Citation
(2006), "What's on the web", Strategic Direction, Vol. 22 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/sd.2006.05622dag.001
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2006, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
What's on the web
OhMyNews International is a good site for anyone interested in Asia and the Far East. It is the English-language version of the Korea-based “open-source” news organization which invites readers to become “citizen reporters” and contribute their own news stories, opinion pieces and photo essays. (“Say bye-bye to the backwards newspaper culture of the 20th Century,” beckons the membership registration page). There are some interesting and informative stories, and the site is well laid out.
Search time
Occasionally one becomes bored with the approach used by Google, Yahoo and MSN who dominate the web’s search engines. If you are looking for an innovative approach, then this metasearch engine from Vivisimo clusters results by sub-category to help you home in on what you need – also an approach AOL will take on its new site launching in July. You do not get a result that is totally different from Google but there are some interesting slants – so it is worth book-marking this as an alternative. We are not sure about the look and feel however – this could do with some more work.
Business ethics
www.web-miner.com/busethics.htm
This is a topical subject at the moment as (some) governments seek to increase public awareness and dialogue about international business ethics issues and assist companies in establishing effective ethics programs in their own organizations. Pretty much every day there are new stories about businesses and organizations being accused or investigated for ethical violations. These events around the world have heightened everyone’s awareness of ethical business practices.
This is an excellent place to start if you are interested in the subject. Sharon Stoerger of the University of Illinois has put together a comprehensive directory of sites offering articles and publications, case studies, corporate codes of ethics, professional organizations and associations, resource centers and additional ethics resources. The links are quick and accurate and most seem to be still live.
Following trends
This is an interesting little site. Steve Rucinski and Anita Campbell have produced an audio resource for small businesses based in the USA but with much that is fascinating for a wider audience. Small Business Trends Radio and SMB Trendwire hold audio conversations with small business experts. Recent topics include the latest in eminent domain legislation, how to develop a sales activity plan, the latest in funding, training and informational resources for entrepreneurs, trends in US small business and the “the spreadsheet is dead!” Worth a listen.
Blog on
www.blogbusinessworld.blogspot.com
And on the subject of more unusual sites, it is worth considering the phenomenon of blogging – the ramblings of individuals over the net – some of which are excruciating while other are more than interesting and even useful. Some are real curate’s eggs – such as the one above. You have to wade through some really turgid writing yet then get to a succinct little section on promotional and marketing plans for web sites that is really useful.
We will try to incorporate a blog site each issue from now on – and if anyone can recommend a really good portal for business blogs – please let us know.
6 And finally
From a letter to an agony aunt …
“Dear Dorothy
I have a problem which I hope you can help me with. I am a 23 year-old man. I have one brother who works for a large and well-known public relations firm. I have another brother who is serving his second prison term for armed burglary and arson. My mother is pregnant by my best friend and because of this my father refuses to marry her. My sister is a ‘lady of the night’ and my father lives off her earnings. Recently I became engaged to a very lovely girl and I want to do the right thing by her.
Should I tell her about having a brother in public relations?”
Contact us
For a particularly interesting and useful site you could always try our own! And if you have any favorite (or otherwise) sites that you would like us to review on these pages, please drop us an e-mail and we will submit them to our usual rigorous analysis.