Crumbs
Rich T finds some tasty titbits you might have missed in the week's news
Friday 16 March 2007, 10:14 AM
Nervous RIM
My interview yesterday with the European head of RIM sent the BlackBerry maker into a nervous spin.
Armed with my video producer, we arrived smack on time at RIM HQ here at CeBIT in Germany.
"You want to video Charmaine?" queried the PR bodyguards of Charmaine Eggberry, the vice president for Europe, Middle East and Africa.
I replied in the affirmative, yet I was met with more queries. "But ZDNet doesn't do video - it's all written," Charmaine's carer said.
No really, we're not stuck in the 20th Century - our readers want to consume news in a variety of forms - and printed words are just one of them, I reply.
So we were granted access to Charmaine's lair. Readers can see the result of the interview on the homepage.
Shortly after the interview, I received a call from RIM.
"So you're wanting to do this as a video interview," said RIM. "We are doing this as a video interview," I reply.
"So what does it look like?" said RIM, confused. And so the conversation continued in this rather bizarre manner until I drew RIM's attention to our last ZDNet video interview, where my colleague David Meyer interviewed Google on its web applications.
"OK, right," said RIM, a little unconvinced, whereupon it withdrew to reconsider, and decided video was OK after all.
RIM isn't the first company to react in this manner, and unfortunately I don't think it will be the last.
In speaking to our readers, you told us that you wanted to read the written word as well as see critical content brought to you by video. You're not alone with that viewpoint: the habits of online consumers of news are changing across all industry sectors. We're certainly intending to change with you, and your comments on this issue are more than welcome. Just click on 'post a comment'.
By the way, what you won't see with the interview because of practical restrictions on the length of the video, is how nervous RIM has got over the whole security issue.
Charmaine brought the issue up, but certainly did not like being pursued on it. Remember issues like staff at the BBC getting each other's emails by mistake?
The hacker at Defcon revealing how a BlackBerry could be used to break through corporate security defenses? Charmaine said she didn't know about the BBC, while the latter is 'a long time ago', according to Charmaine's PR minders. A long time ago, perhaps (only seven months), but still highly relevant?
PreviousComments on this post
I'd be pretty hacked off if I'd agreed to give an interview expecting it to be text only, only to find a camera crew on my doorstep. There's a different level of preparation required.
Perhaps a warning to the interviewee wouldn't go amiss. It's only polite - even if you're going to be rude to them once they're on camera.
As for the use of video for reports and interviews, that's fine, but a transcript would be of use to those of us who can't watch or listen to video (due to restrictions at work, for instance.)
