I love it when Google buys something because it is often turned into a freely available resource. This year, Google bought Hans Rosling's Gapminder which he used in his 2006 presentation at TED where he spoke on "Debunking third-world myths with the best stats you've ever seen".

This is an awesome free tool. Now everyone to be their own statistician. I've had my bit of fun as you can see in the above screen capture: As of 2002, although Singaporeans are getting richer, they are also polluting the environment more as compared to our less well -to-do neighbours.

This is exactly as Rosling said in his talk, we have a skewed perception of reality when we don't examine the data. A lot of people think of Singapore as a clean place compared with Malaysia and Thailand, but the truth is that although the streets may have less little, Singapore is emitting more CO2 per capita than our neighbours.

When I was in journalism school they taught us that a journalist's quotes have to be attributed to credible and if possible authoritative persons with full disclosure, including age, to be noted in the story except in extremely sensitive (criminal) situations.

Today I read a Channel NewsAsia story online with quotes that went like:

"I think its okay to work till 65 because in other countries they also work till older age," said one boy.

"If you don't work, you lose your communication. You lose networking and then you become lonely, then enter the ground very fast," said one elderly Singaporean.

Then further down in the story was:

"That will give people more money to spend during the retirement years," said one Singaporean.

... one boy ... one elderly Singaporean ... one Singaporean?? Who are these people? The story itself was fine, but what happened to credible attribution?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrzeiUvDZog]
Totally awesome dream from Intel. The amazing thing about all the coolness seen in this video is that all of it can be achieved with today's technology.

And the silent club... can't recall who told me about it, but it's already being done.

(Thanks for the video Johnny)

I've been using del.icio.us for quite a while now and have found it to be way more than bookmark voyeurism. Here are some useful tips that are good for folks in PR agencies like me:

1. Create an ad hoc, organic directory of blogs. I tag Singapore blogs I find "sgblog" in hopes of building my little own localsphere.
2. Tag press releases you place on PR wires by clients so you have an easy access list of'em all.
   
3. Capture and tag online clippings for clients. Beat that Excel spreadsheet! (Kudos to John Kerr, Edelman for this one)
4. Tag your client's competition and measure share of voice against the above tip. The tag cloud is an easy way to see who's in the lead.
   
5. Bookmark items you find for your colleagues and friends. Way easier than sending the link by email.
6. Great reference for industry intelligence and research. Especially when the browser history forgets the link.
   
7. Subscribe to http://del.icio.us/tag/pr.

Add your tips in the comments. =)

We all know that the most respected and credible media outlets never allow their journalists to be "bought" in exchange for editorial. These media have traditions of anti-corruption and thus their editorial is trusted by many.

Is the same to be expected of the blogosphere? Of late, I've seen an increase in bloggers being "bought" with products to keep after a review is done or other freebies received in exchange for a posting or two; not to mention controversial services such as PayPerPost.

Two days back, an senior colleague mentioned to me that she (a grandmother believe it or not) felt that some bloggers who were receiving and keeping some products PR folks offer them are starting to loose credibility.

She said quite plainly that she finds it hard to trust these bloggers simply because they so obviously can be bought.

We've all seen the discussions on proposed codes-of-conduct, but this got me thinking. Are we as PR practitioners just hungry (or even greedy) for clippings or do we truly want to help our media friends?

Product reviews are by no means wrong, but creating "ambassadors" through gifts can dramatically "cheapen" a blogger and his/her blog. No matter how you dice it, a blog is still a media platform powered by a corruptible human. That means credibility in the eyes of the readers still matter.

What makes things worse is that most bloggers are not trained as journalists and have no tradition or culture in media credibility. This is dangerous and could seriously damage the blogosphere as a media.

Being a blogger myself, I understand this quite personally. When a journalist looses credibility the newspaper takes a hit, but can recover after firing the corrupt and striving for excellence again. When a blogger gets hit, it's a mark for life.