Observation

Nicholas Butler - Nov 3, 2007

For me, I like knowing their Twitter profile it says more about where they are at than where they have been or are heading to.

That’s a very interesting question… I’ve been pondering it. :) I think for me, I tend to link to people’s websites (when I’m referencing them in a blog post, for example), b/c their website or blog feels to me like the “living room” of their social-networking life. And then their site usually has links to everything else that they’re doing online - i.e.: Twitter, Facebook, etc…

When people write about friends should they post their twitter profile page or the websites their friends are working on. I’m asking this question because whilst reading a post today I was interested in the ability to follow these friends and see what they’re up to rather than read the website. Reading a twitterstream is quick. 140 Characters are read almost instantly and adding someone that sounds interesting is instantaneous. As a result  I’m far more likely to follow and read a person’s blog if there’s a consistant reminder both of what they’re doing and who they are as a person. It’s about time. I’m a scanner. I scan through content rather than trudge through it. If you’re linking to twenty people and you link to twenty blogs then there’s no way I’m going to have the time to read all this content. I’d saturate extraordinarily quickly.  Following another person on twitter takes seconds to do and I’ll track these people. Point me to a blog and there’s a chance I won’t take the time to look. Has anyone had a similar reaction to twitter vs. blogs? Do you write about a group of friends, all of whom have twitter accounts? If so have you linked to their blogs or to their twitter profiles?

Nick O’Neill needs to do more research. Most of what he writes is speculative based on two or three months of research rather than sociological research. He goes after trends and gut feelings. As a result whilst his content is interesting to keep a track of it’s not relevant to the type of content I am looking for. Podcasters and social media people need to take a more academic approach to their writing. I’ve found myself angry with what Leo laporte and other podcasters have said. Some of them are really pro certain technologies and boasting about their advantages without taking a media tech and society view. What I mean by this is that technology and communication are cyclical. What was really common in older media is going to become common in new media as more people come to use it. Radio and letter writing are what podcasting and e-mail are to their contemporary period. It’s the same with the iphones being bricked. There was such an outcry within the early adopter crowd that you’d think technology has never evolved. We all know that more apps would be created for the Ipod touch and iphone for example. It’s interesting to see how things are evolving and how by looking at previous technological trends we can see how the future will take place. Those who write about technology need to have a media studies background for a proper, well based understanding of their topic of conversation. If you want historical information you want to find professors and their PhD thesis, the same should be true about technological writing.

Jennifer - Nov 3, 2007

Ironically, your own feed is not complete. :) Maybe you weren’t aware of this, so just wanted to let you know. When I’m reading it offline, it only shows the first few lines and then gives a “…” and you can’t read anymore until I actually go to your website.

When you’re creating web content that’s fed please think about those that are reading your feed from a device that is disconnected. here I am on a train and I’m captive to the content that you make available on your feed. Some feeds have the full article but others don’t. The result of this has a simple consequence. There is no use for your feed on my mobile device since there is no content. I would thus urge anyone with a feed to make sure to make all content available so that people may access it on the move, especially since Wifi is not yet ubiquitous.

The way we’re consuming information has changed completely. i see the freesheets as doomed and look forward to the day when more and more people have ipod touch like devices. I want to see a world where you select the news and information you consume as you’re on the room rather than before setting off. Already I’ve got a taste of the future (although to the occasional few it’s the present). Apparently google is looking at an advertising model that would see kiosks print out magazines with adverts tailored specifically to  the reader’s needs. Personally I don’t see the interest anymore as this seems like an old media strategy within a social media future. Most of the media I consume is in portable form, whether it’s a podcast, video content or other. It’s fed to me via RSS for processing at my own speed. Where is the relevance of such a patent when print is becoming less and less relevant?

Whilst in Paris I was given a coffee due to a misunderstanding between the waitress, a friend and I and as a result this was the first coffee I ever finished. It’s almost a week later and I’ve just been to see the documentary Black Gold which discusses the plight of Ethiopian coffee farmers. The documentary is shot in an observational style with the use of intertitles rather than voice over. As a result those that are telling the story are those that are most affected. We have one main character who works on bypassing several links in the chain from farmer to coffee shop whilst having the conventional chain being illustrated in parallel. The documentary touches on a number of interesting points but I will leave that to you to discover as you watch the documentary. The documentary producer was present at this screening and took some time to explain the reason for which he chose this topic, how certain coffee companies tried to discredit the film as a result of which I think some time should be taken to get more information about the topic out there. Fair trade is a hot topic so why not have a blogactionday which is focused on poverty alleviation and which informs us about what should be changed and what is already been done.

Whenever I hear that people are protesting I discount this as bored people keeping themselves entertained but upon watching the film 503 I changed my mind. The documentary is about the protests that took place over a period of 503 days when Augusto Pinochet was kept under house arrest in England for his crimes against humanity. When interviewed the protesters explained that these actions were their way of remembering all the disappeared people. It was through the actions, like the crosses outside parliament square and the 503 day protest outside Pinochet’s house in England that helped them feel better. Describing the moment that they heard Pinochet had been arrested you saw that these people were jubilant. 503 days later that jubilation was gone but the community of protesters had expressed their concerns to an international crowd, ready to listen to what they had to say. The documentary is different from many other documentaries I have watched and I’d recommend watching that one simply to see how protesters are not stereotypical of those we see in newspaper cuttings and films. more info

There is an increasing number of professional outfits now offering their content in podcast form, from Euronews to the BBC, from Reuters to The Guardian and others. As a result there are a number of great resources for news content.

The Media guardian was one of the earlier outputs and concentrated mainly on media news but since then The Guardian have diversified their content output to include a number of news programs. These include The Guardian Weekly Podcast, MediaTalk, Newsdesk, and one or two others I have yet to listen to. These programs are good for two reasons; firstly they provide world news when it’s convenient for you and secondly because professionals are creating this content therefore the content should be more reliable. They provide in-depth analysis, getting interviews, and discussions that help the listener understand the topics that are being discussed. In effect they are creating broadcast-quality programs as radio stations have done in the past.

As I write this I am happy that I have been to watch quite a few interesting documentaries at the Frontline Club. The two most recent were made for Channel 4’s Unreported World. This is channel four’s “acclaimed foreign affairs series” and covers a number of topics. The two documentaries I watched were South Africa: Children of the Lost Generation and  Jamaica: Guns votes and money.

Both are investigative observational documentaries showing the progress made by the journalists as they try to uncover the stories that other documentary channels cover. The South African documentary gave an insight into the drug Tik and how, although it is mainly affecting those in the slums is also coming to the wealthier white areas as well. It is well shot and there are a few interesting interviews that give us a good insight into the problem.