For the past year, Paul Gillin and I have produced a weekly series of podcasts called Tech PR War Stories. Paul is a great podcasting partner on several levels: First, he has that Radio Voice that I so sorely lack, with the deep bass undertones and the bright finish, the aural equivalent of drinking a fine wine.  Second, he has been around the tech publishing field as long as I have, and has lots of great insights. Third, even though we have both been in the same field for so long, we still know different people and it is fun to meld our influencers and audiences. Finally, Paul is great to work with and we have a lot of fun with the podcast. Not to mention that he and his wife do the real heavy lifting of the audio production. What began as a labor of love is now its own life force and a great body of work.

It is always good to have a podcasting partner, because let’s face it, some weeks you just don’t have anything interesting to say, and you can always play off on each other’s wit and wisdom.

Paul is writing his second book (some people never learn), and this time he is practicing what he preaches about being more open: he has posted the first three chapters on a wiki, so that readers can comment, augment his text, and see for themselves what he is doing, before he submits the ms. to the publisher next month. It is a great idea, and more importantly, a wonderful and essential read for anyone that is trying to take advantage of blogs, social networks, virtual worlds, and all this other stuff that is happening online these days.

Take a look at the drafts for the Secrets of Social Media Marketing (working title) here, and tell me you don’t come away learning something new. And of course, if you want to listen to Paul and I chatter on, do subscribe to our podcasts here. We are celebrating our on-year anniversary by doing the podcast together at the offices of Lois Paul and Partners on April 1, and inviting a few special guests, so stay tuned for that episode.