Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Beware the VNR, and shun the frumious Bandersnatch!
PR Watch's Weekly Spin reports on a recent audio conclave of PR experts, who were gleeful about the positive prospects for VNRs -- video news releases.
The Gubernator got in a little hot water recently for issuing VNRs, as did the Bush Administration (requires subscription; here's more), but the PR experts see a bright future for corporate videos. Great. Let's find a way to neutralize them before they take over the agenda.
I have no problem with governments and companies using any media they want to get their messages across. The problem with VNRs is that they're intentional fake news. This from Stauber's article:
Want to help fight fake news? Sign up!
In case you're Jonesing for the full text of Jabberwocky, it's over here.
The Gubernator got in a little hot water recently for issuing VNRs, as did the Bush Administration (requires subscription; here's more), but the PR experts see a bright future for corporate videos. Great. Let's find a way to neutralize them before they take over the agenda.
I have no problem with governments and companies using any media they want to get their messages across. The problem with VNRs is that they're intentional fake news. This from Stauber's article:
The VNRs are fake news stories, paid for by clients ranging from the Pentagon to Monsanto, that are aired by TV news producers as if they were independent reporting and the work of real journalists, rather than PR operatives who used to be real journalists.PR Watch is run by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber, the dynamic duo of investigative reporters who brought us Toxic Sludge Is Good for You!, Trust Us, We're Experts and Weapons of Mass Deception. They also run the Wikipedia-inspired SourceWatch.
Want to help fight fake news? Sign up!
In case you're Jonesing for the full text of Jabberwocky, it's over here.
Thursday, March 10, 2005
Of crores, lakh and Dabbawallas
I'm on my last day of a week-long visit to India -- my first. From Bangalore back to Mumbai today, then an early flight tomorrow to SFO via Heathrow.
Two things brought me here: a Wharton/Cisco seminar on how small and medium enterprises around the world use technology (to be repeated in Philly and Shanghai over the next couple months), and a Wharton Fellows master class about doing business in India that preceded the seminar. (Tremendous thanks to Jerry, Douglas and Neil for bringing me into this!)
In one quick week, I've seen and heard too many blogworthy things, so I'll just touch a few before I board my flight.
A noteworthy landmark in the world of complex emerging business systems is Mumbai's network of Dabbawallas, often illiterate couriers who daily fight the amazing traffic there to get home-cooked meals from individual houses around the city directly to the people they belong to -- all with Baldrige Award-level error rates. For roughly $1 (US) a month, dabbas (tins with the home-cooked food) get carried from homes to offices and back daily.
Indian social entrepreneurs are doing great work. Several I met with wonderfully serendipitous timing, given that I'll be at SXSW next week for two days of focus on civic engagement and participatory democracy.
The entrepreneurs I met here include Rohini Nilekani of the Akshara Foundation and Ramesh Ramanathan of Janaagraha. Ramesh returned to India in 1998 after a successful career with Citibank and others doing international derivatives work. Here, he has worked on microfinance projects as well as the one I just cited on participatory democracy.
In case you're wondering what crores and lakhs are, they are counting units that make good shorthand ways to talk about scale. A crore is 10 million (so 100 crore is a billion). A lakh is 100,000 (so 10 lakh = 1 million). So conversations and articles are peppered with how many lakh or crore something cost or might serve, more often than you might hear them talk about millions or billions.
Two things brought me here: a Wharton/Cisco seminar on how small and medium enterprises around the world use technology (to be repeated in Philly and Shanghai over the next couple months), and a Wharton Fellows master class about doing business in India that preceded the seminar. (Tremendous thanks to Jerry, Douglas and Neil for bringing me into this!)
In one quick week, I've seen and heard too many blogworthy things, so I'll just touch a few before I board my flight.
A noteworthy landmark in the world of complex emerging business systems is Mumbai's network of Dabbawallas, often illiterate couriers who daily fight the amazing traffic there to get home-cooked meals from individual houses around the city directly to the people they belong to -- all with Baldrige Award-level error rates. For roughly $1 (US) a month, dabbas (tins with the home-cooked food) get carried from homes to offices and back daily.
Indian social entrepreneurs are doing great work. Several I met with wonderfully serendipitous timing, given that I'll be at SXSW next week for two days of focus on civic engagement and participatory democracy.
The entrepreneurs I met here include Rohini Nilekani of the Akshara Foundation and Ramesh Ramanathan of Janaagraha. Ramesh returned to India in 1998 after a successful career with Citibank and others doing international derivatives work. Here, he has worked on microfinance projects as well as the one I just cited on participatory democracy.
In case you're wondering what crores and lakhs are, they are counting units that make good shorthand ways to talk about scale. A crore is 10 million (so 100 crore is a billion). A lakh is 100,000 (so 10 lakh = 1 million). So conversations and articles are peppered with how many lakh or crore something cost or might serve, more often than you might hear them talk about millions or billions.
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