The dates are set now for the second public relations online event. It’s Global PR Blog Week 2.0 which will be held September 19-23. You can see the full program here. I saw the alert to this on PR Opinions.

I don’t know if this provides some opportunity for a U-S business but according to the latest FAO release there’s a real shortage of quality seed in Iraq. Perhaps some of our companies here could help out? Anyone know of this already being done?

Now for some serious research on the online activity of blogs. The folks at Comscore Networks have released the results of a study that you might find interesting. It doesn’t have a breakout for farmers but I think you will gain some insight into even their media usage from this. I am still asked by professional marketing people “what is a blog?” and even after explaining I’m sure some of the folks I’ve spoken with still wonder if anyone would visit a “blog.” Well they do and in a serious and growing way. For example, in this study they report a 45 % increase in visits from internet users to the 400 blog domains they analyzed in the last year! I found this study thanks to a link on the Fast Company weblog. Here’s some tidbits from their news release and you can also view the full report here.

Not only is this an interesting way to advertise but it’s in my home county of Sarasota, FL. I was alerted to the story on Adrants and the images and story information comes from NBC6.net. Basically the Golden Palace online casino dyed the cows and to make the PETA people happy they dyed “Go Veg” on the other side. The owner says “the cows are just happy they weren’t branded.”

I’m always on the lookout for how someone’s using a blog in the ag world. The ever alert Cyndi Young, Brownfield Network, sent me a link to this site. It’s for Perkins Livestock Sales, Inc. It’s their website and they post information on it about their sales and that they think will be of interest to their customers. Shows you how you can use a blog!

A couple of announcements from the World Trade Organization. You know there’s a very important meeting in Hong Kong this December and AgWired hopes to cover it live.

At the NAMA convention in April, our t-shirts were very popular. So much so, that we re-designed them and now have them available for you to purchase ($12.99, includes shipping in U-S)!

The National Agricultural Statistics Service just released their newest Farm Computer Usage report but don’t start using it just yet. It’s being re-released next week! I wondered why I couldn’t find it on their website and here’s what it says – “The Farm Computer Usage and Ownership report released on July 29, 2005 by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will be reissued on August 12, 2005 due to corrections in the data.’

It’s the Blog Business Summit and I’m going! I’m going to miss the start but I’ll be there for a part of it at least. And I’m missing the start to teach blogging at the NAMA Boot Camp! So, after my presentation on Thursday, it’s off to San Francisco and learning more from the people who are getting all the headlines like: Anil Dash, Shawn Gold, Molly Holzschlag, Robert Scoble, Biz Stone and of course, Steve Broback and many more. Looking forward to it.

The DG for the WTO is getting more serious about trying to push countries into a cooperative mode so something will be accomplished in Hong Kong. Can you do that with trade negotiators?