Mobile Industry Review - Latest Comments in A chip on my shoulder ‘the size of a banana’

Re: A chip on my shoulder ‘the size of a banana’

Mike Davis — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:04:03 -0000

If you really were a PR "Pro", would you actually refer to yourself as a "Pro"?
Regards,

Mike Davis
A web development pro..... err wait....

Re: A chip on my shoulder ‘the size of a banana’

coloneltcb — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 11:27:41 -0000

I am a senior PR pro and of all "journalists" (what does that even mean anymore) with whom I work, I like Ewan the best.

He's just hard to get a hold of, but always friendly and willing to listen when you do.

Screw you, Preston!

Re: A chip on my shoulder ‘the size of a banana’

ilicco — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 11:22:03 -0000

i bet you cant work out who typed this comment...

Re: A chip on my shoulder ‘the size of a banana’

meraj — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 10:04:58 -0000

<looks for more comments from Rob Preston>

I'm so googling him...

Re: A chip on my shoulder ‘the size of a banana’

whatleydude — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:57:30 -0000

Here I am... Minding my own business...

Jeez..

Re: A chip on my shoulder ‘the size of a banana’

Mike42 — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:54:21 -0000

That Whatley - some say he has an extra set of nipples...and that he can dial Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo with a thought.

...and I distinctly heard him say 'nay' in Episode 37 (about 10 minutes in).

He's a witch! Burn him!

Re: A chip on my shoulder ‘the size of a banana’

Mike42 — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:49:28 -0000

Heh. I'm in danger of agreeing with you there...

....but don't underestimate the influence that the collected wisdom here has on MSM tech journo's. Sites like MIR, AAS etc are at the cutting edge of mobile geekery, but the stuff anguished over and debated here will filter into the masses. Underpaid and overstretched MSM journos need feeds and leads...and what better place to pick up the mobile zeitgeist than here? Thus it's wise to keep a weather eye on Ewan, Rafe & Co.

And if that weather eye happens to pick up a post, or an opinon, or a theory, and runs with it into the MSM world, then indeed the bloggos will have changed things.

/m

Re: A chip on my shoulder ‘the size of a banana’

South77 — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:48:30 -0000

"someone who connects the dots between PR, customer communication and social media with great aplomb." -- well that could be a description of a good PR person.

Re: A chip on my shoulder ‘the size of a banana’

penycate — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:43:35 -0000

bad day for PR.

Re: A chip on my shoulder ‘the size of a banana’

PaulWalsh — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:42:12 -0000

Rob - ouch. Sounds like you got out of the wrong side of bed today. Or, you just don't know how to communicate in a way that demonstrates your understand of the topic you're debating. Perhaps you should spend less energy insulting the author and more time on conscructing a response which is educational to the author and the community and thought provoking.

It's all a matter of personal opinion.

I won't make any assumptions about your knoweldge/experience. Just saying ;)

Re: A chip on my shoulder ‘the size of a banana’

EdHodges — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:22:40 -0000

I'm with Mike42 on this one. I don't believe it's right to 'out' someone who disagrees with a bloggers view. It seems an abuse of power. Apart from anything else you might stop genuinely insightful responses to MIRs ongoing dialog with its readers.

There is an element in me that gets frustrated that I can't see who flamers are (especially on Youtube) and sometimes I'd like to give them serious verbal abuse in return, but ultimately i make my own mind up whether they have a good or ridiculous point. Being loyal and rallying around a bloggers opinion is one thing, but aggressively 'outing' someone who disagrees by following up on their IP address is a bit like a modern day witch hunt on a 'nay sayer'.

Re: A chip on my shoulder ‘the size of a banana’

South77 — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:02:03 -0000

it's a good blog... but more influential than the Independent? no way. more widely read than the Independent? no way.

a lot of crap is written about how blogging is changin the world, changing mainstream media, etc. 80 percent of it is utter boll*cks.

Re: A chip on my shoulder ‘the size of a banana’

SMSblack — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 08:56:14 -0000

Mobile Industry Who? - I feel another name change coming on ...

Re: A chip on my shoulder ‘the size of a banana’

RichardR — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 08:49:28 -0000

Unfortunately Rob’s comments are symptomatic of a wider issue impacting the industry – the growing disconnect between mobile operator senior management (and their PR lapdogs), and what’s actually happening at grass roots level.

Increasingly it is the views of opinion formers on the web that are helping to shape the strategic direction of the industry (so writes a 10 year mobile strategy veteran). Traditional PR “experts” are struggling to comprehend and manage this change, refusing to acknowledge that the landscape is shifting in favour of specialists such as MIR.

It’s great to see Ewan and team challenging the status quo and not simply regurgitating press releases – keep it up. Mobile Industry Who? That’ll be the leading mobile industry blog site that attracts 30k more readers than copies of the Independent newspaper are sold every day…

Re: A chip on my shoulder ‘the size of a banana’

South77 — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 08:49:13 -0000

yes, but you are publishing. it's the same difference.

Re: A chip on my shoulder ‘the size of a banana’

MarkW — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 06:06:06 -0000

Fair comment, but then where would we get our entertainment from? :)

Re: A chip on my shoulder ‘the size of a banana’

phoneboy — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 04:07:59 -0000

This guy is a muppet. Ignore him. Don't feed the trolls.

Re: A chip on my shoulder ‘the size of a banana’

stedavies — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 18:22:40 -0000

I wonder if "Rob" got his inspiration for his name from BBC economics editor, Robert Peston? He has been in the news a lot of late.

Scary because:

* As a PR person Rob doesn't understand the etiquette of online

* As a PR person Rob clearly doesn't know what a blog is or who bloggers are

* As a PR person Rob hasn't heard of MIR ;-)

Not sure if I buy the 'none IP address disclosure'. If you're going to be a troll (or in this case a sockpuppet) then why shouldn't you call them out?

Re: A chip on my shoulder ‘the size of a banana’

kcjh — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 17:11:06 -0000

Hahahahah :) That IS funny! :)

Re: A chip on my shoulder ‘the size of a banana’

danlane — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:22:47 -0000

Well, I don't think we've claimed to be journalists (depending on the mood you catch us in we might take that as an insult) but as I said above, it might be worth us reviewing (or at least, creating) our policies on commenter privacy :)

Re: A chip on my shoulder ‘the size of a banana’

South77 — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:22:18 -0000

all good for a laugh. should drive page views.

Re: A chip on my shoulder ‘the size of a banana’

South77 — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:13:16 -0000

You guys seriously need some training in journalism. Bringing the a the name of an organization into it will open you up to libel and defamation action unless you have better proof than an IP address. It's good to be aggresive, but be careful and responsible.

Re: A chip on my shoulder ‘the size of a banana’

Jon Silk — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 13:57:50 -0000

First rule of PR. Don't flame the journalist. Even if they're not one...

Re: A chip on my shoulder ‘the size of a banana’

danlane — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 13:43:51 -0000

You raise some very good and relevant points that the MIR team will need to discuss and perhaps come up with some ground rules with regards to commenter's privacy.

I think it's safe to say that if the extent of your "contribution" is to tell us how crap you are then you're asking for trouble*

(*trouble to be defined by a future "MIR Terms of Service" document).

Re: A chip on my shoulder ‘the size of a banana’

Mike42 — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 13:25:52 -0000

"I think you should have published your full identity Rob, rather than hide behind the ‘a senior PR pro’ description. "

I do think this might raise the issue of right to anonymity (in workplace, if not name. his comment was under his Disqus profile name).

For example: I might post comments here that 'the management' ;-) might take issue with. I might even go way beyond what's considered acceptable. That's what moderators are for. However, in posting something that rubs the MIR cat up the wrong way, does this mean MIR folk can ring up my workplace or publish its name/location, in what *could* be perceived as some sort of counter-strike?

Such an action could bring to an organisation's attention employee views that they may not want to have linked with themselves, and disciplinary action could follow. e.g. Rob Conway (CEO) of the GSMA seeing this as a potential PR nightmare (for example, had 'Rob Preston' been outed as a GSMA staffer having publicly bagged Vodafone's roaming policy or stood up for something Viv Reding said, the proverbial could hit the fan and dismissal could result).

While this is most likely all a storm in a PR cup, I think MIR commenters should be aware of the house rules in commenting, as should MIR staffers.

Me - I'd think the safest thing would be for nothing like IP addresses to be revealed publicly. I don't believe (could be wrong) this info was visible to anyone except the MIR staff, and thus should have remained confidential.

£0.02.

/m