BREAKING NEWS! More than a year of tinkering with skype and my headset/mic, I finally figured it out! So you can call me at AnnieHeckenberger from now on.

Infortunately, only on my laptop at the moment. I need to download it on my work PC.

As a social media "specialist," I spend a lot of time looking at a wide variety of web sites. As a former PR media expert (and forever a media junky at heart), I spend an even larger amount of time on MSM and CGM news sites. Like a lot of people my age (and younger...and older, too, I bet!) the internet is my default news source.

Here's where I think the news media are going wrong online. Too many bells and whistles. Yes, give me digital video on your site. Do not try to make your site into myspace. I don't need another hub. I don't need to social network on a news site. I just want the news. I want it in real time, I want links to wire stories, I want celebrity gossip, I may want to leave a comment but I don't want to stay and do a mashup. I don't want to shop on my news site. I don't want to auction something off there. And frankly, should news entities be offering services like this that are actually news makers? God knows there are enough Ebay stories out there about crazy items for sale - how ethical is it for news entities to now offer services that may *become* news? Selling local artists or designers' wears and also reviewing them? Who will now fairly report consumer interest stories? Will it be citizen journalists crashing the party and now conducting embarrassing investigations on mainstream media personalities?

Sounds fishy to me.

Maybe I'm old fashioned. Maybe this is what the next generation wants from news entities? But the way I see it, citizen journalism gained audience and credibility as traditional media took a beating for unethical practices like airing VNR's without disclosure that the news segment was a PR tool, paid spokespeople shilling on news and morning shows and more and more reporters like the infamous Jayson Blair who fabricated sources and filed fiction.

Shouldn't traditional media be more carefully drawing the line rather than help blur it?

Great holiday weekend. I was able to restrain myself from opening my laptop and working - although I cheated and checked twitter nonstop (and a few emails) via my PDA. I'm officially addicted to twitter, which is an embarrassment because I personally trashed the service a few months ago on this very blog. I'm actually thinking about stopping my dodgeball, which isn't that big of a deal since I still subscribe to my NYC version and basically use it now to track my friends in NYC and reminisce about my former life. I wasn't able to get anyone in Philly hooked on Dodgeball - still haven't quite figured out why. This town certainly has the nightlife and the bar crowd.

Before I fled town on Thursday night for the shore, I popped into Junto , a local web/tech networking group, and spoke with the group about BlogPhiladelphia. It was a great opportunity to meet all the cool people whose blogs and twitters I read and respond to daily and to explain the "unconference." Some people were misled by the title "BlogPhiladelphia" and thought it was just a blogging event - I'll be sure to correct that on the site when I start blogging on the home page this week. We'll be covering all aspects of social media - new platforms, mobile applications, virtual communities and more. Definitely not just blogging.

I also met a lot of small business owners in the tech sector, like the guys at P'unk Ave who have the raddest office space in town that I've seen. Talk about being right in the middle of the action! In fact, now that I think of it, I think I'm going to ask Geoff if he'll host a mini-soiree there during the unconference. It's just too great of a spot! Nothing like blogging something first to pressure someone into agreement....muuuuwwwwwahahahaha;)

That's it for now. Back to work tomorrow.

What the flippin' heck happened to my comments feature?!? Dang inter-nets.

Not a great day for Apple, according to my contact John Biggs over at CrunchGear.

I've worked with Ryan Block, the blogger who broke the story, a number of times and he has always reported fairly. I may not have been in love with his review of my clients, but it's always been fair. And the guy busts a move everyday to cover a million and one tech briefings and then file them all immediately.

Clearly, there's a new case study coming about all of this, documenting the very real power of email and social media for Corporate America today. I just hope whomever writes it comes to BlogPhiladelphia to present it.

Ryan, I already you sent the invite to you, but SERIOUSLY, you have to come speak.

I have so much to tell you guys! First, I have to thank Jack Dorsey at Twitter for featuring BlogPhiladelphia's Twitter group on Twitter's homepage! And if you don't believe me, look at the photo that Alex flickr'ed. My phone has been BLOWING up with Twitters and I have to take back my previous position on Twitter - it's been a life saver on keeping interested "unconference" attendees up to date on updates for the unconference while we develop the website.

In other news, uwishunu just launched the first webisode of the new original vlog series "Cheap Dates". Check it out!

IT'S HERE! IT'S HERE!



BlogPhiladelphia is here!