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Episodes
- ITConversations is Hosting The Talking Portraits Show ...
Sun, 9 Sep 2007 20:17:00 GMT Author: tom.parish@gmail.com (Tom Parish)
So just in case you missed the notice. The Talking Portraits show is hosted at ITConversations. They offer an RSS feed for you to subscribe to and you can find the show on the Gigavox iTunes feeds also.
I have added some of the shows you however they link directly back to ITConversations (also called Gigavox).
As always please let me know about your impressions of the interviews and what you learn. Tell me what you want next. Feedback is always welcome. tom (dot) parish @ gmail.com
Tom
"Sometimes you've got to think like a surfer--lie low, go with the flow, and ride the wave. And sometimes you've got to be the cowboy--ride into town, call the bluff, and face the music in the showdown." Dr. Elliot McGucken explains how artists can find financial success by seeing their quest as a classic Hero's Journey (ala Joseph Campbell). By keeping the hero's goal of staying true to his art and passionately following the journey, the artist can turn his creative wealth into financial wealth.
[ 00:52:32 | | more ]Esther Dyson is best known for her work with technology, but many people may not be aware of the breadth of her other interests. This interview delves into some of Ms. Dyson's many pursuits, such as her Flight School workshops and her recent blogging contributions. Her interest in "air and space" activity is underscored by her advocacy social media's use as a tool that will enhance user experiences and ultimately create a new market.
[ 00:30:53 | | more ]
In this interview Steve Marx, CEO of the Center for Sales Strategy and author of the book "Close Like the Pros," introduces a whole new way of thinking about closing B2B sales, turning the old-school "hand-off selling" concept on its ear. In Marx's interactive selling approach the sale is a process rather than an event. He explains why interactive strategies take advantage of the current choice-filled B2B landscape, enabling more efficient, productive, and successful sales.
[ 00:38:36 | | more ]
Virtual booty has become more important to some online game players than feeding their real bodies in the physical world. Deb Radcliff, veteran online security writer and Vice President of Publishing for The Security Consortium discusses what is happening now that criminals have started to take advantage. In addition to discussing how the ability to monetize booty began, she identifies who the criminals are and what methods they are using to accomplish their acts.
[ 00:20:54 | | more ]
Who can better influence your markets and show your product's real value than an articulate satisfied customer? Elizabeth Ferranini, veteran PR consultant, brings a wealth of experience to this conversation about using both old and new media to enable your customers to do high-quality marketing for your company. She explains how to interview CEOs and CIOs, what marketing skills and investments start-up companies need, how to craft a case study that can jump-start your business, and how companies can effectively communicate with their custo
- Social Marketing Strategies Metrics: Where Are They?
Sat, 8 Sep 2007 19:15:00 GMT Author: tom.parish@gmail.com (Tom Parish)- Please vote today at:
- http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/485
You will need to create an account to vote however it's quite. Do leave a comment. Scroll down to see them all and add yours!
Must vote by September 17th 2007.
Do it now ...! I'm very excited about the opportunity to pull a panel together at SXSW but I need your vote to make certain it's accepted.- Description:
- Why are CMO's afraid of social media and social networking? How can they leverage social media for marketing success? This panel will be a combination of forward vision and practical advice from vendors and enterprises that are successfully leveraging social media today for business results.
Tom Parish Founder
Tom Parish Inc
Social Media Board Room Consultancy
Austin TX - Video Podcast with Mike Curtis of HDforIndies.com
Mon, 21 May 2007 05:22:00 GMT Author: tom.parish@gmail.com (Tom Parish)
An interview with Mike Curtis at his location about his life as a consultant for independent film producers, his experiences at NAB 2007 and the Red Digital Camera.
- Talking Portraits Show Moves to ITConversations.com
(8mb)
Thu, 15 Mar 2007 17:40:00 GMT Author: tom.parish@gmail.com (Tom Parish)
Hello, friends and listeners. I have good news! The Talking Portraits Show has officially moved to ITConverstations.
You'll need to go to www.ITConversations.com. Look on the left column of their site for the link to Talking Portraits. All new shows will be there. I have a new interview that you'll want to catch. It's a kind of case study with Lulu.com about their use of social media-based marketing strategies to grow their business. You'll want to catch this one.
I am very grateful for the opportunity to have my show hosted to such a wide audience. It's a pleasure to be part of a larger community.
Remember to expect the unexpected with regards to interviews, so stay tuned.
There is a new RSS feed, so please visit the ITConversations site to get your regular dose of Talking Portraits shows into your computer or iPod or favorte MP3 player.
As always, send me your thoughts and comments [tom.parish AT gmail.com]. I want to know how you're doing and hear any feedback you have on your mind about the shows or any ideas for future shows.
Live life fully
Tom - BluestoneJones Original Electronica - Matt Jones Musician from Montana (47mb)
Fri, 29 Dec 2006 05:28:00 GMT Author: tom.parish@gmail.com (Tom Parish)
Do not attempt to adjust your mp3 player. For the next 45 minutes the control of your mp3 player is in the creative hands of Matt Jones - electronic music artist whom I've come to know over the last couple of months. Music on this Podcast is from his album Sunset Birth and from his podcasts at www.bluestonejones.org.
Hi, this is Tom Parish in the Talking Portraits studio in Austin, Texas. I'm going to spare you the long intro and just let you get into a bit of Matt's music before we roll into the interview. My idea is to have you learn about Matt the musician and get an inside look at how he creates electronic music. eknow more about him as a person and his experiences in writing music during the birth of his first child, how that impacted his career, and his life as a creative young man in Montana. So ... here we go. Put your headphones on now ... - Podcasting Metrics - Can You Trust Them? A Conversation about Openmetrics.org (31mb)
Wed, 27 Dec 2006 21:18:00 GMT Author: tom.parish@gmail.com (Tom Parish)
We're going to have a conversation with Matt Snodgrass, Dave Kawalec and Chris MacDonald about a new initiative called OpenMetrics.org. Matt and Dave are from Porter Novelli and host the "The Dave and Matt Show." Chris is from Libsyn and is the co-founder of the Association of Music Podcasters and the owner of Indiefeed Podcasts.
The domain name, openmetrics.org, says what it is: An organization whose purpose is to define standards in an open manner with collective input from numerous groups, mainly podcasters and advertisers.
Here's the deal - whether you're a podcaster, podcast distributor, advertiser, audience-identity advocast, or PR firm, etc., you have an interest in finding a consistent way to create metrics for this new media, podcasting. If we can solve this problem, there will be more trust and more opportunity for advertising dollars. I'm for that.
The problem is - everyone's metrics are different and, well, it's complicated. Traditional web metrics are more about unique visitors or visits per day and, if you're lucky, some way of measuring downloads. Of course, the next problem is "What constitutes a download?" What about RSS feeds that are constantly hitting your website and skewing the numbers way up? But that's just one issue. What about metrics of the kinds of people that listen to your show? What's the reach? What countries? How long do visitors really listen?
You get the idea. Even if you're new to podcasting or if you've been around a while, it's a vexing problem. This is a large set of unresolved issues that make it difficult for podcasters to present solid, consistent numbers, and difficult for advertisers to know how to trust the numbers for shows originated by different podcasters.
This has been an issue I've wrestled with for my own shows and my clients' shows, so during a conversation with Chris MacDonald of Libysn I found out about a small group of people interested in making this problem go away. This group is growing quickly, and you can learn more about it at http://www.openmetrics.org.
What is openmetrics.org, and how can we work together to solve these problems? Let's speak with these guys now - Matt, Dave and Chris.
Intro and Outro music is from Matt Jones's Sunset Birth album from
http://www.bluestonejones.org/ - Deb Radcliff & Rodney Thayer Discuss the Top 10 Security Threats for 2007 (33mb)
Tue, 12 Dec 2006 22:05:00 GMT Author: tom.parish@gmail.com (Tom Parish)
Recently an Internet security newsletter article caught my attention. It's by David Utter, who is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews. He listed the Top 10 security risks for 2007 that were published by the McAfee.com folks from their Avert Labs data.
I thought I'd ask Deb Radcliff to comment on this because she is an award-winning investigative writer and speaker on information security. She's spent the last 13 years writing about what can go wrong with software and firmware applications. What is it with software and hardware manufacturers on security? Seems they have created a never-ending cycle here. Ever wonder why devices aren't more secure before they are shipped?
Deb recently joined forces with Mark Kadrich and Rodney Thayer to start a closed-loop security process testing company, the SecurityConsortium.net, in San Jose, Calif. They will conduct stress tests on new applications and publish their findings. Rodney heads up testing, where he'll put applications under real-world pressures and report how they act.
Rodney sat on many historic IETF standards working groups, including IPsec, PGP and x.509 digital certificates. He is a member of several security testing and research groups, including Network World's Test Alliance, and the Schmoo Group ( www.schmoo.com).
Deb invited Rodney to this podcast to chime in on how testing of new applications in real network conditions is critical to protecting enterprises proactively, as compared to today's typical reactive measures that rely on knowing or accurately predicting where the vulnerabilities are and what an attacker's going to do.
ok .. so let's get rolling on this list of the Top 10 security threats for 2007 - Warren Kahn Composer, Musician and Teacher of the Inner Workings of Heart and Soul (51mb)
Tue, 21 Nov 2006 01:22:00 GMT Author: tom.parish@gmail.com (Tom Parish)
Say the word technology, and most people think of gizmos and gadgets. But there's another kind of technology - one that involves the inner workings of the heart and soul. Warren Kahn has mastered both. He's a musician with his own California studio full of machines capable of putting together best-selling recordings, and he's a Senior Trainer with the More To Life program, which uses trainings to bring people home to their hearts. Warren and my wife, Sharon, also a Sr. Trainer, were good friends, and he composed an evoking song, Now She's Gone, upon her passing. Soon Warren will release an album of the songs of his heart. Let's listen as he talks about the technology of his studio and the technology of his passion for life. We'll also listen to his new album, "To the Middle of What Matters." The Label is Let's Planet Records. Visit www.BeatingHeartsMusic.com - Lynda Weinman - A Woman Who Could Change Your Perspective On Success and Happiness (34mb)
Thu, 16 Nov 2006 03:44:00 GMT Author: tom.parish@gmail.com (Tom Parish)
Up next, a conversation with Lynda Wienman - CEO of Lynda.com on Talking Portraits.
I had a conversation recently with a friend and mentor Larry Seyer about how to grow a business online in the area of online education. It seemed to me there is huge opportunity globally for businesses that can provide useful education on current topics. Larry had just built www.learngigastudio.com which produces online lessons for GigaStudio in both text and video form. It's a great niche that he knows well, and it fullfills a need in a the electronic music area where samplers and synthesizers are getting more sophistacted to learn.
You're about to hear an interview with a woman who epitomizes the true Internet entrepreneurial spirit. Lynda Wienman - CEO of Lynda.com. She has a solid core of truth about what's important in her life and how she wants to run her business. Authentic is the word that comes to mind - 100% real deal. You'll hear that in her voice.
She's originally a teacher by training, and she brings that skill to her online business. She has learned by trial and error, and gives attention to the details and her presentation of herself and her services so her customers get exactly what they're seeking. She really really really LISTENS to what her customers want, and finds ways to make that happen. She took a HUGE risk at putting her course material at $25 a month - wait until you hear what happened on that!
Think about your life. Aren't you constantly needing to learn new tools and new software? How do you keep your skills honed, competitive, and creative in today's service economy? You can buy expensive books, but hey, we all know how that really works: marginally at best. We could go to classes, but that takes time and a lot of money.
Why not have a private video tutor right in your computer, teaching you exactly what you want to learn, chapter by chapter? That's what Lynda.com training is about.
--
Tom Parish - Host
tom.parish @ gmail.com - Interview with Cameron Herold, Chief Operating Officer, 1-800-GOT-JUNK? (16mb)
Mon, 13 Nov 2006 22:49:00 GMT Author: tom.parish@gmail.com (Tom Parish)
Why am I reposting again from my EnterpriseLeadership.org show? Because this is one fascinating group of people at 1-800-GOT-JUNK?.
How many times have you heard about a great idea for an invention or a business and said, Gee, I wish I'd thought of that? Well, prepare to add another to your list: 1-800-GOT-JUNK?. This brainchild of a high school grad who was more interested in starting a business than going to college was launched with $700, an old pickup truck, and a lot of nerve. Today, it boasts more than 260 franchise locations in 38 states, four Canadian provinces, and parts of Australia and the UK. Interested in finding out more? Listen in on this podcast interview with Cameron Herold, COO and (another) company wunderkind, as he talks about what makes 1-800-GOT-JUNK? so unique (besides the name), from its innovative Web-based JunkNet system to "huddle" meetings to rubber chickens hanging from the ceiling. This podcast is sure to add an interesting new flavor for the word entrepreneur.
Reposted with permission from BMC Software. - Conversations from the Edge with Brian Magierski of Kalivo.com (33mb)
Sun, 5 Nov 2006 00:25:00 GMT Author: tom.parish@gmail.com (Tom Parish)
This Podcast is with Brian Magierski of Kalivo on new thoughts around customer engagement on the Internet for lead generation and brand development. Could this be Web 2.0 marketing? (Alright, I know this Web 2.0 thing is getting a little worn out, but bear with me here ...)
Have you ever wondered how to get your company's marketing and product management into the conversations going on OUTSIDE the company via blogs and forums throughout the Internet?
Do you find you are overly focused on drive-by traffic or hoping for click-throughs from search engines for capturing leads?
Maybe you are more comfortable with pouring millions into a 90- to 120-day traditional marketing campaign with a highly targeted focus, hoping to flood your specific demographic with enough media angles and different types of media that you burst into a person's attention. It's expensive and wasteful and short-term - a point you worry about nowadays. It's hard to build a brand that way, much less an ecosphere of communities supporting your products and services, feeding you valuable, competitive information.
I've been giving this a lot of thought lately, and I recently connected with a company in Austin that is on to something.
Maybe you have one or more blogs at your site and you're seeing an increase in traffic, but here's the deal - you're still hoping for drive-by, incremental, 'like-minded' people to find your doorstep. Sure, broadcasting email is some help, but given spam filters and the spam-sensitive readers ... you have your doubts.
Have you given some consideration to the fact that there are millions of blogs now? Blogs are no longer new. Blogs and forums are where users, consumers, prospects and experts interact with each other. Ever notice how silent most companies are when things are written about their products and services, rarely offering any rebuttal?
What if you could find 'nests' of on-going conversations about your company and its products, and you could listen and engage in those conversations to learn, and, when appropriate, respond?
This, my friend, is one of the next steps on where all this blogging stuff is going - especially for companies looking to leverage the benefits of social media. Getting out there on the edge of the internet and engaging in conversations to cultivate leads and suss out the ultimate set of features for new products driven from real feedback.
This is the essence of this interview with Brian M. from Kalivo. Think of it as the new way of finding and engaging vocal prospects and customers and pulling them into YOUR ecosystem. Let's speak now with Brian. - Patricia Seybold: Author - "Outside Innovation" (37mb)
Sat, 4 Nov 2006 18:19:00 GMT Author: tom.parish@gmail.com (Tom Parish)
I'm here with Patricia Seybold to talk about her book, Outside Innovation. Patty wrote this book as a sort of call to arms for CEOs and CXOs about the next wave of innovation that's happening in the marketplace, an innovation that maybe happening with -- or without -- their input!
Let me give you a hint here: We're talking about innovations that can come directly from your consumers, your prosumers and dedicated supporters for your products and services. Innovation that will give you a highly competitive edge, bringing you what she refers to as "organic growth."
Join the parade, folks, before it passes you by, and let Patricia Seybold lend her years of experience and knowledge to help you! Let's move now to our conversation with the author of Outside Innovation.
NOTE: This podcast is reused, with permission from BMC Software, from the www.EnterpriseLeadership.org show that I host each week. As I mention in the podcast introduction, I'm going to be interviewing more people that have insightful contributions emerging from the application of social media-based systems, environments and ecosystems onto the more traditional business-oriented websites.
------------------------------------------------------ - Jensen Walker: Photographer with a Heart and Warrior Spirit of Discovery (25mb)
Sat, 16 Sep 2006 19:45:00 GMT Author: tom.parish@gmail.com (Tom Parish)This is episode 47. I'm talking with Jensen Walker about life as a freelance photographer-- his career and artistic vision --the calling he has to help change the world and how he gets close to the story he wants to tell.
Airplane ticket. Check.
Rental car at the airport. Check.
Quad-band cellphone. Check.
Level 4 Kevlar personal armor. Check.
This isn't my business trip packing list, but it was for photographer Jensen Walker's last out-of-town trip to the Middle East to cover what CNN said was the less-photographed side of the Israeli-Lebanon war. That's what Jensen is about -- telling stories with images, each one opening a window to history and getting the viewer close to the story. He's a young guy, 29, married, fit, filled with a sense of adventure and guided by a personal vision to tell stories as only photographs can: capturing a moment in time for all time. He bears witness so we can see ourselves reflected in the humanity of others.
Jensen Walker's photography is creatively diverse, and his work crosses a number of photo genres, including documentary, advertising and portraiture. From the frontlines of northern Israel to the frontlines of Hurricane Rita, to a shoot with the hip-hop music artist Ludicris, the thread through all of his work is the passion for story-telling. Whether in a single picture or through a project spanning months or years, Jensen's driving force is the desire to create narrative and visual discussion. His first book, "The House of Grace: A Girl's World," about child prostitution in Thailand, is now in its second printing, and Jensen is proud to report that the proceeds of this book helped build a second shelter for rescued girls.
We catch up with Jensen in our studios here at Talking Portraits Productions in Austin, Texas.
Tom - Chris MacDonald: LibSynPro, an Enterprise Podcasting Solution (21mb)
Sun, 10 Sep 2006 02:40:00 GMT Author: tom.parish@gmail.com (Tom Parish)Now and again I get an opportunity to have a "birds of a feather" discussion with another podcaster. I'm speaking with Chris MacDonald today who has the following leading edge credits to his name:
- EVP Business Development and Operations, Liberated Syndication (Libsyn)
- President, Loud Results, parent company of IndieFeed Networks
- Co-Founder and General Counsel, Association of Music PodcastingThis guy is a trailblazer - and I can identify with that ...
So why am I speaking with him? Two reasons. The clients that I work with are seeing tremendous growth in their podcast shows, which is putting a strain on the current way the mp3 files are being served up to the Internet. There is no room to scale and NOW we're seeing acceleration in growth. This btw is also happening here at Talking Portraits.
Instead of buying more hardware and bandwidth I recently recommended a service I've used in the past called Libysn. It's the ideal way for a podcaster to start and now there is a path to grow big, REALLY BIG.
I found out there is a LibsynPro version and that is exactly what I wanted because my client wants an enterprise solution. The newly released LibsynPro service looked so promising I figured I would just get on the phone and learn more about it. The person I've been working with is Chris MacDonald and HE is a podcaster - big time. I like that - he's knows the business.
Chris MacDonald has been deep in podcasting since releasing IndieFeed Networks in September 2004. A former rich media email and streaming media executive, toady Chris' IndieFeed project boasts the highest collective download rate for music podcasts, with 750,000 unique downloads per month, and consistent rankings on the iTunes top 100 list.
At Loud Results, Chris has advised corporate business executives, Washington-based politicians, and PR firms on effective ways to harness podcasting as a mix within communication initiatives. I don't get a chance to meet someone too often that does exactly what I do - so this was a real treat.
Chris recently joined the management team at Libsyn to help the premier podcast host and solutions provider become even more successful, with a focused emphasis toward new user services and enterprise solutions. He helped launch and runs Libsyn Professional Services at www.libsynpro.com
Let's talk with Chris now! - Music of the Spheres Chimes - Remembering Sharon Rose Parish (26mb)
Mon, 14 Aug 2006 19:34:00 GMT Author: tom.parish@gmail.com (Tom Parish)This is a Tribute to my wife, Sharon Rose Parish, with special thanks to Sara Eskew, owner of Music of the Spheres Inc., and to 3 special women from Houston who gave me a gift that lives on ....
This podcast is unusual in that it's as much to be felt as heard. Many of you know that my beloved wife, Sharon, died suddenly on May 31. The large chimes you'll hear and feel were a gift from Jeanenne Tucker, Jane Lawson and Lavita Marks, who came from Houston to attend Sharon's memorial service. The chimes hang on my patio and when the breezes nudge them, it's as though Sharon is talking to me.
We're going to start by listening to Sharon on a conference call she held this year for the Way of a Warrior course for the More To Life Program. I want to add that for those of you close to Sharon, this is not going to be easy to listen to. I found myself in tears as I re-experienced the quality of her voice speaking about life, and heard the beautiful way she brings herself forward to everyone on the call - and to us right here, right now.
The chimes are another way I hear Sharon. They're very personal for me, but there is something else about them -- their presence--they way they speak--their effect on friends who hear them--you know, the mind-body-spirit connection.
I wanted to know more about these amazing chimes, so I went to the source (well, the people who made them, anyway). They're exquisitely handmade by a company here in Austin called Music of the Spheres. I met its co-founder, Sara Eskew, at their warehouse. The other co-founder was Larry Roark, Sara's husband who, it turns out, also died suddenly and unexpectedly, like Sharon. These special chimes help me remember the grace and beauty of my wife, who gave me and so many others around the world so many gifts.
Sara took me on a bit of a musical mystery tour, which I would like to share with you.
So take a few deep breaths, sit back and relax and let this podcast in ... - Maria Trombly in Shanghai: Living and Doing Business in China (28mb)
Wed, 9 Aug 2006 19:30:00 GMT Author: tom.parish@gmail.com (Tom Parish)Today I am having a conversation with Maria Trombly. Maria is an award-winning journalist and is currently the Asian Bureau chief and global technology correspondent for Security Industry News. She has quite an exciting background--born in the former Soviet Union, raised and educated in America, served as a war correspondent in Chechnya, then returned to the US to cover another type of revolution: how the Internet is changing the way the world works.
In 2004 Maria moved her family to China, and she is now based in Shanghai, reporting on tech issues and China's evolving securities markets.
Here's what fascinates me: What is it like---really--to be a Westerner living and working in a country the size of China? Incidentally, China is the 4th-largest country in the world, is the size of the US and has a population of 1.3 billion--and they are just now coming online and growing as fast as Silicon Valley grew in the '90s.
China is the biggest news story of our time and it is attracting entrepreneurs, visionaries and investors of all stripes--Maria is in the middle of it all.
This is the first of what I hope will be several conversations with Maria about what it's like to be an American journalist, a Western woman working and living in a rapidly growing China rich with opportunities and challenges. What are the myths and the realities? The food, the taxis, the language, the business customs? Be prepared to be surprised and inspired. - Bill Boothe: Building Conscious Lives and Environments (31mb)
Mon, 31 Jul 2006 19:26:00 GMT Author: tom.parish@gmail.com (Tom Parish)I'm having a conversation with Bill Boothe, a city project planner and skilled facilitator. This isn't really so much about the nuts and bolts of city planning as about people.Do you sometimes get the feeling that, as a human trying to navigate around a city, you're not really the priority? That it's the cars, the buildings and the flow of stuff that counts - not people? Bill Boothe has some insights and answers.
Talking to me today from his high-rise home overlooking the urban community of Houston, Texas, Bill is someone I've been acquainted with for years through our shared interest in an organization whose focus is to help us learn to live a more conscious life - the More To Life Program. Bill and I recently found ourselves deep into the topic of how we live our lives in the spaces created for us. Whether these living and working spaces are consciously or unconsciously created, they affect our behavior. I wanted to know more about this with regards to past, present and future city planning.
Bill is a public and private project planner and skilled facilitator with a diverse background. For 30 years he has been working in architectural design, regional planning, behavioral sciences, and personal and organizational development. He is all about creating conscious environments, and he's an advocate for having a deliberate context for growth--any growth. In this conversation, he takes us on an exploration of how we got where we are--the whole fabric of society, if you will--through the lens of private and public planning of the spaces we live in. And, even more interestingly, the ways in which we are affected by our surroundings and how they guide our behavior and subtly hardwire our choices.
So today Bill and I explore a broad range of public-planning topics and see how they are indeed expressions of our cultural values. He'll take us through examples of urban life in major US cities to see the long-range impact of rapid growth, automobile dependence, and "not in my backyard" thinking. And the dehumanizing effect this has on society--oftentimes leaving us feeling isolated, less secure, and disconnected from our humanness.
So sit back and enjoy this multi-faceted conversation about how we live with our environmental design and material assets--our stuff. Perhaps you will see aspects of yourself in the mirror Bill holds up to our consumer behavior and environmental design. I know I did. - Philip Nicholson on Why Teens Are So Into Social Networks (41mb)
Sun, 18 Jun 2006 19:21:00 GMT Author: tom.parish@gmail.com (Tom Parish)Today I interview Philip Nicholson on Teenagers and their use of Social Networking.
Have you ever bought a book or music at Amazon and read the reviews before you bought? Those reviews are user-generated content, meaning you can add your bit in there, too - for free! Do you look at review sites before buying entertainment electronics, or cars? Kinda hard to imagine not having that kind of peer-level review and grassroots feedback on practically anything you buy these days. Users (of all ages) now want to participate in the buying, selling and reviewing of products online. But ... what exactly is going on with our teenagers these days in these social networks that are evolving and growing so rapidly and pervasively?
OK, here is the punchline: Philip is a teenager, and I asked him to help find some answers from his teen friends about Social networking.
Over the last year Philip has been working for me part-time as he completes high school and prepares for college. This very bright, insightful and well-spoken young man asked me if I would assign him a 10-day. real-world project for completion of his high school curriculum. I was delighted he asked and had an idea I hoped he would both enjoy and could dig into. He did just that - big time.
His results were delightfully insightful and in many cases quite thought-provoking. Some of his thoughts are summarized in three blog articles at 4webresults.com/blog.
I think what he as to say is helpful to all of us in grasping various social computing and social networking issues that really should be discussed and fleshed out for all successful websites in the near future. Because these computer-happy teenagers will be young adults very very soon.
So let's have a conversation with Philip now and learn what he learned. - Bob "Dr. Mac" LeVitus: raconteur, wordsmith, consultant and author (39mb)
Fri, 19 May 2006 19:14:00 GMT Author: tom.parish@gmail.com (Tom Parish)This is a Talking Portraits show - Episode 41 for May 14 - I'm Tom Parish, your host, and today I'm having a conversation with Bob "Dr. Mac" LeVitus.
One of the fun aspects of Talking Portraits is meeting people and learning about their motivations and why they do what they do, their contributions to others, maybe their legacy in life. Bob "Dr." LeVitus is one of those individuals with a vibrantly visible career path. In his case, it's in writing about and consulting with Apple products ...
He's a computer columnist, Mac geek, and author of 48 books, including Mac OS X Tiger for Dummies, GarageBand for Dummies, and dozens more. And now he's offering consulting services if you need troubleshooting, training, or technical support for your Mac. He has a crew of people that can help you globally 24/7. He affectionately calls it, "Making a mouse call."This makes a lot of sense to me with the proliferation of Apple products in the home offices of solo professionals who work all over the world. When they need help, they need it right away -- and not just for repairs, but for advice on what to buy when upgrading or adding peripherals.
Bob's 'vibe' just sitting here in the studio is one of excitement. When I look around I'm seeing so many people starting to make a shift to Apple. For some of us, like me, it meant taking a hybrid approach - buy a 12" Powerbook and continue using my PC like I do for audio editing right now, and wait until the time is right to change over completely.
Why are people changing? Well, listen to these two recent ads from Apple that are just hilariously accurate.
But what about Bob? That's really what the interview is about - Bob "Dr. Mac" LeVitus and how he combined his passion for Macs with his desire to help and created a career that brings joy to others and to himself ... - Deb Radcliff: Serious Changes in Internet Security (35mb)
Mon, 3 Apr 2006 19:08:00 GMT Author: tom.parish@gmail.com (Tom Parish)Here's the backstory on how this interview came about. More than a year ago my identity was stolen. What a miserable process to go through, not to mention how helpless and vulnerable I felt when I realized what had happened.
Ever since then I've jumped at opportunities to speak with people who know what's really going on in this area. I recently interviewed Marcus Sachs, director of the Cyber R&D Lab for the Department of Homeland Security. You'll hear this interview on EnterpriseLeadership.org in a future show.
During that interview I learned that breaking into computers to steal the monetary value of what it holds is much more alluring than creating a virus to disable it. Think about it - what value is a computer that can no longer function? Identity theft is a worldwide problem, a significant and deliberate movement by an underworld of shadowy business arrangements. In fact, these groups have developed sophisticated ways to reward computer-savvy teenagers to be their "mules" to write and distribute code for nefarious purposes - in a way that keeps the organized crime groups anonymous.
That opportunity to interview Marcus came from a new-found contact and friend - Deb Radcliff - who has been in the business of writing about computer security since the early '90s. I wanted to spend more time talking about these topics from a down-to-earth perspective. One that any person and any small business owner would understand.
Here's something I gleaned from Deb's bio:Having been a general assignments newspaper reporter for the San Jose Mercury News and other daily papers, Radcliff had no idea what she was getting into in 1994 when she agreed to do research on a best-selling book about Kevin Mitnick, an infamous hacker who was on the run from the FBI at that time.
"From Mitnick's friends, I learned that computers -- and people -- are easy to trick into giving up information that they shouldn't," she says. "As such, our identity information has become fair game to every thief and stalker who really wants it."Since then, she's written hundreds of articles that have appeared in business and consumer magazines, is working on a book, and teaches online safety education for dummies.
Now, Radcliff says, computer crime has reached a critical turn that could cost businesses their online revenue channels.Alright ... this is where you, the listener, and I, the interviewer, come into the picture. Let's speak with Deb right now and learn more about the changes that are occurring in computer security and how all of us will be affected.
Music on this Podcast is from the album Shiva in Exile. Stefan Hertrich is the composer and responsible for all arrangements on the album. You can get this music at Magnatune. - Alex Bosworth: Designer of SWIK and Maker of Cool Stuff (29mb)
Sat, 4 Mar 2006 20:01:00 GMT Author: tom.parish@gmail.com (Tom Parish)I want to start out with a very special shout-out to Marjolein Hoekstra from the Netherlands who spurred me to contact Alex Bosworth. Marjolein planted the seed of an idea in my brain and pointed me in Alex's direction because she knew I was keenly interested in topics that Alex excels in.
Alex works at SourceLabs in Seattle, Washington. He's really interested in AJAX, RSS and Webservices in general, SocialSoftware, wikis, open source, Rails and ... well, it's a long list. As he puts it, "I just like making cool stuff."
Maybe you've heard of these projects:
* LiveMarks: Watch as bookmarks are posted to del.icio.us
* SWIK : A wiki for the open software community
* priv.at: Hack to allow anonymous bookmarking in del.icio.us. This hack takes advantage of del.icio.us' for: tag feature, which allows users to bookmark URLs invisibly for their friends
* BozPages: OPML RSS Web Pages (example: Web 2.0 Blogs)
* Delimages: Image feeds from del.icio.us
* Referendum: Create and vote on ballotsWant to learn more? Listen in ...
Tom
- Interview from the Edge: David Swedlow on Beyond Folksonomies (41mb)
Wed, 22 Feb 2006 08:23:00 GMT Author: tom.parish@gmail.com (Tom Parish)We're talking today with David Swedlow, who is hosting the panel discussion on Beyond Folksonomies at the 2006 SXSW Interactive conference in Austin, Texas, March 11-13.
I'm going to borrow the panel description from SXSW because it sheds some light on the topics we're covering with David.
As the web evolves, contextual navigation is increasingly necessary. The top-down, authoritarian, Semantic Web approach is way too restrictive, and the bottom-up, free-love, rebelliousness of folksonomies is way too permissive. What's next? A compromise of extremes? A middle-out approach? Something completely different?
David and I jump into the deep end of the pool on a variety of topics that are at the edge of the computing scene. If you've been playing around with Delicious bookmarks, technorati tags - social tagging, tag clouds and memetrackers like Memeorandum, TailRank, Megite, etc. - then you'll find this conversation interesting. If you've been following Steve Gillmor and the Gillmor Gang discussions on Attention Trust, then keep listening. We delve into that as well. That topic led us into a discussion around one's identity on the web and what that will mean in this new web environment.
David also talks about a shift coming in website marketing, away from counting page views or unique visitors to learning more about a person's attention and focus at a website. This is more than just recording what they visit at the site; it's more two-way. We talk about how you might log your web activity and make this attention log available to others upon request. Maybe they pay you for it!
Listen in now to get in on all this. I totally enjoyed my time with David. I hope you do too. Be sure to check out David's blog at http://www.opposablemind.com/ for more of his creative and insightful thinking. - Charlie Wood: So What's Up with RSS and Enterprise CMS and CRM Vendors? (32mb)
Sat, 18 Feb 2006 08:15:00 GMT Author: tom.parish@gmail.com (Tom Parish)What's Happening with RSS in an enterprise? With me today in our TalkingPortraits studio is Charlie Wood, the founding principal of Spanning Partners, which is an independent consulting firm specializing in enterprise applications of RSS and related technologies. I'm delighted and excited to dig in on this topic and learn more about what's happening in this area.
There seem to be two groups right now: Those that are using RSS (developers, bloggers, podcasters and forward-thinking business-marketing types), and those that don't seem too excited or informed yet about the impact of RSS. Where do you fall? Lately I've become keenly interested in the deployment issues around RSS in enterprises - the big companies with IT groups that have significant investments in legacy CMS or CRM systems. I've run into a lot more difficulty than I would have predicted, mainly because the large system vendors aren't too interested in RSS. Why is that?
These are the issues Charlie and I talk about. We have a concern that management in major enterprises is going to suddenly wake up one day to the fact that the use of RSS is all over the place, internally and externally, both in enterprises and throughout the groups their customers do business with. All of these people and groups would be using a hodgepodge of free or cheap online services that provide various types of RSS capabilities, and in ways that circumvent the in-house IT group. That's not a good thing - yes ... no ... what do you think? Are you seeing this becoming an issue in your organization? We touch on these topics, and I would appreciate hearing your comments.
Charlie has wide-ranging experience with content management and syndication, including roles in software development, presales, sales, and product management. He intimately knows RSS at a marketing perspective and a programming level as well. A rare breed. Most recently Charlie served as vice president of enterprise solutions for NewsGator Technologies. Previously he was director of enterprise solutions at Stellent. Charlie also served as group product manager for content management and syndication at Vignette. Since June 2004, he has operated Moonwatcher (globelogger.com/moonwatcher), a blog covering the emergence of RSS in enterprises. Charlie holds a BA in Computer Science from the University of Texas. He lives in Austin with his wife and twin boys. - Open Source Data Center Management Platform - with Will Hurley, CTO of Qlusters (28mb)
Sun, 12 Feb 2006 08:07:00 GMT Author: tom.parish@gmail.com (Tom Parish)Open Source Data Center Management Platform - with Will Hurley CTO of Qlusters
Welcome back to the Talking Portraits studio in South Austin. This podcast has a fairly technical nature to it so I'm going to set the stage here for a broader audience. I think you'll find this interesting. I sure did.
Have you ever wondered what a IT data center looks like or how it operates? There isn't much to really see these days. It's not like the olden days of a single huge computer with blinking lights. It's more like racks of computers that look like really thin PCs, and the center is more like a collection of locations around the world in rooms or small closets. Ten years ago, when I was an IT manager at Motorola, I managed mulitple servers for the semiconductor design team. It's a 24/7 job where you carry around a pager just waiting for something to go wrong. You then jump in your car in a hurry to your data center and start moving cables around, bringing new servers on line whenever there is a problem.OK, that was 10 years ago, but sadly, for smaller businesses with multiple servers, it's gotten only slightly better. What was true then is true now, to a degree: You hand-code some Pearl scripts to lash together servers in various ways, hoping this will hold you for a while, until problems or peak service demands hit you - often unexpectedly.
This afternoon I have Will Hurley with me from OpenQRM.org to talk about his company's technology that is an Open Source management platform for managing data centers. What's fascinating is how his business is structured and how they have zeroed in on a marketing opportunity with business value that is easy to identify. OpenQRM has a very creative approach, generating profits and supporting the open source community at the same time. I like that.
Their goal is to help small to medium-sized businesses more efficently manage data their center(s). Qlusters' product is Open QRM and it includes the same kinds of features you see from the big vendors in this market - automatic, Policy-based Provisioning - only their tool is open source, so it's more easily extensible. I learned a lot in this interview and hope you do too. Let's speak with Will (or Whurly) now.
Tom
Special thanks to Andreas Haefliger's playing of Chopin for the intro and outro on this podcast. You can find his CD on Magnatune: Andreas Haefliger: Mozart on the Piano - Tim Downs: What is RFID technology, and where is it being used? (18mb)
Sat, 4 Feb 2006 08:04:00 GMT Author: tom.parish@gmail.com (Tom Parish)Meet Tim Downs, founder of RFID-World.com. During a recent set of Podcasts I produce over at www.dbazine.com, I started hearing Oracle and DB2 database administrators talking about the coming tidal wave of data storage and data management originating from the increase in use of RFID tagging technology.This got me thinking. I meet a person a while back who actually started the first and largest RFID conference -- Tim Downs. I wondered if he'd be interested in doing a teaching piece on RFID.
So I called him up to get his perspective on the topic and this is what we have to listen to this week. I hope you find it helpful.
Here is the Wikipedia definition of RFID:
--
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is an automatic identification method, relying on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders. An RFID tag is a small object that can be attached to or incorporated into a product, animal, or person. RFID tags contain silicon chips and antennas to enable them to receive and respond to radio-frequency queries from an RFID transceiver. Passive tags require no internal power source, whereas active tags require a power source.
--
Guerreiros da Noite by Luis Claudio
from the Pod Safe Music Network
Enjoy
Tom - Peter Cooper: Founder, FeedDigest.com. What an RSS Wrangler Predicts for 2006 (41mb)
Sun, 22 Jan 2006 07:59:00 GMT Author: tom.parish@gmail.com (Tom Parish)What's up for RSS feeds in 2006? That's what I wanted to know, so I contacted Peter Cooper of www.feeddigest.com. I've been a fan of his RSS-focused, web-based tools for almost a year now. I wanted a down-in-the-trenches perspective, and I got it!
Peter Cooper is a developer and entrepreneur from the United Kingdom who loves developing new technology solutions from few resources. He's the owner of FeedDigest, a Web application which processes, filters, and redistributes RSS feeds for about twenty thousand users. Most people use FeedDigest to put automatically updating links and posts from their Web feeds onto their own Web sites. One of the first commercial Ruby on Rails developers, Peter continues to use the principles of Agile development to develop services that users love, as proven by FeedDigest's user base. With a recent investment in FeedDigest by a Seattle-based "Internet Software Lab" called Curious Office Partners (www.curiousoffice.com), FeedDigest's future is set, and a relaunch with a new design and many new features is expected in the coming month.
Eager to see the RSS industry mature, Peter is focused on bringing RSS-powered technologies to the masses, although not necessarily using the term "RSS." Peter enjoys leveraging his eleven years of Web development experience and six years of blogging experience to provide solutions that users, businesses, and fellow developers find useful and fun.
In this podcast from the Podsafe Music Network:
Rocket Science by Brain Bucket
and
Lonnie Brooks, Long John Hunter, Phillip Walker - A Little More Time - Rod Amis - Creator of G21.net and Author of Katrina and the Lost City of New Orleans (25mb)
Wed, 21 Dec 2005 07:54:00 GMT Author: tom.parish@gmail.com (Tom Parish)In the studio with me today is Rod Amis, and I'm delighted to catch a few minutes with him ... this guy is busier than I am - even stays up later at night than I - so I feel lucky to have a podcast with him.
Rod is a writer and visionary who has contributed to the changes we see on the Internet now. Back when most websites were about America and American subjects, Rod tilted his head and said, "Something's wrong with this picture! It's name is the WORLD WIDE Web. I want to use the web to encourage international contact and communication."He took his paper zine and put it on the web, actively seeking writers from around the world. He gave it a name that would generate energy as well as move toward the 21st century: Generator 21, The World's Magazine. Originally printed and mailed on paper, the zine became G21 when Rod launched it on the Internet in March 1996.
A globe-trotter, Rod spent several years in New Orleans before moving to North Carolina. In love with The Big Easy, he wrote lots of stories for G21 about his experiences while on the Gulf Coast. After Hurricane Katrina, when lulu.com asked him to write a book, he took material from his zine, added a heaping helping of research, and created Katrina and the Lost City of New Orleans. The book is now available through lulu.com and amazon.com.
... let's talk with Rod now.
Intro - Rubber Band Banjo by nonabot
Outro - Guerreiros da noite by Luis Claudio
from the Pod Safe Music Network - Dr. Doug Kelsey and Christine Springer - Ready Radio - Secrets to Rebuilding Your Active, Athletic Lifestyle (31mb)
Mon, 19 Dec 2005 07:49:00 GMT Author: tom.parish@gmail.com (Tom Parish)If you are the kind of person who is into fitness, practices martial arts, bowls, runs, does triathlons, bicycles, plays tennis or just walks and hikes a lot - you'll want to listen to this podcast with Dr. Doug Kelsey and Christine Springer.
These two people are healers - physical therapists who know what it means to stay healthy longer and live a more active life. I have the honor of having helped them launch their podcast called Ready Radio at www.readyradio.com, and it's already getting attention.
Why am I doing this podcast? I want you to know about them and how they helped me heal a significant injury I sustained while practicing martial arts. What I learned applies to any person who wants to stay active and fit. I'm a converted fitness nut, I suppose, but I see now that prior to my injury I was operating under a lot of assumptions and myths about how to take care of myself, how to stay healthy and how to heal injuries.
Dr. Doug Kelsey is Chief Physical Therapist and Founder of Sports Center, a physical therapy practice in Austin, Texas, devoted to rebuilding active, athletic lifestyles. He is regarded as one of the world's leading experts in orthopedic physical therapy and is a former Clinical Content Expert for the American Physical Therapy Association. His concepts and methods are used throughout the United States by universities and physical therapy programs.
Christine Springer is co-host of Ready Radio and a Level 2 orthopedic resident at Sports Center. She graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in Psychology and completed her Physical Therapy graduate studies at Texas Woman's University in Dallas. Clients rave about her warm, engaging style and her uncanny sense of humor. Christine also has a passion for cycling.
