TheWayoftheWeb

It’s been an interesting day today.

One reason was the mobile internet seminar organised by Emap co-blogger Dave Cushman, to encourage debate, discussion and understanding about the mobile web. It was one of the most interesting seminars I’ve been to, as it also included Tomi Ahonen, co-author of Communities Dominate Brands, and Jonathan MacDonald from new mobile network Blyk, which only officially launched yesterday. Oh, and Jon Williams from ad agency Beattie McGuiness Bungay.

Plenty of great ideas, inspiration and some workshops that proved we could engage the network when we get the time and space to do it…Plus a run through of Blyk which definitely looks likely to change the mobile internet. I don’t expect it to happen overnight, but I think it will grow to be pretty darn significant. It certainly seems to have everything in place to offer free mobile usage in exchange for a level of engagement which users could actually enjoy, rather than being irritated by…

If that wasn’t enough for one day, the great team on Disposable Media have once again put together a superb issue of the free online magazine I’m honoured to be Editor of… Please do take a peek and let me, or the team, know what you think… Espeically if you have any feelings about how advertising could be implemented, or we should be engaging the DM community…

Mostly on the move.

So for updates, I’ll be mainly relying on the speed of Twitter, although I will try and make sure there are regular updates throughout my time abroad/away from a computer.

If you want to keep up with my Twitters, you will mostly find me here:
http://twitter.com/BadgerGravling

Dear Mr Murdoch,
When News Corp bought Myspace, it led to a few raised eyebrows, but considering the amount of traffic the site created, it seems like a forward thinking move.

And at the very least, most users hoped the resources and funding accompanying a $580 million acquisition might result in improvements in reliability and usability – even if it meant more advertising etc appearing.

Instead we have a very, very slow move towards ideas like displaying the mood of a user, or instant messaging, and the sight of you trying to offload something you don’t really know how to use.

Before you go, can you please make it so an ‘Unexpected Error’ doesn’t occur when I try and approve friends requests, access my Inbox, or in fact, try and do anything? I was willing to refresh endless pages before the likes of Facebook contained everything I need to actually connect with other people, but now I’m logging into Myspace less and less. Even private equity firms try and turn things around before selling their acquirements on to new owners.
Yours
Badger

Leading on from my previous post…

I’ve been having an interesting discussion on a Facebook group for journalism. A discussion began around the topic “Should newspapers provide new media training”.

From there it dovetailed into new vs old media. The interesting thing was seeing bloggers, professional journalists, and a founder of the Fox News Channel all in the discussion.

The crux of my argument would be that newspapers and publishers should offer training in both new and old media, and that you’d be foolish not to take advantage of both. if nothing else, you might have a slight rethink about the way you work, and make a slight improvement in your writing or search engine optimisation. On the other hand, it could spark someone revolutionary.

I don’t think you should ignore new, or old, media, and if you do, then you’re missing out. There is going to be a place for print, TV and radio for a long time yet, and the formal training of ‘old’ media could help improve the work of countless internet writers, just as the ‘new’ media training could help a lot of writing become more searchable, and findable.

Although I tend to ignore most of the rules for fun on this blog, I have no doubt that the excitement of seeing my name in print, and my efforts to become a better print journalist, have been me more able to structure and write on and offline to a reasonable level of quality. Just as new and old media can, and should co-exist, so should old and new media training. Treat all your knowledge as another thing to keep in your toolbox, and you’ll be far more capable of more jobs. And after all, isn’t one of the main journalistic qualities supposed to be the desire to know why everything is happening?