The June 2020 episode of The Hobson and Holtz Report features Neville and Shel discussing…

• Their appearance on Joe Jaffe’s broadcast show
• A report on the all-virtual IABC World Conference
• Twitter’s move to let users record and tweet audio (but only on iOS for now)
• Three new blockchain developments of interest to communicators
• Flipboard’s new Storyboard feature
• A user email that prompted Merriam-Webster to update a dictionary definition
• How Wikipedia became a battleground for racial justice
• Facebook’s news tab and Instagram’s rise as a source of news

Dan York reports on inclusive language in technology and big players making big plays in podcasting.

Listen Now

(Or download the MP3 file.)

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

Links from This Month’s Episode

• United Nations: Communicators Can Save Lives. Here’s How.
• Joe Jaffe’s Corona TV on YouTube | LinkedIn | Facebook | Periscope
• Twitter will let users record and add up to 140 seconds of audio to tweets, rolling out to iOS users in the coming weeks
• Your Tweet, Your Voice
• Unstoppable Domains Announces Its First Batch of .Crypto Blogs on the Decentralized Internet
• Will decentralized blogs make freedom of speech Unstoppable?
• New York Times Publishes Details About Its Blockchain Prototype Project
• Microsoft’s ION is an Open-Source Bet on Bitcoin
• Flipboard rolls out Storyboards as a new way to highlight content
• Missouri woman prompts Merriam-Webster to redefine ‘racism’
• Luka Apps, 7-Year-Old Boy, Writes Letter To Lego, Gets His Toy Replaced
• How Wikipedia Became a Battleground for Racial Justice
• Facebook News Tab May Increase News Consumption & PR Impact
• Instagram ‘will overtake Twitter as a news source’

Links from Dan York’s Tech Report

• GitHub to replace “master” with alternative term to avoid slavery references
• Turn Your Virtual Hangouts into a Podcast with Anchor’s New Video-to-Audio Conversion
• Pandora will tell podcast hosts where their listeners live and how long they listen
• SiriusXM Acquires Simplecast; Still in Talks with Howard Stern
• Amazon’s Audible Goes Beyond Books to Chase Spotify in Podcasts
• Twitch’s Streaming Boom Is Jolting the Music Industry
• Amazon To Stream Premier League Games On Twitch & Prime To Encourage Shared Viewing
• TikTok Finally Explains How the “For You” Algorithm Works
• Google Has Unveiled Some New Ranking Factors for 2021

FIR Zoom Chat

We’re hosting a new FIR Zoom Chat this Thursday July 2 at 6pm UK time (1pm EDT, 7pm CET). For credentials to join the Zoom, contact Shel or Neville directly or request the credentials in our FIR Facebook group or send an email to fircomments@gmail.com. Spread the word to your communications community.