After a few hours, cute error messages and blog updates about “image weirdness” grow tiresome. Lose the “massage” message and get serious. And despite it being over an hour since the company’s blog declared its second “all clear,” it’s still down and no SHIFT + REFRESH is making it work. Okay, here’s another update with the subject line: crapola — as in, “despite my fondness for Flickr, this is a bunch of crapola.”

Technorati Tags: flickr

My father used to say, “Don’t cut a dog’s tail off an inch at a time.” As we never had a dog with a cut-off tail, I think he was using the saying allegorically — or, as he would say, as an illustration — to explain how we often needlessly inflict more pain on ourselves by addressing a problem incrementally rather than definitively. As I recall, he used it in an illustration about quitting smoking cold turkey vs. quitting smoking a little at the time. I don’t know why he would use that illustration about smoking, as he never smoked. Which reminds me of the time my dad asked me: “Did you hear about the guy who got so tired of reading about how bad smoking is for you that he decided to give up reading?”

I remembered what my dad said when I read this New York Times article about how some record label executives came up with the idea that people may like to download 1/2 of a song if it is DRM-free. I thought of how painful it must be for record company executives to cut off their tails an inch at a time with such strategies.

Which reminds me of the story about the record label executive who got so tired of reading about how bad DRM is that he gave up reading.

Technorati Tags: drm

Our puppy, Kate, discovered mud yesterday and I shared the moment with folks participating in the Project 365 group on Flickr. Speaking of which, my first six weeks or so of trying to take a photo each day is a bit like my experiences with starting blogs. It takes some discipline to get into the habit. And you shouldn’t feel guilty if you miss a day or two or three. Also, I thought it would be easier to bulk upload several photos taken and collected, but I have found it more beneficial to post on the day shot. I still haven’t gotten that part down, however.

As with blogging, at some point, you start experiencing the world as a series of events, experiences, relationships, encounters and images you want to collect and remember so that later you can recall or share them.

Update: Apparently, cute photos of muddy puppies are also popular with Nashville is Talking readers.

Technorati Tags: flickr, photography, project365

Following up to the link in my sidebar blog about JetBlue’s abysmal response to the week of woes it has caused its passengers, here’s a link to Dan Gilmore’s observation that the airline missed a powerful and effective means of communicating with passengers by ignoring the potential of their website during the operational meltdown. Says Dan, “By not using the site the way they’re using the traditional media, Neeleman and his colleagues at JetBlue are missing a major opportunity.”

I agree with Dan. JetBlue’s use of their website to communicate with customers has been pathetic. (Granted, not using their website was the least of JetBlue’s sins of the past week.) Dan is correct in noting that conversational media features and approaches on its web presence would have greatly helped the company communicate with passengers during the turmoil that began with bad weather and was exacerbated by JetBlue’s operational deficiencies.

Those of us who have witnessed and chronicled the way blogs (and wikis and forums, etc.) can be used during times of crises to facilitate the organization of and dissemination of information are especially baffled when a company so astute in many ways, totally blows the obvious. Dear JetBlue: You’re an airline. Don’t you have a disaster plan in place? Doesn’t that plan include using the website? Obviously not. But then, how many institutions (companies, universities, governmental agencies) have conversational and social media tools and approaches factored into their disaster planning?

Ironic sidenote #1: I’ve praised JetBlue for providing free Wifi in several of its larger terminals, especially JFK. One of the reasons I have enjoyed flying on JetBlue is the saturation of media options they provide on the planes and in the waiting areas. That no one in the company has ever thought that those media channels (satellite TV and radio and free wifi) could be channels of real-time communication with their passengers is an astounding oversight. (However, they get higher marks than airlines who don’t provide such media in the first place).

Ironic sidenote #2: I once blogged how progressive I thought JetBlue executives were for not pulling the plug on its satellite feed of cable news coverage of an airplane that was preparing for an emergency landing. In other words, the passengers on the plane were watching coverage of their own emergency landing. I praised JetBlue because the talking heads on TV were all agreeing that the likelihood of a crash was remote: the coverage would be reassuring to me if I were on the plane. After this past week, I’m convinced that the airline didn’t pull the feed because no one thought about it.

Observation #1: I doubt Southwest’s (the airline JetBlue wants to emulate) operations would ever meltdown the way JetBlue did last week, however, I do know if something like that happens, it will likely result in a stream of posts and comments on their weblog from the army of employee “volunteers” and passengers who hang out there. The audience on that blog is slowly growing over time and the company’s employees and management are slowly learning how to feel comfortable taking their culture of open communication online. When the day comes and the topic is not “how great we are” and “how much I love SWA,” all of the positive whuffie it is earning today will be critical in the airline having a credible means of talking directly with its customers.

Observation #2: If you are a major company and you have customers, adding conversational media to your website is no longer an option. When you need such a channel — and the day will come when you do — it will be too late to decide what your strategy should be.

Bonus link: Paul Kedrosky points out another irony: JetBlue’s CEO David Neeleman has a blog that hasn’t been updated since February 1.

Technorati Tags: blogging, emergency, jetblue

• Bud.TV gets hammered | AP
  Qote: Attorneys general of more than 20 states have written to Anheuser-Busch, asking the brewer for better tools to make sure underaged viewers aren’t accessing its new Bud.TV site.
  (tags: marketing advertising video)
• JetBlue’s crashing fortunes | NYTimes.com
  I’ve been a JetBlue fan and am happy they fly into Nashville. But this past week has been a nightmare for the airlines’ customers, as detailed in this story.
  (tags: jetblue travel)
• Old Media Partying With Oscar Online | NYTimes.com
  Quote: “Harnessing themselves to such blockbuster events marks yet another step in the integration of old media like magazines, newspapers and television into the online world.”
  (tags: magazines)
• So, Who Says That a Blog Has to Blare? | New York Times
  Quote: Now several easy-to-use tools for setting up Web pages, with privacy filters included, are on the market. They are ideal for those who want to get their blogging feet wet quietly.
  (tags: blogging)
• habari | Google Code
  Habari represents a fresh start to the idea of blogging. The system is fast, easy to use, and easy to modify.
  (tags: blogging google)