40: A look ahead

This being the final Tech PR War Stories podcast for 2007, David and Paul thought they’d stretch out a little and ruminate on what’s ahead for 2008. Here, in no particular order, are their predictions. It’s going to be another wild year for tech PR, but one in which savvy PR pros can elevate their status with employers and clients:

• The end of beats at technology publications. Reporters will become more generalized and contract experts will contribute more of the specialized coverage;
• Fragmentation in coverage of technology; it will come from a variety of sources;
• Google will buy Second Life and Skype. Paul sees big opportunities for the search giant to leverage those core technologies into franchise businesses;
• PR pros will have to do a better job at creating meaningful relationships with press. They’ll also have to reach out to unexpected places for coverage;
• Increasing concerns about privacy in social networks. Facebook’s Beacon was just the tip of the iceberg;
• The Wall Street Journal will become a free service. Rupert Murdoch has already made it clear that he wants to take the paper in this direction and that will have big implications for tech coverage as the Journal asserts itself as a major online news force;
• The rise of social search, addressing some of the inherent limitations of search. Mahalo and WikiaSearch are early proofs of concept of an evolution of the search utility;
• Vendors will increasingly become publishers and will need help from PR people to create useful and interesting content.

What do you think? Post your comments below and please continue to offer suggestions and sources for future Tech PR War Stories podcasts.

Download the podcast here (19:00).

35: Second Life with Mike Azzara

Our guest this week is Mike Azzara, a former CMP publishing executive who has gobs of experience with online and print publishing. We talk about ways that businesses can leverage the presence and immediacy of the virtual world Second Life, something that Mike has spent some time “in-world,” as devotees say. He talks about the experiences he had with Dr. Dobbs’s Second Life efforts when he was at CMP. Second Life can be used to deliver more effective and immersive conferences and is being used by many hi-tech vendors for briefings and events. Mike has written a white paper that introduces some of the basics and gives references for people that want to learn more.

Download  the podcast here.