tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80048535442427941012024-02-19T02:35:45.180+00:00Engagement 101I'm Andrew Rogers. I'm trying to help my organisation move from old media to new media. My obsession is engagement. Is this 101 in the sense of "for beginners" or "Room 101"? Jury still out.Andrew Orangehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10998244517862702881noreply@blogger.comBlogger183125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8004853544242794101.post-25042811843439695012009-07-29T13:57:00.004+01:002009-09-17T15:39:02.693+01:00Putting out the lightsThis blog tailed off rather, didn't it?<br /><br />How so?<br /><br />Well, first of all <a href="http://yammer.com/">Yammer</a> became the preferred way of sharing information and ideas with colleagues which was always the primary objective of this blog.<br /><br />Then I decided to take voluntary redundancy from RBI and left its cosy bosom of employment at the end of June 2009.<br /><br />I had planned to spend a relaxing July and August before looking into options for the next phase of my working life. However the traditional British summer has meant more time sitting inside than I planned, more time talking to people and more time at my computer.<br /><br />And so as much as I have tried to stop them, ideas have begun to form and I'm following up a few of them already. Yes, they will almost certainly involve the Internet and so they had better be engaging but, that aside, this blog will probably not be the place for talking about them. I may decide not to pursue them at all and hurl myself back into the bosom of employment at some stage. Time will tell.<br /><br />So if you're interested in keeping up with What Andrew Did Next then do feel free to follow <a href="http://twitter.com/AndrewOrange">me on Twitter</a>.<br /><br />Either way, thanks for reading Engagement 101.Andrew Orangehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10998244517862702881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8004853544242794101.post-84256894462890839652009-05-12T13:27:00.002+01:002009-05-12T13:48:18.723+01:00Cash for newsOur corporate <a href="https://www.yammer.com/">Yammer</a> channel is abuzz with amusing discussions about whether or not it would be possible to charge people to read our news content.<br /><br />Some people are quite excited because if <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/may/11/rupert-murdoch-charging-online-news">Mr Murdoch thinks he can</a> (and Rob Grimshaw at the FT is <a href="http://www.paidcontent.co.uk/entry/419-interview-rob-grimshaw-publisher-ft.com-newspapers-must-add-paid-conten/">bullish about it too</a>) then that should be good enough for us.<br /><br />Interestingly most of the debates seem to polarise the question between two business models: advertising vs pay-to-view/subscriptions.<br /><br />But newspapers, magazines and websites are more complicated than that and so is life:<br /><ul><li>When I buy my newspaper to read on the train in the morning, am I paying for news? Well, yes, partly.<br /></li><li>If it stopped containing the news would I still buy it? Probably not.</li><li>If it <span style="font-style: italic;">only</span> contained the news would I still buy it? Probably not.</li></ul>But news is very much part of my paper's brand (it's not a red top, obviously).<br /><br />The polarisation of the arguments is misleading too. I might not pay for online news but I might pay for something else from the place I get my online news.<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/"> <span style="font-style: italic;">Telegraph</span></a><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span>readers stump up to play Fantasy Football and do the crossword, for example. <span style="font-style: italic;">Sun</span> readers pay to <a href="http://www.sunbingo.co.uk/">play bingo</a>.<br /><br />Generally speaking business magazine revenues have been in decline for years but other revenue areas - face-to-face (conferences, exhibitions and events) have been a growth area for many. So too have paid-for non-news services and in some cases, news brands have to some degree become a cross between a marketing medium and the badge of trust for these other services.<br /><br />If you took the murderously expensive news content out of the magazines , how powerful a brand would you have left? I don't know.Andrew Orangehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10998244517862702881noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8004853544242794101.post-66054592556593977402009-04-27T14:51:00.001+01:002009-04-27T14:54:10.466+01:00User Generated Content: Understanding its Impact Upon Contributors, Non-Contributors and the BBC<a href="http://www.headshift.com/blog/2009/04/comprehensive-study-of-usergen.php">This</a> is just too tantalising for words:<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">The main findings of the research were that:</span><br /><ul style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><li>There are 5 main types of "UGC" and they fulfill 6 different roles within the BBC</li><li>Journalists and audiences display markedly different attitudes towards the five types</li><li>Technology is changing the volume, ease and speed of gathering news material and sources, but traditional journalism practices still important</li><li>"UGC" at the local level is particularly interesting</li><li>Overall there is support from the audience for the ways in which the BBC has been using "UGC"</li><li>Specific calls to action are most useful for news gathering and when eliciting high-quality relevant comment</li><li>only a small, select group of people submit "UGC"</li><li>UGC should never be treated as representative</li><li>significant barriers to participation: digital divide, social economic background, lack of impetus, and - most interesting for me - negative perceptions held by general audience of contributors</li><li>contributors want a real world impact for the contributions - eg. "If it was going to be read by Gordon Brown, then of course I'd submit it..."</li></ul><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">The study also identified a typology of audience material:</span><br /><ul style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><li>audience content</li><li>audience comments</li><li>collaborative content</li><li>networked journalism</li><li>non-news content ("photos of snowmen")</li></ul>I hope we find out more.Andrew Orangehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10998244517862702881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8004853544242794101.post-5048177542588360212009-04-22T13:26:00.002+01:002009-04-22T14:55:32.547+01:00On what's occurringLong time since I've posted. What with Twitter and Yammer and Facebook there seems to be less of an imperative to blog.<br /><br />But for the record some recent highlights include<br /><ul><li>The soft-launch of three new online business communities in the last few weeks - <a href="http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/travelhub/default.aspx">TravelHub</a>, <a href="http://www.caterersearch.com/tabletalk/default.aspx">TableTalk</a> and <a href="http://www.opticianonline.net/opticianspace/default.aspx">OpticianSpace</a>.</li><li>Farmers Weekly Interactive <a href="http://www.fwi.co.uk/Articles/2009/04/22/115239/budget-2009-details-and-your-comments.html">live-blogging today's budget</a></li><li>Our series of weekly editorial development sessions ("Elevenses" because they are at 11am) are going really well. Topics so far: <span style="font-style: italic;">Twits, Tweets and Hashtags: The quick guide to Twittering, Investigative Journalism, Using Polls & Surveys, Exploiting the power of RSS, </span><span style="font-style: italic;">Live blogging, Features Without Words</span><br /></li></ul>All worth doing.Andrew Orangehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10998244517862702881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8004853544242794101.post-43613721375151487942009-03-12T13:49:00.005+00:002009-03-12T14:58:46.671+00:00Elevenses: twitter for journalists<a href="http://twitpic.com/212fv" title="Standing room only at this morning's Elevenses workshop on TwitPic"><img src="http://twitpic.com/show/thumb/212fv.jpg" width="150" align="right" height="150" alt="Standing room only at this morning's Elevenses workshop on TwitPic"></a>Excitingly, we ran our first weekly editorial development session today.<br /><br />The idea is to run an event every Thursday at 11am for 3/4 hour. The topic will be different every week but it's all about helping people develop new journalistic skills.<br /><br />As there are four of us involved in Elevenses we each only have to curate one a month.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.onemanandhisblog.com/">Adam</a> curated today's which was all about Twitter. Four of our most enthusiastic Twitter users talked about how they use it to find stories break stories, build relationships and build their brand.<br /><br />This is a hot topic but even so we were amazed when over 50 people turned up.<br /><br />To be fair, some of this may have been thanks to the publicity generated on the letters page of our corporate intranet regarding whether or not the word "curate" may be used as a verb. Perfectly cromulent in my view.Andrew Orangehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10998244517862702881noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8004853544242794101.post-21055076634357045252009-03-05T15:23:00.000+00:002009-03-05T15:23:18.266+00:00Sky News realises news breaks first on Twitter, not TV - Creates a Twitter Correspondent<a href="http://uk.techcrunch.com/2009/03/05/sky-news-realises-news-breaks-first-on-twitter-not-tv-creates-a-twitter-correspondent/">Sky News realises news breaks first on Twitter, not TV - Creates a Twitter Correspondent</a><br /><br />It's here to stay.<br /><br />For now, anyway.Andrew Orangehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10998244517862702881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8004853544242794101.post-68520234827135056542009-03-04T16:47:00.001+00:002009-03-04T16:49:16.201+00:00Whatever happend to Web 2.0?It's still here, of course: flickr, Facebook, twitter etc. But I was surprised today to read something which referred to Web 2.0 and I realised I hadn't heard the term for ages. It's just normal now; it's just the web.<a id="publishButton" class="cssButton" href="javascript:void(0)" onclick="if (this.className.indexOf("ubtn-disabled") == -1) {var e = document['stuffform'].publish;(e.length) ? e[0].click() : e.click(); if (window.event) window.event.cancelBubble = true; return false;}" target=""><div class="cssButtonOuter"><div class="cssButtonMiddle"><div class="cssButtonInner">Publish Post</div></div></div></a>Andrew Orangehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10998244517862702881noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8004853544242794101.post-27332224113911763182009-02-27T16:01:00.005+00:002009-02-27T16:50:01.386+00:00Misc thoughts: Silverlight, Flash and TwitterI've been on a Flash for Beginners course for the last two days. My hope was that learning the basics that way and spending some time with <a href="http://mindymcadams.com/tojou/">Mindy McAdams</a> book <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Flash-Journalism-Create-Multimedia-Packages/dp/0240806972/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1235750918&sr=8-1">Flash Journalism</a> would result in some skills and ideas for interactive multi-media storytelling I could spread around our business. We shall see. I think the main lesson so far is that Flash is <span style="font-weight: bold;">very</span> complicated and it would take huge commitment on the part of a journalist to master it.<br /><br />Anyway, early days. I was quite pleased with the animated bug I made on the course but I don't think it will be winning a Pulitzer Prize.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwutA_4SklCZkCXg0mN4aP2cJEWA9iHIH06_u4A9Lmac9RRjCSDGvMTIfQeeQQYZatkU6zxrpO3fo0ydabKLw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgdUT9JHNTKEqE9VW4XWFffEZuzpqLrvnqy2F5yL0CqJeXp0KQNc543KSHp0LNLIqhc62IYrVF1xqxe-_NccHsBNsmJd-3dE_0W8-myIKhjlMWrRF1I0g27alGFHoCt6ki2ccn4MbUlYp2/s1600-h/Silverlight+Barack+Obama.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 199px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgdUT9JHNTKEqE9VW4XWFffEZuzpqLrvnqy2F5yL0CqJeXp0KQNc543KSHp0LNLIqhc62IYrVF1xqxe-_NccHsBNsmJd-3dE_0W8-myIKhjlMWrRF1I0g27alGFHoCt6ki2ccn4MbUlYp2/s400/Silverlight+Barack+Obama.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307508412275787922" border="0" /></a>Meanwhile Journalism.co.uk <a href="http://blogs.journalism.co.uk/editors/2009/02/27/microsofts-photosynth-as-a-storytelling-tool/">alerted</a> me to something I had missed in the whole Obama overload thing - it's a CNN.com<a href="http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2009/44.president/inauguration/themoment/"> multimedia Silverlight thin</a>g which stitches lots of photographs together and lets you freely navigate through them (if you have the will). But the one that caught my eye was the UGC set which is basically composed of photographs from people around the world which show them watching the Obama inauguration on television. I found myself moving from scepticism to compulsion quite quickly. Nice use of UGC.<br /><br />Finally, Twitter. It's gone mad of course. It's great that so many of our editorial people have suddly taken the plunge and hopefully the n00bs<span style="font-size:78%;">1</span> will start talking to people in their markets rather than just to each other any day now. Meantime, I'm finding Twitter rather overwhelming. It feels like ambient noise rather than ambient intimacy. I may switch it off.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Footnotes</span><br /><br />1. For definition of <span style="font-style: italic;">n00b</span> <a href="http://140pedia.com/2009/02/26/n00bs-people/">consult 140pedi</a>a which is dedicated to providing definitions no longer than 140 characters for the Twitterati.Andrew Orangehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10998244517862702881noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8004853544242794101.post-46500804533930388602009-02-20T15:10:00.003+00:002009-02-20T15:58:14.791+00:00Twitter: proving the value to journalistsMy US colleague Dan Blank has done some interesting work on <a href="http://danblank.com/blog/2009/02/20/the-roi-of-journalists-and-magazines-using-twitter/">The ROI of Journalists and Magazines Using Twitter</a>.
<br />
<br />Dan looked at the 277 tweets from the <a href="http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/">School Library Journal </a>during January. He concludes:
<br /><blockquote>So, at the most basic level, how much exposure did this bring to School Library
<br />Journal. It’s a difficult metric to pinpoint for a variety of reasons but a conservative estimate is: A few thousand page views.</blockquote><blockquote></blockquote>Dan analyses the kinds of tweets and identifies three further areas that Twitter has delivered beyond merely traffic:
<br /><ul><li>Engaging the Top 10% of Your Audience</li><li>Improving Editorial</li><li>Marketing across more networks</li></ul>Highly recommended it and I'll be adding it to my "Must Read" list for journalists:
<br /><p></p><ul><li>10 things every journalist should know in 2009:
<br /><a href="http://blogs.journalism.co.uk/editors/2009/01/13/ten-things-every-journalist-should-know-in-2009/">http://blogs.journalism.co.uk/editors/2009/01/13/ten-things-every-journalist-should-know-in-2009/</a></li><li>How journalists can master Twitter:
<br /><a href="http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2008/04/30/how-journalists-can-master-twitter/">http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2008/04/30/how-journalists-can-master-twitter/</a></li><li>Twitter to journalists: here’s how it’s done:
<br /><a href="http://eatsleeppublish.com/twitter-to-journalists-heres-how-its-done/">http://eatsleeppublish.com/twitter-to-journalists-heres-how-its-done/</a> </li><li>Five barriers to journalists using twitter:
<br /><a href="http://sarahhartley.wordpress.com/2009/02/15/five-barriers-to-journalists-using-twitter/">http://sarahhartley.wordpress.com/2009/02/15/five-barriers-to-journalists-using-twitter/</a> </li><li>Twitter for journalists:
<br /><a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/twitter_for_journalists.php">http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/twitter_for_journalists.php</a> </li><li>Twitter can still work for journalists without tech-savvy readers:
<br /><a href="http://beatblogging.org/2008/10/21/twitter-can-still-work-for-journalists-without-tech-savvy-readers/">http://beatblogging.org/2008/10/21/twitter-can-still-work-for-journalists-without-tech-savvy-readers/</a> </li></ul><style type="text/css">
<br />
<br />Essential reading for journos which I shall add to my existing shortlist:
<br /><table class="tableizer-table">
<br /><tbody><tr class="tableizer-firstrow"><td><a href="http://blogs.journalism.co.uk/editors/2009/01/13/ten-things-every-journalist-should-know-in-2009/">10 things every journalist should know in 2009</a></td><td>
<br /></td></tr><tr><td><a href="http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2008/04/30/how-journalists-can-master-twitter/">How journalists can master Twitter</a></td><td>
<br /></td></tr><tr><td><a href="http://eatsleeppublish.com/twitter-to-journalists-heres-how-its-done/">Twitter to journalists: here's how it's done</a></td><td>
<br /></td></tr><tr><td><a href="http://sarahhartley.wordpress.com/2009/02/15/five-barriers-to-journalists-using-twitter/">Five barriers to journalists using twitter</a></td><td>
<br /></td></tr><tr><td><a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/twitter_for_journalists.php">Twitter for journalists</a></td><td>
<br /></td></tr><tr><td><a href="http://beatblogging.org/2008/10/21/twitter-can-still-work-for-journalists-without-tech-savvy-readers/">Twitter can still work for journalists without tech-savvy readers</a></td><td>
<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>
<br /></div></style>Andrew Orangehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10998244517862702881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8004853544242794101.post-75968184977328345662009-02-13T14:25:00.002+00:002009-02-13T14:55:48.527+00:00Roy Greenslade and the West Seattle NewsOne must walk on eggshells here of course but Roy Greenslade's <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2009/feb/13/national-newspapers-local-newspapers"><span style="font-style: italic;">Subeditors: another attempt to explain why they are becoming redundant</span></a> nevertheless makes for interesting reading (although the subtext can be reduced to: we have to save money somewhere; where else are we going to save it?).<br /><br />Meanwhile over in the US of A arrogance or desperation leads the West Seattle News to publish <a href="http://www.westseattleherald.com/articles/2009/02/11/interact/editorial/editorial.txt">an editorial explaining why their newspaper is vastly superior to the local bloggers who can offer more detail and faster</a> along the way containing gems such as:<br /><br /><blockquote>Professional journalists don't waste your time. [...] Instead of 3000 (sic) words about a community council meeting that was 'live blogged' with updates every seven minutes, wouldn't you honestly prefer 300 words that tell you what happened and what was decided?<br /></blockquote>which, of course, is an utterly pointless question. As <a href="http://www.blogherald.com/2009/02/13/how-not-to-respond-to-local-bloggers-if-youre-a-newspaper/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">the blog herald r</span>esponds</a>:<br /><blockquote>Let’s say I’m really interested in local politics but can’t attend, then the live blog is a great way to keep up to date as it happens. Is it the perfect way to cover a council meeting? No, of course not, <strong>but it is live and happening right now.</strong></blockquote>Another question (presumably intended to be rhetorical):<br /><blockquote>Do you seriously want to simply be referred to a series of links where you must delve deeply into issues spending hours of time to glean the facts?</blockquote>Ummm. Yes. Of course. I <span style="font-style: italic;">always </span>want the option to go and get more information elsewhere.<br /><br />Anyway, the connection to the Greenslade piece is this comment attached to the WSN editorial from a reader which made me lol.<br /><blockquote>"Professional journalists don't waste your time"<br />Yeah, but the blogs can use a spell checker, and have a basic sense of grammar. Have you even read your own paper? It looks as if it was written by a 3rd grade special ed class.</blockquote>Whether the West Seattle News rcently jettisoned all its sub-editors I do not know.Andrew Orangehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10998244517862702881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8004853544242794101.post-51450469336382102142009-02-13T09:39:00.000+00:002009-02-13T09:39:11.691+00:00Quarkbase: "everything about a website"Thanks to <a href="http://blogs.journalism.co.uk/editors/2009/02/13/tip-of-the-day-from-journalismcouk-alternatives-to-whois/">today's "tip of the day" in journalism.co.uk</a> for alerting me to the existence of <a href="http://www.quarkbase.com">quarkbase.com</a> which aggregates a whole lot of stuff about a website including a useful "social popularity" section which diplays - in one handy place - number of delicious bookmarks, pages on Digg, references on Yahoo! Answers etc etc.<br /><br />Love it.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.quarkbase.com/show/fwi.co.uk">Here are the results for one of our sites - fwi.co.uk</a>Andrew Orangehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10998244517862702881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8004853544242794101.post-77510774142676097702009-02-12T12:28:00.000+00:002009-02-12T12:28:27.255+00:00National Post reporter has total Twitter melt down | MediaStyleI like technology reporters and I like marketing consultants but which is better? There's only one way to find out:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediastyle.ca/2009/02/national-post-reporter-has-total-twitter-melt-down/">National Post reporter has total Twitter melt down | MediaStyle</a><br /><br />It's just too easily done, isn't it ?Andrew Orangehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10998244517862702881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8004853544242794101.post-60669009372613708662009-02-11T14:05:00.000+00:002009-02-11T14:05:22.449+00:00Falling Off A Blog: The Web Production DeskI agree with what Karl Schneider says in <a href="http://fallingoffablog.typepad.com/falling_off_a_blog/2009/02/the-web-production-desk.html">Falling Off A Blog: The Web Production Desk</a> and not just because he's my boss.<br /><br />Also because he's clearly bee thinking about it very hard (for the last nine months, since your last blog post, Karl ? :-) ).<br /><br />What surprised me when I read it was the impression of just how different web production is from magazine production. I know that <span style="font-style: italic;">seems </span>obvious, but the aims are much the same: to engage readers and to make it as easy as possible for them to assimilate meaning and/or information.<br /><br />There's a huge gap between the two in terms of basic skills. I mean, a <span style="font-style: italic;">lot</span>.Andrew Orangehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10998244517862702881noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8004853544242794101.post-786445590668468772009-02-05T15:32:00.001+00:002009-02-05T15:33:27.743+00:00Data VisualizationWe've been doing some work here to try and expand people's thinking about what an "online feature" might look like.<br /><br />Actually, the issue is more about what an online feature<span style="font-style: italic;"> isn't</span>. It almost certainly isn't 1,500-2,000 words with a couple of pictures and maybe a sidebar if you're lucky.<br /><br />Of all the migrations from print to online, the journey of the Features Editor is perhaps the hardest.<br /><br />Anyway, our list of ideas for more engaging ways of presenting non-news content grows by the day but even so I was thrilled to discover <a href="http://flowingdata.com/">FlowingData</a> recently, a website dedicated to data visualisation.<br /><br />Here are its <a href="http://flowingdata.com/2008/12/19/5-best-data-visualization-projects-of-the-year/">5 Best Data Visualization Projects of the Year</a> to give you some examples.<br /><span><br />Here's an example from the BBC's <a href="http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=F5D324185EE73FEC">Britain From Above</a>:<br /><br /></span><br /><br /><object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/sEZcBeE33wc&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/sEZcBeE33wc&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object>Andrew Orangehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10998244517862702881noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8004853544242794101.post-79376166740940944602009-01-30T10:14:00.000+00:002009-01-30T10:14:53.407+00:00Twitter liesBless <a href="http://twitter.com/stephenfry">@StephenFry</a>.<br /><br />Britain's National Treasure is following 32,014 on Twitter and 88,728 are following him.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.stephenfry.com/blog/2009/01/29/twitter/">In his latest blog post</a> on the topic, he suggests that people should not be offended if he doesn't follow everyone back and doesn't respond to every direct Tweet.<br /><br />It's a lovely idea. With that many followers, he has more people reading him than there are circulated copies of most of our B2B magazines; he is even <span style="font-style: italic;">following </span>more people than some of the most niche B2B titles.<br /><br />Two possibilities - both of which may be true - are:<br /><br />A. There is no point in following 32,000 people on Twitter. It can not be done. Not while you have a full time job as a National Treasure.<br /><br />B. The publishing system employed by magazines is really rather a lazy form of communication.Andrew Orangehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10998244517862702881noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8004853544242794101.post-4027279285689968032009-01-29T10:08:00.004+00:002009-01-29T10:18:05.351+00:00Where have all the bloggers gone?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.contractjournal.com/ConstructionSpace/photos/rogues/images/334/original.aspx"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 666px; height: 893px;" src="http://www.contractjournal.com/ConstructionSpace/photos/rogues/images/334/original.aspx" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Strange, the number of people who have expressed difficulty in resurrecting their blogging activity in 2009. <br /><br />I think a lot of people have been distracted by Twitter which seems to have achieved some kind of tipping point here in the UK.<br /><br />Indeed, this is my first post of the year so I thought I'd start gently with what is basically just a picture taken from Contract Journal's newly launched community - <a href="http://www.contractjournal.com/constructionspace/">ConstructionSpace</a>.<br /><br />It's from their Construction Rogue's Gallery - "<span class="noindex">A selection of photos sent into Contract Journal demonstrating all the 'don'ts' and none of the 'dos' in construction. This gallery is open, and we welcome your additions."</span><br /><br />Love it so much that here is another one:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.contractjournal.com/ConstructionSpace/photos/rogues/images/351/original.aspx"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 700px; height: 572px;" src="http://www.contractjournal.com/ConstructionSpace/photos/rogues/images/351/original.aspx" alt="" border="0" /></a>Andrew Orangehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10998244517862702881noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8004853544242794101.post-63168828085890444302008-12-11T15:03:00.004+00:002008-12-11T16:25:54.124+00:00Tableizer: turn spreadsheets into HTML tables<a href="http://journalistopia.com/2008/12/09/new-tableizer-tool-turns-spreadsheets-into-html-charts/">This</a> is wonderful. It's like an early Christmas present. So useful. What a lovely tool.<br /><br />Of course, I didn't have a need <span style="font-style: italic;">right at this moment</span> so to demonstrate it I just took a spreadsheet at random and had a go. Here's the result:<br /><br /><style type="text/css"><br />table.tableizer-table {border: 1px solid #CCC; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8px;} .tableizer-table td {padding: 4px; margin: 3px; border: 1px solid #ccc;}<br />.tableizer-firstrow td {background-color: #FF8926; color: #FFF; font-weight: bold;}<br /></style><br /><table class="tableizer-table"><br /><tbody><tr class="tableizer-firstrow"><td>115</td> <td>31/07/08</td> <td>Code Convergence - Phase 1</td> <td>Prepare a 'cookbook' - a guide on how to set up and install community server for a new market and a comprehensive lists of dos and don'ts for the future<br /></td> </tr> <tr> <td>145</td> <td>03/10/08</td> <td>Code Convergence - Phase 2</td> <td>"Code refactor of SRS" [Medium Priority] - Some design issues with our single signon library that have increased the amount of time to identify and fix bugs during the past few weeks. There would be benefit to refactoring this feature but it might also be worth waiting until after the current convergence phase as there may be other changes required when upgrading to 2008/9 anyway.<br /></td> </tr> <tr> <td>150</td> <td>10/10/08</td> <td>Code Convergence - Phase 2</td> <td>Flight Convergence - Home page enhancements<br /></td> </tr> <tr> <td>172</td> <td>05/11/08</td> <td>Code Convergence - Phase 2</td> <td>SEO bug - in a forum click on a post - the SEO url rewriter creates the wrong url.<br /></td> </tr> <tr> <td><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>Andrew Orangehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10998244517862702881noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8004853544242794101.post-35502371287009158172008-12-08T11:41:00.000+00:002008-12-08T11:41:31.931+00:00Pay no attention to that man behind the curtainThought-provoking post by Alison Gow here: <a href="http://headlinesanddedlines.blogspot.com/2008/12/achieving-more-transparent-newsroom.html">Headlines and Deadlines: Achieving a more transparent newsroom</a>.<br /><br />Alison reports that there were a few raised eyebrows in the newsroom over the decision to be completely open about the fact that the investigative work behind its article <a href="http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2008/12/01/bullied-liverpool-council-staff-go-on-sick-64375-22375150/">"Bullied" Liverpool council staff go on sick</a> was not its own work but the result of a Freedom of Information request made through <a href="http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/" target="_blank">www.whatdotheyknow.com</a>.<br /><br />I can understand why journalists would like to preserve the mystique of news-gathering but in the Web 2.0 world that's getting harder to do.<br /><br />Still, at least the nationals can continue to pass AP items off as their own without people being the wiser.Andrew Orangehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10998244517862702881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8004853544242794101.post-39233763664612136372008-12-04T10:44:00.002+00:002008-12-04T10:52:31.631+00:00The very model of a modern major newsroomBrilliant <a href="http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2008/12/04/model-for-the-21st-century-newsroom-pt6-new-journalists-for-new-information-flows/">post</a> from Paul Bradshaw - part six of his model for the 21st Century newsroom.<br /><br />This one includes six new journalist roles - a brilliant checklist (although in B2B there are of course, quite a few newsrooms which would be happy to have six journalists full stop).<br /><br />Paul's six new journalist roles are:<br /><ul><li><strong>The Aggregator-Sub</strong></li><li><strong>The Mobile Journalist (MoJo)</strong></li><li><strong>The Data Miner</strong></li><li><strong>The Multimedia Producer</strong></li><li><strong>The Networked Specialist</strong></li><li><strong>The Community Editor</strong></li></ul>Read the <a href="http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2008/12/04/model-for-the-21st-century-newsroom-pt6-new-journalists-for-new-information-flows/">entire post here</a>. Required reading for all journalists.<br /><br />[It also links to <a href="http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2008/04/21/rss-social-media-passive-aggressive-newsgathering-a-model-for-the-21st-century-newsroom-part-2-addendum/">this great article on Passive-Aggressive News Gathering</a> which I hadn't come across before.]Andrew Orangehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10998244517862702881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8004853544242794101.post-26251855870199253102008-11-27T13:57:00.003+00:002008-11-27T14:13:16.422+00:00Mumbai, twitter and the newsSeems like just about everyone has clocked Twitter as the breaking news-source of the moment.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/26/first-hand-accounts-of-terrorist-attacks-in-india-on-twitter/">Techcrunch has some interesting stuff</a> and there's a <a href="http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2008/11/26/yes-twitter-is-a-source-of-journalism/">thoughtful piece by Matthew Ingram</a> about the question of whether or not news organisations should report tweets as fact.<br /><br />It's something that struck me when looking at <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2008/nov/27/mumbai-attacks">The Guardian's (abandoned) live blog</a> which contained the entry:<br /><strong></strong><blockquote><strong>8:26am:</strong><br /><a href="http://twitter.com/primaveron/statuses/1025986458">One of the Australian victims</a> has been named on the microblogging site Twitter.</blockquote>That's quite a significant statement, especially if you happened to be a relative of the (alleged) victim.<br /><br />Matthew Ingram argues:<br /><blockquote>Obviously, no one wants a loved one to be worried by false reports. But at the same time, chaotic situations result in poor information flow — even to the “professional” journalists who are working at the scene. First-hand and second-hand reports on Twitter are no worse. Should anyone take them as gospel, or the final version of the events? No. Obviously, at some point someone has to check the facts, confirm reports, analyze the outcome, and so on. News reporting and journalism are much more of a process than they are a discrete thing. But as I have <a href="http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2008/05/12/twitter-the-first-draft-of-history/">tried to argue before</a>, Twitter reports are a valuable “first draft of history,” and that is a pretty good definition of the news.</blockquote>That's true, but I think that what those of us working in new media forget is that millions of people have either no idea or only a vague idea of what twitter is.<br /><br />If you know what twitter is then you can calculate your response to take account of the cavils and risks; if you don't, and you trust the BBC (for example) as your source of news it's a different story.Andrew Orangehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10998244517862702881noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8004853544242794101.post-86314655465297903572008-11-13T15:14:00.002+00:002008-11-13T15:17:35.492+00:00Why editors don't like doing podcasts or videoA <a href="http://danblank.com/blog/2008/11/12/why-editors-don%E2%80%99t-like-doing-podcasts-or-video/">typically sensitive piec</a>e from my colleague across the pond on the fears of speaking and the preference for the written word. A wise starting point for anyone looking to encourage journalists into podcasting or video journalism.Andrew Orangehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10998244517862702881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8004853544242794101.post-59682929564018731572008-11-13T14:50:00.001+00:002008-11-13T14:50:59.085+00:00YouTube Contest Challenges Users To Make A 'Good' Video<embed src="http://www.theonion.com/content/themes/common/assets/videoplayer2/flvplayer.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" wmode="transparent" flashvars="file=http://www.theonion.com/content/xml/89922/video&autostart=false&image=http://www.theonion.com/content/files/images/GOOD_VIDEO_article.jpg&bufferlength=3&embedded=true&title=YouTube%20Contest%20Challenges%20Users%20To%20Make%20A%20%27Good%27%20Video" width="400" height="355"></embed><br /><a href="http://www.theonion.com/content/video/youtube_contest_challenges_users?utm_source=embedded_video">YouTube Contest Challenges Users To Make A 'Good' Video</a>Andrew Orangehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10998244517862702881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8004853544242794101.post-26046354119691517142008-11-08T11:30:00.004+00:002008-11-08T11:34:39.958+00:00A masterclass in Internet forensicsUtterly <a href="http://themetricsystem.rjmetrics.com/2008/11/06/single-lawn-signs-conquer-the-american-landscape/">absorbing account</a> of how one man's curiosity about mysterious lawn signs advertising dating services led him to appreciate the brilliance of a $45 Million Internet business.<br /><br />Essential reading for journalists who need to know how to prise information about the Internet out of the Internet.Andrew Orangehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10998244517862702881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8004853544242794101.post-14805523681644341082008-11-07T09:52:00.002+00:002008-11-07T10:04:15.705+00:00The mischief of crowdsSo, <a href="http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article5102055.ece">Rick Astley is the Best Act Ever</a>.<br /><br />The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rickrolling">Rick Rollers</a> have succeeded in getting Astley crowned in the MTV Europe Music Awards.<br /><br />All credit to MTV which has been quite good-natured about it:<br /><blockquote>"We've been well and truly Rickrolled,” said Richard Godfrey, a senior vice-president at MTV and executive producer of the awards.</blockquote>Sadly it seems that much of the voting wasn't true crowd-sourcing:<br /><blockquote>“People set up computer programs to bombard the website. They could be sitting in Croydon, but they made it look like they were voting from the Philippines. We put in all sorts of blocks because we wanted to be as fair as possible, but it made no difference.” </blockquote>If true, that makes the victory hollow in a way that it wouldn't otherwise have been.<br /><br />Still, all credit to MTV for taking it on the chin. What a shame that David Bowie didn't manage to summon up the same courage in 1990.<br /><br />Bowie had announced that the set list for his greatest hits tour would be decided by a telephone vote. NME campaigned for people to vote for Bowie's cringingly awful 1973 hit "The Laughing Gnome"resulting in the voting system being scrapped.Andrew Orangehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10998244517862702881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8004853544242794101.post-3455229384601578362008-11-06T13:00:00.004+00:002008-11-06T13:59:30.888+00:00Coming round to twitter<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://assets1.twitter.com/images/twitter_logo_s.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 175px; height: 41px;" src="http://assets1.twitter.com/images/twitter_logo_s.png" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />One of the mindsets of the mass media is that we do not understand "small" very well.<br /><br />Our magazines are geared around substantial (if targeted) circulations and we send the same messages to all of them; our websites are optimised to attract as much traffic as possible.<br /><br />And, if the truth be told, some of our attempts to introduce "community" have been hindered by our tendency to look for big numbers by using traditionally successful tools such as mass marketing emails.<br /><br />We currently have the luxury of having three Community Editors who do not yet have communities to run, by which I mean they do not have community sections on their websites.<br /><br />Together we have been developing what we're grandly calling a "social media outreach programme" which really means becoming part of the communities already out there and linking up with the (relatively few) people in their markets who are already hooked in to the whole social media thing.<br /><br />It has been a very instructive exercise and the response so far has been positive. Twitter accounts have been set up by <a href="http://twitter.com/computerweekly">Computer Weekly</a> and <a href="http://twitter.com/contractjournal">Contract Journal</a>, both of whom have managed to achieve a tone and a restraint which are alien to our traditional publishing. CJ was even spontaneously applauded by one follower for not making the same mistake as its rival and twittering every article it publishes.<br /><br />They have relatively few followers <a href="http://graphicdesignr.net/blog/2008/11/06/october-newspapers-that-use-twitter/">compared to the big boys</a> but they are the right people. We've got a few other plans up our sleeves in a similar vein and I'm actually rather optimistic about our ability to think small.Andrew Orangehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10998244517862702881noreply@blogger.com1