Mike Maney

Month: July 2008

  • Lyons is right. Lying is wrong.

    Rule #1 in PR is don’t lie. Spin? Sure, we all do it to some extent (I’d claim spin is no longer the sole domain of PR even). But never, ever lie. The truth always comes out.

    The current Bush Administration is a prime example of this. Another is the current dustup around Apple’s PR team trying to game the press and shareholders about their CEO’s health.

    I encourage you to read the posts by former Fake Steve and current Real Dan Lyons for an inside look at how both sides are playing this game. The Fourth Estate smells blood and rather than getting out of the water (or getting a bigger boat), Apple’s PR team continues to chum the waters.

  • FTI acquires Kinesis Marketing

    Congratulations to Andreas Panayi and his colleagues at Kinesis Marketing on their new relationship with FTI (from PR Week):

    FTI Consulting has acquired digital communications firm Kinesis Marketing. The acquisition expands FD’s digital capabilities; the firm will be rebranded as FD Kinesis and will complement FD’s established design, annual report, and alternative media services unit. Kinesis has 22 employees located in Morristown, NJ and Philadelphia, as well as consultants abroad, and a national client roster.

    Andreas was one of the original driving forces in digital media way back in the pre-bubble days when he led Poppe Tyson’s interactive division.

  • HARO: It’s more than just a cool BMX bike

    When I was a kid I rode a HARO BMX bike. It was cool. Today, HARO is cool for another reason. In the spirit of helping reporters and improving the public relations profession, I encourage everyone to: Get Sourced. Get Quoted. Get Famous: http://www.helpareporter.com – Putting Journalists and Sources together, one quote at a time.

  • Anatomy of a Bee Sting

    About 40 minutes into a quick hour long ride this afternoon (you may need to click on the image to see it bigger):

  • Convergence and High Performance Computing

    It seems for most of my career I’ve been attracted to technology that, for many, would seem more like science than technology. I’ve been privileged to work with some of the founding father’s of UNIX as they developed the Plan 9 distributed operating system. I’ve worked with smart people like John Patrick and Mike Nelson to promote the next generation Internet and Internet2. I’ve promoted high performance servers at what may rightly be called one of the original server makers, Unisys. And I’ve had the opportunity to be part of the Linux/open source movement through work with OSDL (now The Linux Foundation) and Sourceforge.

    It is these complex, advanced technologies that drive the foundation of the services we use today — things like TiVo, portable GPS systems, cell phones, and the powerful backbone that enables us to watch broadcast TV on our laptops. One emerging area to keep an eye on is high performance computing (quote below from a fine article by reporter Jim Romeo in LinuxWorld):

    “Today, many more organizations are able to take advantage of High Performance Computing, due to the ready availability of inexpensive compute clusters powered by Linux running on off-the-shelf x86 hardware, as opposed to the proprietary hardware and software of yesterday’s supercomputers,’ says Sam Charrington, Vice President of Product Management and Marketing for Appistry, Inc.”

    For many, convergence is the collision of telephone, television and Internet. For me, convergence is the collision of open source, server farms and F1-level networking.

  • A Boy Scout is Always Prepared

    My cousin Larry and my uncle Bill are both Eagle Scouts. I made it to the level of Life Scout (one level shy of the Eagle honor). My cousin’s son, Micah, is also in the Boy Scouts. He was picnicking in Utah’s Big Cottonwood Canyon yesterday when he was called up on to put the Boy Scout motto (Be Prepared) into action to help an injured hiker (on a trail where another hiker was killed earlier in the week).

    Despite the very public problems the Boy Scouts face, Micah is an example of the kind of quality young men the organization produces.

  • The Power of Many

    It was really nice to see former OSDL CEO Stuart Cohen in TIME magazine this week. Stuart and the troop at Collaborative Software Initiative are doing a lot of interesting work. Even if you aren’t involved in open source, it’s worth taking a look at how CSI is approaching software development.