John A. Byrne is the executive editor and editor-in-chief of BusinessWeek.com. Byrne previously launched the magazine’s ground-breaking rankings of business schools, best and worst corporate boards, and most generous philanthropists. He is also the author of eight books, including The New York Times best-seller “Jack: Straight from the Gut”, with former General Electric Chief Executive Jack Welch.

John was extremely gracious to provide us with his thoughts, which he wrote mid-flight from his BlackBerry. His insights about social media, online collaboration, business writing, and the future of journalism will certainly encourage and inspire you.

Please subscribe to the “Cover Stories” podcast and send John a message on Twitter. You can also join Business Exchange and add us to your network while you’re at it.

1. The BusinessExchange has grown to be a major part of BusinessWeek.com. What has been the secret to its success?

The Exchange is unique. No one does what we’re doing in our business category or outside it. I think that’s one major reason for its success to date. The other is that it meets the information needs of a business professional who wants to stay on top of his or her industry, company or discipline. Today the amount of news and information available on the Web is overwhelming. The Exchange allows you to quickly and easily get your arms around the most useful information you need, whether it’s on your company, your competitors, or aspect of your job. If you’re in human resources, for example, it will bring to you the latest news, feature stories and blog posts on stock option programs, human resource best practices, or the administration of benefits. And it will do this through intelligent human filtering so that a community of smart people in the topic will help us determine what the most valuable information is. That saves you time and gets you to the most important content you need to know to be the smartest person in the room.
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Alex Bogusky is the co-chairman of Crispin Porter & Bogusky, one of the most awarded and creatively relevant ad agencies in the world.

CP+B has quite an impressive list of clients (Burger King, Guitar Hero, Hulu, Volkswagen, Coke Zero, Microsoft, etc.) and it will soon also provide the services of its interns to the highest bidder in an eBay auction (Update: Sold for $17,655!).

Alex, who has won hundreds of top industry awards and was recently inducted into the Art Director’s Club Hall of Fame, was very cool to answer our questions during Memorial weekend and we’re confident you’ll enjoy reading his wise and down-to-earth words.

Please make sure to learn more about CP+B, follow Alex on Twitter, and allow yourself to think like a 12-year-old more often after reading this.

1. Crispin Porter + Bogusky has been named “Agency of the Year” by AdAge, Creativity, Clio Awards, and others. What is it like to be part of an agency that creates so much buzz for clients that it gets some buzz of its own?

It certainly doesn’t suck. But the accolades come and go and the buzz about the agency can sometimes get distracting. And I think a lot of the buzz is because we were the first agency to really rise to fame during the digital age. It’s been pretty wild because we haven’t had anybody to model ourselves after when things get bumpy. But it’s all good. The real fun is in helping build businesses by using the tools we have both with media and creativity to make our clients famous. As a rule we get off more on the culture jamming aspect of what we do for clients than the actual advertising aspects. For example we get more excited to see all the twittering on Hulu than we do about the creative awards. And for me the best part is you get to spend the day with a ton of your favorite people.

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We recently had the opportunity to have a phone conversation with Maria, one of many Guatemalan citizen journalists who want justice and freedom in a nation burdened with corruption and violence.

Maria told us about the realities of Guatemala, as well as how the internet has helped create awareness.

Please watch this video, and do what you can to spread the word about the situation in Guatemala.

Don’t forget to also see: Part 1 and Part 2

We recently had the opportunity to have a phone conversation with Maria, one of many Guatemalan citizen journalists who want justice and freedom in a nation burdened with corruption and violence.

Maria told us about the realities of Guatemala, as well as how the internet has helped create awareness.

Please watch this video, and do what you can to spread the word about the situation in Guatemala.

Don’t forget to also see: Part 1 and Part 3.

We recently had the opportunity to have a phone conversation with Maria, one of many Guatemalan citizen journalists who want justice and freedom in a nation burdened with corruption and violence.

Maria told us about the realities of Guatemala, as well as how the internet has helped create awareness.

Please watch this video, and do what you can to spread the word about the situation in Guatemala.

Don’t forget to also see: Part 2 and Part 3.

Kelly Olexa is a blogger/vlogger, fitness fanatic, Ford Fiesta Movement Agent, and partner at full-service eMarketing and Social Media Consulting firm Sacrilicious Marketing.

Kelly O knows social media and fully understands what it means to “be youself” online.

If you don’t already, please make sure to follow Kelly on Twitter and leave some comments on her blog.

1. When/how did you start blogging and what were you first posts about?

I started blogging in January of 2008. My purpose in starting a blog was strictly for accountability in my diet/exercise commitment. I’d been READING other blogs and commenting and thought, why not? My first posts were then, and are still now, about my fitness journey~ what I was experiencing that day, what my challenges and frustrations were/are, what I was having success with, the products I use and recommend, etc.

2. You also do a lot of video blogging (vlogging). What feels more natural: to write a blog post or talk in front of a camera?

At this point, I’d say it’s more natural for me to vlog.

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Seesmic is the company behind the widely used Twitter + Facebook Adobe AIR client Seesmic Desktop.

Johann Romefort is Seesmic’s CTO and an influential leader in the construction of the future of the open, real-time, and very social web.

I am sure you will find his thoughts (sent all the way from Bucharest) to be very interesting, fun, and insightful.

Please make sure to check out all the fantastic stuff that Seesmic is doing, and don’t forget to follow Johann on Twitter.

1. How did you first get involved with Seesmic and what does your role as CTO consist of today?

I met Loic when Seesmic was still 2 pages on a notebook. At that time I was searching for a challenge, so I began to work with Loic right away, and built the first version with another developer in Bucharest. My role as a CTO has been evolving a lot since I started, as we now have 12 engineers around the world which require some management as you could expect. Apart from managing our amazing tech team, I’m also involved in the product process, and I’m creating prototypes to validate ideas or technologies.

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