Beyond Chatter: Monitoring Online Ecosystems

There’s a flutter of activity in the ad-agency world around the subject of tracking online conversations.
WAPO reports on a tool call Buzz Manager, “a Web-based research tool that trolls sports blogs, message boards, podcasts, YouTube and similar sources, capturing relevant chatter on behalf of a client” — whether a racecar driver, corporate sponsor or sports league. That information is analyzed for content and impact and then translated into a Buzz Rating — a single number on a scale of 1 to 10.
In my view, this is just an online version of the old “press-clipping” service that PR companies would go use in the old days of Web.0!
What they’re missing is a map of the entire ecosystem. How does traffic (and attention) flow through the ecosystem? How many people are in the ecosystem? Which sites are positioned as hubs in the ecosystem? Are they friends or foes?
Wait a minute. That’s why we developed our Ecosystem Intelligence™ Services.

Tiananmen 2.0 – Chinese Blogger Zeng Jinyan

Arianna Huffington calls Zeng Jinyan, a 22-year old dissident blogger, “the online progeny of Wang Wei Lin, the protester who blocked a column of advancing tanks during the Tiananmen Uprising in 1989.”
I still think about Wei Lin – the poor man was executed 14 days after his brave stand.
I will never forget that moment. The bravery, the tragedy.
China will never be a great country, in my eyes, until Wei Lin gets a posthumous medal from the Chinese government.
Someday.
Back to Zeng Jinyan.
Her blog is in chinese, but take a look at this translation.
“House Arrested Again,” says her T-shirt. Read about her funny T-shirt incident, and pray for her life >>