Puffbox

OK, so I’m a bit late with this particular piece of news… Ed Parsons was the first Chief Technology Officer in the history of Ordnance Survey. His departure in December 2006 was widely lamented: it was suggested that he was leaving because he was ‘interested in rocking the boat at Ordnance Survey, especially over its Web 1.0 attitude’. His blogging activity tracked the various developments happening at OS’s new competitors, like Google Maps, and it’s not too big a stretch to imagine his frustration at seeing his own organisation being left for dead. Fast forward to April 2007… and where does Ed start work? Google. The public sector actually did have a guy considered good enough by the cutting-edge to be their new Geospatial Technologist. And it lost him. Brilliant.

Dan Gillmor notes that scholarships are available for ‘an academic program blending computer science and journalism, designed to fill a staffing void at many digital news sites. The goal is to turn out students who understand both journalism and technology, connect one to another in ways that build audiences and also enhance and protect the civic functions of journalism in a democratic society.’ A very wise move.

Dan uses the term ‘programmer-journalist’ which, on reflection, should probably have been my job title during my time as online agitator at Sky News. Knowing the news business, knowing what’s happening in the tech world, and working out how to meld the two. I’m also working on something right now which puts me right back in that space… I’ll write it up in the next day or two. I’m excited again.

Sky News has very quietly launched a new ‘message boards‘ area, built (as I understand it) in-house by the team behind MyKindaPlace. Presentation is pretty basic, almost primitive in fact. Anyone expecting extra forum-esque goodies like personal profiles, RSS feeds, rating systems, etc etc will be disappointed. So far, discussion is entirely dominated by the ‘UK News’ channel, and specifically Madeleine McCann threads. Minimalist registration required to post, with post-moderation applied.

I freely admit I’ve got a blind spot when it comes to open forum spaces like this. I just don’t ‘get it’, but other people have made a success of them. (Very few, though.) Sky probably has a strong enough brand to pull it off, but it’s going to take a lot of effort. Possibly more than they realise.

Again though, I’m wondering if they wouldn’t have been better to just install an off-the-shelf forum package. There are quite a few (fairly obvious?) navigation and usability issues, which I’d have expected any established forum package to have resolved. I particularly like the look of bbPress (from the WordPress crew), although development seems to have slowed lately.

I’ll have more to say about Sky News in the next day or two… 😉

Looks like my source was right: Gordon Brown has plans for the internet. There’s a lengthy interview in today’s Guardian, conducted with Jackie Ashley last Friday. Of particular note:

The Labour party may not realise what is about to hit it. Brown believes the days of political parties as “small organisations of people who are accused of talking to themselves” are over. In future, constituency parties will become local hubs, building links with other networks and groups, and using new technology to reach out way beyond their usual supporters.

Brown expands his theme: “There are so many different forms of communication – writing, phoning, the internet – at the moment we’re not doing enough to keep people informed and to show people that when they have a view, we’re prepared to listen to them.” So we may become like New Yorkers, who can access “real-time information” about what is happening in every precinct of the city on the internet, whether it is crime, health or education.

There are ideas here, big ones, but throughout the time my tape recorder has been running Brown has remained guarded in his language. As soon as we are talking off the record he becomes a different person – enthusiastic and genuinely excited at the thought of being able to change politics. … He is certain he can win the next election by sorting out health, education and housing, and by ushering in a new style of politics. If the public could see this side of Brown they would warm to him more.

Communication? Networks? Internet? Big ideas? Blimey. The next month could be a bit quiet, but the following 100 days might be very interesting indeed. It’ll be a heck of a challenge… but when Downing Street says ‘do it’, the civil service really doesn’t get a choice.

Online ‘people and business finder’ 192.com now has Google-style maps and aerial photos. It has a definite British accent, with Ordnance Survey maps and the most recent photography of all the competitors in the space (certainly for my house anyway). But its Flash-based interface isn’t quite as smooth as Google’s javascript-powered tool, and there’s no apparent scope for mashing. (Google just launched a ‘street view’ – but no UK support yet.)

It’s really quite sad to note the imminent demise of Lib Dem Voice, which had established itself as the main LibDem blog – part of a very healthy political triumvirate with ConservativeHome and LabourHome. Host Rob Fenwick writes… ‘I’m unable to continue for various reasons – not least of which the amount of time running a site of this nature takes up.’

Perhaps more interesting is the follow-up commentary from Tory candidate Iain Dale: ‘it just shows that it’s impossible to make it work unless, like Tim Montgomerie on ConservativeHome, you can devote yourself to it full time. I don’t think Tim would disagree that in the six months he was working at 18 Doughty Street ConservativeHome suffered a little and that since he and Sam Coates have gone back to it more or less full time it has gone up another level. In my own case, this blog only took off in the first half of 2006 because I had taken a six month sabbatical from work and was able to devote the hours necessary to develop it.’

Does it take two people’s full-time attention to make a serious splash with your political blog? Apparently so.

Sky News launches a remarkably good rendition of its Osterley newsroom inside Second Life tomorrow, during Adam Boulton’s Sunday programme. Writing on the Sky News editors’ blog, Simon Bucks says:

It’s a new and exciting way to communicate, and as many universities have discovered, it’s a useful vehicle for education. But most of all it’s fun. It allows you to do stuff you can’t do in real life. And from Sunday that will include coming inside our newsroom and studio, roaming around, and taking a look at what we do and how we do it.

Frankly, I never warmed to Second Life. Tried it a couple of times, seemed like a waste of time, never went back. Statistics I found back in January seemed to suggest I wasn’t alone. The latest, as reported by the Reuters Second Life correspondent, is that ‘growth in unique Second Life users has been steadily slowing since October 2006’. Data at Alexa and Blogpulse now seem to suggest it’s on a downward trend in terms of ‘buzz’.

I’m sure they’ll learn some interesting lessons from this exercise, but in terms of hard business value, I doubt it’ll actually deliver anything. A few months ago, it would at least have made a much bigger PR splash than it has – which would have been something. But is a Second Life presence going to made the brand – or indeed, Adam Boulton – relevant to the cool set? And will they even be watching at 11am on a Sunday morning?

I’ve written a review for the BT Broadband blog of the recent DoubleClick Touchpoint survey (PDF) into the online habits of UK, French, German and American residents, concentrating mainly on the commercial data. It’s hardly a surprise that the web is our main source of information before making major purchases, but it’s good to have some hard numbers to back up the gut instinct.

There are a couple of extra points worth mentioning, in the context of stuff I bang on about here, which haven’t made the BT piece… the French are really slow to pick up on text messaging, far behind the Brits and Germans, and on a par with the Americans. But they’re much more open to watching online video, reading blogs and consuming RSS feeds. Still, nearly 30% of Brits read blogs often or sometimes, with more than 10% writing one too, and nearly a quarter participating in ‘social networking’. 18% of us are hip to the RSS thing, and 16% listen to podcasts.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m a big fan of video interviews (preferably one-take, impromptu point-and-shoot affairs) as a marketing tool. Now I see 37signals, one of the heroes of web 2.0, are getting in on the act.

Why did we decide to do these videos? Benefits over features. Tours and screenshots do a great job of explaining what Basecamp does but we wanted to do a better job of showing how it makes people’s lives better. Video turned out to be a great way to do that. There’s nothing like seeing real people talking about how easy Basecamp is to use and how valuable it is to their businesses. These people talk about how they love Basecamp and we’re proud of that.

I’m a bit surprised to see them opt for professional production, though. It makes things look too slick, too well-prepared, too post-produced. In a world sick of spin, you inevitably wonder if they’re just showing the positive bits. Real-time, raw, unedited video requires either great acting talent, or honesty. And honesty is in high demand these days.

You’d be forgiven for missing it… but the BBC’s political editors in Scotland and Northern Ireland are now blogging. Mark Devenport is being particularly enthusiastic, averaging two or three items per day. In Wales, political editor Betsan Powys is continuing to post to her Election blog… presumably because it still hasn’t finished yet.