This is too cool not to let you in on. We haven’t even started doing video here on AgWired (just wait) and already you can now do live video “broadcasts” from a mobile phone, direct to your blog. The company introducing it is Comvu and they call it PocketCaster. You can watch a demonstration here.
Syngenta Upgrades FarmAssist.com
You can’t be a weblog and not get into checking out websites. We will only report on them after doing so. That’s why I waited hours to post this announcement from Syngenta. These are the folks who created the very cool, Resistance Fighters site.
New Monsanto Weed Resistance Website
I didn’t receive a release on this but was alerted to a new Monsanto website for farmers. It’s all about how to take care of pesky weed problems and called “Weed Resistance Management.”
Resistance Fighters Unite & Email Your Friends
Every once in a while you see a cool website and you want to let others know about it. Actually that’s the goal of the new Syngenta Resistance Fighter website. It’s a viral thing. Meaning they want visitors to let others know. Kind of like I’m doing now, actually. Way to go Syngenta. I do have a question though. Does this come out of the tv budget, the radio budget, the public relations budget or better yet, has Syngenta created a viral budget or as I saw the other day, a digital media budget?
Make Your Website Un-Ugly
This week I’ve been involved in some interesting discussions on website design so I thought I’d pass along a couple links to some interesting information if you’re involved in a web project. Thanks to a link I found on Paul Conley’s blog you can read some very interesting research on a Poynter Institute study called Eyetrack III. This was research about news sites which was done with 46 people. Lots of good stuff in here. This is from Paul’s post called “The Ugly Truth About Ugly Sites.”
Web Award Competition Winners Announced
I don’t know if you are aware of the Web Marketing Associaton or not. I wasn’t until yesterday. Here’s how they describe themselves “an independent organization founded with the purpose of evaluating and recognizing the standard of excellence on the World Wide Web. The Web Marketing Association also has established the Internet Advertising Competition (IAC Awards) and the Interactive Investor Relations Awards.”
Web Check AgForLife
I don’t know about you but it can be hard to find good qualified young people who want to enter an agricultural field of any kind today. The folks that run AgCareers.com have introduced a new initiative to do something about it. They’re doing it with a little bit of help too (“a grant from Altria and matching funds from Pioneer Hi-Bred International. Texas A&M University provided the resources for the visual model of the virtual career guide.”).
Universal Internet Access By 2007
I know you probably get tired of hearing me talk about farmers and the internet but I think there’s a lot of ag communications folks out there who just aren’t “getting it” yet. In fact, I dare say there’s almost a resistance to using new internet technologies to reach farmers and the ag community. Part of it is a lack of knowledge by the people doing the agrimarketing! That’s why professional development opportunities like NAMA Boot Camp are so important. But I would encourage all agrimarketers to go to other types of professional development opportunities as well.
New D&PL Website
D&PL have announced a new website design. The work was done by Brighton Agency in St. Louis. It would be tempting to critique it here and I’m wondering if you’d like me to offer critques. Let me know by way of feedback.
New Website Design For AgWeb.com
The folks at Farm Journal Media announced a whole new site design for AgWeb.com this week. I don’t have a “before” shot to compare it to but you can visit and see for yourself. Here’s what they say about why they changed it: