currybetdotnet

links for 2009-01-06

martin.belam@currybet.net — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:00:32 +0000

Analysis of Linking Patterns on Twitter: Cligs scores well! » The Blog of Cligs

"The tinyurl.com domain dominates, accounting for 75% of all URL shortening on Twitter. Thoughts about how much valuable traffic Twitter is simply throwing away by not owning on a postcard please."

(tags: statistics socialmedia twitter tinyurl)
Mr Christmas cashes in on credit crunch | Metro.co.uk

"Mr Christmas has munched his way through 117,600 sprouts, quaffed 5,110 bottles of Moet, and sent himself more than 23,000 Christmas cards since began treating every day as December 25". It just seems an elaborate way to disguise a bad alcoholic habit to me - bottle of champers every day sir?

(tags: metro alcohol mrchristmas)
BBC’s Paul Mason: Newsrooms offer journalists peer review that ‘pyjama bloggers’ can’t replicate | Journalism.co.uk Editors' Blog

“A newsroom is a real-time peer review system - that bloggers in their pyjamas can’t replicate". I'm not so sure there Paul, I tend to get peer-reviewed in the comments pretty quickly if I drop a clanger on the blog - and, unlike us bloggers, how many of your journalist peers will take the time to critique your pyjamas via Twitter if you post a picture of them eh?

(tags: blogging bbcnews journalismcouk paulmason)
Global Social Media Growth | Stephen's Lighthouse

"Now I don't know what the overlap would be (i.e. unique members) but it looks to me like there are about 1/2 a billion social networkers out there". Stephen with a useful set of figures from ComScore.

(tags: statistics socialmedia)
Kraftwerk co-founder quits band | News | NME.COM

"No reason for the departure was given, but it is likely that Schneider will now focus on solo projects". At their usual rate of work, we should see the first fruits of this in 2017. Very sad though - Ralf and Florian had worked together for 40 years, "longer than most marriages" as my wife quipped.

(tags: music nme kraftwerk)
The power of Twitter (clients) exposed - Yoast - Tweaking Websites

"So, if you make cool, unique content like Michiel did, make sure you prepare to get something out of it if it hits the major (tech-)news sites!"

(tags: blogging socialmarketing twitter)
Google Hopes to Open a Trove of Little-Seen Books - NYTimes.com

NYT article looking at the impact of Google's book scanning on libraries. "Some librarians privately expressed fears that Google might charge high prices for subscriptions to the book database as it grows. Although nonprofit groups like the Open Content Alliance are building their own digital collections, no other significant private-sector competitors are in the business. In May, Microsoft ended its book scanning project, effectively leaving Google as a monopoly corporate player."

(tags: google library books newyorktimes)
Fantastic Google Universal SERPs from Google Korea | Andrew R H Girdwood

"Look at this media rich Google search result page from Korea". Includes sections for YouTube, images and 'social media'

(tags: google search design socialmedia korea)

"Cold War Modern" at the V&A

martin.belam@currybet.net — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:55:43 +0000

Over the weekend I went to the Victoria & Albert Museum's exhibition on "Cold War Modern".

One of the names that inevitably caught the eye was Raymond Loewy. He was a prolific industrial designer and contributed to NASA during the 60s and early 70s, and his sketches shaped much of the look of American space exploration.

In the opposite corner, Soviet space design was represented by a couple of early space-suits, which looked incredibly uncomfortable and cumbersome. Indeed, the caption that went alongside the display of the type of suit that Aleksei Leonov carried out the first space walk in pointed out that it was so unwieldy that he struggled to get back into his Voskhod capsule.

There was also a great video loop of a 1950's American promotional film from IBM about their SAGE Computer. Armed with the mighty power of the punch-card, this machine was being fed "a constant stream of data" to keep the US defence system alert. The film 'On guard' explained to the American people how computers had brought them tomorrow's defence system today.

One thing I liked about the exhibition was that it fully exploited the V&A's wide remit, incorporating clips of films like '2001: A Space Odyssey' and 'Dr. Strangelove', as well as art, architecture and industrial design. Perhaps the only thing missing was any analysis of the impact that the cold war had on contemporary music.

Although there were some interesting consumer products that played music on display, the only really contemporary noise was the soundtrack to the Edgard Varèse installation 'Poème Electronique'. This piece, combining film, light projection, and electronic sound, was conceived for the 1958 Brussels World Fair, and is partially recreated in the gallery.

The period covered by the exhibition stopped at 1970, and so everything on display was from before I was born. However, I still have dim memories of living through the Cold War of the 1970s and early 1980s, so it was very interesting to see gathered together the art and artifacts that helped shape the designs of my childhood.

I found it even more relevant now that my travels through the former Soviet influenced areas of Eastern Europe have bought me face-to-face with Cold War constructions featured in the V&A exhibition like Berlin's Alex TV tower or the brutal Panelák 'social' housing of the Petržalka area of Bratislava.

You'll need to be quick if you haven't been and still want to catch the exhibition - it finishes on the 11th January.

links for 2009-01-05

martin.belam@currybet.net — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:00:33 +0000

The social media war: Twitter spam trying to drown out Gaza conversation | The Ridiculant

"One thing's for certain, though - while social media are going to play an ever greater role in how we find out about and understand major news events, the ad hoc aggregation systems we currently use are very vulnerable to being maliciously flooded with this sort of non-information."

(tags: palestine twitter metro propaganda isreal)
It’s a myth that social media suffers from a lack of accountability or ROI « These Digital Times

Don't imagine that the long-honed skills of process, procedural driven people are suddenly going to be lost in the excitement of social media - that marketers no longer market, or sales no longer sell, or journalists no longer write. That just makes out social media to be more than it is."

(tags: socialmedia)
How the US Air Force reacts to blog posts : ASH-10

"You can apply this to pretty much any organisation that’s wanting to engage with blogs but is wary of how to deal with negative criticism. Pin it to you wall". Great spot from Pete

(tags: blogging peteashton)
On the media coverage of Gaza invasion | Thoughts of Nigel

"No doubting that once the fighting is over,the world's major news organisations will be heavily scrutinised over any perceived bias on the part of either of the incumbents". When the fighting is over? I think it is more like a constant stream, often full of invective, aimed at the media from both sides.

(tags: media bias israel palestine)
Last Doctor Who post: Boy I almost goofed that one totally | Craig McGill

"I wonder how many blogs got a spike from this over the last few days. I know I did - was there something here more businesses could have worked in to boost their online presence?"

(tags: doctorwho mattsmith craigmcgill)

Things you may have missed on currybetdotnet over Christmas

martin.belam@currybet.net — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 08:55:34 +0000

If you are one of those people finding yourself back at work or back online for the first time since before Christmas, then you may well find yourself faced with a mountain of unread email and RSS feeds. So here are two little things that may help.

Firstly, some advice about RSS feeds that I've given in FUMSI, and in rather fewer characters for journalism.co.uk - just take the plunge and mark them all as read:

"If you are suddenly overwhelmed because you have 1,500 unread items in your RSS feeds after a week's break from work - simply scrub them out. If one of the stories you've erased was huge news, the chances are that people will still be talking about it a week later anyway. By giving yourself a clean slate you'll most likely only miss a few interesting teacup storms, rather than any big developments."

If you can't quite bring yourself to do that, I can at least provide one shortcut - here is a quick guide to what you missed on currybetdotnet over the last couple of weeks.

Most popular posts of the year - a quick two part run through of the twenty most popular posts from 2008 (The Buffy post was high up there, but people searching for Bapy P's killers and Edison Chen pushed those articles to #2 and #1). The most popular posts from yesteryear also got a countdown, with the triple whammy of posts about the iPlayer leading the way.
Least popular posts of the year - Chris Applegate wondered what the most unpopular currybetdotnet content of the year was, and it turned out that writing about FUMSI, Chipwrapper, Fansivu and going on and on and on and on about "Taking the 'Ooh' out of Google" were the turn-offs.
I got more mileage from my year's supply of Delicious bookmark links, by putting together a four part list of links from 2008 which I still found amusing, informative and interesting.
I went to the Darwin exhibition at the Natural History Museum, and thoroughly enjoyed it. My review got mentioned in Atheism Examiner in the US, and decided at least one person on whether to go and see it. Shame the Natural History Museum doesn't have an affiliate scheme.

I announced that I'm going to be running a one day course about blogging - "Learn to blog smart: join the conversation" - in February in association with journalism.co.uk. You can book a place here.
I got told to leave a cafè near Borough market called Patisserie Lila, because "we're not allowed to have laptops here". Weird.

I blogged about my ongoing TV Licence saga, whereby TV Licensing have charged me for a duplicate licence and helped themselves to the money for it from my bank account, but are now making me jump through hoops and prove that I deserve a refund.
I listed some of my favourite new blog subscriptions of 2008.
And I seemed to get most response from blogging about not getting to see teddy bears parachuting off a Muswell Hill church tower.

Links of the year 2008 - Part 4

martin.belam@currybet.net — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 08:55:20 +0000

This is the last of my posts gathering together some of my favourite links from 2008 - a selection that manages to cover from August to December, thus proving that 'interestingness' wasn't evenly distributed throughout my year.

How Steve Jobs Leaked That He Doesn't Have Cancer - Seeking Alpha - 2008-08-03

I love Apple fanboys. From the comments: "If Apple, the CEO, or its board was indeed manipulative, there would be ads on iTunes". Of course, what appears in the promo slots on the iTunes store homepage isn't a careful arrangement between labels and Apple

(tags: itunes apples music comments)
Traditional UK names 'dying out' | BBC NEWS | UK - 2008-08-13

Exactly. I blame all the immigrants. I mean, when do you ever meet a good-old traditional Eadfrith, Wulsig or Leofstan these days?

(tags: names bbcnews nonsense)
Printed Matters » Newspapers: keep your geeks - 2008-08-14

"The time for innovation in journalism is over. Its mature. Its been done, perfected, written about, studied, taught, and analyzed for a couple of centuries. It comes down to a few simple things: check your facts; include as many sources as possible; avoid bias; avoid libel. Jesus Christ, these are things a ten-year-old can grasp. The innovation, the ideas, in the Internet age MUST come from the content delivery side."

(tags: jeffjarvis journalism onlinejournalism)
Final punt for famous dog track | BBC NEWS | England | London - 2008-08-16

"Walthamstow without the stadium is like Paris without the Eiffel Tower" - Barry Clegg perhaps going a little over-the-top there, but today is a sad day as yet another local E17 landmark closes for the last time. I paid my last respects back in June.

(tags: walthamstow london bbcnews walthamstowstadium greyhoundracing)

apophenia: I want my Olympics 2.0-style - 2008-08-16

"Last weekend, I was with a hardcore copyright conservative who kept arguing that people watching the opening ceremonies online were cheating NBC out of money. I countered that what these people were doing was indicating what the market wanted. Many were happy to watch the Chinese CCTV version live instead of waiting until what NBC declared to be 'primetime'".

(tags: apophenia nbc olympics lineartv)
How Google Earth Helped Win A Gold Medal | TechCrunch - 2008-08-28

"When she did her time trials in December, 2007 in China, she took along her husband's GPS unit to capture the elevation along the route. Then she used that data to find the best training route back home". Inspired use of technology.

(tags: googleearth olympics china cycling)
Virtual Economics: The innocent will hide what we damned well like, part #2 - 2008-08-29

"The latest [Gvmt website] is a social network / discussion board / poorly thought-out and ill-defined pseudo-web2.0 project that lets people have their say about ID cards. Surprisingly enough, the board contains little other than people pointing out what a deplorable idea. See here, for example. So this post is just to say thanks, HMG, for spending my taxes on this. I assume you looked into the matter carefully and established that previously there was no facility anywhere on the web for people to comment on ID cards."

(tags: idcards egovernment virtualeconomics)
The Brussels budget: read it and weep :: Daniel Hannan - 2008-08-29

"Well, mes amis, have a look at Chris's figures. He has gone through the budget line by line and revealed exactly where the euros go. Anyone who reads to the end and continues to support European integration is either touchingly determined to elevate hope over experience or - more likely - is on the payroll himself."

(tags: eu telegraph corruption)
Washington Post's political browser to recommend rival websites | Media | guardian.co.uk - 2008-09-23

"The Washington Post has taken a bold decision by launching a new web section that links readers to the best of political coverage, including that carried by rival newspapers". Of course, in truth it is only bold if you subscribe to the idea that if the user visits another website once, THEY MIGHT NEVER EVER COME BACK. That's why I never link to any external articles on currybetdotnet, in case I lose all my loyal readers.

(tags: roygreenslade mediaguardian washingtonpost)
Open source's dark side - Computing - 2008-09-29

I agree with Hamish in the comments: "I found your article to be misleading and biased in almost every way against open source. Either this was intended as an ad for companies with vested interests in selling proprietary software and keeping users locked into their own proprietary model, or the author was woefully misunderstanding the realities of the GPL and openSource". Shockingly ill-informed article, via The OpenSkills Sett

(tags: opensource computing)
And if Russell Brand & Jonathan Ross had been newspaper journalists? | Martin Moore Blog - 2008-10-30

"The result? If it had been two newspaper journalists there almost certainly would have been virtually no press criticism, few complaints, no apologies, no suspensions, no resignations, no inquiries, no fines".

(tags: jonathanross russellbrand andrewsachs bbc martinmoore)

Journalist Andrew Gilligan accused of internet "sockpuppeting" | UK news | guardian.co.uk - 2008-11-04

"This blog is eager to provide a platform for a variety of guest posters. Should Andrew Gilligan wish to enlighten me about any connection he has with kennite and the reasons for it should one exist, I will be more than happy to publish his words here - under his real name, and everything."

(tags: journalism guardian andrewgilligan)
A visual, tagged database of Election Night screen grabs » Teaching Online Journalism - 2008-11-09

"One of our doctoral students spent Election Night grabbing screen captures from 98 different news Web sites, from about 11:30 P.M. EST until almost 6 a.m. Wednesday morning. The fruits of his labor are viewable at Iterasi, a free Web site that allows you to capture and save any Web page — with all its text selectable and its links still clickable — with a single click. How cool is that?". Really cool is the answer.

(tags: barackobama uselection)
UFO sightings: 140 years of UFO pictures - Telegraph - 2008-11-18

Awesome photo gallery from The Telegraph with a visual history of "UFO" pictures

(tags: ufo photographs scifi telegraph)
Behind the scenes: story of the far right map of britain | Inside Guardian.co.uk - 2008-11-20

"Here's the story of how a hack day project in the office coupled with a data leak from the BNP allowed us to easily present an interactive view of news events to our readers". Awesome representation of the BNP membership data that didn't invade privacy but provided context. Love to see other political parties voluntarily release anonymous postcode or constituency level membership data for comparison.

(tags: bnp privacy guardian #ghack1)

UFOs, aliens and ghosts are believed in more than God - Telegraph - 2008-11-24

"While 54 per cent of people believe in God, 58 per cent believe in the supernatural. Researchers found women were more likely to believe in the supernatural than men, and were more likely to visit a medium. Nearly a quarter of the 3,000 questioned by researchers claimed they had an encounter with the paranormal. Some 37 per cent said aliens and ghosts were the basis of their belief system. The study, to mark the DVD release of X Files: I Want to Believe..." I bet they didn't ask how many people thought that movie was actually any good...

(tags: xfiles telegraph religion supernatural ufo)
Google Search Wiki - Like Forcing You To Eat The Heart of a Live Cobra | Graywolf - 2008-11-24

He admits he is over-stating the case for dramatic effect, but Michael has screenshots of people already forcing pr0n spam into the new Google feature that you can't switch off: "Google has a dominant lead in the search market, in some sectors it approaches near monopolistic levels. The fact that google is unchallenged by its closest rivals gives them some breathing room to have the bad combination of ego and recklessness, and have no fear of repercussions."

(tags: google searchwiki graywolf)
Baby P and the Facebook Furies | Heresy Corner - 2008-11-24

"The popular press, with its sensationalising and sentimentalising of every distressing case, bears the heaviest responsibility for this ugly and atavistic culture of vigilantism. Its coverage of Baby Peter has been virtually pornographic in its lingering upon every horrific detail of the child's suffering. In portraying the adults involved as simplistic avatars of evil they have done little to explain, or give any sense of, what might actually have occured."

(tags: babyp newspapers heresycorner)
Dave Hill: Christmas has not been banned, contrary to what some newspapers believe | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk - 2008-11-28

"Once again, as the build-up to festivities begins, newspapers are reporting non-stories designed to enrage Middle England". Thankfully, Dave prevents me having to blog about this in the run-up to Xmas - now, if he could just do a catch-all post about A-Level results coverage all my media bug-bears would be laid to rest.

(tags: guardian commentisfree davehill christmas dailymail)
BBC in new decency row after Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles suggests Poles makes good prostitutes | Mail Online - 2008-12-04

How delightful to see the Mail ride to the rescue, two weeks after broadcast, of Polish people. You remember the Poles don't you? They are the people that negotiated the removal of anti-Polish articles from...you guessed it...the Mail's own website after the intervention of the PCC in August of this year.

(tags: dailymail chrismoyles bbc racism poland pcc)
Fakers To Be Outfoxed | Londonist - 2008-12-05

"This time round authorities are citing the 'impact on creative talent' that piracy causes. In other words, the ubiquity of untreated bilge like High School Musical hogging the movie charts is a direct consequence of you buying that dubbed version of Shanghai Surprise off a fellow in Seven Sisters the other month."

(tags: movies londonist piracy)
The Top 20 Children On Album Covers, A Wikipedia Special | Anorak News - 2008-12-09

One of the better responses to the Scorpions album cover "outrage". Surprised the mid-market papers haven't made more of it today to be honest.

(tags: wikipedia censorship anorak childsafety)

Stronger Roles for Libraries as Local News Aggregators? | Stephen's Lighthouse - 2008-12-10

Watch out regionals, now the librarian is after your market: "So, if you're in a public library and your town is potentially dependent on the McPaper or a major national (If the NYT survives), what could you do? Can you use RSS feeds to assemble a local news source from smaller independents? Can you surf the local blogs and aggregate?"

(tags: library localnewspapers rss blogging)
The Ross/Brand affair leads to Civil War! « eyedropper.co.uk - 2008-12-17

I missed this at the time - "Field Marshall Clifford leads 7,000 troops and captures BBC Manchester, Content Protector General Ross swears to retake it and mounts a massive counter attack from BBC Liverpool and BBC Leeds and Sheffield, the loss of life is the highest yet on both sides leading the campaign to be dubbed the 'Slaughter of Salford'".

(tags: dailymail bbc russellbrand eyedropper)

And finally...

That is almost the final part of my end-of-year list-making. Next week I'll be starting afresh with a new topic - looking at the site search engines of the UK's leading regional newspaper websites.

Links of the year 2008 - Part 3

martin.belam@currybet.net — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 08:55:32 +0000

I've been publishing a series of posts rounding up my favourite links from last year - here is the selection from June and July 2008.

Radiohead to Prince: Unblock 'Creep' Cover Videos | Basement.org - 2008-06-02

"Prince covers Radiohead at a live show. Fans record the performance and put it on Youtube. Prince demands that the videos be taken down. Thom Yorke requests they be unblocked. So who's right? Who cares. The notion of 'copyright' is officially useless."

(tags: music prince radiohead copyright youtube)
iPlayerlist - making the unmissable, browsable - 2008-06-03

Sometimes the lo-fi sitemap is still a winner when it comes to navigation...

(tags: backstage directory iplayer bbc)
While the BBC fiddles, Britain’s innovation burns » TechCrunch UK - 2008-06-03

Mike Butcher aims both barrels at the BBC, with a heathy sideswipe at 'whining' commercial newspapers for good measure :-)

(tags: bbc business innovation media techcrunchuk)
Christian Voice to challenge Muslim "no-go areas" » mediawatchwatch.org.uk - 2008-06-04

Unless they are actually forcing conversions a la Spain in 1501, I don't see how they can be breaking a law. Foolish, perhaps, but not illegal. Another one for the "Personally, I think you're bonkers, but I'd defend your right to be bonkers" file.

(tags: christianity islam mediawatchwatch)
Blue is the colour for Boris | Media Monkey | guardian.co.uk - 2008-06-05

"London mayor Boris Johnson has already started removing all sign of the previous administration, changing the logo and branding that characterised Ken's reign. The previous black and red London slogan is now a Tory blue". It seems I was right.

(tags: mediamonkey guardian borisjohnson londonmayor branding)

Martin Kelner on the radio craze of 'testing tunes' | Media | The Guardian - 2008-06-05

"I was probably still addressing BBC local radio's previous target audience, Dave and Sue, an imaginary couple of whom we were given detailed profiles and photographs". Martin Kelner is not a fan of audience personas it seems...

(tags: radio guardian bbclocalradio personas martinkelner)
Eighties fashion 'violates laws of nature' - Telegraph - 2008-06-06

"In the 80s I was never attracted to the music of Flock of Seagulls or Human League. Now I know why. The maths says all that asymmetry adds up to a fashion disaster". There's nothing shallow about judging music on the haircut, kids, its maths at work.

(tags: maths 80s humanleague telegraph funny)
Sightseeing in Liberty City| Wonderland - 2008-06-11

"Matthew Johnston has a flickrset up of comparisons between Liberty City landmarks and those of its inspiration, New York". I so wanted to do something similar when I was in Miami, but I didn't have the time - or the local knowledge.

(tags: wonderland gmaes flickr gtaiv)
Interesting Stuff 06-06-08 and 10-06-08 | BBC Internet Blog - 2008-06-11

D'oh the humanity! The BBC Internet blog references my post about the BBC and external links...and originally omits to include a link to currybetdotnet ;-)

(tags: bbc bbcinternetblog currybetdotnet)
Information overload in 1613 » Pasta&Vinegar - 2008-06-22

"One of the diseases of this age is the multiplicity of books; they doth so overcharge the world that it is not able to digest the abundance of idle matter that is every day hatched and brought forth into the world"

(tags: books history information)
Asda refuse to print baby snap of son for 21st birthday cake... because he's naked | Mail Online - 2008-06-26

Best comment: "It may seem over the top, but I think it's necessary. What's to stop a paedophile from bringing in a naked baby picture and having it put on a cake? While there is nothing sordid about a naked baby bum, the line has to be drawn somewhere."

(tags: dailymail asda baby photograph)
The Queen, better value than an iPod download | UK news | guardian.co.uk - 2008-06-28

I can see how 66p is *cheaper* than 79p, but better value? For my iTunes download I get a song I can listen to over and over again. For my 66p forced donation to the Queen, I just get an old lady living in a castle don't I?

(tags: monarchy tax itunes guardian funny)
How The Madeleine McCann Story Was Hijacked By Web Trolls » Anorak News - 2008-07-01

Generates over 450 comments in 12 hours and thus proves the point...

(tags: madeleine anorak comments)
The BBC common platform debate | Bowblog - 2008-07-04

Amongst a very good summary of the issues discussed at Broadcasting House the other week Steve calls me out for watching the football.

(tags: bbc techcrunchuk euro2008)

Teenager finds bat asleep in bra | BBC NEWS | UK | England | Norfolk - 2008-07-13

A story surely only published to make sure it reaches the front page of Digg and sits in the BBC's 'Most read' list for weeks and weeks and weeks...no pic though :-(

(tags: bbc funny bat linkbait)
One in the Eye for SEO :: Shane Richmond :: Telegraph - 2008-07-17

"When Private Eye dabbles in the internet the result is usually both comic and alarming. It’s like having a blacksmith repair your car; it’s amusing to watch him bash around aimlessly for a minute but you soon start to worry he might do some real damage".

(tags: privateeye seo telegraph funny shanerichmond)
Doctor Who: Journey's End - Officially Number One | Outpost Gallifrey - 2008-07-18

"Figures released today by BARB confirm that Journey's End was the UK's most watched television programme of the week with 10.57 million viewers. It is the first time in Doctor Who's 45 year history that the programme has achieved this position". Congrats

(tags: outpostgallifrey doctorwho ratings)
Leyton Orient | Day to remember for Orient fans | BBC SPORT | Football - 2008-07-20

"They were human beings, young lads who were actually brave enough to make the choice to go and fight in the cruellest conditions for their country and for our freedom". Fans trip to pay respects to the Orient team that signed up to fight in World War I.

(tags: leytonorient worldwar1)
Blog Her Conference: Is the BlogHer Conference Guilty of Sex Discrimination | Graywolf's SEO Blog - 2008-07-21

I usually find Michael Gray absolutely spot on the money but I think this "uppity women having their own conference is sexist" rant about the Blogher conference is the kind of drivel I'd expect to see spouted in the comments of the Daily Express site...

(tags: blogher graywolf)

Next...

Tomorrow I'll have the final part of my links round-up of 2008.

"Learn to blog smart: join the conversation" - training day in February

martin.belam@currybet.net — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 08:55:41 +0000

New year, new ventures. I'm very pleased to be able to announce that I'll be running a blogging training day in association with the folks at journalism.co.uk.

"Learn to blog smart: join the conversation" will be in West London on February 26th 2009, and the blurb runs like this:

"We are increasingly being urged to "join the conversation" online, instead of relying on the one-to-many communication model of the print and broadcast eras - but how do you find the right conversation to join? And, when you've got something to say, how do you make sure that people join in the conversation that you want to start?"

I was tempted to call the day something like "Blogging for the reluctant". I have this terrible fear for a whole swathe of journalists and trainee journalists that one day they'll be happily writing slap-dash pieces about Twitter based on virtually no research, and then the next they will find that the main edition of their newspaper has gone free, that they are expected to self-publish their own articles to the website using Wordpress as a CMS, and find themselves doing their own sub-editing and getting paid according to their page impressions.

However the day is more than that. It is aimed at people who have recently started blogging either for professional or personal reasons, or for people who feel that they need to understand blogging in order to advance their careers or get that next job.

So, what will you get on the day?

Well, for a start I promise it won't just be me strutting around like a peacock saying "I've got a blog myself. It is terribly good, you know."

The official list of learning points is:

how search engines work and rank content;
how to use specialist search tools and techniques to uncover where the conversation is happening about your subject;
how to blog in a way that encourages and generates conversation;
techniques for engagement with your audience online;
techniques for dealing with difficult voices online;
how to track conversations via RSS;
how to build a consistent online "personal brand" that commands attention.

It's going to be a very hands on day, with lots of real uses of the Internet to improve the way that your blog can be found. There will be a little bit of SEO 101, and a lot about finding your own voice online. There will be a big focus on joining in the blogosphere conversation. There will be practical training on finding conversations that are worth joining in, and nurturing the conversation and comments on your own site.

And it won't be me being relentlessly enthusiastic about technology either. I'll be looking at practical ways to deal with some of the downsides of blogging as well - including spam, trolls, content scrapers, and how to handle direct complaints.

There are still a few slots left, and you can book onto the course via journalism.co.uk.

Links of the year 2008 - Part 2

martin.belam@currybet.net — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 08:55:51 +0000

Yesterday I started publishing a list of my "links of the year". Here are some of the most interesting links from April and May 2008.

The BBC is too 'scared' to allow Islam jokes, says Ben Elton | Media | guardian.co.uk - 2008-04-02

Of more interest perhaps: "In the interview, Elton also talked about the decline of traditional sitcoms that could be enjoyed by mass audiences. 'I don't think it's the fault of artists, or even commissioners; I think it's the fault of technology…'"

(tags: mediaguardian guardian bbc benelton comedy sitcoms)
The people who don't - Messy Media - 2008-04-04

"I was at another one of those dinner parties last night where the other people were frankly bothered and bewildered by the fact that I blog and use RSS to track hundreds of different information sources". Lloyd with the negative numbers.

(tags: lloydshepherd messymedia statistics web2.0)
Examining the role of blogs in BBC News « Reportr.net - 2008-04-06

"I was fortunate enough to present my research on how the BBC has integrated blogging in its journalism at the Online Journalism Symposium. The paper, The BBC Goes Blogging: Is ‘Auntie’ Finally Listening?, is available for download as a PDF."

(tags: bbc blogging)
Pulling a Fast One: A Clever Internet Marketer Is Trying to Trademark "SEO" - SEOmoz - 2008-04-09

"I was working on trademarking some SEOmoz marks the other day, when I noticed that someone is trying to register 'SEO' as a service mark".

(tags: seo trademarks seomoz)
Dutch site reinvents what news looks like online « Online Journalism Blog - 2008-04-09

"Recently my attention has been drawn to the Dutch news website www.en.nl. Wilbert Baan, interaction designer for the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant, told me he wants to see 'what we can do with news, social networks, wikis and more'".

(tags: journalism visualization news interactiondesign netherlands)
Peter Morville's Search Patterns collection on Flickr - 2008-04-14

"A sandbox for collecting search examples, patterns, and anti-patterns".

(tags: collection gallery flickr usability search patterns)
Gallery: BBC news in focus | Media | guardian.co.uk - 2008-04-18

If it ain't broke, don't fix it, I say. What was wrong with that black'n'white mast ident from 1954?

(tags: bbcnews branding mediaguardian)

Is the BBC spamming social media? - Blogstorm - 2008-04-18

"Over the last few days I’ve noticed a couple of what I believe to be spam submissions to Sphinn with links to topgear.com, the official website of the BBC TV show fronted by Jeremy Clarkson". Also cites BBC Top Gear URL activity on Digg.

(tags: bbc socialmedia sphinn digg spam blogstorm)
21 Reasons Twitter Is Bullshit - SEO Tunes - 2008-04-19

Includes: "In real life, it's usually considered impolite to start banging on to relative strangers about how your day was before they’ve even asked. Why is this so different on the internet?"

(tags: twitter funny)

Liveblog Your Redesign - graphic designr - 2008-04-24

"The Grand Island Independent found a clever way to use CoverItLive. They’re chatting with folks about the redesign of their site. The conversations are public and allowed them to immediately fix quirks and bugs that readers found".

(tags: liveblogging redesign coveritlive)
Sky One is to remake Blake's 7 | Media | guardian.co.uk - 2008-04-24

"Sky One is to remake the science fiction series Blake's 7, following the recent reimaginings of Doctor Who, Battlestar Galactica and Bionic Woman". Doesn't this sort of thing get announced every couple of years and then nothing happens?

(tags: skyone blakes7 guardian mediaguardian)
Richard Bartle: Gamers have won the battle against the censors | Technology | guardian.co.uk - 2008-04-28

"Half the UK population has grown up playing computer games. They aren't addicted, they aren't psychopathic killers, and they resent those boneheads – that's you – who imply that they are addicted and are psychopathic killers".

(tags: games guardian)
Core Value And The Package It Comes In : What The Record Labels Can Learn From Tony Montana | Basement.org - 2008-04-29

"It reminds me of the closing scene of Scarface, where Pacino, surrounded on all sides, decides to go out in a blaze of gunfire. College students, grandmas, storage services, software companies".

(tags: musicindustry music piracy)
Web natives need to lead Web operations » The Journalism Iconoclast - 2008-05-06

"Web native != young. Let’s get that straight. But it usually does, and if you don’t know what that first sentence means, you’re probably not a Web native".

(tags: journalism web onlinejournalism)
16 Abandoned & Decaying Hotels From Around The World - ProTraveller - 2008-05-06

Includes pictures from me and links to my Lemon Tree post about the abandoned Aptera Beach Apartments just down the road from our house in Crete.

(tags: architecture photography hotel abandoned ruins lemontree crete greece)

1876 photo is first-ever image of the England football team | the Daily Mail - 2008-05-08

"It was taken before England played Scotland in Glasgow on March 4 1876". Local newspaper archives triumph again.

(tags: football dailymail archives photograph newspapers)
How Leeds have stayed united in trying times - Football News - Telegraph - 2008-05-08

"One Leeds fan, musing over who he wanted to win from Manchester United's meeting with Chelsea in Russia, could not decide which side he disliked least and eventually plumped for 'the Moscow Police'". I know exactly how he feels...

(tags: leedsunited manchesterunited chelsea championsleague telegraph football)
Ethnographic study on how young children interact with the web » Putting people first - 2008-05-09

"Consumer Reports WebWatch released the results of an ethnographic study on how children interact with online environments. The study used ethnographic methods and focused on young children, ages 2½ to 8".

(tags: children internet research ethnography)
abstract pointillist | Chris Heathcote: anti-mega - 2008-05-09

"Presenting the abstract pointillist powerpoint toolkit. 20 slides that can be used for any presentation. Cut, paste, copy, crop the slides to create an abstract of your ideas that you can then talk to and through".

(tags: presentations chrisheathcote powerpoint)
So how come we don’t hear about citizen doctors, citizen lawyers, citizen architects… » Charles on… anything that comes along - 2008-05-12

"Then I did a bit of work as a citizen electrician. Yeahhhh, really sticking it to The Man there. Rather than getting an electrician to come in and fix our light switch, I bought one, replaced the old one..."

(tags: journalism charlearthur)
Museum Memories - Rattle Research - 2008-05-14

"The Science Museum 'Object Wiki' is a website with information about some of the objects within the Science Museum's collections. To help improve the information, we've opened up the pages so that anyone can edit them."

(tags: museum sciencemuseum rattle wiki)
Silverback Unveiled | Andy Budd::Blogography - 2008-05-14

"Silverback is an OSX application to help people run their own low-cost Guerrilla usability tests. It captures screen activity, records audio and video from your built in iSight, and then composites it into a handy Quicktime movie for later use". Want.

(tags: application design mac testing usability andybudd)
Kristine Lowe: Your grandchild: "Did people just sit there?" - 2008-05-19

"I've been thinking quite a bit about how people use social media, and how the way they use it defines their understanding of it recently". Kristine pulls together some quotes suggesting 'sit-back media' are the blip, not the norm for society.

(tags: kristinelowe media future interactivity)
Paleo-Future: Movies to be Produced in Every Home (1925) - 2008-05-22

[In the 1925 article] "Expect Movies to be Produced in Every Home," Cecil B. DeMille predicts not only home movies of the future, but the rise of the amateur filmmaker as a force in the film industry". Damn citizen film-makers...

(tags: paleofuture movies)
Trinity Mirror and ITV: set us free to fight Google - Times Online - 2008-05-27

You know, sometimes I think that we spend so much time worrying about how to level our own UK broadcast and print media playing field, that we haven't noticed that Google have already run off with our ball...

(tags: advertising google media newspapers timesonline)
From Barley to Barlesque - BBC Internet Blog - 2008-05-30

I missed this rather brave attempt by Mat to actually try and explain to the masses the insane notion and policy assumptions behind Barley. I used to chair a tech working group which debated this kind of thing. Oh happy days...

(tags: bbc bbcinternetblog)

Next...

In the next part of this link mini-series, I'll be listing some of my favourite bookmarks from June and July 2008.