Say What #1

An occasional post where I review my twitterfeed over the last x hours and post some juicy ones.

Popularity Contest
(being where I was retweeted)

Remind me ... why exactly did people elect Kevin Rudd? What was it he was going to do? /via @GreenJ not be Little Johnny nose hair

Is Jon Stewart the TV equivalent of a Cyberbully? 24 mentions of Fox News so far this year!http://nyti.ms/cOpFB2

libs should cut the crap on a lot of things really. Especially electing anachronisms as leaders #alot

 I hope little Kev enjoys his discount purchase of a second term. #smallbrainssmallideas

Raiding Gizmodo

Today I had an interesting back and forth with one or two others over the all too often used 'fanboi' term or "Applevangelists" in this case when it was alleged we would be 'defending Apple' because the Police in San Mateo county, California raided a Journalist house as part of a felony investigation.

I wrote;

Gizmodo should have checked the California law on receipt of stolen goods. Journalism, FTW!

For me, experience tells me - in any country, Police tend to raid first and ask questions later. So we shouldn't be surprised. The suggestion that Apple were prompting the raid was just ridiculous. So I wrote;

AFAIK, if the Police are asked to investigate a crime, the complainant doesn't really dictate the terms of the investigation

The rest of the conversation was mainly asking questions. I don't know enough about California law to judge. In any case, plenty of others have a more informed opinion on this one;

reading @hblodget on the Gizmodo, iPhone thing. It appears the Police have overstepped the mark.

Leaving Facebook

I'm still toying with the idea of committing Facebook suicide due to their ridiculous tell everyone everything non-privacy;

deleting Facebook Applications in prep for possible FB-suicide due to this FB everywhere crap

Twitter love

I need a tiler for a small job for my house. The Joy of twitter includes getting numbers!



Appreciating Politicians

The ruling party in Australia is outdoing itself this week

I hope little Kev enjoys his discount purchase of a second term. #smallbrainssmallideas

Mind you the other crew are trailing in their wake

Libs should cut the crap on a lot of things really. Especially electing anachronisms as leaders #alot

and finally...

It's 2010, there should be Hoverboards!

allegedly this ipad thingymajig is a cleverly disguised hoverboard #2010 

Simon Tolkien: In My Grandfather's Footsteps

I had a lot of fun times with my grandfather when I was a boy and went to stay with him and my grandmother for seaside holidays at the Miramar Hotel in Bournemouth on the south coast of England. We played endless word games and I asked him innumerable questions about Middle Earth and he was always kind and affectionate. I can close my eyes and see him now, wreathed in smoke like Gandalf as he lit his pipe with a flaring Swan Vesta match and spoke in a deep voice about dragons and dwarves. In the afternoons we went for long walks along the beach with the wind in our faces and he showed me just the right thin black stones for skimming out into the waves, and yet, however hard I tried, I never managed to skim mine as far as his, even though he was sixty-seven years older than me.

via huffingtonpost.com

exactly how I feel about the short times I spent with my Grandfather, who also died when I was pre-teen. He wasn't quite so famous though.

Posted via web from franksting's posterous

My thoughts on Digital Tip » Who owns social content?

Given the cavalier attitude to copyright and intellectual property on the web, and the trendiness of mashups and UGC, the era of social content is proving to be a fairly treacherous minefield for the brands or agencies who are naive or  insular.

via digitaltip.com.au

Cavalier, in this context, is defined as: "given to haughty disregard of others". Allow me to disagree with the use of the term in this context. I would actually use the word 'cavalier' to describe the 'Copyright' and 'IP' owners. Due to the haughty disregard they have for the changing world and how digital has destroyed their monolithic view of 'their content'.

So much of the legals around stuff like this, appears to me to be so far behind the reality of the world today. Just like everything which is impacted by the internet, its probably time to throw the baby out with the bathwater and rather than rewriting the old laws, forget about them and start again.
Looking forward to the discussion this evening at Social Media Club.

Posted via web from franksting's posterous

Points of View | Digital Citizens #digicitz cc @ecitizens

Digital Citizens strives to remain impartial, but we believe serious issues merit frank and open discussion.

Providing a neutral space to connect, learn and share is part of our remit.

With that in mind, we announce “Points of View”, guest posts addressing topical, interesting and occasionally confrontational subject matter relating to the internet, new technologies and social media.

We welcome feedback, respectful debate and submissions for posts and articles on any relevant subject.

Submit ideas or contact us here.

via digital-citizens.org

New space to share your thoughts on Digital Citizens

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Remembering Hillsborough and an Opportunity for the future

Yesterday was 21 years since the Hillsborough Disaster finally brought English Soccer out from the dark Ages. I don't pretend to be an expert in the dreadful conditions which fans were supposed to put up with prior to the implementation of the Taylor Report as I didn't grow up in England (not to mention the pure evil supposed fans, otherwise known as hooligans, gave out). But living close by in Ireland and noting the dreadful state of what passed for 'Stadia' there while a child, and seeing plenty of it from England on Telly, I could pretty much imagine.

From just 21 years into the future the thought, 11 years from the end of the 20th Century, a society could treat its own people like cattle - herding them into pens - and the Police could so easily denigrate perfectly respectable men and woman seems awesomely base.

Eyeballs still don't pay the bills - (37signals on Ning)

Are you kidding me? The company has blown through $120MM of VC funding over six years, built up massive traffic, yet just had to slash and burn, and you’re saying that “traffic growth is no longer good enough”. How the hell was it ever good enough?
Ning’s problem is not a lack of eyeballs but its inability to turn them into cash money to pay the bills. Getting more of something that’s a net-negative is not going to make up for it.
That was always their problem. From day one. Just like it’s any other business’ problem. Acting all shocked and surprised now is just incredibly ignorant of our industry’s very recent past.
This is the same kind of ignorance that goes on to celebrate so-called businesses successes before they posted black numbers on the balance sheet. Until that happens it’s all conjecture and possible maybes.
The just-give-it-away-for-free-and-they-will-come-and-we’ll-be-rich automatron is as broken now as it was in 2001.

via 37signals.com

With a HT to @deptofinternets
Funnily enough, I'm reading ReWork at the moment and commented this morning. 37 Signals didn't take long to enter the conversation with the statements I expected.
Yes there are different models for business, but IMHO, if you are small, niche, VC'd to your eyeballs, and not making money within a couple of years, you are lucky to be still alive.
But what do I know?

Posted via web from franksting's posterous

Writing tips: “If it sounds like writing, rewrite it”

Elmore Leonard wrote this as the last of his ten rules of writing.

If it sounds like writing, rewrite it

Leonard is an author. A first-rate author who writes fast-paced novels with great dialogue and plenty of action.
While Leonard is an artist, his advice also applies to journalists and anyone else who writes for a living.
What he means, is make sure you writing doesn’t sound like an undergraduate essay or a piece of high school homework.

via billbennett.co.nz

What was I saying in conversation with @otherandrew and @franciejones at #digicitz last night?

If you make yourself a target

Cyberbullying is a dreadful problem, which appears to be only growing greater in my experience. I'm finding that over-reliance on technology to guard against it is becoming a challenge in the industry I work in. It appears every Tom, Dick and Harry is coming out with the best technological solution to help protect YOUR children.

It is my clear opinion that regular engagement with your child about being online and helping them to understand the signs of bad behaviour online is the best way of protecting them from cyberbullies - or any kind of bullying really.

Of course, cyberbullying is certainly not just limited to Children, adults are of course as susceptible to it as anyone else. The difference, in my opinion, between real victims of cyberbullying and one which has recently become almost viral in cyberspace is that real victims have generally done nothing to deserve attention of any nature and often do not have support networks to help them through the experience.

So the problem for me with Laurel Papworth's post on the supposed 'cyberbullying' by Tim Burrowes of Mumbrella is then twofold.

First, while some of what she describes in her post seems to illustrate forms of bullying, and we use my understanding, as outlined above, what she's describing isn't bullying at all, but criticism of her professional position. Yes with a dose of ridicule where deserved.

Secondly, and more importantly, because of point one, calling the criticism, even if it bordered on ridicule, 'bullying' dilutes the real impact of real bullying on real victims of it.

I've no doubt that Ms. Papworth thinks she has been 'bullied', but I would have thought someone with such an expert understanding of the online space and publishing in General would realise if you put it out there, not only are you open to criticism, but you are also open to ridicule - even if totally undeserved.

You may not like that, and you may not understand why someone would focus on you so, but the reality is it happens. So you either grow a spine and ignore the critic or you get out of the kitchen for the good of your health.

If you want more info on Cyberbullying and strategies to protect yourself from it, please click on the links below (updated thanks to Stephen Collins from AcidLabs)

• Safe Kids giving a Reality check on Cyberbullies and Online Predators
• Telling the difference between flaming, cyberbullying and other forms of negative Online behaviour
• Cybersmart by the ACMA
• Stay Safe Online at Telstra
• Why banning YouTube won't work
• The Allanah and Madeline Foundation
• The Olweus Anti-bullying program
• Cyberbullying Checklist from Smart Online, Safe Online

And actual examples of cyberbullying:

• Teachers suffer cyberbullying by pupils and parents
• Social media brings bullying to light

Amazon Associate

Derek Sivers: How to start a movement: TED

via ted.com

"It's the first follower who transforms a lone nut into a Leader"

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