It’s been almost 3 years since I started writing this weblog and, like many bloggers before me, I’ve decided to stop.  Not that I haven’t still got things to say, stories to tell, and opinions to expound, no; but I’m finding regular blogging has become a chore - which I don’t need to do.  Also, if I don’t post regularly,  readership will fall, and there’s no point talking to an empty room.  On 28 March 2010, 3 years to the day after it all began, I’ll post my last entry here, revisiting my most-widely-read posts - the popularity of some has surprised me - and of course thanking you, my readers, for your interest and support.

I expect to still appear online occasionally, if more overt business purposes call for it (or as a guest blogger if someone invites me), and no doubt making the odd comment on other people’s blogs, which is what got me into this in the first place.

One of my objectives from blogging was to increase my network, and I have met a fantastic group of people through being online.  Who would have thought that, blogging from little EnZed, I’d be in New York meeting the CEO of a leading US PaaS contender (that’s you, Sinclair) or having lunch in Grenoble with a Caribbean-born financial market commentator (hi, Rawdon) and his lovely French wife.  Now my biggest worry is - will I still be eligible to be a member of the Vista Group of Wellington business bloggers? But there are still 24 days to go, so I can legitimately attend the March lunch and schmooze my continuing participation.

So now the end is near (cue Frank Sinatra), but not quite yet.

I apologise to regular readers for my lack of blog activity this week.  I have indulged in a sustained attack on my waistline and liver, lunching four days out of five and early evening drinks every day. Isn’t the run-up to Christmas fun?  Blogging will not get any better any time soon; I’m off to the beach tomorrow and won’t be back until early January. I am not alone in being very glad to see the back of 2009. Let’s make 2010 a much better year. Merry Christmas, everyone.

That’s right. You can now “follow” me (or at least my blog posts) on Twitter @jimisambard.

I’m back. Don’t worry; I won’t bore you with my travels and pictures (not even the trout I caught fly-fishing in the Yorkshire Dales).  I didn’t write anything here after the first few days away. Not that there wasn’t anything to read or write about, but I found the break too relaxing to want to break the mood.  After the first week when I did some business stuff, I made and received very few phone calls. I hardly touched the internet, apart from online booking sites and Google Maps.  I did check emails daily (via my phone), deleting most of them, filing some for attention later, and responding to a tiny few.  I only looked at my Google Reader news feed once or twice to keep up with people I knew, but ignored everything else.  It’s very liberating to delete thousands of items unread!  All in all, it was a pleasant reminder that being “always on”  isn’t a necessity.

OK - maybe just one picture.

You’ll have already guessed from my current  limited posting that I’m too busy with other stuff to do much blogging.  This is likely to continue for a while, but I’ll try to post something if I get a) a connection, b) have the time and c) have something to write.  Likewise comment moderation.

Next order of business: Tuscany; for in-depth research into the Italian regional economy, of course!

I’m off to Turangi, the trout fishing capital of the world, for a weekend’s guided flyfishing on the Tongariro River.  Blogging and comment moderation should resume on Monday.

Update: 2 excellent fish landed - but not by me!

The creators of the excellent Alex cartoon strip are always alert to the latest business neurosis. Sigh!

So your marketing people have told you that you should be blogging or twittering.  But you’ve heard that most blogs have an audience of one, and most twitterers have only ever posted one tweet. Why bother?

Blogs per se aren’t a cure-all, but they are very cheap and immediate communications channels to reach large and small audiences.  Technorati - a blog tracking and ranking service - reports that out of 133 million blogs it tracks, only 7.4 million have posted anything in the previous 4 months (<6%), and only 1.5 million in the previous week (~1%).  Hardly a huge activity rate, one might suppose.  But that probably represents a shift in who’s writing blogs and why.  When blogs first started, they were typically personal online diaries, often with a technical or hobbyist bent.  The top public blogs today look more like news feeds, or rather commentary on the news, usually with a particular focus such as politics, economics, technology, sport, hobbies or entertainment. 1.5 million very active blogs is still a very big number. And businesses are increasingly using blogs to inform and connect with target audiences, such as customers or staff (perhaps behind a security screen, and so hidden from Technorati).

Micro-blogging service Twitter is still evolving (not least, it has yet to find a way to pay for itself), but it clearly has several business applications, especially “creating a buzz” around an event, product launch or special promotion. No doubt other business system applications for Twitter will emerge, but I’d hesitate to build Twitter into mainstream business processes until I was certain the Twitter business model is sustainable.

The numbers for Twitter can be deceptive.  The BBC reports that a Harvard study of Twitter users found:

• There are an estimated 10 million Twitter users.
• 10% of Twitter users generate more than 90% of the content.
• More than half of all people using Twitter updated their page less than once every 74 days.
• Most people only ever “tweet” once during their lifetime.

However, you need to bear in mind that to receive Twitter feeds, you sign up to Twitter, whereas most blogs are followed directly using your browser or a generic feed service.  That 10% active user rate is actually quite high, compared to blogs where the readership may be several thousands or tens of thousands every month (or even millions for the big-hitters).

So is blogging or twittering appropriate for your business?  They are only means to an end.  Like any communications, you have to define your audience, what objectives you’re trying to achieve, and for what duration, which may be long or short (for a specific project or event).  Blogs and Twitter are just some of the tools you might use.  On the question of duration, be aware that to be effective over an extended period requires organisational stamina.  Like all those personal blogs, many corporate blogs have withered away after an initial flush of enthusiasm, because the business really had very little new to say over time. Even so, it’s worth experimenting to explore what they can do for you.

I mentioned recently that I’d been interviewed by a PhD researcher on business blogs.  I was particularly struck by two questions (paraphrased):

Does a corporate blog make your business more open and transparent?
A blog is just another communication channel; it does not of itself make you more open and transparent unless you choose to reveal more.  It depends on your topics, how you write about them, your audience (eg. customers or staff), whether you allow comments (I don’t subscribe to the view that allowing comments is essential), what are the house rules regarding comments, how you moderate (filter) them and how you respond to them. A blog is a valid tool even for a “closed” organisation, if it restricts itself to those matters that it wants to communicate. However, there have been several attempts to gain credibility with audiences by starting blogs to appear more open, but usually this don’t last long if the underlying new openness isn’t real and permanent.

Does a corporate blog make your business more trustworthy?
As with my earlier reply, you might try to gain greater trustworthiness by producing a blog, but if it isn’t deserved (as demonstrated by your actions and behaviour in the real world as well as the blog), then a blog can be just as bogus as any other communication channel.  Spin is usually exposed for what it is - deceptive communication - which implies that the truth is unsavoury.

I like to think I’m open and trustworthy in what I write my blog, but I don’t write about everything people might want to know. I can’t say whether a blog is a valid tool for your organisation; but if you do decide to use one, you need to be clear about who you’re trying to reach, why, and how. Blogs seem to work best when they are personalised and not overly formal.  Nevertheless, a blog, like any business communication channel, should be consistent over time and consistent with your market offer, brand, style and corporate ethos.

I’ve been writing En Avant for 2 years and, by coincidence, yesterday someone asked me what was my top post on this blog.  (I was being interviewed as part of a PhD research project on business blogs; more on that next week).  Unfortunately, it’s not something I can take credit for. I got it from Rowan Simpson, who got it from Scott Hanselman, who got it from someone unknown. Every 6 months or so, web recommendation site StumbleUpon rediscovers my version and I get an enormous spike in readership.

Anyway, the most read post on En Avant is (drum roll please):

The sweet spot - what more needs to be said?

Posted by Jim in Other stuff at August 21st, 2007

Cheers, Scott and Rowan.

Following today’s internet blackout, NZ Prime Minister John Key announced this afternoon that, via an Order-in-Council, he has postponed the coming into force of the Copyright Amendment Act and in particular Section 92, which contains “guilty until proven innocent” clauses. I am delighted by this development.

Before everyone starts feeling too cocky, the news is also significant in its demonstration of a new power in the political and lobbying process, one which all governments and businesses need to consider.  In just two weeks, via two simple campaigns on Twitter and the general internet, a national government was forced to take action on legislation.  The power of the internet community has just been vividly demonstrated.  However, it also demonstrates the power of the mob, and that’s what we  who protested were - a mob, albeit an intelligent, informed and probably enlightened one.  Our cause was righteous in our eyes, but so are other movements in the eyes of their supporters.  Athens, Rome, London and Paris suffered major civil disorder because the mob became uncontrollable.  Containing the internet-enabled mob may be a major challenge for governments and businesses everywhere.

I am a strong believer in property rights, including copyright.  However, on Monday, this website will be blacked out in protest against a draconian new copyright law that comes into force in New Zealand with a huge impact on artists, businesses, and general members of the public, basically anyone that uses the internet. En Avant will join a wide array of bloggers, businesses and news sites covering the entire spectrum of content, audience and politics.

Section 92 of the Copyright Amendment Act assumes Guilt Upon Accusation and forces the termination of internet connections and websites without evidence, without a fair legal process, and without punishment for any false accusations of copyright infringement. We should speak out against injustices like Guilt Upon Accusation being done in the name of artists, businesses and protecting creativity.

The countdown is on: we have until 28 February 2009 to persuade the government to abort this law.

An organisation called the Creative Freedom Foundation has been set up to specifically represent artists’ voices on these issues. Check out their website: http://www.creativefreedom.org.nz, sign up and help our MPs make an informed decision about S92!

Thank you.
Jim Donovan

PS As some sort of part-time writer, I’ve decided I’m an artist.  At the risk of looking even more foolish (what’s new?), I’d also appreciate a little help over the weekend from someone who knows about hosted Wordpress, to make this blackout thingie happen. Can a Wellington-based tech whiz please contact me ASAP?  Update: Ignore that; I’ve figured it out!

If your company website includes a blog, user forum, or message board, whether public or just for staff, you risk being sued for defamation. It may be a small risk, but you need to be aware of the possibility and to think about what, if anything, you should do. Via Iain Dale, I’ve been reading an article in the UK’s Law Society Gazette on how the internet is changing the role of lawyers. The article quotes  lawyer Ashley Hurst:

‘If a defamatory statement appears on one of these forums or online customer reviews [JDD: as an original posting, a link, or a comment] , the company responsible for the website could be liable. Journalists and newspaper lawyers are used to dealing with the risks of libel, but an in-house lawyer … may be more familiar with commercial contracts than overseeing libel and privacy complaints arising from the company website.’

Although much of the article is relevant in all jurisdictions, it is framed in terms of English law, so you need to talk to your own legal advisers. For example, should you monitor your website? 

Hurst says: ‘If companies don’t monitor their forums and just respond to complaints they may have a defence of innocent dissemination. Under section 1 of the Defamation Act, a website operator may have a defence if it did not publish the defamatory statement itself and did not know that its website was facilitating the publication of a defamatory statement from one of its users.

‘Retailers, for example, may want to monitor the discussions on their websites to maintain their integrity and ensure users are not causing any damage to the brand. But by monitoring, website operators are unlikely to be able to rely on the section 1 defence, as they would struggle to show they were not aware that it was facilitating publication.’

I can’t think of any company that would not monitor its websites, blogs and so on, not because of any paranoia, but just to keep an eye on brand reputation and the tone of the conversations (eg. staff morale, customer satisfaction).

One key thing you must do is to establish house rules for both articles and comments, and make sure your staff and outside users know and understand them. You should also think about an easy and quick procedure to make and respond to complaints about content, including the removal of offending remarks. Your house rules should also cover commenting on other sites (see my earlier post on responding to blogs). Staff members making defamatory comments on sites may expose their employer to being dragged into an action, especially if they have an managerial or representative role. Staffers may think they’ve posted anonymous comments, but there’s no such thing except for the technically astute. If you make a comment on this site, I can see your IP address (the unique number that represents your PC) and the name of your host network, so I can usually track you down, at work or at home.

Another way to keep an eye on things is to have a moderation stage in website postings (including comments).  For example, all comments on this blog must be approved by an authorised person (ie. me) before release to the live site.  Just be careful that you don’t turn the moderation process into heavy-handed content sanitisation or you’ll destroy the benefit of the forum. I have only rejected one comment since starting this blog nearly two years ago.

In summary, you can put in place some simple measures to protect your company from defamation actions.  Don’t let concern over  defamation put you off running company blogs and forums.  They are powerful ways to connect with staff and customers, and the risks can be easily managed.

Welcome back for my first article of 2009.  It’s a nice easy one. Courtesy of Andy Lark, here’s a useful guide on responding to blogs, from the United States Air Force.  You can easily adapt this to your own business.

In case you’re wondering why I haven’t been keeping up my usual weekday posts, this trip to Britain is purely social, with no business agenda; the first ever for me, I think, in 30 years of making the long journey. Even for weddings, funerals and holidays, I usually tack on some business; but not this time.  Unless something amazing crops up, I’ll resume writing in January.

In the meantime, I wish you all a happy solstice and a prosperous 2009.

I rarely write about blogging, and today’s no different, but if you’re interested in an erudite explanation of why people blog, take at a look at what Andrew Sullivan has to say at The Atlantic magazine.

When I first started this weblog, I received about 10 spam comments a week, thankfully most trapped by the software. Then it reached 100.  Then a 1000. Now it’s about 1000 every day, and growing. I know there’s a logic to the spam - one click in a thousand views makes a very little money - but it’s costless for spammers, so a 0.01% return on bugger all is still a good result. Suing the spammers will deter the big players, but most spammers are minnows and there are millions of them hoping to make a few dollars a day. We need a smarter solution.

We’ve all probably been at a party or in a pub where someone has said something nasty about another person, something invented in viciousness or through silly speculation, or repeated unthinkingly. Usually it’s harmless gossip and quickly forgotten, but if serious enough it could lead to a charge of defamation.  It’s even more serious if it’s made in a public or permanent medium, such as a letter, memo, email, book or broadcast.  We’ve all probably repeated some juicy bit of gossip ourselves, but we tend to be sensible enough to not do so in a public and recordable way.

Not so in the world of the internet, where outrageous allegations are made in chatrooms, message boards, blogs and comments.  I review every comment before it goes out on this website. I don’t censor critical  comments, but I have had to kill a couple because they were nasty, personal, and possibly libellous, attacks on someone.

Social media sites are notorious for such attacks, so I was pleased to see that an English judge has awarded damages to a victim of a defamatory attack on Facebook.  I’ve been concerned for some time by a common attitude amongst some web users that “anything goes,” using bogus arguments about freedom of speech and democratisation of communication. The laws of defamation exist for good reason, and the easy access to mass audiences afforded by the internet makes them more important than ever.

I’m looking forward to a tightening up on personal privacy rights too. The public does not have a right to know some stuff.

PS. Perhaps every introductory course on email and internet use should include a primer on basic social etiquette and ethics. Many businesses do that, but do schools, for example?

PPS. Don’t think you can hide behind false user names or anonymity.  Unless you’re technically very savvy, you leave your electronic fingerprints behind.  How do you think hackers get caught?

No, I’m not talking about Icahn’s tilt at Yahoo’s board. I’m talking about the famed activist shareholder’s weblog, announced with much fanfare in January, of which nothing has since been heard. We were expecting fireworks, and so far we’ve had not even a fizzle. Why make an announcement about something people will be eager to read, build a site, and then not post a single article? Better not to have even raised the subject.

I just realised that it’s been a year since we started En Avant. Although the initial entries are dated March, we actually went live on 14th April 2007. So, belatedly, I want to say thank you to all those readers, commentators and linkers who have joined me on my journey of exploration into this communication medium.

Someone suggested that I do a review of that first year. Gee, blogging about blogging - YAWN! But my friend insisted that people would be interested. Hmm. OK, but don’t blame me if this bores you rigid.

Anyway, what was I thinking of, when I started? Clearly there were some business reasons:

• Profile and positioning for the businesses I was involved with;
• Sending messages about what I hold to be important to current and potential staff, customers and business partners, in a more subtle medium than the usual preaching from the front style.

I think that worked. There was also the idea of building Brand Jim Donovan (and I’m not talking about ego-building here):

I’m trying to reach a general business leadership audience, as well as techbiz people, business commentators and other influencers. Why would you be interested? I flatter myself that I have some good ideas to share and that I can offer some useful insights, and that you’ll find some interesting dialogue. Why am I doing this? It’s called networking. It may lead to more business for the companies I am involved with, it may increase my influence, it may get me involved in some interesting new projects. Who knows? But at heart, I just love talking about this stuff. At the very least, I might do some good, learn something, and do little harm.

Did I succeed? Well, the networking certainly has happened. Through En Avant and related web activities, I’ve met some fascinating and smart people, electronically and in the flesh. I’ve enjoyed an occasional meal, cup of coffee and bottle of wine as a result. I’ve had some influence, I’m told, both on individuals and businesses, and thankfully I’ve only been slapped down once or twice. I’ve got involved in some interesting projects from new (and renewed) contacts made as a result of blogging. I’m also hoping that some more good things will emerge from ongoing discussions that started directly or in part from En Avant. So yes, I think I have succeeded.

I’m surprised that I don’t get more comments on the blog itself, but I do get lots of emails, phone calls, and face-to-face feedback. Perhaps that’s not so surprising when one considers how few people do anything much beyond simple web-browsing; less than 6% of Internet users, I understand, have news feeds and reader service. Honestly folks, it’s very simple and free.

Unsurprisingly, my biggest readership is in New Zealand (after all, it’s where I’m most known). Surprisingly to me, the USA is my next biggest “market”, but unsurprisingly again, other English-speaking countries follow, especially Britain and Australia. I also find a reasonable audience in Europe, India and China. So the advice to not be too NZ-centric seems to work.

The question I get asked most often after why is when - when do I find the time? If I’m working full-time in the real world, I’m usually disciplined - reading my feeds either first thing in the morning before heading out for the day or after dinner in the evening, which is when I usually write. I may have 2 or 3 things “in development” but usually I write on the spur of the moment, in response to something or someone I’ve read, seen, heard or met that day. I’m lucky that I can string a few sentences together quickly and coherently, so I don’t usually agonise a lot over word-crafting. I know; it shows!

O K, that’s enough. In conclusion, let me say that it’s been a lot easier, more enjoyable and more stimulating than I expected, and yes, I am going to keep doing it. Once again, I thank you for your support.