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Young PR

Thoughts on the world from Paull Young


There’s No Place Like HomeDecember 19 2008

I’m back in Sydney until January 14. Aussies: Let me know if you’d like to try to catch up in person while I’m around. Others: Expect light blogging, but plenty of tweeting while I readjust to the world’s most beautiful country. Those of you who read this blog for substance (ha! As if you really exist ;)), sorry for the brevity, but check out this great TED Talk from Phillip Zombardo on heroism & the banality of evil:

Coming Soon: Young PR Visits AustraliaNovember 30 2008

In less than three weeks I’ll be returning to Australia for the first time since moving to New York 18 months ago. My schedule will be pretty tight but I’m still hoping to get the time to catch up with the Aussie digerati and readers of my blog.

At this point it looks like I’ll be around from December 20 to January 10, mainly in Sydney but with a sidetrip to Melbourne. I may well try to organise a Sydney tweetup for the week of January 5, other than that please leave a comment or email me (young.paull at gmail.com) if you’re interested in meeting up and we’ll try to get it on the schedule.

While talking of the Aussie online world, I must give an endorsement to my mate Steven Noble’s recent Forrester report on Australian Adult Social Technographics. I’ve had a read of a copy through work and found some really interesting data to back up some of my feeling about the burgeoning Aussie social media movement.

A couple of findings that stood out for me where that three quarters of Australian adults now use social technologies, a higher percentage of Aussies create content onlin

No Clean Feed - Australian Internet CensorshipNovember 19 2008

The Australian Labor Government, led by its Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, is currently planning to censor Australian Internet access via its deeply flawed Clean Feed legislation.

I’m strongly opposed to this - as is not only the entire Aussie online community but also any sensible Aussie who’s taking the time to investigate the issue. It’s such bad policy it’s laughable, well deserving this treatment from the wicked web comic HijiNKS Ensue:

Don’t take my word for it though, do some research to work out why you should oppose the Clean Feed too (and then contact your local member). To get you started:

Aussie Prime Minister Kevin Rudd Joins Twitter - The Reponse: No Clean FeedNovember 13 2008

A couple of days ago Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd joined Twitter, sparking a great deal of conversation. And most of this conversation though has focused on his Government’s deeply unpopular plans to censor the Australian Internet through its ‘Clean Feed’ legislation.

Many people have already discussed Rudd joining Twitter, so I won’t linger on this topic. My opinion is that I don’t think the leader of my country should invest the time necessary for a successful Twitter effort in a communications tool that reaches so few of his citizens (and even actively locks out those on the wrong side of the digital divide), however I would love to see his staff get involved. Here’s some coverage:

Tactical TransparencyNovember 12 2008

Transparency is a core value of social media, and also one of the most difficult to define, explain and ultimately to embrace. To fill this gap: Shel Holtz and John Havens new book Tactical Transparency.

The promise of Tactical Transparency is to create a roadmap that organizations can use to effectively plan and ‘manage’ transparency - certainly a lofty goal! I haven’t read the book as yet (I’ll endeavor to circle back with some opinion when I do) but this is a topic I think of frequently so I’ll share a few thoughts I’ve had of late.

In the interests of transparency (nudge nudge) I must disclose that I have a vested interest in the book as I’m quoted at length a couple of times discussing astroturfing and ethics.

In my mind the above tweet highlights the most important thing the social media sparked transparency movement can give to organizations - a reason to do the right thing. My thoughts here are best encapsulated by