It will take about a New York Second for a smart outfit to provide an “instant port” of your MySpace content onto another platform - let’s call it QuiteIndependent - and they will flourish.
Now, QuiteIndependent.com (URL is available, by the way) might be bought up in six months by the next NewsCorp, but by then, it’s likely that even NewsCorp will have learned, just like Microsoft, that if they want to make a profit, they can no longer do it by trying to shove competitors off their platform, stifling competition and innovation, controlling people, limiting their choices, and forcing them to use proprietary software that is only designed to make money. They have to be smarter than that. I hope that MySpace is clever enough to start hiring some smart new talent soon…
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Inside Ecademy BlackStar: Belonging, Sharing, Winning (25 days of Attitude) January 27, 2007
Posted by David Petherick in : Authority, BlackStar, Blogs, Emedia, Online Communities , add a commentWhy do people stop reading your Ecademy Profile? | Complete Certainty: Reliable Business Hosting | Do you Speaka Plain English? | Seats at David Petherick’s Barcelona Masterclass: 12-Feb-07
1: Act 1 Scene 1
On the 28th of January 2006, I joined Ecademy, having come across it as part of my ongoing research and investigation into blogging, social networks, and ‘web 2.0′ in general. Within ten minutes, I knew that PowerNetworker status was the only sensible starting point, and I also recognised that Ecademy had something that an Israeli company I’d been working with needed - and vice versa. I wrote to, and had a response from, Thomas and Penny Power, the very next day.
By February, Ecademy had a deal on the table with Conduit to create the Ecademy Toolbar, and I was beginning to recognise that by sharing ideas and contacts, I might not be getting paid for “the deal” in cash, but I was earning goodwill from all the parties I brought together. Goodwill, in my years of building businesses, I consider is more valuable than money - because you can’t buy it - you have to earn it - and when you need to spend it - it’s inflation-proof.
I started to recognise that my skills could be used in Ecademy in a very specific way: to rewrite profiles, and market place adverts. After all I am a journalist, copy writer, photographer, designer, can code HTML and tell a story. So the “profile makeover” service was created. After honing my talents on a few willing friends and volunteers at Ecademy, I finally managed to persuade Thomas Power that I should rewrite his profile in July 2006. When he published the result and posted a blog about it, I soon realised that I had just invented an industry. By October of 2006, I had a constant three week waiting list of customers, and they were almost half referrals from existing customers.
I decided that I should investigate joining BlackStar: for two reasons. 1) Some of the best networkers in Ecademy were Blackstars; 2) Many of my customers were Blackstars; and 3) The energy and focus these people all seemed to have intrigued me, as did the idea of a wealth profile - something that I kept seeing and hearing about.
In correspondence and meetings with Thomas and other Black Stars, I saw that being “a member” somehow helped other Blackstars to get to the point quickly, establish a level of intimicy and trust that seemed almost automatic, intuitive. I also read up on wealth profiles and the work of Roger Hamilton. I decided to apply in December, filled out an application form, and had an interview of about an hour and a half, at the end of which, I was accepted as a member.
I made my payment, and within two hours, was astonished to see that I had an inbox message welcoming me to BlackStar. What? How did that colleague know so soon? I looked at my profile summary, and it suddenly dawned on me: my little membership icon had changed from orange to black. I was a BlackStar.
It was the 29th of December, 2006. I did not quite know it then, but I had the most stimulating, fulfilling and rewarding three weeks of my life ahead of me, which were beautifully crystallised on Monday 22nd January, at my first ever (and I hear the biggest ever) BlackStar Monthly Meeting in London.
(Free MP3 Recorded version of this story will be available shortly - just send an email to blackstar25@searchsuccess.net and you’ll get to grab it when it’s edited.)
David Petherick’s Online Profile Masterclass: Barcelona, 12 February 2007 January 2, 2007
Posted by David Petherick in : Authority, Barcelona, Emedia, Fun, News, Online Communities , add a commentDavid Petherick, the Profile Makeover Expert, is offering a one-day Masterclass on how to edit, format and promote your business and personal brand through your online profile.
Thomas Power is Chairman of Ecademy, and Penny Power is its Founder. Together, they have perhaps the most-visited profiles online at Ecademy. However, both asked David Petherick to makeover and rewrite their profiles. Why was that?
The answer is that they were objective, and recognised that they were not the best person to author their profile. Being objective about what to include and how to structure your own profile is very difficult. Most people can not be objective when describing themselves - that’s why so many autobiographies are unreadable.
Your profile is your first and often your last chance to make an impression online. No matter how impressive your online contribution to discussions, groups, clubs, assisting and advising others - your profile is the touchstone and reference point. It’s a combination of a sales pitch, a personal presentation, a business card, a brochure, a personal statement, a list of recommendations, a mini web-site, and a wave from across the room.
It has a lot of work to do. Is your profile doing you proper justice?
Date: Monday 12th February 2007
Time: 10:00 - 16:30
Place: Barcelona, Catalonia
Fee: £97
Click here to Reserve your Place at the Barcelona Profile Masterclass today!
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