Roberto Kussabi’s piece in the Guardian’s voluntary section takes on Google Plus Brand pages,  starts on a weary note “another day, another social network to get excited about”.  Having read the article I would posit ‘excitement’ is far from his mind and with good reason.   He does after-all “manages social media and online communities at a UK charity, I know that my time is limited”  and with regard to his charities digital efforts the numbers do not add up  “our audience simply isn't there yet, especially in the UK” .  Organisations considering a page on Google Plus should read his argument and for time poor digital teams he offers  clear level headed advice.  My perspective is not that of someone who manages social media.  Instead its that of a Google Plus veteran who’s seen Googles social layer oscillate from wide eyed optimism to those who would have it tossed into the  ‘dustbin of social media history’ to the tune of Ghost Town.  In terms of  brand pages taking care of my London Strollers walking group is about it for me.  

Were I have an issue with the article is about how is positions Google Plus.  How you look at Google Plus informs your expectations.  Robert chooses to see it squarely as a social network but others characterize Plus as Google’s social layer that will glue to together Googles disparate services.  Ed Dunbill writing in O’Reilly Radar suggested that it is ‘Googles backbone.  

We are told that “Some social-media gurus have even decreed that Facebook is dead and Google+ is social-media Utopia”  forgive me but I cannot think of any credible commentators that have characterised it in such manic terms.   Robert Scoble maybe one of the 'guru's' being refered to but more likely the 'Facebook dead, Plus is utopia' comes from over enthusiastic users.  Indeed Scoble has recently lambasted Google Brand pages so even he finds a chime with Roberto's article.  

In terms of a stampede, Buzz and Wave are mentioned. Let’s take Buzz,  this was less about signing up people but instead "Google attempted to jump start Buzz with lists drawn from its successful Gmail and Gchat services,"    As for Wave all that it shares in common with Plus is the word ‘killer’ characterised less as a social network  but instead as an ‘email killer’.  So with Google’s track record from Wave to Buzz it boggles the mind that Google Plus would be a ‘social media utopia’. 

Google Plus is not a utopia but its a shame Robert did not refer to the opportunities that Google Plus pages have to offer.  For example no mention of its stand out feature, Hangouts.  Nor does he refer to Google’s key strength, its search engine (Facebook will need to buy one) content put on Plus stands a chance of improved SEO.  

Google Plus could complete a hat-trick of failures for Google following Buzz and Wave.  Indeed Farhad Manjoo writing in Slate predicts this with absolute certainty.  However my view, Google Plus will endure not as competitor to Facbeook but as Google’s social layer that lays the foundation for Google’s social web.  As for non-profits on Google Plus I wish them well. For those brand pages that have set up ‘car park’ style by simply reserving a space, hopefully they drive the car and give Google Plus a go, time permitting of course. 

Further reading:

My blog entry posted July 2011 outlining my initial impressions of Google Plus: http://dillondeliberating.posterous.com/google-plus-coming-up-for-air

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Food like money is unequally distributed with many like myself having for now access to plentiful amounts of food.  I feel slightly guilty and perhaps ungrateful to take advantage of Blog Action Day 2011: Food - to have a rant about one of my pet hates;  the upselling of food.  This mainly takes place in restuarants, cafes and fast food outlets.  In theory you should be able to say the following "can I have a burger and fries please"  without the upsell swinging into action "is that large fries, what drink would you like?".  

The upselling technique requires that counter staff do not listen to the food order but place the suggestion that you should instead be ordering a larger portion.  

We have Meat Free Mondays, I wonder if one day a month could be set aside, head office then instructs counter staff to stop upselling food.  On this day we could celebrate and enjoy smaller food portions.  Not only would our health improve but we would be conserving that most precious of commodities, food.  Of course I could stop going to to the types of resturants that engage in such upselling but this practice is more widespread than just the usual suspects. 

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Firstly, Google Plus  is not a Facebook killer. Neither was Google Wave an email killer.  Indeed people should stop defining G+ against Facebook.  This is not a social media Cold War between Facebook and Google +  that is a far to simplistic view.  We live in a multi-polar social media landscape rather than one defined by bi-polarity. The founder of MySpace Tom Anderson now affectionately know as MySpaceTom put it succinctly:

“most services are’t killed by competitors, they kill themselves”.  

Rest assured readers so long as Twitter keeps its service simple and does what it does best 140 characters at a time it will remain relevant and widely used.  Twitter retains a vast amount of cultural power combined with a large user base, decline if it occurs will be relative. 

A new service arrives and the question that is asked is this;  What problem does Google + solve?  The problem it addresses revolves around how we share information on social networks.  So G+ puts what are known as Circles at the centre of the service.  Basically when you follow a person  on G+ you allocate them to a Circle of interest.  These Circle’s are segmented according to interests like News or you allocate people to a Circle based on your relationship with them.  So for example you can have a Circle for work colleagues or one based on an interest like Foreign Policy. In some respects you are creating an interest graph not a social graph.  So when you share something on G+ the default is not to share widely but to share narrowly. The question you are asked, is who do you want to share this update with? Maybe you just want to share it one person, maybe five or just the people in your Foreign Policy Circle. The choice is yours.  Google + is about how you share and gather information.  So in much the same way  I use Twitter lists, clicking on my Twitter list marked news I get tweets about breaking news. Likewise on G+ I click my Circle called UK Tech I get information updates from people working in that sector.  

The Circle concept is hardly original, on Facebook you can share updates and photos with a limited number of people but they obscure this feature.  What Google + does is put it at the centre of the service rather than hide it from the user.  Indeed the idea of managing and sharing information and the Circle concept itself is not original.  The experiment that is Disapora offered a service not greatly dissimilar to Circles. In the UK the Knowledge Hub had similar ideas two years ago. 

The difference is Google have successfully addressed the problem and offers a solution that far from being ignored has so far garnered 20 million users in under three weeks. Though statistics can misrepresent.  Lets take one statistic being bandied about;  G+ reached the 10 million user mark much faster than Twitter and Facebook.  Though this ignores that these services were built from the ground up were as Google has an existing user base for all its others services ranging from Gmail to YouTube.  

These users are within easy reach to convert them over to G+. In addition Android mobile phone adoption combined with the G+ app has the potential for G+ to ramp up the user base even further.   The question is this;  once converted will they attend the G+ church on a regular basis or become lapsed? The jury is out.  

In terms of users, a weary yes to those who ask;  they are for the most part the tech crowd.  You may already have met them on Twitter. Oh and before I forget we are all supposedly suffering from “social media fatigue” and a new network is just to much to bear.  Are we just reproducing our social graph on G+? Actually you are  expanding your social graph, meeting new people and best of all having a chance to engage with them beyond 140 characters. Indeed you might even want to chat with them using video in what are know as Hangout’s. This feature though again not original is for me the standout feature of G+. Using your webcam and mic you can hangout with up to ten people but this much more than just a stilted workplace video conference it’s actually fun.  The best hangout for me so far was one with Steve Rubel, assorted journalists and tech people.

Google + is having an extended honeymoon and like a hoodlum in a Woody Allen short story, we should not be ‘mollified by shiny objects’. So rather than abandon your social media family in favour of G+ let them co-exist.  The web is no stranger to the coast of utopia and some have wildly proclaimed that they will abandon their blog ships and surf the Wave that is G+.  Google + is not a blogging platform, the simplicity of Twitter is a joy to behold and Facebook is still the biggest beast in the room.  So unlike Mike Elgan I will not be going on a Google + diet by shifting all my activities to what is still a field test social network.    

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Liking e-books does not mean not going down to your local library.  If you have a an e-book reader  then get yourself down to your local library. Hopefully many other libraries will follow the example of Sutton Library who held a drop in session aimed at getting you clued up on how to download e-books.  Armed with my I-pad and help from Jacquie the e-libarian I downloaded some books from the e-library.  

One of which I am happy to say was an audio book of Chuck Palahniuk’s ‘Tell All’.  This is playing away as I write and the voice is not that of a self service check out. The book is read out to the standards that would make BBC Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime feel a tad envious.  

Libraries have always been at the forefront of my mind from an early age.  My first library was in Coolock, Dublin. Going from green tickets for junior membership all the way up to blue for adult was a major achievement.  Adulthood starts with many things but entry into the adult library is still special.  So fast forward to 2011 I am now entering the e-library.  Of course this does not mean sittting at home just downloading books from the online catalogue. Absolutely not, I will be visiting my local library not only for the odd paperback but more importantly for expert advice on e-books, e-readers and all things digital around books.  

This is the future of the library, a place to interact with books, magazines, journals whether they are in physical or digital form.  The 21st century e-librarian is their to navigate you through the twists and turns of what is the beginning of a reading revolution.  As with all revolutions the situation on the ground is complicated like for example wading through different e-publishing formats, getting answers to questions like why is Kindle not allowing e-book lending in libraries using the e-book lender of choice OverDrive?  Though OverDrive and Amazon are making progress in the U.S,  hopefully some good news soon. Has anybody got an update on how that is going?

Anyway stemming from the first e-book drop in session I would urge Sutton Library and others in the UK to immediately set up E-Book Clubs.

Why?

• Gets people into the Library:  An E-book club could meet once a month. People could bring along e-book readers and chat about books they have downloaded recently either from the local E-Library service or from Amazon.  

• Knowledge Sharing:  The E-book club could be a place to exchange hints and tips and this could be supplemented by the presence of an e-librarian.  

• Top authors could visit: Corey Doctrow might come along and read from one of his e-books, I am sure he would waive his fee?

• Wi-fi:  More libraries have wi-fi so what better club to visit and download an e-book from your local libraries e-book catalogue.

• Focus Group:  By having an E-Book club libraries have a ready assembled focus group to make suggestions on how their e-library should develop.

So what I have learnt from the session? 

First, that the E-library provided by @SuttonLibraries  is not stuffed with dud books but has some well known books as well.   Two I spotted were; The Corrections and Freedom from Jonathan Franzen 

Secondly that OverDrive the service used to deliver e-lending to libraries is quite a neat application. Having dowloaded it to my I-pad it looks good, is easy to use and you can add not just your local library e-book service but others too.  Beyond the shores of Sutton, San Francisco Public Library are avid users and have produced a guide to E-lending and OverDrive that is well worth reading. 

Finally I learned that though I know the bare bones about the whole business of e-books, e-libraries and how to borrow e-books. Why do all the swatting up when you can pop down to your local library and ask the experts, your local librarians.  So welcome to the E-book club, long may it last.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Alone Together (2010) is the title of Sherry Turkle's book but we were far from alone at this well attended talk.  

The talk put out the pessimistic message that technology despite the breezy optimism of those who market it's wares has the potential to make you lonely. Not only will you bowl alone but the networked world filled with Facebook "friends" and Twitter followers can be just as lonely.  Dark stuff but it fits in with a recent mini surge of techno pessimism.  

The rise of this pessimism is I think a sign of technological maturity and Turkel admits that technology can be positive, her message is not one of boycott but instead it's a reality check that life exists beyond techlology. Tech utopians are still in the ascendency  pedalling expectations that technology is a force for good delivering eveything from revolution to pizza.  Sherry Turkle's work has a faint echo with the techno scepticism informing the recent Adam Curtis documentary #awobmolg and it does I believe form part of a more realist appraisal of technology. Indeed Turkle makes the bold prediction that it will be the digital natives not the parents who will recognise the limits  technology to deliver a better life.  Being digitally always on will not be the future but will instead be a thing of the past.

She deals with the past as she casts her mind back to what for her was an epiphany and this was not some social network moment but was instead seeing a group of men at MIT called the Cyborgs. Men so heavy with technology about there body that she suspected some form of physical disability. This moment put her on a research track lasting close to fifteen years as she researched how technology was affecting human life in ways that were not always beneficial. The Cyborgs she cites were not disabled at all but showed signs of mimicking robots. We sometime think of robots as exotic but they have been part of our lives for years. You could argue that the use of artificial limbs is a form of robotic technology added to humans. Personally though my own exposure to fully fledged robots has been cinematic. From the cold killer robots of Westworld (1973) to Woody Allen's Sleeper  (1973)  were a  home help robot serves up not just tea but the pleasure inducing Orb, Robots are so seventies.   Professor Turkle takes aim not at robots but how we as humans interact with them, sure they can make our cars, serve us food but let's not get emotional with them. We can be alone together logging onto social networks but once they are switched off don't expect a hug from a robot.  

Though not everyone she observes are down on robots, she came across one women who said 'that robots bring a certain civility to the household" it is perhaps only a matter of time before e-harmony match you not with a human but instead a glamourous robot who shares your passion for technology.  The floor was opened up for questions this led to a discussion about a group characterised as being vulnerable to loneliness and in some cases requiring high levels of care, the elderly. Robots could and are beginning to have a role in their care and if anyone saw the Panorama (2007) about how the elderly are neglected in care homes might think twice about the use of robots.

However Professor Turkle is partially right when she sounds the warning about the deployment of robots to alleviate emotional suffering, we do not need to talk it over with a robot we need our fellow humans for emotional interactions.  Robots have rehearsed emotions and something as simple as the colour of your shirt will be a deciding factor if a robot will interact with you over another person. Top tip from Professor Turkel; eschew black in favour of red to attract your robot lover. Maybe lover is to strong a word but a key idea that emerged from tonight was the idea that you cannot have intimacy without privacy. So think about that when you find yourself alone with a robot or are updating your status on Facebook.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

What is Storify? it is a tool that allows you to curate content from the web? They make is so easy that curating can sometimes be mildly addictive. Even better the content you curate and publish can then be embedded onto your webpage or blog. Additionally Storify has the characteristics of a social network in the sense that you can follow other users of Storify but this is not its strong point. The follow feature is merely the cultural heritage of Twitter that lives on in Storify.

You might have guessed it I am enthused by Storify a tool that has recently go into open Beta and has gone on to gaining a certain amount of traction with journalists who like spies love to gather up information and present it to an audiences big and very small. Though not a journalist I like to curate information and present it back to an audience, so Storify has got my curation juices flowing. So why bother?  Well this is what I got out of Storify so far:

A new source of content for a website I run: This page on the London Strollers website is indebted to Storify and brings together the greatest London walks from Mike Biggs a Ramblers walk Guru. Curating and embedding this content took me fifteen minutes. While Storify does not negate the use of a CMS to create web content it is actually a enjoyable, not a word readily associated with CMS’s

Provided content other than my blog posts to put out: for example tonight I followed #RSANye a discussion about the Future of Soft Power whilst I followed the tweets I also curated some content around the talk. Later I published and tweeted it out, will it get an audience? perhaps not but I have a source of information to refer back to about this brilliant talk.

Stephen Hale,Head of Digital at the Department of Health bemoaned the fact that “content management systems are often a barrier to doing great digital communication” well Storify is not a barrier but a great opportunity to doing digital. So how could Storify work for your organisation?

- Use Storify to curate great content from around your web presence including tweets, videos, pictures and articles then glue them together on Storify, add your own stamp then Tweet or Facebook it to remind people about what they missed.

- Curate your organisations best blog posts on Storify then publish and distribute.

- Training, why not curate great examples or otherwise from your web presence on Storify and send it around to your colleagues as representing good or bad examples they could emulate or avoid. Maybe that perfectly formed Tweet if such a thing exists.

- Having a Twitter Q & A well curate the questions and answers and publish on Storify. Think of these as the highlights of your Twitter Q & A for those who might have missed it. Check this out for a more in depth view on how this can be achieved.

- Or you might want to do a spot of curating on Storify, keep it in draft for reference or indeed screenshot the preview and send it around.

So far so good but Storify has some issues but these can be overcome:

- You are limited as to how much you can customise what you embed on your website. Though your developer can work on overcoming this problem and their is a work around here .

- Storify does not appear to have a search function so you can find great stories already curated. Sometimes Storify reminds me of Slideshare of course if you can embed Slideshare on your site then why not Storify content?

- The audience is niche but if you like or have to deal with journalists they might appreciate some curated content you send to them.

Of course  a risk exists in respect of embedding content from Storify on your website, if Storify went down this might affect what you have embedded. Though the same could be said when you embed a video from YouTube.  

A good example of Storify in action can be found on Al-Jazeera and it shows how it can be integrated onto a website.

Of course Storify is not the only curation kid on the block take a look at Curated.by or Scoop.it  I have not played with these tools but would be good to get your feedback on Storify and curation in general. This from Multi Media Journalism was useful in terms of an introduction to curation

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

So Wayne Rooney is on Twitter his handle is  @Wazzaroon08 , so what?   Usually I am not a fan of the celebrity Twitter but make an exception for Rio Ferdinand just call him @rioFerdy5  a Tweet from him put me on the trail of @wazzaRoon08 

In his own right brand Ferdinand has a considerable Twitter following and helpfully for Rooney he did a bit of brand verification on @wazzaRoon08 by hailing his Messiah like arrival on Twitter as the real thing.  Thankfully Rio did not have to Tweet out that we where fools and @wazzaRoon08 was an imposter and not the true messiah.

Once I saw Rio’s tweet verifying Rooney’s arrival nano seconds passed before I clicked follow and became one of over eighty thousand followers.  However it was not always like that for @Wazzaroon8 when I began following  he was swilling around with just over four hundred followers.  I clicked through to his profile a few minutes later and this had grown to over eight thousand followers.

Impressed I decided to screenshot (see above) for posterity his arrival and those vital first Tweets that will enter the national consciousness. Alas they were not commandments to lead a better life but ‘Hi Rio, do you want picking up in the morning pal?’ will with the right melody have a chance of reaching the terraces.  

Disclaimer, I am a Man Utd fan and keep the faith with Wayne Rooney.  Not knowing Rooney, the fecker has not even followed me back, his Tweets look authentic. Nice to see him engaging, adding some humility and finding time to compliment Fernando Torres.  Credit to Ferdinand who does a bit of Twitter mentoring with this bit of advice:

@Wazzaroon08 put my name on the tweet fella then I see it straight away. I thought so, 08 is for the PL + CL double season!

Of course as others point out this could indeed be a PR disaster but I am pleased Rooney chose Twitter.  We  now have a direct line to Rooney and him to us and that is what appeals to the likes of Rooney.  In some sense he and quite possibly his advisors feel this move will allow him to bypass the media. However the media will consume his Tweets and no doubt recycle them for a news story, quotes from Rooney will in the main be culled from his Twitter.  As other Man Utd players get a bit of Twitter action, Rooney will I predict in terms of followers  be the biggest. So who will get the first Tweet out after Tuesday’s Champions League game against Schalke?

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Digital communicators rely on the Internet to deliver communications objectives.  They do this in some cases using tools that we take for granted.  That Facebook discussion, a Twitter Q & A exercise or our communications goals are achieved using tools offered by Google.  However digital communicators should on occasion step back and question the industry that provides the tools they come to rely on. This is what I did recently after attending a talk by Tim Wu whose book 'The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires (2010) inspired this blog post. 

Once applied, history can be something of a leveller.  Take for example the Internet which even in 2011 has the ability to astound and even hold you in awe of its power, especially in field of communications.  Where there is the Internet the word 'revolution' is never far behind.  So it was refreshing if not a bit sobering to hear Professor Tim Wu at the RSA recently, framing the Internet within a historical perspective.  By framing it in this way Wu allows the Internet to stand comparison to other media such as radio, television and films.  In their day all three of these mediums induced great bursts of idealism with grand proclamations of how they would benefit humanity.  Truth be told, they did, Wu in his talk he paints a picture of the early part of the 20th century of rank outsiders, amateurs and those who dreamt of making a fortune utilizing these emerging technologies.

The period was a wild west of ideas  with some unlikely innovators, for example farmers in remote areas of the U.S. who would hook up to early telephone lines not just to chat to one person but many.  Nor would they just talk but would  play music, tell jokes, trade gossip, one such farmer was Edward Burch who as part of a movement of early telephone connectors who would at pre-arranged times broadcasted to his neighbours from his telephone.  Not exactly the Twitter of its day but the keyword here 'connect' for him it was a telephone but today we 'connect' but do so over the Internet.  Running alongside and even before Burch were bigger players whose companies bear the name of what would later become giant monoliths like CBS, NBC, Fox and Paramount films.  Their founders where the great disruptor's of there day who fought against and subsequently created monopolies. They sought to control these emerging technologies. Disruptor's came in many forms and not all good, take Zukor for example whose vision for cinema was one of vertical control that allowed  Paramount to own the various layers that make up cinema; actors, studios, distribution and the the theatres.  One keyword mentioned earlier was to 'connect' the other key word that would come to dominate the information empires would be 'control'.  In Zukor, we can see a palimpsest  of Steve Jobs who is rightly lauded for innovation but is not shy when it comes to control.  Over at Slate Magazine Tim Wu produced profiles of each of the key players that created information empires starting with Theodor Vail (Telephony) , Adolph Zukor (Cinema) , Steve Ross (Time Warner), Ted Turner (TV) and Steve Jobs (Apple) all of whom are referred to as 'The Great American Information Emperor's.

What Tim Wu reminds us is that  during the 20th and the early part of this century the emergence of monopolies within the information industries of which today's internet is a major part.  The internet we learn from Tim Wu like many emerging technologies when they arrive do so with a burst of idealism that overtime incurs a relative decline. A sign of that relative decline is a lack of innovation with the technology delivering up an information products of mediocre proportions.  Today we can see Apple, Google, Facebook and to minor extent Twitter taking up what are the commanding heights of the digital landscape.  These are companies born from Schumpeterian innovation and are a  prime example of what can emerge from democratic states with capitalism as their economic model.   However over time these giant's of the information industry start to resemble monopolies that risk becoming more concerned with controlling the internet than innovating it.   They become so large that as companies they take on the role of not just players but who are instead taking control and altering the common ground that we all play on which is the internet itself, the carriage for so much of our day to day information.  

Tim Wu coined the phrase 'net neutrality' to explain what we he thinks we want to avoid and you can get a succinct definition of what he means here However it would be wrong to assume that the Internet and technology giants we know today are acting as a shadowy group, who like a Bond film are intent on taking over the Internet.  This may or may not be the unintended consequence of there dominance, only time will tell.  We as consumers are complicit in this process, why?  well we like the convenience of what Google and Facebook offer up as their version of the Internet. Take Facebook and for anyone who has seen the Social Network (2010) arose in a blaze of innovation that collated existing ideas but just delivered a better version of those ideas much as Bell did a century or so before with telephony.  As consumers we accept the limitations offered by these services in exchange for convenience.  The Facebook experience delivers up a version of the Internet that is not that different to a large hamburger and fries at the end of a drunken night. Basically it does the job and its a forgettable experience  but we do it again, log on, like page and when it asks in an Orwellian fashion 'what's on your mind' we sometimes let the cat out of the bag with our answers.  Fair enough this is a harsh and sometimes cliched characterisation of Facebook especially as it is often appended with the word 'revolution' when we talk of places such as Tunisia and Egypt.  That the Internet is utilised to a lesser or greater extent for political purposes and has generated varied opinion of which two poles are that of Morozov (The Net Delusion) and Shirky (Here Comes Everybody)

However the fact that it is used for political purposes in some cases makes it incumbent that the Internet remains open. That is the Internet as a carriage should remain open to all and priority not given to those who can pay that bit extra or who exert undue influence.  Indeed  governments who embrace the Internet giants lightly for now but who knows how tight in the future?  If the Internet giants like those before, film studios, newspapers and the automobile industry can help governments they will and often in a benign way that benefits us all.  However what the emerging monopolies fear most is regulation that would loosen their dominance over what is becoming the dominant information network of our time. How can we be sure that  monopolies are forming and to characterture the clairvoyant 'give us a sign'.  One sign Tim Wu cites is a lack of innovation with companies delivering up much the same product that has delivered so much riches to their coffers.   Google is an interesting case that seems to be guarding against this faith as it emerges as a dominant force, who reading has not used their products, not many I would wager.  An example from Google was Wave and yes it  ultimately failed but demonstrated a desire to move  beyond the status quo with an innovative product that consumers ultimately rejected.  Perhaps consumers are happy with the convenience that existing services offer or Wave was just a crap product, I of course thought the opposite .

The path is by no means set and the Internet will not necessarily follow the same path as was trodden in a 20th century that witnessed the emergence and subsequent breaking up of monopolies.  The open source movement is just one example that could in time act as a counter weight to the products that flow from the Internet and technology giants. By its very design the Internet maybe beyond control by one or a minority of the big players.  Let us hope so because if monopolies  gain control over what is termed the 'carriage' that in turn affects our ability to put freely our own information onto the Internet and have it treated no differently from others then this will have consequences in the future.  Of course the question then arises who owns that information?  so many questions and some of the answers might be over at Quora.  Innovation is far from dead.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

The  lyrics from the  Model Army song Stupid Questions from 1989 is what springs to mind every time I think of Quora, YouMoot and Yahoo Answers.  However the lyrics do not match the reality of what you can gain from knowledge networks like Quora.  The questions are not stupid and the answers surprise and enlighten.  

I have been aware of Quora having used it fleetingly but recently with some spare time over the holidays I have been able to put together a run of sustained use.  The results are positive whilst it is not as compelling as Twitter, I  find myself coming back to Quora again and again in a way that reminds me of why I like Twitter.  Indeed once inside Quora you begin to recognize a few heads from Twitter which is still the foremost knowledge network. Quora compliments rather than competes with Twitter?  

However this little exchange on Twitter reveals some tensions between Twitter and Quora.

This thread is why @davewiner should be using Quora: http://stay.am/eEqe6q (Source: @Jesse )

Meanwhile in the blog world Adam Lasnik retorts with a good scorecard blog post about Quora that poses the question ‘Is it wise spending our time writing for other sites?  His main concern is that in doing so leads you to begin neglecting your own blog site. In addition Lasnik voices a now familiar concern that runs like this;  Quora loses kudos, utility and goes out of business leaving all your posts in a web version of the Bermuda Triangle.  

Adam Lasnik poses the right question but my guess is that using a service like Quora might do more to stimulate rather than deter the publication of blog posts outside Quora.  For a blogger Quora and YouMoot are good place to do some research whilst preparing a blog post not unlike search and Wikipedia. The questions but more often the answers  can act as stimuli for potential blog posts on your own site. Best of all with great questions on Quora you get the writing habit by striking out and answering some of the questions posed.  Could Quora give birth to more blog posts rather than less?  

One community of course that have been early adopters  have been the tech crowd but even they sound a note of caution.  Robert Scoble is on Quora and likes it alot but not as much as VC Shervin Pishevar  “I believe @Quora is the future of blogging.” Scoble curbs his enthusiasm in this blog post.  Another Quora user is the BBC’s Rory Cellan Jones who cleverly uses his Quora bio to sound off his concerns:

"am thinking there may be a paradox about Quora. The more popular it gets, the less useful it will become - it's great right now as a niche Silicon Valley/techie forum, but those folks will surely stop answering as the crowds grow"  

Quora is somewhere to offload your cognitive surplus and in some respects being active on Quora represents a positive endorsement of Clay Shirky’s ideal use of your cognitive surplus.  However Quora risks becoming a distraction less a place to engage the mind but instead a dystopic vision of Q & A hell filled with questions like ‘Whats on telly tonight? Which may or may not get over a hundred responses.  This is not of course the reality now but who knows.    

Their are of course alternatives to Quora such as Ardvark and StackOverflow.  But one I have been using is YouMoot whilst lacking the buzz and  funding that Quora has attracted is neverthless quite tidy and well thought out.  The ability to give you an overview of contributions is useful on the eye.  One of the more interesting ambitions for YouMoot is to integrate Disqus like as a comment management system.  If you have not already, have a quick look around YouMoot, yes, its a bit empty at the moment but things can change quickly. The UI is not immediately intuitive but it does not take long to get the hang of it.  

One interesting angle for engagement on  Quora is the potential for existing ‘thought leaders’ and CEO's within organisations to get on Quora and answer questions submitted by users.  While this might not replace the now popular Twitter Q&A in longer time it offers a chance for brands, organisations and maybe even government departments to engage on Quora by answering questions put to them on Quora.  

Quora does share some comparisons with Twitter by deploying the ‘follow’ but how long before the brands board and start following everyone that adds a question about say Tab devices.  One thing I was struck when I first joined Quora was how quickly it was to attract followers, I am not complaining at all because many of my followers were familiar from Twitter and I am glad the relationship has had a spillover onto Quora.  

Don´t ask any more stupid questions. You already know the answers to. (Stupid Questions: New Model Army, 1989)

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

 'talented individuals thrive in company' (@alicenwondrlnd).   

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

A recent blog post by maggielmcg highlighting  'Foursquare fatigue' gave me a moment to reflection on my own use of Foursquare. The result was I am still engaged and intrigued by the possibilities that location based apps offer.  My use of Foursquare is not at all stand alone when I check in at a cinema my 4sq check in forms part of my Tweet out. Foursquare is not in competition with my Twitter but instead forms part of its orbit.  In other respects Foursquare acts like a diary of places I have been on occasion you can look back over places you have been and think you know what I will go back to that restaurant. 

Anyway enough about me lets move onto what are I think the issues with Foursquare:

1. Checking in and adding a tip as actions are limited you wonder what more I could be doing on Foursquare.
2. The whole business of the 'game' that Foursquare aspires to be is not that interesting. Points are not prizes however money might be .

This weekend we welcome what is a fantastic event for London or any other city, not the Papal visit but Open House London. In fact you could do both.  On Saturday and Sunday hordes of people will roam building to building many with cameras but also the latest smart phones.  The excitement of London Open House is being at the venue.  Equally the venue is central to Foursquare so you would expect a fraction those visiting these marvellous buildings to check in on Foursquare. 

So my techie hope for London Open House is that:

• A significant amount of people check in on Foursquare or another service like Gowalla for example.

• If the venue that they are visiting for London Open House is not on Foursquare will if they took just a few moments they could add the venue themselves.

• Leave some feedback about the venue in the form of a tip.

Examples of places to check in using Foursquare if you are out and about for London Open House, you really should be:

Bank of England

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Royal Society of Arts

The business about adding a venue to Foursquare can be a hassle but equally like Wikipedia if enough selfless good people add a venue Foursquare will be populated with more interesting places other than restaurants and clubs.  Open House London affords the opportunity to get those galleries, historic buildings and convents onto Foursquare as venues.

If you are are part of an organisation that is taking part in London Open House check to see if your building is a a venue on Foursquare. If it is then you could claim the venue as your own.  For the adventurous you could flag it up on your website 'About Us page'.

Foursquare does pose some security questions but then again all social networks do and its how you manage the risk that counts. For an organisation should a visitor check in on Foursquare they maybe able to leave some feedback about the building.  The un-sung heroes of Open House London  are the facilities staff who maintain London's best buildings, London Open House is a great showcase for their work. So check in and leave a nice comment about the building.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

These are my personal views and do not represent in any shape or form either the Metropolitan Walkers or Ramblers UK.

I am writing this blog post as I eagerly await the new comedy series The Great Outdoors screening on BBC 4. You would imagine everywhere Ramblers are shit scared of how they will be depicted. They have nothing to be afraid off because in some respects they have got off lightly in the world of British comedy. How many programme makers have dared tackle the subculture that is rambling in the UK. Here is an activity that in some sense shares something in common with other underground scenes. Like other scenes we ramblers like to dress up and look different from the rest of the population. Like many scenes a whole industry has grown up around it and come on what could be simpler, walking. A visit to Cotswold introduces a whole new complexity to a relatively simple task that is walking in the UK.

In common with other scenes some of which are fuelled by drugs yo could say the Ramblers scene is fuelled by Ale or to get down and dirty. Real Ale. Some hardcore ramblers dabble in organic Ales. I suspect Ale Addiction is quiet high amongst UK Ramblers. The problem of Ale addiction while not rampant amongst Ramblers in the UK there is however talk of treatment centres being set up to help these Ale Addicted ramblers. I am reliably told that the cure for Ale Addiction is a drink called 'Lime Cordial and Tap Water'

You might have guessed but I am rambler. I came out to friends about three years ago. No need for a coming out party but the relief was immense. From a young age I knew something was wrong when alone at first but later in gangs (sorry groups) I went on walks. I quickly grew out of walking but like the Godfather part three "Just when I thought I was out... they pull me back in" So having dabbled with Time Out walks I found a group that understood my needs and I never looked back. In fact I try and walk as much as I can but I can manage and do not crave walks as if they were step on the road some sort of Scientology nirvana. Of course you meet other walkers for whom walking has taken them to many parts of the world, which is great. One even claimed to have walked on the moon, a first for UK Ramblers.

Joining a rambling group is no different from a starting a new job. Sure everyone is different and like work you don;nt choose them but overtime you get to know them a bit better. Walking is a great activity and so very peaceful. Though that makes Rambling come across as a bit twee. Take London for example where there are many walking groups on no occasion to my knowledge have ramblers groups ever collided in a violent fashion. So no room here for a Ross Kemp style programme titled 'When Walking Groups Collide' as Ross Kemp takes viewers through the violent netherworld of Rambling in the UK.

I really wish the new BBC 4 comedy series well and hopefully it gets more than three episodes. So relax its a comedy but the serious work of ramblers goes on everyday. Ramblers in the UK have a radical history of direct action that opened up The Great Outdoors to the people of Britain. Other countries especially the USA can only look on with envy at what we have achieved.  

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Having just seen Clay Shirky talk about his new book Cognitive Surplus which I have not read but soon will. So this blog post is very much an impression of the talk he gave and what a talk. He is an assured speaker, compelling and calm like and idealised Catholic priest from the New Testament tradition. You can listen, feel calm and somewhat convinced as he effortlessly marshals  his arguement  replete with compelling examples. In terms of audience pulling power he is up their with Slavoj Zizek 

 However by comparision Shirky is calm, liberal and does not confront his audience with truths that will overly offend. That however does not detract from the importance of what Shirky has  been talking about since the release of his book 'Here Comes Everybody'. From tonights talk I would say that Shirky is very much still on that runway but the central idea of his work is that the web is radically changing how we live in the 21st century on a par with the advent of the printing press of which he cites many times during his talks. Essentially the web is a force for good when you stack up the benefits as opposed to the bad things that happen on the web. However defining good and evil on the web is a value judgement.

What Shirky is interested in, is what he calls our Cognitive Surplus that is the time we have going spare. Traditionally that surplus time would be spent watching TV and he shows a slide that stacks up the hours spent watching TV against that spent on Wikipedia. Yes time spent on Wikipedia is tiny by comparison but the effect is higher for society. Basically time spent online is not a waste but actually beneficial even if you are just publishing pictures of rabbits like I do, check out these bunnies.

However when not posting pictures  of bunny  rabbits in other parts of the world oppressed people are taking on pricks  by using social networks on the web. This is a familiar  Shirky narrative as women in Bangalore  fight the power that is Pramod Mutalik who denounces them as 'loose women'. Like angry from Ireland enraged by the 'Hand of Henry' they set up a Facebook page. The 'Pub-going, Loose and Forward Women'  organises a mass send your knickers to Mutalik agit prop action. Fair play to these women and Mutalik can be thankful that it is only knickers he is receiving the 20th century may have seen a much more violent reaction. So in effect these women whom I hazard a guess are not at the bottom end of the economic strata put their cognitive surplus to work for good.

Shirky is skilled at bringing these examples to the fore and they work when you have a panto villain or a savagely repressive regime like the one that exists in Burma today. You might be on the web working of some 'cognitive surplus' chatting but with just one click you could become a fan of a FB page supporting one of the many pages that rightly try to highlight the savage injustice that is Burma today. However we move onto Facebook pages that support regimes such as Castro's Cuba or the Twitter loving Chavez neither of whom could be described a 'freedom loving' in the American sense of the word things are not so clear cut. You will find some 'liberal left' that are ambiguous about condemning either of these regimes. Tonight Clay Shirky made no apologies nor should he when he said his belief that what he calls 'free societies' are vastly superior to those that are not. Shirky is a poignant thinker and symbol of the democratic project that is America's mission in the world. While that mission no longer creates the high political camp of 1950's America at the height of the Cold War. Though the rhetoric of the 1950's is evident on the web, ironic or otherwise: #theyhateusforourfreedom .

During the questions later Shirkys one person asked about the darker side of the web that between what was termed 'good v evil'. But getting people to use their 'cognitive surplus' to create, support, take action when the issues are not quite so clear like with Chavez and Castro. You could also throw Iraq and Afghanistan in that mix is much more challenging.  After Clay Shirky speaks I am emboldened but the cold water of Evgeny Morozov helps and infuriates at the same time. Shirky and Morozov debated over at the Edge and it is well worth a reading. For Shirky 'the tools don;nt make a revolution happen, they make it easier" a view greeted with some scepticism from Morozov.

Where I think Shirky is much better is when he talks about 'Cognitive Surplus' in respect of how we create on the web. Much like football fans we take the time, spend the money and fill the coffers of huge financial giants that care little for the fan, thats you Glazier and United. Shirky asks why we add videos, content and our family photos to social networks that gives them more data and drives their stock price upwards. For this Shirky pulls a rabbit from the hat by alluding to Lego "for years, Lego has been tricking children into assembling their products for free".

For all my qualms above Shirky is an idealists well worth listening to, his work I believe will be read well into the future. His book was on sale as they often are after RSA events. The sale of the book was quite a retro touch for the audience with the tantalising prospect of a signed copy awaiting them. Even Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive of the RSA assures that a signed and dated book had the potential to impress friends in the years ahead.  Where we leaving the web equivalent of the Sex Pistols gig at the Manchester Free Trade Hall? perhaps not but I skipped the book and will await the Kindle edition, just have to figure out how I get it signed by the author. 

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Yammer as a tool for internal communciations in your organisation has a great deal of benefits.  Not a day goes by when I am not using Yammer in my job. 

What do I Yammer?

Mostly links to interesting articles I think colleagues would be interested in reading.  Yammer works best when you a colleague just posts to Yammer that a meeting starts in ten minutes rather than an email.  As @michealfredman points out you can use

Yammer you can attach things - mock ups for instance - and then people can have a threaded discussion

• Why not use Twitter?  after all in some respects not all, Yammer is basically corporate Twitter.  Could Twitter bring out their own corporate version aimed at organisation?  Will these form part of the premium services being rolled out in 2010?
  

• Yammer cuts you off from other messaging tools that people use everyday.  On Yammer you are left with your own network and this might discourage take up or use of public and free versions of social media such as Twitter or in a far off future, Google Wave.

• Does Yammer have a hashtag function similar to Twitter?  I don't know the answer but being able to search and organise the information you posted to Yammer would be great.
  

Yammer is a great tool and essential in the war of attrition against e-mail.  Here is a video of how one organisation uses Yammer.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »