Fighting for the internet, and for my son…

February 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment

If you read my blog regularly, or follow me on Twitter, you’ll doubtless have an idea of my views on SOPA, PIPA, ACTA etc. I’m one of over 2 million people who have signed a petition to try and get ACTA rejected, and I support the hundreds of protests taking place later today in cities across the UK and the globe.

I’m against these measures for 2 reasons, and it’s not about being able to pirate films, music or books. In all honesty, I can’t remember the last time I consciously attempted to download pirated content – I’m too busy to spend time worrying whether my laptop is secure enough to be safe and locating a decent copy when I can generally pay the ‘lazy man’s tax’ and download from a legal site. Generally many of the acts, artists and authors I enjoy tend to be aware of and use Creative Commons licences anyway.

The reasons I’m against the attempts by large media companies to shore up their moribund traditional business practice by funding politicians to bring in laws are simple:

  • I believe that a free and open internet provides far more benefits to the whole of society than it damages, and that copyright is an incentive for creation which is meant to serve society as a whole, not restrict innovation and ideas in the service of extending profits for large corporations.
  • I’ve enjoyed the benefits of a free and open internet which allows me relative freedoms of self-publishing and self-expression, which has enabled me to continue to build a business and career based on creating content, training journalists, and helping companies to connect more effectively with their customers. All of this will become more difficult due to the lack of understanding shown in all new bills and treaties proposed so far by people who have little empathy with the users of the world wide web.

And there’s an additional reason why I’m standing up against these proposals with more strength than ever before – my son. I don’t want him to grow up in a world where the greatest tool for access to knowledge, community and enabling basic human rights is castrared by large media companies because they haven’t evolved and want to keep doing business the old fashioned way.

After almost 4 years, I still occasionally feel surprised and amazed that I have responsibility for another human being – looking after a cat and a rabbit were stressful enough, let alone remembering to eat healthily and get enough sleep when I’m working hard. But as a parent I share what I presume are normal concerns – worrying my son might get ill, hurt, be unhappy, etc. As a geek parent I also have two concerns specific to technology:

  • I want my son to benefit from education and access to the tools to be able to take things apart, modify them, and create with them to build his own inventions and ideas, whether that’s hardware, software, art or ideas. I don’t want him to be a passive consumer forcefed applications and content which is so protected that it can’t be examined, played with, and learnt from.
  • I want my son to benefit from a free and open internet which allows him to potentially connect with a global network of people who may share his ideas, beliefs, and passions. He may turn out to be the most popular kid in his school, but he may also have interests which aren’t shared by everyone else – the internet is an amazing tool for establishing other people share the same problems or hobbies, and reducing the isolation which can be a symptom of being a teenager in particular.

With my limited knowledge of politics and finance, I have little hope that the current administrations and electoral processes will change enough to stop the constant challenges to our digital evolution. So it’s my duty, and yours, to stand up for the things we want to preserve, for ourselves, and for our children, family, friends and everyone else.

If you’re in Europe, contact the relevant MEPs now – the questions being raised over ACTA have led to positive signs in both Poland and Germany, and there’s no reason why we can’t make a change in other coutnries if we all act. I have no doubt that eventually an open system will prevail no matter what laws are passed, but lets not allow the current generations of teenagers and children to have their potential wasted while that happens.

 

Filed Under: news, open source, Personal, technology Tagged With: , , , ,

The noble purpose of skateboarding dogs

August 22, 2011 By 1 Comment

Something I inherently felt about the rise and success of Youtube and On Demand video and TV seemed to click when I happened to be re-reading  59 Seconds by Professor Richard Wiseman. Besides being packed full of quick and useful ways to make practical improvements to your life, it also has a lot of references to relevant studies. And one referred to the role of pets, particularly dogs, in lowering stress and blood pressure.

In addition to real pets, Wiseman also mentions studies which used the Sony Aibo (Now discontinued but available via Ebay), and videos of dogs playing, and all had a similar effect at different levels.

And that’s something which people might have missed when they often dismiss a lot of Youtube or online video content as ‘dogs on skateboards’. Broadcast news has long ended bulletins, particularly on slow news days, with the ‘cat stuck up tree’ or similar heartwarming tale of human or animal misfortune. But if you’re in need of cheering up, being able to find endless videos of cute pets is guaranteed online. Including Tillman, who ended up advertising the iPhone:

But besides helping us to feel better and less stressed, there’s also an interesting flipside, which is that most of the media are in an endless race of shock and awe to try and compete with the real-time internet in new and exciting ways. The coverage of the recent London riots, and the events currently unfolding in Libya as I type, are both constantly providing examples of traditional and new media organisations and reporters trying to utilise, and compete with, the internet at the same time, leading to a strange dichotomy.

Even as seemingly clueless presenters commentated on the evils of social networking during the London Riots, the BBC and other media organisations were repeating content from, and sharing content to, Twitter, for example.

And at the same time, there’s a filtering and curation element of popular entertainment, away from the ever-increasing Fox-style shouting controversy that seems to permeate modern TV news reporting, in that I have never had access to so many broadcast channels and yet struggled to find anything which doesn’t irritate me at the very least. The reasons are many, included my awareness of all the alternatives, the possible effects of lowering resources and funding but trying to fill more hours, and the fact that so much content is being endlessly repeated across channels.

But I can get away from all this with my personal selection of things I enjoy watching, and that might help me relax as much as a skateboarding dog, or might be useful, inspiring, or god forbid, actually relevant to me at a time when I’m actually able to watch it. It would be interesting to figure out what I watch most online, but I’m certain the TED Talks would be up there, along with MotoGP, and various racing and FPS game videos, for example. And then a selection of robots, 3D Printing, Extreme Sports, Vintage Rallycross, and a mix of music videos.

But I’m never actively seeking out the news anymore. I’m letting it come to me via social networks and social sharing sites, and it essentially filters into:

  • stuff that people in my local area are talking about and bringing to my attention.
  • stuff that people in my areas of interest are talking about, and that I’m actively interested in – so technology,privacy,hacking, etc.
  • stuff that’s so big it makes an impact across everything – earthquakes, riots, tsunamis, overthrowing governments.

But a lot of this passes through RSS feeds and Twitter so quickly, that I’m only looking at stuff which matters to me in some way, and I wonder whether that’s actually making me a happier person. I still worry that politicians are all corrupt, corporations are inherently evil, the economic downturn means everyone will be poor for 50 years unless they’re rich enough not to worry, and crime may or may not be on the increase (although in the reality most people exist in, it’s whether crime is actually likely to personally affect us).

But I’m spending less time reading about all of it, and more time actually figuring out how I might be able to do something about the parts which are more important to me – for instance, looking at what the likes of the EFF and Open Rights Group are doing with regards to privacy.

Wait, wasn’t this about skateboarding dogs?

Maybe skateboarding dogs have actually have 3 noble purposes in our lives:

  • When we watch them, we feel more releaxed and our stress decreases.
  • Because we enjoy watching them (and then sharing links with friends), they made sites like Youtube extremely popular extremely quickly, and far more popular than the corresponding broadcast channels, because there’s no barrier to anyone uploading a video of a skateboarding dog they may have spotted.
  • And the huge popularity of video on-demand sites has enabled them to reach scale, even if there have been concerns they aren’t making enough money. That scale gives them some elements of power in terms of advertising and revenue, and that means their survival is continued, allowing millions to upload more content that Hollywood could ever produce (for example), and a breadth of content which ranges from babies laughing to lectures on quantum physics and everything in between. Projects like the Khan Academy, for example, which allows anyone with access to the internet the ability to learn via video tuition.

So the next time you’re laughing at a talented hound riding a skateboard, it’s worth remembering that they’re also serving a noble purpose in better the world…

Filed Under: Digital Television, news, video Tagged With: , , ,

The risk of silence on your company news page or blog…

February 15, 2011 By 3 Comments

Content is an amazing way of building up a business, but there are certain requirements you need to meet for it to be successful. I wrote a while ago about the time it can take to build up a content site organically, and a key part of that is adding content on a regular and consistent basis.

The good news is that your competitors are handing you a massive advantage every day, week, month or even year that they leave their website dormant, particularly when it comes to news sections and blogs.

And in an emergency or crisis, the days of being able to keep quiet until an official statement can be prepared are pretty much gone. You really need to have a crisis communications plan in place right now – you’ll understand why if something goes wrong without it, and the option of waiting for an official statement to calm everything down has gone the same way as the daily news cycle. Even if your staff can’t give out full details and solutions, they should be trained and prepared to acknowledge events and provide whatever assistance and information they can.

silence is spoken here by Mr Kris on Flickr

'Silence is spoken here' by Mr Kris on Flickr (CC Licence)

Obviously there have already been a number of examples, such as Eurostar, but technology companies are no better. Take for instance, the recent New York Times article covering the ‘secrets of search’ which led to JC Penney dominating Google results for lots of top product purchases in what appears to be the largest example of linkbuying and other ‘black hat’ practices.

The bottom of the second page reveals that JC Penney has terminated its search engine consulting, SearchDex.

‘PENNEY reacted to this instant reversal of fortune by, among other things, firing its search engine consulting firm, SearchDex. Executives there did not return e-mail or phone calls.’

So someone at the firm is theoretically aware that the NYT is doing a story on the events surrounding JC Penney, and that article was published on February 12th, 2011.

So when you visit the news section of the SearchDex website on February 15th, 2011, you might do a double take -

Searchdex JCPenney News 2007

You can click to enlarge, but the latest news on the SearchDex website three days after the NYT published the JCPenney story online is the March 15, 2007 announcement that JCPenney has signed for a ‘an unprecedented 4th year of service’ – and goes on to say ‘JCPenney has trusted SearchDex to handle all of their organic search marketing efforts’.

That’s 4 years ago, and 3 days after a huge news story concerning the brand, with anyone involved in the search business taking a look. Just scroll down the first page of Google results for SearchDex and see what you find… #5, #7, #8 and #9 are discussing what is going on, and one of them is Doug Pierce, who shares all the data that uncovered what SearchDex was doing.

If SearchDex did decide to update their news, there are a number of routes they could take. They could deny all knowledge, blame a scapegoat, or debate the data.

Alternatively, and here’s where I’d really like your views, they could take a different tack. They could come clean and admit everything, perhaps referencing how competitive search rankings can be, the fact that they may have known they were being dishonest, but that digital marketing companies are often under pressure to deliver results and using dishonest tactics are hugely tempting. If that was followed by future transparency, would that alter your opinions of the company, in comparison to your views after reading the NYT piece?

Filed Under: Blogging, Content Marketing, marketing, news, Paid Search, Search, Social Media Guidelines, social media marketing, strategy Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Sometimes it’s better never than late…

January 10, 2010 By 2 Comments

I don’t mean to be too hard on the BBC news technology show Click (iPlayer link). After all, the broadcast television show does a reasonable job of displaying and explaining technology to a mainstream news channel. And there’s always an occasional something for those more technologically savvy.

But today’s episode highlighted the problem with broadcasting schedules. At the end of the show, they plugged their CES coverage which will run over the next two weeks (on iPlayer on Jan 16 and Jan 23 I believe).

Now the 2010 International CES ran from January 7-10. Which means it started last Thursday, and finished today. And being the first major show of the year, and just about the biggest, there’s been coverage absolutely everywhere. Previews, videos, interviews, analysis – on almost every single website under the sun.

Indeed if you manage to find the actual Click section of the BBC website, there are already features on many of the big CES gadgets on video, and an interview with Steve Ballmer.

And almost everyone attending CES has a device capable of recording decent video content – whether it’s quick mobile footage, a handheld like a Flip Mino HD or Kodak Zi8, or something higher up the professional recording level ladder like the Canon 5D. As an example, my friend Angus shot 30 fully-produced videos available on Youtube, and 11 Qik videos, plus a combination of iPhone and hi-res still photos for Which? magazine which are all already online. (Find out more @angusfarquhar)

Put simply, if anyone in the world wants to see absolutely anything from the CES, they’ll have seen it. Even if they’ve got a passing interest in technology, someone will have sent them the link on Facebook or by email. And if they’re not that interested, they’ll struggle to find out Click exists, check the scheduling, and be watching at the fairly unsociable hours at which it’s broadcast.

It’s something I come across every day with the sheer weight of microblogging stories I could cover on 140char.com if I had infinite time available.

Probably the rule of thumb is to assume that everything becomes available to almost anyone as soon as it’s public anywhere, and you should make as much available as you can as soon as you can. And if there’s going to be a delay for non-exclusive content, you’re better off forgetting about it and moving onto the next thing.

(Incidentally, in terms of BBC CES content and coverage, I’d recommend following the likes of @ruskin147 and @maggieshiels on Twitter.)

Filed Under: Digital Publishing, Digital Television, news, video Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
« Older Posts