I've been to South by Southwest Interactive more than any other work-related conference. In fact, in the past few years, I've only missed it because of the arrival of my two youngest children just before and just after the dates of the conference. Someone asked me the...
All this GTD gets in the way of doing good things
by Laura Creekmore | Nov 6, 2009 | Strategy
I've always been a reluctant member of the GTD cult -- getting things done. Long a crusade by consultants and coaches, GTD got tagged and elevated by the Internet era. David Allen turned the whole thing into a business and even appears to have trademarked the...
Why the FTC's guidance about blogging product reviews is wrong
by Laura Creekmore | Oct 5, 2009 | Blogging
Today, the Federal Trade Commission issued new guidance about product reviews on blogs and on testimonials in advertising. The rules are scheduled to go into effect Dec. 1, 2009, and they have disaster written all over them. I'm going to be writing here as if I...
Critical guidance issued by the FTC
by Laura Creekmore | Oct 5, 2009 | Blogging
The Federal Trade Commission today announced that it's issued revised guidance on a couple of issues critical to the online world: Product reviews/endorsements by bloggers Testimonials in advertising/Celebrity endorsements These issues are tightly related in some...
Blogging: Technology or communication?
by Laura Creekmore | Oct 1, 2009 | Blogging
I was talking with a client today about using blogs and other social media functionality. We quickly ran into a distinction in our conversation -- though we might talk about using a blog [or a community, or whatever] in conversing with customers, and we might use the...
This study matters
by Laura Creekmore | Sep 29, 2009 | Privacy
In a recent post, I was considering online privacy and data gathering. Today, a study came out on those topics -- and the results aren't good for advertisers or laissez-faire thinkers. But they may enable us to begin re-thinking the promise of the internet. The New...
Crazy-smart small detail in Flickr search
by Laura Creekmore | Sep 22, 2009 | User experience
So I'm looking up some Creative Commons images on Flickr for a presentation I'm finalizing. And I just noticed a crazy-smart detail in the Flickr search. I'm clicking from page to page in the search results, using the numbered buttons shown here. I noticed that I was...
Ghostwriting and transparency
by Laura Creekmore | Sep 18, 2009 | Blogging
Over the years in this business, I've found that the general public rarely thinks about ghostwriting -- when someone [often a busy executive or celebrity] hires someone else to write in his or her name. Most people assume that when your name is attached to an article,...
Your software is hiding your people
by Laura Creekmore | Sep 18, 2009 | Information management, Social media, Strategy
I've worked with content management systems since the late 1990s. And I can tell you there's not been a perfect one invented. But some are much, much better than others. I'm a technology geek [n., person who enjoys new stuff], but sometimes I get annoyed with the...
Keep an eye on Congress
by Laura Creekmore | Sep 15, 2009 | Privacy
As long as I've been in digital media, there have been few political issues that have really riled up the industry. There's a long-standing discussion about the right path for digital rights management to take -- the copyright protection particularly for audio and...
I blog about politics, content strategy, information architecture, copyright law, grammar and other stuff that strikes my fancy.