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Tom Foremski of the Silicon Valley Watcher has continually called for the need of the media engineer — an individual who is part journalist and part software engineer — in today’s web publishing industry. Lately, his vision is becoming reality.

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The Rise of the Media Engineer: Part Journalist, Part Techie

Many of us these days are Google lovers, including MediaBeacon (news, site), who just announced that the next release of their Digital Asset Management suite will utilize the latest version of the Google Web Toolkit.

The Google Web Toolkit aims to do handy things like make it easier for developers to build faster apps and to speed up the overall development cycle. For MediaBeacon, the incorporation aims at four specific areas:

• User Experience: This one is stock. With the kit customers to change their environments in a reported 30 minutes.
• Portability: Thanks to Google’s popularity, the solution will be supported by all major operating systems and internet browers.
• Open and Easy: MediaBeacon customer can now plug-and-play into a widget environment. For example, a user can now add Google Docs as a widget into a MediaBeacon environment.
• Scalability: MediaBeacon reports better server scalability and network efficiencies because of how Google Web Toolkit serves up the widgets in a client’s workspace.

“Google Web Tooklit radically improves the web experience for users by allowing developers to create exactly what MediaBeacon has done in the next release of their product,” said Andrew Bowers, Product Manager for GWT for Google. “We are pleased about MediaBeacon using our web framework in an enterprise solution with such a rich user experience.”

MediaBeacon DAM 3.0 is scheduled to ship at the end of this year, but if you’re dying to get more information before then, hit up the webcast about the implementation on December 17th.

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MediaBeacon Uses Google Web Toolkit to Enhance Rich Media Solution

Last week I asked the question: will content marketing kill trade publications? Gordon Plutsky seems to answer in the affirmative, contending that marketers need to set up their own content distribution channels, bypassing the trade media. Ted Bahr, on the other hand, not only won’t concede the death of trade magazines but isn’t willing even to give up on print versions of them.

With some refocusing of their business and content models, trade publications have the opportunity to continue to have a central place in the dissemination of industry-specific content. At least that’s my take. What do you think?

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

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How Trade Publications Can Capitalize on Content Marketing and Social Media

Social media marketing is a hot topic, with 75% of marketers planning to initiate or increase social media use next year. With larger budgets and more time devoted to social media will come increased pressure to demonstrate ROI.

While it’s not necessarily difficult to show an ROI from social media, accurately measuring the return on investment is challenging for at least three reasons. First is the problem of “last click attribution.” A recent study found a 50% CTR increase in paid search when consumers were exposed to both social media and paid search for a brand, but if the actual click comes from AdWords, good luck convincing your executives that social media efforts led to that click. Similarly, a click-through from Twitter or Facebook may have been influenced by any variety of other online and offline marketing efforts, so giving 100% credit to social media for lead may be overstating the case.

For the complete story, read Three Challenges in Measuring B2B Social Media ROI on the B2B Online Marketing blog.

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Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

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3 Reasons it’s Tough to Measure the ROI of Social Media

Jeff Immelt holds the GE Vscan ultrasound scanner.

(Credit:
Rafe Needleman/CNET)

SAN FRANCISCO–In a wide-ranging interview at the Web 2.0 Summit, Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric, announced a low-cost and very portable ultrasound scanner called the Vscan.

“It’s about the same size as a BlackBerry,” Immelt said, holding up a white device that appeared to fold in the middle like a flip-phone. The top of the device showed an ultrasound image (of a patient’s liver, we were told), while the bottom showed control keys.

“This is Moore’s law,” he said, saying that the device had the same power as a console ultrasound from two to three years ago that would cost $250,000.

The price of the device was not revealed, but Immelt asked the audience to imagine these devices going to Africa and helping health care providers there determine “if a baby is breech,” for example. “This could be the stethoscope of the 21st century,” he said.

Immelt also gave a demo of an enhanced online medical records system, in which patient data is combined with clinical outcome data and research to help caregivers apply effective and current treatments to patients. Medical records, he said, don’t win only because they give patients portable electronic files, but rather, “it’s about making better clinical decisions faster.”

On the topic that the Web 2.0 audience was expecting to learn more about, the potential sale of GE’s NBC Universal, Immelt said, “An IPO would be fine.” Also: “You’ve got to think a couple of years head in this space and think, there might be other partnerships. We’ve got all the options.”

See also: Comcast CEO: We are not a dead duck.

See also: Smallest ultrasound system for fast diagnoses .

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GE shows off pocket-size ultrasound scanner