G’day World’s Cam & Mick have posted an episode of "On the Pod" featuring yours truly! As you might expect given the people involved, we talked about blogs vs traditional media, and I had to face the hard questions around IDG and RSS business models. Thanks for the chat guys, really enjoyed it.

It’s not every day that I’m the subject of an interview, and after years as an editor it was kinda bizzare not being the guy asking the tough questions. Didn’t really appreciate until now how tricky it can be when the shoe’s on the other foot.

One minor correction: When I mentioned Feedster in relation to RSS advertising, I actually meant Feedburner. That’s the thing about radio – it’s harder to edit retrospectively, particularly if you’re the guest.

Righto.. back to my holidays.

(Note: Looks like G’day World have exceeded their download limits, so if the site doesn’t work give it a day or two and I’m sure Mick will have finished scrambling to fix it).

It’s beer o’clock on Friday afternoon so I’m outta here to embrace the Christmas/New Year season. Have yourself a very Merry Christmas! (And bah to all those "seasons greetings" people – it’s CHRISTMAS folks!).

If you’re in Australia make sure you enjoy the beaches, warm weather and nation-wide slow down. If you’re in the US I hope that you manage to take a break – even after three years over there I never got used to the fact that summer happens at the ‘wrong’ time of the year.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to 2005. There has never been a more interesting time to sit at the intersection of rapid changes in technology, media and marketing.

Until then I’ll do my best to have a break, hang out with my wife and baby daughter, and stay away from blogs until I return on Jan 10.

Blogdex confirms again today something I’ve been thinking about for a while. This Newsweek story on blogs is the latest addition to a steady stream of mainstream business & technology publications to chronicle the rise of the blogosphere.

Back when I was running InfoWorld’s news department, we used to joke that the best way to generate tons of hits on the site was write about Linux, Open Source, or Apple – or hit the jackpot by wrapping all three subjects into one (preferably in the headline).

Doesn’t take too many brain cells to realise that you can now add "blogs" to the mix of easy traffic generators, thanks to the blog "echo chamber" mentioned in the Newsweek story. Look at the index of blogs linking to Newsweek piece.

Meanwhile, a happy discovery for me in the same story. I’ve been trying to remember the name of HP’s blog research (see prior post), and here it is:

A good idea gets amplified by the "echo chamber" of the blogosphere. It need not be the original thought of the blogger. In fact, as scientists from the HP Information Dynamics Lab wrote in a paper titled "Implicit Structure and the Dynamics of Blogspace," ideas move on the blogosphere like viruses; the alpha bloggers spread concepts like Typhoid Marys.

Thanks to Google I’ve also found the report, available in pdf. I’ve printed it off for some compelling bed-time reading…

So I’m reading through the comments on a Scoble post about his reviews of desktop search products, and someone writes in the comments section "I wish there were a tech version of Memeorandum." Huh? Memorandum? 

Following my nose, I discover that this site aggregates both traditional news stories and related blog posts. These guys rate stories thus (as explained in About):

Articles are ordered by one of two ranking methods: most relevant first (the default ranking), and newest first.

It feels very Google News to me – the big exception being the integration of blogs, presumably by using some form of Technorati-style filter.

So now I’m left with three questions.

1. When will Google News add blogs?

2. Dang! Why didn’t I discover this back in February?

3. Ditto re the Scoble comment – where’s the tech version?

Read OhmyNews’ great interview with Dan Gillmor. Reading between the lines, Dan’s citizen journalism "startup" venture is what happens when it’s no longer satisfying to just write about a movement. (And if you read this post Dan, good luck!).

Meanwhile, I like this quote because it highlights an important issue. How much of a problem is this "echo chamber?":

(OMN) There is a fear that people are only turning to the news they like and that on the Internet there is a balkanization of news. Do you think that the massively distributed model like OhmyNews can solve this problem?

(Dan) As I said, I am worried about this "echo chamber" where we only listen to what we want to. It’s so important for people to expose themselves to things that are different. One of the things that I think is valuable about a newspaper is to be exposed to things you didn’t know you cared about, especially if it covers a broad range of issues.

But the tools are coming along that help people find other things.

G’day to Mick over at SplaTT, who reports on his recent round of blogger catchups, including our chat yesterday. I too have been enjoying the networking upside of blogs, also meeting recently with Richard Giles of Gadget Lounge fame and developer Mark Aufflick – who just happens to live near our office in St Leonards.

It’s amazing how quickly you can get to know someone in person after reading their blog for some time. I’ve got this theory that blogs are reshaping the way we network with like-minded people. Conversations started on blogs seamlessly continue when you meet in person. And it’s for that reason alone I’m looking forward to the first Australian Blogger Conference to be held in Melbourne in Feb next year.

Mick (the conference organiser) said he’s close to posting more information about the conference, including proposed sessions, so stay tuned. If you’ve not done so already, visit the site, subscribe to the RSS feed and join the conversation.

And if you’re a blogger (particularly in the corporate/tech/marketing space) in Sydney, look me up. I’m always up for a coffee or lunch.   

Update: Have a listen to Mick on Blogosphere Radio. He talks about the Blogger Conference. And here’s the latest details on the conference.

This ARN story hints at why IBM must transfer all its key PC staff and senior execs to Lenovo:

If the ThinkPad evolves into just another notebook, or devolves into an inferior product, IBM will have damaged its reputation and brand among corporate customers, Baker said. This could hurt the software and servers businesses that IBM is trying to enhance.

Update: The NYT (sub req.) picks up on the same branding angle:

The complex transaction is meant to serve as a bridge between very different companies from different cultures, by seeking to ensure that I.B.M. has a stake in the Chinese company’s success. Whether in the United States, in China or anywhere else in the world, such a stake would be in I.B.M.’s self-interest; a messy exit from the personal computer industry could rankle corporate customers, hurting I.B.M.’s other businesses, and tarnish its stellar brand name.

IBM has finally come clean (WSJ, ARN) and officially announced the Lenovo deal which looks more to me like a joint venture than a sale.

Business Week and our sister company IDC sum it up:

IBM gets to keep selling PCs while no longer owning a PC division that has been a drag on its earnings. Lenovo, which has essentially been bottled up in China, buys itself a global PC company. "Lenovo gets what they want — a worldwide presence. And IBM gets what it wants. They still have a product offering for their large accounts, but they don’t want to be manufacturing commodity machines," says Phillipe de Marcillac, senior vice-president for international business at tech market researcher IDC.

ClickZ reports on an interesting marketing trend, stopping short of talking directly about podcasting.

Total advertising devoted to online radio Web sites will grow 56 percent annually over the next 5 years, reaching over $300 million by 2009, according to a report by Borrell Associates.

This year, a total of $30 million will be spent on banner ad placements and $4.5 million on streaming audio ads across online radio sites. Combined, that amounts to roughly $35 million, or 0.3 percent of the $10.5 billion projected to be spent on Internet advertising in 2004.   

IDG CEO Pat Kenealy has told a gathering of e-magazine publishers in New York what he really thinks about e-publishing. Reported by El Reg.

The response to a trial by a business-to-business title like ComputerWorld was less encouraging, he said. "We served 822 copies per week for 21 weeks via Qmags between May and September. A total of 17,262 copies were sent to free qualified subscribers – people we acquired via telemarketing, and who were in addition to the rate base."

People signed up to receive these copies, and yet, Kenealy said regretfully, download rates were low, never higher than 26.5 per cent and as low as 8.3 per cent; 44 per cent never downloaded. Only 35 subscribers downloaded each of the 21 issues.

We’re also into the e-mag business in Australia with titles like Computerworld and Australian Biotechnology News. I’m curious – do you subscribe to these or other non-IDG e-mags? Do you read these or other e-mags?