I’ve been away for a few weeks, hence the lack of activity and rather late up and coming podcasts still in post production!

I had a chance to visit Malaysia and Singapore, both different but neighbours.
I remember visiting Singapore, probably about 20 years ago as a teen and the memories of its cleanliness and crispness were reconfirmed.

However, this time I really noticed some how mainly Western brands have come to dominate the skyline and super flashy malls.

From a business perspective I wondered how these now global brands have managed to, ‘pull off’ such an attraction. The same faces / models pose all the way from a local shop in London to dedicated flagship stores in downtown Singapore.
Does this mean that being both local and global is simply another strap line?

It reminded me of the Holiday Inn scenario once taught to me.
You can apply this to any organisation that has a giant world-wide presence.
Imagine waking up in a Holiday Inn. How long would it take before you realised that you are now in another country?
Phoning reception will not give you any clues. If you stay at an Airport based one, it maybe even more difficult to trace or discover where you are? Mult-lingual staff and menus will not help either!
Ultimately, you will have to exit the hotel and talk to some of the locals or even call for a cab before you can determine your exact location in the world!

A more cynical perspective maybe to consider that Global brands are truly the way to go! Obviously, pop Stars and food chains simply make greater money the more they promote themselves as lifestyle normality. Therefore, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

Maybe todays global brands / multinationals can be compared to yesterday’s colonial powers.

Popularity: 36% [?]

Just found the following that showed a very small increase in 2007 of actual podcast downloads.

CBC Consumer News

The suggestion is that only a rise of 2% was experienced.
To me this implies two diverse findings:

1. Podcast potential exists
2. Podcasts are too complicated / technical or have not penetrated into everyday behaviours.

I call the latter a sense of the technology not being semantic.

The report also says:

The stats come from 1,855 telephone interviews in January 2007. A study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project last November put the U.S. podcast audience at 12 per cent and found one per cent of internet users are downloading a podcast on a typical day.

Popularity: 45% [?]

Here is a a great post by Nick Saalfield

and here is my response…

Hi Nick,
Good to see you back.
I was communicating with Matt O’Neil, re: whether I was going to make it. I would value an off-line chat with you about my experiences with the whole show - let us put it this way - it was ‘pitched’ to me as a great place to debate and meet. I guess it was, with selected presenters and ‘possible’ clients.

With regard to your point on ‘too much focus on production’. I agree, as I have scoured the internet to find out distinctions between emerging players. I can put most of the new insurgence into 4 main categories:

1. Pure production (ex Audio recording mix houses)
2. Voice-over fill ins (ex Presenters that can help with scripting and recording)
3. PR houss (ex PR houses hoping to combine social media discussions with the remote possibility of using the potential of RSS)
4. Mobilcasters (ex Telephone service companies, hoping to use global voicemai).

Podcasting is not about the ‘4Ps’ - You must have seen that circulating around the net.

Ending on a positive, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Podcasting is about:

* Integration with corporate initiatives and
* Linkage to a corporate comms strategy
* Yes, it is about feedback loops but ones that yield a change in an organisation - for example, communicating best customer service practice.
* Niche markets have niche needs.

With regard to the latter, the podcast must have meaning - Working with a dealer channel and their extranet.

Just returning to your initial point, there appears to be too much intellectualising around the old audio publishing arena rather than discovering immediate value add usage for clients and then really pushing this as central to the education that our clients need to realise our business possibilities…

Popularity: 35% [?]

Knowledge Hemispheres commenced its business operations in 2001. Five years later it has had 6 releases of its website. Please be assured that this is not to imply that the company has an obession with branding or fashion. What is shows is that the company is reflecting and assuring a web strategy that is potentially best for business.

When our company webmaster was looking for a reliable content management site he discovered many open source content management engines available, for example: Joomla, Nuke and Post Nuke, Wordpress… All of these products are available on a range of platforms / operating options and programming languages.

Some of the most popular are Joomla (and Mambo), Nuke and Post Nuke. The advent of web 2.0 and increasing use of feeds means that there are some real benefits in developing a site that can encourage interactivity and dynamic content management. Another essential item is accessibility, for example: Bobby Compliance and the ability for readers, for example: Jaws and Browseloud.

Knowledge Hemispheres recently underwent a rebranding activity and considered that now was the right time to consolidate its sites into a central portal. The new site: http://www.kh-2.com eases access to the following web services from a single point of management and knowledge distribution:

- Press Releases
- Online Blog
- Service Descriptions
- Client feedback zone
- eCommerce functions
- Improved dialogue and communication channels
- RSS Feeds and associated links
- Subscription management
- Content back-up
- Speed of access

With regard to the latter point, website design can often forget that getting to information as fast as possible is important. Similar to TV channel ‘flicking’, a viewer attention can demand fast display and information.

During a recent Knowledge Hemispheres project one of our client’s expressed to us that both content management and the importance of developing a portal approach was key. However, Knowledge Hemispheres suggested and emphasised that just as important was the need to consider the target audiences past behaviours and needs. For example, in this case the company establishes business standards, therefore the current website is used by visitors to gain access to statistics. Therefore, Knowledge Hemispheres suggested that data provided must be reliable / accurate and made available in a timely manner. Another requirement was for quick access to information on corporate services and associated business partners. Both requirements require a web strategy that must be reliant on powerful content management and access design.

Interestingly, recently it has been reported that increasingly, TV viewers are abandoning their sets and spending more time on the Internet. Therefore, what better opportunity for organisations to reconsider the suitability and design of their Internet or Intranet’s.

In summary, changing the way an organisation’s website is structured has the potential to benefit a company’s Marketing and Knowledge Management Strategies.

Popularity: 35% [?]