Archive for July, 2007 Page 2 of 4

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World’s Fastest And America’s Slowest Internet Connection

Published by
Paul Woodhouse
at July 18, 2007 in Internet. 1 Comment

Did you hear the one about the 75 year old Swedish woman with the world’s fastest internet connection?

Sigbritt Löthberg’s home has been supplied with a blistering 40 Gigabits per second connection, many thousands of times faster than the average residential link and the first time ever that a home user has experienced such a high speed.

You can read more here about how it all came about and how she now has the capability to watch 1,500 simultaneous HD broadcasts at once and download a full HD-DVD in approximately two seconds. Heaven help us if anybody shows her how to use bittorrent.

Now you might think 40 gigabytes is a little excessive. However, it isn’t the speed that is the issue but the technology behind the speed.

The secret behind Sigbritt’s ultra-fast connection is a new modulation technique which allows data to be transferred directly between two routers up to 2,000 kilometres apart, with no intermediary transponders.

According to Karlstad Stadsnät the distance is, in theory, unlimited – there is no data loss as long as the fibre is in place.

“I want to show that there are other methods than the old fashioned ways such as copper wires and radio, which lack the possibilities that fibre has,” said Peter Löthberg, who now works at Cisco.

The whole of America is put to shame when you consider its fastest connection in Rhode Island strolls in at a very pedestrian 5.01 megabits. And we won’t go into the ramifications of West Virginia plodding along at a sedentary 1.12 megabits – the national average being 1.97. As far as other national average internet speeds go, Canada is trotting along at 7mb with Japan leading us all at 61mb [source].

The bottom line is capacity.

Granted, I’m not an expert, nor have I delved as deep as I might have done, but do you not think West Virginia, with all its rolling hills and splendid scenery, may benefit from something along the lines of the set-up in Sweden?

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Paul Gillin on Making or Breaking a Conference

Published by
Paul Woodhouse
at July 17, 2007 in Business Blogging, Event Details and Social Media. 2 Comments

Paul Gillin

 

For those of you who aren’t too sure as to who the gentleman above is, it’s Paul Gillin. Now don’t feel bad if you haven’t heard the name; Paul just so happens to be the former editor-in-chief and executive editor of Computerworld and the founding editor-in-chief of TechTarget.

 

He’s also the author of the book that’s taking the online marketing world by a bit of a storm: The New Influencers.

Blogging, podcasting and other social media are profoundly disrupting the mainstream media and marketing industries. Paul Gillin’s The New Influencers explores these forces by identifying the influencers, their goals and their motivations. The book also offers advice for marketers at both large and small organizations on how to influence the influencers.
The New Influencers by Paul Gillin

The New Influencers explores:

• Why social media are now so important in consumer decisions;

• How to leverage the blogosphere to enhance your company’s message;

• Strategies for taking advantage of this new medium;

• The need for transparency and how to make it work for your benefit;

• Action items for both small and large businesses

• Whether and how your organization should use blogs, podcasts and other social media tools in your marketing strategy.

I first started exchanging emails with Paul when he kindly asked if I’d answer a few questions about The Tinbasher’s success for the book (I think it’s mentioned around page 200). I had no idea at the time who the dickens he was or how well the book was going to be received (a book review in the Wall Street Journal and an interview with the BBC are rarely to be sniffed at).

I certainly didn’t have any idea as to what a thoroughly decent chap Paul is, and even less of an idea that he cites The Tinbasher regularly when he speaks. If we’re being honest, how many specialists in their respective fields start their book talking about how wrong they were to write off the field they’re now specializing in? Genius!

Anyway, Paul is more than an accomplished speaker and has also organized the odd conference in his time, so I thought I’d ask him what could make or break a conference. He very kindly responded with this:

Conferences are vast and complex things, with many moving parts and many possibilities of failure. One bad speaker can shut down an audience for the rest of the day. Two bad speakers can kill a conference before it gets off the ground.

The key to success is to know the audience, know the thought leaders and match the two perfectly. It’s also critical to vet the speakers for their speaking ability, making sure they know how to hold an audience’s attention, engage their imagination and leave them deep in thought. The difficulty of ascertaining this important information in phone calls and e-mail can’t be underestimated.

I have the highest respect for successful conference organizers, because the job demands such high levels of organizational skill, interpersonal engagement, domain knowledge and raw creativity. Those who are successful at it are a rare breed.

If that isn’t enough to reduce your average conference organizer and speaker into a quivering, self-doubting wreck then I don’t know what will.

But, if listening to and schmoozing with the good and the great we’ve managed to assemble isn’t cranking your excitometer up past 11, you’ve also got the added bonus of rubbing shoulders with a new influencer – namely, erm, me.

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Q&A with Jeff Ostiguy of G8wave on Mobile Marketing

Published by
Paul Woodhouse
at July 16, 2007 in Mobile Marketing and Speakers. 1 Comment

Jeff Ostiguy of G8Wave: speaker at Online MArketing: Innovations that Work

Jeff Ostiguy is the Vice President of Business Development at g8wave, an integrated mobile media company with offices in Boston, Los Angeles and London. He’s our keynote speaker on mobile marketing – in other words, he’ll be discussing how advertisers are using mobile technology and cell phones to reach customers from anywhere, at anytime.

1. Mobile marketing allows companies to advertise to people on their cell phones and other mobile devices. What are the major types of mobile marketing in place today?

As much as you read about the devices themselves and all their capabilities, the major driver at this point is still simple SMS or text messaging. Keep in mind, the more important factor is the sophistication of the consumer. Using text to build databases, deliver special offers, news and coupons is simple. If done right, it’s valuable, contextual and accessible for everyone – virtually every phone can send or receive text. And its not hard for the user.

The majority of what you’re seeing now are simple “text in” type campaigns that put people on a list or deliver them instant offers or information. Little by little you’re starting to see more of the mobile web and content (images, sounds, video) in conjunction with commercial mobile programs as well.

2. What are the main benefits for businesses incorporating mobile marketing into their mix?

Interactivity anywhere and ubiquitous access to their consumer. Think about a print ad or non traditional placements like billboards or sponsorships. In the case of a print ad, it’s call or go online for sponsorships, sometimes nothing. Fewer and fewer people want to talk to someone on the phone or are trying to avoid some sort of automated system and they aren’t always able to get online…BUT they always have their phone and they can always text or visit a mobile website. It’s easy and takes just seconds to act on that impulse and interact with the message using their mobile phone. We’re always telling our clients, think about everything saying “call, go online or text”, it needs to become the 3rd channel.

Once you start collecting those numbers you have an extremely valuable, engaged audience to push out valuably timely messages. Plus there are no spam filters. You can be virtually 100% sure they will get the message and studies have shown that almost 95% of all messages are
ready immediately.

3. Mobile marketing is still in its infancy and has plenty of legs left. What do you consider the most exciting developments in this marketing medium?

Well, in the short term, I’m encouraged by greater use of the mobile web. I think people are finally starting to realize how powerful it can be and the kind of access it provides.

Down the line, you start to think about location and proximity based tools that will be extremely powerful. However, we must tread lightly. If done right, proximity marketing can and will be extremely valuable and effective, but I don’t think I have to point out all the potential pitfalls. It must be developed with the ultimate level of consumer control in mind.

4. Any thoughts on the iPhone?

Oh god, is this where I’m supposed to say something controversial? Let’s wait and see. I have had a chance to play with them – they seem like very solid devices. We’ll have to wait and see the ultimate impact. They’re very expensive. Many people are still looking for a good inexpensive phone. Plus there is churn, is it worth switching carriers, what if I already have an iPod?

5. What do you think are the benefits of holding conferences like Online Marketing: Innovations that Work in places such as Pittsburgh?

For me, and I’ve spoken at a number of these kinds of things – newspaper conferences, CTIA, AMA – it’s really about eliminating all the mystery surrounding mobile and making people realize that with the right partner it can be very simple (and not as expensive as they think) and
that it’s not just about young kids – mobile if applied correctly will
drive adoption.

6. How can businesses serving clients on a local or regional level use mobile marketing?

The same way they can nationally really. It’s really about creating a new channel for themselves, much like the web, just much, much more personal.

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Permission to Down Tools

Published by
Paul Woodhouse
at July 13, 2007 in Conference News. 0 Comments

We’re as susceptible round here to that Friday feeling as any other mere mortal. That’s possibly one of the reasons we’re having the Online Marketing: Innovations that Work Conference on a Thursday.

Now the idea of kicking back and choking on donuts waiting for the clock to strike home-time is nothing new. Neither is this particular Friday blog section.

We’ve stolen the idea in honor of at least one other blog that used to have a Dress Down Friday, some bygone radio segment called Free-For-All Friday, and a guy we gave the ironic nickname to of Funtime Frankie.

So, question #1. What should we call this Friday Funtime Free-For-All?

Question #2. It’s D-Day. Yes, that’s D for David – Beckham to be perfectly exact, whose eagerly anticipated arrival along with his wife, Skeletor, is the talk of every American household across the land. Do you care?

Question #3. Are these commercials the best advertisements you’ve ever seen?

Question #4. Considering I’m now not too far away from Pittsburgh having spent the last eight months up in Cleveland, what did you think of the Browns trading up to get Brady Quinn?

Question #5. Which current social networking site are you spending way too much time on or simply can’t understand all the fuss over?

Feel free to answer as many or as few questions in the comments below.

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Business Blogging for Dummies

Published by
Paul Woodhouse
at July 12, 2007 in Business Blogging, Marketing Blogs and Online Public Relations. 0 Comments

I found this quote of the day over at Media Influencer in relation to Google’s Sicko to-do:

Blogs let you communicate directly with your audience. Of course, we’re too busy building product to communicate with our audience so let’s hire a marketer to do it for us. And when inexperienced marketers get a blog, they all blog the same way. Their voice is as authentic as a Twinkie is organic…. [Their] ire should have been directed at whoever gave the keys to the blog to someone whose authentic voice reads like a Newsweek health supplement advertorial.

So, to recap, the recipe for a disaster is easy: hire marketers with no authentic voice, ask them to pimp offal, and when they’re busted for it make them force out an apology in which they blame it on their authentic voice. You too can make the front page of TechMeme for two days running with three easy steps, though you might get wet sleeves fishing your career prospects out of the toilet when you’re done. You’re welcome!

Now this isn’t just a killer quote but a serial killer quote from an article that is truly worthy of your attention if you’re in the game of setting up blogs for clients or even setting up a blog for your own business.

Think on.

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