tumble-log

The Paradox of Choice

2009-06-19T16:37:00Z

WATCH THIS!

Threatening sign #fail

2009-06-01T10:49:00Z

Right, back to the less serious topics. Was in Bath (the city, not the bath) yesterday evening when I spotted this sign. £2 - oooooh that'll tell ya!

On Britney and "Social Media"

2009-05-21T10:45:00Z

Lauren Kozak, Social Media Director of Britney Spears (you know, the brand), talks to Movable Type about how they implemented Britney's social media strategy and used Movable Type's platform - it's a bit of an advertorial but quite interesting none the less. Read/watch the video here:
http://www.movabletype.com/blog/2009/05/post.html

This is very much a top down approach to social media. There is obviously a large team and a big budget behind this and no doubt a reasonable amount of success but not the best way to do it IMHO.

Britney doesn't write any of her own blog posts - hence there are hardly any comments. in fact the one post with any decent amount of comments is a copy of a tweet saying "Nothing better than a day at the beach with my family! -Britney"
http://www.britneyspears.com/

And same goes for her twitter - there are no @replies to anyone and even the tweets that are written by 'britney' are probably just done by one of her many assistants.
http://twitter.com/britneyspears

No authenticity. What they are doing is okay but could be soooooo much better. In the video, Lauren says that social media is not just a checklist of sites that you should have a presence on - however I feel this is just about all that they have achieved :-(

Interestingly the 'number one' fansite (unofficial of course) is a far better site (in terms of usage and engagement) than the official website - just look at the number of comments per post.
http://www.breatheheavy.com/

Other celebrities and brands are doing a much better job.

Vin Diesel, whilst a reasonably well known actor, is not really in the same league as Britney. He is the most popular celeb on facebook with 3.7mil fans. The reason: he IS actually participating himself. He is *authentic*
http://mashable.com/2009/05/12/vin-diesel-facebook/
http://www.facebook.com/VinDiesel

ThisIs50 - 50 cent's own mini social media empire. It works because he is involved!
http://thisis50.com/

A bit closer to home, the same goes for Lily Allen. Lily writes all of her own blog posts and sometimes gets a crazy amount of comments:
http://blogs.myspace.com/lilymusic

She also does ALL of her own tweets. Notice she is also @replying to people
http://twitter.com/lilyroseallen

Social media is about *being engaged* and being *authentic*. Just because you have a 'social media strategy' and a big team behind your project doesn't mean it will actually work.

The British comedy clique

2009-05-12T16:00:00Z

Quimby the mouse

2009-05-08T15:15:00Z

Quimby The Mouse from This American Life on Vimeo.

Posh parties at palaces

2009-05-05T13:18:00Z

Alberto and I went to a ridiculously posh party at Kensington Palace on monday. This meant I had to buy a posh suit. Note designer sunburn on forehead.

We found this lady from ages past. She was very impressed with my 'futuristic' communications/photography device.

I'm not sure we were allowed to take photos in the main tent because of all the 'important' people present but we sneaked one in anyway.

The Royal Marines did a little show for us at the end. One of them was wearing an actual tiger. Awesome / Not awesome (if you're one of those PETA types)!

Chrysler who?

2009-04-30T16:10:00Z

Can't help feeling the design gods exacted a little justice this afternoon.

Webjam on the iPhone

2009-04-22T11:42:00Z

We did this interesting team excercise this morning about how you think Webjam should work on the iPhone (or any mobile device for that matter). The idea was that because of the restrictions on the screen size and functionality of the phone device, we would be forced to think about what the *really* important parts of the product were.

This was my attempt. I believe that activity and content are the key components of Webjam or indeed and social networking solution. It's about how you present these to the user in a way which makes interaction natural and engagement increase on a per community/user basis.

Pacman runs amok in supermarket

2009-04-17T17:00:00Z

Friday LOLz

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T14:04:00Z

I'm cooking a lamb roast. Hope it turns out okay!

Birthday boy!

2009-04-06T16:12:00Z

No, not me. Him! This is Max, my cute little newphew and he was 2 years old last weekend. This is a photo of me attempting to amuse him by making a funny face. Evidently I have much to learn!

Re-interpretation of Little Red Riding Hood

2009-03-25T14:11:00Z

This is literally one of the best things I've seen today!

Slagsmålsklubben - Sponsored by destiny from Tomas Nilsson on Vimeo.

The terrorists are here!!!! ... again.

2009-03-23T17:41:02Z

A bomb would never have gone off there because noone was going to place a bomb there anyway.

They weren't chemicals that could be used to make explosives.

Probably the best course of action is to panic! Oh, and then get really suspicious of all your neighbours and keep checking their bins. And CCTV cameras are good m'kay?

Geek Love Poem

2009-03-21T15:48:00Z

I like this:

Roses are #F00
Violets are #00F
All my base are belong to you

Plane doodle

2009-03-17T15:04:00Z

I did this doodle of some world war 2 planes in a meeting earlier. Doodling is scientifically proven to improve your concentration and thus improves your meetings skillz.

I, (crap) Robot

2009-03-16T22:56:00Z

Now this is one robot that's not gonna have Will Smith in much of a panic. Japanese inventors show that even they have a long way to go before they are able to create those bad-ass robots, you know - the ones with emotions and stuff.

In other news, I've just learnt that I've passed the age where I start to lose my mind. Great!

One Hyde Park

2009-03-16T00:07:00Z

This is One Hyde Park - or at least it will be when it's finished. Just for fun the other week we decided to make an inquiry about one of these exclusive apartments, so I filled out the request for more information form on the website. Note that the website is password protected - they don't want just anyone to see what they cannot have.

Nothing happened for a few days. Then a nice lady phoned me up and asked me if I was a serious buyer - since only 'serious buyers will be given information about this prestigious block'. I tried to play it cool when she explained that the apartments start at £6 million for a 1000sq foot 1 bedroom and asked her what would be required to get access to the website where I could see more pictures. Things got a bit tricky when I was told that background checks would be performed in order to verify my 'net worth'. At which point I gave up ...

Anyway, I have since discovered that the password protection on said website does not quite live up to the 'exclusive' nature of the block. If you wish to see what secrets lie within, bypass the password by using this link!

I just knew it!

2009-03-14T11:58:00Z

BBC News reports that common folklore 'hero' Robin Hood may not have been such a hero after all.

Julian Luxford of St Andrews University found a dissenting voice in a Latin inscription from about 1460 in a manuscript owned by Eton College.

The previously unknown chronicle entry says Robin "infested" parts of England with "continuous robberies".

Dr Luxford, an expert in medieval manuscript studies, said: "Rather than depicting the traditionally well-liked hero, the article suggests that Robin Hood and his merry men may not actually have been 'loved by the good'.

"The new find contains a uniquely negative assessment of the outlaw, and provides rare evidence for monastic attitudes towards him."

Right! Now to work on some of those other well loved folklore types!

Bring down IE6

2009-03-13T14:52:15Z

If you know of anyone using IE6 - do them and the world wide web a favour - get them to upgrade! No, not to IE7 or IE8, silly! There are 4 *vastly* superior alternative available:

Firefox
Google Chrome
Safari
Opera

Another to add to my collection ...

2009-03-12T10:48:00Z

... of traffic violations.

I suppose that if I am to be cursed with one thing, then constantly receiving traffic violation notices (and fines) is probably something I am willing to cope with.