I don’t know how many of you know the amazing Glenda Watson Hyatt, but she is my personal hero and I have a holiday request on her behalf. Glenda, despite living with Cerebral Palsy, is an amazing person who completed a college degree (with a major and a minor!), wrote her auto-biography, and is a prolific blogger - all by using only her left thumb to communicate! Watch this video on YouTube, it’s unbelievable. She is, however, as she puts it, non-verbal. Her main way to communicate effectively is through typing with her left thumb on the computer. Glenda is entered in a contest called Blog For A Year. If she wins the most votes, she will be given money from a fund they are collecting so she can be “paid” to blog. What she would really like to do with the money is get a special software that will help her communicate both verbally and in writing. I would like to help her, and so I’m asking if you would like to help as well. Here’s what I’d suggest: for the next 26 days until the contest ends on 12/31/07 go to http://blogforayear.com/profiles/glenda-watson-hyatt and vote daily for Glenda (which the rules encourage) — Or make this page your homepage so you can do it without too much memory strain. If we all spread the word and vote daily then getting the EZ Keys with Voice software (which would enable her to interact more effectively when in face-to-face groups too). Let’s do a good thing and help someones life a little easier that is so deserving. Thanks in advance for your kindness.

- Larry
Publisher
Blogger & Podcaster Magazine

Seems that Technorati has relaunched, with a new front page, and a tightened focus on a blogger audience. As is predictable, the reviews focus on what the site has not done, and to what extent Technorati lags Google Blog Search.

Yesterday, TechCrunch provided a good overview of the new front page, which has separate sections for blog-generated stories and mainstream news pieces. Blog chatter on all topics (attention) is scored below each story. As I look at the Technorati front page this morning, it’s just weird to see a People Magazine story in the top spot. But that’s just me.

Liz Gannes at NewTeeVee, where video is what it’s all about, says that Technorati’s failure to take the viral nature of video into account in its listings of hot stories and sources limits the site’s ability to track cultural touchstones. Writes Gannes:

Technorati knows who’s talking about what online because that’s it’s job. How hard would it be to create a frequently updated index of the most popular and fastest-rising videos on the web? It would be a lot easier than figuring out what’s most popular in the “blogosphere,” which is no longer an identifiable insular community.

Interesting point. And one that might be applied to audio podcasts as well, if that medium can ever acquire the rank and search infrastructure that YouTube provides in the video world.

Bloggers Unite is a great charitable effort. Check out this story on Digg … and help the cause by “Digg”ing it so it can get the audience it deserves. Then give a little something back by joining in on 12/17.

- Larry
Publisher
Blogger & Podcaster Magazine

The Association for Downloadable Media (ADM) has elected a slate of officers, committee chairs and advisory board members. The election, which had originally been planned for October, was completed late last month. Libsyn’s Chris MacDonald chairs the ADM board, while Susan Bratton of Personal Life Media, was named vice chair. Matthew Snodgrass of the Porter Novelli PR firm is the ADM’s new secretary, and Podcast.com’s Duncan Perry was elected treasurer. .

A look down the list of other committee chairs and office-holders reveals an interesting mix of podcast production entrepreneurs, service and advertising company representatives, and folks from Microsoft, Nokia, and NPR.

Here is the complete list of officers and board members:

• Chair: Chris MacDonald, Chris MacDonald, Libsyn PRO Enterprise Platform and Indiefeed
• Vice Chair: Susan Bratton, Personal Life Media
• Secretary: Matthew Snodgrass, Porter Novelli
• Treasurer: Duncan Perry, Podcast.com, Treedia.com
• Committee Chair: Advertising Standards: Brian McMahon, National Podcasting System
• Committee Chair: Education & Outreach: Rob Walch, Wizzard Media
• Committee Chair: Measurement: Angelo Mandato, Raw Voice
• Committee Chair: Membership Committee: Bryan Moffett, NPR Digital Media
• Committee Chair: Terminology Standardization: David Rowley, Kiptronic, Inc.

Advisory Board

• CC Chapman, The Advance Guard
• Jonathan Cobb, Kiptronic Inc.
• John Furrier, Podtech
• Rob Greenlee, Microsoft Zune
• John Havens, BlogTalkRadio
• Risto Koski, Nokia
• Jim Louderback, Revision3
• Mark McCrery, Podtrac
• Elisabeth McLaury Lewin, PodcastingNews.com
• Kent Nichols, AskANinja.com
• Tim Street, French Maid TV

As Bratton told me some time ago, the ADM’s focus is exclusively on the money-making aspects of podcasting, and specifically on developing standards and metrics for podcast advertising. We’ll be watching to see how ADM makes that happen.

I’ll be chatting with ADM bigwigs this week, and we’ll be following the group here, and in the pages of B&P. You can keep up directly by reading the ADM blog.