When diplomats write blogs !

Another blogging scandal shakes croatian web space, specifically blogosphere.

Apparently according to media reports croatian diplomat in Washington wrote anonymously weblog/online journal in which he revealed many details about his personal life and what's more troubling, insider information about work for croatian diplomatic stuff in the United States.



The trouble is , he could be a son of a known croatian TV journalist according to some media reports. The blog was deleted from internet ( Blog.hr) apparently by its author but the content is still available on Google cache.



Croatian daily Vecernji list picked up story which came on the surface from croatian weblog service blog.hr.

Croatian bloggers read for months blog called "Diplomat in the USA ".



Now, media and bloggers are speculating that this blog wrote Vibor Kalogjera ( his blog was at vibbi.blog.hr address and has revealed on comments on other blogs that he's working in the ambassade ) , son of the well known croatian correspondent for Croatian television in Washington -Silvija Luks.



Silvija Luks covered US presidential elections recently, and was accused this week about lack of profesionalism for her reporting from Washington.

It's obviouse that this is an example of irresponssible and naive blog writing revealing too much.



The most troubling words he wrote on his blog when he said that they were laughing Americans and the waitress in the bar. Is someone for diplomatic blogging scandal, perhaps ?



In my view, this is now moment when croatian blogosphere is approaching tipping point and when it's starting to be force not only for valuable purposes but for doing damage to people.



Therefore, it is legitim starting discussion about bloggers ethics here in Croatia before someone gets hurt.



For those who aren't familiar with emerging blogosphere here in Croatia, it has differences to foreign blogosphere. The most popular blogging service in Croatia is BLOG.HR which started to educate people about blogs and offer them place for setting up free blogs.

The difference is that in the 6 months blogosphere becomes more information -oriented ,at least according to impact scale ( not communication, learning, projects...) and a true citizen reporting started to raise some seriose questions. The main questions are related to some legal issues ; libel , invasion of privacy and author's intellectual property.



After all, we are small country and the information is spreading very fast over net.

Therefore, it's a need having some sort of disscusion about blogers ethics before it is too late and people get hurt.

Short on words

US presidential elections are among ordinary people here - already passe. Today, silence and not much talk about Bush and election. Nobody seems to be willing to recycle these issues.



Croatian media are somehow shy about their analysis of foregone election. Maybe there's more than enough reasons for the above mentioned behaviour.

One reason is that we have our own media stories currently at the spotlight, croatian foreign minister Zuzul is accused of corruption, and the second reason might be that croatian presidential elections, scheduled for January next year , are becoming hotter to watch.



General wisdom says ( and all relevant polls) that president Mesic does have very clear chances to win these elections.

Only for note, I made several contacts few months ago with president's advisers and offer them blogging strategy as a part of online presentation for upcoming election.



After few weeks, I got the phone call from Pantovcak that they are not interested into "blogging thing".

So, it's still not prime time for presidential blogging here in Croatia.

Crazy guy on the bike

Last year Mark Boyd added me on his mailing list for his bicycle tours. He visited Croatia last year on his trip from Portugal via Croatia and back up to Poland. I was beta tester for TypePad blogging tool ( few months in 2003 ) and I have wrote short piece on our talk at the caffe on the old blog ( no longer maintained).

My mail account got another letter from his last tour across US. He ended his tour in Ohio.

Cheers !

Ok, I was right ( here and here ). Bush won another presidential mandate "to rule" with tremendouse credit by american people.

Early exit polls were wrong again. Damn buzzy and laying blogosphere ! Dan Rather is laughing now :)

American democratic party becomes joke ! America is redecorated and the fear is , generation will be needed to put American again on the path of a modern society. Stop !

New Zealand is waiting on american students and youth :))

Woof, It seems I was completly wrong. Kerry is winning this elections according to some early exit polls.
Now, it is 00.15 AM here in Croatia, 06.15 PM in New York.
And all this by much wider margin than it was expected. Maybe it is too early, it is not verified trend...Key states Florida and Ohio got Kerry.

Recount

My bet for today's US presidential elections. I don't like betting actually, but I'll make exception here.
I prefer "most likely scenario" phrase, and it's well known I do not prefer Bush as a first choice for the Empire.
Nobody knows who' will win.
Here's a list of the most likely scenarios", in my view:

a.) Bush is re-elected

b.) Recount- voting scandal about irregularities in key regions or ...............House of Representatives is choosing Bush in case of tight results ( neither candidate get 270 electoral votes)

c.) Kerry's clear victory

d.) Booga booga, Al Qaida is allowed to strike again and the emergence situation is in place ( most unlikely)

e.) Will Smith fail to save US from alien's attack and White House is gone, and Croatian ministar Zuzul express deeply regrets for this unfortunate situation :))))

Web marketing myths I heard, yay!

Few mistakes noted when speaking with some PR/ marketing people here in Croatia. I saw an enormouse misunderstanding regarding marketing on the web.

These people are terrible wrong with the nature of doing online advertising and presentation. I am deeply convinced of that.

So many myths I heard from them.



They are deeply in this " banner" web shit. I



t doesn't work for most advertisers on the net. Capito ? Big , well-known companies can use the classical banner/type of advertising on the web as a mean to build awareness for the company on the web as yet another chanel having in mind their marketing mix strategies ( TV, radio, web, print..).

The first and foremost mistake these people are doing is that they just don't understand that internet is not mass media. It's not. No, seriously! I mean it. The web is not mass media, and the people on the web are not crazy about mass messages. Stop.



The second myth I tried to debunk in their minds is pure concept of advertising as known in other media like TV, radio, print.



A type of mindset which is present mostly in middle -size businesses with more growth potential and "easy" marketing budget available for selling growth story in the media ( advertising products and services ).

Often is the case that the plan is to slice the marketing budget pie ( either they'll do it alone or "experts" from PR agencies will do ) and burn the cash for advertising on the web. It's only "advertising " for them. A huge , ineffective ADvertising. Stop. It doesn't work because they are focusing on "space", not search engines,Yay strategice alliances , rich and relevant message...oh, and mostly on the wrong places on the web.



Third, who needs flashy , blinking, loud, and has hippy colors ( and fucking ugly rainbow ) ? Nobody. Ok, some of them think it's cool. It's about taste ,too. But , generaly, forget it ! Consuming content doesn't go with that.

The ad should be cleare, exhaustive, focused, organized...Stop.



Wait a minute, why I am giving and writing this !

I won't anymore.



One day, people will eventually find these misconception alone, by error and trials ;))

There's so many web marketing myths I heard I couldn't belive it.

Yay !