June 2008 Archives
June 30, 2008
Hiatus
Due to family issues, I'll be taking a short break from this blog.
See you in a week or two.
June 25, 2008
links for 2008-06-25
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On the problems with making money from social networks.
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An interesting decision, based on following the money…
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Some good hints for maximum quality embeds from YouTube.
June 24, 2008
Why Media Gets Community Wrong
I've been thinking (and talking) about community a lot recently, and it was while speaking to about 50 people at a seminar held by Sift last Friday that I had an epiphany: most media people don't realise that blogging is a community strategy. They think of it as a publishing process and, perhaps, as articles published with a particular tone of voice. They certainly don't think of it as a conversation.This is clear from our traffic figures. Those blogs that do really well are those that are aware of there being a wider web world outside our sites' confines and which talk directly to the readers. Those whose traffic is abysmal are those who show no awareness of a wider conversation around their topics and who adopt a "wisdom from on high" tone of voice.
And perhaps some of the failure of the latter blogs is my fault. I've been so embedded in online community activity for well over a decade that I instinctively think of the internet as a social place. Thus, I fail to articulate that clearly to people for whom this is a much more recent idea. But, to me, there's no doubt that blogging is all about personal voices interacting with one another, not about personal voices lecturing. And that's something that the media usually misses.
Continue reading Why Media Gets Community Wrong.
Thought For The Day
If you wear contact lenses, make sure you put the left eye one in the left eye, and the right one in the right eye.
If you don't, you'll end up having a terribly confusing morning and you'll have a splitting headache by lunchtime.
June 23, 2008
Video Comments Now Live Here - Via Seemic
You can find the Seesmic Plugin for Movable Type at the MT Plugins Directory.
June 20, 2008
The Frontline Club Journalism Awards - Live
There's nothing quite like a good awards ceremony, and there's one happening live this evening.
Below should be a live stream of the Frontline Club Journalism Awards, starting at 7pm on Friday (about the time this is posted)
June 19, 2008
Is Murdoch Right to Keep Investing in Newspapers?
Golly and, indeed, gosh. An e-mail arrives from one Kyle at The Atlantic, pointing me to the video they've produced following up an article about Rupert Murdoch and the future of newspapers - and providing a handy-dandy embed code for me.
Now, given that I'm a subscriber to The Atlantic, and that the discussion is actually pretty interesting, how could I resist? Find out why Murdoch still thinks print is worth investing in:
The article, in all its glory, can be found on The Atlantic site.
Now, given that I'm a subscriber to The Atlantic, and that the discussion is actually pretty interesting, how could I resist? Find out why Murdoch still thinks print is worth investing in:
The article, in all its glory, can be found on The Atlantic site.
June 18, 2008
Plurk: 3 Week Verdict on MicroBlogging Service
As of the time of writing, I'm the top 23rd Plurker in London. But what, I hear you ask, is Plurk? Well, it's an interesting cross between Twitter and a forum. It has the same philosophy of short posts, but instead of a rolling stream of updates, Plurks from my friends are presented in a timeline:
Continue reading Plurk: 3 Week Verdict on MicroBlogging Service.
How To Be a Community Editor (in 2 posts or less)
A couple of useful links for community editors (or aspiring community editors):Tish of the Constant Observer shares her Seven Traits of Highly Effective Community Developers. I know some of ours might not be keen on number 3:
3. Must enjoy technology. These days, the tools of digital media are (or should be) easy to learn. Your community manager will understand -- and be able to adapt quickly to -- upgrades in tools. She or he also might suggest new tools, and will learn new tools pretty quickly.Meanwhile Howard Owens shares some tips for newspaper people new to community management. I like this one:
Participate. When a reader posts incorrect information, offer up a correction or clarification. When a reader posts an assertion that would benefit from factual support, ask for it. When someone makes a statement that reminds you of an interesting quote or event that didn't make your story, leave your own comment about it. Your participation not only makes the conversation more interesting, and keeps people coming back, it gives you credibility when it comes time to play cop.One day I'll figure out why that one is so hard for journalists. And then I'll become a consultant and make a fortune... :)
June 16, 2008
Whispers of the Hackopalypse
A new week, a new project. Ladies and gentlemen, let me unveil Whispers of the Hackopalypse, my new tumblelog.
It's just a series of the best quotes from bloggers and others about the rapidly changing state of journalism and publishing.
This serves two needs. First of all, it's something I can point my colleagues to as a resource to quickly understand the thinking going on around digital and networked journalism - as well as the threats to traditional model.
And also it's a great way for me to deal with all those open tabs in Safari with great blog posts, that I can't actually think of anything to add to but "whoa, cool post".
My Plurk followers got an early peek at this at the weekend, and a couple of people have already found it thought-provoking, so I'm feeling confident enough to push it public and see if anyone's interested...
June 14, 2008
links for 2008-06-14
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Mum's vicar buys Will Self for a day…
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A social network for magazine journalists
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Some explanations for the woeful performance of Technorati of late.
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Should publishers allow journalists to blog privately, on non-competative subjects? Yes, say most. It's the ones who say "no" that worry me.
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The implications of Google cache for libel - and why it's really, really hard to take something down after you've put it on the net
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For blogging to succeed, you need to be conversational. Why do so many people struggle with that?
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Kavin nails exactly why so many journalists have a "head in the sand" attitude to the changes in their industry
June 13, 2008
links for 2008-06-13
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UK blog traffic at an all-time high
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Six Apart claiming an excellent security record for Movable Type versus other Well-usedPlatforms...
Hot Community Editor Action - Live!
Today, from 9am, and all day, 3 of our community editors, alongside my colleague Andrew, our head of user content, will be using CoverItLive to talk about their day, what they actually do, and interact with anyone interested.
You can follow the day's proceedings, starting in just a few minutes, on Engagement 101.
The victims volunteers include Isabel from Farmers Weekly, Stuart from Flight Global and Simeon from Community Care.
(If you're wondering what this "chogging" business is, it's a term coined by Andrew as a cross between chat and blogging. I was keen not to associate the term live blogging too directly with CoverItLive, as I just knew that I'd have to spend the next six months explaining that the app isn't the be all and end all of live blogging to our journalists.)
June 12, 2008
Fuel Crisis? What Fuel Crisis?
Spotted while filling up Mum's car earlier:
Measuring Engagement, Measuring Conversation
File this under "how did I miss this?":
Alec Cochrane, one of our web analytics gurus at RBI has been blogging for a little while now. When Can I Stop is of the "occasional post, but in great depth" school of blogging, but gives a real insight into the sort of thought processes we're going through when measuring our success (or not) on the web.
His recent post, Engagement is Conversation is well worth a look.
Now, if only I could wean my colleagues off starting their personal blogs on Blogger...
June 11, 2008
Think Local, Drink Local
A very Suffolk approach to petrol prices:
June 9, 2008
Blogs Becoming Social Networks, Says Six Apart (Europe)
Paid Content's interview with Olivier Creiche of Six Apart. Some interesting thoughts on the usage and evolution of Movable Type (and why they flogged Livejournal to the Russians):
June 7, 2008
links for 2008-06-07
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Useful reference for my new obsession...
June 6, 2008
Scaling is Hard
Been seeing a lot of this for the last few days. Makes me feel better about the problems we had with our blogs for a while...
The Death of the Home Page
A few weeks back, the BBC published a report about Jakob Nielsen's latest findings about how web users operate. As Kristine pointed out, it had a dumb, dumb headline, but there were several real gems of information in there.
Here's one every web editor and magazine publisher should study and think about:
In 2004, about 40% of people visited a homepage and then drilled down to where they wanted to go and 60% use a deep link that took them directly to a page or destination inside a site. In 2008, said Dr Nielsen, only 25% of people travel via a homepage. The rest search and get straight there.
All that time you're lavishing on your web site's front page? Only a quarter of your visitors are using it. And that number is shrinking every day.
Every single page in your site is your home page. Start designing (and writing) for that fact.
June 4, 2008
Blog Upgrade in Progress
Upgrading to the release candidate of Movable Type 4.2. Some stuff likely to be broken for half an hour or so.
Update: We're back. I seem to have slightly munged my custom theme in the upgrade - but I'll deal with that later.
Update 2: And fixed the design as well. All good! Let's see how fast it is...
Update 2: And fixed the design as well. All good! Let's see how fast it is...
June 3, 2008
Social Publishing and Ice Cream
Explaining the new era of publishing, using ice cream as a metaphor. Cool, creamy and delicious (or should that be del.icio.us?):
Social Media in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.
Social Media in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.
[Nicked from Piers of FeedNeed.]
Divestment Watch: Adrian Monck weighs in
Divestment Watch, the now defunct blog maintained by an RBI employee about our divestment by Reed Elsevier refuses to go quietly into the night.
The latest blogger to mention its abrupt curtailment is Adrian Monck, professor of journalism at City University, and one of my favourite journalism bloggers. He explains exactly what sort of image a blog like that that abruptly vanishing creates.
In Which I Become A Helpdesk
It appears that today, I'm mainly working as support for the Computer Weekly Blog Awards...
Fuel Protests and Traffic
Our big traffic winner for last week? Biglorryblog reporting on the fuel protests:
We really must get a nice design on that blog, now we're on Movable Type 4.
June 2, 2008
The One Man Report - June 2nd
Back in London, back at work. And this is what has been occupying me today:
- Movable Type 4.1 has been working very well for us during my week away. We're into "steady as she goes" mode, until we go up to 4.2 next month.
- The bad family news seems to have mysteriously, but pleasingly, changed into good family news
- This blog is now protected by Typepad Antispam, rather than Akismet. I hope this will solve problem discussed in posts passim.
- Is is me, or is Twitter really up the spout?
- What is this Plurk of which you tweet?
