currybetdotnet Articles archive

IA for tiny stuff: Exploring widgets and gadgets - Part 1
This is part 1 of a 4 part article - 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 We are all familiar with the basic history of how mankind developed the written word. Initially, to keep any message preserved, or available to be read by a large audience, you basically had to bang it into the side of some rock. This wasn't a very portable format, and it certainly didn't have RSS feeds. Over time humans improved their written communication,...

Read the full post - Published April 17, 2008 in Articles, IA Summit, Widgets

'RSS Feeds: Managing the Mechanism' article for FUMSI
I've contributed an article about managing your consumption of RSS feeds to the Manage area of the FUMSI site - 'RSS Feeds: Managing the Mechanism'. If you get the FreePint newsletter you may have already seen the promotional blurb for the article. "Martin Belam explains the ins and outs of RSS -- not the technology or mechanics of it, but the nitty-gritty of managing yet another information stream on a desktop already close to bursting with resources. He provides practical...

Read the full post - Published March 28, 2008 in Articles, RSS

Making the most of blog comments: Part 1 - Promoting blog comments
One of the great strengths often cited about the blogosphere is the fact that it is a 'conversation', and the ability to leave comments on individual posts has long been an integral part of that. However, it isn't always clear how to get the most out of the comments left on a site. With blogging, a lot of the emphasis is on the continual update, the perpetual breathless rush to publish something new. That doesn't leave much space for...

Read the full post - Published February 20, 2008 in Articles, Blogging

24/7 TV news websites: Part 1 - Introduction
There has been a massive shift in the distribution methods of the media in the last twenty-five years. First of all cable and satellite delivery of television, coupled with deregulation, vastly increased the amount of spectrum available, allowing commercial news networks to flourish. At the same time, the advent of the Internet allowed small and local operations to have a global presence. During much of this period, the word 'convergence' was on a lot of people's lips. The gadgets of...

Read the full post - Published January 8, 2008 in Articles, Media, Television, Web

Ten years of BBC Online
This week the BBC's Internet Blog published the last of ten articles they commissioned from me about 10 years of the BBC's website. I was to delighted to see they emerged relatively unscathed from being sub-edited - in fact in a couple of cases either Alan or Nick supplied names or details where I'd written 'somebody', and added better pictures. The ten articles were: A brief history of time (travel) Developing search at the BBC: Part 1 - Part 2...

Read the full post - Published December 22, 2007 in Articles, BBC, Blogging, Nostalgia, Web

Blogging at the BBC: Part 1 - My introduction to blogging
6 or so weeks ago the BBC finally launched a website equivalent of the news editors blog, called the BBC Internet blog.[1] It was long overdue, and an idea that had been kicked around internally at the BBC for some time. I'm fairly certain that lurking around the folder on my laptop called 'Old BBC documents' I've got at least one, if not two, product pitches for just such a thing, or at least something pretty similar at any...

Read the full post - Published December 11, 2007 in Articles, BBC, Blogging, Popular

How accessible are Britain's online newspapers? Part 1 - Daily Express
The 1995 Disability Discrimination Act put the force of law behind the principle that businesses should not discriminate against people with disabilities in the provision of their goods and services. Although yet to be tested by major case law in the UK, it is generally accepted that 'services' includes a business web site, and that therefore businesses should take care to make sure that their sites are as accessible as possible. In theory, this is trivial to accomplish. All that...

Read the full post - Published November 6, 2007 in Accessibility, Articles, Daily Express, Newspapers, Product review, Web

The London freesheets and the web - Part 1: Music reviews
I'm back in London again at the moment, and gaps in visiting your home town can make the differences seem all the greater. On my previous visit, in July of this year, it was the first time that I had been commuting regularly since December 2005. And that was before what I now believe was generally known as "The Great London Freesheet War" started. On my last trip I simply couldn't believe quite how much free press was literally being...

Read the full post - Published September 20, 2007 in Articles, Music, Newspapers

Reckless Records RIP - Part 1: An End Has A Start
(or "Everything I know about second-hand record retail I learnt by being rude to customers at Reckless Records" by someone a bit like that bloke in 'High Fidelity') I found out, only via a brief mention in an article in the Guardian - "The Vinyl Frontier" by Adam Webb - that my old record shop Reckless Records had gone out of business in London. A quick check of the Reckless website, which back in the late nineties I used to...

Read the full post - Published August 13, 2007 in Articles, Music, Popular

A tour of Tour De France news sites - Étape 1: LeTour.fr
This week I'm looking at the usability, depth and quality of news coverage of the Tour De France on the internet. The obvious place to start my tour of Tour De France website coverage, is with the official site of the race itself - letour.fr. The site comes in four languages (English, German and Spanish as well as the obvious) During the course of a stage, the homepage turns into one giant web dashboard of stats, facts, figures and news....

Read the full post - Published July 23, 2007 in Articles, Cycling, Tour de France, Usability, Web

Why my Doctor Who blog failed: Part 1 - The Greatest Show In The Galaxy

Published July 2, 2007 in Articles, Doctor Who, Popular

Newspapers 2.0: How Web 2.0 are British newspaper web sites?

Published May 8, 2007 in Articles, Media, Newspapers, Popular, Web

My 'biased' view of the Biased BBC blog

Published March 14, 2007 in Articles, BBC, Popular

Smarter searching: liberating information from the Internet

Published October 9, 2006 in Articles, Search

Building my rebooted:bbc.co.uk homepage

Published June 16, 2006 in Application design, Articles, BBC

Designing your website to be search engine friendly - part 1

Published February 22, 2006 in Articles, Search

Gaining Online Advantage: Building an effective web presence in a large organisation - part 1

Published January 1, 2006 in Articles, Web

Managing 'Glue' at the BBC: Introducing the BBC - part 1

Published December 8, 2005 in Articles, BBC, Usability, Web

The software used to access the BBC homepage

Published October 22, 2005 in Apple, Articles, BBC, Linux, Microsoft, Popular

Putting a F__k Off Dalek on the BBC Homepage isn't big or clever - part 1

Published July 24, 2005 in Articles, BBC, Doctor Who

Fine Tuning Your Enterprise Search - part 1

Published December 3, 2004 in Articles, Search

How search can help you understand your audience - part 1

Published May 6, 2003 in Articles, BBC, Search

A day in the life of BBCi Search - part 1

Published March 27, 2003 in Articles, BBC, Popular, Search