Who is Rex Hammock? I’m founder/ceo of the media company, Hammock Inc. , based in Nashville, Tenn. At Hammock, we help national associations and corporate clients improve the way they tell their stories. We do this by serving as an advisor and provider of a wide array of services related to custom magazines, newsletters and online media. Before settling down at Hammock Publishing, I was an advertising and public relations executive, congressional speech writer, press secretary and seminary graduate (really). I started Hammock Publishing in 1991. Today, it has 25 full-time employees and works with lots of freelancers. I am currently serving my third term on the board of the century-old business-to-business media trade association American Business Media and am a co-founder of the Custom Publishing Council . In 2001, I somehow was named one of the Folio: Magazine 40 of innovative individuals in the magazine industry. I’m a native of Alabama although my accent is noticable only when I say words like “Dale” for Dell. My wife and I have two children, ages 18 and 21. The other members of our family are Feste and Kate .

How do I contact Rex Hammock?

Email me at rexhammock[at]gmail.com. On most social media platforms, IM, and other ways you might want to reach me, my identity typically is my first and last name with no space between the two (rexhammock) except on Twitter, where my username is @r. The phone number of Hammock Publishing is 615.690.3400.

How did you get the Twitter user name “r”?

I asked for it. Actually, the credit goes to a young Google employee (a “googler”) and co-member of the fictitious club, “People Named Rex,” Rex Pelcher. I got to know Rex through Twitter where he is (@rex). As I had tried to register that name when Twitter first launched and was unable to get a three-letter name, I asked Rex how he was successful in getting the name later. He said, “I asked for it” and then suggested that I ask for “r” as it was still unregistered. And the rest is history. All this happened back when there were maybe five people working at Twitter and Oprah was about three years away from hearing about it.  

Where can I find more about Hammock Inc.?

You can learn about Hammock Inc. at the convenient to remember web address hammock.com .

Why do you (keep, have, do) a blog?

I see this blog simply as my place for my part of a bigger conversation that is taking place. To me, having a blog is like having access to a phone or to email. Except, with a blog, you have a platform to say your piece to anyone who wants to hear. If this isn’t a long enough answer, here is link to an answer to this question that will put you to sleep.

How do you find the time to do your weblog?

Look at the time-stamps at the bottom of each post and you’ll notice that I blog in very short bursts two or three times during the day and sometimes in the evening. In reality, one of the most compelling aspects of the current generation of blogging platforms is their ability to allow one to post to a blog faster even than sending an e-mail.

How much time do you search for stories to link to?

Again, I could not do this in the limited time it takes were it not for the amazing Goggle hacks and RSS tools that work in the background to keep me from having to search for news by going from site-to-site.

Is there an archive of this blog?

You can use the calendar to access past days. Also, there is a search box in the right-hand column.

What subjects are covered by the rexblog?

Most days, I focus on topics of interest to me professionally: magazines, conversational and new media, technology, online community, marketing.

On another website, RexHammock.com , I write about and link to things that are more “off-topic” and not about work.

What’s the deal with you being the first White House blogger?

Rather than answer that here, I’ll just link to several posts on that topic .

Why don’t you run your posts thru a spell-check?

In the early days of this blog, my blogging tool had no spell-checker. I’m trying harder now that I use a tool that does.

Why is there a picture of a lard can on the top of each page?

Because lard is the substance you are left with when you boil down hog fat, a fitting metaphor to what one has after spending time reading this stuff. Also, when used as a verb, lard means to enrich or lace heavily with extra material or to embellish. Actually, my wife found that neat Rex Lard can at a flea market in Maine.

What are the copyright restrictions on using content from rexblog?

Rexblog is covered by the Creative Commons Deed called, “Attributioin-NonCommerical-NoDerivs 2.5 .” If you’d like to do something more than what is covered by that deed, feel free to contact me.

No one actually asked the question, but here are some places you’ll find me online.:

rexblog.com : Professional and business-related focus (media, technology, conversational & new media, marketing, magazines). Once each day, my blog includes a posting that aggregates all of the links I’ve bookmared on del.icio.us/rexblog that are related to those topics.

Hammock.com/rexhammock : My official Hammock Inc. “people page.”

RexHammock.com : Personal passions and random-topic tumble-log.

Twitter.com/r : Stream-of-life commentary in < 140 character posts, and where I “hang-out” online.

Flickr.com/rexblog : Where I post photos.

YouTube.com/rexhammock : Where I post videos.

Last.fm/user/rexhammock : Music I’m listening to.

Facebook, Linkedin, etc.: I don’t really “express myself” on these and other “social networking” sites, but on most of them, you can find me if you search for my name or the username “rexhammock.”

FriendFeed.com/rexhammock : A “lifestream” of everything I post anywhere.