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Sad but true, we ended up finding out that anyone could rent the track for $250 an hour, and based on the fact we would have the track for three hours and there were 23 cars slated X $60 each that would equal $1380, so there was some definite profiteering going on there.

Add to this 20 other drivers I have never met on one track without insurance coverage and you can figure out why we backed out. We decided to spend a little more each, collect 5 close friends who we know and are comfortable with, and rent the track ourselves in August or September for 2 hours. Less traffic, less danger, and the ability to do single time trials

Now onto another note, I found this GREAT video review of the RX8… it seems on their test track with the same driver the RX8 tied with the BMW M3 and the 350Z at 1 minute 31.8 seconds. Very impressive and defintely an interesting and entertaining review.

Siliconbeat reports that Yahoo 360 will now support notifications to their platform by third party blogging services such as Xanga and Livejournal.

“You'll be able to go to LiveJournal, update a post and have your friends and family members notified of the update,''

Based on Paul Brody's statement (Senior Director of Community Products) this is a big move by Yahoo, and quite contradictory to their pretty consistent business approach of being all things to all people. Is this a defensive move because they entered the blogging game a little late? Maybe, but I don't think so…

Over the years I have watched Yahoo grow by adding as much of the internet as possible directly within their portal so they may maintain a firm grip on visitor eyeballs for as long as possible, all the while their competitor Google seems to be leading the search arena by offering as little as possible… how can this be? Two words: Vertical Focus. 

You will provide more value in being the connector or facilitator of specialty providers who focus on a vertical as opposed to trying to re-create everything yourself . Why lock in customers by only supporting proprietary services which will always be sub-standard without a big budget and focus when you can acquire as much if not more profitability by linking specialty providers to your product portfolio directly or by proxy?

You end up with a higher quality product, most times with only half the investment on your part while mainting your own brand by the mere introduction let alone the added benefit of private labeling which the better suppliers will provide. How long does anyone remain on Google's website? Seconds, where they are merely “introducing” you to other websites. Why then is their brand so recognizable without a huge marketing budget behind it? You remember the value they provide by thier focus and innovation in their particular vertical.

This is especially the case when it comes to tertiary non bread-and-butter features, and is one of the main reasons why our customers choose us to outsource services to. We focus, they profit, we maintain, they interact and benefit by establishing and strengthening the relationship with their customers which is key to any long term stability and success. A server that can be turned off and on can be replaced, but the person who helps you do it can't.

The market will favor those who adopt open standards and understand that their position in this marketplace is as a part of a growing ecosystem of applications your customers will use, and the realization of how you can't compete successfully in all of them at the same time unless your model is dedicated to being a wholesale provider yourself.

It seems Yahoo is finally “getting it”.

Bloomberg and Marketwatch report that News Corp. has agreed to acquire Intermix Media for a juicy $580 million in cash. This traditional media company has instantly doubled their on line ad views from 20 million  to over 47 million unique visitors per month with this move, and is in a much better position to capitalize on the expected 15% growth in on line advertising versus the 2% expected in the traditional television market.

If you can't beat 'em, join em!

The biggest jewel in this acquisition is the addition of the myspace.com free blogging service to the portfolio. News Corp. instantly became one of the largest providers of free blog technology on the internet, where if the previous claims of over 18.5 million accounts plus 2 million users monthly are correct, they are taking Google's Blogger, Microsoft's MSN Spaces, and Yahoo's Yahoo360 head on for marketshare.

It'll be interesting to see if there are any more moves by traditional media giants to enter this burgeoning space, as well as what this move will mean for the industry dependent on how aggressive they decide to play in this sandbox we call the blogosphere.

The first whitepaper I have personally come across on podcasting, and a pretty good one from Rodney Rumford of Podblaze on the Business value proposition and how to get started easily.

It covers all of the bases, and although it does mention the podblaze service quite a bit, it's unobtrusive and a well thought out document on communicating why businesses should podcast.

He centers most of his explanations around how Podcasting is a medium that is valuable through the use of RSS, so I find that most of the benefits he outlines can be attributed to normal blogging as well, but overall some really valuable points of interest that include some market data such as:

The large majority of podcasts (over 70%) are currently consumed (listened to) directly on the listeners desktop and don't ever make it to a portable media player such as an Ipod.

That shows that consumers of podcasts are not only Ipod owners, and this medium crosses the boundary of portable devices which indicates a broader spectrum of potential growth and interest.

Currently there are 6000 podcasts being produced. The listener market that consumes these podcasts is currently estimated at over 6 million and growing rapidly.

Although he does indicate that the exact listener demographics are not available at this time, this does go to re-inforce the discussion in the last article where there seems to be no real demographics available. He does cite the PEW report which has already been debunked, the Forrester report that is quite vague, as well as hinted at an IDG Research study that purports even higher numbers, but I have been unable to confirm any of their validity.

One really interesting statement of note is:

You can also create a podcast with some Blogging platforms by doing some custom tweaking (this is fine if you are a hacker). Not all Blogging platforms can or will support podcasting. The other major drawback to this is that you need to be concerned with the reliability of a free Blog (such as Blogger) and its ability to deliver podcasts reliably.

I couldn't agree more, and just so all of you are aware, Blogware fully supports Podcasting, is NOT a free service, and it's as easy as attaching an MP3 file to a regular post in order to have your podcast inserted into your RSS feed. In fact, we are pretty much the only provider that supports up to 5 files (RSS enclosures) per article.

A very good friend of mine who owns an '04 Subaru WRX has invited me to a group event where around 28 cars are going to rent a racetrack for 3 hours on the 31st of July.

Although I have raced amateur in my youth, this is a bit different. In my old age I have to think about all kinds of things including self preservation plus making sure nothing happens to the 4 month old car which keep zipping through the mind no matter how much I want to step on that finely polished aluminum gas pedal..

We will have a short briefing prior to getting out on the track, followed by a few warm up laps, then lapping for the rest of the day. “Lapping” refers to just that, doing laps. Passing is STRICTLY prohibited except on the back straight, and only when the person in front of you has allowed you by signaling you to pass. We reserve all rights to kick people off the track that are driving dangerously and/or aren't listening to track marshalls.

So there you go, safe, fun, and should be a total blast. Although this is an event organized by a bunch of Subaru fanatics (A make of vehicle I came very close to buying myself before the leap to Mazda), another friend will also be joining us who has a BMW 540I with over 280 HP. So far the Bimmer, my RX8, and a Honda S2000 will be the only non Subaru entrants, but there will be pics, and possibly my first Video cast so stay tuned.

Wired has a piece on the emerging trend of video blogging that is the obvious next step to Podcasting.

Some call it Videocasting, some Vlogging, but no matter your flavor it is the wonderful art of embedding custom video clips into your weblog entries and RSS feeds. The one misnomer I found in the article is the statement:

Olsen also said that vlogging doesn't have any wildly popular device like the iPod to help fuel the vlogging trend — yet.

Chuck Olsen is a Video Blogger that is quoted repeatedly through the article, but IMHO Chuck, I beg to disagree. I know that the Sony PSP is not as wildly popular as the Apple Ipod… yet, but exposure and promotion of Video blogging as an easy medium may change that fact whether it is coined PSPcasting, videopodcasting (Apple Ipod Video?) or something else…

With the current growth rate of Blogging and Podcasting it is only a matter of time before this grows like wildfire too.

Boeing has decided to market their new Connexion in-flight Internet service by taking up a few prominent bloggers on a voyage to demonstrate how blogging is a great way to use the service… Great way of acquiring some viral marketing to promote the new service is more like it, but it does go to show that the big corporations are recognizing the power of viral marketing and how blogs and prominent bloggers are one of the best ways to do so.

It's an important new way to communicate with the public, said Terrance Scott, a spokesman for Connexion by Boeing, the company's aerial Internet service. “We're working with that community to understand how it fits into the news cycle, how it fits into marketing,” he said. Bloggers already are using Connexion during flights to keep in touch with people on the ground, Scott said. “We're seeing a ton of it at 30,000 feet.”

Yes, there's definitely nothing to be afraid of. Well that's what Bob Lutz told Information Week and I totally agree. His comments about the GM Fastlane Blog extol allot of the virtues John and I discussed in the last article I posted about transparency, airing negative comments as well as positive ones, and using it as an honest dialogue with customers.

It's important that we run the bad with the good. We'd take a credibility hit if we posted only rosy compliments, and credibility is the most important attribute a corporate blog can have. Once it's gone, your blog is meaningless.

If you filter the negatives out, you don't have a true dialogue, so how can you hope to change anybody's mind about your products or your business?

Backbone Media just released a White Paper with a Summary on their survey of Corporate Bloggers and the results these blogging companies have experienced for their efforts so far. They even ended up creating a blog that takes these best strategies and helps businesses get up and blogging the right way.

The summary… it works! Blogs are cheap, easy to use, generate tons of traffic and acquires almost instantaneous feedback from customers and prospects. Basically, Blogging for business works….

“Every company is at a different stage in their blogging efforts, some are dipping their toe into blogging and getting good results, in terms of higher search engine rankings and thought leadership, while others have changed their whole product development process to make their company as open and transparent to customers as possible. The benefits of blogging are many, but it seems that to build and achieve the best results using blogs, a company must cross a cultural chasm that turns customers into brand evangelists.”

Transparency, now that is a word that IMHO goes synonymously with Business Blogging, and what John Cass of Backbone Media says in his quote above is correct, you have to be willing to cross a historical line in the sand in order to truly achieve the potential of what a blog can do for your company.

Allowing your customers, critics, and competitors access to view a public forum of communication can be risky if there is the potential for a negative customer experience or a critique to be aired for all to see…. that is if you have that old PR mindset of “CONTROL THE INFORMATION FLOW”!!

What some businesses are catching onto is that having dirty laundry aired in public allows them the ability to also publicly show how they addressed the concern, fixed the issue, and also have the opportunity to express how they will never allow this to happen again. We all make mistakes and your customers know you do too even if you never let them know about it. Doing this publicly allows you to develop a sense of trust with a broad audience that would have taken years to develop individually through a “controlled” information environment.

That is a truly powerful thing and a marketers dream come true… Imagine being able to take every single negative customer experience and turn that into a positive outcome further strengthening your relationship with them and ten others. Before blogging that never would have been possible.

No matter the cause, no matter the motive, terror and fear as a tool solve nothing.

My prayers are with those hurt and the families of those killed in London today.