Online Communications

A list of more than 160 PR Blogs feeds

Constantin Basturea has been gathering a incredible new PR list of more than 160 entries that includes personal, consultants and corporate blogs, with authors from 17 countries !!!

Following his already existing Headlines from PR blogs that has more than 100 PR blogs but all written in English, Constantin decided to initiate a more inclusive one.

Thank you so much for this fantastic resource Constantin !

Collecting emails on my Nokia 7710

That's it, I succeed in the configuration of the email client on my Nokia 7710 ! I could never believe I will be abble to get them there. Not because of the technical requirements, but as the camera phone is so new, my Telco SFR doesn't have the user guide in hands, so no one at the hotline has been abble to guide me in the configuration process nor to understand how I could be abble to surf on Internet but couldn't connect to download my emails...

Anyway, that's behind now, and it's working so well ! I am going to configure also my Gmail acount to see if I can collect both and don't get any confusion between them.

On the camera feature side, I must say I really enjoy camera phones and the potential that we have as "grassroots journalist" to take any picture at any moment, this is really lot's of fun. Unfortunately, moblogging is not so easy with the 7710, it's sad they didn't integrate Nokia Life's blog software... More over, it seems like Life's Blog is not even compatible with the 7710. I hope they will work on making this improvement. Although there is a Typepad plugin allowing you to connect directly from your mobile phone to your Typepad account administration interface, it takes much more time to moblog than what you can so easily do with a Nokia 7610 + Life's Blog...

See below a picture I took from my bike in the garage, it is of a 2 stars quality level out of 3 available on the Nokia 7710, quite nice indeed, isn't it ;o) ?...

Groove Networks has signed an agreement to be acquired by Microsoft

The transaction is expected to close sometime in the next couple of months, at which point Groove Networks would become part of Microsoft’s Information Worker Business Unit.

More informations on this announcement there.

New podcast on Business Blogging is launched

Jeremy Wright and Tyme White have launched the BizBlogShow, a promising podcast on Business blogging, part of the Podcast Network.

Said Jeremy, " this show will focus on the world of business blogging. What companies are doing it, how they’re doing it, what’s working, what isn’t… What companies aren’t doing it, why they aren’t doing it, what some possibilities are for their organization, etc… We’ll be talking to blog consultants, CEO’s, CTO’s, middle managers and everything in between. "

Download the BizBlog Show #01

Nokia 7710 Smartphone - Launch of the evaluation

For those who miss the story, please have a look there to understand what it is about in this new category of my posts.

So, now, let's share what I think from my very first hours spent whith my new companion. Firstly, I must say the list of it's features is estonishing. This Nokia 7710 Smartphone is doing everything and is, from my point of view, at the minimum, a mix between a mobile phone, a PDA, an MP3 player and a digital camera....

Say more precisely, the features are: 

• Touch screen
• Connect to the Internet with EGPRS or HSCSD
• Internet browser supports HTML/XHTML and Macromedia Flash 6
• Vibrant 65,536 color wide screen
• Megapixel camera (1152x864)
• Email (SMTP, POP3, IMAP4)
• Integrated handsfree & voice recorder
• Bluetooth technology (including audio)
• Personal Information Management: calendar, contacts, tasks, and more
• Word, Sheet, and Presentation Viewers; Word & Sheet converter
• Flight mode
• MP3 player with stereo audio
• Visual Radio

My favorite ? The MP3 player ! I was willing to get an MP3 player to listen to my favorite weekly podcast, and I have already been downloading it on my Smartphone ! It took something like 8 minutes for a 25 MB file to be transfer through USB from my laptop to the phone. Have no idea if it's a good timingor not as I am new at downloading /transferring MP3 files, but now I have it.

I've been also taking a lot of pictures with the camera, unfortunately can't share any with you now as I have been maily shooting my family this week-end, but my first impressions are very positive, from the quality side of the pictures and from the ergonomical and intuitivity side of the "software" to manage them hosted in the Smartphone. At this point the wide screen is just great, although I suspect it must request a lot of energy compare to others phones, but this is the traditional fight between large/small screen and colours or black & white.... Ihave to creat my first moblog here to make sure I can alsouse easily this feature.

So a lot more to tell you soon !

Remember Marqui's Blogosphere program ? Now Nokia is playing ...

You certainly remember Marqui's blogosphere program that has been launched last december ? Marqui has been recruting bloggers to blog about their product and paid them around 800 $ a month, providing them with a contract with the following terms sumary:

- Mention Marqui and link to our site - once a week.
- Put our mark/emblem on your site.
- Three month contracts will be honored.
- No "gotchas." None.

20 bloggers have been playing the game, and a huge controversy erupts at that time... See the Technorati on this story.

It was the first time a brand has been recruting bloggers and announcing with full transparency they will be paying bloggers to give feedback on their products.

Why do I remind this story ? I've been recently hired by Nokia as member of  Nokia 7710 VIP Program, including 1800 people around the world, 50 in France. That's the reason why I remember Marqui's story...

What is it about in this case ? We are asked to give our thoughts on the Nokia 7710 Smartphone by connecting once a week on a specific forum, to answer two times to a phoning questionnaire and of course to use the Nokia 7710 as our main phone during the time of the testing. We can keep the Smartphone for us at the end.

I found this approach very intersting and clue for several reasons. This time, people are not able to pitch as in Marqui's case, Nokia has been hiring them. We didn't ask, we've been asked. So we couldn't decide to do it to get something in return initially. Then we are much more free than in Marqui's case, we are not asked to blog or to sign any contract, we just have to connect on this forum and participate a little bit + answer the questionaire by phone, which is much better for lazies...

What I like more than everything: the composition of the VIP pannel: Celebrities/stars, well-known CEOs, and bloggers. And bloggers ! How clever from Nokia to ask bloggers to participate. How many discussions are going to raise from this 3rd group. And more over, at a time where so many people are seing the fall of PR vs. the raise of Bloggers, (the PR pro blogger I am is talking ...) thanks to this new channel = blog offer to anyone who wants to say anything, Nokia comes whith it's VIP Program.

Let me make the point. PR has always been recruting stars to promote brands or messages, the marketing archives are full of examples. This is indeed not the most original side of Nokia's strategy in our case. But the mix between traditional PR and what some are calling "New PR" is here just great. It shows that some clever folks have understood that PR is definitely not dead, (but traditional PR is) and can be on the contrary strengthens by new communications tools as blogs that where supposed to replace them ! And this is huge.

So congratulations to Creadrive who has been working in France on this project with Xavier des Horts, Communication Director of Nokia France, thanks for having hiring me, it was a good surprise for the geek or IT friendly that I am.

For transparency reasons and as I'd like to share my deep thoughts without any confusion, I am going to create a specific category on this blog, dedicated to this program.

 

Quite cold those days in Europe

As you can see, we are living quite a frozen week in France Switzerland.... Those pictures have been taken on the sea side, north of France the lac Léman side.

Ok, which door first to get in ... ?

Thanks Angèle for sharing the photos !

DNS server issue

We are facing some problems with our DNS server today, so Blogging Planet is unfortunately not on line right now and still for few next hours probably.

Usually a redirection takes several days but, don't ask me why, it happened immediately yesterday evening when I subscribe the hosting service ...

As soon as we are back on line, I'll let you know.

Launch of Blogging Planet

Today is a great day: Blogging Planet is launched ! I am more than happy to announce this new consultancy and also very enthusiastic. I have the chance to work in alliance with Elizabeth, Neville and Christophe, and I think we make a great international team together ! ;o) What is it about ? Certainly not a technical issue. It's all about communication, network , links, connections, conversations and how to help a brand spread the word thanks to new communications tools. We strongly believe in the blogosphere, in micro media and we want to bring companies our knowledge in the daily communication they could initiate by entering a new discussion with their key audiences. Want to learn more about our new initiative ? Visit Blogging Planet.

Details are in the press release that went out this morning (see below)

How to choose your MP3 player

I am actually close to do it, it's in the air, I need an MP3 player, not for music, rather for Podcast ! Difficult choice as I've never been considering seriously getting one of those as I didn't ever know when I would have time to listen to music except on my car when driving to my office....which is more than dangereous ....

But now, podcast is pushing me strongly on the way to the IT store, knowing that every week I found some new channels and shows I'd love to listen to more frequently ... I found a guide on about.com that I found quite well done. Might be helpfull for some of you also...