Happy 9th Anniversary to Steve and Tammy

It appears that Maria and I share an anniversary date with Steve and Tammy Kirks.

9 Years of Wedded Bliss.

Today marks the official observance of my wedding anniversary (9 years this time) and I couldn't be happier. Tammy and I were actually married on "Leap Day", February 29th of 1996, so our real anniversary comes every four years, just like a US Presidential election. There's a long-standing joke that I'm "running for reelection" which means that I've considered taking campaign contributions.

[house of warwick]

 

---

Congratulations to Donovan Watts
A well-deserved honor for a gentleman working hard to improve the lives of Radio UserLand clients. Thanks, and congratulations, to Donovan.

Donovan Watts: Radio's Librarian.

This was an exciting day for me. My iChat and Skype call with Steve Kirks was the highlight. I look forward to sifting through the Radio knowledgebase, helping the documentation settle into a helpful, easily accessed entity.

"After watching the many outstanding entries at Donovan's Radio: The Missing Manual, UserLand made him and offer he couldn't refuse: Radio's Librarian

Welcome aboard, Donovan--and thank you!"

(Via house of warwick.)

[Donovan Watts: Radio UserLand: The Missing Manual]

 

---

Trouble in RSS Paradise?

I mentioned earlier that we activated RSS feeds at work. I referred our stakeholder to a vendor for implementation before I went on vacation. I hope I don't regret the decision.

I let our stakeholder consider them because the vendor:

1. has an RSS analytics approach that speaks well of their vision
2. already "has a clue", instead of having to purchase one
3. was priced acceptably
4. has a non-trivial showcase customer
5. can use another well-known corporate client
6. is local
7. can be replaced by inhouse implementation if they screw up
8. "yadda, yadda" - Seinfeld

Sadly, beta test issues indicated they might have less of a clue than I'd hoped, or maybe just lacked attention to detail. Teething pains typical of any implementation? Maybe. However, an issue discovered after production release, with a disturbing response from vendor management, has me wondering. 

---

No RSS? You're Fired!

"It's medieval to make your customers come to you"
- Martha Rogers
coauthor of "The One to One Future: Building Relationships One Customer at a Time" (Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1993)

"You should be fired if you do a marketing site without an RSS feed."
- Robert Scoble, Microsoft

"No Shit, Sherlock!"
- Bruce Zimmer

"Do you have an RSS feed?"

"No, this site is for non geeks."

... That demonstrates an utter cluelessness about how hype gets generated. If you don't have RSS, how will anyone who is a connector build a relationship with your site?

"Why don't you get your non-geek friends to link to it then?"

I think he had heard that lots of press was reading blogs and wanted to get Walt Mossberg or Steven Levy to talk about this marketing site and figured he'd use me to drive traffic.

Sorry, if you do a marketing site and you don't have an RSS feed today you should be fired.

I'll say it again. You should be fired if you do a marketing site without an RSS feed.

Saying that RSS is only for geeks today is like saying in 1998 that the Web was only for geeks...

[Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger]

 

---

RSS Feed Customization: Audio Interview With Mark Carlson, SimpleFeed

RSS Feed Customization: Audio Interview With Mark Carlson, SimpleFeed. RSS feed customization could become one of the hot RSS topics in the near future, but right now there are just too few companies doing it … and too few providers offering RSS feed customization solutions.
By rss_feedback@lockergnome.com (Rok Hrastnik). [Lockergnome's RSS & Atom Tips]

 

---

Tips on RSS Marketing, Online PR and SEO

Tips on RSS Marketing, Online PR & SEO. I just recently interviewed Lee Oden, a search engine marketing and PR expert, on using RSS for search engine positioning, as well as on online PR and little-known search engine optimization tactics.
By rss_feedback@lockergnome.com (Rok Hrastnik). [Lockergnome's RSS & Atom Tips]

 

---

RapidFeeds.com Launches its RSS Publishing Service

Choices choices choices ... RapidFeeds.com Launches its RSS Publishing Service. RSS is becoming all about choices. End-users can choose from dozens and dozens of different RSS aggregators, and it’s becoming very much like this in the RSS publishing solutions market. It would seem that “almost every” company is starting to see opportunities in the RSS space, and it remains to be seen how many are actually going to achieve more than marginal market penetration. This week, the free RapidFeeds (Beta version) hosted web-based RSS publishing solution joins the market.
By rss_feedback@lockergnome.com (Rok Hrastnik). [Lockergnome's RSS & Atom Tips]

 

---

RSS Metrics: Audio Interview with Stuart Watson, Syndicate IQ

RSS Metrics: Audio Interview with Stuart Watson, Syndicate IQ. In this audio interview, Stuart Watson reveals not only what publishers, advertisers and direct marketers can do with RSS metrics, but also shares some excellent RSS marketing strategies and his views (and tips) on the future of RSS advertising and tracking.
By rss_feedback@lockergnome.com (Rok Hrastnik). [Lockergnome's RSS & Atom Tips]

 

---

Thank you, Dave Winer, for RSS
Thank you, Netscape and Dave Winer, for the RSS infrastructure which supports the info-addict in all of us.

Today's an important day in the history of Scripting News, and as it turns out, the history of the web. On this day in 1999, Netscape went public with its RSS reader, the first-ever. It was called My.Netscape.Com, and it was something like a page layout program in a browser. You arranged boxes containing news from a publication or a weblog. They got their service to work with Scripting News (I knew because they were sending me questions about my XMLization). Anyway, the news of their rollout is in the archive for the day, six years ago, and in a DaveNet piece that explained the news to the industry. [Scripting News]

 

---

Radio UserLand Slacker Bug Strikes Again
Twelve-Step Intro: "Hi! I'm Bruce, and I'm a weblog slacker." I post when I feel like it, and I haven't felt like it for a long time. In addition, a new personal project is sucking up every spare minute of my time. Thus, I was pleased to note I'm not the only one who takes a one-month hiatus from time to time. Someone else in the Radio UserLand discussion group was bitten by "the slacker bug", and now I don't feel so alone. [grin] Maybe I should start a slacker club. 

---

Scott Shuda of UserLand Returns to Radio
Donovan is sooo right about this. It is great to see Scott "eating the dogfood" again. Only good things can come of this. Welcome back, Scott!

UserLand CFO Scott Shuda Sees the (Radio) Light!.

I'm happy to read that Scott Shuda, CFO for UserLand, has decided to return to blogging with Radio. That can only be good for our favorite little engine that could.

"So another turn in my weblog journey and once again I am reminded just how thoughtful and powerful are the tools built by Dave Winer and his team during the early days at UserLand. I also have another basis for understanding why Steve Kirks is so enthusiastic about Radio as a product. I intend to continue adding to my personal weblog, and it looks like I am going to be using Radio to do it." (Via Scott Shuda's Radio Weblog.)

[Donovan Watts: Radio UserLand: The Missing Manual]

 

---