The Thicket

Candidates Won't Be Seen During Super Bowl!

FOX has announced that it won't sell Super Bowl spots to any presidential candidates - though no candidate has yet asked for a spot (ahem...sounds like many of the "R's" are out of cash, anyway...).
The game is sold out, and even if additional time could be found for one candidate to buy in, equal opportunities couldn't be found for all candidates, FOX says (via TV Week).
FOX cites an FCC rule that says that a network can reasonably refuse to sell political time in "unique, one-time-only" broadcasts where equal ad time can't be offered to all candidates.
Speculation had sprung up that one or more of the candidates would advertise, based primarily on the fact that Super Bowl Sunday falls just two days before Super Tuesday. 
Dang, now if the game is sorry, we won't have the candidates shenanigans to look forward to like a faux cross in the window, or Bill wagging his finger.

U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum taps Social Media to augment Site Content

We caught up with Lawrence Swaider, CIO at the U.S. Holocaust Memorials Museum at the Social Media for Governmment Conference in Washington, D.C. this week.  While site content is important to the Museum, leveraging social media tools and networks is increasingly becoming part of the mix for them.

Less than one hour to Leopard. Am I ready?

I'm not sure if I'm anywhere near ready to install Apple OS X Leopard on this MBP tonight.  I know I want it working the second I get my hands on the discs, but I gotta free up an external drive in order to use Time Machine and wonder if I should blow away my boot camp as I'm out of HD space.  Why does a new release always come out just before a big presentation for me.  I'll probably take the chance.  Hope Time Machine works.

A USPS Vanity Zip Code: When you ARE the Neighborhood...

How do you start the conversation about the size and breadth of a new product offering? Get your own zip code! Saks Fifth Avenue has talked the US Postal Service into giving them a vanity zipcode (10022-SHOE). Interesting example of getting those in your neighborhood talking about you, especially when you are the neighborhood, in a space where few people would have thought to explore.
Being that I’m here in Washington DC, and geographically close (in the same zip code), as US Postal Service, I have now inquired about getting my own zip code for the area around my desk. I will keep everyone posted.

DSS Talks to Paul Vogelzang at Ragan Communications

Our own Paul Vogelzang spent a week on the road banging out conference sessions at Ragan's Corporate Communications and the Social Media Revolution, New Media Expo and the Cox Communications Conference 2007, an internal Cox event for their marketing managers.  Here's his interview with DS Simon at the Ragan event. 

Best $50 ever spent on professional development

One of our benefits at work is an annual stipend for professional development via subscriptions, training, and seminars and conferences.  I was listening to a few of the recent episodes of This Week in Tech, MacBreak Weekly, and This Week in Media and heard the hosts talking about the new summer program at PixelCorps -- total cost $50.  That's right, I said $50US.  You get a ton of coursework and access to software that would costs thousands more to purchase outright.  This is practically an impulse buy and easily fits into our stipend.  If your company doesn't have an educational stipend, then just shave off 12 or so Venti Caramel Macchiatos and you're there. 

Dave & Matt Interview the Brains Behind Bum Rush the Charts

How could an indie band and a collection of bloggers and podcasters break one song into the Top 100 on iTunes?  Porter Novelli's Matt Snodgrass and Dave Kawalec sit down with Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff, C.C. Chapman and Christopher Penn to talk about the podcasting experiment Bum Rush the Charts.

Click here to listen (28:41)