June 2009 Archives

June 30, 2009

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How major publishers are using social media to drive traffic - Part 5

This is the fifth of a series of posts based on a talk I gave during May 2009 at WebCertain's "International Social Media Summit" in London. You can find the first part here, and view the original presentation slides on SlideShare. Blogging With the rise of social bookmarking and the media championing Twitter, blogging has begun to seem distinctly old hat. It does look, however, to have survived the early predictions of it being CB Radio for the 2000s,...
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June 29, 2009

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How major publishers are using social media to drive traffic - Part 4

This is the fourth of a series of posts based on a talk I gave during May 2009 at WebCertain's "International Social Media Summit" in London. You can find the first part here, and view the original presentation slides on SlideShare. Twitter Twitter has been, without doubt, the communications technology hype of the year. There are several ways that mainstream companies have been using Twitter - some more successfully than others. One approach is to simply announce all content...
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June 28, 2009

The Sun's pharma front page

For a split-second, when I saw this front page on Saturday morning, I thought that somehow The Sun's print process had been hacked by a pharma spammer! I notice they didn't use that headline for the article online. I wonder if it was out of concern for their automated spam filter rankings at Google et al?...
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Sale Water Park making audience research fun for kids

One of the things I advocate when trying to do user-centred web application design is to take every possible opportunity to talk to real users to get their input into the process. That can range from running focus groups, carrying out online surveys, undertaking controlled testing in lab conditions, or just plonking myself down next to people in cafes and 'ambush' user-testing them with Silverback. I'm always on the look-out for ways that other organisations carry out this kind of...
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June 27, 2009

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Daisy dares you to be young

I can't remember who pointed me to it, but earlier this week I was directed to a free download of a track by Daisy Dares You - the project of 15 year old Daisy Coburn. In order to get your free mp3 you need to sign up for some permission marketing. I always like to see a well optimised form, and so it was good to see 'United Kingdom' and 'Ireland' head the list of territories. There had obviously been...
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June 26, 2009

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How major publishers are using social media to drive traffic - Part 3

This is the third of a series of posts based on a talk I gave during May 2009 at WebCertain's "International Social Media Summit" in London. You can find the first part here, and view the original presentation slides on SlideShare. The social bookmarking feedback loop The ratings you get on social bookmarking sites are valuable feedback, and some major news publishers utilise them to add value to their site. The Telegraph, for example, has a 'Most Dugg' widget...
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Michael Jackson's death sweeps BBC expenses from the front pages

"Michael Jackson's death spares the BBC"
What would have been on Friday's front pages.

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June 25, 2009

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How major publishers are using social media to drive traffic - Part 2

This is the second of a series of posts based on a talk I gave during May 2009 at WebCertain's "International Social Media Summit" in London. You can find the first part here, and view the original presentation slides on SlideShare. Social bookmarking Social bookmarking icons have infected major publishers websites like some kind of Internet design plague. The vast majority of mainstream news sites and high profile blogs come equipped with a whole set of brightly coloured icons...
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June 24, 2009

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How major publishers are using social media to drive traffic - Part 1

How major publishers are using social media to drive traffic
An article based on my presentation at May's International Social Media Summit.

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June 23, 2009

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London IA Mini Conference II: Notes, facts and take-away quotes - part 2

Yesterday I posted the first part of my notes, facts, and take-away quotes from the second 'London IA Mini Conference'. The event was held on one of the evenings during the UX London conference, and was hosted at the Sense Loft in Soho. "Most implementations of information systems have failed" - Angel Brown That might seem like a negative quote but in the first talk of the second half, Angel Brown took on the brave task of explaining a highly...
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June 22, 2009

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London IA Mini Conference II: Notes, facts and take-away quotes - part 1

"London IA Mini II"
My write-up of the recent London IA Mini Conference at the Sense Loft in London.

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June 21, 2009

Ronald William Webb's Chopin Exhibition at Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre

On Friday I was at Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre for a private viewing of Ronald William Webb's exhibition that is accompanying a production of 'The Pianist', part of the Manchester International Festival. The play is based on the memoirs of Wladyslaw Szpilman, and Ron Webb's work is correspondingly based on the piano compositions of Chopin. Each canvas represents one individual piece of music. All of the work is executed in just three colours, red, black and white. This represents the...
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June 18, 2009

MPs expenses, The Telegraph, The Guardian, and the 'open' and 'closed' models of 21st century journalism

"MPs Expenses and 'open' and 'closed' journalism"
How the contrasting approaches of The Telegraph and The Guardian to the MPs expenses data demonstrates debates about digital journalism.

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The Royal Mail's multiple #fails

Now, I haven't complained on currybetdotnet about the Royal Mail since August 2004, but in the last couple of weeks they have produced a couple of absolute corkers. The other Thursday we got a bill. Somebody else's bill. Sent to an entirely different address. OK, to be fair, it was to the same house number, but on a different street. But the real added bonus? The free gift of some used chewing gum stuck to it. And yet they say...
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June 17, 2009

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"Diana, the ghost, and the cathedral" - Haunted St. Albans

It seems a long time ago now, but back in September and October last year when we were planning our move back to the UK, we considered St. Albans as a place we might choose to live, and so took a day trip there to have a scout around. Not any ordinary day trip, of course, because with a bit of digging around in local history and folklore, we managed to turn it into a ghost walk around the town....
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June 16, 2009

London IA Mini Alpha & Beta tonight in Soho

If, like me, you are not at UX London today, then you can at least follow the sterling work that @leisa has been doing live-tweeting the event. The hashtag is #uxlondon. Leisa is going to be busy today, as this evening she'll be swapping her reporter's role for a presenter's one. To coincide with UX London, tonight from 8pm the Sense Loft in Soho is hosting the second of our London IA Mini Conference series. As well as Leisa Reichelt,...
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I've got a hunch about 'Hunch' people

You can tell we are going through a mini-revolution in search, because people aren't just launching search engines that aren't Google, they are launching things like 'computational engines' and 'decision engines'. The latter, Hunch, only appeared in the last couple of days. What I really found engaging about it is that as soon as you visit it entices you into playing a game. It is a brilliant way of building up a user profile, and much, much, much more fun...
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June 15, 2009

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Idlewild's post file-sharing blues

Last week the new CD by Idlewild - "Post-Electric Blues" - arrived at our house. Like several bands before them including Marillion, the recording and pressing of the album was financed by getting their fan base to pre-order it in return for a physical CD and a mention inside the sleeve. As well as a booklet featuring my wife's name, the CD came with a small note imploring fans not to upload the album to file-sharing sites. "Thank you very...
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June 14, 2009

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The shoddy Victoria Line replacement bus service at Walthamstow Central

This is purely and simply an unmitigated moan about Arriva's woeful Railway Bus Replacement service that operates between Finsbury Park and Walthamstow Central. I understand that the Victoria Line has to be upgraded to take the improved rolling stock I first got a sneak peek at in August 2006, but why does the replacement have to be so shoddy - it seems that every time I am forced to use it there is an issue. The first problem, as demonstrated...
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June 13, 2009

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Is peer-to-peer streaming of international football showing the game a new revenue model?

When I lived in Greece it was sometimes a bit hit and miss whether I got to see England games. The time difference meant they were on late in the evening, and often there were competing fixtures of more local interest, or featuring Denmark, Sweden or Norway, from where a great deal of tourists to Chania originated. It meant that during England's doomed attempt to qualify for Euro2008 I got used to the UEFA live match centre, and relied...
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June 12, 2009

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Wembley on the web: Part 2 - The FA Cup Final online from Sky Sports and the BBC

Yesterday I started blogging about some of my thoughts on the live online coverage provided for the FA Cup Final between Chelsea and Everton, with a look at the websites of the two channels showing the game live, Setanta and ITV. Today I wanted to look at two networks who no longer have the rights to broadcast the game - Sky Sports and the BBC. Photo by umbrofootball Sky Sports For Sky Sports it must be a major irritation...
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June 11, 2009

"Dead men don't sue" - the Mail's HTML refuses to clear Air France 'terror suspects'

Earlier this week there were reports that Islamic terror suspects were amongst the passengers of Air France Flight 447. It seems that these were based solely on the names on the passenger list, and with subsequent checks it has emerged that this wasn't actually the case. The Daily Mail has altered this online story accordingly. However, if you look at your browser furniture when you visit the page, you'll note that whilst the headline of the story says one thing,...
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Wembley on the web: Part 1 - The FA Cup Final online from ITV and Setanta

Like much of the male half of the country, on Saturday 30th May I shunned the Cup Final weather to sit in a darkened pub and actually watch the Cup Final. Unlike most, I suspect, I picked a pub with wifi so that I could also monitor the live web coverage of the game from the UK's major broadcasters. Photo by umbrofootball ITV ITV had a big-hitting line-up on Saturday, but when you visited ITV.com during the game, the...
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June 10, 2009

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So where DOES the Daily Mail stand on 'green' lightbulbs?

As part of your 'event swag' at the "Grand Designs Live" exhibition that I visited in early May, you got a booklet sponsored by British Gas with all sorts of tips on how you could save energy around the home. Prominent amongst them was the switch to more eco-friendly light bulbs. There was even a voucher to get some money off when you purchased some. But lo and behold - look who is the main newspaper sponsor of the booklet......
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June 9, 2009

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Grand Designs Live: Personal highlights

At the beginning of May I went to the Grand Designs Live show at London's ExCeL. Yesterday I blogged about a panel session I saw there called "The future for cities". As for the show itself, whenever I'm out and about I usually look out for things that pertain to my main interests: technology, Doctor Who, public transport and newspapers. I managed to get most of those boxes ticked at Grand Designs Live. Grand designs underground This stall was selling...
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June 8, 2009

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"The Future Of Cities": Grand Designs Live

Back at the beginning of May I went to one of the Grand Panels at the Grand Designs Live show. Entitled "The future for cities" it featured Sarah Gaventa from CABE, Nick Johnson from Urban Splash and Ilse Crawford. "People get the city they deserve" Nick Johnson was arguing that we had only just begun our love affair with cities. For a long time 'Urban' had been a dirty word - only used in negative phrases like urban decay, urban...
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June 6, 2009

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June 5, 2009

Spector Twitter hoax shows online honesty gap between bloggers and newspapers

Earlier this week Joanna Geary blogged about the Birmingham Mail's decision to hold a story about ex-Villa player Gareth Barry back from the web in order to maximise exposure in print. That story is interesting enough in itself, but I wanted to look at something about the culture of blogging that was revealed. Joanna initially got her facts wrong.She'd got the time the web version of the story had been published wrong, and in a great display of social media...
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"It's SunTalk Wot Won It"

During the recent election campaign, the BBC's community areas will have been operating under 'special election rules'. Moderation will have been much tighter than usual when people were talking about politics. Actually, this system has got more relaxed over the years. I remember that one of the most disrupting elements of h2g2 being assimilated by the BBC was during the 2001 election campaign. Then, the community were told that if they wanted to discuss politics, they'd have to leave the...
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June 4, 2009

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European Elections - do the right thing...

So with the Government seemingly imploding and The Guardian withdrawing support from Gordon Brown, politics would be the obvious thing to blog about today. On currybetdotnet I've already produced an unofficial guide to the London European Election candidates, looked at how the parties appear in Google and pointed out some of the things that caught my in the election literature delivered to me. I seem to dimly recall that there are restrictions on what you can publish in the...
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June 3, 2009

The Guardian's "Reading Room" at Kings Place

On Monday night I attended a joint evening put on by AUKML and the SLA at The Guardian. The event was sponsored by LexisNexis, and mostly consisted of a tour around the newspaper's new Kings Place offices. Now, it might seem a bit churlish to go on a tour of your own offices just to get a free glass of wine, but actually I was genuinely interested to hear how our library and research facilities were described to guest information...
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June 2, 2009

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A Google-eye view of the European Elections

A lot of people do their primary research these days using Google as their only gateway to the Internet, and I wondered what they would be finding if they were looking for information on the parties standing for Thursday's European Elections in London. The mainstream parties All of the mainstream party listings in Google are pretty similar. The initial homepage metadata in all cases stresses the name of the party leader. Who says personality politics is dead? The second...
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June 1, 2009

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My 'undecided' view of European Election literature in London

So, for the first time that I can recall, if you polled me a couple of days before an election, I'd have to honestly say I was 'Undecided'. I'm seriously thinking of voting for a smaller party or an independent candidate, and so last week I did some research and put together a brief list of all of the candidates for the London European Election. As I'm unsure who to vote for, I've also been paying closer attention than...
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