First it was Kryptonite's U-shaped bike locks (you can pick them with a bic pen). Now it's Kensington's laptop locking gizmo (you just need scissors, duct tape and a toilet paper). The buzz is all over the blogosphere (thanks to Six Apart's EVP Loic Le Meur for the tip) and yet... Kensington is saying nothing. At least not on their site (as of this writing).

Kensington makes stuff for computers so there's an obvious…

Spelled out here in an article by Neville Hobson in today's Web Pro News. Which points to IBMer James Snell's blog where he has posted the IBM guidelines. He notes that IBM today posted on its intranet an exhortation to its 320,000+ employees to consider blogging. Courtesy of James, you can download the guidelines as a 6-page PDF. Download IBM's Blogging Policy & Guidelines as a PDF. Notable highlights:

• "IBMers are personally responsible for their posts. Be mindful that what you write will be public for a long time -- protect your privacy."
• "Identify yourself -- name…

For those who have yet to hop on to the RSS (Really Simple Syndication) bandwagon, the effort can seem more like a confusing leap than a few easy mouse clicks.

Easy-to-grasp definition of RSS
Here is an easy-to-grasp definition of RSS, courtesy of Anil Dash, a VP of SixApart which makes MovableType and TypePad (popular blogging software). He calls RSS:

"The technology built into blogs to notify you of updates. You can get…

Hugh nails it... and with a cool cartoon to boot. (© Hugh Macleod). He divides your marketing into two parts, using an inner and outer circle.

1. The "internal conversation" your company is having with itself (circle A).

2. The "external conversation" your company should be having with, er, customers (circle B).

The membrane between these two areas should be porous enough that they are "aligned." I.e. you're listening to your customers and talking back to…

Front-page article in today's USA Today (I'm quoted!) says CEOs refuse to get tangled up in messy blogs. Steve Rubel makes two points about the story: 1. It can be more effective to have a lower-level employee blog "from the gut" of a company and 2. Only a few CEO bloggers are "naturals." For example, Mark Cuban, Bob Liodice, Alan Meckler and Bob Lutz. I left Steve the following comment:

Great point that some CEOs are "naturals" who can "blog from the gut." Makes me wonder if they're also exceptionally good communicators offline. I.e.…