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Thursday, August 23, 2007 |
Really, my personality is more that of calming conflicts that creating controversy. I had a couple of comments on Marketing 101, then the Automation World Web production manager included it in the e-mail newsletter, and I got a bunch more. First there was a comment from a PR person who was proud of placing articles from her client in magazines (hmmm, think I said something about that--don't call me). John Kowal wrote a thoughtful comment about using "case histories." I prefer to that we write about user experiences than the classic case history where the protagonist is the product rather than the people. But John raises a point about many users being reluctant to talk about their successes for fear of losing competitive advantage (note: they probably wouldn't, it's not the technology, it's how you use it). We're finding it harder and harder to find good stories. Too often the only people who want to talk are marketing managers who want to spin things a certain way.
My old buddy Dave Harrold wrote a very thoughtful piece and quoted a book I'd forgotten about by Linda VandeVrede. Well worth a look.
Thanks, Chuck for the encouraging words. And one final thought, if you are pondering whether I meant you in the description, then you aren't one of the people to whom I was referring. As I told one person today, "when you're clueless, you're clueless." The whole discussion just went over their heads.
But I think it's valuable for all you marketing people to think about your approach to PR and whether there is a way it could be more effective. I have lots of ideas, but I'm not a super guru. Anyone else out there want to join the fray?
http://www.vandevrede-pr.com/about.htm
http://dave-at-afab.livejournal.com/7058.html
Really, my personality is more that of calming conflicts that creating controversy. I had a couple of comments on Marketing 101, then the Automation World Web production manager included it in the e-mail newsletter, and I got a bunch more. First there was a comment from a PR person who was proud of placing articles from her client in magazines (hmmm, think I said something about that--don't call me). John Kowal of Elau wrote a thoughtful comment about using "case histories." I prefer to that we write about user experiences than the classic case history where the protagonist is the product rather than the people. But John raises a point about many users being reluctant to talk about their successes for fear of losing competitive advantage (note: they probably wouldn't, it's not the technology, it's how you use it). We're finding it harder and harder to find good stories. Too often the only people who want to talk are marketing managers who want to spin things a certain way.
My old buddy Dave Harrold wrote a very thoughtful piece and quoted a book I'd forgotten about by Linda VandeVrede. Well worth a look.
Thanks, Chuck for the encouraging words. And one final thought, if you are pondering whether I meant you in the description, then you aren't one of the people to whom I was referring. As I told one person today, "when you're clueless, you're clueless." The whole discussion just went over their heads.
But I think it's valuable for all you marketing people to think about your approach to PR and whether there is a way it could be more effective. I have lots of ideas, but I'm not a super guru. Anyone else out there want to join the fray?
9:49:27 PM 
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Really, my personality is more that of calming conflicts that creating controversy. I had a couple of comments on Marketing 101, then the Automation World Web production manager included it in the e-mail newsletter, and I got a bunch more. First there was a comment from a PR person who was proud of placing articles from her client in magazines (hmmm, think I said something about that--don't call me). John Kowal wrote a thoughtful comment about using "case histories." I prefer to that we write about user experiences than the classic case history where the protagonist is the product rather than the people. But John raises a point about many users being reluctant to talk about their successes for fear of losing competitive advantage (note: they probably wouldn't, it's not the technology, it's how you use it). We're finding it harder and harder to find good stories. Too often the only people who want to talk are marketing managers who want to spin things a certain way.
My old buddy Dave Harrold wrote a very thoughtful piece and quoted a book I'd forgotten about by Linda VandeVrede. Well worth a look.
Thanks, Chuck for the encouraging words. And one final thought, if you are pondering whether I meant you in the description, then you aren't one of the people to whom I was referring. As I told one person today, "when you're clueless, you're clueless." The whole discussion just went over their heads.
But I think it's valuable for all you marketing people to think about your approach to PR and whether there is a way it could be more effective. I have lots of ideas, but I'm not a super guru. Anyone else out there want to join the fray?
http://www.vandevrede-pr.com/about.htm
http://dave-at-afab.livejournal.com/7058.html
9:47:54 PM
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I missed a couple of days worth of posting. If you've read about the rain and flooding in northwest Ohio, that's had a side effect of closing schools and postponing soccer matches. All my spare time (of which there isn't much) has gone into referee rescheduling. So far, I haven't heard of anything worse than gross inconvenience from my friends and acquaintances. There hasn't been much communication. Hope all my soccer friends up there are safe. I'm 60 miles south of Findlay. Sidney needs rain. Go figure.
Oh yes, saw the new grandson this week. I've forgotten how small they are--and all the concerns of new parents. I can't transfer my experience, of course, so I just did my usual calming thing. The kid's probably doing better than the parents, he doesn't know he's missing sleep ;-)
9:27:46 AM
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Looks like The Weather Channel trend in always-on weather is starting to take hold in industry. First, I was talking with C&E Sales (an Ohio-Indiana high tech distributor) technical support person Khek Dengmanivanh at the PTO meeting the beginning of August. He described an application where they constructed a large display with current weather information from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in a shop. Next comes this from Kepware Technologies.
Kepware Technologies has licensed weather information from WeatherBug that will be made available to automation users through Kepware's KEPServerEX OPC technology. OPC is an open connectivity standard for moving information in automation systems.
KEPServerEX is the latest generation of Kepware's OPC server technology. It was designed to allow users to quickly setup communications from equipment to control systems via a wide range of available "plug-in" device drivers and components. KEPServerEX will now support Internet connectivity to real-time weather information, available as a licensed service. The WeatherBug for Automation driver will be delivered as an additional plug-in, joining the over 100 automation protocols already supported. Weather variables include: date, time, station location, temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, average speed, max speed, light intensity, rain levels and more.
As part of this relationship, WeatherBug will also create a joint venture, advertiser-free, version of the WeatherBug Desktop application, WeatherBug Plus. The application will highlight Kepware as the solution provider and will highlight WeatherBug as a source of real-time, local weather information. This customized version will be available from the Kepware website, free of charge, and will allow automation professionals to review local weather conditions, forecasts and severe weather alert information.
By combining its proprietary asset, said by the company to be the world's largest network of live weather sensors, with publicly available weather data from around the world, the WeatherBug network provides data relied upon by millions of consumers, television broadcast partners, businesses, energy companies and federal, state and local government agencies every day. WeatherBug information is available in real-time, with variable updates on the order of seconds.
"No other weather source can match the accuracy and timeliness that the WeatherBug network provides. Kepware is very excited to have been chosen by WeatherBug as their exclusive partner for delivering their weather information to the automation marketplace," says Roy Kok, vice president of Sales and Marketing for Kepware. "We approached WeatherBug with the concept of licensing weather information for control purposes, highlighting that we are the ideal choice as the leading provider of communications for automation. They immediately understood the value of this offering, and our support for industry standards, enabling their weather data to be used by any automation system or vendor," he added.
Kok told me that NOAA has about 1,200 weather stations updating hourly. WeatherBug has over 8,000 updating every few seconds. He's thinking that some new industries could pop up around this data source and the ability to use weather information for real-time decision-making. This would be especially useful for facility automation and severe weather alerts.
9:13:15 AM
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© Copyright 2007 Gary Mintchell.
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