September 14th, 2009 by mhjones

Once a month for the last few months we’ve been trying something different at The Scoop, a technology business podcast I produce for the Financial Review.

Two guests join me in the Fairfax studio for a chat in front of the cameras. The format is shorter than the regular audio program, but I’m hoping the video format will help broaden the show’s appeal. Hope you agree…

Check it out each week under The Scoop tab at tv.misaustralia.com.

Here’s an embedded version of a recent episode that is served up from the same platform, titled “Online travel takes off.”




Tagged: Podcasting, The Scoop
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April 29th, 2009 by mhjones

Way back in 2007 I had this idea for a business podcast. A technology podcast that brought together the best minds in the technology business to uncover a few pearls of wisdom for CIOs and technology leaders. I called it “The Scoop.”

Former publisher of The Australian Financial Review’s MIS Magazine, Matt Rigney, backed the idea and helped sell it to editorial and management at Fairfax Business Media. And FBM has backed me ever since.

Fast forward to April 2009 and  I received a huge thumbs up from my tech journalism and media colleagues when The Scoop received a Lizzie Award for Best Audio Program.  Obviously I’m stoked by the win, particularly given that The Scoop returns next week after a long summer hiatus. I’ll write more about that soon.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tagged: MISaustralia.com, Podcasting, The Australian Financial Review, The Scoop
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April 28th, 2008 by mhjones

It’s great to see that Steve Gillmor and the gang have returned from hiatus and found a home with Mike Arrington.

The Gillmor Gang sprung out of conversations Steve was having with Jon Udell (now at Microsoft) during our time at InfoWorld. These two would muse, debate, and generally play verbal pong pong for considerable chunks of time. As Steve writes (yes Steve, I am a full 10 days behind on this news), he wanted to share the ideas they discussed with the world at large.

One of many other characters worth pointing out in the fray here is Mike Vizard, former editor in chief at InfoWorld who took a punt and imported yours truly from Australia in 1999, just before the Internet business went pear shaped.

These three guys, perhaps more than any others, shaped my experience in San Francisco from 2000 to 2003 - and I’m still enjoying the fruits of that season. So that’s why I listen to the show. There are breadcrumbs here that I do want to pick up and run with.

For other people, the Gang is arguably what RSS/Web 2.0/attention/social media/social networking was always all about. Shared ideas, and turning the mythical “conversation” into reality - warts and all.

In fact, it was this show that partly inspired me to launch The Scoop podcast. We are no Gang, but to my knowledge we are still the only podcast in Australia that’s based on the concept of a panel-style conversation.

Update: wrap your noggin around this post and comments at TechCrunch. The fun has started.

Tagged: Podcasting, Social media, Tech news, The Scoop
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April 14th, 2008 by mhjones

Hey all. A request for information. I’m looking for CEOs of large companies in Australia who would be interested in joining us on The Scoop in the near future.

I’ve already got one person lined up - the new MD of Sun Microsystems Australia & NZ, Duncan Bennet. We met last Friday at the annual ITJourno Lizzie Awards and it turns out he has an internal blog. Given that his boss Jonothan Schwartz is a very well known CEO blogger, I argued it was about time he flicked the switch and went public.

So, any other suggestions anyone?

Tagged: Podcasting, Weblogs
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February 20th, 2008 by mhjones

What is Enterprise 2.0? To paraphrase Harvard Business School’s Andrew McAfee at yesterday’s Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum, it’s a term that describes the use of social software by companies. Think Web 2.0 for the suits.

(Cartoon source: Geek and Poke)

So that’s the definition, but what about real world applications? Forum host Ross Dawson assembled some interesting local case studies, and you can listen to their presentations and the Q&A session on The Scoop. (Btw, it’s the first time I’ve done a live recording of a panel using my Zoom H4. The feed out of the desk was a little hot for some of the speakers, but with a bit of digital spit and polish I’m largely satisfied with the result.)

There’s plenty of blog coverage out there from the event, including posts from Brad, Trevor, Mick (plus more from him at Phil Morle on Tangler), and of course Ross’ own reflections.

As for me, it’s been interesting to reflect on the expectations that we bring to this discussion. If you’re a digital marketer, you want to know how social media effectiveness can be measured in terms of ROI and sales leads. If you’re in business, there’s a sense that Enterprise 2.0 should add significant business value. Andrew McAfee’s assessment was that we expect any new collaboration tool to be at least 10x better than the incumbent technology - email.

Expressed in more simple terms, we’re impatient for success. Enterprise 2.0 is part of a broader, very significant shift in the way we communicate and collaborate. We’re still experimenting, and those on the bleeding edge like those in featured in my podcast are blazing the trail. It strikes me that to simply sit back and demand instant success does not reflect the spirit of what’s happening here. It’s the different between participation and consumption. Consumers say “gimme!”, while those in social software are prepared to take a risk and get their hands dirty.

We got a chance to flesh out some of these issues during roundtable sessions at the event. I attended one hosted by Capgemini’s CTO Peter Evans-Greenwood called “Effective implementation of Enterprise 2.0.” Here’s the notes I typed into my dopod 838: Read the rest of this entry »

Tagged: MISaustralia.com, New media, Podcasting, Social media, The Scoop, Weblogs
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October 31st, 2007 by mhjones

Vint Cerf, Father of the Internet and Google Chief Internet Evangelist, is my guest on The Scoop this week. Honestly, Vint is one of the true gentlemen of the IT industry.

We met when he came down to Sydney earlier this year and Google Australia took yours truly and a number of select customers out to dinner. And we caught up later over Skype. Unfortunately, my experience with Skype wasn’t exactly positive. There are plenty of podcasters out there who swear by Skype (Cameron is the obvious example, what’s your secret mate?), and more power to them, but if it means undergoing the sort of duress I experienced with post-production it will be a long time before I use Skype for podcasting again.

Anyway, back to Vint. I’ve met plenty of big name IT execs over the years, but few are as down to earth and switched on as Google’s star recruit. He has just stepped down as chairman of ICANN, so it was time to finally get this interview polished off and published. Enjoy.

Tagged: Podcasting, The Australian Financial Review
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August 15th, 2007 by mhjones

You might recall my self-depreciating post the other day - I just couldn’t understand why The Scoop was getting out-ranked in iTunes by a marketing video about underpants for men.

We’ll, today we’re enjoying the giddy heights of number 2 on the iTunes Music Store business podcasts category and we’re featured on the podcasts homepage too. I’m currently number 2 behind Michael Pascoe’s Market Report. I can live with that - after all, he is a former AFR journo.

Tagged: Podcasting
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August 9th, 2007 by mhjones

Ok, so don’t ask me why The Scoop is competing with the aussieBum video podcast on the iTunes music store’s business podcast category. Call it one of life’s little mysteries. And call it sheer curiosity, but I checked out the aussieBum vodcast (it’s an Australian brand of underpants) - and I guess you could categorise it “business”. Maybe “men’s business”? It’s actually a very clever piece of marketing. An attractive woman walks around with a microphone and camera on Sydney’s beaches, gets unsuspecting buff men to try on some new undies, and films the results.

I’ve got a sneaky feeling there’s no way yours truly & Co. can compete. But, we did have a taste of minor B-grade fame, possibly even C-grade, when our humble offering rose to number 5 on iTunes business podcast category yesterday. We’re even a “new and notable” podcast! That means we must have at least a few listeners, which is very reassuring. : )

Tagged: Marketing, Podcasting
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August 5th, 2007 by mhjones

I’ve been recording and producing The Scoop for about five weeks now for MISaustralia.com. I’ve been juggling this gig with time in the office on other editing and strategy-related duties for the site, and mixing it up with recording video interviews. Talk about a learning curve. The best analogy I can think of is having driven a car for years and being given the keys to a plane - all of a sudden you’re dealing with three dimensions at once. At a previous job I acted in a producer role, so this time it’s different now I’m in the hot seat. Here’s a few of the things I’ve been learning:

• Podcast and print interview questions really are different. It’s not that you’re after different information, people just want you to get to the point quickly on a podcast.
• Skype recordings suck. The Skype software itself is fine, but you just can’t trust the open Internet for any kind of quality of service. I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time trying to clean up a Skype recording with a really famous IT industry leader because of frequent drop-outs. Never thought I’d say this, but I don’t think you will get a more consistent & clear sound than a fixed line until VoIP technology or bandwidth improves. Mind you, I’m also using some cool gear that cleans up a fixed line so that helps…
• It pays to have a friend who’s a sound engineer & musician (thanks James!) - audio gear is more tricky than it first appears.
• I say “umm”, “ahh”, and pause to think far more than I should - gotta love post-production.
• Planning episodes, setting up interviews, recording, editing, & producing always takes more time than I think it will.
• What is a “radio voice” anyway?
• A friend in radio says that if you smile, your voice sounds “warmer.” I must sound “cold” … ah well, just as well I’ve got broad shoulders…

Tagged: MISaustralia.com, Podcasting
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March 9th, 2006 by mhjones

Reading this yarn in The Aus today, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the thousands of mass of niche, independent podcasts don’t exist. Cameron, for one, can’t be a happy chappie as TPN didn’t even get a mention.

But it gets even better. How about this back-hander from Austereo:

[Austereo's head of multimedia Martin] Jones said he expected the novelty value would lose pace and many of the small, home-based amateur podcast services would fall away. "That’s an opportunity for serious, commercially based operators to try to build a viable business model around podcasting," he said. "I think you’ll see that happening in the next 12 months."

Other interesting quote re ABC’s success:

As with early internet take-up, podcast usage had been skewed towards "younger male, more geeky people", but that was quickly changing, he said. If take-up continues at the present pace, the ABC expects that in a year it could be close to 500,000 downloads a week.

Tagged: Podcasting
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