PR meets the WWW / Constantin Basturea’s weblog

PRSA has set up a group blog (RSS feed) that will cover the 2006 National Conference (Salt Lake City, November 12-14). Good call! :)

An un-conference organized by Josh Hallet and featuring sessions led by Andrea Weckerle, David Parmet and Chris Heuer, among others, needs no presentation (or hype). For those of us who can’t attend there’s a conference’s blog where we can follow the discussions. (Maybe they will blog the visit at Disney World, too :)

My web host has completed a server transfer during the weekend. As a result, the entries for the Global PR Blog Week are not showing on the blog, and the NewPR Wiki can’t be edited.

I’m working on getting the two websites back to full functionality. Thank you for your patience.

And thanks to Neville for alerting me to the sites’ problems.

Update:

• The NewPR wiki is back now (May 22, 2006, 12.52 EST).
• Thanks to Robert French’s efforts, the Global PR Blog Week is back online (June 8, 2006).

It would be really, really great — for practitioners, journalists, students, and scholars — if Euro RSCG Magnet would consider posting on its Media Room all the Middleberg/Ross media studies, instead of letting people dig through the Internet Archive for them. And maybe someone would consider buying middleberg.com (the domain of Middleberg + Associates, acquired in 2000 by Euro RSCG), and redirect it to the new page. Academic journals and books are still refering the URL as the source for the studies, and it’s dissapointing to find a domain that’s for sale (since March 22, 2006), instead of the information you need.

Useful links:

• The Middleberg/Ross media studies — documents availalbe in the Internet Archive on April 14, 2006:
  • 1996 - The Media in Cyberspace III - A National Survey (PDF, 32 pages)
  • 1997 - The Media in Cyberspace Study - Fourth Annual National Survey (PDF, 36 pages)
  • 1999 - The Sixth Annual Middleberg/Ross “Media in Cyberspace Study”: Overview | Executive Summary | PowerPoint slides
  • 2000 - The Seventh Annual Print and Broadcast “Survey of Media in the Wired World”: Overview | Executive Summary
  • 2002 - The Eighth Annual Media Survey: “Change and its Impact on Communications”: Executive Summary | PowerPoint slides | Press release
• 2006 - 11th Annual Euro RSCG Magnet and Columbia University Survey of the Media : Rebuilding Trust: Can credibility be rebuilt in the newsroom and the boardroom? (PDF, 34 pages) | Press release

Last December and this January, the online community came together as never before to help in the aid efforts in South-East Asia. The lessons learned there were put to use, and improved upon, when the other tragic events of the year unfolded.

Can we harness that goodwill, that togetherness, that willingness to help once more?

Where to donate:

• List of aid organizations | The Boxing Day Tsunami - Tsunami Help Wiki
• List of aid organizations | Hurricane Katrina - Katrina Help Wiki
• List of aid organizations | Pakistan Quake - Quake Help Wiki

[tag: disaster remembrance week]

Happy ending! Shari has received a liver through UNOS, and her transplant operation has been a success! Wonderful news! Take care, Shari.

Updates:

• Update on Shari’s condition (July 27)
• Help distribute flyers for Shari
• From the Help Shari Kurzrok blog:
  

  We want to remind everyone that Shari needs a complete liver. As such, families who have experienced an immediate tragedy or have a loved one on life support can designate a liver to save Shari’s life. Potential donors must be Type A or Type O blood. Anyone wanting to help Shari with a liver transplant referral should call: (877) 223-3386 or email liverforalife@yahoo.com.

  (via John Bell, Ogilvy PR)

• Ogilvy is running a print ad for Shari. (via Rohit Barghava, Ogilvy PR)
• Jeneane has more information about what exactly Shari needs.

Liver transplant is needed

Shari Kurzrok, a 31-year-old VP at Ogilvy PR Worldwide, will die within days if she does not receive a liver transplant.

She was admitted to New York University Medical Center last weekend, and was told she needs an immediate liver transplant to save her life. Her illness is unexplained.

Ogilvy is reaching out to the PR industry on Kurzrok’s behalf.

The Great Neck, N.Y. native is to be married in October. She led Ogilvy’s “Save-a-Life-Tour” to raise the awareness of the need for blood donations in a campaign for the American Red Cross. That effort collected more than 3.2M pints of blood, and registered more than 38,000 new donors.

Information about a liver transplant referral for Kurzrok is at 877-223-3386.

(Source: O’Dwyer’s PR. Hat tip: Jeremy Pepper.)