I first got online around 1985 on a local BBS, but quickly broadened my horizons to CompuServe, then The Well, and in 1990, the Internet. From the beginning, I was excited and intrigued by the potential for distributed, networked communication to disrupt business and alter the very nature of public relations and organizational communications.

To fuel my interest and increase my understanding, I started reading the people who were talking about it back then. One of those whose articles I regularly read was David Strom, who was an executive editor at Ziff Davis Media and then online/technology editor at CMP. Along with a handful of other early adopters with unique insights, David helped shape my thinking about the online world in its early days.

You can imagine, therefore, how excited I was when FIR B2B host Paul Gillin let me know that David was stepping into the co-host role. (Eric Schwartzman, Paul’s previous co-host, has taken on full-time responsibilities as VP of Technology at the Center for Digital Innovation at Howard Industries.)

In their first episode together — FIR B2B #44 — Paul and David dissect Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn and chat with Radius CEO Darian Shirazi about predictive marketing.

Please join me in offering a warm welcome to David!

About Shel Holtz

Shel Holtz, ABC (Accredited Business Communicator), is director of Internal Communications at Webcor, a commercial general contractor headquartered in San Francisco. Before joining Webcor, Shel spent 21 years as principal of Holtz Communication + Technology. In addition to integrating technology into communications strategies, his expertise includes strategic communications planning, change management, organizational culture, business initiatives and communications research. Full bio