Lee Aase | Social Media University, Global (SMUG)

A GTD Podcast

Merlin Mann’s 43 Folders blog is part of my blogroll because it was part of the chain of blogs that led me to read Getting Things Done, by David Allen.

Merlin is also a great source for Mac-based geeky implementation tips for GTD, and helped me find Ethan Schoonover’s Kinkless system.

Merlin was recently at David’s home in Ojai, and recorded an interview with David (although I’m not sure who interviewed whom) and will be distributing the conversation over the next several weeks as a podcast.

The first segment, on Procrastination, is available now.

Technorati: GTD, Productivity, Procrastination

Great Resource for PR and Technology Background

Constantin Basturea has established The NewPR Wiki, and now has a roster of a few dozen contributors who have helped to build it into a strong resource, full of links to information on everything from Anti-Astroturfing and Blogging (Business, Non-Profit and otherwise) to White Papers and Wikis (and even White Papers about Wikis).

One page I’m looking forward to exploring is the one on Social Media Optimization, which is the human side to Search Engine Optimization.

There’s lots of good information about more traditional PR topics, such as PR Measurement, too. This is one to bookmark in Del.icio.us. In fact, if you use that social bookmarking site, you’ll see this already is in the first page of search results when you search for “PR.”

This is also the place where you can read the show notes for Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson’s PR + Technology podcast, “For Immediate Release.”

Technorati: Public Relations, Social Media, Podcasting

Why Will the Google-YouTube Marriage Work?

Jeff Jarvis has an insightful analysis of how and why he thinks Google’s purchase of YouTube makes sense.

YouTube made the new TV social. It enabled people to recommend the good – or at least amusing — stuff not just by their clicks and ratings but also by their actions: YouTube allowed us to put good videos up on our blogs. YouTube enabled us to become network programmers.

I believe that the serving of 100 million videos is the least valuable service that YouTube provides. Serving all those videos was an important and insightful step in the process of exploding television as we knew it and handing its power to the people. But I believe the end of that process will have us serving videos from wherever — from Google or our own blogs and servers or via peer-to-peer technology that vastly reduces the cost of distribution.

Part of the beauty of YouTube is that people can create their own channels, and recommend videos to friends, and there is a way of helping people find the good stuff. As Jarvis says, the combination of smart algorithms honed by social bookmarking has promise to make this new world of a million-plus video channels work.

“Five hundred channels, and nothing worth watching.” That’s the old saying about cable TV and the Dish. Jarvis thinks this Google-YouTube marriage may be able to keep people from saying the same thing about exploded TV (registration required, but worth it).

Google Buys YouTube

In a press release today, Google announced that it had agreed to buy YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock. This is an amazing amount, given the reality that YouTube has been giving away storage and bandwidth to create a huge community. I don’t know how YouTube makes money, or even if it does. It looks like, given Google’s ad program based on keyword searches, this will eventually become an advertising-supported community.

As you can see here, and here, and here, and here, I’ve been using YouTube for a few weeks, and I have been amazed at how easy it is to set up and use.

I haven’t really explored that much using YouTube channels, or groups, or anything else other than uploading videos to incorporate into this blog. OK, I have watched a few of the Diet Coke and Mentos videos, and the guy on NBC’s Today show after recording his attempt to Cancel AOL.

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=xaaAYVUWP0I]

The fact that this is so easy to incorporate into a blog, to convert almost any video file format to Flash, and it’s all free, means it is going to continue to be used a lot. People have uploaded something like 100 million videos, if I remember correctly. It’s interesting to consider whether these gathering places will be important as ways for information providers to get their offerings “out there.”

Insurers Starting to Cover MD-Patient E-mails

Today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune (registration required) has an interesting article on e-visits to the physician’s office and a new trend for some insurers to begin covering them.

Some of Minnesota’s largest health care providers, including HealthPartners and Blue Cross and Blue Shield, are beginning to cover e-visits between doctors and patients, an unusual step nationally and an attempt in part to contain exploding health care costs.

Under the plans, patients pay the same co-pay as they would for an office visit, and doctors get reimbursed about $35 for each patient e-mail that they respond to. Some experts say such e-visits could yield billions of dollars a year in savings, as well as cut down on time and travel for patients with routine medical issues.

“It certainly is very helpful,” said Dr. Michael Ainslie, chairman of the Minnesota Medical Association and a pediatric endocrinologist at Park Nicollet Clinic in St. Louis Park. “I don’t think it will ever take the place of a one-on-one interview, but I think it will be a useful tool.”