del.icio.us tags 04.22.07

It's spring time. I woke up in the middle of the night with an allergy headache and it's still lingering this morning. Yes, if it could remain 40 degrees all year long, I would be a happy camper.

Lots of stuff that I didn't get to this past week. I have finally stopped watching Will and Pearl multiple times per day and can catch up with the other stuff I bookmarked this week and share it with you.

A Battle Worth Waging - Business Week had an article this week about a recent McKinsey survey of corporate execs about their use of Web 2.0 technology (via MicroPersuasion). The suggestion that companies aren't embracing the new technologies because of concerns about control isn't all that shocking. We hear that all the time. But I hadn't thought about the point that "knowledge is power" and that, with internal collaboration tools -- particularly wikis -- some folks just may not want to put their best thinking out there -- at least not without attribution. This bit of insight just makes it clearer how truly revolutionary 2.0 could be but how, with the egos crowding the halls of most companies, it will be a tough battle to wage.

European Invasion - Piczo, the social network with visions of expanding its reach into Europe, now allows for access for French, German and Spanish speaking users (via Mashable).

Over in Australia - Yaro Starak says we shouldn't think of the list as being particularly scientific (you mean, like Technorati rankings?), but if you're interested in dipping your toes into Australian blogs, check out this post about the Top 100.

Do Something - Bryan Eisenberg at Grok.com and Jordan McCollum at Marketing Pilgrim are both astounded by Nielsen/NetRatings' new "time spent" metric. Come on. Does having a browser open for 30 minutes suggest that you're in any way engaged by the content or is it merely, as Bryan says, more likely that you were distracted "by a phone call, a meeting, your kids, or an instant message"? As I responded to Bryan,

"We all know that it matters what the user does while the browser is opened. Do they leave a comment? Participate in a poll? Feel compelled to write a post on their blog in response to the content? Leave behind their contact information? Join a membership program? Participate in co-creation? BUY something?"

Not a Secret Anymore - Open Secrets, a project of the Center for Responsive Politics, has been tracking money in politics for a while. (How long? I can't find that information, but I've been aware of it since, I believe, the 2000 elections.) But they've recently introduced a new feature, Money Web, that let's you see the links between candidates and donors a little more clearly (via e.politics).