The ants have megaphones

Announcing Communications Reps SIG

2011-10-28T13:15:00.000-07:00

The Mozilla Reps program aims to empower and support volunteer Mozillians who want to become official representatives of Mozilla in their region/locale. A few weeks ago, William shared the news that the Mozilla Reps program would be expanding to include Special Interest Groups. Today, I'm incredibly proud to officially announce Mozilla's Communications Reps Special Interest Group.

There are many areas of PR/Communications where Mozillians can get involved and make a big impact. As a Comms Reps, you will have an opportunity to get hands-on experience while working alongside one of the most innovative PR teams working in tech today. You will learn PR fundamentals, including how to share Mozilla news and announcements, draft media pitches, monitor and analyze coverage, and conduct outreach to local media contacts.

We're kicking off the Comms Reps program with sessions at the upcoming MozCamp events in Berlin and KL. To join the Comms Reps program, please fill out the following form: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEVHNldzU1U4cDhOY3ZRWUJ4d25aZWc6MQ. We look forward to hearing from you!

A heartfelt thank you to Mozilla's PR intern, Annika Heinle, who worked this summer to build out the infrastructure for the Comms Reps SIG and to Shannon Prior, Annika's summer mentor.

What are the qualities of a great PR firm?

2011-01-10T21:09:00.000-08:00

It's been months since I've blogged. These days I'm tweeting a bunch and answering questions on Quroa. In the interest of getting some content on my blog, I'm crossposting one of my recent Quora responses.

Q: What are the qualities of a great PR firm?

A: Qualities of a great PR firm from someone who's both hired and worked at quite a few...

*Organized - A good agency will set and stick to deadlines. A great agency won't make you ask about the status of a deliverable - they'll communicate along the way.

*Stellar media chops - Do they have your key journalists on speed dial? Are they BFF's with the influencers in your space? Often, good agencies do bad work because they are supporting clients where they have no domain expertise. Ask for relevant account portfolios to ensure that they aren't learning everything on your dime. You can save time and money by doing your homework and hiring an agency with prior industry experience.

*Genuine partners - When the going gets tough, are they working late hours alongside you? Or are they nowhere to be found the night before the tour when a blizzard hits Boston and you need to rebook a full week of meetings? A
great agency will feel like an extension of your team. They will have a clear understanding of your topline objectives and they will go the extra mile to get you there because success is shared. A big win for you is a big win for them.

*Detail oriented - Page numbers on every doc without exceptions. Reporter phone numbers. Directions to the next meeting. PR lives and dies by the details. The difference between a good meeting and a bad meeting is often a well constructed or poorly constructed briefing sheet. These are typically drafted by interns. Is someone senior reviewing their work before it gets to your inbox?

*Whip smart - As the client, you're wearing branded blinders and drinking the Kool-Aid every day. A good agency will flag relevant trends and articles and pull you out of the weeds.

*Proactive - Relevant ed-cals from reach publications? That new, hot industry
conference? Beat reporters moving publications? Your agency should be
all over this and you shouldn't have to ask for it, it should just show up in your inbox.

*Trust - Ultimately, great agency relationships are based on trust. These are the people who will call the press on your company's behalf. They are the front line storytellers for your company's narrative. Do you trust them to tell your story? Get key facts and figures right? Accurately represent your position in the market? Save your CEO if a briefing is going completely off the rails? Help you navigate a crisis? Cover day to day operations if you need to be offline for a day?

Leroy Stick; the man behind @BPGlobalPR

2010-06-03T15:33:00.000-07:00

Via Street Giant...

You know the best way to get the public to respect your brand? Have a respectable brand. Offer a great, innovative product and make responsible, ethical business decisions. Lead the pack! Evolve!

What’s in Your Backpack?

2010-05-03T15:30:00.000-07:00

After countless press tours, conferences, and events where I’m not only responsible for my own well-being but that of my traveling roadshow colleagues, I picked up a thing or two about road warrioring. “Be prepared” being the motto of the savvy pr professional, my colleagues joke that I’m better than a boy scout.

Here is a collection of ten of my favorite/best travel tips. Some of them are specifically geared toward female business travelers, but most will work for everyone. The following items are in my backpack at all times. Just in case…

1. Peekaboo, I can’t see you. Bring an eyepillow. You never know when you’ll end up in a hotel room with a neon sign directly in front of your window. It also comes in handy during long flights where the person next to you is reading and you want to sleep.

2. La la la, I can’t hear you. It is not the small child’s fault for screaming during the entire flight. It is your fault for being unprepared. Do not leave home without at least two pair of earplugs. If you are going to Vegas and have early morning meetings, earplugs are the difference between a sound night of sleep and staying up all night - people scream in the hallways at all hours for no apparent reason.

3. Tea Party. The tea in hotels (even fancy hotels) simply sucks. Travel with a few of your favorite bags. Oftentimes a nice cup of tea can make the difference between a good day and a bad day.

4. Be your own Starbucks. Carry a coffee sleeve and one of those green coffee stoppers from Starbucks. They come in handy if you end up getting coffee from a place that doesn’t stock those things.

5. Be your own RiteAid/Walgreens/CVS/Duane Reed. Pack a coughdrop. Just one. Pack two Dayquil. And at least four Benedryl. If you or your spokesperson goes into a coughing fit in a press briefing, you’ll be ready – it’s easy enough to buy more if you need them. If you or your spokesperson gets a cold on the plane, the Dayquil may save you from rescheduling a full day of meetings – that stuff is amazing. The Benedryl is the most fantastic of all. It’s intended for allergies and does a bang up job as an anti-histamine. But what the label doesn’t tell you is that if you’re stuck in an unfamiliar time zone, it’ll help you sleep with minimal side effects and no Ambien hangover.

6. Meal in bar form. You should always have at least one granola bar in your bag and at least one piece of gum. A spokesperson with low blood sugar will make your life miserable. And garlic breath is not an effective message delivery vehicle.

7. These lips were made for talking. Chapstick is a modern miracle. It does not matter if it is winter or summer, your lips will be chapped after three days of meetings.

8. Summertime and the livin’s easy. Bring flip flops on every trip, even if you’re going someplace cold. After a day in work shoes, no matter how comfortable, you’ll enjoy walking around the hotel in them. And if you find out those new shoes aren’t quite as comfortable after you’ve walked the length of Manhattan in ‘em, you can always throw them in your backpack, use the flip flops to hike across the city, and change back in the elevator. No one will ever be the wiser.

9. Oops, I did it again. Those little tiny sewing kits they have in most hotels? Take one and put it in your backpack. It doesn’t take up any space and if you lose a button, split your pants, or get your sweater caught on a turnstile, you’ll be glad it’s there.

10. Cousin It stand-in. Bring a hairtie and at least two barrettes no matter the length or style of your hair. Cute as your hair may be when at home, humidity is a wondrous thing. You can suffer through the frizz or pull it all back in a tight bun and let it down again once you’re safely inside.

Photo credits:
Flipflops.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/static/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Eyepillow.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/yelahneb/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Starbucks.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cups/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Garlic.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/calliope/ / CC BY 2.0

Cute kid with the wild hair.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/foto-motto/

Do you think you have a public relations problem?

2010-03-26T21:18:00.000-07:00

NYTimes Q&A with Yelp's CEO.

Q. If nothing else, do you think you have a public relations problem?

A. There’s simply anger over the accountability that Yelp brings and also this feeling of powerlessness because so much power is now being put in the hands of the consumer. But the important thing that gets lost with some of these business owners who are very upset with us is it’s the whole picture that counts. Focusing on that one review you feel is unfair misses the value, which is the whole symphony of opinions you get on your page.

written or spoken - what do you think?

After Three Months, Only 35 Subscriptions for Newsday's Web Site

2010-01-27T13:28:00.000-08:00

After Three Months, Only 35 Subscriptions for Newsday's Web Site

The paper was one of the first non-business newspapers to take the plunge by putting up a pay wall, so in media circles it has been followed with interest. Could its fate be a sign of what others, including The New York Times, might expect?

My Personas Pic

2010-01-25T12:44:00.001-08:00

This is my personas picture. It was taken on Thursday, Jan 21 - launch day for Firefox 3.6. Though I had a terrible head cold, I think the picture turned out pretty well.

Personas are one of the most exciting features in 3.6. They are easy-to-use themes that let you customize your Firefox.

My personal favorites are:
* GG Bridge
* Japanese Tattoo
* Music Head
* Yosemite
* You Are My Muse
* Groovy Blue

Quake!

2010-01-07T10:36:00.001-08:00

Quake!
Originally uploaded by shappy85

4.1 in the Bay Area. Was in a meeting in Mountain View and we all felt the building sway a little. Fun times :)

Howard Kurtz and the Evolution of Media

2009-12-28T15:57:00.000-08:00

I'm a longtime Media Notes reader. It's been my morning coffee read since my days as a PR intern. In today's column, Kurtz examines the evolution of the media over the last decade. It's a good read. One that could spark a much longer blog post from me but I'm short on time. Trying to take advantage of the surprisingly quiet office to catch up on email and the remaining 2009 todos.

Here's the link so y'all can read the full piece at your leisure.

The rise of niche journalism is taking place as old-line organizations more frequently chase tabloid melodramas. Cable television and morning shows breathlessly pursue narratives involving missing white women, a runaway bride, a mom with octuplets, a beauty queen who opposes gay marriage. Reality television manufactures faux stars -- remember the media mobs over Paris Hilton's brief jail term? -- who wind up on real newscasts. It is a mind-set that breathes life into celebrity deaths -- such as the two-week frenzy over Michael Jackson's -- and gorges on misbehavior by the likes of David Letterman and Tiger Woods. (Imagine if all the reporters chasing Woods's many mistresses had been assigned to study whether Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.)

The Public Apology: An Exercise in Mea Culpa

2009-12-13T21:26:00.000-08:00

Today's crisis communications lesson courtesy of Tiger...

I am deeply aware of the disappointment and hurt that my infidelity has caused to so many people, most of all my wife and children. I want to say again to everyone that I am profoundly sorry and that I ask forgiveness. It may not be possible to repair the damage I’ve done, but I want to do my best to try. I would like to ask everyone, including my fans, the good people at my foundation, business partners, the PGA Tour, and my fellow competitors, for their understanding. What’s most important now is that my family has the time, privacy, and safe haven we will need for personal healing. After much soul searching, I have decided to take an indefinite break from professional golf. I need to focus my attention on being a better husband, father, and person. Again, I ask for privacy for my family and I am especially grateful for all those who have offered compassion and concern during this difficult period.

Mozilla Security Quiz Live on Facebook!

2009-11-19T15:34:00.000-08:00

Today, we released the Mozilla Security Quiz to the world! We're very excited to share the application with everyone.

You can go take the quiz here: http://apps.facebook.com/mozillasecurityquiz

Months ago, we sat down to talk about how - in addition to the work we were doing with security research and technical communities - we could have a direct role in educating users about online security. We saw an opportunity to communicate information that we felt was very important - key tips for keeping people safe online.

While we were working through the concept, the marketing and web development teams were in tight coordination with Mozilla's world-class security experts to make the survey adhere to Mozilla stringent privacy requirements. Where most Facebook applications allow developers a lot of access to personal data, we wanted to collect as little information as possible. In fact, we only wanted to see how people did on the quiz, we didn't care about location, gender, education, etc. To make sure we weren't collecting any secondary information, we hashed the Facebook user ID. This means that neither Mozilla, nor anyone else, can tell who answered which questions or what their responses were.

Please go check out the quiz and let us know what you think!

Big thank yous to:
Sarah Doherty
John Slater
Mike Morgan
Johnathan Nightingale
Brandon Sterne
Laura Mesa
AllWidgets
Elise Allen

Jacob Alexander 1931 - 2009

2009-09-13T22:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning I found out that my former neighbor Jacob died on Sept 8 at the age of 78. While I've known Jacob for about five years, I never knew his last name. Well, that is until I began searching Google because I heard there would be a neighborhood memorial service for him next weekend. I searched "jacob memorial haight san francisco"and this was the first link to come up. I found out from my former roommate who still lives in the Haight. She found out because there was a flier posted at the corner store. In shock, she asked the store owners when/how he had died. Apparently Jacob had been battling with cancer for the past two years. We never knew.

It's hard to explain.
Jacob was more than a neighbor.
He was much more than an acquaintance though I really didn't know any of the intimate details of his life other than where he lived and his marital status. In fact, there are people about whom I know much more, yet to whom I feel much less attached.

He watched me move into my apartment with two close friends. When we moved in, Jacob was there to greet us, like a one-man neighborhood watch/welcome committee. He said hello every time I saw him after that. It was rare to see Jacob without getting a genuine smile and a warm hug. He stood outside a lot and watched people walk by. It often made my day just to pass him on my way to catch the bus or head to the grocery store.

"Hello!"
Jacob would smile.
"Happy Tuesday to you," he would say. Or fill in whatever day of the week it was.
"And also to you," I would reply.

I've moved at least four times since Jacob lived two doors over from me. But whenever I saw him, we'd pick up just where we'd left off - with a greeting, a smile, and a hug.

The folks at the corner store said they'd seen Jacob the day before he passed away. And they asked how he was and he said "Best day of my life." The answer never changed. He was always smiling, always in good spirits.

I wanted to write a post to capture what was special about my interactions with Jacob but when I started to look for information about him online, I discovered that many, many other neighbors had very similar encounters.

From Jacob's obituary:

With his warm smile, unruly white beard, dark pants, white tunic, knit cap, a necklace of stone crab claws and camel and lion teeth, Jake was such a well-known presence in the park that he was dubbed the "King of Golden Gate Park." Walkers and joggers stopped to hug him, bicyclists shouted greetings, and drivers honked and waved.

It's really hard to imagine not seeing him again. Where others saw a bunch of strangers living in close proximity, Jacob saw a neighborhood of friends yet to be introduced. This weekend, I look forward to joining my friends and neighbors in celebrating his life.

LOL - FB punks TC

2009-09-10T22:33:00.001-07:00

Nice work Facebook PR team...too funny:

Between laughs while catching her breath she mentioned something about this being a joke, that nobody but us could see it, and that they were placing bets around the office on how long before we noticed it and posted. And something else about teaching us to contact them before posting.

Yeah Ok, So Facebook Punk’d Us

Posted using ShareThis

Ode to Perfection

2009-08-10T13:45:00.001-07:00

Pilon
Originally uploaded by shappy85

My friend writes a Cuban recipe blog. After a hiatus, he returned to blogging and posted instructions for making Cuban Coffee at home - a "colada" specifically. I don't think it can really be called a recipe since the only ingredients are coffee and sugar, but getting the balance right is a challenge for many people. Here's a picture of the process. Seems incredibly simple but turns out any missteps along the way yield entirely different results. Still on a caffeine high from yesterday - and can't wait to try it again with maybe a lil less sugar. That's how you know I'm a gringa :)

Mozilla in tomorrow's NYT

2009-07-25T21:48:00.000-07:00

A lot of work went into this article. I think the New York Times piece, more than others, touched almost every part of Mozilla. These are my favorite kind of articles about Mozilla - the articles that offer the most comprehensive glimpse into who we are, why we do what we do, and capture the collective alarm call that wakes us up on a daily basis and drives us to make the Web a better place.

For Mozilla and its millions of fans, Firefox is not just cool software but also a cause: to ensure that no company, whether Microsoft, Google or anyone else, can tilt the Web to its advantage by tweaking its browser to favor its products or applications.

Very pleased to post this one on my blog. Please read and share your thoughts in the comments. I'm interested to hear your feedback.

Parting thoughts via @mitchellbaker:

“We succeeded because more people got engaged, helped us build a better product and helped us get the product into the hands of people,” Ms. Baker says. “We succeeded because of the mission.”

Mozilla's Flying Marketeers

2009-07-21T18:05:00.001-07:00

K-Team Flyers + Extra Awesome Headgear
Originally uploaded by intothefuzz

The Mozilla marketing team went flying today at iFly in the East Bay. For your viewing pleasure, here's an adorable shot of the whole team in power ranger flying suits (photo is courtesy of intothefuzz).

Firefox 3.5 Launch: A Day in Pictures

2009-07-07T15:29:00.000-07:00

Ugh. My poor neglected blog. I haven't posted since May. But I have a good excuse - I've been pretty busy with work lately. If you didn't already know, Firefox 3.5 launched last week.

Friends and family often ask me what it's like to be on the ground at Mozilla HQ for a Firefox launch. I brought my camera to the office for the 3.5 launch and tried to snap as many shots as I could - between fielding press calls and working through the challenges that come along with a global product launch.

So without further ado...here's a link to my flickr set from the Firefox 3.5 launch.

Good read from the Bad Pitch Blog...

2009-05-29T11:37:00.001-07:00

What Just Happened To The Long Tail?

Posted using ShareThis

The weekly newspaper reaches a niche who cares: community. That’s saying a lot. I wonder if that’s just a little too old-fashioned for Anderson groupies to grasp. Alas, I’m grateful to Anderson because his statement will influence the suits and help them finally get that “PR By The Pound” is a 1990s concept. Yes, you want to reach a lot of people with a message. However, doing so indiscriminately will not work since there’s no power in the message-less story that gets to the wrong (untargeted) individual.

A year in the life...

2009-05-18T12:06:00.000-07:00

Updating some Mozilla slides from just about a year ago.

Last year, Firefox had 175+ million users.
This year, Firefox has 270+ million users.

Last year, Firefox was in 45+ languages.
This year, it's 70+.

Last year, there were 500 million downloads.
This year, we're upwards of 800 million.

The momentum is truly astounding. It's easy to get in the flow of things and focus on what's ahead but it's really amazing to peek back every so often. :)

brilliant bit of pr

2009-04-28T19:21:00.000-07:00

iwantiwantiwantiwantiwant:

“‘A Really Goode Job’ will pay $10,000 a month for a six-month contract that includes private housing in the heart of wine country: Healdsburg, California. The application process begins in San Francisco at 11:30 a.m. April 28 at 120 Market Street near the Hyatt Regency.”

http://www.areallygoodejob.com/

Fennec Sighting

2009-04-10T15:47:00.001-07:00

I was walking home from the bus and spotted a random fennec picture about two blocks from my house.

Internal monologue:

Huh, never noticed that picture before.
I better walk over and check it out.
Wait - is that a fennec?
Did someone in San Francisco take a picture of a fennec and put it in their window? Seriously?
This town is weirder than I thought.
I better take a photo of it so I can share this with Mozilla's mobile team.

Anyway, for your viewing pleasure and amusement, here's the picture:

Two weeks without TV

2009-04-06T12:59:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago, we officially canceled our dish subscription. It's been a strange adjustment.

This weekend, we gardened. Mr. Crab looks so happy.

My favorite things about Firefox Personas

2009-03-31T13:47:00.000-07:00

Today, Mozilla formally launched Personas - a free, easy-to-install “skins” for Firefox that make changing the look of the browser as easy as changing your shirt.

I've been a bit remiss in my blogging lately but am taking time out from online hermitage to give a quick list of my favorite things about Firefox Personas:

1. They are easy to change. As someone who rocked varying hair colors during high school, I appreciate being able to change my browser's style multiple times per day. So much easier than rinsing out Manic Panic!

2. They match my mood. Spending several hours a day as a cubicle farmer can weigh on a treehugger's soul. Personas to the rescue! I can stare at the forest, the beach, the sky, and more.

3. I <3 California. Personas offers me views of the GG Bridge, Yosemite, and a California sunset. All with no wind chill, chance of rain, or need for sunscreen. :)

If you haven't already, head over to www.getpersonas.com and start using Personas today!

Meet the new news, same as the old news

2009-02-11T15:34:00.001-08:00

This page has been open in my browser window for about a month. It's a fascinating article from CNET's Dan Farber about the growth of the Internet as a news source. The article posted right before I left for vacation but I kept it open as a reminder to capture some of the salient bits on my blog. It's not as timely now, but still relevant so I'm gonna go ahead and post it.

The good statistic bits:

Earlier this month, the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press conducted a survey that rendered two obvious conclusions: the Internet has overtaken newspapers as a source of national and international news, and television, led by CNN, continues to serve as the main source.

According to the Pew survey, 40 percent of respondents (versus 24 percent in 2007) said the Internet is their primary source for national and international news. That compares with 35 percent (versus 34 percent 2007) who rely on newspapers and 70 percent (versus 74 percent in 2007) who use television as their main source.

The part that matters most for flacks:

The less obvious part of the Internet overtaking newspapers as the main source for national and international news is that much of the seed content--the original reporting that breaks national and international news and is subsequently refactored by legions of bloggers--comes from the reporters and editors working at the financially strapped newspapers and national and local television outlets.

The face of the all media has been shifting for awhile now. It seems like it's happening more rapidly in light of the recent economic downturn.

(ps, happy birthday rlg)

Am I in the right place?

2009-02-10T13:19:00.001-08:00

You may have noticed a few changes to my blog layout and design this week. After several years of enduring one of the most overused stock templates, I was sick of it. I searched around, tried on some new options, and finally settled on this design for my blog. I wish I were cool enough to say I designed it myself, but, alas, I did not.

So, to answer the title question - yes, you're in the right place and hopefully it's a lot more visually appealing than it used to be. :)

On public apologies

2009-02-02T11:32:00.000-08:00

Good column from the Washington Post's sports writer about Michael Phelps and how his handlers botched what would otherwise have been a pretty simple crisis communications situation. Looks like Phelps' agent at Octagon tried to bribe The News of the World into not running the now famous photo. Ouch, talk about two wrongs...

The people at Octagon, in their zeal to make every buck they can possibly make, have tried to turn him into Captain America, the symbol of all that is right with sports and the USA. They need to lay off and just let him be who he is: a well-raised young man who, like a lot of well-raised young people makes an occasional mistake

As an aside, I really like Michael Phelps. He grew up about 10 minutes away from me and went to a rival high school. Towson had a huge parade for him when he came home from the Olympics.

On Dan Lyons, Apple, and lying

2009-01-27T13:46:00.000-08:00

I've been following the recent kerfuffle in the pr blogs about Dan Lyon's experience with Apple PR. Check out Jeremy Pepper's thorough post on the subject.

snip...

But, the reality is with the shrinking and spreading of media - the traditional is getting smaller, while the new is growing bigger (and, well, more niche and like vertical media, but no one wants to admit that about blogs) - the lies are becoming too obvious, and getting caught too easily. It's the job of public relations to relay information, or truthfully sometimes to keep information private. But if you're getting calls from a reporter on such information ... it's already leaked and out there. And, well, damage control does not mean lie and obfuscate, but rather deflect or respond.

Busted on Twitter

2009-01-21T14:59:00.001-08:00

A Ketchum VP just got busted complaining via twitter about a client's city while in town for a meeting. Protip: Even if your twitter stream is private, you shouldn't expect what you post to remain private.

Why we do media training

2009-01-20T20:26:00.000-08:00

In case anyone was wondering...this is why PR people encourage media training.

LOL! I love Jill Biden! And I love that in the excitement of being in the presence of the great Oprah Winfrey the poor dear got flustered enough to let this bit of previously unsubstantiated information get out. No matter what the press release says about the incident, you know what Jill spilled was the way it went down ;)

Tag, you're it!

2009-01-15T15:57:00.000-08:00

Serves me right for being a slack blogger. I got tagged multiple times for 7 things. Since Deb tagged me first, I confirmed with her that Wladimir's subsequent tagging and now Jane's tagging too doesn't mean I'm on the hook for 21 things. Deb said 7 would be good. So here we go...

Ground rules:
1. Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.
2. Share seven facts about yourself in the post.
3. Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged.

7 things you may (or may not) know about me:
1. I left high school at 16 and didn't graduate yet I have a high school diploma due to a loophole in the way that my county handled their matriculation lists.

2. I am absurdly particular about my mouse setup. I will only use the mouse with my left-hand and the mouse itself must be left-oriented and a trackball, preferably by Kensington. I am so committed to this orientation that I bring along a trackball mouse while traveling just so I don't have to use the touchpad or a non-trackball mouse. I am *not* left handed.

3. I am obsessed with all music despite the noticeable toll it's taking on my hearing. If I'm at my desk working, there's a good chance I've got headphones on. If I'm surfing the web, there's a good chance I'm pouring over music blogs looking for my next favorite band. From age 16-20, I saw the band Phish in concert more than 50 times.

4. While in college, I knew I wanted to do high tech pr but the field didn't exist at the time. I interned at Edelman PR, the largest independent PR firm in the world. They sent me to staff INET '99, an Internet conference in San Jose. I stayed at the Fairmont and they flew me out first class. It was the first time I'd ever flown first class. It was the first time I'd ever stayed at a fancy hotel - there was a tv in the bathroom! I staffed a press conference for Vint Cerf. I met Meg Whitman and Esther Dyson. I was 18. Life was good.

5. I juggle. I'm actually pretty good.

6. I used to teach Sunday school to 4th and 5th graders.

7. At 17, I became a vegetarian as a reaction to a lifetime of fast food. I started eating meat again at some point after college, but I haven't walked into a McDonald's in over a decade.

Seven people:
Candace - because she's always up to something
Nicole - because she doesn't blog but this might help get her started
Tara - because she has a great sense of humor
Damon - because he shares my music obsession
Dave Donohue - because he understands my complex relationship with Phish
Asher - because I love his writing but he rarely blogs unless he's thousands of miles from home
Francisco - because he's one of my very favorite people

Yelp lawsuit

2009-01-08T09:29:00.001-08:00

This morning, the SF Chronicle has an article about a local Yelp reviewer getting sued by a business over his Yelp post. As an avid Yelp fan, this has me very concerned. The EFF is considering getting involved to help out the Yelper with his legal defense. From the EFF lawyer:

"When people try to pull down unflattering material, it has the absolute opposite effect" of what they intend, he said. "It's very difficult to silence speakers on the Internet - it's a culture of people who don't like those kinds of attempts."

Amen to that.

Second Annual Ken Kovash Day Celebrations Begin

2008-12-19T00:01:00.000-08:00

Second Annual Ken Kovash Day Celebrations Begin

Numbers panic, have nowhere to hide

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF. - December 19, 2008 - Today ushers in the second annual Ken Kovash Day. Last year’s celebration was the first of its kind. It was a significant milestone for Ken Kovash fans worldwide.

In its second year, Ken Kovash Day (KKD) celebrations went above and beyond those of last year. An official website, http://kenkovash.com, officially launched today. Kovash fans everywhere can go online and share their adoration with the world. Additionally, fans can make and purchase KeKo-inspired clothing at http://www.zazzle.com/kenkovash+gifts.

"Some people mistakenly think Ken looks out only for number one. But that sells him way, way short,” said, David Rolnitzky. “There are a lot of other numbers he looks out for."

"I have never seen someone hunt down data abnormalities with such precision, determination, and skill as Ken Kovash,” said Justin Fligtar Scott. “Since Ken has been around, we've actually noticed data voluntarily working to correct itself rather than face a never-ending pursuit of the truth by The Numerator."

About Ken Kovash
Kovash, aka the Numerator at Mozilla, began his career at Boomerang, followed by a brief stint at Yahoo. He also worked as a Research Associate at Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory. In 2006, Kovash graduated with an MBA from University of Chicago. He has an undergraduate degree in Economics from UC Berkeley.

Family tech support

2008-12-10T12:58:00.000-08:00

I just had a very funny conversation with my mother-in-law over gchat.

Lorraine: you have to tell me how you make a smiley face.
me: ok. i will
it's a colon : and a shift zero )
:)
Sent at 12:51 PM on Wednesday
Lorraine: it doesn't turn
me: it will
try it
do it and press enter
Lorraine: :))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
:::::::::)
me: try again
this time with one colon
and one close paren
Lorraine: :)
me: YAY
Lorraine: :)
love you. talk to you later. bye:)
:)
me: love you too
bye
Sent at 12:57 PM on Wednesday

Mozilla Community Store

2008-12-04T10:59:00.000-08:00

This morning, Mozilla and Zazzle announced a strategic partnership and the launch of the Mozilla Community Store!

At the Mozilla Community Store, folks can browse the gallery to shop from an array of community generated designs. Designs consist entirely of artwork supplied by Mozilla's worldwide community, with all designs available for customization on over 400 apparel products including t-shirts, sweatshirts and tank tops. To get things started, we've seeded the store with over 50 designs from the Firefox 3 t-shirt design contest, but anyone can start from scratch and add their own.

Tara over at MusingT and John at Intothefuzz have also posted about the exciting news!

An exercise in passive voice

2008-11-29T11:15:00.000-08:00

From the Facebook team:

Unfortunately, the settings that control which email notifications get sent to you were lost. We're sorry for the inconvenience.

To reset your email notification settings, go to:

http://www.facebook.com/editaccount.php?notifications

Thanks,
The Facebook Team

PR Decoder Ring

2008-11-24T13:24:00.000-08:00

Found this page that defines newspaper terms and thought it could also be really helpful for people trying to figure out what the heck their PR person is talking about. :)

Brendan Eich on CIO Sessions

2008-11-19T11:28:00.000-08:00

Just posted the following to Mozilla's Above the Fold PR blog. Great interview between Mozilla's CTO and CNET's Dan Farber about Mozilla, Firefox, and the future of the Web. Check it out!

Introducing Fashion Your Firefox!

2008-11-18T08:28:00.000-08:00

This morning, Mozilla launched the Fashion Your Firefox application, making it easy to customize Firefox based on your interests and personal preferences. Great posts about the news can be found here and here. The press release is here.

Aging

2008-11-11T10:21:00.000-08:00

This makes me feel old.

Birthday roll call

2008-11-09T16:49:00.000-08:00

Happy birthday mom!

Happy birthday Firefox!

Prop 8

2008-11-04T13:41:00.000-08:00

A few months prior to our wedding, I wrote a post about gay marriage. In the post, I talked about the rush of emotion upon finding my soul mate and planning to get married.

i'm looking toward this august, feeling amazingly lucky to have found my besheret. i hope that we get to a point where everyone can experience this feeling - regardless of whom they've decided to love for the rest of their lives.

This morning, I had the opportunity to vote on Prop 8. It was one of the simplest decisions I've ever made. Easier than the ballot question about renaming the Oceanside sewage plant. Easier than the one about the number of people who should participate in the Historic Preservation Society. Easier than anything else on the phonebook-sized San Francisco ballot.

Dead simple.

V ote no on Prop 8 .

Greetings from Detroit

2008-10-28T15:48:00.001-07:00

Just finished a few days of PR-related conferencing in the Motor City. Couple of quick thoughts.

- Bringing about 3000 PR peeps to a city with an image problem is simply brilliant
- Attending a PR-specific conference when you spend a lot of time at tech events is a refreshing change of pace (except for the enormous line at the ladies room)
- PR folks across all industries are catching onto social media and the importance of TRANSPARENCY - beyond just the high tech ones
- PR people are eager to share experiences, introduce themselves to strangers, network, ask questions, and speak up in sessions where they disagree with the speaker - all making for a highly interactive conference
- Only about 1% of conference attendees came to sessions with their laptops (I did the first day but soon discovered there was no wifi)
- Many of the proprietary PR internet applications in the expo center only run on IE
- Most of the PR professionals had not heard of Mozilla but were familiar with Firefox
- All of the PR students I met both knew of, used, and evangelized Firefox (hello 2009 intern pool!)

More to come when I've had time to digest my notes.

Mozilla PR Metrics

2008-09-30T12:35:00.000-07:00

At Mozilla, we are exploring ways to evaluate public relations programs to determine both short and long term efficacy. How do we know if we’re getting better if there’s no baseline indication of impact? The answer isn’t a pure science. True PR metrics are not just quantitative but qualitative as well. Quantitative analysis explores things like total number of articles, mentions in the press, coverage by country, etc. Qualitative analysis includes message penetration as well as audience and tone analysis. It turns out they are equally important in evaluating the success of Mozilla’s major PR initiatives.

PR is notoriously difficult to quantify. Part of the challenge is developing PR metrics that will be meaningful over time. If PR objectives are constantly shifting, certain programs will undoubtedly get more attention than others. Setting PR metrics is a semi-existential undertaking. Will things that matter today still matter a year from now? Two years? Ten? Fifty?

The first step in setting PR metrics is to look at our overarching PR/Communications goals. From there we can determine a solid methodology for tracking them in the short and long term. The idea is to compare apples to apples.

In the pre-Internet days, every PR professional had a ruler at his or her desk and would simply count newspaper and magazine column inches. If the number of inches increased quarter over quarter or year over year, it was presumed that the PR team was doing a good job. Apples to apples? Yes. Meaningful? Not really. Print inches are great if every story is glowing but not if the content written in those inches says lousy things about the company/product/executive team/etc.

Quantitative Analysis

Quantitative analysis is decidedly less labor intensive than qualitative analysis and can be broken down into a number of subcategories. This is useful for media analysis in countries where we lack native speakers helping with PR. Much of the analysis can be done using structured query language and complex media databases. There are a number of these media database programs, but the people in the US tend to be most familiar with Lexis Nexis because of its prevalence on college campuses. The resulting analysis offers a breadth of insights about where, when, and on which topics we’re getting coverage.

Examples of quantitative reports we can generate based on media tracking systems in place at Mozilla:
• Number of articles*
• Coverage by topic/keyword*
• Coverage by country*
• Coverage by language*
• Coverage by media type*
• Coverage within a specific date range*
• Overlays of active user data
• Competitive coverage
• Analysis of outreach
o Number of reporters contacted v. number of reporters briefed
o Number of reporters briefed v. number who wrote articles
• Apollo tracking – Mozilla mentions compared to other major technology companies (170,000 Web and print technology articles in 13 countries)
• Firefox market share (Xiti for Europe, Net Applications for worldwide)

*Coverage maintained through Meltwater News System (only online coverage)

Use case for quantitative PR analysis:
The number of articles around Firefox during June 2007 looks very different than the number of articles written during June 2008. This is because Firefox 3 launched in 2008 but there was not a comparable launch happening at the same time a year prior. To make these numbers meaningful, we compared coverage for the Firefox 2 launch to the Firefox 3 launch. This gives us a much better sense of our PR reach over time.

The analysis of Firefox 2 v Firefox 3 coverage shows steady media interest throughout the betas followed by a statistically significant spike in launch day coverage. We know the media covering betas are primarily technology press and that more media outlets write articles about Firefox once it reaches general availability (GA). The graph is in keeping with what we expected to see, but it’s very interesting to see it demonstrated visually.

Qualitative Analysis

Qualitative analysis can be very time and labor intensive, but often covers the things ordinary article counts miss. This type of analysis attempts to answer the following questions:
• Who did these articles reach and were they the target audience for our news?
• What key messages are they going to take away from the article?
• Was the tone of the article positive, negative, or neutral?

Qualitative analysis is much more subjective but covers changes in types of coverage, rather than simply volume. Qualitative offers a “depth” counterpart to the “breadth” that quantitative analysis offers. Through qualitative analysis, we learn more about which messages are resonating with specific audiences. From this, we can uncover future targets for PR outreach.

Examples of qualitative reports we can generate based on media tracking systems in place at Mozilla:
• Key message penetration
• Coverage in top publications: tech, business, consumer
• Tone analysis: positive, negative, neutral

Use case for qualitative PR analysis:
For the Firefox 3 launch, there were literally thousands of articles from around the globe. The sheer volume of coverage was impressive but we wanted to focus on getting answers to the qualitative questions above. It would have taken our entire PR team working around the clock for months on end to fully analyze every Firefox 3 article. Instead, we opted to review non-tech coverage to see which messages non-users were most likely to have encountered during the launch. The analysis is available here in PDF format.

Upon review, we found that all of the top non-tech publications had positive to neutral articles about Firefox 3. Key messages were picked up throughout. We did not conduct this type of review for Firefox 2 so we do not have a second data point to contrast the launches.

Conclusion

The qualitative and quantitative analyses from the Firefox 3 launch were Mozilla’s first look at how our PR activities relate to press coverage. We long suspected that the structure put in place for mainstream PR outreach and the increase in spokesperson training across the organization would result in a net positive change in press coverage; only we had no way of demonstrating that numerically. Until now…

This post is meant to kick off a conversation about PR metrics. If we’re not analyzing PR activities, it’s hard to tell if we’re improving. Our goal is to post ongoing analysis of how we’re mapping to Mozilla’s PR objectives from both a quantitative and qualitative standpoint. The program is new and we’re starting with only a few data points. We hope to grow over time and generate better analysis to increase the impact of our PR campaigns.

BusinessWeek's 25 Most Influential People on the Web

2008-09-29T15:44:00.000-07:00

Exciting news - BusinessWeek just published their list of the 25 most influential people on the Web and we have two Mozillians on the list! Mitchell Baker and Joi Ito were both included!

Also good but from a different angle

2008-09-10T17:48:00.001-07:00

Jason's been getting a lot of attention for this one. Figure it's good to repost it in addition to my last repost about PR 101.

Getting your PR right is important in the way the decor of a restaurant is important: folks like a nice-looking restaurant, but they are only going to go to it once if the food sucks. What you put on the plate--your product--is the most important.

PS - the repost is sorta late because I was traveling this summer (sans computer).

PR 101

2008-09-10T17:26:00.000-07:00

Came across this great post from Mark Cowlin from Cafepress about how and when to get started with PR. Thought it was worth sharing with others. It's a multi-part post so be sure to click through to the next section when you get to the bottom.

Pre-honeymoon horoscope

2008-08-19T00:23:00.000-07:00

From iGoogle:

You are growing stronger day-by-day as you move closer to realizing your goals. But there appears to be so much on your plate now that you wish you accomplished more when you had extra time on your hands. Fortunately, you may be ready to accept a more balanced approach to life. Ease off on the gas pedal just enough to enjoy the ride. You'll still reach your destination on time.

Three days and counting...

2008-08-14T23:30:00.000-07:00

Planning a wedding can be extremely stressful. There are brides who take sabbaticals from work in order to plan their weddings. Others hire high-price professional wedding planners to help with the coordination and execution. And others opt to go it alone.

On the night my fiancee and I got engaged, we made the decision to plan our wedding in San Francisco, where we've both lived for many years. We're East Coast transplants so planning the wedding here meant it would be very difficult for our families to support us during location scouting, vendor selection, menu selection, compiling guest lists, selecting gift registries, ketubah and wedding ring selection, dress selection and alterations, music selection, and general coordination of the entire event. We both work pretty intensive full time jobs and wedding planning was going to take a backseat if we didn’t figure out a way to get on top of it.

How do we plan a wedding where nearly everyone except the bride and groom are from out of town? How do we make sure that our moms don’t miss out on the experience of planning the wedding with us? How do we bridge the 3000-mile distance between our guests and us? How do we get the wedding of our dreams without diverting too much attention from our demanding jobs?

I had an idea.

I spend an inordinate amount of time sitting in front of a computer. In fact, outside of Silicon Valley, the amount of time I spend online might be considered a severe illness. Lucky for me, I live in California where this is just par for the course.

I’m three days away from my wedding and the only tool I used was free and under my nose the whole time. Firefox 3. My browser of choice since the first beta came out.

Announcing that I wanted to plan my wedding using a Web browser that hadn't yet been declared "final" made some people very nervous. "You mean you're not only planning your wedding online, you're also planning it with BETA software?!" The moms were sufficiently horrified. What if something crashes? What if you lose everything you've been working on? What if? What if? The moms had an abundance of "what if's," particularly around wedding planning.

There was an opportunity buried in this challenge. I work on public relations for Mozilla. Much of my job involves talking about the importance of the browser, why it matters, why it’s more than a commodity, how it can make you more efficient, more effective, and more organized. So, I decided to “dog food” Firefox 3 and plan my entire wedding on the Web and then share how I did it. Here’s a quick run down of all of the things I’ve used the Web to plan my wedding. After the honeymoon, I’ll let you know how it turned out. :)

Using the Firefox 3 Awesome Bar:

Location scouting
Vendor selection
Gift registry
Ketubah and Wedding Ring Design
Wedding Dress Selection

Using Gmail and Google Documents:

Compiling Guest Lists
Menu Selection
General Coordination
Music Selection
Shared Scheduling/Calendaring

SF Marriage License Form

2008-06-30T17:32:00.000-07:00

In San Francisco, this is what the marriage license online application form looks like. The lines to get marriage licenses have been so long that SF is now requiring online appointments to get everyone in who wants one! Check out the "type" category - I love that in SF "same sex" is listed before "opposite sex". I should have posted this yesterday. Happy belated pride.

Shameless self-promotion

2008-06-23T17:51:00.000-07:00

Sort of weird to have the shoe on the other foot.

My interview with PR Week can be found here.

Quote of the day (Firefox 3 edition)

2008-06-18T13:51:00.001-07:00

The very famous, completely overused, almost ubiquitous quote from Margaret Mead has been running through my head all morning on the heals of more than 8 million Firefox 3 downloads within the first 24 hours.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

The Mozilla community is precisely that. A small group of thoughtful, committed citizens - changing the world one download at a time.

Congratulations all around on an amazing first 24 hours!

photo credit: Clare Bayley

Firefox 3 Live!

2008-06-17T12:19:00.000-07:00

Firefox 3 is officially live!

The coverage to date has been astounding. I took a screenshot of our Google News feed for "Firefox." Check it out: http://flickr.com/photos/misdemeanor/2588369710/. According to Net Applications, Firefox market share is going up by the hour. You can view their full report here: http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=31.

Also, if you haven't downloaded it yet, go here: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all.html and get it! Help Mozilla set the world record for most software downloads in a 24 hour period!

More Mossberg!

2008-06-05T10:57:00.001-07:00

Just got the link to a CNBC piece that aired today. In the video, Walt is interviewed about Firefox 3 by CNBC's Bill Griffeth. The CNBC folks also used the b-roll I mentioned in yesterday's post.

Mossberg on Firefox 3!

2008-06-04T19:39:00.000-07:00

A positive review from Walt Mossberg at The Wall Street Journal is a highly valued thing in both PR and consumer technology circles. In his comprehensive article and accompanying video, Walt calls Firefox 3 "the best browser out there" and offers a personal recommendation to users.

A few of us went to visit Walt in DC early last month. Our DC meetings kicked off several weeks of press meetings with what we PR folk call long lead publications. The online reporters and bloggers are typically known as short lead because they are able to turn around multiple articles per day and have them post almost instantaneously.

You may be wondering where Walt picked up those images of the Mozilla campus. No, they didn't send a camera crew out to Mountain View. The Mozilla PR team actually provided the B-roll and Walt's team spliced it into the final version of the video he posted. B-roll is broadcast quality footage that companies create and provide to news organizations to help them augment visual stories. A huge thanks to all the Mozillians who allowed us to invade their space with cameras!

Walt sums up the article nicely with the following bottom line: "Even though you already have a built-in browser, Firefox 3.0 can improve your Web experience."

Couldn't agree more.

Best Futurama Quote

2008-05-30T18:29:00.000-07:00

From the Godfellas episode:

"When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all."

Apt hunting in SF

2008-05-28T15:23:00.001-07:00

Came across this little gem while searching through Craigslist postings. Lulz.

"If you like to garden and don't mind frequent raccoon visits then this would be a great opportunity in the city."

Source: http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/apa/698745286.html

Firefox World Record Attempt!

2008-05-28T13:31:00.000-07:00

Mary just posted the exciting news that the Firefox community is attempting to set a Guinness world record for the most software downloads in 24 hours and will occur on Firefox 3 launch day. There's some additional background on Mary's personal blog as well.

You can find out all the details here. Please get involved with this awesome community effort and help set the world record!

There are LOTS of ways to get involved. Here are a few ways you can help:

Plan an impromptu Download Fest at your school, office, or home - anywhere with an Internet connection. Or, attend a Firefox 3 gathering.
Join one of the following social networking groups and invite all your friends.
Find your Firefox Campus Rep and see how you can help today or what festivities you can join.
Add our buttons or banners to your site, blog, or profile.

Two New York, Same News?

2008-05-26T19:01:00.000-07:00

Went to a corner store near my house to pick up a few extra copies of the New York Times. Mozilla is featured above the fold on the front page of the Business section. In a word: w00t!

I grab two copies and head to the counter to pay. The corner store guy looks at me cockeyed.

He says, "Two?"

I smile. And nod.

He looks at me again, profoundly perplexed.

He says, "Two New York, same news?"

I smile again and say, "Yes."

Sometimes it's worth paying double in order to hear good news twice.

Pic from first yelp elite event

2008-05-14T23:08:00.001-07:00

orson yelp elite sf yelpsf (68)
Originally uploaded by calmenda

Too cute, right?

The slow death of the press release

2008-05-08T00:11:00.000-07:00

People often ask me why Mozilla doesn't put out more press releases or why the releases that we do put out are relatively short and news-driven. I then proceed to pull out my PR soapbox and spout off about the changing face of media and the need for PR to adapt beyond methods that are at best unproductive, and at worst detrimental to the entire industry. That's good for drunken debates at PRSA events but not quite palatable for everyone. When I'm talking to non-PR people, I typically illustrate the concept by telling a story about my early days in PR.

In 1999, I was an intern on the Tech, Telecom, and Energy team at a global PR firm's DC office. Part of my job was to fax press releases to editorial teams at newsrooms nationwide. I would spend hours punching in the phone numbers of major newspapers and publications for a fax blast (anyone remember those?). I later heard from reporters that at the other end of the transmission, they had the incoming faxes feeding straight into a garbage can. They would use the discarded press releases as scrap paper.

I love this story for two reasons. One, it explains the immediate failing of the press release; pushing news to people without any context or expressed interest is ineffective. Two, it illustrates the ever-changing face of media and the need for PR to adapt or get sucked into the newsroom garbage can (or its modern equivalent, the editor's spam folder).

Back in October, Chris Anderson of Wired and Long Tail fame, posted a scathing indictment of the PR industry. His complaint? Being blasted with news that he didn't request and wasn't interested in receiving.

I've had it. I get more than 300 emails a day and my problem isn't spam (Cloudmark Desktop solves that nicely), it's PR people. Lazy flacks send press releases to the Editor in Chief of Wired because they can't be bothered to find out who on my staff, if anyone, might actually be interested in what they're pitching.

I am certainly not the first person to assert that the golden age of the lengthy mass-blast press release was coming to a close. Flickr has long been a leader in the movement to move PR beyond the press release. In early 2004, they began blogging their announcements in lieu of a traditional wire release. Tom Foremski wrote a post about this in 2006 but the progress has been slow. Two years later, social news releases are starting to gain traction but they tend to look like deconstructed versions of standard news releases.

Perhaps we are in the Web 1.0 phase of the press release. When corporate content first appeared on the Web, most companies modeled their online presence after offline norms. Businesses took their existing marketing materials and simply put them online. Mainstream media did pretty much the same thing with early online news sites. Today, the Web has progressed far beyond that. Offline ported to online does not equal Web presence. Considering this, how do we advance our understanding of PR?

At Mozilla, when we put out press releases they are often coupled with blog posts and/or FAQs in order to provide context or quick fodder for right click journalists looking for a quote. They offer a voice, a perspective, a point of view. Traditional press releases, by nature of their construct, simply cannot compete with the rich, interactive experience of the Web.

The PR industry needs to revisit the concept of the next generation press release more than once every few years. Media is always changing. PR needs to keep pace or it will go the way of fax blasting: still around but completely out of touch with the modern era.

Mozilla Firefox Wins Webware 100 Award!

2008-04-21T16:28:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, I blogged about Mozilla Firefox being a finalist in the 2008 Webware 100 Awards.

Today, the winners were announced and Firefox won in the Browsing category. Over 1.9 million votes were cast to select these Webware 100 winners and the most votes were cast in the Browsing category.

Also, sending out congratulations to the friendly folks over at the Participatory Culture Foundation. Nice to see Miro win in the Video category.

Metablogging.

2008-03-27T23:08:00.000-07:00

I’m sitting down to write a blog about bloggers coming to yesterday’s blogger event at Mozilla. I’m thinking about liveblogging, microblogging, and metablogging. I’m thinking I don’t know too many other PR people who would get the opportunity to write this post. I'm thinking about how much tech PR has changed since I started my career path a decade ago (though that’s probably a separate post).

The unique part of yesterday’s event wasn’t about a tech company opening the doors and inviting in a bunch of bloggers. I have been a part of those types of events in the past. What made yesterday’s event unique was that there were no embargoes, everything was on the record, and we had a bunch of non-media trained folks participate.

This is rare in PR and corporate communications. It’s much easier to do things that have proven track records for success – such as embargoes, limiting media interaction with non-spokespeople, holding events in fancy restaurants, sticking to a powerpoint deck and a strict agenda, etc. But Mozilla exists in a different space. We live in a fishbowl. We thrive in the open. We are a public benefit, mission-driven organization. And mission presented on paper doesn’t have quite the same impact as mission presented in person.

Bloggers traveled from as far away as LA and as near as Atherton. We had 10 visitors total and about 10 Mozillians there. John Lilly kicked off the event by providing some background and history on the Mozilla Project. Then Mike Schroepfer, our VP of Engineering talked about Firefox 3. We had an open Q&A session running throughout the event. I noticed this at SXSW this year as well. Running Q&A instead of formal presentation followed by formal Q&A is all the rage these days. :)

We ate some pizza and then split up by interest, not by agenda, so people were free to gravitate toward others with common interests. A lot of people met for the first time at the event but had been following and commenting on each other’s blogs for years.

I asked participants (both bloggers and Mozillians) for feedback after the event. The general consensus was that we should do more of these. So don’t worry if you missed the first one - we’re planning to have another one soon!

Mozilla wins EFF Pioneer Award, Finalist in Webware 100 Awards

2008-02-25T09:20:00.000-08:00

Last week was chock full of good news. I got a call to alert me that Mitchell Baker and the Mozilla Foundation were awarded the EFF Pioneer Award, a prestigious honor reserved for individuals and organizations that have made significant and influential contributions to the development of computer-mediated communications and to the empowerment of individuals in using computers and the Internet.

Additionally, Mozilla Firefox was listed as a finalist for the Webware 100 Awards. Voting is now open for these awards and I encourage everyone to stop by the website and vote for Firefox in the Browsing category. Voting is open until March 31.

Another great email...

2008-02-14T15:24:00.001-08:00

I got another great email from a Firefox community member. This one comes from Rosa and was too funny not to share.

Dear Firefox team,
After installing the new beta version this morning (thanks btw!), I realized that I had no more time to make lunch to bring to work. So I decided to pick up a quick sandwich in our new neighborhood sandwich-shop; " Lu-sub"recently opened by a sweet Vietnamese old man "Lu" who had his filtered-water-shop there before. As he showed me proudly his new printed poster of the menu on the wall (see picture attached), my eyes where especially caught by the "steak" sandwich; with " Mozilla cheese" who knew!!! Being Dutch, I am a big cheese fan, and also a big Mozilla fan, finally my two favorites together;-)
Thank for your new product guys (and girls) , you just keep surprising me over and over again...

We went from ice cream to cheese! The Mozilla community is clearly not lactose intolerant.

Quote of the day

2008-02-11T20:35:00.000-08:00

I love this bit of writing...

I do think it behooves all of us to be skeptical of news organizations that behave like adolescents, no matter where your political allegiances lie. As all of us remember I'm sure, teen-age hormones and mood swings are very unpredictable. That boy may love you today, but loyalty isn't his strong suit. Tomorrow, he will kiss and tell, turn his back and take up with another without a second thought. News organizations that behave this way are not good for our democracy. This isn't the homecoming game -- it's an election.

source

Mozilla Community

2008-01-29T18:10:00.000-08:00

As PR for Mozilla, I'm on the email alias for press inquiries. This means that I frequently see more spam in a day than most people see in a week. I get a ton of misdirected email and filter through it all to find the media requests that require attention. Through all the noise, I occasionally get an email that stands out, one that demonstrates the passion that people feel for Mozilla and Firefox.

Today, I got the following email from a boy named Brody:

Dear Mozilla,
I am fond of you internet service.
In fact, I drew it.
The notebook paper drawing is simply just the logo.
The other one-
Well, that's Scrap Paper from today's test.
It's a picture of the FireFox licking an Ice Cream.
The Caption reads:
We're so nice,
We'll even make you ice cream.
MOZILLA FIREFOX.
Well,
Good job.
Clicking away:
--Brody K. B.

Brody and I emailed a bit and then I talked to his dad (hi Don!) who agreed to let me share Brody's drawings with the entire Mozilla community. A big thank you to Brody for sending in his drawings!

haircuts

2008-01-09T22:49:00.000-08:00

i came into this world bald as a ping pong ball. b-a-l-d. until i was about three, strangers would walk up to my parents and say, "my, what an adorable little boy" because i was bald. my first haircut is somewhere in my parents house. despite how creepy that sounds, i genuinely think it's because they were so relieved that there was finally enough of it to cut.

i've always hated haircuts...
that is...
until i met glenda.

glenda just cut off nine inches of my hair.

i haven't had hair this short since i was about five years old.

it's nice. i'm using a lot less shampoo.

A nice way to kick off the long weekend

2007-12-21T18:35:00.000-08:00

It's great to see the media's enthusiasm about the Firefox 3 Beta 2! The features and improvements that are being noticed reflect the hard work of our amazing development community.

For your reading pleasure, here are some choice quotes from the coverage from Beta 2:

“Christmas is here a bit early for Firefox fans. Mozilla has just released the second beta for Firefox 3 with some 900 bug fixes and improvements over the previous version, including some new features, user interface enhancements and more.” -- Scott Gilbertson, WIRED

“Overall, it's another very impressive release that reflects the rapidly-growing robustness of Firefox 3.” -- Ryan Paul, Ars Technica

“Firefox 3.0 looks pretty much the same as it did before. So the changes are subtle, then when you find them, they become profound.” -- Scott M. Fullton III, BetaNews

“The Firefox design team has obviously put a lot of thought into helping users remember and find the pages that they want to visit.” -- Stan Beer, iTWire

“Well, whatever the interface evolves into, I have no complaints about Firefox 3 Beta 2. Anyone who is still using Internet Explorer - whatever version - really needs to take a look at this even though it's still only meant for reviewers. However, it would be nice if Mozilla remembered to also cater to its most loyal fan base - Linux users.” -- Stan Beer, iTWire

Ken Kovash Day Declared

2007-12-19T16:17:00.000-08:00

Ken Kovash Day Declared

Millions of KoKo fans cheer

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF. - December 19, 2007 - Today has officially been named Ken Kovash Day. This day honors the most statistically significant man in recent memory. In its first year, KoKo (also sometimes called KeKo) fans plan to make Ken Kovash Day an annual event.

"At first I though Ken was actually a gorilla, because I kept hearing how 'Koko' would do some acquisition funnel analysis for our department meeting. It was confusing, because I wasn't sure gorillas were that advanced with marketing analytics yet."
said, David Rolnitzky. "Now I know, that there are few beasts or people who could do the type of top-notch analysis that Ken provides."

"Simply put, I'm crazy for Koko," said Mary Colvig.

"I'm such a fan of Ken's that just to feel smart, I've started calling myself the denominator," said Alex Polvi. "As the denominator, I hope I can rise to brilliance that is the Numerator."

Kovash, aka the Numerator at Mozilla, began his career at Boomerang, followed by a brief stint at Yahoo. He also worked as a Research Associate at Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory. In 2006, Kovash graduated with an MBA from University of Chicago. He has an undergraduate degree in Economics from UC Berkeley.

Pro-SID

2007-12-17T22:16:00.000-08:00

This month at work, the men in the office have been observing a little thing they're calling NSID (no shaving in december).

Found this article today and thought it was worth sharing.

i <3 dc

2007-12-11T11:31:00.000-08:00

scanning the washington post home page this morning.
can't help it.
after almost a decade and 3000 miles between us, the washpost is still my home page.

ran across this headline today:
D.C. Has Weekend Free of Shootings

in most other cities, if there *is* a shooting, that's the news.
not the absence of shootings.

planes overhead

2007-12-10T23:10:00.000-08:00

Right now, there are about 10 or so planes circling San Francisco in non-airport flight patterns and at a variety of heights. It's not Blue Angels. SF has been de-militarized for as long as I've lived here.

I used to live in DC where planes, helicopters, shock trauma airlifts, ambulances, presidential motor brigades, foreign dignitary police escorts, navy blue modified chevy tahoes and metrobus re-routing were almost daily occurrences.

I ran out to the deck like a little kid to investigate what sounded like thunder and found twinkling lights overhead. Then momentarily worried that we were at war and that nobody bothered to tell San Francisco.

If you live here, you understand that it's entirely possible.

Off to bed.

musings on gay marriage

2007-12-04T21:18:00.000-08:00

i've been thinking a lot about weddings lately. almost non-stop. it's terrifying to spend the bulk of your life as a tomboy and then suddenly find yourself enthralled with bridal magazines, wedding dress shopping and gift registries. very strange.

ash and i are getting married next summer. it seems like a long way off. i've observed that this is a coastal thing. if you're eight months out on the west coast, you've got forever. if you're eight months out on the east coast, you best get your ass in gear and start planning!

so, the more i've been thinking about the prospect of spending the rest of my life with someone i can't imagine spending my life without...the more i've been thinking about the segment of the population who are unable to marry. particularly in san francisco, where gay is part of the fabric of our city and pride is a city-wide celebration, it's hard to imagine that people spending their lives together are unable to call it marriage. there's a whole language to dance around the concept. partner. significant other. companion. domestic partner. roommate. bleh.

a couple of years ago, gavin newsom effectively legalized gay marriage within san francisco. couples from around the country came to sf's city hall to get married. the rest of the country had a fit. it's largely cited as the reason bush got elected to a second term.

without making any judgement about the sanctity of marriage from a religious perspective, it's hard to see why from a purely civic perspective, marriage for anyone who wants it wouldn't be an option. if straight people can get married in vegas on a whim and have it annulled once the booze wears off, how come gay people can't get married?

i'm looking toward this august, feeling amazingly lucky to have found my besheret. i hope that we get to a point where everyone can experience this feeling - regardless of whom they've decided to love for the rest of their lives.

New music

2007-11-09T14:00:00.000-08:00

Lately, I've been listening to the following artists a bunch. Found all this new music goodness on Hype Machine.

Elvis Perkins
Cassettes Won't Listen
Adele
Akron/Family
Cold War Kids
Man Man

"Moderate" quake

2007-10-30T20:51:00.001-07:00

The USGS labeled this one "moderate" but it's the strongest earthquake I've felt in more than 6 years of living here. House shook, everything rattled and I bolted for a door frame. Ash was sleeping - he's still on Taiwanese time. Not sure if the house shaking woke him up or if it was my screaming. I'm not a very good Californian. Every time there's an earthquake I get a big rush of adrenaline. When they're over, I'm not sure what to do other than click refresh on usgs.gov until they post the magnitude.

For those who are interested, tonight's was a 5.6, quickly followed by a 1.4, 1.5 and 1.6.

Release of Mozilla and Firefox messaging docs

2007-10-22T10:10:00.000-07:00

Today, John Slater and I posted some messaging documents to Spreadfirefox.

One of the documents helps to explain Mozilla: who we are, what we do, why we're here, etc. The other document evangelizes the benefits of using Firefox. Our hope is that people will use the docs and then share feedback about what resonated, what didn't and how we can tweak them for future use.

These are not final documents. They are meant to be a living, breathing reflection of our community. We plan to release subsequent revisions based on community feedback. If you use them, we'd love to hear from you about your experience.

Psychic Graffiti

2007-10-21T21:01:00.000-07:00

Came home to graffiti on my house for the first time since we moved. On our white garage door someone wrote "My friends all got lazy" in black sharpie and decorated it with a little scroll. I'd post a picture but my digicam is in Korea at the moment. I'm curious to see how long it stays up there. It's not terrible looking and it's sort of a funny sentiment.

Maybe I've been living in cities for too long but I've developed a fondness for the graffiti. The Mission is covered in these amazing, colorful murals but those aren't really graffiti since they're put up by an organization called Precita Eyes.

At the old house, graffiti was our neighborhood barometer. It was as accurate as any newsletter. When the gangs were active, new tags would show up overnight - rivals would cross out each other's tags and then they'd write their own higher up the wall. This wasn't pretty graffiti but it was very informative.

Sometimes I think the graffiti I read was put there just for me. Like secret messages in the fortune cookie of life. One time, I saw "And the truly beautiful people never worry about their fingernails." I love that one.

Visiting hours with the non-tech world

2007-10-19T10:45:00.000-07:00

Just spent a couple of days at home with my family. It’s always refreshing to spend a few days away from Silicon Valley in order to see how people live when they’re not obsessed with technology. My family lives near DC, so they are pretty obsessed with pundits and the ‘08 presidential race.

Anyway, I was at my sister and brother-in-law’s house and I asked to borrow a computer. It’s hard being away from the internet for several hours a day with no way to check in and see what’s going on in my online world (email, news, chat, facebook, etc). To my utter shock and dismay, my brother-in-law hands me a laptop and there’s no Firefox logo to be found anywhere on the desktop. As if that weren’t bad enough, I grudgingly click the little blue e in order to see what they’re running and it’s IE6! Argh!

I take a deep breath and explain that although I would prefer that my family use Firefox because that’s what I spend all day trying to convince the rest of the world to do, I don’t mind if they keep a current version of IE running on their machine just in case they can’t resist the urge to click the blue e. But to have IE6 on their home machines is unacceptable, especially with a sibling who works at Mozilla!

So, I used this as an opportunity to flex my Mozilla community member muscles and downloaded Firefox on all of their home computers and then installed Adblock Plus, and showed my sister how to navigate add-ons in case there were others she wanted to install. I tried to install IE7 as well, so that they would have added protection, but I couldn’t get the download window to come up. I kept getting an explorer.exe error. Strange.

My brother-in-law was playing around on the laptop for a bit and before I left, I asked him what he thought of Firefox. He said, “I always thought I had a slow computer. Turns out I had a slow browser.”

I understand that not everyone lives and breathes technology the way we do in the Bay Area. As an organization, we’re working hard to figure out how to reach the folks who don’t even know that just because software fulfills the minimal needs to be functional, doesn’t mean there isn’t something better out there.

Misdirected email...

2007-10-09T11:53:00.000-07:00

I got the following email yesterday. Talk about barking up the wrong tree...

< snip >
Hi Melissa,

I would love to speak with you about job opportunities at Waggener Edstrom Worldwide. We currently have Technology PR openings at various levels on several of our Microsoft account teams.

< /snip >

I've been doing PR for open source projects and companies for the past 2 years or so. A bunch of enterprise, proprietary stuff before that. I don't want to say I'm religious about open source. I feel like that's such a loaded term. However, I have internalized a number of open source values and they are directly at odds with how MSFT approaches PR.

In open source PR:
1) If it seems unclear, shine some light on it
2) If it needs an embargo, it's probably because you're working with a partner and your regular reporters will sense something fishy and will start digging to determine identity of said partner
3) You can't control the blogosphere so you may as well make friends with and go out drinking with the blogosphere.
4) If you don't move serious money, you have to find creative ways to explain why you matter to the publications covering serious money.
5) Respect the individual voice. There's so much of the same out there. Embrace the things that are different.
6) The threshold for voicing an opinion is caring enough to have an opinion.
7) You're in a fishbowl so if you screw up, there are a lot of people who will let you know.
8) You have to know when to betray deeply ingrained industry practices and when to stick with what's working. This is a lot less obvious than it might seem.

These are just a few...there are tons more. This post is by no means complete, just some thoughts that were bouncing around my head today...

ugh

2007-10-04T21:10:00.001-07:00

12.5 hours is a stupid time difference. wtf is up with the .5?

Long distance love in the age of blogging

2007-09-29T22:30:00.001-07:00

My best friend is in Bangalore or BLR as he's been writing it lately. It's been less than a week and we've been talking a bunch - sometimes more than we do when we're in the same city.

The technology has drastically changed since my college boyfriend moved to Japan just under a decade ago. Back in the old days, int'l phone calls were very expensive. Skype didn't exist and eyeball cams were really rare, let alone built-in cameras like the ones on the Macs. I've been using my computer to broadcast the living room via Skype and Y! messenger. I saw the inside of the Singapore airport from Ash's computer. I showed off my new haircut today using Skype.

The world is getting smaller and smaller.

From the "Why is this News?" file

2007-09-26T11:33:00.000-07:00

CNET has an article up this morning about a former MSFT employee's blog post stating that he's considering the switch to LinuxMCE to avoid DRM issues with Windows Media Player.

Why is this news?

If I write a blog post saying that I'm considering eating an apple for breakfast instead of my usual banana, will CNET cover that?

Sometimes the right-click journalism thing goes a little too far. For this hard-hitting investigative bit of reporting, the journalist read a blog post and then wrote a story that recapped the blog post. That's metablogging. That's not reporting. Just wanted to clarify.

Geeky girlz

2007-09-20T14:37:00.000-07:00

So, a few months ago I found out about a cool conference going on right here in Mountain View, CA - really close to the Mozilla offices. It's called She's Geeky: A Women's Tech (un)conference.

I've been working at Mozilla for almost 6 months now. I often get asked about what it's like to be a woman in a largely male office. It's actually quite funny. I started my career working in the IT department, wearing jeans to work and crawling under desks to sort out cables. Then I started working in a PR firm and started wearing skirts and suits and calling the IT guy whenever things broke. Now I wear jeans, crawl under my desk and still manage to bug the IT guy a fair amount.

Anyway, I think this should be an interesting event and look forward to connecting with other women in open source.

She's Geeky: A Women's Tech (un)Conference
October 22-23 in Mountain View, CA
http://www.shesgeeky.org

Happy birthday to my blog

2007-08-31T13:53:00.000-07:00

It's been a year since I started this blog. Today, I officially got syndicated via planet.mozilla.org. I've been using this blog largely for personal musings so when I decided to start blogging for work, I wondered if I should start an entirely new blog. I decided not to. So now, presumably, there are people beyond my friends and family who are checking out my blog.

Hello world.

MSFT PR uses Firefox

2007-08-15T11:04:00.000-07:00

My PR team sent me this article today.

Interestingly enough, there are several shortcuts available for PR professionals using Firefox (both built-in and via add-ons). For PR pro's using Firefox as your primary browser, which features and/or add-ons are you using on a regular basis?

belated blogging

2007-08-06T17:25:00.000-07:00

haven't been in one place for long enough to blog in some time. figured i better get something up before my blog dies from lack of content oxygen. it's been quite a few weeks.

travel went something like sf>portugal>spain>france>uk>oregon>nevada>sf. i have some blog notes from my europe trip that i never managed to post while i was traveling. i'll try to get caught up soon.

it's good to be home. really good. sf is such a nice place to call home. of the places i traveled over the past few weeks, there isn't one that compares to san francisco.

there's no place like home...

temptation

2007-06-20T19:59:00.000-07:00

they are running dunkin donuts coffee commercials in SF lately. the ads show delicious iced coffee in extreme closeup. the nearest dd is at least hundreds of miles away. why do you torment me dd? why?

in other dunkin news...i was in boston for work last week. i ordered a dd coffee sweet and light. i think this has changed from the sweet and light of my youth. my mouth puckered at the sweet, sweet, sweet taste. still, dd coffee holds a special spot in my heart and always will. when i was 16 and too young to get into bars, dd was the cool spot to hang out at 3 am. here's to you dd. love you forever.

Oh, media. Oh, bother. Oh, brother.

2007-04-27T23:01:00.000-07:00

Most people only recognize PR in its overt forms. By and large, overt PR isn't that challenging to do.

Again, this is where blogging gets difficult for someone in PR. Because the vast majority of people can't imagine what you do on any given day. My parents sort of understand that I work with press. Ash's cousin in Hawaii had heard of Trolltech's Greenphone, but when I tried to explain my direct involvement with them having heard of a Norwegian company's innovations in mobile Linux, things began to get decidedly hazy.

So it was, that I was at my new job and a coworker asked me for my thoughts on an upcoming announcement. I talked a bit about approach and his response was, "Surely you don't think a couple of articles can do all that." On the first day of LinuxWorld last year, a single article in LinuxDevices.com about Trolltech's Greenphone was the number one hit on both slashdot and digg. The /. article had more than 700 comments within hours.

Reporters and analyst friends found me on the show floor to congratulate me on the reception to the news and to thank me for my hand in coordinating interviews. How often do the Mike Arrington's of the world thank a PR person for pushing them to write the story that ultimately turns out to be the one that defines their career? More often than not, they're writing pieces that emphasize how "above the influence of PR" they all are. I'm sorry to blow your cover guys, but you're not above the influence of PR. Especially really good PR. Really exceptional PR, the most effective kind, you don't even feel the sway.

Fred Vogelstein of Wired has been kvetching that he got sold a bill of goods from Microsoft's PR machine. While Fred may feign naivete to the delight of his readers who feel that they are getting a sneak peak into his genuine ire at the craftiness of MSFT - and here's the news flash folks - um, that's a version of PR. Wired and Conde Nast had on their hands a story about a seasoned tech reporter who took a story straight from MSFT without so much as reading the wikipedia entry on the topic to see if the party line checked out. Fred got duped, but was it because MSFT was so crafty? Or was it because Fred didn't do any research? MSFT spun Fred and Fred is spinning his readers.

I had lunch with some editors at Wired on the day the stories hit. We ate lunch and they boasted about how clever Fred was for putting it all out there. But in PR, there's more happening behind the scenes than that. Fred and his editors sell magazines and advertising. A sensational story like the one they spun was sure to generate more interest in the issue already on the topic of "radical transparency" - so this is the point where most non-PR people think you start sounding like a conspiracy nut. But after a number of years in PR, I'm just a realist.

This is why it's difficult to do great PR. You have to relinquish credit. Remember that scene from Wag the Dog? It's not about pointing to a single article and saying, I made that happen. It's about pointing to entire movements or industries and not saying, I made that happen because that destroys the illusion. The whole thing is simultaneously fascinating and also tremendously unsettling.

new job, new commute

2007-04-18T16:03:00.000-07:00

i biked to work yesterday from the mt view caltrain station. i was pleasantly surprised that the bike lanes were clearly marked and that the route was pretty accessible. i have been trying a new route to get to work everyday. today was day three.

ash and i carpooled on monday which probably works out the best since we can use the hov lanes that way. on tuesday, i biked. on wednesday, i took bart, caltrain and then the shoreline shuttle which seems like a lot but was actually not bad.

my goal is to try out the commute for a month and determine if i can do it without a car.

Take the lane...on biking in SF

2007-03-29T14:55:00.000-07:00

I was biking to work this morning, as I do almost every morning and I went to "take the lane" on my way down 9th St which I do pretty much every morning. I was thinking about the expression. It essentially means that I ride in traffic as though my 15 lb bike frame is an 2 ton SUV and I take the entire lane instead of staying to either the right or left side of traffic.

Before I started riding, I would see bikers do this in the city and I always thought it was kind of annoying because there's no easy way to get around them. But when you're biking, it makes a ton of sense. You take the lane when there's no visible bike lane so that you don't get accidentally crunched in traffic. It's the choice between being visible and making a nuisance of yourself for a block or not being seen and risking certain death on the pothole infested streets of Frisco.

I've now been riding for a year and a half and it's amazing how much fear I've conquered in that time. When I was 9, I was riding down a big hill and took a sharp left turn. My bike fell out from under me and I proceeded to skid from one side of the street to the other on my knees. I actually still have some gravel spots in my knee and a pretty gnarly scar from this.

When I started riding in SF, it was my first endeavor into urban biking. I hadn't really biked regularly since before I got a driver's permit. I was completely terrified for my first month of riding. I got a membership to the SFBC (San Francisco Bicycle Coalition) and they sent me a map of bike routes in the city. This helped immensely. Designated bike lanes were definitely useful.

There's a lot of tension in this city between cabs and bikers, drivers and bikers, pedestrians and bikers, Muni and bikers, and bikers and other bikers. I've almost been hit by cars, buses and skateboarders while biking in the city (I'm lucky my Jewish mother doesn't read my blog). When you're driving a car, everything in your way is an obstacle. When you're on a bike, everything in your way is an opportunity to improve your riding skills.

stuck in boston on st paddy's day

2007-03-17T10:14:00.000-07:00

when i was younger i always thought that the opportunity to travel for business was really cool. my dad used to say "same conference room, different city." i romanticized the idea of getting to see the world, stay at chic hotels, eat great food and all on the company dime.

when my client asked me to travel to the boston area for 2 days, i was fine with taking the trip. i was only expecting to be on the ground for 36 hours and then would turn right around and head back to my 70 degree weather in san francisco. somehow, this is not what happened.

i ended up renting a car from alamo - something i'd never do again. they didn't have anything with 4 wheel drive so i couldn't upgrade to a vehicle that could handle the predicted snow storm. my very smart client got an suv.

on friday morning, the flurries started. how novel. how exciting. how pretty. i haven't seen snow in about four years. what a treat. then the snow got heavier. and the flakes got bigger. by the time i left my morning meeting and began the drive to my afternoon meeting, the snow had begun to stick to the ground. when i left my afternoon meeting, my flight was still listed as "on time" and so i braved the scary driving conditions and made my way to logan. by the time i approached the airport, i literally couldn't see 20 feet in front of me. it was a white out.

i dropped off my rental car and made my way to the airport where i was told that i was booked on the last flight to o'hare out of logan. how lucky was i?! after several delays, they finally canceled 90% of flights out of logan, mine included. the next flight out that i was able to book gets me back to sf at 11pm tonight. i have a full day to kill in boston and it just so happens to be st. patrick's day.

the city is overrun with college students dressed in green who started drinking at 10am. good times. i'm about to grab some lunch across the street and i'll probably order myself a pint. i'm hopeful that my flight out tonight will be on time.

so much for the joys of business travel. :D

it's the economy, stoopid

2007-03-13T21:27:00.000-07:00

in the past week:

a sleeping hipster
a smoking laundry patron
an empty corona bottle
a child's plastic toy

it's been busy lately so i haven't had much time to keep up with writing. found a new place that doesn't even have a stoop. not sure what i'll blog about at that point. if i'm stoop-less, i don't have a pavlovian reminder to sign on and keep this thing updated.

stoop

2007-03-01T22:04:00.000-08:00

yesterday - a yellow bottle cap on Monday morning.

someone (ok, it was ash) once wrote to me - "don't let the stirrings of your heart make you dizzy"
sometimes (ok, lately) i feel like my heart is going to explode
things are a'brewin.
it's in the air lately.

More weird things on my stoop

2007-02-26T16:53:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I found a broken desk lamp left on my stoop that looked a lot like one I have in my bedroom. However, the bedroom one is still intact. And I was so close to having a matching set.

On Saturday morning, I found an empty can of sardines on my stoop. EWWWW! Who eats sardines? And why is it so hard to throw away the can when you're done with them?! Seriously, there's a garbage can within sight from my front door.

My stoop is not a trash can.

technorati tags

2007-02-14T09:06:00.001-08:00

Technorati Profile

reminiscing on 9/11

2007-02-12T19:01:00.000-08:00

Seems like a strange thing to be thinking about in the middle of February of 2007, but I wanted to capture these emotions and thought I might blog about them. Particularly in the run up to the 2008 elections, as we begin to have daily reminders that we live in a "post 9/11" world, I thought it important to reflect a bit, take stock on emotions...

I overslept on the morning of 9/11. I woke up to my best friend calling my cell phone. I hit ignore because I realized I was late for work. Really late. It was about 8:45am Pacific. I threw on some clothes and ran out the door to catch the bus. I called my office and spoke to the receptionist who told me that there had been an attack on NYC and that the World Trade Center was bombed. I had to ask 3 times if she was joking and she told me to get to a TV. I ran into a corner store where they had the TV playing and saw the awful news. In a state of shock, I proceeded to go into work because I didn't know what else to do.

My family was directly impacted by 9/11 - my sister and brother-in-law were living 2 blocks away from Tower 2 and my brother-in-law was working within a block for Tower 1. My family is a New York family. My dad's family and my mom's family are both from Brooklyn and then later Long Island. My grandmother was still living in LI and several aunts, uncles, and cousins were living in the greater NY area in September of 2001.

I had just moved to San Francisco and hadn't changed over my DC cell number yet. By the time I found out the news, the towers had already fallen. The Pentagon was already smoking. And by that time, all phones from DC to NY weren't working. I remember calling and calling and calling to see if my family was ok. My mother was on a train headed to NYC that morning. My brother-in-law and sister were within blocks for the WTC when the planes hit. At 11:23am PT, I finally got an email from my father that said the following...

>Subject: New update
>Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 11:23:59 -0400
>
>Adam is OK. Just a little dusty.
>Mom is stuck in the city (Penn Station was closed).
>I have not gotten to your grandmother.

My mother has Lupus and was stuck all day in the lobby of the Hotel Pennsylvania. Strangers made her a place so that she could lie down. I think they found her a table. My brother-in-law hiked about 100 blocks from lower Manhattan to his father's office uptown. By the time he got there, he was covered in the soot that was covering the city like snow. My work sent me home. I went home and watched the horrible scenes on TV. Waiting for someone to call or for the phone lines to open up.

I got the following email from my father the next day:

>Spoke to mom. Trying to get her to take your grandmother to the beach.
>Rachel is at work. David has no class (we know that). I worked out this AM
>and came in a bit later.
>
>You should consider doing the following:
>1) Take a walk
>2) Listen to a Phish tape
>3) Give blood
>4) Find a minyan for mincha/mariv.

A few hours later, I got this one:

>Subject: Re: New update
>Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 13:13:40 -0400
>
>Speaking to mom in new york as I am typing this. She sends love and wants
>me to tell you that two carrier pigeons are being sent to pick you up for
>Tgiving.
>
>Don't forget the therapeutic benefit of a good walk.
>I will calm her down.
>
>Love,
>Dad

These three emails still have the power to make tears well up in my eyes. It's the rawest of emotions. The panic. The feeling of complete lack of control. Of being 21 years old and moving across the country with the idea that home was no more than a plane ride away. And then having the idea of a plane ride change overnight from something easy to something horrifying.

My sister and brother-in-law never got home. It took a full eight months before they were permitted back into their apartment and even then it required a police escort. But at least they came home. Many didn't. I cried the first time I flew back to New York. Tears streamed down my face as the flight attendants got on the speaker and said "And if New York is home for you, welcome home." New York has been my second home since my first visit when I was three weeks old. I remember in the months after 9/11 that people applauded after successful flights. I still remember this every time I fly and I fly often. That once, as a nation, we clapped our hands in gratitude after successfully landing.

boston and other rogue nations

2007-02-01T15:42:00.001-08:00

i love adult swim.

how is it possible to mistake a mooninite for a bomb? they don't even look alike.

fucking massholes. get a sense of humor.

musings on miami...

2007-01-29T17:56:00.000-08:00

musing 1:
old jewish grandmothers have been sporting bling since before gangsta rappers were in diapers

musing 2:
60 degrees in florida is really freakin cold

musing 3:
red lights mean go
sirens mean keep on driving
stop signs mean nothing at all

musing 4:
all women in miami, no matter how young or old, sound exactly like fran drescher

musing 5:
there's nothing like half a corned beef sandwich and some matzo ball soup to make you really homesick for the east coast

musing 6:
if it's not exactly how you like it, send it back

tails, very long tails...

2007-01-23T22:31:00.000-08:00

Just got home from dinner/book club with Wired Mag/Long Tail writer, Chris Anderson. Really interesting stuff. There's an ongoing discussion in PR about what to do now that the traditional MSM folks are going away and leaving the journalism to the rest of us.

Seemingly overnight, traditional media has started to blog, has a new audience, a similar style and has moved on with their lives. But these are the people who always had a mouthpiece. It may have been censored or limited, but they had an audience and a way to reach them. Disgruntled masses now have a place to voice frustration. But I think it's only taught us that all customer call centers suck, whether they're in India or Iowa and that no corporation ever really cares if your satisfied until you threaten to switch to a competitor.

< rant> Dish Network and Sprint PCS are always tied in my book for worst customer service ever. Seriously, if you want to be abused, give them a call. They are always happy to steal an hour from your life only to tell you that they can't help you anyway. < /rant>

So, I am in this very weird segment of the population. I work in PR. That automatically feels weird when you set out to blog. I have intimate knowledge about a number of different types of technology, a solid understanding of media and a good feel for how to make cool things bubble up to the surface. But blogging has felt weird and awkward. It's part of the reason I resisted blogging for a long time.

I feel like I'm paid to have a bias. That my work meant that my opinions and thoughts were less valid. Lately, more and more, I feel like I'm precisely who should be blogging. I am passionate. I think the best PR people are. If you don't have passion for your work, how are you ever going to convince anyone else that your product, company or idea is interesting/cool/game-changing/the greatest thing since sliced bread?

I do PR even when I'm not paid to. I actually do my best work when I'm off the clock. That's the thing. Cool shit is cool shit. No two ways about it.

Weird things on my stoop

2007-01-22T18:35:00.000-08:00

So, I've decided to start blogging about the weird things I find on my front stoop on a daily basis. I live in a neighborhood that seems to attract crazy people and weirdassshit and my stoop has a magnetic pull for all of it.

Tonight, I came home from work to find that an obviously high homeless person had attached a kitten on a leash to my front door. No seriously. I'm not joking. A tiny black kitten on a leash was attached to my front door. So I ask the guy, "Scuse me. Is this your cat?" and he says, "Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I just put it there while I'm doing my laundry next door." This is complete and total bullshit because this guy is obviously not doing laundry but whatever. I have begun to think that the laundry mat is just a front for the drug running that goes on in the area.

Other things I have found on my stoop before I decided to start blogging about them on a daily basis:
one homeless man who curled himself into a ball and tried to tuck himself under my bedroom window on a rainy night, random packages of cheeze doodles, leftover parts of burritos, meth addicts scoring a fix, day laborers drinking beers, obnoxious hipsters smoking cigarettes, obnoxious hipsters screaming at the top of their lungs at 3am, a group of 12 or so teenagers wearing gang colors and smoking blunts in full view of the THREE cameras that are on my corner. I politely suggested that they smoke their blunts away from the cameras and they thanked me.

So, I'll try to keep this going as long as I can. I promise that there's no shortage of weirdassshit going on in front of my house.