We interrupt this irregularly scheduled broadcast.... to share a message more momentous than we've reported on before. We bring a message of hope, of goodness, of peace, of universal brotherhood. Here's how we can join our voices in a global conversation that can forever change the world.

"In one's own way," my mother told me long ago, "every person can change the world." That advice was at the time more prophetic than a truism.

Hyperbole aside, I do believe that individuals are now empowered as never before in history. Individuals are no longer bound by the confines of time, place, language, and political regime in their quest to do good in the world. We now have the capacity to find each other, to gather, and to converse without ever meeting in the flesh. It's all made possible through virtual communities and virtual networking.

Why does that phrase in the United States Constitution "we the people" so resonate in the hearts of people throughout the world? I think it has something to do with our nature as social beings.

In the past, institutions such as governments and churches were needed to organize and rally people. The problem is that all institutions by their nature become corrupt. Leaders succumb to power and greed, and institutions stray from their altruistic beginnings as they amass fortunes and property, gain political power, and build monuments unto themselves.

To Jesus, the church was the community of believers. It wasn't a building, it wasn't an organization, it wasn't a corporation. The church was not a place nor did it own any property. It's unfortunate, but institutions calling themselves churches have embellished to the point of distraction those simple teachings of Jesus to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. The true church remains the community of believers.

To do good in the world, you don't need institutional wealth, buildings, and treasuries. To self-organize, you don't need creeds, dictums, laws, governments, and rulers. People just need to do be free to do two things: talk and act. You just need to be able to communicate with others of like mind and then to collaborate with them in resolving needs. All conversation inevitably leads to understanding. Understanding leads to acceptance and concern, which in turn naturally leads to the desire to act.

So why can we be so optimistic?

Think for moment about peer-to-peer networks, instant messagers, collaboration workspaces (wikis, collaborative blogs), online communities (Meetups, AOL, Craigslist, Tribe.net, eWomenNetwork, Yahoo Groups, Ecademy, Idealist), alumni communities (SelectMinds, Classmates, TheSquare), syndication technologies (blogs, moblogs, RSS news feeds), and social and business networks (LinkedIn, Ryze, Orkut, Spoke Software, VisiblePath, ZeroDegrees, Knowmentum, Company of Friends). These social networking inventions are now in place and changing the way we interact and converse. But they only portend the future; more powerful social networking is on the horizon.

Social networking facilitates real-world and online conversations. Each of these technologies helps us bridge the six degrees of separation in finding others with similar goals and interests. We just need to apply this knowledge to loftier purposes. It's high time we used what we know for a higher purpose than dating, deal making, and job hunting. How about world peace? Maybe that generation of Miss America contestants had it right after all.

I'll call this repurposing of social networking the "Good News Network." The Good News Network needs no place, no domain, no trademark, no sponsors. It needs only open access and to be built on standards -- standards to converse one language with another and standards to programmatically exchange information. It consists of you and I, our friends, friends of friends, and those yet to be brought into our circle of friendship.

The Good News Network has two functions: to promote conversation and action. We converse by sharing the good news, our faith, and our belief in the goodness of humanity. And we act. We act in small ways, in big ways, but always in individual and personal ways, to share the good news of universality and peace and to promote well-being.

We speak multitudes of languages, we live in diverse regions of the globe, and we comprise all races and nationalities. In this day and age that is unique in history, we can all converse, we can join a global conversation, and we can meet in the virtual living room or the virtual temple of our choice.

So back to the age old question, how do you change the world?

Start by entering the conversation. In your blogs, in your chat rooms, in your networks, in your music, in your poems, in your art, in your families, and in your communities -- tell your story. Let your voice be heard. Sign on in whatever way makes sense to you in order to make a difference. As the marketers say, create a buzz. In the sense of paying it forward, start something in your own way and in your own voice. Start a conversation that will spread, that will continue, that will penetrate the hearts and minds of the power brokers. Those in high places will join us. They will, as Saul of old, see the vision and join the conversation. Perhaps in fulfillment of ancient prophecy, those with ears to hear will find each other, and they who are confused will recognize the voice.

Interrupt your own broadcast to begin the conversation. Let it begin with you; let it begin now. Spread the Good News!

Season's greetings, my friends,

Ray Matthews
Editor RSS in Government

Government is already rife with chiefs, why not one more? HighBeam Research, Inc. has set the pace by announcing today the appointment of Christopher Locke as Chief Blogging Officer (CBO). Looks like the role of CBO is a pace setter who creates a buzz about the company products and enlists others to blog the cause. Ironically, the announcement came in the form of a (oh, so 20th century) press release.

HighBeam is looking for bloggers interested in exclusive use of its new "blog this document" tools and free access to the company's premium archives of over 3,000 print publications for adding depth and historical background to virtually any subject. HighBeam, under the direction of Chairman and CEO Patrick Spain, is the recent amalgamation two paid content sites (eLibrary and Encyclopedia.com) and a meta-search site, Researchville.com.

Locke says, "The HighBeam database of 33 million articles going back almost 25 years is the best resource I've found for adding historical depth of focus to the sort of stuff I write about. Any blogger who wants to get at the trends and issues underlying today's headlines will immediately see the same benefit I did. And their readers will too. I'm turned on at the prospect of making the HighBeam Research content and tools more accessible to the blogging world."

I don't think Highbeam will need to look too far for volunteers. Chris' own Chief Blogging Officer blog, offers a preview of how you can turn your own ordinary blog musings into a Blogipedia.

According to ClickZ News, HighBeam plans to begin offering its new blog content tool in late January or early February for $19.95 a month or $99 a year.

Halloween is still more than a month away, but it’s never too early to start getting ready for the spooky season. If you’re in the mood for some new DIY projects, Aurelie Erikson’s Instagram page is a great source of inspiration, and she’ll help you get ready for the spookiest holiday of the year. Erikson […]

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Logitech is making it easier for consumers to access refurbished devices with the expansion of its Certified Refurbished program. Now, customers in North America and Europe can purchase a wide range of products, including mice, keyboards, tablet accessories, gaming gear from Logitech G, and Bluetooth speakers through Logitech’s eBay Refurbished brand store and its own websites. The company is tapping into a growing trend as more consumers seek out high-quality refurbished products. The appeal of these devices lies in their cost-effectiveness and environmental benefits, offering users a way to own premium technology while contributing to waste reduction. Sacni Leon, Head… [Continue Reading]

A new report finds 61 percent of organizations have suffered a security breach in the past year because their policies, governance, and controls failed or were not working effectively. This is costing US businesses $30bn and UK businesses £10bn per year. The study from security posture management firm Panaseer surveyed 400 security decision makers across the US and UK and found 72 percent have taken out indemnity insurance in response to growing personal liability, whilst 15 percent have considered leaving the industry. In addition, 85 percent of decision makers are facing greater scrutiny from the board. 57 percent say they… [Continue Reading]

SurveyMonkey, a widely used platform for creating surveys and forms, has expanded its social sharing capabilities to include WhatsApp. This addition allows users to share their surveys and forms directly with WhatsApp contacts and groups, aiming to simplify the distribution process. WhatsApp joins SurveyMonkey’s existing social sharing options, which include LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and Microsoft Teams. With over 2 billion active users globally, WhatsApp is recognized as one of the most popular messaging apps. SurveyMonkey customers in over 130 countries, speaking 56 different languages, can now leverage this integration to share surveys and forms through a platform that… [Continue Reading]

A new report finds that 75 percent of the 100 most visited websites in the US and Europe are not compliant with current privacy regulations. The study from privacy solution provider Privado.ai shows despite stricter privacy enforcement in Europe a surprising 74 percent of top websites do not honor opt-in consent as required by Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Although top websites in the US have a similar non-compliance rate of 76 percent for not honoring opt-out consent as required by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), Privado finds the median volume of compliance risks to be three times… [Continue Reading]

Two Irish County Councils and several other Irish, Northern Ireland, and UK government agencies are publishing press releases using the new Nooked hosted online RSS publishing service.

The meanings of words and brands can change over time. The terms can drift to different meanings. Term drift happens, although it is rare amongst words and less rare with rebrands - but still, it happens.

When it comes to SEO, managing term drift on your older content can prove to be an important task.

The phrase "term drift" seems to have been created by Darth Autocrat (Lyndon NA) over here on X and it was in response to a brief case study shared by Glenn Gabe on X that explained and showed the importance of handling term drift within your content.

Glenn showed an example of where the core query for a page changed based on how people are now referencing the main topic. He said, "The original content referenced the old way it was being referenced. It was high quality content, but just didn't reference the correct/current wording anymore."

So what changed was to update the content based on how the world was referencing the new meaning of the word. He said, "the content was updated to reflect the new wording in the title tag, in the on-page title (h1), and then when it was referenced throughout the content. Basically just making sure the content wasn't referencing the old wording."

What was the outcome? The ranking stability of that page of content in Google Search became stable, whereas before it was all over the place. Glenn shared this chart to show the before and after impact of this outcome.

Glenn explained, "Look how stable ranking became for that query as soon as the page was updated. Literally the same day it was updated. Just a reminder to keep an eye on things like this. Quality was totally fine. The page just needed to reference the correct and current wording. Again, simple but powerful."

Then Darth Autocrat (Lyndon NA) replied with the phrase, "term drift."

Here are those posts:

Uncovered this cool example recently. It's so simple and obvious, but powerful. The core query for this page changed based on how people are NOW referencing the main topic covered. The original content referenced the old way it was being referenced. It was high quality content,'... pic.twitter.com/XzkEE492hI

'" Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) November 8, 2024

"Term drift". I like that. :)

'" Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) November 8, 2024

Other people have noticed this as well:

100%

'" Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) November 8, 2024

No, I would never update the url for something like that. Overall, the actual url used isn't really a strong ranking factor at all. Google has explained that many times and it's what I've seen as well. And I wouldn't risk changing urls in case something goes wrong there and'...

'" Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) November 8, 2024

What would be examples of this for some phrases? I am guessing maybe some of the following:

• Google AdWords to Google Ads
• Google My Business to Google Business Profiles
• Link building to content marketing
• Public relations maybe to Growth marketing

I mean, there are probably hundreds of examples of this over the years.

There is also "query drift":

Believe @darth_na is referring to Query Drift as cited in IR documents like https://t.co/z5noOy16dE

— Pedro Dias (@pedrodias) November 12, 2024

Forum discussion at X.

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Ever felt the need to scream out loud? But you were too embarrassed by close neighbors? Well now you’ve got the perfect chance. The Danbocchi Personal Soundproof Studio is designed to give you a private space to make noise, whenever you want. The person sized box is fully sound proofed and large enough for someone to sit inside and…well do stuff. Like shout, scream, bang a pot, scream some more…you get the picture. It comes, of course, from Japan, land...

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EMO: Sensational Deepfake Tech From China Shows Just How Insane Things Are Right Now in the world of deepfake and A.I.

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