Crowdsourcing the next SmartBrief — we want your input
Yesterday via Facebook and Twitter, we announced the beta launch of the next big thing: SmartBrief on ExecTech.
This daily news roundup relieves the No. 1* anxiety identified by executives: staying abreast of advances in technology. It’s the news and analysis business leaders need about emerging personal and enterprise technologies — and how they may affect your bottom line. Here’s yesterday’s beta issue.
SmartBrief on ExecTech is how your CEO will know what’s coming so s/he can make smart IT decisions.
On our quest to bridge the gap between technologists and executives, we want to make sure we’re capturing the most important voices in the mix. In developing SmartBrief on Social Media, we’ve counted on you to help create a more complete product — and we hope to tap your valuable expertise and network for our newest publication.
Can you help by asking your CIO or IT Director what our editors should be tracking?
Go-to sources currently include:
- Ars Technica
- CIO.com
- eWeek
- Engadget
- GigaOm
- Gizmodo
- InformationWeek
- Silicon Alley Insider
- TechCrunch
- NYT: Circuits by David Pogue
- WSJ: AllThingsD by Walt Mossberg
- Venture Beat
- Wired
Before next week’s full-throttle launch of SmartBrief on ExecTech, we welcome your suggestions (via the comments, below) for additional sources to keep an eye on. What would you add to our list? What technology publications, blogs, newsletters or feeds do you think would benefit your executive team?
Thanks in advance and stay tuned!
*In a 2008 survey of 200,000 SmartBrief readers at director level and above, more than 70% listed “staying abreast of technology” as the most urgent professional concern keeping them up at night. SmartBrief on ExecTech to the rescue!
Posted by Kimbot on April 17th, 2009 at 9:59 am
Slashdot anyone?
Posted by Merritt Colaizzi on April 17th, 2009 at 10:01 am
Yes! Thanks @Kimbot.
Posted by Nurbie on April 17th, 2009 at 10:03 am
dvice.com?
Posted by Robert Kesten on April 17th, 2009 at 10:21 am
Fast Company
Posted by Rob Birgfeld on April 17th, 2009 at 10:23 am
I do like TechRepublic — and of course, Scobleizer.
Posted by Howard Sholkin on April 17th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
I work in the world’s largest tech media company, IDG. Cio.com which you have is one of our brands for IT pros, but you should add computerworld.com (management), networkworld.com (network pros), infoworld.com (emerging technologies and solutions), and pcworld.com (SMB and consumer devices).
I would add nyt.com tech section along with wsj.com which has computer software, computer hardware, Internet/online sites.
Posted by Merritt Colaizzi on April 17th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Howard, Rob, Robert, Nurbie: Your recs are gold. I’d love to see what you think of SmartBrief on ExecTech when it launches. Thank you!
Posted by Robert Heiblim on April 17th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
So, I would also look around globally. circuit.net is good, so is The Register, and Channel News fro ANZ sometimes picks up stuff. Lots of sites in Asia with interesting data too. Hidden Wires, etc.
Posted by Dee on April 17th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Read, Write, Web (ReadWriteEnterprise)
Posted by Jonathan Coffman on April 17th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
ChrisBrogan should be on the list for sure.
Posted by Maddie Grant on April 17th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
Definitely ReadWriteWeb and Mashable!
Posted by David H. Deans on April 17th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
Business Technology Roundtable — written for business decision makers in search of information and guidance
http://business-technology-roundtable.blogspot.com/
Posted by Sean Scott on April 17th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
I suggest a couple of other great sources:
For General Trends
- Tim O’Reilly on twitter @timoreilly
- Robert Scobble on twitter @scobleizer
I would also look to add some security resources to that blog. I think a lot of IT directors and CTOs should stay abreast of the security trends and vulnerabilities being exposed.
Lastly as great as the sources are (there are probably 100s), the data is only valuable when it becomes insightful information that can be acted upon.
Posted by Chick Foxgrover on April 19th, 2009 at 8:51 am
http://radar.oreilly.com/
But be careful what you wish for. A CEO that reads tech blogs might be a whole lot more trouble
Posted by Merritt Colaizzi on April 19th, 2009 at 10:14 am
The number and breadth of suggestions so far are terrific.
Any other international sources people can think of? We want to make sure our scope is global.
And Chick, you’re absolutely right. We need to engage without creating pain! Will keep that in mind as the content evolves.
Thank you so much, everyone! We knew we could count on you.
Posted by Carmen on April 19th, 2009 at 10:42 am
I advise monitoring the essays on social media by Stowe Boyd, from Open Enterprise to twitter and everything in between, he lends powerful insight and good humor. http://www.stoweboyd.com/
Posted by Chris Sampson on April 20th, 2009 at 3:11 am
Steve Rubel at MicroPersuasion
Posted by Dana Schwartz on April 20th, 2009 at 8:26 am
You guys should check out techmeme.com
Posted by Craig on April 20th, 2009 at 11:46 am
I’ve got a novel approach for executives and non-technologists to learn about upcoming and new IT whatnots. How about asking your IT group! Not the manager or directors but the engineers and the system administrators. All the blogs, twitter pages, and news aggregators are great but let’s all be honest. Most of it is marketing malarkey with a heavy bias towards one product over another.
Why not ask the group that reads that info on a daily basis and can filter out the good from the bad. They understand the trends and why a particular new development is worth perusing. Most of the time it’s not even a product that gets that attention is a marketing buzzword.
Talk to your IT guys and they will give you a million times more insight into the IT world then any blog, newsgroup or e-zine can.
Posted by Merritt Colaizzi on April 20th, 2009 at 11:53 am
Great point, Craig. We relied heavily on our IT guys during the development phase of SmartBrief on ExecTech. In fact, the very idea for the brief came from them! Time to go back to the source.
Posted by Craig on April 21st, 2009 at 9:00 am
another $.02.
I believe a huge challenge you will face is the distinct difference in your learning curve of the different executives you will be pitching this too. Some will have a basic understanding of the IT world and others barely can turn their PC on. Nothing is worse than an exec throwing buzzwords and wanting to implement something they don’t truly understand. If you want your Smart Brief to be truly remarkable make your brief as basic as possible (without patronizing) with links to reputable blogs and resources for further education and idea how that particular process works. If you can explain Cloud Computing to my Mom and she would get the concept without the glazed look in her eye. You did your job.
I believe all the blogs that where listed above are great resources for IT pros. I read them every day. I would also link to sites like infotech.com, gartner.com to deliver the case studies along with the cool IT gossip.
Posted by Merritt Colaizzi on April 21st, 2009 at 8:36 pm
Craig, you rule. I love the idea of explaining cloud computing to my mom (who tweets and blogs but doesn’t know squat about cloud computing!)
There’s no doubt that our fledgling brief could benefit from more 101 primers that sound neither dumbed down nor overly-techy. Twitterberry 101. Blogging 101. What matters about MySpace? Why should a luddite want to be on Facebook?
We’re on it. Thank you thank you!
Posted by SmartBlog On Social Media » Blog Archive » Crowdsourcing - a primer on May 22nd, 2009 at 10:43 am
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