Radiohead continues trusting their fans. They have partnered with Aniboom (a animation/video social site - think YouTube and Akira) to hold a music video contest for the In Rainbows album. People will be asked to submit animations clips and while the competition will be judged by the community, Aniboom, and Radiohead themselves.

Remember that Radiohead offered their album, In Rainbows, to be download at a price determined by each fan, some paid $0, some paid $12. Seems like more and more the middle men (music labels and now producers / directors) are being left out. NIN (Nine Inch Nails) dropped their record label and sold their latest album online ($5) - they grossed $1.6million in the first week. Read what Trent Reznor had to say to his fans (notice the amount of comments: 3,133)

Both NIN and Radiohead trust their fans…

Southwest Airlines has announced that they have had to ground more than 40 planes for lapsing in safety inspections, and the FAA is trying to fine them more than 10 million dollars. Given that Southwest has been celebrated for their open communications via their blog, I was immediately interested to see whether or not they’d post a response or point of view on this situation.

As it turns out, they did post their press release on the “Nuts About Southwest” blog but also posted links to their CEO’s media interviews, and other comments directly to the consumer. This is a great example of a company creating conversation and even opening themselves up to criticism because it is a) the right thing to do, and b) the best way to truly understand what their customers are saying.

The comments to their blog are the most interesting part of this story from my perspective. There are the usual suspects - brand loyalists supporting the company and committing to ongoing patronage, and of course, those who are upset with the company and say they’ll never fly SW again. More interesting though are the conversations happening among the blog readers, including Harrison, a self-proclaimed former Southwest mechanical intern who vouches for the strength of their crew and applauds the company for allowing an open dialogue and several current Southwest employees sticking up for the company.

What are the implications of Southwest’s creating dialogue with stakeholders via their blog? There are a few that jump to mind, although I’m sure there are others that I’m missing. First, both mainstream and online media have an additional source of information that goes beyond the standard press release. Obviously, they are getting real time feedback from customers. Employees are rallying, or have the opportunity to rally to the company’s defense. And, they are likely seen as more credible since they are engaging in an open conversation as opposed to simply issuing a press release and then slamming the door. What are the other benefits of the conversation Southwest is participating in?

Nice job Southwest, and good luck beating that fine. I think you deserve a discount just for the way you are handling this situation.

I am sure that by now you are aware that Southwest Airlines had to ground 44 planes for further inspection after rumors that the company failed various safety inspections. While I will not go into the details of the case, watch the CNN interview with Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly for that. I would like to make reference to Southwest Airlines’ blog “Nuts about Southwest”, whose authors has been posting information on the subject since March 6th.

A total of three posts have been published since, receiving more than 230 comments from customers…obviously there is concern, and some even rant on about what a horrible airline Southwest is. But after scanning the comments, overall I noticed a very supportive and positive reaction.

For example:

“I DO believe you. After much frustration with United, I transferred a couple of years ago to Southwest on parallel runs. After retiring over a year ago, I still have 600,000+ miles banked on United. But I’ll take Southwest any day.

I have carefully watched your pilots’ pre-flight inspections and despite the occasional levity of your crews, I have nearly absolute faith in them.

Beyond that I most appreciate the fact that immediately on learning of this error you reported it to the FAA and Boeing. The naysayers can say what they want. I still think that Southwest is the best managed airline in the business. And by the way, my wife will be on a 7 am flight to Oakland tomorrow and will fly to Sacramento on Tuesday!

Posted by: Len Frank | March 7, 2008 at 12:12 am”

And there are plenty more like this - the majority of negative comments are “pulverized” by customers supporting their airline. It seems to me that Southwest Airlines has done the right and honest thing: kept a clear and open conversation with their passengers. Further more, this has enabled Southwest customers to become the airline’s most important spokes person.

The web is buzzing today about Guy Kawasaki’s launch of AllTop.com. The site serves as an aggregator of stories across numerous topics and is essentially a magazine rack for the web. From Twitter to blogs, the digerati are discussing merits and drawbacks of both the site and Kawasaki himself. Check out posts from Doc Searls at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, TechCrunch and Jeremiah Owyang.

I guess I’m missing something, because part of the beauty of the web is that if you don’t like it, you don’t have to use it. The Internet allows us to self-select sites, content, people of interest based on whatever criteria are individually relevant. If you are a hipster and have your own RSS feeds all set up, feel free to ignore the AllTop site. Or, perhaps it may still be useful, giving you an easy way to scan top stories in topics of occasional interest. For the techies who say the site is entry level and not useful to those of us who live online, I say, “Duh!” It isn’t meant for us. If I had a dollar for every client who asked me what RSS is, I’d be rich by now. I sent this to my brother who is not very savvy when it comes to digital and he said, “Cool. I’ll bookmark this.” It will probably be a valuable resource for him and will enhance his online experience.

Personally, I think the site is just fine. I like the simplicity of the layout, fully acknowledging the nod to PopURLs. I like being able to scroll numerous feeds, many of which I don’t subscribe to as a new source of content. I spent a bit of time stuck in an airport this weekend and AllTop definitely helped pass the time. I really like the Twitter channel as I don’t have time to subscribe to everyone I’d like, (although I have to confess to being disappointed in not getting a nod on the acknowledgments page for initially recommending the idea to Guy) and think that he deserves a ton of credit for building this site quick and marketing it well.

Besides, I think there are a lot of other things that we could spend our time griping about. How about Internet pollution to start?

If I told you that Google and its intuitive search engine would change the Internet landscape years ago, would you believe me? Today, we take for granted the uphill battle that the now-dominant Google faced before Yahoo! and engines like AltaVista or AOL. Looking back, search helped to create a revolution where the consumer was in control. Once again, consumers are beginning to experience a revolution of sorts within social networking sites (MySpace, Facebook, Hi5, Bebo, etc) and various platforms (Facebook Platform, MySpace Developer Platform, OpenSocial, etc).

As Charlene Li of Forrester Research pointed out during day one at Graphing Social Patterns, social networks, just like search, will soon act like “air”. The future of these technologies, whether existing on a purebred site like Facebook or integrated social networking tools within a search engine like Yahoo!, are certain to become ubiquitous. However, more interesting is the possibility that social network and application consolidation (exactly like what Erin wrote about earlier) is feasible for the general public ONLY with the help of major Internet players: Google, AOL, MSN and Yahoo! To put this into context, think of having customized personal, friend-backed recommendations when it came to search results or financial portfolio tracking. (The idea of the “social graph” or in other words, the visual connection of users within a virtual or physical environment, even furthers this prediction when taking into account that “walled garden” approach of welcoming users in but not out, deteriorates.) For Charlene’s presentation from yesterday morning, see here.

So why does this matter to the communications and advertising professional?

What search did to the Internet in 2003, social networks and later, social applicability across the Web, will transform our understanding of “old” technologies to that of a new, highly targeted and niche frontier. The movement to access your personal profile no matter where you browse, search or shop from one central point is currently under our nose. (Yesterday, Google announced that their contact data API is now live for developers to implement across sites, meaning we are even closer to one, universal identity.) For the public relations practitioner and interactive marketer, valuing social networks as an integrated part of a digital campaign among search engines, blogging and corporate websites is of critical importance to a sustained strategy.

I’ve seen Facebook and other worldwide social networks explode in user engagement and growth in less than a few years between various regions. The question is, are you ready to explore the opportunity for yourself and your clients?

After launching Digital in Action in New York last November, the Digital team headed to Chicago this past week for the next phase of Burson-Marsteller’s internal training initiative. Needless to say, it was a great two-day event that helped shed even more light on the importance and applicability of digital in the public relations/communications landscape. (Photos will be uploaded to our Flickr page in the coming days).

As I begin my next leg of travel tonight from the San Francisco bay area to San Diego for the Graphing Social Patterns conference, I wanted to share some interesting take-aways I noted during this weekend:

• Thought sharing: No matter where you are, whether in the Valley, on the US East coast or around the world, having a place (either physical or virtual) to share your thoughts about a certain subject can only advance your knowledge/awareness of a familiar/new area. In my case, I had some great conversations with software developers, marketers and venture capitalists at…of all places…a community car show on Saturday morning in San Jose. By not only actively listening to various stories among professionals about the technology space, but also asserting your point of a view, a deep dialogue emerged where passion and creativity were of utmost importance.
• Collaboration: Even though this was my first visit to Silicon Valley, it became obvious that collaboration among all disciplines and professions acts as a glue that ignites innovation. One startup founder I met makes sure that his house in San Francisco also acts as a co-working space for interested members and employees. People efficiently work together to produce a point of view that is clear and powerful.

So what does this have to do with Digital in Action? A lot, actually. From the two programs launched thus far in New York and Chicago (and one coming up in Miami this week), thought sharing and collaboration among participants helped drive a powerful business and communications point of view before their clients. Digital in Action offers a place for participants to share and create compelling digital programs.

Where do you see the bulk of your innovation and collaboration take place?