I will be part of a panel discussion on Corporate Blogging tomorrow at Online Banking Review’s - Enterprise @ Web 2.0 for Financial Services conference.

Other topics include:

• The business benefits of Enterprise 2.0
• Building a collaborative culture inside a conservative corporation
• Enterprise investment in Web 2.0 technologies
• How to make your Enterprise 2.0 project a success
• Peer-to-peer lending: friend or foe?
• Enabling effective video communications

More details at Online Banking Review.

What does $280 million by you? Well it will get you Last.fm, the social community consisting of 15 million music geeks and serial top tenners the world over

All I can say is that I hope that don’t screw it up! Greater discussion on the acquisition over at TechCrunch.

You have to love the media and how often they present such an uneducated view of their topics of discussion.

Take the tragic shooting that occurred in Melbourne yesterday - note the reputable news source. With one person dead and several others in critical condition, the media have importantly focussed on the assailant, but also on one of those that was shot.

Kaera Douglas was a victim of the shooting on the corner of Flinders Lane and William Street in Melbourne’s central business district yesterday morning. With the wonders of Google and the power of it to search every nook and cranny of the web, we now know she has a Myspace page.

Mark “Chopper” Read is in Douglas’s online network of contacts, although this doesn’t imply she is close. The site allows people to link themselves to celebrities, with former Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee, singer Jewel and porn star Jenna Jameson all listed as “friends”.

Oh please? Did you actually know that you can add anyone as a ‘friend’ on Myspace? I do realise that you used quote marks, but you surely added those to give your article some legitimacy. By her friends, all it shows is that she likes crap music, criminal-cum-celebrities and porn? Whoop-de-dooh. Sure, she likes motorcycles, but so do two of guys that work for me. Maybe she met Uncle Chop Chop when she was working the door of the Crown Casino? Who knows, or in fact really cares if she keeps in touch.

Erik Jensen, Daniel Ziffer or Ben Doherty - which one of you is guilty for this pap? Your journalism is more appropriate for Today Tonight than the Sydney Morning Herald.

PS. Hey Chopper, I know you’re reading this, thanks for the add.

I attended a presentation and networking event last night for marketers and it was quite apparent that many traditional marketers are still not immersed in what is occurring in digital channels.

In response to some comments from various members of the group last night, I thought I’d outline the social networking tools I personally use, and also some of the applications that are buzzing about at the moment.

I’ll have this article completed in the next week - until then, if you’re feeling a little impatient and want to get a taste of what’s out there - subscribe to the site via my feed and hook up with me on LinkedIn and Facebook. Once you’re on Facebook, have a look for the newly established groups finserv.au and Australasian Digital Media. Remember that these platforms are in their infancy, so don’t expect communication miracles overnight. With networking of any type, it does take time to build a strong network and for people to become familiar with the modes of operation.

As an initial introduction, this was originally written for our internal corporate blog, but I thought I’d repost it out in the wild.

There’s a lot of junk in the blogosphere, and the daunting task for many is sifting through it all to find the little specks of gold dust lying at the bottom of the pan. Over the past couple of weeks, several people have asked me, “Where do I start?”. With constraints on our time becoming greater, even though we now have 43 hours in day. We may be multi-tasking more - however, we still we don’t want to be wasting the time we’re spending online.

I’ve been blogging for seven or so years now, and in that time I’ve scanned many a blog. Thanks to RSS and feed aggregators, keeping up to date with my favourite blogs is simple and doesn’t consume much time. Here’s a list of some of my favourites on a wide range of topics - and if you’re not using an RSS aggregator or desktop delivery mechanism of some description, Google has a simple one on offer.

Pop Culture
Boing Boing - A directory of wonderful things
Engadget - Cool tools and gadgets for all to play with

Web
Mezzoblue - Design, the web and some ‘other things’.
A List Apart - Exploring the design development and meaning of web content, with a special focus on web standards and best practices.
456 Berea Street - A web design and development blog focussing on web standards, accessibility, usability and best practices in general.
Google Blog - Googler insights into product and technology news and culture.

Corporate Blogging
What’s Next? - Internet and corporate social media marketing strategy, online marketing trends, news and commentary.

Marketing
Seth Godin - Author of acclaimed books such as “Unleashing the Ideavirus” and “Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers Into Friends and Friends Into Customers“.
Creating Passionate Users - Brains, minds and science and how this translates into making users passionate about their lives and tools.

Miscellaneous - the following aren’t blogs, but will help you find more blogs.
CorporateBlogsList
CEOBlogsList

Didn’t find what you were looking for? Or perhaps you’re looking for a search engine that will help you find those Welcome Stranger sized gold nuggets, try Technorati, and just ignore the fact that Anna Nicole Smith is currently the top search term.

So get subscribed and start reading. Find something new that’s not listed above? Make sure you it share!

Web 2.0 - now, come on, tell me… you’re not sick of the term yet are you? It had to be the most overused term at ad:tech Sydney this week (I’ll get to the event itself in a post to come over the next few days) and if I wasn’t sick of it then, I certainly am now.

Personally, I think what’s more frustrating is that the notion of it isn’t new, nor is the application of it to the medium, but it’s more the fact that everybody thinks if they’re not web two-point-o-ifying their website and online capability, they’ll miss the boat.

Now, whilst this maybe true to an extent, more to the point is that people are developing capability for the sake of it, without actually thinking about how it may work, or why it may work. Also, there’s the copycats out there as well, thinking that if they build another Myspace.com that’s green and red, and contain some nuances of difference, then people will flock to it. Forget it. Don’t forget, there’s Friendster, Bebo, Orkut, Eons, Facebook, LinkedIn, LinkMe, MSN Spaces, it’s just a little crowded in the social and business networking spheres… and then don’t forget there were sites like SixDegrees. Now, fallen by the wayside, because they were either too early on the scene, didn’t have their objectives mapped out as a business, or simply delivered a crap user-experience.

That said, I found a new collaborative site today, upcoming.org (which incidently, I stumbled across via last.fm. I’m heading of to San Francisco and Seattle in a couple of weeks time and will have a bit of time up my sleeve, so I thought I’d see what was coming up. I’d been in contact with an acquaintance through the music game a week back and he’d already given me the run down on a couple of events that were on whilst I was there, but I was thinking about things to do other than going to gigs. I’d also checked out the local Citysearch, and found it a little lacking.

So, I found out that Derrick May & Gary Bredow hosting a screening of Hi-Tech Soul with a Q&A session and an after-party with the man himself on the decks. Now, that’s just Friday night, in addition to Fuckwerk Friday. So much for finding other things to do!

Saturday night, there’s Butane doing a live PA at Low End. Happy days.. and no, I’m not going to spend two or so days asleep by day in SF - let me assure you!

Back to the topic of discussion, web 2.0, definately has its uses, and when done well, it’s great. However, look before you leap. Think about your rationale for doing what you’re doing here and what benefit it can drive your business.

As for the other reason for the post, well… I just wanted to make a few of you jealous. That said, the Mad Racket crew are putting on another great party featuring Claude von Stroke which is on whilst I’m in Seattle. Unfortunately, I miss him in SF by 10 days.