commbasics

Interesting tweet to day on Karen Bartelson 's Twitter page.  She ponders a survey's question on how much Synopsys will spend on social media this year.  She calls the question a "non sequitur since most of social media is free?" That is a common misconception, but mostly because most people discount the human cost of social media AND they have a limited understanding of what social media actually is.  Let's deal with that last one first.   Social media is any medium that elicits a response from the audience through the medium.  Funny thing is, if a newspaper publishes a letter to the editor on a topic that paper covered, that means the newspaper is a non-electronic social medium.  Radio and television call-in shows also qualify.  Take another step up to email.  If you respond to a piece of spam -- even if it's to pass it on to someone else -- that makes your email a social medium.  Your website ...

Spent the day yesterday at the Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose and got some input that make s a fitting conclusion to my three parter on what social media does. As I said before, social media, in itself, does nothing.  Its components are just mediums like a piece of paper is a medium.  You decide what to do with it.  That confuses a lot of people because newspapers, radio, TV and even the internet to some degree just seems to "magically" appear with information and little or no cost to us, 24 hours a day.  We're used to getting our information however we want it.  What is happening, though, is that magical, free flow of real information is being overtaken by poorly produced marketing crap and we are losing the ability to parse what is real and what is hype. In talking with a dozen media people yesterday, I see a definite trend.  Those who continue to work in advertising-supported media are depressed and worried.  Those who...

OK, I know I have to finish my thoughts that I said I would work on... but I've been busy.  And today, as I get ready to go talk to potential sponsors for New Tech Press, I decided to dome up with a list of technology niches we've covered this past year.  It's not a lot, but damn was it ever interesting. This is what New Tech Press has look at over the past 10 months. Polymer organic LED displays Semiconductor industry standards Semiconductor IP Social Media platforms Online Gaming LED applications for displays and industrial lighting Euro startups Media technology incubators Green real estate development Mobile smartphones for military and emergency services Virtualization for electronic systems design That's really cool. Sometimes, I amaze me. 

I did a couple of blips on the EE Times DesignLine changes earlier this week and today got my hand slapped, not entirely inappropriately, by Patrick Mannion and Rich Nass.   I didn't say report anything wrong, per se, but it wasn't the whole story.   After Rich and I made nice over the phone, I got more detail.   But there is more to consider.   First let's look at how this whole thing is breaking down. Techinsights has acquired and developed a lot of media properties in the past decade, but hasn't really done a good job at integrating them, which I reported in an interview with Paul Miller a couple of months ago.   The move to replace the contract editors on the DesignLines with staff editors is a step toward that integration.   Patrick has actually been in charge of the DesignLines for almost three years, but they were allowed to operate fairly independently.   By putting the staffers in charge of the sites EETimes print and o...

Dave Maliniak , one of the workhorses at Electronic Design, dropped us a line today to point out that he actually took over the Test and Measurement beat at the magazine back in January.  Totally missed that one.   While I know that means the perennially swamped Maliniak didn't need another bit of work to do (he also covers EDA), the combination actually makes some sense.  Design automation is becoming more of a backend issue and there are some technologies coming down the pike, outside of both T&M and EDA that are going to dramatically alter those industry landscapes.  This makes ED a good bet for seeing the bigger picture.  That, is if Dave can survive the load and ED can start boosting revenue. I'm working on it, Dave.

A couple of days ago I mentioned that Kenton Williston had his contract cancelled to edit the DSP DesignLine at the EE Times supersite.  What I didn't know, until today, is that all of the editors of the DesignLines were dismissed. The DL program was manned by freelancers, including Kenton, Clive Maxfield, and Gabe Moretti, but the work on those pages is now to be brought in house completely.  We can probably expect some significant changes in the format and content, but I am assuming that with Patrick Mannion taking charge, there will be some redesign of Techonline as well. This is significant because the DesignLines had become not only a repository of contributed content, but for ongoing coverage of certain niches, like DSPs and EDA.  Without those freelancers the electronics industries has lost more than a dozen journalists to take meetings and receive news releases. New Tech Press is looking better all the time.

Just heard that RCR Wireless shut down last week and that Reed Business is closing the San Jose office with all the editors now working from home.  That's been the case for the most part anyway with, I believe, Ron Wilson being the only editor still working out of that office.  But it's a sign of the times that the Silicon Valley is no longer considered worthy of a significant office for Reed.

Last week I posted a tweet stating I thought social media was more "attuned to introverts."  As one might expect, introverts agreed and extroverts disagreed.  (For the record I also posted I had had a lot of wine, which is what happens when you spend two R&R days in the wine country.) I thought, it might be worth taking a few moments to explain myself.  I didn't mean to say that extroverts couldn't use social media effectively.  What I'm saying is that social media is more valuable to introverts.  To be clearer, extroverts don't need social media to communicate in this world.  It's just another tool for them.  For introverts, social media levels the playing field for them with extroverts. Let's set the table on this discussion.  I'm an introvert.  When I go into a large social setting and talk with a lot of people, it drains me.  What I really like to do in those settings is find an int...

Kenton Williston dropped me a note this week to let me know that he's left TechInsights as editor of the DSP DesignLine.  Kenton did a pretty good job as a contractor for that site from my perspective and I'm sorry to see him go.  Patrick Mannion is taking over (gee, Patrick, what are you going to do with your free time) along with his duties running Techonline. Kenton doesn't have a line on what's next for him but I recommend him for freelance work.

I've mentioned our VComm event from last January a couple of times and the results are still emerging.  Today, however, I got an unsolicited response from one of the Scottish companies that participated.  Actually got a little teary reading it. "VComm represented an excellent introduction to the American venture capital scene. Not only was the room filled with the right people – they were warmed up, welcoming and ready to invest. The online training from the organizers was fantastic for the novice presenter and seasoned campaigner alike. Your YouTube and New Tech Press videos concisely focused on the key message and importantly only took ten minutes out of the viewer's day.  "By following your hints and tips on successful presenting we have been approached by 5 VC’s with an interest in investing. In turn the venture community is now talking about us and we have seen an uplift in our web traffic stateside as a direct result. The most significant devel...

One of the first interviews I did on State of the Media was with my old friend, Marty Weybret, publisher of the Lodi News Sentinel (which is one of the oldest family-owned daily newspapers left in America).  At the time, the LNS was still doing well but Marty saw the handwriting on the wall.  I've been pushing my friend to get more involved with social media and he finally got onto Facebook and is getting pretty active.  He wrote a note with 10 questions on the future on journalism and asked for my input.  I'm putting it up on his notes, but I thought it would be good for fodder here as well. Does "free on the Internet" mean news now has no economic value? The only reason free content is on the internet is because the people placing it there have not assigned value to it.  Case in point is the Wall Street Journal.  They still charge a subscription to see much of their content.  They got a lot of flack at the beginning of Web 2....

With the news that the General Assembly of Maryland is banning Facebook and Myspace connections, we have an interesting issue before us regarding social media.  Is "big" a good thing or do good things really come in small packages? Some people think Facebook, growing at millions of people every month, is a good place to build your community, but when you have a widespread network, hacker bozos like messing with you.  The reason Mac's are generally immune to computer viruses is that there are not enough people using them for malware hackers to cause the mayhem they like to do.  Facebook and Myspace present the kind of playground the web-vandals like to ransack. But so far, the smaller, more focused players in social media, like Linkedin and Plaxo have been fairly immune to malware.  So what I am wondering is, have we gone past the time of importance for mass media?  Are we, as Seth Godin sees it, becoming a planet of tribes again?   I...

Time Magazine had an article this week on " How to save your newspaper " and guess what?  They said dependence on advertising is a stupid way to run a newspaper. Duh.   So someone else is going to have to foot the bill for real news.  It may be the reader, or it could be sponsored, objective content.  What part of this are we not getting?

As we are getting ready to put Vitalcom's remains to rest, I'm entering into a technical world where I have never got before.  Just to keep you apprised, I have a BUNCH of URLs I use for various things.  The one's you may be familiar with are this one (commbasics.typepad.com) the Vitalcom one (vitalcompr.com) and Footwasher Media (footwashermedia.com which has nothing on it right now) My technical challenge is moving all the content from this site to the footwashermedia.com url, as well as the pertinent information about VitalCom so people who look for me there won't wonder what happened.  How this is all done I have no idea, but someone does and soon I will have that knowledge...as soon as I find them. All suggestions are welcome.  Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Plaxo, and here are all available to contact me.  Let the grand adventure begin!

Last year I wrote that I'm totally committed to the concept of social media  especially as it relates to technology startups.  I said then that I had not taken a traditional PR client in a year and could not recommend anyone hire anyone else to do traditional PR anymore.  Some readers gave me a thumbs up and others asked if I was feverish.  It is a significant step forward for a former traditional journalist turned PR pro to take, especially one who can smell the social security checks coming over the hill, but I meant it. Sometimes you have to be careful what you say because you will often be asked to back it up at some point. That happened to me and my little PR firm, VitalCom, this week.  As of 4:30 p.m. Pacific time, VitalCom's vital signs ceased after a lengthy illness.  One client has changed it's commitment to traditional PR and is considering a social media platform at a significantly lower cost, and the one client we had that was ...

Cary Snyder , one of the journalists/engineers I've read and enjoyed over the years, emerged out of the blue last week to ask my opinion of his new experiment in social media, Beyond USB 3.0   My first glance at it is that he's doing a good job with a very complex, highly technical and very important technology, specifically USB.   Why is it very important? Well, let's just point out that Apple issued their new Macs without the FireWire interface that Apple helped develop, and just has USB ports now.  That's a pretty damn good endorsement. Although it screws me on my video camera set up. But I digress.  The fact that a good tech journalist is ready to go out an do something in social media, more than just a blog, is great news.   Cary and I will be talking in the near future regarding working together on New Tech Press and I, for one, could not be happier.

Bootstrapping a startup generally means things take a while to complete.  We've been working on the New Tech Press design for several months and I'm happy to say... it's done.

Talked to a semi company today that we began talking to several months ago regarding a New Tech Press article.  This is not one of the "big" companies, but they do seem to be profitable.  What was interesting was they may have gotten "it." Seems they went through some significant effort to get some coverage for something they considered a major announcement for them.  They did all the right things.  Spent money on news releases, collateral material, white papers, soup to nuts. Even did some advertising.  The result?  Bupkis.  No pick up other than reprinted news releases.  Luckily, they talked to us a few months ago and they came to realize that the press that might have covered this announcement five years ago... maybe even two years ago... no longer exists.  They know they have to do something different. The would be us; New Tech Press.  Hope springs eternal.

Did a marathon trade show sprint (isn't that a mixed metaphor?) at the Design Automation Conference in Anaheim on Monday.  Drove down Sunday night in time to see the big empty room for the EDAC reception, and spent a couple of hours talking with investment bankers, VCs and entrepreneurs about how lousy the business (Electronic Design Automation) was.  (Interesting to note that the CEOs of two of the leading companies, Synopsys and Mentor Graphics , were interviewed by EE Times about how great everything was.  Apparently everyone else is delusional, or the two CEOs didn't get the message.) The reason for going down to the site of "the happiest place on earth" was to do some video taping of start-ups and set up some article interviews for the New Tech Press network, talk to a couple of people and then jump back in the car and head home to get some work done.  Twelve hours on the road out of 36.  Yuck. But all that time on the road gave me a chance to catch up on my po...

Brian Fuller let the cat out of the bag today about EE Times abandoning the print news weekly format for the thought-piece magazine format. It could be that there will still be weekly publications for a while, but Fuller expects it to drop to a monthly, and much smaller.  That will reduce print costs dramatically and make the book more profitable and with a great editorial staff. But that means marketing people in electronics and design have no other choice but to compete on the web for news coverage... and from different sources than they are used to working with.  This is actually good news for those who are ready to think strategically in communications, which ain't many companies. So it's bad news for everyone who still thinks they can market like it's 1999. Companies that will succeed in press relations will be able to place their product and technology in the context of the larger world.  Companies working to make small changes to highly specialized a...