Janet Lee Johnson | The Art of Marketing

I know Facebook has reached the masses.  My sister just asked me to be her friend. She has six kids in various high school, college, married states.  I guess it’s rubbing off.

Now I guess I need to figure out how to throw something on her wall for fun.

I enjoyed the article over on MSN by PC World’s Dan Tynan called “The 16 Greatest Moments in Web History.” It was an educational and fun trip down memory lane (how amazing 1995 was…).

I disagreed with the 14th Moment - blogging Katrina. While no one would dispute the power of Michael Barnes’ account of Katrina as the disaster unfolded, I believe Evelyn Rodiriguez’ blog chronicling the terrifying tsunami that hit the south Pacific had an amazing global reach and impact. I met Evelyn a year later and she was still muscling international resources to support the restoration of the ravaged area.

Regardless of our personal favorite Greatest Moments, the ability to witness experiences through the blogosphere pulls the world together as never before.

It’s already September 10. As I get older, time flies. But this year has gone particularly fast, and every month seems to accelerate.

And I’ve just been delivered perspective on a platter.

One of my work colleagues from 10 years ago passed away, and we attended his memorial service on Friday. It was well-attended by the folks from eFusion (I love the Wayback Machine!), our common employer at the time. I reconnected with a bunch of them, most of whom looked wiser (and not much older) at all.

Some of my lessons from last week:

• People care about their co-workers. Many of us hadn’t seen each other in eight years, and we still have the drive to celebrate the lives of those we’ve shared and lost. I vow to start celebrating with those I haven’t lost more often.
• Once a nerd, always a nerd. I was reminded that Jeff Sponaugle (now CTO of KryptIQ), had a web cam set up in 1997 or so (long before any of us had ever seen one) over his garage so he could watch his paper being delivered. He delighted us with his enthusiasm for technology, and we earned early glimpses through him.
• Respect your life - it goes too quickly. Ken was only 55. He had many friends, a lovely family, and teams of engineers, professional services and (yes, even) marketing folks who loved him. He treated his co-workers with respect, honesty, and always had a ready smile for anyone who needed it.

I hope that - when it’s my time - the celebrations will continue to connect people and ideas, just as Ken’s did for me.

I’m prepping the blogosphere this weekend for an upcoming announcement by Attensa on Tuesday, August 28.

They’re going to announce some pretty major enhancements to their enterprise 2.0 RSS platform, and a Mac reader - finally.

If you’d like a scoop, you’re welcome to contact me at janet (at) janetleejohnson.com.

I’ve got screen shots galore, a preview of the press release, a pre-release download area to try the Mac reader, a video of Attensa’s Scott Niesen demoing the new capabilities and more:

In fact, check out this screen shot from within their River of News view - you no longer have to leave your RSS reader in order to see the full effect of a site’s content, in context. (Including video!)

Attensa is a firm believer in the power of the blogosphere to push the needle on new product announcements and adoption. They’ve hired a blogger (me!) to replace a traditional PR agency, and I’ve joined forces with their SEM firm, Anvil Media, to push the envelope on discovering industry influencers. And they’ve got strong traditional media relationships as well.

Show your support for the preview. I’m prepped and happy to share news and information - ping me for more.

Wow, Janet, what a headline! Trust me, I didn’t make it up.

I’m excited for my smart friend Steve Gehlen. He’s producing the first of what I believe will be many inVerge conferences in Portland that focuses on the invergence of media platforms, of online + offline, content + advertising, and corporate content + consumer-generated content.

“inVerge 2007 is a multi-disciplinary conference designed for thought leaders, executives, strategists, influencers, mavericks and cultural creatives from a variety of creative industries and disciplines.”

I’m signed up. The list of speakers is impressive, and Steve had the foresight to link inVerge to a couple of other ‘happenings’ the first week of September -

“In order to create a unique experience for attendees, this conference starts on the same day as, and is integrated with, three other cultural events happening in Portland:
+ Time-Based Art Festival (performance : dance : music : new media : visual arts)
+ MusicFestNW (over 125 indie bands)
+ First Thursday Gallery Walk (an evening of art, wine and music)”

Steve was involved in the original Portland Creative Conference, so he knows how to throw an incredibly creative event.

Please check it out. I’ll be there, blogging the conference, you can bet. But I’m pretty sure reading about it will pale in comparison to living it.