a “networked address book” and a precursor to social networks. As per an interview with John McCrea, VP of Marketing for Plaxo. Thanks to Thom Singer for the interview, you can check it out here.

McCrea says that Plaxo did indeed ask itself (or themselves) if the world really did need another social network. I’m surprised that their conclusion was yes… except that they did have an amazing foundation to start Pulse.

Says that next few months will be really exciting (because of the open social web – I’m guessing this is the API stuff that we’re seeing from Facebook). Sounds exciting but (a) it’s social networking, and I’m social networked out, and (b) aren’t marketing directors supposed to be excited about the next few months?

It’s a really interesting 30 minutes, worth your time.   I would like to hear what McCrea’s position is on LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Salesforce, etc. as competition.

Congrats to Arrington and staff for an additional 105k “readers” (just RSS?) since July 27th! 🙂

Apple creates the sexiest thing to hit cell phones since… well, ever. But they tie it to one provider.

It seems counterintuitive to give something so sexy and techy to one provider. Don’t they know that techies don’t like to be tied down (something about commitment, probably)? Dell learned this lesson and ships with OS’s other than Windows. As my six year old would say, with attitude, “duh. Everyone knows that.”

So they tie it to ATT, and don’t let you use your current provider (and I hear it’s hell getting out of contracts).

But wait, techies are resourceful, curious and tinkerers! Click on the head on the right to see a video of a guy (who credits a bunch of others, including “anonymous”) who has unlocked the iPhone and uses it with T-mobile. It was absolutely bound to happen. I read that perhaps there would be a lawsuit. I’m trying to figure out if Apple planned for the techies to take their stuff apart (or otherwise get out their soldering irons) and knew it would happen and that’s part of their strategic plan, or if they really thought that no one would be able to do it.

For icing on the cake, MSNBC is announcing this morning that Apple and Volkswagen are in talks to develop a car. I hear that you can only gas it up at Exxon, though. I wonder if the hackers are going to figure out a cure for that 😉

Walter Akana turned me on to a website to see what holidays are being celebrated around the world… this has a huge business implication as we deal with people from other countries. It allowed Walter to find all holidays in November throughout the world so that we could plan a global event… how cool is that??

http://www.earthcalendar.net/index.php

This is in response to Scott Allen’s Smart Ways to Use LinkedIn – A Group Blogging Project project. I think my thoughts fall somewhere between his “it should contain” instructions and “it should not be” instructions – nonetheless, it’s valuable, and it’s been on my mind – so here you go.

LinkedIn is a tool that I recommend to those that are interested in personal career management. It is, or can be, useful in a job search. it should be a tool oft used to find, develop or nurture network relationships. It has a lot of periphery features (outside of just networking) such as a job posting area, a question and answer area, a company research area, etc.

And it’s as powerful as a chainsaw. Or tablesaw. Or cordless drill. Or powertool of your choice. If you don’t know how to use the tool, or you don’t use the tool – there is no value. If you do know how to use the tool and you use it, there can be a lot of value. Remember though, that no tool is the silver bullet. A hammer needs a screwdriver needs a saw to get the job done. Don’t look at just LinkedIn for your networking and career management needs.

Here’s what I really mean when I tell people to get a LinkedIn account:

1. Set up a real, meaty profile. This is something that recruiters and hiring managers will find when looking for candidates (which means have the right keywords in there).
2. Make your profile public, or at least a lot of it, so non-LinkedIn folks can still get value out of it without logging in or creating a new account.
3. Make connections. If you have 1 or 2 connections I’m not sure what to think. You don’t like technology? You are a late-adopter (I am). You don’t have friends, or you hang with the technically adverse? Get at least 30 – 60 connections so my initial impression will be different than “you are a loser.”
4. Answer questions. It’s free to click on the answers tab and find some question that you can contribute to. I know of at least one person that made money (found new business) because of her involvement in Answers. The key? Contribute intelligently. We want to know you are smart and relevent, not a smart-a.
5. Ask questions. When you do this, there is a part of the process that allows you ask your network via e-mail. DO THAT – otherwise they likely won’t know that you asked a question. Be involved, you can even look smart based on how you structure your question – don’t make it spammy, whiny, too philosophical or weird, and thank those that participate.
6. Use your LinkedIn public profile in your e-mail signature and as you comment on blogs. I recommend using your blog address for this but if you don’t have that, your LinkedIn URL is the next best thing.

So there you go. When I say “get a LinkedIn profile” that’s pretty much what I mean to say. It’s not the silver bullet but it is a nice complement to the other things you are doing, and it can be effective.

[while you are at it, sign up for a free JibberJobber account so you can have a real contact management system to complement your LinkedIn experience.]

I’ve had about 6 podcast interviews over the last 10 months.  I’ve asked my podcasting expert friends how to go about having my own podcasts.  The answers are always overwhelming because I’m not a gadgety, geeky type and I don’t want to have to spend a lot of time on it.

That’s why I was really excited to learn how CM Russell pumps out podcasts so quickly and easily.  I know you can have flashier, funner podcasts (with music at the front or back or whatever) but for someone dry and boring like me this is all I need: Hipcast (their blog – outdated).

Again, I haven’t signed up for hipcast just yet – I’m not ready to make a podcasting committment.  But its cheap – 5 bucks a month on their basic plan (get 2 months free if you pay for a year).  As far as I understand its dumb-proof – just make a phone call into the hipcast system, push some buttons to tell the system what you want to do and you’ll end up with a recording and the code you need to post it on your blog or site.

I like it and this is likely how I’ll do it if/when I start.

Ever wish you could convert a blog into a podcast? Stop wishing – you can with Talkr.com. I haven’t signed up yet and will when I get a free *cough* moment.

Here’s the Talkr blog.

Here’s a review by Pete Cashmore at mashable. Yo Pete – why don’t you review JibberJobber??

hat tip to Bill Vick for letting me know about this.