Mike Maney

Author: Mike

  • Me at the Open Source Oscars

    @Roebot catches me trying to pilfer some cool ThinkGeek paraphernalia at the Sourceforge Community Choice Awards in San Jose last week.

  • That’s a Wrap: Weekly Wrapup

    Welcome to the first of what will (hopefully) be a quick, weekly post of highlights and links. This week includes several highlights from my trip to San Jose, CA, to attend OSCON 2009. While there, I:

  • Your vote counts!

    I’ve had the pleasure of working not only with the company that sponsors the Sourceforge Community Choice Awards, but currently work with one of the most impressive companies currently in the running for the 2009  contest.

    That company is MindTouch.  Using (and living) open source, MindTouch has built a powerhouse of a collaboration platform.  The platform (like a wiki…if it were on the world’s most powerful steroids), sits at the foundation of a trio of collaborative network solutions MindTouch will roll-out in 2009.  The first — MindTouch Collaborative Intranet — attacks the failure of today’s current crop of corporate intranets to deliver on their promise of improved collaboration.  MindTouch’s charismatic CEO, Aaron Fulkerson, threw heat on the issue recently with his post on the future of collaborative networks.

    All this is a lead-in to say that if you read this blog, you should vote for MindTouch in the 2009 Sourceforge Community Choice Awards.  It’s the right thing to do. (And make sure you add the cool badge below to your site or blog).

    * Yes, MindTouch is a client, but I’d have encouraged you to vote regardless. They are that good.

    ”Please

  • Tri-state governors announce head of new environmental task force

    Comfortable being constantly wet?  Check.  Ability to breathe underwater?  Check.

    Yet another night of thunderstorms, waking up to another morning of cloudy, gray skies dumping rain.

  • 2 x 20 = 40

    Over the past couple of days I’ve managed to squeeze in two strong 20 mile rides on the backroads of Buckingham, Pa.  Lots of hills and little traffic.  Today, one of the local club riders latched onto my back tire for the last 4 miles of the ride (which upped the pace a bit).  Here’s a look at the out-and-back route (click here to see the whole route):

    Wismer out and back

  • I got into MIT (Technology Review, that is)

    OK, so maybe my SATs and choice of communications as a major hindered my shot at getting into MIT. What they didn’t hinder was my luck in getting a letter printed in MIT Technology Review. The letter is based on a story I read in the publication on my way home from SXSW last month (as well as a tweet from the magazine’s editor, Jason Pontin):

    Technology Review: Letters From Our Readers:  “Out Of This World”
    I read the January/February 2009 issue on my flight home from South by Southwest (the magazine was part of the conference’s swag bag). There wasn’t a weak story on any page, but one was out of this world: Adam Fisher’s oral history of space tourism (‘Very Stunning, Very Space, and Very Cool’).

    While I’ll probably never have the millions to afford a flight to the International Space Station, I can rest easy knowing that my $300 three-hour flight in a cramped coach seat was more comfortable than the accommodations afforded professional space travelers. I only wish I had the window seat they had.

    Mike Maney
    Doylestown, PA

    I may never make it as a subject of one of the magazine’s articles, but it’s still pretty cool to be a part of one of the smartest crowds in technology, if only for a fleeting two paragraphs.

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  • Quoted: Me on President Obama’s Tonight Show appearance

    I was quoted recently in a story on President Obama’s March 19th historic appearance on The Tonight Show (the story was written by my friend, Sarah Prial, a reporter for Sacred Heart University’s Spectrum):

    “Mike Maney, a veteran public relations executive at Zer0 to 5ive Communications out of Philadelphia, shared his views from a public relations standpoint.

    ‘There are some [political] camps who believe Obama’s appearance lessened the office of the President, that it should be above entertainment,’ said Maney. ‘There are other camps who believe that his appearance represents a President who is trying every channel he can to communicate to the American people.’”

  • The most important things are not things.


    I caught a glimpse of the lid of this guy’s MacBook while I was walking through the Austin Convention Center at SXSW this past weekend. Fewer truer words have been said.

  • My Face In Your Face

    The front page of today's BusinessWeek.com
    Click to see a bigger version of this image (and my face).

    Late last week I commented on an online story by B.L. Ochman that was running on BusinessWeek’s web site. B.L.’s post, “Debunkiing Six Social Media Myths,” is a good read and incited nearly 100 comments.

    Out of that 100 — correction, out of all of the comments on BusinessWeek — my comment was chosen as the featured comment for BusinessWeek’s “In Your Face” section today. Not only that, but my mugshot is running on the front page of BusinessWeek.com.

    If you are at all interested in social media, I encourage you to read B.L.’s post. I’ll also be posting more about the power of commenting on the just-about-to-be-launched 0to5blog later this afternoon.

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  • Why PR Pros Shouldn’t Ambulance Chase

    I read a tweet from PR pro Robert Dowling this morning regarding death threats the PR firm for controversial mother of eight Nadya Suleman has received:

    @RobertDowling Suleman’s PR resigns after death threats http://budurl.com/48u7 Sounds like an excuse – PR pros cannot be bullied away from clients!

    On this point, Robert and I disagree. I believe PR firms should expect to be called-out for taking on bad clients (although death threats obviously take this way over the line). The PR agency in this case, The Killeen Furtney Group, either (a) knew going in that this client would result in a backlash or (b) didn’t know, which makes their counsel questionable.

    Unlike law, PR is not a right. Agencies must weigh their conscience when taking on new clients — paid or pro bono (in this case, I suspect the “pro bono” was instead free work in exchange for the visibility the agency knew the client would create). If an agency chooses to represent a controversial client, it must accept the consequences of associating itself (and, quite frankly, its team members) with the baggage and backlash attached to that client.

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