Thinking outside the box and other bad advice
Earlier this month I opened CREATE 2009, a forum for academics and practitioners to share creative and innovative ideas for human computer interaction (HCI).
The conference's theme was ‘Creative inventions and innovations for everyday HCI’ so to start things off I outlined my four step approach to help designers find more creative solutions to their problems.
Facebook Fan Box and what it means for brands
Facebook has just launched Fan Box, a new widget. This is great news for brands wanting to grow a Facebook fan page. But it's probably going to drive traffic in the wrong direction for most brands.
Council websites could improve usability: study
While the average usability score for local council websites has improved over last year, there is still plenty of work to be done to improve the user experience, according to a new report.
Webcredible's Local Council Websites report (registration required) gave an average score of 59.9% for usability, an improvement on last year's average of 56.6%.
PRSA Counselors Academy says mastering social media skills is vital this year
An online survey conducted in April and May among 450 members of the Counselors Academy, a Professional Interest Section of the Public Relations Society of America, revealed that mastering social media skills is one of the top three issues for PR professionals in 2009/2010.
Facebook threatens national security
Family details of Sir John Sawers, the incoming head of MI6, were posted on Facebook by his wife. This could prove to be a serious lapse in security for the future Chief of the British Secret Intelligence Service.
At the very least, it's an embarrassment for MI6 and another demonstration that people frequently use Facebook and social media to publish things they later regret.
US judge wants web to die together with newspapers
Aren't legal judgements supposed to be based on legal precedent? Apparently not for prominent US Judge Richard Posner, whose opinions on how to save the newspaper industry are being met with slack-jawed incredulity from just about, well, everyone.
Writing on his blog, Posner posits that what's killing newspapers are links. That's right, links:
Q&A: Craig Newmark, Founder of craigslist
In 1995, Craig Newmark started an email distribution list for events in the San Francisco Bay Area. It moved to the web in 1996. Today, the non-profit company's classifieds community - craigslist, in case you hadn't guessed - is available in over 500 cities around the world.
We briefly caught up with Craig in advance of his appearance at next month's Traveling Geeks roundtables hosted by Econsultancy in London (other participants include Robert Scoble, Howard Rheingold and Susan Bratton). Here he answers a few questions on craigslist's history, Web 2.0 and dealing with customers.
3 basic ingredients for an online social community to exist and thrive
It's still happening! Brands are doing their best to manufacture social communities using the social web with varying degrees of success. The majority of 'forced' online communities would appear to be made up of family, friends and those willing to give support...but not really going anywhere.
How many such company-originated Facebook groups have you seen that are genuinely thriving and active? Most don't really go anywhere, but on the rare occasion some really do take off.
I've tried to analyse why and I think there may be a need to go back to basics; your feedback is most welcome on these thoughts.
US to poker services: we weren't bluffing
Online gambling is a hot-button topic in the United States. When it comes to poker, which many argue is a game of skill, the US government considers the game to be illegal.
The US government has been successful in pushing some of the online poker services out of the American market. For instance, it drove out PartyGaming and Playtech, both of which are publicly-traded in the UK, and collected a hefty fine from PartyGaming.
The beginning, middle and end of brand storytelling
Storytelling is being hailed as the new big idea, but it's not that new. What makes a good story in this viral, user-generated, post advertising world has always made a good story.
From papyrus to pulpit to plasma screen, the attributes of a ripping yarn have remained the same: credibility, digestibility, and most importantly, emotional resonance.
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
