• Seesmic Transcends Comparisons With Twitter - ReadWriteWeb
  great article about why seesmic might just one day be the twitter killer, *IF* they get their scalability right.
  (tags: seesmic web2.0 twitter socialmedia community flash)

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As part of the preparation work around the ‘Digital PR’ session at the ad:tech conflab in Sydney in March, Trevor Cook, Marnie Macdonald (and on Facebook), Steven Noble and my humble self teleconf’d with Beth from the organisers.

Much of what we spoke about we agreed upon, but Marnie and Steve also shed interesting light on the state of play of Web2.0 in the Australian corporate scene.

To wit, whereas I was expecting an avalanche of outward-facing social media offerings from corporate Australia this year, Steve and Marnie are suggesting that it will be the ‘internal’ focus that will be the ‘killer’ in 2008 and that any outward facing stuff might come later in the year, but only as a result of ‘test bed’ work internally.

Which makes some sort of intuitive sense… Australian businesses are incredibly ‘gun shy’ and so only do anything once they see that

• someone else has done it, and
• it has been a success for them.

I REALLY look forward to moderating the panel discussion on 13th March — and yes, I will open the floor to questions VERY early in the session! Bring your best questions to us!

And I’m also looking forward to meeting some of the wise, witty and erudite readers of this blog there, too. Laurel Papworth has already expressed her relief at the exquisite but so far unrelieved tension caused by repeated blog- and twitter-love, believing as she does that we haven’t actually met face to face (although I think we did jointly attend a PR session in Sydney that was put on by PR agency Text100 around a woeful Social Media network for 40-somethings that was being hyped pre-launch).

The whole ad:tech conference looks blimmin’ brilliant: I shall be taking copious notes at as many sessions as I can (I wonder if they will allow live blogging?)

Oh yes, and the tie-in with the title of this post? Well, whereas the USA and Europe seem to have taken more to external social media, we in Australia may well be ‘testing the waters’ internally first, launching a whole fleet of internal social media initiatives amongst ’safe’, ‘we know who you are’ internal audiences before Aussie companies broach and interact with the great unwashed public.

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Okay, so I’m fresh back from the final Police concert in Adelaide and WOW!

“I am stoked” as we ‘once were surfer dudes’ would say; meaning that I am more than quite content with what I have experienced.

I took Boy Genius along — it was his first live concert. For homework before the concert he has been listening to my entire Police recorded works collection.

He is just as stoked as me, albeit without the three decades of history of following the band and its after effects, nor the initial rush of discovering a band that just resonated through the whole of one’s body, even down to the very grotty bits of one’s toenails.

Someone near me brought along a digital recorder with a brand new, eBay purchased, 1Gb card in it in order to record the whole concert for their later personal bliss.

Unfortunately, the Angel of Copyright was obviously leaning on their shoulder, as the entire file (allegedly some huge amount) was corrupted and absolutely nothing can be replayed. Bummer. I bet that person won’t be buying sd cards from eBay again, especially as they were telling me that it was the third sd card they’d bought off eBay and all three were useless. Silly bugger — I bet next time he’ll take a backup system using completely different technology (like, say, a MiniDisc).

But back to the concert itself…

Absolutely mind-numbingly superb!

Mind you, I say that as a died-in-the-wool Police fan; as I tweeted as the concert began, they are the only band I would actually pay cold hard cash to see these days, even though the band of my early-middle teens was Status Quo - they went ’soft’ and completely crap when they sacked Alan Lancaster.

But Status Quo aside, every song The Police played was a belter — even though they had played around with the keys and timing sometimes. Many of their songs got a bit of a work-over, but this was to no ill effect and still allowed us reticent Adelaidians (I reckon we are the quietest audience in the world) a chance to sing along, even if sotto voce. Some of their re-workings ‘worked’, some were a bit strange, but NOTHING was less than superb. Truly.

Can I name a stand-out song? No.

Honestly.

All were equally great. Yes, in the spirit of ‘1984′ some were more equal than others, but to try and pick just one stand-out song from a two-hour concert is not something I am prepared to do.

Oh, alright. Roxanne was a bloody bottler,

The downsides?

Well, Andy Summers is no lead guitarist. Sorry, Andy. Brilliant rhythm guitarist, but too in love with the whole Frippery vibe. [If you don't understand Frippery, don't worry. It's muso-speak for disappearing up one's rectum whilst trying to use a 6-string guitar to create sound effects like an elephant farting; based on the eclectic work of Robert Fripp, a good long-term friend of Andy and idol to many 1970s prog-rock guitar wannabe heroes.]

You can obviously track the musical development of Sting (via his recorded output) and Stewart Copeland (via his film scores), but Andy? Perhaps it was an off night. But many a time during the earlier solos I wondered if he was playing in the same key as Sting…

But that very minor niggle aside, the whole show was tight. And when I say ‘tight’, I mean tighter than Fergie’s derriere, or booty (as the Americans would say).

Fergie was okay, but not something I’d pay money for. The girl has a hot body and can use it, no doubt. But even my ‘horny as a teenage boy should be’ Boy Genius found her ‘addition’ to ‘Don’t Stand So Close To Me’ to be just plain wrong. And this from the teenage hettie boy who has two 80Gb hard drives full of still and moving imagery of the naughty sort.

Sting’s son and his band, who opened the show, were ‘good, but not that good’, as the saying goes. Still, it’s early days for them and how many junior bands get to tour the world for bugger all cost (no doubt Dad was stumping up some of the cost in some way). Their best song was their finale, which actually smacked of some radio sensibility (decent chord changes, rhythmic, etc). There’s no doubting each band member’s individual talent; all three were keen, eager and full of testosterone. Sting’s son was on bass and was also the lead singer, and even sounded like his ol’ man from his early days with his phrasing, especially when the band broke into the occasional reggae-influenced stuff, but I certainly feel for the bloke — he will always be compared to his phenomenally-talented songwriter of a dad.

But the main act were every bit as tight, polished and flamin’ brilliant as I remember them from their final tour all those years ago. My only regret? That they didn’t perform ‘No Time This Time’, but that’s simply because I wanted to see if the world’s greatest drummer of that era could still pull his insane timing off. Based on the evidence before me tonight, I have no doubt he could.

When the dvd of the reunion tour gets released I will certainly be in the front of the queue to nab a copy, whereafter I will probably replay it endlessly as I do all of my Police collection. I just cannot get enough of the bastards — I will probably end my days buying paraphernalia on eBay about them; interviews, out-takes, bootlegs…

Yes, I am sad. But for me Sting was and still is the singer-songwriter that I always dreamed I could emulate; ‘The Police’ the band I always wanted to copy but never had the musicianship to even attempt it. I can always pick up a Telecaster and try my hand at Status Quo rhythm riffs, but The Police were always a musicianship level or three above the rest.

So tonight taking Boy Genius along to see the band that has so emphatically shaped my creative muse was a special treat. That he also had a great time and stood shouting and clapping at each and every encore moment was a heart-melting outcome.

God only grants us a few epiphanies in our lifetime — tonight, as it was 20-odd years ago at Memorial Drive on the final tour, was one of them.  If Thomas Dolby ever tours, that will be another and my creative life will be just about complete.

I close with this lovely comment from a reviewer of The Police’s Sydney gig:

Copeland, who plays syncopated beats with a ferocity that is still a marvel to behold, stares at his two bandmates as if he can’t quite believe he is sharing a stage with them again.

Message in a Bottle was an instant reminder of how great this band was in the years before Sting started dreaming of blue turtles and hiring jazz musicians by the dozen.

They came, they saw, they played Don’t Stand So Close To Me and Every Breath You Take.

Oh, happy day.

Oh happy day indeed.

I can now die happy.

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And in this week’s report:

• On a new portable digital recorder for podcasters,
• Dave Fleet’s Social Media Training wiki and
• the REAL meaning of ‘Twitter’ (and a tip of the fez to Luke Armour for uncovering a cracker of a Twitter profile)

All in all, five minutes and 16 seconds of audio enlightenment [4.3mb]. Download now, or subscribe to my podcast feed to receive each and every report at around the same time as the report is published over at ForImmediateRelease.

Music by Brian Bocchicchio as found at PodsafeAudio.com

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The motley crew over at GearPlus (the site for aussie recording studio/live PA gear heads) have pointed me to the new offering from Olympus.

Says the sales blurb:

Straight out of the box, the intuitive and easy-to-use LS-10 delivers the high fidelity of a portable professional recording studio in an extremely light, go-anywhere body. No extra gear is required to record audio in uncompressed 24 bit/96 kHz Linear PCM format for digital stereo recordings true to the original performance. In addition to WAV, the LS-10 records and plays back in the common WMA and MP3 formats

The LS-10 can record with its internal microphone or by plugging in an external microphone. The LS-10’s value extends beyond the realm of music. Students will find it useful for recording lectures and journalists for recording high-quality interviews for broadcasts and podcasts.

Battery Life
The LS-10 can record 12 hours on two AA batteries, longer than many competing Linear PCM recorders and long enough for an all-day event.

Twelve hours — that’s pretty damn neat!

Accessories
The LS-10 accessories include Steinberg CUBASE LE 4 Sound editing software with 48 sound tracks and variety of effects, a carrying case, USB cable, audio cable, wind screen, two AA batteries, a strap (plus instruction manual, warranty card, etc).

Optional accessories for the LS-10 include an infrared remote control, AC adaptor, conference microphones (ME30W), Carrying Bag, Tripod, Rechargeable Battery (Ni-MH) and Charger, a zoom microphone, and a headset.

As the GearPlus crew say,

Olympus join the fray with a slick little hand held recorder unit. Leigh Poddy will do his nuts over this one

Indeed I have — if anyone from Olympus wants to have it tested in real life podcasting applications, please .

—————–

Currently listening to: Adam & The Ants - Antmusic - Stand And Deliver

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I’m fresh back from my jolly vacance en famille, and what comes bouncing delightfully into my inbox but a request from that doyenne of Canadian communication, the exquisite Donna PepsiCola.

The Divine Ms D has asked me to make mention of a new game that’s been started by Brian Shaler — Acronyms.

There’s various good acronyms on various topics (e.g. TGIF: Tarty Grandma Is Flirting, by Gabrielle Adams) but Ms D pointed me to the definitions (five pages of them, no less) of ‘Twitter’.

Some of the contributions are bordering on the completely stupid, but here’s some of the gems I uncovered:

• Twits Writing Incessantly To Talk Ever Rambunctiously
• TCP/IP Working Interminably To Trivialize Everyone’s Ruminations
• The Writing Instrument for Texting Temporal Electronic Revelations
• Twitter Was Invented To Track Everyday Reactions
• To Witness Indiscriminant Typing To Everyone Reading
• To Waste Insane Time Telling Everyone Rubbish
• Tainted Web Intercourse That Touts Easy Rhetoric

There are plenty more, but I ran out of the will to live read any more of them.

And a tip of the Akubra to Luke Armour for pointing me to a gem of a Twitter profile.

————-

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• How do you reflect a maturing focus? Change your blog’s name!
  Stewart Mader with excellent advice on how to reposition your blog when your initial interests have matured, grown, deepened and become wiser
  (tags: wiki stewartmader blogging web2.0 name socialmedia technology)

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• Rules Kids Won’t Learn in School
  I think this was something attributed to Bill Gates, but now that ‘Friends’ is on re-run again in Australia (WHY????) Rule #9 is culturally relevant again. Every teacher should print off, frame and hang in classroom
  (tags: kids rules lifehacks school billgates)
• Young PR » Blog Archive » Examples of Twitter Providing Business Benefit
  My brother-in-arms Paull provides superb examples of why Twitter is so damn useful, despite all the dross in 99% of the tweets. Hat tip to Kevin Dugan for the tweet about it
  (tags: socialmedia twitter paullyoung paull_young kevindugan)

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