B2B custom publishing overview: BtoB Magazine’s Sean Callahan uses the launch of Snap-on tools new customer magazine, Tech, to look at business-to-business custom magazines. Great article (and I’m not just saying it because I’m quoted.)

Half-time report:  Time
out for basketball blogging. A bad case of the jitters seems to have
taken all of the perfection from the Illini. Down by 13. Can they come
back? I watched that Illinois-Arizona game last week so I believe anything
can happen.

Update: Well, they did come
back, but alas, the team with the most experience winning national
championships held on to win another one.

That’s C and it rhymes with B and that stands for: Business. CNET, wanting to move beyond the IT department, has launched BNET, with “thousands” of white papers
that are “free” if you allow CNET to “share your information with
companies that produce products and services in your areas of
interest.” It also has several blogs.

(via: B-to-B Online)

The (conversational) NY Times: The Annotated NY Times
is an ambitious RSS/blog-aggregating concept, let’s call it, what, a
“vertical aggregator”? The concept apparently is to aggregate all of the
stories from one
source
(the NY Times) and then aggregate all of the posts from the blogosphere that reference
those stories and then offer lots of ways to slice and dice the feeds
they use in that aggregation. A wonderfully creative blueprint for what
the NY Times
(and others) can incorporate into their site in the coming months. (The
NYT can even
monitize this approach with advertising, something the “annotated”
folks will likely be defending in court, if
they try to do.) Best thing about it: the honking list of RSS feeds. (Robert Scoble says he prefers “Memeorandum” as it offers news from more sources.)

(via Steve Rubel)

A great tool for community donors:
I just learned of the launch of a promising new online resource for
those who want to learn more about Nashville non-profits and the
services they provide. GivingMatters.com
is the first site of its kind in Middle Tennessee, featuring profiles
of area nonprofits and giving potential donors greater access to
information about charitable institutions. Profiles offer objective,
regionally specific, detailed information about each organization’s
management, governance, mission and finances. The website assists
donors interested in charitable giving in finding an appropriate
nonprofit recipient. Development of the resource was spearheaded by the
Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee
with the financial support and cooperation of a wide variety of
partners in the funding and non-profit community. GivingMatters.com is
being developed on a platform (GivingEdge) created by the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation and being piloted in several cities around the country.

I
haven’t tried it out yet, but the idea of having a means for individual
contributors and other funding sources to easily research area
non-profits seems to me to be a tremendous idea for all parties
involved.

Quote machines:  How can you do a story on “experts” reporters always quote and not include Samir Husni?