But that has been remedied today and now we have our interview. I spoke with Francois at length and learned some fascinating details about the history of b2evolution and how it is being deployed today, for both relatively small and very large, complex sites.

If you have any interest in blogging platforms, especially in the open source category, you owe it to yourself to listen to this interview. It’s just over 30 minutes.

And frankly, so am I.

Why would people blogging for business from the US and other Western countries ignore the potential for online business in China?

How can people in the West go on assembling for conferences and seminars about new media and online marketing and decline to look at China?

That’s the picture as seen by Lonnie B. Hodge, The American Professor (see Google screenshot below). A blogger and search engine optimization (SEO) specialist living and working in China, Lonnie can’t understand the lack of interest. Why, he asks, are people so uninterested in “the biggest Internet market in the world”?

In this conversation, Lonnie talks about blogging and online marketing in China and shares tips on

• how even people who do not speak or read Chinese can tap into the China blogosphere
• how bloggers whose blogs are in English or other non-Chinese languages can establish their presence on the dominant China search engine (yes, bigger than the Big G).

Lonnie also mentions his trip to the US for a lecture tour later this month and offers a face to face briefing on China for folks who might like to spring for a cup of coffee in one of the places he is planning to visit, including Colorado, California and Chicago, Illinois.

If you have the slightest interest in or curiosity about accessing marketing online in China, you will find in this recording invaluable clues to start you on your journey of discovery.

Disclaimer: Lonnie and I are business associates and we do provide a couple of plugs for our business in the course of the conversation - but you could think of them as “organic” plugs.

The conversation is about the four one-day workshops on digital media releases which Lonnie and I are presenting in July this year, in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.

Proceeds to the Dreamblogue Handicapped Intern Program, The Library Project Earthquake Fund and the Reading Tub Literacy project.

We talk about our aims for the workshops, the concept of a social media release, having fun while learning, Twitter, meteor showers and flashlights.

Download MP3 file

Event details and bookings:

(UPDATE: due to the current restrictive regime on travel into China and related challenges in obtaining visas, it was necessary to postpone the arrangements for the workshops. We are working on alternative plans now.)

Hong Kong (18 July): http://pr-20-hongkong.eventbrite.com

Shanghai (21 July): http://pr2-0.eventbrite.com/

Beijing (23 July): http://pr-20-BJ.eventbrite.com

Guangzhou (25 July): http://pr-20-gz.eventbrite.com

For more information, please contact us.

I first heard Peter speak at the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum in Sydney in February. Last week I interviewed him.

We talked about a number of issues, including:

• Google Apps
• cultural change issues that come up with the introduction of Web 2.0 technology in the enterprise
• the emerging role of Enterprise 2.0 in the government sector
• how the technology helps companies get measurable business value from their knowledge work processes.

In the interview we make reference to a document available as a free download from the Capgemini website - Enterprise 2.0 For the Rest of Us - which I found well worth the read.

MP3 File

Interview with Peter Evans-Greenwood

What’s the business case for a company researching and even investing human/financial resources in Second Life or other virtual worlds?

Does the potential upside outweigh the risk?

What will peers - or shareholders - have to say about executives who argue for more engagement with the metaverse?

This interview with David Holloway, Editor-in-Chief of The Metaverse Journal, touches directly or indirectly on these and related questions. Of course, in the space of a 30 minute or so interview it does not provide all the answers. But it does provide some context and illustrations for a sensible discussion on the subject.

In Metaverse Journal Partners With Enterprise 2.0 Thinkfest on my deswalsh.com site, I’ve posted summary notes of the interview and some comments, and a couple of pictures, including one of David Holloway.

Click here to download…

This is the second interview to be posted here on the Social Media Show and the second in a series relating to the upcoming Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum - Sydney, February 19, 2008.

The idea of setting up this site was inspired by my attending the superb keynote by award-winning podcaster Leo Laporte, at last October’s BlogWorld and New Media Expo in Las Vegas.

Up till then I’d had the idea of doing interviews and other podcasts and posting them on my deswalsh.com site. But after listening to Leo I decided that I would either start a show on an existing network or else set up my own site. That firmed up into a decision to start my own site. More work in setting up, but I like the idea of being answerable to myself on this project.

It won’t stop me looking at network podcasting later.

Interviews galore

As part of the process of thinking about the site, I sat down one day last year and, over a cup of coffee and off the top of my head jotted down the names of about fifty people I would like to interview for this show and whom I felt confident would be willing to be interviewed. So I don’t see myself running out of people or topics any time soon. And looking at some of the names, I know there are going to be some stimulating and informative conversations.

An initial round of interviews is already underway, in connection with the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum next Tuesday, February 19, primarily in Sydney, Australia, and with speakers also via streaming video from the USA and Europe.

Inaugural interview

I’ve already done one of those interviews, with knowledge management expert Stephen Collins. So Stephen is the inaugural interviewee. Here is the interview:

Click here to download…

Moving right along

Tonight I’m interviewing someone who is very knowledgeable about Second Life and the metaverse story generally. That should be fun as well as being informative.

If you have topics you would like addressed, and/or people you would like to hear interviewed, please leave a comment here or drop me an email to deswalsh (at) gmail (dot) com. Yes, you can nominate yourself if you feel you have a good story to tell about social media and business.