I love the WordPress Open Source content management blog publishing system. I’ve been using and configuring WordPress systems for several years and the number of plug-ins and add-ons to the extensible platform is truly amazing.

The iPhone is really a powerful computer that fits into your pocket.

About seven months ago I gave up my ancient Motorola Razor for a new iPhone 3GS. As I’ve told others, I believe the iPhone is a “game changer”. What makes it so is that the iPhone is really a powerful computer that fits into your pocket. Oh, and it’s also a phone. But that is almost besides the point.

If you use WordPress and own an iPhone or an iPod Touch, there are three applications that you should consider using to make running your blog easier.

WordPress blog as viewed on iPhone

1. The first is a WordPress Plugin called, WPTouch which allows your blog to look like an iPhone App when viewed on an iPhone, iPod Touch, or Google Android phone. You can see how it looks in the screenshot compared to the way it looks in a traditional web browser.

WPTouch optimizes the blog for small screen sizes which use a finger as the primary interface “device”. With the rapid increase in the use of mobile devices to surf the web, there is no reason not to use the WPTouch template if you run a WordPress blog. It makes it very easy for your users to view and comment on your posts.

2. If you administer a WordPress blog and you own an iPhone, how great would it be for you to update your blog, moderate comments and make posts anytime you want directly from your iPhone? Wish no more; the official WordPress 2.0 iPhone app is available as a free download from the iTunes App Store.

Get notified on your iPhone anytime someone leaves a comment on your blog.

3. Wouldn’t it be great if you could be automatically notified anytime someone posts a comment (or trackback) to your blog? The Prowl service is the implementation of “Growl” for the iPhone OS. To automatically be notified anytime someone posts a comment on your blog, first sign-up for a free account on Prowl. Then log into Prowl and generate a unique API key. Once you do that head over to the iTunes App Store and purchase the $2.99 Prowl iPhone App. Install Prowl on your iPhone and configure it using the username and password you used on the Prowl website.

Once you do this, configure the WPTouch WordPress plugin mentioned above to use the unique API key that you generated on the Prowl website. Once the API key is entered into your WordPress blog, you will automatically be notified anytime someone posts to your blog.

Let me know if you have tips to share on WordPress and iPhone integration that you use.

"Nic" claimed "TSA agents took my son"

On Thursday night, a popular “mommy blogger” who goes by the name “Nic”, started posting to her Twitter account about her terrifying experience at the Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson airport. Friday on her blog “My Bottles Up” she claimed that, TSA agents took her son.

My son was taken from me.

Taken.

My son was taken from me by the TSA agents at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson airport yesterday.

Due to the reputation-based nature of Twitter and blogs, her story spread like wildfire on Twitter and in the blogosphere.

For most organizations, this would amount to a major public relations disaster. However, for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) they had prepared for this type of challenge. Former TSA Administrator Kip Hawley had asked for a blog so that the agency could get “its side of the story out” without having to use the traditional methods of press releases and media interviews.  So, in January 2008 TSA launched its blog with a great deal of skepticism from the public and media.

Shortly after the launch, “Blogger Bob” was recruited from the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) to be TSA’s fulltime blogger-in-residence. The culture at TSA was such that when Blogger Bob suggested using Twitter to augment and support the blog, he was given the green light. He tweets under the Twitter account, TSABlogTeam.

The point of this is that it is too late to start using social media tools like blogs and Twitter in the middle of a PR crisis. You must already be familiar with the tools, the social media customs, and have established yourself as honest and transparent.

You must be willing to admit when you’ve made a mistake, learned a new lesson, and be willing to stand up for yourself when someone is wrongly accusing you of something that is simply not true – as was the case with Mommy Blogger “Nic”. Over time, you establish a reputation and (hopefully) credibility.

What really happened at the ATL checkpoint?

Since Blogger Bob and others at TSA use and monitor the social media networks, it did not take long for TSA to catch wind of the mommy blogger’s allegation. TSA reviewed the security tapes to find out what really happened. Did TSA agents take her child away from her for over five minutes as she had claimed?

Absolutely not. On Saturday, TSA posted a new blog story that contradicted her account and posted an edited video to prove the point. When several commenters questioned TSA’s edited account, later that evening TSA posted on YouTube the unedited versions from nine different camera angles.

An anonymous commenter on the TSA blog outlined the events like this:

Faced with the incontrovertible video evidence, Nic issued this (rather weak) apology on her blog.

Other bloggers have taken up TSA’s defense and suggested that she was an attention whore, others that mommy blogger was looking to make a quick buck.   Personally, I think the woman is mentally unstable. She recounts in her story how she is subject to massive panic attacks: “I had an emergency Xanax in my jeans pocket. I always carry an emergency Xanax in my pocket. The result of severe anxiety.  I took the pill, but it did very little. I was so traumatized that it would’ve taken probably 4 Xanax to get my blood pressure back down to a normal level.” Clearly this is a person with issues.

To sum things up, whatever the motivation is of someone who wants to “dis” you, your brand, and your reputation– you must be using social media to quickly respond. In the case of the TSA, they had the video evidence which made for a conclusive rebuttal of her fabricated story.