A Kindred Spirit


After sending a nice, polite note of introduction to Dennis Howlett over at AccMan, I got the surprise of my life when this morning there was a full blown post, citing my most recent article about KPMG and their leaky lawyers.

It’s always a treat to find those others with an interest and aptitude for the business that is the professional services business, especially as the model relates to the audit firms. It’s even better when he’s a tech guy. I miss my days at BearingPoint. I always say I know more than the average accountant about technology. It’s served me well in starting this blog writing adventure.

While looking through his site and learning more about his interests, I saw this article:

Why your site must be RSS enabled in 2006
28 Dec, 2005
“During 2006, Really Simple Syndication (RSS) will become the topic du jour on many websites. There is a simple reason for this. Microsoft is getting into this game in a big way. This is a very big deal because at present RSS enabled sites (of which this but one), represent a tiny fraction of all websites (less than 10%) on the planet. But I think that’s set to explode.”

Dennis, you couldn’t have been more right. And that just goes to show I still have a lot to learn. I’d better get my little RSS logo asap!

Then I went over to the latest post – Dennis stays up late over there in France – and saw this one:

Led Zeppelin rules – OK?

“I’ve been waiting with baited breath for the considered analysis of my colleagues on the Enterprise 2.0 conference. But what do I find? A cat fight over the best band of the 70s. Duh? Don’t they know it was Led Zeppelin?

According to the otherwise extremely intelligent Mark Crofton:

There’s no accounting for taste. At dinner last night there was a very heated debate about best band of the 70’s. In one corner was Andrew McAfee making a spirited case for Led Zeppelin; in the other was Jason Wood arguing (seriously) for Earth, Wind and Fire?!?!? Don’t they know it’s Lynard Skynard?”

I’m with you, Dennis. My all time favorite song – this one.

10 replies
  1. neil
    neil says:

    Francine,

    You said: “I still have a lot to learn. I’d better get my little RSS logo asap!”

    You are RRS enabled already. I get your blog posts by RSS.

  2. Francine McKenna
    Francine McKenna says:

    Thanks Neil! I need to look into this and a few other things so I understand full impact and capabilities. I have also been asked to set up a Feedburner process by readers so I can push new posts out to a mailing list.

  3. neil baker
    neil baker says:

    Francine, that’s OK. RSS is really important, and probably how most (or a lot) of people will read your blog. The problem is that it’s hard to keep track of how many visitors you’ve got. Because they don’t have to come to you to read your posts, they won’t show up in your stat counter. I bet you’ve probably got many more readers than you think. One option is to change your Blogger settings so that you limit the amount of each post that goes out in your RSS feed, so that readers have to come to the site to get the rest. There’s a debate over whether providing a limited feed is in the spirit of blogging or not – a decision for you to make. Feedburner does give you good stats on how many people read your news feed – I’m told – but it’s not something I use. Keep up the good work!

  4. neil baker
    neil baker says:

    Francine,

    I just posted you a long comment about RSS and Feedburner, but I think it’s dissapeared. Sorry. Anyway, keep up the good work,

    Neil

  5. Christopher
    Christopher says:

    I, too, am subscribed to your RSS feed. Not only that, you have a separate feed just for comments.

    Where you’re wrong, Francine, is that your song isn’t even the best on the album, not even the best on that side. That would be, of course, this one. Can you believe iTunes is still un-Led-ed?

  6. Francine McKenna
    Francine McKenna says:

    Thanks again, Neil. I didn’t realize that the feed stuff won’t show up on StatCounter. If you know about this stuff, I’d like to talk to you more. Please send me an email at ReTheAuditors@gmail.com. I agree that limiting the feed is not in the spirit of blogging, but as someone who wants to publish a book, I need to prove how big and broad an audience I have.

  7. Francine McKenna
    Francine McKenna says:

    Dear Christopher,
    Your song is good, too. As a Chicago native I love the blues. But “Going to California” has stuck with me all this time and I think of it when I’m sentimental about my early years…

    Oh well, thanks for the comment. It’s nice to see that a little personality brings out all the passive “feeders”.

    fm

  8. Bobby
    Bobby says:

    An extremely rare point of agreement by the vast majority of 3 generations of music fans, is the brilliance and enduring power of Led Zeppelin’s music. The greatest rock band in history is still the most popular and beloved band in the world.

  9. Anonymous
    Anonymous says:

    Francine – you seem to be getting a lot more reaction to Blogs that comment on music than your typical Big Four Blogs. Maybe you should refocus your Blog on music.

  10. Francine McKenna
    Francine McKenna says:

    Well Anonymous, You have a point. Now I know what gets people talking, or at least what they are more comfortable commenting on. I get mail directly, not via the comment box, from some, mostly academics (free), students(fresh-faced) and lawyers (not ones that want to sue me, just fellow bloggers…) But as you can see, few are willing to come out in public with views for or against those I have printed. Has something to do with worrying about having a career with a firm or one of their clients. My interests lie elsewhere.

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