January 2009 Archives
January 31, 2009
Press Gazette or Jon Slattery? Why not quickly read both with RSS?
Yesterday, Nigel Barlow picked up on some discussion about B2B publications being usurped by 'the lone blogger'. A different Nigel, Nigel Thackery, had asked the question: "Try this for an experiment. Read the Press Gazette web site and then read Jon Slattery (a former PG long term staffer). Which is better?." For his part, Nigel Barlow says: "Personally I tend to read Jon Slattery more than I read the Press Gazette site, it used to be one of my first...
Google thinks Google may harm your computer
I think Google's malware detection algorithm has gone a bit wrong this afternoon. It doesn't seem to matter what I search for - The Telegraph, the BBC, even 'currybet' - Google is delivering the damning "This site may harm your computer" verdict. Even, in fact, when you search for Google itself......
The Obama honeymoon seems over in Walthamstow
Is President Barack Obama's honeymoon period ending much faster that the traditional 100 day measure? Well, it certainly looks that was as far as the Walthamstow's branch of WH Smiths is concerned - they are giving away two Obama books for the price of one....
January 30, 2009
Navigating newspapers: Part 2 - Mapping primary navigation
Yesterday I started a series of posts looking at the primary and secondary navigation links across 9 UK newspaper website. Between them they had come up with just over 450 different ways of labeling newspaper content when published online. The figures and 'word cloud' that I published yesterday concentrated very much on the differences between the navigation schemes. Today I want to look a lot more at some of the similarities between them. In print, British newspapers all follow pretty...
January 29, 2009
"Digital Britain" around the blog'n'tweetosphere
There will be lots and lots of ink used tomorrow in the press to publish the views of the professional media commentariat on today's "Digital Britain" report. I thought it might be worthwhile rounding up some of the early online reaction in the blog'n'tweetosphere. "Digital Britain promises universally slow broadband" was the unimpressed headline from informitv. They suggested that Carter's 'unambitious' broadband targets should be pretty easy to meet given that: "it can already be delivered to over 90% of...
Digital Britain Interim report - first impressions
Today is day that the interim 'Digital Britain' report was published by the DCMS. It follows hard on the heels of the Ofcom report into the future of Public Service Broadcasting as part of this curiously two pronged approach to sorting out the regulatory and policy future of the UK's media. I turned the Ofcom document into a Wordle cloud: I've done the same for today's Digital Britain interim report: And, as prompted by @JemStone, here is the comparison chart...
Navigating newspapers: Part 1 - We are what we label
Navigating Newspapers
I'm publishing a new 5 part series looking at the global navigation of the UK's most popular newspaper websites
January 28, 2009
John Redwood's blog response to the Ofcom Public Service Broadcasting review
I rather enjoy John Redwood's blog. As someone who at times, it seems, has held views even his own party thinks are eccentric, he always makes for an entertaining read, and unlike most of our MPs, he seems to have really enthusiastically grasped blogging as a way of getting his view out whilst by-passing the mainstream media machine. I noticed that he was rather unimpressed with Ofcom's vision of the public service broadcasting future: "This week I attended an Ofcom...
Ban this sick Nazi paedo filth!
Please note - this post contains plot spoilers for the movie "The Reader" "MOVIE-MOGULS HORRIFIED cinema goers today with the launch of a film that shows a SICK NAZI PAEDOPHILE having sex with a 15 year old. In one scene the MONSTER lures their victim into the bath - and both are depicted TOTALLY NAKED. The TWISTED HUN is revealed to have BURNED TO DEATH 300 Jews during the War, and to have SEXUALLY ABUSED victims in a Concentration Camp....
January 27, 2009
Terrestrial TV's invisible online DEC Appeal
I published a post earlier today looking at how I used to be involved with putting DEC appeals on the BBC website homepage, and thinking about how such an appeal might be fitted into the current personalised homepage design. I thought, this morning, it might be worth zipping around the websites of the three terrestrial broadcasters who had agreed to show the appeal, and look at how they were drawing attention to the plight of Gaza using their websites. I...
Presenting DEC appeals on the BBC homepage
As the story about Sky and the BBC's refusal to show the DEC appeal for Gaza rumbles on, I've turned my thoughts to how any such appeal might be promoted via the BBC's website. In 2004 and 2005 I was the Senior Development Producer on the BBC.co.uk homepage, during which time the Corporation was involved in two DEC appeals. This was before the advent of the BBC's personalised approach to their homepage. Back then we felt that although we could...
January 26, 2009
Is 'Search online for "Act on CO2"' costing the taxpayer unnecessary pay-per-click money?
Tamlyn posted late last week after spotting that the Government's 'Act on CO2' campaign was asking people to search for the term rather than publishing a URL. It is a trend that Cabel Sasser noted is well established in Japan, where the fact that URLs have to be formatted in the Western alphabet is a significant marketing challenge. The trouble with the Government initiative is that once you announce that you are asking people to search for specific non-trademarked terms,...
The BBC colossus stumbles again over DEC appeal
The BBC colossus stumbles again over DEC appeal
How racially motivated searches for the BBC's Mark Thompson are driving traffic to this site following the Gaza DEC Appeal decision.
January 25, 2009
'The Fry Effect' - mentioning Twitter on the Jonathan Ross show
I assumed that on Friday night nothing short of appearing in sackcloth and ashes and spending the whole 59 minute slot groveling and apologising profusely could have placated the tabloids. I was rather more interested in the Jonathan Ross impact on Twitter. "All over. Won't reveal too much as press seem anxious to be all over this. JR & I discussed Twitter. Hope it makes the cut. Cruise charming" - @stephenfry Followers of @stephenfry and @wossy knew in advance that...
January 24, 2009
The Sun's Keeley Hazell desktop FAIL
"Dressed in a stunning range of lingerie, Keeley will be at your beck and call 24/7 and comes armed with all the information you need, whether it's celeb's drunken antics, the latest football transfer news or the Page 3 girl of the day." I just can't help feeling that the promo version of The Sun's Desktop Keeley application looks to be a lot less fun in this demo than it promises......
January 23, 2009
Jakob Nielsen on usability for journalists
Jakob Nielsen can be seen as either a guru or bête noir of web usability, depending on the extent to which you find yourself agreeing with him. For years now he has been publishing a fortnightly Alertbox which addresses one specific area of web usability, as a free teaser for a more in-depth paid for report. This week's Alertbox looked at the usability of the areas of sites used by journalists. The short summary confirms the technophobe stereotype of today's...
January 22, 2009
Ofcom framing a digital content strategy in a vacuum
My last thoughts on yesterday's Ofcom report. I wanted to do a blog post for tomorrow morning that looked at all the sections of the 127 page Ofcom PDF that dealt with the most important emerging trends involved with Internet delivery of content to an ever more interactive British audience. Below is a table of what I was looking for, and how many references to each concept I found in the 'Putting Viewers First' document. Search termInstances blogs0 blogging0 citizen...
Are Ofcom's regional news funding proposals an opportunity for the local press?
Thinking further about yesterday's document from Ofcom, it seems to me that the issues around regional public service news provision highlight all the things that are wrong with the current regulatory framework. We are living in a converged media ecosphere. Radio stations, for example, are delivered over FM, DAB, Freeview, Sky and the Internet. Television stations put their news online, and when they do so, are indistinguishable from newspapers, who are now running their own online TV channels. The audience...
January 21, 2009
'From programming to funding' - Ofcom's PSB documents as word clouds
If it is good enough for Obama's speech, then it must be good enough for Ofcom. Today the UK's broadcasting regulator published the latest output in their seemingly continuous reviews of Public Service Broadcasting. The headlines in the mainstream media will naturally concentrate on three big issues: Should Channel 4 be merged with someone else? Should anyone else get a share of the Licence Fee? Should ITV be able to reduce their regional news output? I thought it might be...
President Obama coverage on the UK's regional press websites
President Obama coverage on the UK's regional press websites
A look at how the 20 regional websites I've been reviewing covered the inauguration of President Barack Obama.
January 20, 2009
London Model Engineering Exhibition at Alexandra Palace
Following my recent trips to the BBC Studios and the old Victorian Theatre, I was back at Alexandra Palace again at the weekend. This time it was for the "London Model Engineering Exhibition". It was an unashamedly niche and geeky event, but I'd invited my young nephew along, which was my excuse anyway. It was a strange mix of a trade show and an exhibition. On one stand, for example, you could by sophisticated engineering equipment that would set you...
January 19, 2009
"The Tottenham Outrage" centenary
Known foreign subversives living in London and committing crime.Public dismay at the lack of control over immigration.Brave policemen laying down their lives to protect the public from acts of foreign terrorists.No, not the result of a decade of New Labour Government, but the situation behind what came to be known as the 'Tottenham Outrage', which took place 100 years ago this week. At around 10:30am on Saturday 23rd January 1909, 'Paul Helfeld' and 'Jacob Lepidus' pulled off a wage snatch...
January 17, 2009
BBC Television studio open day at Alexandra Palace
As part of the open day into the more obscure parts of the Alexandra Palace complex over the Christmas holiday, I got to visit one of the studios where, on the 2nd of November 1936, the BBC started broadcasting the world's first regular television service. The studios are housed in one of the neglected corners of the palace, and only kept open by a group of enthusiasts. Even on these kinds of occasion, only a fraction of the original broadcasting...
January 16, 2009
Open day at the Alexandra Palace Victorian Theatre
In the lull between Christmas and the New Year, I got to visit a couple of the more obscure corners of Alexandra Palace, thanks to open days put on by local enthusiasts. One of the venues which is otherwise seldom open to the public that you could visit was the Victorian Theatre. The Victorian Theatre can be found at the eastern end of Alexandra Palace, alongside the ice rink. This was added as part of the rebuilding following the disastrous...
January 15, 2009
Police try to stop Walthamstow blogger taking pictures of a bus crash
I spotted in London Lite this evening the story of the 97 bus that crashed into McDonalds in Hoe Street in Walthamstow, and then noticed a big spike in traffic to an old currybetdotnet post about a crash near Walthamstow Central station just after it opened in September 2004. That caused the station to be closed whilst all lit up for the evening, and I sneaked in to grab some photos. I thought, as I've done with things like...
Channel 4's Andy Duncan calls for Internet regulation at NESTA event
I had the opportunity to be at NESTA this morning to see Channel 4's Andy Duncan give a keynote speech about the future of the creative industries in 'Digital Britain'. The speech contained a very strong call for UK regulation of the Internet. He described it as "bonkers" that the broadcast world was regulated, and the broadband world wasn't, when to his children they were indistinguishable. He fingered Google and ISPs as companies who were making huge amounts of money...
January 14, 2009
6 other things newspapers could stop doing for a day to prove their "unique" value...
In a great bit of linkbait, Cale Cowan suggested at the weekend that: "All newspapers in the world need to shut down their websites, if just for a day, to demonstrate that it is the fourth estate that actually provides 90% of the news on the Internet." There are a couple of small problems when you look at the details of the proposal. Firstly, there are these small things you may have heard of called radio and television stations, which...
January 13, 2009
'Nofollow' and Twitter's crisis of trust
A couple of weeks back, @onpause and I were discussing on Twitter whether URL-shortening had any impact on the value that Twitter links passed on through to Google. I was pointing out that, sadly, Twitter is one of those places where the use of rel="nofollow" on all outbound links has rendered it virtually worthless for search engine purposes. I got halfway through writing a blog post about why this was a shame, when suddenly Twitter seems to have become consumed...
January 12, 2009
"Beyond the browser: Usability in mobile interaction design" UX Corner meet-up
Last week I went to a London UX Corner meet-up entitled "Beyond the browser: Usability in mobile interaction design". The event was held in one of Sun Microsystem's London offices, and featured 3 speakers. As hosts, Sun got to give a brief plug for their UK start-ups network, which is free to join for companies less than 6 years old with fewer than 150 employees on the books, and promises beer and pizza as well as tech help. "Intricacies of...
January 11, 2009
Local search: Seeing the UK's regional press through the eyes of Google
I've been writing a series of posts looking at site search across some of the UK's leading regional papers. Yesterday I published a table of their features. In this last part of the series, I want to take a slightly different approach. I'm looking not at how people can search for content on the sites themselves, but how the sites appear when people search for them in Google. Google 'Search-in-search' Norfolk's Eastern Daily Press site was the only site...
January 10, 2009
Local search: Using site search in regional press websites - Part 4
Over the last 3 days I've been looking at the site search services provided across the 20 regional newspaper sites that I have been studying. The quality of the services varied widely, from a site like EDP24 basically begging the user to go off and try Google News instead, to the 'This is...' network of sites providing a sophisticated faceted filtering mechanism. Today I wanted to publish a couple of table featuring a summary of some of my findings...
January 9, 2009
What is the collective noun for a group of atheist buses in London?
I've spent much of today trundling around London by bus, with varying degrees of success. Along the way I passed through Euston station which was chock full of number 18 buses all sporting the British Humanist Association's "There's probably no god. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life" advert. It caused me to wonder aloud on Twitter what the collective noun for a group of atheist buses might be. I got a few good suggestions back. @smagdali: a 'future' @scolvey:...
Local search: Using site search in regional press websites - Part 3
This week I've been writing a series of posts looking at the site search facilities provided by some of the UK's leading regional newspapers. Eastern Daily Press The EDP24 site has a very small search box located in the very top right-hand side of the homepage. This is labelled with an image that says 'News Database', and is titled 'Story search'. When the results page initially loads, it is hard to see any results, as there are three large...
January 8, 2009
Local search: Using site search in regional press websites - Part 2
Over recent months I've been writing a loose series of articles that focus on the website provision of the UK's leading regional newspapers. Yesterday I started a mini-series concentrating on the site search facilities offered by the 20 local newspapers with the biggest circulations, with a look at the Manchester Evening News, Glasgow Evening Times and some of the papers belonging to the icNetwork of online papers. This is... Search on the 'This is...' network is accessed via a...
January 7, 2009
Local search: Using site search in regional press websites - Part 1
Since the end of November I have been publishing a rather loose collection of articles looking at some of the features of the UK's leading regional newspaper sites. I've picked 20 sites that represent the print papers with the largest circulation, and cover the major publishing groups. So far I've looked at the provision of online video, local news RSS feeds and their subscriber numbers, and the spread of social bookmarking links through the sites. Today I'm starting a...
January 6, 2009
"Cold War Modern" at the V&A
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...
January 5, 2009
Things you may have missed on currybetdotnet over Christmas
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...
January 4, 2009
January 3, 2009
January 2, 2009
"Learn to blog smart: join the conversation" - training day in February
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...