Becky Rogers (22) and John Phillips (23) of UK have cited 'growing apart' as the reason for the break up of their one year relationship. With this news the FTSE100 is expected to open with significant losses on Monday morning with the shockwaves passing through Europe and eventually hitting US markets. While a young couple breaking up is clearly extra ordinary news the Prime Minister's office has asked the country to remain calm. Tony Blair is thought to have consulted President Bush who was unavailable for comment given pretzel related difficulties. The cabinet's Cobra committee is ready to meet to discuss any further ramifications of this crisis.
Meanwhile all normal people mourn the passing of hope that we still have serious news output in UK.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Freakonomics
Anyone read Freakonomics? If so what did you think? I like the contrarian attitude of the book - an economist who doesn't know maths! I'm not 100% convinced their arguments are always sound. Having said that it's refreshing to hear/read talented people attempt to break commonly perceived myths from so called experts and commentators.
The book contained some interesting work on poverty and drugs in Chicago. The authors have a blog here. They update the blog almost every day and it has a wide variety of subjects - including comment on UK publications/issues such as the British Medical Journal.
The book contained some interesting work on poverty and drugs in Chicago. The authors have a blog here. They update the blog almost every day and it has a wide variety of subjects - including comment on UK publications/issues such as the British Medical Journal.
Monday, April 02, 2007
Joan Smith Article, right and wrong
Normblog has alerted me to the Joan Smith article in today's Independent. Joan's article puts forward two quite different arguments.
1 - The blogoshere has a tendency towards aggressive boorish behaviour and that this must change.
2 - The explosion of published words via blogs and the Internet devalues all written content.
While I totally agree with point 1 I can't agree with point 2.
Point 1 - I agree this needs to be looked at but I think the Internet is already creating its own solution via social networking. As social networking becomes prevalent on the Internet a person's online persona becomes just as important as their real life image. As the Internet integrates further, OpenID, myBloglog and Google Account being good examples, I'm sure we will see many websites/communities that allow comments/user content requiring a central account that removes anonymity and forces Internet users to be respectful. Ebay's rating system is a good example of regulation.
Point 2 - I disagree that a medium open to all devalues 'premium' content. People can still differentiate between nonsense and top quality content. If we as people could not differentiate the whole entertainment/art industry would be in tatters as the principle could be carried over to most other content industries such as music, television, film and sport.
All the above have seen a huge increase in supply over the previous few years. Does 'channel 435 - you do it TV' really devalue The Sopranos? Or a home made movie/rant on youtube effect a film such as Downfall? In sport does the fact that Isle of Man division 3 football can be seen on sports for insomniacs really sway anyone from wanting to watch Barca v Liverpool in the Champions League? Of course it doesn't, content is still king and given the right market channel will always rise to the surface.
1 - The blogoshere has a tendency towards aggressive boorish behaviour and that this must change.
2 - The explosion of published words via blogs and the Internet devalues all written content.
While I totally agree with point 1 I can't agree with point 2.
Point 1 - I agree this needs to be looked at but I think the Internet is already creating its own solution via social networking. As social networking becomes prevalent on the Internet a person's online persona becomes just as important as their real life image. As the Internet integrates further, OpenID, myBloglog and Google Account being good examples, I'm sure we will see many websites/communities that allow comments/user content requiring a central account that removes anonymity and forces Internet users to be respectful. Ebay's rating system is a good example of regulation.
Point 2 - I disagree that a medium open to all devalues 'premium' content. People can still differentiate between nonsense and top quality content. If we as people could not differentiate the whole entertainment/art industry would be in tatters as the principle could be carried over to most other content industries such as music, television, film and sport.
All the above have seen a huge increase in supply over the previous few years. Does 'channel 435 - you do it TV' really devalue The Sopranos? Or a home made movie/rant on youtube effect a film such as Downfall? In sport does the fact that Isle of Man division 3 football can be seen on sports for insomniacs really sway anyone from wanting to watch Barca v Liverpool in the Champions League? Of course it doesn't, content is still king and given the right market channel will always rise to the surface.
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Labour Party Deputy Leadership Website Comparison
Here's a quick overview of Alan Johnson's and John Cruddas' deputy party leadership websites. I'll be adding to these soon. I need to find a way of improving the presentation of the data which I'll also be working on.
The full link can be found here
The full link can be found here
Monday, March 26, 2007
Barack Obama's website: initial review
Over the next few months I'll be reviewing a number of individual political websites.
First up the pin up boy of the US Democrats: Barack Obama http://www.barackobama.com/
First up the pin up boy of the US Democrats: Barack Obama http://www.barackobama.com/
Barack has placed a great deal of effort into providing an interactive website, aimed especially at providing information for voters and recruiting/organising tools for his campaign workers.
Author Generated Content:
As to be expected plenty of information on through Blogs and news. Barack also provides links to popular web2.0 tools such as facebook and youtube which he's also provided content for.
Obligatory Web2.0 with a twist:
Barack TV, most sites I would be willing to bet will rely on embedding youtube or google video. Barack however has gone one step further and embedded his own video player into his site.
Member Generated Content:
Probably the most important feature is the 'my.barackobama.com' section. I'm pretty certain this is driven by the civicspace drupal module. In the 'my' section you can organise events, join groups. I'll have a full review of this section soon.
Things Missing:
Seems to be a lack of mashups. I don't see any google maps or RSS feeds, gadgets or anything of that nature. For example I don't think there is a Google Gadget to include all the latest news on Barack on my personalised home page.
There are also no forums and I can't see anything interactive (such as polls, feedback) aimed at voters.
In summary:
Still a good start and a good yardstick for future front page reviews. Barack has plenty of Author and Member generated content but no facility for voters to express their opinions.
As to be expected plenty of information on through Blogs and news. Barack also provides links to popular web2.0 tools such as facebook and youtube which he's also provided content for.
Obligatory Web2.0 with a twist:
Barack TV, most sites I would be willing to bet will rely on embedding youtube or google video. Barack however has gone one step further and embedded his own video player into his site.
Member Generated Content:
Probably the most important feature is the 'my.barackobama.com' section. I'm pretty certain this is driven by the civicspace drupal module. In the 'my' section you can organise events, join groups. I'll have a full review of this section soon.
Things Missing:
Seems to be a lack of mashups. I don't see any google maps or RSS feeds, gadgets or anything of that nature. For example I don't think there is a Google Gadget to include all the latest news on Barack on my personalised home page.
There are also no forums and I can't see anything interactive (such as polls, feedback) aimed at voters.
In summary:
Still a good start and a good yardstick for future front page reviews. Barack has plenty of Author and Member generated content but no facility for voters to express their opinions.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Off topic: Spot the difference
Spot the difference between the tragic and unlawful killings of Matty Hull and Pat Tillman.
Both tragically died in friendly fire incidents in Iraq/Afghanistan.
In both circumstances the US Department of Defence obfuscated and lied to the victim's family.
In both circumstances the DoD initially refused to acknowledge any blame.
Here's a difference: even though the UK coroner deemed the killing of Matty Hull unlawful no action is to be taken against anyone in the US military. After three years the DoD are to hold nine officers (including four generals) responsible for covering up the death of Pat Tillman.
And perhaps the real difference? Pat Tillman before going to Afghanistan was a star American football player in the NFL, because of this his death was headline news in the US.
Sometimes I despair at how the UK government plays such a weak hand with the US government (this comes from someone who is both pro EU and pro US).
Both tragically died in friendly fire incidents in Iraq/Afghanistan.
In both circumstances the US Department of Defence obfuscated and lied to the victim's family.
In both circumstances the DoD initially refused to acknowledge any blame.
Here's a difference: even though the UK coroner deemed the killing of Matty Hull unlawful no action is to be taken against anyone in the US military. After three years the DoD are to hold nine officers (including four generals) responsible for covering up the death of Pat Tillman.
And perhaps the real difference? Pat Tillman before going to Afghanistan was a star American football player in the NFL, because of this his death was headline news in the US.
Sometimes I despair at how the UK government plays such a weak hand with the US government (this comes from someone who is both pro EU and pro US).
Friday, March 23, 2007
The hype begins but when will politics 2.0 deliver?
I love gadgets and technology, whether it be iphone's, smart phones, xboxes, ps3s, youtube, twitter, hd-dvd, blu-ray, blogs, rss, atom, whatever, I love reading about and using new technology. I also believe that technology when used correctly can be a positive influence in our lives, including our political lives. But lets not kid ourselves, at the moment new technology such as blogs and wikis have created minimal value to voters political lives.
To analyse the political web lets look at three different categories of content that can be generated by all the people who take an active interest in politics.
Author generated Content -
Websites that provide the political classes with a platform to provide news, views, gossip, videos etc. The Internet has allowed an explosion of such content and leads some to believe this as 'new'. Not sure this is true at all. The only difference between 21st Century web publishing and a 15th Century pamphlet is that more people may potentially get to read it (and I really do stress may).
It's good that the political classes have a free, independent place to air their views but do not overplay the importance of blogs in a political debate.
Member generated Content -
Websites that act as virtual meeting places for like minded individuals. Rather than people meeting in a house or local library people choose to meet up online. The online space provides a much more immediate experience, allowing members to congregate on a 24x7 basis and can of course be used as a mechanism to organise real world meetings/campaigns.
An example of this would be the Obama and Clinton websites that allow supporters to join up and participate in their election campaign. A more simple example would be an online forum where people get together and discuss any topic they so wish.
This type of content is and will play a large part in any political party's campaign strategy as a means of engaging with and growing their 'feet on the street'.
End User generated Content -
Content generated by 'users' or in political terms citizens/voters. Simple processes such as interactive polls and forums to more complicated sites such as those generated by mySociety. Theyworkforyou as an example, other sites include this local council site in Holland which allows citizens to place markers where they feel the local council needs to improve their community (mySociety has produced a similar site at http://www.neighbourhoodfixit.com/).
With End User content voters are able to engage with the political class directly, no focus groups or third parties acting as an interlocutor. The recent examples of online polls on the 10 Downing Street website are a classic example of End User content. Such content can of course be very contentious.
Summary -
The political web is currently full of Author Generated content that tends to generate a great deal of heat. Technology creating real change however will only occur when the political web is a balanced mix of Author, Member and End User generated content. Until then don't believe the hype and check back here for reviews of political websites.
To analyse the political web lets look at three different categories of content that can be generated by all the people who take an active interest in politics.
Author generated Content -
Websites that provide the political classes with a platform to provide news, views, gossip, videos etc. The Internet has allowed an explosion of such content and leads some to believe this as 'new'. Not sure this is true at all. The only difference between 21st Century web publishing and a 15th Century pamphlet is that more people may potentially get to read it (and I really do stress may).
It's good that the political classes have a free, independent place to air their views but do not overplay the importance of blogs in a political debate.
Member generated Content -
Websites that act as virtual meeting places for like minded individuals. Rather than people meeting in a house or local library people choose to meet up online. The online space provides a much more immediate experience, allowing members to congregate on a 24x7 basis and can of course be used as a mechanism to organise real world meetings/campaigns.
An example of this would be the Obama and Clinton websites that allow supporters to join up and participate in their election campaign. A more simple example would be an online forum where people get together and discuss any topic they so wish.
This type of content is and will play a large part in any political party's campaign strategy as a means of engaging with and growing their 'feet on the street'.
End User generated Content -
Content generated by 'users' or in political terms citizens/voters. Simple processes such as interactive polls and forums to more complicated sites such as those generated by mySociety. Theyworkforyou as an example, other sites include this local council site in Holland which allows citizens to place markers where they feel the local council needs to improve their community (mySociety has produced a similar site at http://www.neighbourhoodfixit.com/).
With End User content voters are able to engage with the political class directly, no focus groups or third parties acting as an interlocutor. The recent examples of online polls on the 10 Downing Street website are a classic example of End User content. Such content can of course be very contentious.
Summary -
The political web is currently full of Author Generated content that tends to generate a great deal of heat. Technology creating real change however will only occur when the political web is a balanced mix of Author, Member and End User generated content. Until then don't believe the hype and check back here for reviews of political websites.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
