Conde Nast reshuffle offers insight into digital presence

A piece on All Things Digital today may give some clue as to why Conde Nast hasn't pursued full, Zinio-style ezine editions for its magazines:  Most of Conde's magazines aren't scalable enough to attract the digital advertisers they'd need to support ezine editions.

Interesting point -- and one that reinforces some of the things Howard Robson has discussed on his blog and in his comments responding to my blog on electronic magazines here.

Some good news from Conde in this stuff, too -- no layoffs on the digital side.

Adding OneNote pages to OneNote Mobile

As much as I like OneNote, I'm not a big fan of OneNote Mobile.  In fact, I'd put it into the "it's better than nothing" category.  The program itself is too limited in that it has no handwriting options, offers limited syncing with desktop OneNote, doesn't handle many images well, and divides pages created on the desktop by "container," rather than by page.  In short, it's not a great app.

But, for those of us who use desktop OneNote extensively, having OneNote data on our handhelds is a big issue.  Right now, the mobile program syncs only with a single dedicated folder, so getting information onto a handheld device often means copying a file from a desktop file into the OneNote sync file.  (Anyone who uses ActiveSync will notice that this is almost the same as the way ActiveSync syncs files.)  Recopying this data every time you make a change on the desktop can get frustrating.

Fortunately, the OneNote development team offers an add-in that helps a bit.  Using the "Copy to OneNote Mobile" add-in, you can click on any page in any OneNote notebook and send a copy of it to the sync file automatically.  If you want to update the information on the handheld, click on the "copy to device" command, and the add-in will compare the new page against the one on your handheld and update accordingly.

This still isn't a great solution, but it moves the ball forward.  Many reports say that Windows Mobile 6.5 includes more extensive "cloud" syncing services, so perhaps Microsoft will offer a better way to push OneNote data from device to device soon.  I'm hoping for something that works a lot like an Exchange server.

Yes, Worry! Mad Magazine to go quarterly

People can say what they will about the newspapers dying and the magazines collapsing, but this is truly horrifying news:  Mad Magazine is going quarterly.

Has the economy reached a point where cynical 12-year-olds no longer have enough disposable income to shell out a couple of bucks a month?  Where will the Simpsons and Saturday Night Live find writers a generation from now, if the pool of Mad-trained minds evaporates? 

I have a feeling it’s the Curse of Circuit City coming back to bite them.  Last August, the now-liquidating retailer pulled Mad from its magazine racks in response to a parody of its sales flyers called, “Sucker City.”

Sometimes it just doesn’t pay to be prescient.

Obama Gets a New Blackberry

Reports today say that Barack Obama will be able to keep up his Blackberry use, thanks to a James Bond add-on from the National Security Agency.  According to several reports, he’ll be using a General Dynamics Sectera Edge, a “spy proof” phone cleared for top secret use.

PC World reports that the device is a tricked-out standard Blackberry.  The phone is cleared for secure voice and email communications, but texting is out, according to the Atlantic. 

Cost for the Blackberry?  $3,350.  (Wow, cell prices really do go up when cellcos aren’t subsidizing the units!) 

Meanwhile, several of the social networking efforts the Obama campaign had promised may be non-starters.  Facebook and two-way blogging may not pan out.

I think it’s a little too early to start slamming them for this – after all, it’s only Day Two.  If they can find a way to keep the Thumbtyper-In-Chief on line, maybe they’ll sort this out, too.

Newspapers RIP at the New Yorker…again

The prospect of print news dying is starting to become something of an obsession over at the New Yorker.  This week, writer Jill Lepore tells the story of an earlier threat to newspapers, the Stamp Act.

Lepore argues that the Stamp Act made costs too high for most printers, forcing them to close shop, much as business pressures today are shuttering papers.

But, I think that’s where any similarity to today ends. 

Three centuries ago, government and other establishment interests had a vested interest in quashing the papers, which traded in opinion, sensationalism, and a smattering of news.  Colonists valued – and needed – this unique early independent media.

Today, the opposite is true. Newspapers are part of the establishment, often owned by huge multinationals and media outlets.  Government officials and policy influencers who use newspapers to test their opinions and make their images are among the few with a vested interest in the papers surviving.

Consumers, meanwhile, have turned to the Internet, an even more independent resource where they find…opinion, sensationalism, and a smattering of news.  And, unlike the print newspaper of any era, it’s all free.

But, there is a lesson in the model.  With just a few companies controlling the Internet’s “pipes,” publishers eager to form alliances with Internet providers, and officials at all levels pondering Internet taxes, we could be facing a 21st century “Stamp Act” of a cyber kind.

This time, though, the interests of today’s Ben Franklins and Peter Zengers would appear to lie with the Crown. 

So much for the Revolution.

Someone give Soledad a new factoid, please

I've been flipping among networks watching the inaugural coverage all day, and at LEAST six times that I've landed on CNN I've tuned in just as CNN's Soledad O'Brien has noted that African-Americans were counted as "3/5 of a person" in the Constitution originally.  At one point, she said it two or three times in just a few minutes. 

Other than that, I don't think she said anything all day.  Please, someone email her a new civic factoid before this observation becomes a permanent neurological tic.

Pepsi and Obama -- Sharing a look

During one of the commercial breaks during today's inaugural coverage, I was watching a Pepsi commercial and thinking there was something really familiar about the company's new logo:

Then, when the coverage returned to shots of people standing on the Mall, holding signs, and waving flags, I realized why it seemed so familiar:

I wonder if Obama and Pepsi relied on the same focus groups to arrive at these.  They're certainly trying to appeal to the same audiences.

Pretty close, huh?

CNN HD v. CNN

I just noticed that the commercials – and even some coverage -- CNN is showing on CNN HD and the regular CNN during the Inaugural coverage are different. 

HD is getting slightly more coverage, returning to commentary earlier, and fewer local commercials.

Interesting.

Social Media Smack-down: If You Can't Tweet 'Em, Join 'Em

Spotted an interesting story on Mobile Industry Review. Short version is that a Ketchum exec, who was headed to Fedex in Memphis to do social media training, posted a Tweet on what a pit Memphis is. Alas, several of his Memphis-based Fedex clients spotted the Tweet and started firing off messages about what a jerk the Ketchum exec was for saying such a thing, especially since Fedex is a huge Ketchum client.  (And, they cc'd the Fedex brass and several external contacts.)

The conventional wisdom is that the Ketchum exec, if he keeps his job, should spend the next few months doing pro bono PR for Memphis charities, wearing Memphis Grizzlies team apparel everywhere, and writing haiku for Ketchum's new website dedicated to the beauties of Memphis.  Meanwhile, Ketchum senior management should swarm Memphis, wining and dining their Fedex clients in a desperate attempt at damage control.

But, here’s the twist: At least one commentator has rallied to the Ketchum guy's support, noting that the Fedexers were “inappropriate” in responding to his Tweet with long (letter-length) responses and bashing him for offering an opinion in an opinion-based medium. In fact, although several people noted that the Ketchum exec is probably a moron for trashing his client’s HQ city, the only action that online observers criticized was his attempt to “backpedal” his original opinion.

Now, messages are flying around the tech blogosphere about how Fedex employees “don’t get” social media. Which, ironically, could mean that Ketchum’s social media trainer may be spending a lot more time in Memphis.

One more thing worth noting: This whole drama unfolded in minutes -- online port-mortem started less than 24 hours after the initial Tweet.

Paperless receipts

One of my goals is to merge my wallet and my Windows Mobile phone.  By converting things like pictures to digital and culling what I carry, I have a pretty light load already: driver’s license, insurance card, Amex, ATM/debit/Mastercard, building security card, and a little cash.

Technology exists to turn these remaining pieces into electronic “cards,” and, slowly, we’re seeing them become available.

But, I still end up collecting paper receipts as I buy things, which I remove from my wallet each day, scan, and toss. Although it only takes a few seconds, I’d love to be able to eliminate it.

Enter TransactionTree, a new service that allows consumers to choose whether they want paper or electronic receipts at the point of sale.  If they pick electronic, the clerk enters their email address and sends the receipt to them on the spot.

According to the developer, the system integrates with existing POS equipment, so it would require little or not additional investment by stores.

Sounds good to me.

Will I ever hear, "Caps win, story at 11?"

This morning, Caps owner Ted Leonsis ran a piece on his blog urging a local radio sports host to program more Caps coverage.  Leonsis points out that the Caps have the highest level of "engagement" in the league right now, with strong attendance, a hit-magnet website, and TV ratings up 140% on Comcast alone.  (I'm telling you the HD thing is making it work!)

Leonsis makes a case that if local outlets will run more Caps coverage, fans will tune in.  I agree.  In fact, my bet is that one of the reasons the Caps' website gets so many hits is because fans can't find Caps info easily enough in the local media.  The other day, my Tivo cut off the end of a game that ran long, so I missed the outcome.  Rather than getting a little analysis -- or even a quick highlights reel -- the local 11 o'clock news relegated the Caps to a P.S. after post-season Redskins coverage, NFL playoffs, college basketball, NBA coverage, golf notes, and who-knows-what else. 

How can anyone follow the team when the best the local media does is "...and the Caps lost tonight in Montreal?" 

Obama's Blackberry (again)

Given Barack Obama's recent comment that he's "still clinging to [his] BlackBerry and "they’re going to pry it out of [his] hands," I guess we have not yet heard the final word on Presidential thumb-typing. 

Using a Blackberry in the Oval Office should not be an insurmountable problem.  If he can make phone calls, send written letters, write memos, and have meetings, the IT and security people should be able to accommodate Blackberry use. 

My recommendations would be:

1. Switch him to a Windows Mobile for encrypted messages through the secure White House server
2. Use biometric authentication
3. Avoid email addresses such as bobama@whitehouse.gov
4. Make him use a screen lock, so he doesn't pocket-dial the red phone to the Kremlin
5. Check nuclear war codes to ensure they don't contain the sequences ROTFWL, BTW, IMHO, etc.

Palm’s biggest hit or last stand?

My eagle-eyed friend Jason spotted an interesting report from CES yesterday about Palm’s upcoming phone that runs on WebOS, a new platform. 

Like the Android, it appears to try to take the best of iPhone features and combine them with a robust, user-configurable OS.

Good for Palm for doing this.  Without a hit on a device like this, I can’t see how they can survive much longer.  It’s a shame, too, because Palm Pilots from the late 1990s are really the devices that showed the for handheld computing. (Apologies to Newton lovers.)

Check out the National Science Teachers Assn.

The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) went live today with a presentation I created for them to encourage and inform exhibitors at their conferences throughout the year.

Rather than filling exhibitors’ mailboxes with paper – or spam – NSTA’s Exhibits and Advertising group went totally 21st century with an animated, interactive approach that they can show at live events, embed in their website, link through emails, and use as a road show.

Kudos Rick, Jason, and Kim for taking the leap!

(BTW, if you want to learn more about NSTA's exhibits and advertising opportunities, you can also visit them here.)

Caps fever

Apparently, it’s not just me.  In today’s Washington Post, sportswriter Tom Boswell talks about the sudden surge of enthusiasm for the NHL’s Washington Capitals. 

Boswell chalks up the interest to the Caps strong performance this year, which has them owning the fourth-best record in hockey. 

Maybe.  But don’t discount HD TV.

Either way, Go Caps!

OneNote Multimedia Meeting

I took my Tablet PC along with me to a client meeting today to take some notes and provide ready access to the hundreds of pages of reference documents associated with the project we're working on.  As the meeting progressed, we started scribbling ideas on the white board in the room.  Although this particular white board is interactive with capture/printing capability, it wasn't hooked up, so we couldn't "replay" the ideas we put on the board.

Instead, I grabbed my HTC Touch Pro Windows Mobile phone and snapped pictures every few minutes to capture the thoughts.  As I did this, I put "tags" in my notes in OneNote to mark where I was in the discussion when I took a picture.  Later, I emailed myself the photos and dropped them into OneNote adjacent to the section of the notes they relate to.

Both my handwritten notes and the pictures are text "searchable" by OneNote.  It does a pretty good job with my writing (about 95% correct), but it had a tough time with the scribbles in the pictures.

Here's screenshot of part of my notes page from today.  (If parts look blurry or unreadable, that's because they are.  I've masked any identifying info from the picture.)

HD on Ice

I’ve written about hockey, attended hockey games,  but I’ve never been a big fan of watching hockey on TV.  Here in my native Washington, D.C., hockey doesn’t get much attention competing with Redskins football, Orioles (and now Nats) baseball, ACC basketball, Wizards basketball, and even Hopkins lacrosse.  (Go Blue Jays!)

But, now that I have HD TV, my priorities may be changing.  After watching the thrilling (and well-broadcast) NHL Winter Classic on New Year’s Day, I’ve caught several Caps games – and I feel a new obsession coming on.

Couldn’t come at a better time.  The Caps are off to their best season ever, and they have the best player in the NHL with Alexander Ovechkin. 

At this minute, they’re about to go into an overtime shootout with the Flyers.  Now that I can see the puck, maybe I’ll even be able to tell who won without checking online.

Paperless transit

Yesterday, Washington's Metro system officially ended use of paper transfers between buses and the subway.  Instead, riders will have to use SmarTrip cards or pay cash.  The move will save paper and money, as well as curbing fraud.  (Believe it or not, some scoundrels actually print fake paper transfers and sell them.)

The SmarTrip cards are getting integrated into all parts of D.C. transportation.  Aside from the subway and buses, you can also use a SmarTrip card to pay for parking at lots near Metro stations. For the last year or so, parking meters in Georgetown have also been taking SmarTrip cards.  

The transportation gods keep promising new features that will let users add value to the cards online and combine SmarTrip cards with other credit cards, but these have yet to materialize.  Personally, I'd like to see them introduce a version of the SmarTrip card that works like the new electronic boarding passes, so you can move through the system or park just by flashing your phone at the reader.

OneNote and OneNote Journal Power Toy

I’m grateful to the Yahoo GTD group for turning me on last fall to OneNote Journal Power Toy, a OneNote add-in from TabletDev.  Through a single click or by pressing Windows-J, you can create or access a OneNote page with today’s date on it, organized in a notebook by month.

I’ve never been one to keep daily journal-style notes, but the convenience of this power toy has made me rethink how I approach note-taking and using Outlook.  Every day, I launch a daily notes page using the power toy.  As I take notes all day -- from calls and meetings, from stuff I’ve read, or as thoughts occur to me --I jot them down on the daily notes page.  This turns my daily notes page into a “virtual” inbox, where I can capture everything from that day. 

Here's a sample of notes from this morning (changed to protect identities, of course):

Combining OneNote and Outlook makes it easy to process and track my notes.    When I complete the note, I also "tag" it with an icon that associates it with a  specific client.  Later, by going into "Show tagged notes," I can pull up all references to any specific client or category, regardless of date, creating a handy way to revisit notes during a weekly review or flag stuff as reference.

If I have time after I make the note, I process it immediately.  Depending on what it is, I can create a "project page" in OneNote (which links to my projects list in Outlook) or I can create new entries on my next actions lists in Outlook.  (Pressing CTL-Shift-K in OneNote creates a linked task in Outlook.) 

If I don't have time to process the notes immediately, I flag the entry with a custom check box I've created with the name, "Process."  Just as I can sort by category or client tag, I can also pull up all items marked, "Process," which gives me a way to pull up all things I still need to process on one screen.  It also helps me ensure that I don't forget to process something as I move from day to day.

By turning on the Tags Summary, I can get a quick view of all the items I've tagged:

If I want, I can even toggle a few options and collapse some categories to show only incomplete items on my "To Process" list and/or incomplete items I've sent to my next action lists in Outlook:

All of the items in the Tags Summary box are clickable, so I can jump directly to the original note where I created them.  By clicking on the red flags in the tasks, I can open the item in Outlook or mark it complete via OneNote.  The "Process" check boxes are interactive, so I check/uncheck them, as I complete processing.

(BTW, the list of tasks above does not reflect the wording of the next actions as they appear on my NA lists.  I usually tweak those to make them true next physical actions when I put them on my NA lists, but OneNote and Outlook don't sync that change.)

One thing I'm still trying to adapt in a more seamless way is integrating daily notes with Windows Mobile.   I found a Power Toy on the OneNote Power Toys blog that lets me send any OneNote page to OneNote Mobile, which is a handy way to keep daily notes current on my Windows Mobile phone.  But, I haven't found a great way to get note FROM my phone back to the daily notes page.  I can type notes in OneNote Mobile and sync them through ActiveSync, but I typically take handwritten notes in the WinMob Notes app.  Right now, I'm emailing myself the notes I take, pulling them up on the desktop, and pasting them into my daily page.  It's more than a little clunky, especially since OneNote 2007 doesn't read handwriting from WinMob.  (Stupid move, Microsoft...)

Goin’ digital (and HD)

The post-Christmas sale prices for electronics didn’t strike me as being all that good this year – especially in light of the sluggish retail sales – but I took the plunge anyway and picked up an HD, widescreen TV last week:  Samsung Series 5 32-inch 1080 LCD. 

I had wanted to a new TV in my bedroom, and this sleek, unobtrusive, full HD set seemed to fit the bill without breaking the bank.

I hadn’t been especially gung-ho about going to HD TV, since switching basically makes my Tivos and Slingboxes all but obsolete.  But, after having this set for a few days – and watching HD broadcasts like the NHL Winter Classic on New Year’s Day – I was sold.  In fact, I went out the other day and picked up a second Samsung (same model), so I could watch HD without having to sit in the bedroom all the time.

I’m using the second Samsung as my main TV right now, but I can see already that I’m going to want to move that to my office and get a 46-inch as my primary viewing.

When I get some time to play, I also want to try hooking a computer to these sets.  Aside from the appeal of being able to use them as additional computer access, I’m thinking more and more that direct streaming from a PC may make more sense than media sharing through Tivo.

D.C.’s Tech Czar

Interesting story in today’s Washington Post about Vivek Kundra, the CTO for Washington, D.C.  The D.C. government has long been a bastion of bureaucracy, ineptitude, laziness, and backward thinking, so it’s encouraging that someone with some vision is pushing the tech side forward.

As a native Washingtonian, the passage that impressed me most was the part about Kundra and his colleagues emailing each other at 2 in the morning to discuss policy details.  This is almost certainly the first time the Post has ever reported on D.C. officials doing anything at 2 a.m. that didn’t involve a drug deal or a dead body.