I’m a bit chuffed today, I noticed that Mashable pushed out a Twitter visualisations article just a few days after the one I published on The Next Web. I recognise it’s not a unique idea – but the timing is uncanny. There’s even some overlap in the content.
The Next Web’s post
Mashable’s post
Woohoo me – a leading light of twittery internetty goodness!
/end of shameless self congratulation, start of weekend
A housekeeping note. I was looking back through the old posts and decided that The Next Web digests (1, 2, 3, 4) feel a bit out of place. I decided to create a The Next Web page and will stop publishing digests.
It’s been about a month so time for a new digest of posts.
Social media policy development is still in its infancy and one thing many companies are coming to terms with is how to approach LinkedIn. Instinctively, there’s benefit for both parties but working out how to make it mutually beneficial can be quite challenging. …more…
Over the past few days, we’ve noticed Twitter really getting into the World Cup spirit and we’re loving it. For those that haven’t picked them all up, here are the World Cup goodies we’ve noticed on Twitter. …more…
We all know how hard it can be to say “no” to someone to their face – the shock, the rejection, the humiliation. No-one wants to be the cause of that. But do you know what happens when you say “no” to someone’s connection request? I had suspicions, but I thought I should check it out to make sure I didn’t inadvertently cause offence. So I did some research on the cybersnub across the three biggest social networks. …more…
In an upgrade to their Twitter app, LinkedIn have introduced a feature which allows you easily see which of your contacts have Twitter profiles and to add them to your following list. In making the simple connection, I think that LinkedIn may have opened up the wonders of Twitter to a whole new round of adopters. …more…
I was reading a blog post today and was wanting to comment when the site asked me to register. To register? Create an account? That’s a bit 2000, not 2010. ZDNet’s Tom Forenski will never know what I thought about his piece on corporates and social networking. The registration hurdle stopped me in my tracks. …more…
Many web content publishers are grappling with the question of whether to publish mobile device specific apps. Although I remember a few of these for my BlackBerry a few years back, it seems to be that the iPhone that is becoming the platform of first choice for most sites. Publishers need to balance the cost of dedicated apps with the improved user experience they offer. In this post I’ll look at my perfect feature set for an app built around publishing existing web based content. …more…
Here’s a piece I wrote for St Christopher’s Inn’s about 5 years ago, shortly after arriving in the UK. I had all but forgotten about it but a Google alert reminded me and I still think it’s pretty funny, even if it is a long read.
If you have access to a car for a day, then a good adventure is to be had at Warwick Castle. It appears to be Britain’s greatest medieval experience and even has live jousting. From my initial understanding of jousting, it’s only live for both of the competitors at the beginning of the competition. Thereafter things typically took a bit of a deathward turn for one of the competitors. Sadly local health and safety regulations prevented this turn of events and all jousters managed to survive the day’s activities. That would never have happened if an AK47 or a machete was used, but these English have their own ways and I am still trying not to impose my South African mindset.
The castle claims to be one of only 5 licensed jousting venues in Britain. This claim, in and of itself, was very funny to me. As far as I’m concerned, if loonies want to charge each other at full gallop with pointy sticks, then they should be allowed to do so. Purveyors of British culture will know that in Monty Python, army recruits were denied pointy stick training. Even with rampant unemployment in Britain, I can’t imagine there be too many random bouts of jousting taking place. Anyway, in this place, everything is licensed, and jousting is no exception. In the same way that it is important for my tax dollar (pound) to support developing legislation to provide medication to the sick and housing to the homeless, it is no doubt equally important to draft detailed legislation supporting all 5 jousting licensees. I am tempted to write to my local council to find out how one applies for a jousting license because I suspect it would make for interesting conversation when asked for photo-ID. It might make sense to get on the property ladder first, because I can’t imagine one’s landlord allowing jousting in our lounge. And financially, it probably makes more sense to buy a tv stand before investing in jousting infrastructure.
But back to Warwick Castle. Observation suggests that the castle is about the size of a Johannesburg townhouse complex, with walls about as impenetrable. I noticed that electric fences have not been installed, but it does have the world’s largest trebuchet. Something which will no doubt act as a deterrent to the most optimistic affirmative wealth re-distributor.
For those not in the know – such as myself just a few short days ago – a trebuchet is a large medieval catapult designed to hurl large iron balls, copies of Heat magazine and other WMD into enemy castles. The Warwick castle people took it upon themselves to build a new trebuchet, ostensibly for ‘display purposes’ but I believe that if the boys down at UN weapons control see this bad boy, they’ll go mental.
The place was really interesting, with lots to explore, see and do. We watched some live jousting, saw the trebuchet fire and mucked it up in the mediaeval carnival. As the castle is managed by Madame Tussauds, there’s also a waxworks demonstration of how life would’ve been lived when the castle was still inhabited. The town or Warwick, alongside the castle, is full of Tudor architecture and quite pretty. That’s all an aside really, what I wanted to about the jousting licenses, were there only 5 licensed venues? How could I get a jousting license. They say when in Rome, do as the Romans do, so did as the British do and wrote a letter to their publicity people.
Enquiry to Windsor Castle about live jousting
Hi there
I recently visited the castle and I was really amazed by the live jousting. As someone new to the UK, it was something to behold. With the fighting spirit that was shown, I can understand why we managed to beat the Jerry’s at both WWI and WWII. In fact, if it wasn’t for this whole European Union malarky, I’d be suggesting we sharpen our lances and build a series of jousting forts along the Eastern frontier.
Anyway, one of the things the compere said was that Warwick Castle was one of only five licensed jousting venues in the country. I cannot remember if he specified England or all of Great Britain. Admittedly, I’ve not seen much of Wales, Scotland or Ireland yet, but all indications are that they are above-average countries so I will use the term Great Britain rather than just Britain. But I digress.
I thought this jousting license business was quite something. Only a truly advanced nation would’ve made time in their legislative agenda to ensure that jousting facilities were compliant with all relevant health and safety type requirements. In fact, I suspect that had this licensing process been in place in mediaeval times, there would’ve been a great reduction in jousting related deaths. In turn, that would’ve saved the NHS considerable amounts of money suggesting that perhaps a tax cut could’ve been expected.
A little bit in awe, I decided to research this further. I was dismayed to find a website which listed no less than 7 different places which hosted jousting events. I was completely gobsmacked. The guy at your facility seemed so trustworthy that I am taken to doubting these sources. Further research identified even more places where jousting takes place…
So I wanted to ask, how does one qualify as a live jousting venue? How can you make the claim to be one of only five when just a few minutes on Google turned up at least eight other venues where jousting is taking place? I’d hate to be considered a doubting Thomas, and I’ve specially not given you my address for fear of a trebuchet attack, but I was hoping you’d be able to provide clarity on this matter.
With thanks
Yours in jousting
David Reinhardt
The response, when it came, shocked me. In medieval times, there were only 5 licensed jousting venues in Britain. Today, there are many. This seemed a little strange as I had thought the desire to joust had decreased over the centuries rather than increased, but this is not my culture and I will not be judgemental. I can certainly say that Warwick Castle is a great day out.
Third round of guest posts from The Next Web…
Video killed the radio star, Facebook killing the Foursquare star?
Facebook’s long heralded move into location has often had me thinking about how new features launched by established services can have a profound effect on other players in the market place. Sometimes it necessitates a change of strategy, sometimes it is a death knell. I got to thinking about how some recent market changes might affect existing players.
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Let’s face it, Twitter has changed the way we signpost content
Recently I was working up some entries for a photo blog that I run and it struck me how much Twitter drives the way I wrote the post titles and signposted content in general
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UK parties’ iPhone apps, who got it wrong? Who got it right?
All the major parties have talked the talk about learning from Obama’s celebrated success at using technology to build a grassroots campaign which engaged voters and all the major parties have released iPhone apps. I got to wondering – have they blended what they’ve learnt from Obama with the power of the iPhone to engage its users?
In this post, I’ll look at each of the party’s election apps considering where they’ve done well and where they’ve got it all wrong. As a reasonable baseline, I’ll suggest that an app should at least have party news, party relevant tweets and policy information. The thing I’m most interested in is whether the apps provide a platform for interested people to get engaged in party activities. Do the apps allow Joe Public to get involved at a grassroots level?
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Could it be that LinkedIn just isn’t that innovative?
I was reflecting on the Facebook / Docs.com announcement and couldn’t help but think about how often I actually collaborate with friends on shared documents. Not very often at all. And how often do I collaborate with colleagues and business partners over a shared document? Every single day. It makes more sense to me that LinkedIn should be leading the way in creating collaboration environments.
As I thought about it, I realised that often LinkedIn are behind the curve with new features. I began to wonder if the service lacked innovation. Gasp! Labelling a popular, successful, monetised web business as lacking innovation could be heresy. Let’s see if I can back it up
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Hear ye, hear ye – making the case for broadcast messaging
I’ve recently been spending a lot of time discussing the integration of social media and intranets with clients of mine. One of the biggest mindset hurdles I encounter is integrating twitter style broadcast messaging into the service. Here’s some thinking to counter the sceptics.
– oo –
How LinkedIn should embed itself into our professional lives
I recently met for drinks with a friend of a friend who works at LinkedIn. At the time, I was working on a consulting assignment where one of our challenges is to design a compelling, social media inspired, intranet experience. During the conversation, I had an idea that brought these two things together: LinkedIn should encourage organisations to host LinkedIn discussion content embedded within their intranets.
– oo –
Hmmm, looking at it like this suggests I start posts with “I recently…” far too frequently!
Second round of guest posts from The Next Web…
Hey Facebook! Bigger photos are great but here’s how to really improve your photo app
The recent acquisition of Divvyshot by Facebook got me thinking about the humble photo app. Given the chance, how would I improve Facebook photos? …
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5 surefire signs your company has missed the point
One thing that gets my goat about many companies going social is that they behave like a Twitter stream and some informal photos on Facebook mean they’re invested in social and talking to their customers. So misguided. Well, what could’ve gone wrong? …
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Keeping on top of your social media inbox
One of my biggest challenges across my social media presence is separating the wheat from the chaff. How do I make sure I’m hearing from my most important sources without resorting to ignoring the others? And how can I do this without having to scour across a number of aggregators many times a day? …
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Owning the conversation must be better than ignoring it
When considering new social media initiatives, one of the most common responses I get is “But what if people say bad things about our brand?”.
Fact of the matter is, whether or not you have a social media presence, if someone has something to say about you – they’ll find a place to say it online. If you’re lucky, it’s a pokey blog in the corner of nofriendsville.com and it is not noticed by anybody. …
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Getting past the Oprah barrier on Twitter
When I’m working with colleagues and clients I commonly hear “Twitter — I setup an account to see what its all about. I followed Oprah and posted one or two tweets. As far as I know no-one saw them so I lost interest because I just don’t get it.”
In this post I’ll try and frame your thinking around Twitter and how it fits into things. …
Recently I’ve started writing guest posts on a great blog site called thenextweb.com which, not too surprisingly, deals with emerging trends on the web, tech, etc. Every so often I’ll post links through to my nextweb blog entries on this site. Let me know what you think.
Happy landings in Social Media
In recent years, the relationship between customers and airlines has become increasingly taken over by travel aggregation sites. In a cut throat industry, this represents a significant threat to the carriers. The industry is ripe for innovative players to use social media tools to regain control of their customer relationship. In this post, I’ll look at some of the ideas already being adopted by airlines in this space. …
Vancouver 2010′s Lost Opportunity
The thing that always strikes me about the Olympics is the visual spectacle — there are intense emotions right at the boundaries of human achievement and that makes for compelling viewing. So, naturally I was expecting there to be a big online fanfare around Vancouver 2010 but a brief scout around the web left me feeling quite empty. …
Think there’s no room for social media in the workplace? Think again!
Over the past few weeks I’ve had more and more clients ask me the same question: How can we learn from Facebook and Twitter to improve internal collaboration? I’ve been reflecting on this and have tried to translate some of our best loved social networking features into design patterns for consideration when building a collaborative intranet environment.
In this post I’ll look at some of the natural collaborative behaviours that occur in the workplace and briefly consider how to design services for them. …