Earlier today, I had the good fortune to attend Blogwell sponsored by Gaspedal. This conference is moving around the USA and working upon helping one better understand social media usage as practiced by large corporations. In the true spirit of non disclosure you need to know that one of the presenters  (Heather Oldani from McDonalds) gave me a free coupon for their new Angus Burger. Thus, if this blog post were about McDonalds, it might be considered a paid advertisement (as if $3.99 for a bacon cheeseburger could buy my good will). However, other that to note McDonalds is doing some good work in the social media world, I choose to focus upon Ford Motor Company and Scott Monty. Alas, Scott has not offered me even a free oil change … let alone a rebate. Before I give my impressions of Scott's presentation, you need to understand that he is not your normal auto executive … whatever that is. Scott about broke my hand with his handshake when I met him before the event, and then proceeded on stage wearing a cream colored suit, beige saddle shoes, and a silk handkerchief in his breast pocket.  In short, Scott was not what I expect out of an old line Detroit manufacturer … albeit the only one to avoid bankruptcy.

Mr. Monty is Ford's social media department of one … soon to be two on Monday. However, if a stoic old line manufacturer wanted to convince me they were doing things differently, he is a great start. Now if would be great to just eliminate Scott as an anomaly at Ford, but he actually showed us a YouTube video of their CEO, Allan Mulally, using Twitter. This made me think, something was up with Ford, and they really want to engage with their customer. See below … the video is less than 4 minutes long … and the video is not your normal CEO interview by any means:

At some time in the near future you will be able to watch Scott Monty's presentation (the video) via the BlogWell site. However, in the interim you can view his slides on Slideshare.Net … Zero to 60, Ford's Social Media Story

Okay … I work for a large industrial company … and if it isn't obvious, I was impressed with Scott and and his story. After his presentation I asked him about Ford's plans to open blogging and social media sites to Ford's engineering work force. As Scott states, Ford wants to let the nerds and geeks communicate directly with the customer. This sounds great, so I am now challenging Scott Monty to comment about his company's plans in this area, and then come back and re-comment with a url when the Ford engineers come online. That will be cool!

Folks sometimes ask me … who do you subscribe to via RSS? If I want to give a categorical answer, I reply … Librarians. If you can find the Madam Librarian (think Music Man music) of the information age, you will be rewarded. One such person is Ellyssa Kroski who has the iLibrarian Blog. Recently she posted about five excellant open source software eBooks:

• Introduction to Linux: A Hands-On Guide
• Introduction to Firefox
• Blender Basics
  
• Grokking the GIMP
  
• Introduction to OpenOffice

Do you know your internet librarian (or subscribe via RSS)? These books definitely get added to the eBook section of the Engineering Learning Wiki!

I just created this discussion on one of my favorite LinkedIn Groups: KM Edge:

How do you manage social media sites for your large corporation? There
are starting to be various software tools which allow one to manage the
"look and feel" and "content" hosted on FaceBook, Twitter, and YouTube.
These accounts would be official or semi-official, as opposed to
individuals who "happen" to work for a given company. Some of the more
common functions with accounts would be marketing and communications
groups spread throughout your company. Would love to hear what works
… what doesn't work … an so forth. I also tweeted on this subject.
Here is that microblog post … http://twitter.com/NorthstarNerd/statuses/3253211285

And now the same message in 140 characters!

You: Fortune 500 Twitter / YouTube user. Q: What software tool do you use to manage accts? Will post answers at http://econtent.typepad.com

Earlier this week I posted about "Understanding the New Economy" and linked some podcasts that spoke to how our legal system was stifling innovation .. and an Oxford educated newspaper man's trip from that industry to obtaining a MBA from Harvard B School (see post).

Everyone now needs to read today's post from the Offical Google Blog. It gives a great example how a musician is benefiting in a huge way (read cold hard cash) from the wedding march video which a couple from Minnesota posted to YouTube. Here is an excerpt:

"Last week the world watched in wonder as Jill Peterson and Kevin Heinz's wedding party
transformed a familiar and predictable tradition into something
spontaneous and just flat-out fun. The video, set to R&B star Chris
Brown's hypnotic dance jam "Forever," became an overnight sensation,
accumulating more than 10 million views on YouTube in less than one
week. But as with all great YouTube videos, there's more to this story
than simple view counts." (read more … and how an artist who understands how to make a profit from the new economy is raking in the money … rather than the old paradigm of fighting a copyright battle)(click to view the screenshot at full size)

Yesterday I drive up and back to Duluth (5 hours total driving time). Like always during my drive, I listen to a lot of podcasts ranging from 60 Minutes to Car Talk. Normally, I have a few miscellaneous podcasts which I find which get added to my play list. Yesterday's additions included interviews with two authors on their new books:

• Remix (Making Art and Commerce Thrive in Hybrid Economy)
  (and)
• Ahead of the Curve (Two Years at Harvard Business School)

In Remix, Stanford Law Professor Larry Lessig who I first heard at Wikimania, speaks to how "ancient" copyright laws are harming the new economy. This is a fascinating "listen", and more importantly "dead-on" in terms how bad laws stifle innovation.

In the second interview, you are presented with the fascinating views of Oxford educated Philip Broughton. He (the author) left a very safe position in 2004 as the Paris bureau chief of London's Daily Telegraph newspaper to attend Harvard Business School. Learn of his impressions of both the American business models as taught by Harvard, and his desire to transform himself given his professional background developed in a dying industry.

Both podcasts help one better understand the transformation taking place in the "new economy".