Tune in tonight at 8 p.m. Central for DMZ, Episode 4, featuring Paul McEnany of Beyond Madison Avenue and Hee-Haw Marketing; Cam Beck of ChaosScenario; and Paul Herring of ChaosScenario. (Brian Clark is unable to join us this evening.)

Because it's BTR, of course, you can call in live and ask questions -- or simply berate the DMZ members.

What: Dallas Marketing Zoo
When: January 30, 2007 at 8:00 p.m. CST
Who: You
Number: 646-652-4815
Where: Blog Talk Radio

We hope to hear from you tonight.

My wife and I went to a Volvo dealership to lease a new car today. We'd decided on the redesigned S-80 to replace my Saab 9-5.

After they ran my credit report, the manager came out, introduced himself and shook my hand. Then he asked me to sit down. Oh boy, I thought -- not the old "good cop, bad cop" routine again.

Nope. He just put the credit report on the desk in front of me and asked me to read it. It said, "No credit rating -- deceased."

So I didn't lease a car today. I told them I'd come back and try again when I'm feeling a little better.

Stay tuned.

If you have any interest in the worlds of corporate, editorial or stock photography, I invite you to subscribe to the Black Star Rising blogzine. It's fun stuff, and I'm proud to be a part of it.

I wanted to call your attention to the first post by a new contributor, the distinguished Black Star photographer Michael Coyne. Coyne describes a harrowing business trip to Singapore -- which, despite its reputation for cleanliness, order and discipline, has a red-light district that ranks with the best (worst) of them.

Coyne's story, of course, is illustrated with some, uh, colorful photography, like the shot above.

Since I'm a subscriber, I just received it. Here it is, for you damage-control junkies out there. (Background here.)

Dear Scott Baradell,

By now, you've probably heard the news about my decision to withdraw the infant car seat report featured on ConsumerReports.org and in the February issue of Consumer Reports magazine. I took this action when we discovered a mistake in our side-impact crash tests.

We always strive to be accurate and fair, and I regret this error. Going forward, I want to make sure that our actions are as thorough and transparent as possible so that we preserve your trust as we continue to test, inform, and protect consumers. To that end, I'm writing you and the millions of other Consumers Union members to tell you what I know about the situation and what we're doing about it.

Here's what I know so far: One of our tests was intended to simulate how infant car seats perform in a side-impact crash at 38 mph. That's the speed at which many new vehicles are tested in side crashes by the government's auto safety agency. But upon reevaluating our data, we believe our tests simulated crashes that were much more severe than that.

Some of the questions I've heard involve our use of an outside lab to conduct the crash tests. While the vast majority of product testing by Consumers Union occurs in our own labs, we sometimes use outside contractors that have special test equipment or other expertise that we don't. This enables us to inform you about the safety, reliability, and performance of important products that we couldn't otherwise test.

That said, we expect all our testing to meet the same high standards, and our own staff oversees all projects. The board of directors and I are appointing a panel of experts to review this incident and determine what went wrong.

We're also retesting the infant car seats featured in our article as thoroughly and quickly as possible, so that we can publish our findings and help parents who are making this important buying decision. I've directed that we suspend the article's Ratings and other recommendations regarding specific car-seat models until this retesting is completed. In any case, I again stress the importance of what we say in the article: Any child car seat is better than no seat at all.

For 71 years, the staff of Consumers Union has worked hard to earn the trust of members like you and to build the stellar reputation we have enjoyed. We test more than 3,000 products each year, and errors like this one are rare. I apologize on behalf of Consumers Union and I promise you we're working hard to ensure that such an error does not happen again.

Sincerely,

Jim Guest
President

At least he uses the world "apologize" near the end, rather than simply saying "I accept responsibility."

I'll be participating in a BlogTalkRadio roundtable Monday night hosted by Mike Sansone and Wayne Hurlbert. The topic is "A Conversation on Social Media Tools," and my fellow panelists will include Kami Huyse, Shawn Collins, Mandie Crawford and Jim Kukral.

I encourage you to call in and ask a question.

What: A Conversation on Social Media Tools
When: January 29, 2007 at 7:00 p.m. CST
Who: You
Call-in Number: 646-652-4643
Where: BlogTalkRadio

Dear Jimmy,

I see you've found yourself in a dust-up with Microsoft over its refusal to observe Wikipedia's conflict-of-interest policy. As the AP reports:

Microsoft Corp. landed in the Wikipedia doghouse Tuesday after it offered to pay a blogger to change technical articles on the community-produced Web encyclopedia site ... Microsoft acknowledged it had approached the writer and offered to pay him for the time it would take to correct what the company was sure were inaccuracies in Wikipedia articles on an open-source document standard and a rival format put forward by Microsoft.

Catherine Brooker, a spokeswoman for Microsoft, said she believed the articles were heavily written by people at IBM Corp., which is a big supporter of the open-source standard ... Brooker said Microsoft had gotten nowhere in trying to flag the purported mistakes to Wikipedia's volunteer editors, so it sought an independent expert who could determine whether changes were necessary and enter them on Wikipedia.

Jimmy, I don't know whether Catherine is telling the truth or not -- but I have no reason to doubt her, and I hope you'll agree that her explanation is at least plausible. In fact, you're probably surprised, as I was, that Catherine was willing to be so candid.

Jimmy, I love Wikipedia. It's an amazing creation -- one that I use every single day. Like you, I want it to be as accurate and objective as possible. I admire the fact that you strive tirelessly for these ideals.

But it's time for a reality check. With your blanket policies against corporate contributors and others, you are digging yourself a hole -- one that promises to get deeper for the foreseeable future, and damage your brand in the process.

Note this description of Wikipedia from the same AP article:

While Wikipedia is known as the encyclopedia that anyone can tweak, founder Jimmy Wales and his cadre of volunteer editors, writers and moderators have blocked public-relations firms, campaign workers and anyone else perceived as having a conflict of interest from posting fluff or slanting entries.

In one sentence, the article states the crux of your current dilemma: Is Wikipedia really "the encyclopedia that anyone can tweak" when you have rules that shut out so many interested -- and yes, even self-interested -- contributors? Doesn't this create more problems than it solves?

Frankly, I'm afraid you've oversimplified the concept of "conflict of interest" -- as well as the cure for it. Let me break down the problem, as I see it, in two parts:

1. Many Wikipedia contributors may be motivated by self-interest that is not as easy for you to identify (and thus eliminate).

How naive is it to operate under the assumption that Wikipedians have no point of view on the entries to which they contribute?

If I am an academic who, for example, is an ardent supporter (or ardent opponent) of President Bush, should I be allowed to contribute to the Bush entry on Wikipedia? Well, technically, I have a conflict of interest -- so I shouldn't.

I would guess, however, that for the great majority of Wikipedians, having a passion about various topics is what draws them to post or edit entries in the first place. If you remove the self-interest, you remove the passion. And passion is what drives people to contribute -- for free -- to an online resource.

2. With entire classes of contributors shut out, Wikipedia will be increasingly vulnerable to corrupting forces.

As the Wikipedia community increasingly resembles an insiders' cabal, Wikipedia's insiders will have more and more influence to peddle. And believe me -- it will be peddled.

We live in a free market system. There are lots of unethical people out there. If you continue to define Wikipedia by the contributors rather than the contributions, "Wikipedia-approved" editors and contributors will inevitably succumb to corporate bribery, small-scale and large.

And unlike Rick Jelliffe, they'll keep it on the down-low. Microsoft's dalliance with pay-for-post is the tip of the iceberg.

This would ultimately undermine -- if not destroy -- Wikipedia's credibility.

So, Jimmy, while it might seem the easier solution is to block corporate and other contributors, I'm confident you'll find -- over time -- that policing the content, rather than the contributors, makes a lot more sense.

Good luck. I'm rooting for you.

Sincerely,

Scott

P.S. -- here are some other points of view on the Microsoft thing:

What Is The Check On Wikipedia's Power?
Wikipedia Watchdogs Need Their Own Doghouse
Why Microsoft PR got accused of cutting up the Bible
Battleground Wikipedia
When Wikipedia Gets It Wrong
Microsoft: If You're Going to Game Wikipedia, Do It Right

We noticed this week that Spin Thicket already has surpassed Media Orchard in the Alexa traffic rankings.

Now, of course, we love both our children equally, so we won't take sides here. But ... for those of you who like to put great stock in Alexa, we thought you might be interested to know that Media Orchard's traffic is more than twice that of Spin Thicket.

I haven't had the opportunity to try this experiment, but I'd wager that if you

-- owned an online business with 500 employees,
-- required them all to download the Alexa toolbar, and
-- made your Web site their default homepage

you'd land in the top 5,000 sites on Alexa within six months.

Anybody want to give it a try?

Shel Holtz, vice president of new marketing for crayon and co-host of the For Immediate Release podcast, will be my guest on "Media Orchard Live" this evening at 8 p.m. Central (9 Eastern, 6 Pacific.) For details on the show and to listen, visit my BlogTalkRadio host page.

We're going to dive into "new marketing" stuff with Shel; crayon defines its mission this way:

In short, new marketing for a new consumer.

Technology is the change agent, consumers have changed, but the marketing communications world has not. Our goal is to connect the dots and, in doing so, eliminate the widening gap and disconnect between brands and their consumers.

New marketing refers to the cultural, organizational, strategic and tactical incorporation of bold and progressive approaches, techniques and solutions to better reach, connect and effect meaningful relationships with prospects, customers and loyalists.

We'll also ask Shel about FIR and the future of podcasting. And, of course, because it's BlogTalkRadio, you can call in live and ask Shel questions; the dial-in is 1-646-915-8556.

Check it out.

Courtesy of the reliably titillating PETA (NSFW):

We've posted them at the BlogTalkRadio blog.

Oh nevermind -- it's just Steven Tyler.

Tune in this Tuesday, Jan. 16, at 8 p.m. Central for "DMZ, Episode 3: Revenge of the Brian," in which we welcome back prodigal (and profligate) DMZer Brian Clark, who we abused pretty well during our last show.

The rest of the DMZ team includes:

Paul McEnany of Beyond Madison Avenue and Hee-Haw Marketing;

Cam Beck of ChaosScenario; and

Paul Herring of ChaosScenario.

Because it's BTR, of course, you can call in live and ask questions -- or simply berate the DMZ members.

What: Dallas Marketing Zoo
When: January 16, 2007 at 8:00 p.m. CST
Who: You
Number: 646-915-8556
Where: Blog Talk Radio

We hope to hear from you Tuesday.

Happy Friday, everyone.

On the BTR blog, I just posted five hacks for PR practitioners who'd like to take advantage of the BlogTalkRadio platform.

Check it out.

The question is, who's who?

A little bit at a time, we're going to be adding new features and tweaks to Spin Thicket. The latest is a function that allows you to view all Spin Thicket submissions for a particular news source; so, for example, you can see all the links to Collateral Damage, Strive Notes, PR 2.0 and other great news sites and blogs on individual pages.

Here's the current news source list, which we're continuing to expand. If you're not on it, you can be -- just e-mail us a logo graphic (77 x 27 pixels).

If you're into the world of pharmaceuticals (and we don't mean in a Rush Limbaugh kind of way), we encourage you to check out the eDrugSearch Blog, a blog by Cary Byrd, president of eDrugSearch.com, a new Web venture that is currently in the last stages of beta.

The Idea Grove began working with Cary sometime back, and we have been impressed by his commitment to bringing lower drug prices to consumers through licensed international (primarily Canadian) pharmacies.

We've helped Cary with his blog, but unlike our roles with Black Star Rising and the BlogTalkRadio blog, we've stayed behind the scenes with the eDrugSearch Blog. For the most part, we help edit Cary's posts where needed and suggest ideas for story topics.

All of which leads me to today's eDrugSearch post, "Introducing ... the All-Pharma Cheerleading Squad!" Cary and I prefer not to discuss the details of our ultra-secret blog-related meetings -- but maybe you can guess whose idea this one was?

We hope you'll add the eDrugSearch blog to your feedreader, and that you'll also consider signing up on the site.

When three German Jews -- Kurt Safranski, Ernest Mayer and Kurt Kornfeld -- fled the Nazi terror to New York and founded the Black Star photo agency in 1935, they wanted to do more than make money. They wanted, in Mayer's words, "to create something worthwhile."

Safranski, Mayer and Kornfeld did more than create something worthwhile. They forged a historic partnership with Life magazine and, in so doing, introduced modern European photojournalism to the United States. Black Star photographers such as Robert Capa, Ralph Crane, Fritz Goro and others helped make Life the most influential and popular magazine in America for nearly three decades, with tens of millions of readers.

Since those historic beginnings, Black Star has continued to innovate. Black Star was a pioneer in transitioning corporate assignment photography to 35 mm in the 1960s. What began as a service for a handful of industrial clients has now grown to include hundreds of Fortune 500 companies that need custom corporate photography.

Today, Black Star is a leader in the use of digital photography among photo agencies. And as the photography business increasingly transitions to the Web, Black Star is making plans for new ventures in this arena. The Idea Grove has been fortunate enough to work with Black Star and its leadership, the father-and-son team of Ben and John Chapnick, over the past several months as the agency prepares to launch a number of compelling initiatives.

For starters, Black Star has launched a blog called Black Star Rising, which we've been publishing for a few weeks now, but which we are "officially" unveiling today. I'll be contributing to the blog and serving as editor, and my friend and fellow blogger Andrea Weckerle will be contributing as well.

But the real draw will be our columnists and other contributors, including stock-photography guru Jim Pickerell, celebrated photojournalist Dennis Brack, and many other noted photographers and industry experts who'll be announced soon. John Chapnick will also be a frequent contributor to the blog.

If you are a photojournalist, a corporate photographer, or a marketer who buys stock or assignment photography in your work, this blog's for you. Black Star has a long history of mentoring its photographers and clients, and Black Star Rising is an attempt to extend this ethos of teaching -- and caring -- to a broader audience. It also includes a photoblog that will highlight some of the most remarkable photos taken by Black Star photographers over the years.

You can subscribe to the main blog here, and to the photoblog here.

We'll keep you updated on the blog's progress -- as well as other upcoming Black Star initiatives -- both here and on Black Star Rising. In the meantime, if you have any suggestions for Black Star Rising or would like to become a contributor, please let us know.

Check out the latest usage data on True and its dating-service competitors via Susan Mernit's Blog. It supports the premise -- long advanced here -- that True's advertising, while ubiquitous, is ultimately misguided and ineffective.

Monday night at 8 Central, we're going to interview Shel Israel, co-author of Naked Conversations, on Media Orchard Live. Get all the details here.

Of course, because it's BlogTalkRadio, you can call in to the show and ask Shel questions -- live. The call-in number is 646-915-8556.

(Disclaimer: As I like to periodically remind everyone, BTR is an Idea Grove client.)

It was great fun, and Kevin was nice enough to sit in on the entire show with us.

Please take a listen:



The last episode has had an amazing 8,100 listeners -- so you need to listen to this show, too, so Brian Clark won't think the debut's success was all because of him. :)

Hi all, sorry for the late notice, but you know how it is after the holidays...

The Dallas Marketing Zoo is having its second episode tonight at 9 p.m. Central. Go here to listen to the show.

The DMZ team this evening includes:

Paul McEnany of Beyond Madison Avenue and Hee-Haw Marketing;

Cam Beck of ChaosScenario; and

Paul Herring of ChaosScenario.

Unfortunately, DMZ member Brian Clark of Copyblogger will be babysitting and unable to join us.

Topics we'll be covering include:

Edelman's latest mess, with Microsoft

DPK Public Relations gets dipped in chocolate

The best ads of 2006

Predictions for 2007

Because it's BTR, of course, you can call in live and ask questions -- or simply berate the DMZ members.

Call us whatever you want; just call us.

What: Dallas Marketing Zoo
When: January 3, 2007 at 9:00 p.m. CST
Who: You
Number: 646-915-8556
Where: Blog Talk Radio

We hope to hear from you tonight.

Beginning this month, Spin Thicket will host a monthly contest that will award the prize of a T-shirt from our store to the Spin Thicketer who posts the most amusing and/or creative headline on the site.

The headlines of Owen, Katie and Cathy -- our professional Thicketheads -- do not qualify for consideration, which means that if you post something even passably clever, you've got a good shot at winning. So why not give it a try?

Here's the process:

1. Register to join Spin Thicket here.
2. Post your article, with headline, here.
3. Sit back and wait till the end of the month, when we'll announce the winner right here on Media Orchard.

That's it! Now do it!