Disqus - Latest Comments for Suw

Re: Tweeting our moral compass

Suw — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:59:38 -0000

My main aim wasn't to address the underlying issues that Carr skirts around because I was more concerned with the factual errors in his post. I could have gone on to address the deeper problems with citizen journalism etc., but that would have turned my post into a bit of a mammoth essay! I certainly agree that they are important issues that we need to discuss and address but my post was ever intended to do that.

However, I would say that the discussion around citizen journalism has been going on for the best part of the last decade. It started in earnest after 9/11 in the US, after 7/7 in the UK, then again after the Buncefield petrol depot fire, the Virginia Tech shootings, the Burmese protests, the Iranian elections. Carr is not only late to the party, he's also arrived without a bottle of wine and didn't bring dessert - he just doesn't add anything new, nor does he provide any additional or useful insight.

Eb is right - Carr's idea that social media is corrupting humanity in some way is fallacious, relying mainly on the "slippery slope fallacy". It's also an argument that has been made throughout history, every time someone comes up with a new idea. As is so often quoted, Plato bemoaned the invention of writing, but it hasn't done us too badly!

Re: Should Apple make a low-cost ultraportable Mac?

Suw — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 08:33:43 -0000

I'd totally go for it - I spend so much time travelling, where all I really need to access is the internet and some local blogging software that carting my MacBook around with me feels like overkill. It'd have to be able to selectively sync with my MacBook and iPhone and have the proper Bluetooth that the iPhone is missing.

I'd also like to see Apple make more accessories, e.g. a folding BlueTooth keyboard like the one I have for my old Palm Vx. No doubt Apple would do a grand job of such things.

Re: NUJ: "effing blogs"

Suw — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 04:20:23 -0000

Chris, I'd much rather you engaged with journalists and tried to raise their standards. I mean, 13 year old dads? School children photographed provocatively having been called "sluts"? Constant misinformation about MMR?

Firstly, this is a blog not a national newspaper, and one thing bloggers do is talk about what they observe. We, and the majority of readers, know that. You don't seem to actually understand much about what blogging is, how it works, or our ethics. And yes, we do have very strong ethics, comprising transparency, honesty, authenticity, admitting when you've made a mistake.

Can't say that I believe much of the press adheres to even those basic principles.

You are a representative of the NUJ, but you don't seem to realise how your contributions to the discussion make you and the NUJ appear to be small-minded, defensive, and entirely out of date.

If you want to engage in a conversation, then please do so firstly with some civility, and secondly, please put some effort into trying to comprehend what blogging is. Try to understand how the internet exposes certain types of action, and how that can be viewed from outside. Try to get just a little bit savvy about technology and what using it means.

Every time I come across an NUJ representative, I see anger, aggression, and an almost wilful ignorance. If you want your union (it was my union for a whole year, but never again) to remain relevant, take a little bit of time to self-reflect, then come and engage politely with the people who know what you need to learn.

There are plenty of us that work on social media for a living - I've been a social media consultant for five years - who can help you understand all this stuff and what it means. But you have to be willing to get off your high horse, give bloggers, geeks and techies some respect, and be open to learning.

Don't witch-hunt LindaK. Get some tech training for all your people so they don't make mistakes like this again. And, more to the point, get Linda to come here herself and engage in conversation with us bloggers. We're actually quite nice people if you talk to us politely, you know.

Re: NUJ: "effing blogs"

Suw — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 06:28:45 -0000

Chris, you're sounding very aggressive again, and it's not really helping that you're making some very broad assumptions, some of which are rather flawed.

Journalistic standards should apply to journalistic endeavours across all media, I totally agree. Where I think things get a little difficult is saying that a journalist's blog is an journalistic endeavour. And I'm not saying you're out of touch, but you need to understand what blogs really are, rather than just run with your assumptions. As with newspapers and news sites, blogs can break news, publish opinion, explore observations - don't confuse the tool with the content.

But the lines between what is journalism and what is not journalism is, however, very fuzzy. Some blogs are journalism. Some blogs are not. Applying your logic, no observations should ever be published by anyone, but that would probably wipe out a good 80% of all journalism, if not more.

Adam has some of the highest standards I've ever come across - he is open, honest, genuine, and willing to put his hand up when he has made an error. And by blogging his observations publicly he gives you, and anyone else in the NUJ, ample opportunity to discuss them. How do you construe this as having lower standards?

Adam's making a point - and it's a fair point - about the general terms with which blogs and bloggers are discussed within the NUJ. "Effing blogs" is not a positive phrase.

But we have to discuss these things out in the open, where anyone can read and contribute do the conversation, because that's how we widen the debate and bring in different points of view.

I am astounded that you say that "bloggers themselves rejoice in having lower standards". That is utterly incorrect and shows yet again the contempt with which you hold bloggers. How can you keep telling bloggers to 'come and engage with the NUJ' when the only things you say are rude, dismissive and contemptuous? Do you really think that your tone is one of encouragement?

Who, exactly, caused distress to an innocent member of staff? Adam didn't accuse her of anything, just wondered if she'd enjoyed his blog post. Terence rightly points out that it wasn't LindaK's term - she was the recipient, not the sender, so the NUJ's witch hunt is doubly wrong. (And I should have spotted that myself, so apologies if I implied LindaK was in the wrong - she clearly wasn't.) But if people are accusing Linda of attacking a member, then that's because they misunderstand what Adam has posted. You can't lay the blame for that as his feed.

Finally: "I imagine you see anger and aggression in this response too."

Oh dear.

Yes, Chris, I'm afraid I can see a lot of anger and aggression in your response, and clearly you can too else you wouldn't have said that. Maybe it might be an idea, when writing your next comment, to try to step back, re-read it, and remove some of the angrier and more aggressive phrasings. There are many ways you can talk to others - why not try a friendly tone next time instead?

Re: NUJ: "effing blogs"

Suw — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:28:21 -0000

So, Chris, which inaccuracies? You keep banging on about them. Can you list them?

Re: NUJ: "effing blogs"

Suw — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 04:29:46 -0000

Donnacha, you can't really expect us to fall for your line that Chris doesn't represent the NUJ. OK, so the NUJ's made up of members, but that doesn't lessen the fact that Chris put himself forward as the chair of the Professional Training Committee and therefore as a representative of the union.

I find it astonishing that an NUJ representative would come on to a member's blog and attempt to bully them, and throw about accusations about their journalistic integrity and to imply that they should be fired. How else would one interpret "When I were a lad and worked at Reed more than 20 years ago, the kind the inaccuracies in this blog would never have been accepted. People were sacked for less."

I cannot think of a single client of mine who would ever allow a member of their staff to behave in such a way. Indeed, Chris has done pretty much everything that I advise clients not to.

Which leads me to ask, has the NUJ ever taken advice from a third party social media/web 2.0 specialist? The NUJ's general cluelessness about how to engage with people via blog comments, and their lack of understanding of the Web 2.0 environment, as evidenced by your publicly available material and the comments here, lead me to think that you're failing to properly assess and learn to understand the dynamics of this new medium. (Please don't tell me it's the same - it's not. I assume you wouldn't put together a policy for journalists going to China without fully understanding the culture there, and the web needs similar thoughtfulness and care.)

Bronagh is, though, totally correct that standards are just a straw man. The real problem here is that the NUJ clearly doesn't understand how to interact with people online (a fact that's self evident from this exchange), doesn't really understand social media (as shown by their bluster about standards), and doesn't really care (as shown by their aggression and arrogance).

The entire news industry is in a pinch right now. How, exactly, are these attitudes helping? Or is the NUJ more a part of a problem than the solution?

Re: NUJ: "effing blogs"

Suw — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 04:48:59 -0000

Terence, I see where you're coming from about subbing. Yes, subbing in a journalistic context is important, but there is a trade off when it comes to journalistic blogs. Most experienced bloggers already know that if they are unsure about something, they get a colleague to give it the once over.

But instituting a formal subbing process for blogs would damage the very thing that makes blogs valuable - their timeliness. It is incumbent upon the blogger to be as accurate as possible, and to admit when they have made mistakes. Yes, I know some bloggers don't do that, but the majority do and they do it transparently and label it as an update. Updates are important not just for correcting mistakes, but also for tracking stories that are emerging and changing over time.

As soon as you try to shoehorn blogs into a formal subbing process, all that timeliness and flexibility goes out the window, and frankly then you may as well not bother to have a blog. This is not arguing that lower standards are acceptable for blogs, but that different standards and methodologies are essential to take account of the nature of blogs. If anything, news outlets should be more careful of who they pick to be bloggers, and choose only the more responsible, transparent and skilled writers.

However, all of that is totally by the by when it comes to personal blogs. Of course bloggers with jobs shouldn't write daft things, but this blog is not a journalistic endeavour, it's a personal blog. In this context subbing is irrelevant.

Finally, it's important not to conflate the tool and the content. There are lots of blogs that aren't anywhere near being OpEd, such as fivethirtyeight.com or scotusblog.com. Even Peston isn't OpEd, that's analysis.

The thing that unites bloggers is the culture, not the content.

Re: The Murdoch Plan: A Consortium

Suw — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 08:07:14 -0000

I, for one, welcome our new media overlords. If they all go behind the paywall, it leaves the way open for innovative start-ups and news projects to wipe the floor with them.

Re: The WordPress Attack, Competition and Blogging Innovation

Suw — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 04:38:33 -0000

I couldn't agree more!

I am the sort of user who's in the middle ground. I'm competent enough to install and maintain my own blogs, but not expert enough to deal with the kind of hacking that's been going on of late. Plus I'd installed blogs that I'd forgotten about... which is lethal. Any chink in your Wordpress armour is a chink too many. These hacks are sophisticated and if you don't know what the Wordpress core files look like it's very hard to spot where exactly the compromise is.

I have to say that I was quite shocked at how vulnerable Wordpress was. Whether the latest version is secure I have no idea, but we should not be in a position of being advised to "harden" our installations to make them so!

Movable Type have an opportunity here, to create a version of MT that is secure, can deal with spam nicely, and can be administered by someone with moderate skills. Sadly, I'm not sure they'll care to take up that challenge and produce a viable Wordpress competitor.

It does make you wonder how much security testing WP have done though.

Re: The WordPress Attack, Competition and Blogging Innovation

Suw — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 13:10:26 -0000

Matt,

Upgrade has measurably improved. I used to use the Automatic Upgrade plugin, because it made life so much easier. I used the new built-in upgrader today on a friend's blog, and it worked very well. It would be interesting to know if there are plug-ins or other easily done changes which break it, and how many people have problems with it, because that would be a massive barrier to upgrading for a lot of people. And WP can't now afford to have any barriers to upgrading when the upgrades are so important.

Which brings me to another point. I had no idea that this upgrade of WP was this important. WP always says upgrades are essential, but this time I feel it was a touch more important than it has been in the past! Perhaps a bit more variation in the messaging around upgrades would have helped emphasise that this one was exceptional -- if some upgrades are for functionality rather than security, perhaps the message within WP could say so? Then the upgrades that are for security purposes will stand out and hopefully people will act on them.

I had chosen not to upgrade because I didn't like the new interface (and I am still not very keen on it, even though I'm getting used to it). I'm not dumb, but I'm also not focused on keeping up to date with every nuance of every WP update, so I had no idea that by leaving my blogs as is that they would be vulnerable.

One upgrade area there there are significant problems which you might be able to help influence are the one-click packages like Fantastico. I just looked on my friend's server earlier, before we upgraded, and the message in Fantastico was "You WP installation is out of date. Upgrade to 2.7..." I'm paraphrasing, but not on version number it wanted me to upgrade to. Anyone who has relied on something like Fantastico to install WP might also be focused on using it to upgrade too, and if those sorts of packages are not up to date, that's a problem. Can you bring pressure to bear on the one-click installers to get their act together on upgrading?

I also think that the upgrade message within WP should also say something along the lines of "Do you have any other WP installations on this server that need upgrading? Remember: One out-of-date installation can compromise your entire server." Because that was at least part of my problem. A bit of variation and additional information in that upgrade message would not go amiss.

I'm pretty sure that my blogs weren't targeted because of their profile - some of them are dead to the world, really. I'm guessing that the spammers just spider the web for old versions of Wordpress and hack everything they come across.

But I think a more fundamental problem is that Wordpress has unintentionally done a bit of a bait-and-switch. It's billed as software that you can install and upgrade without too much server admin knowledge, and one-click installers and upgraders reinforce that message. So you have a lot of users who are like me - we're not dumb, we're technically competent within a limited sphere of knowledge, but we don't know enough to fix the kind of hack that these spammers have been using.

I am lucky - I know Mike Little and he's kind enough to help me out. And I know you, and you've been kind enough to offer help too. But there are lots of Wordpress users out there who don't have that sort of support on hand, and they are going to find it very hard to sort out the mess that these hackers leave behind.

Now this isn't directly WP's fault and, yes, each of us should take responsibility for back-ups and upgrades, but at the same time I think that WP could help matters by thinking about better ways to reach and support users who are essentially one-click users (prior to this sort of disaster!). As a community, I'm sure we could come up with a variety of ways that this could be achieved. One thing I'd definitely like to see would be more information about hacks and how to deal with them -- written for non-techy users -- in a dedicated space on WP.org as they come to light and are investigated. I searched for info on the hack as soon as I realised what had happened, and couldn't find anything that made sense.

I'd also like to see some sort of plug-in security verification scheme, so that i can judge whether a plug-in is safe or risky. If there's a plug-in that's a security risk I want to know about it. I don't run many, but the ones I do are quite important to me. If they are dangerous, I need to find a replacement! Ditto for themes.

Having your blog(s) hacked is a horrible experience. My websites are now not in Google because of this hack, so I have to go and do webmaster shenanigans with Google that I never had to bother with before. But I do hope that it can be a valuable opportunity to learn, for everyone involved.

Re: Is Google Losing Its Global Edge?

Suw — Mon, 14 Feb 2005 16:04:23 -0000

Ah, at least they do have Hawaii though. Wonder if they've got Alaska...

Re: EPFL Offers Blogs to All Its Students

Suw — Sat, 10 Jul 2004 08:11:55 -0000

me too. I have started up a category for Welsh language posts, but it remains to be seen if it works ok, or how much i write. I have set it up so that it doesn't show up on the front page, but you need to go to a category page to see it. Not sure if this is ideal or not.

Re: Possible Hiatus

Suw — Fri, 01 Apr 2005 17:15:23 -0000

Steph has asked me to post here to say that her laptop is now away being fixed and that she won't be able to easily get online for the next couple of weeks.

Re: Démonstration pour le CRAB

Suw — Sat, 09 Apr 2005 16:19:10 -0000

Steph just SMS'd me to say that her borrowed computer has also now broken, so she won't be blogging for a while.

Re: Tonight in London Blogger’s Evening

Suw — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 06:21:29 -0000

We are intending to be at this booze-up: http://randomreality.blogware.com/blog/_archive...>

It's hosted by the Friday Project, so if you want to come, please do RSVP to them.

6.30pm onwards (on 21st of December)
Upstairs @ The Horse & Groom
128 Great Portland Street

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=528972&y=181761&z=0&sv=W1W+6PX&st=2&pc=W1W+6PX&mapp=newmap.srf&searchp=newsearch.srf

Please RSVP to Heather Smith: heather@thefridayproject.co.uk

Re: Creative Commons and Ads on Blogs

Suw — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 09:55:13 -0000

Don't forget you can always ask permission. Creative Commons licenses specify what you can do without having to ask permission, but they do not prevent you asking permission to do something not covered by the license.

Re: The Podcast With No Name (Steph+Suw), Episode 2

Suw — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 16:09:46 -0000

Sadly, Blogware is broken so I can't even blog this on my own blog. :( Oh well, I'm sure it'll be fixed... eventually.

Re: Getting Things Done: It’s Just About Stress

Suw — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 06:21:40 -0000

Wonderful post, Steph. I think this is also related to the difficulty some people have in prioritising relaxing activities as highly as they prioritise work. Because they don't think of the two things as equally worthy of their time and attention, they can only see GTD as relating to work, not pleasure.

Personally, I have a 'social' GTD to do list, as well as other things on my to do list which I count as pleasurable. Certainly the way I use GTD it's across the whole spectrum of types of things that I do with my life. And like you it's absolutely not about cramming more work in, but about getting work more efficiently done so that I can relax, guilt-free, whenever I so choose.

Re: Talk: Languages on the Internet at Google

Suw — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 09:57:17 -0000

Really great talk, Steph. Wish I'd been there!

Re: Competition, Colleagues, or Partners?

Suw — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 15:56:16 -0000

It's good to see you talking about this in the open, Steph, because I think this is an aspect of going into business that most peole feel too scared to broach. As Peter said, there are many examples of "co-opetition", where companies co-operate despite also being in competition. I would like to think that more enlightened companies would consider such a move, but experience also tells me to be wary both when you are approached, and when you decide to approach. Co-opetition can be a great thing, so long as everyone is open, honest, and transparent.

Your new business is going to have an impact on your network - some people will undoubtedly feel unhappy or slighted somehow, but you'll attract other people who are interested in your work. It will even itself out. If you continue to be as positive and open as you normally are, though, I think you'll do just fine.

Re: BlogTalk 2008 Proposal — Being Multilingual: Blogging in More Than One Language

Suw — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 04:30:15 -0000

I understand why conference organisers want papers or slide dekcs, but it's really bad practice in my opinion. We do not work in academia, and we do not have the "publish or die" culture that academia has, so we are neither used to writing papers nor do we have time to do so.

I would much prefer it if conferences routinely videoed the sessions and made them freely available online. Then if individual presenters want to write more about their topic, then they can blog it, and if people want to see what was said, then they can get it from the horses mouth.

I still own conference organisers papers and slide decks from months ago, and to be honest, I have no idea if I am ever going to get the time to prepare them. The academic model just doesn't work for business people, imho. It cerrtainly doesn't work for me.

Anyway, looks like a great talk! Wish I was going to be there, but it's too close after I return from honeymoon.

Re: BlogTalk 2008: Rejection

Suw — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 03:19:22 -0000

Rejection for good reasons is one thing, but those are rather pathetic reasons. My respect for Blogtalk just went down a notch. I wonder what they did accept, and why. I'm not going because I'll only have just got back from honeymoon, but I have no time for this "two page proposal" bullshit.

Personally though, I don't find these sorts of conferences good for business at all. Never picked up a new client at one - better conferences for that are more sector-focused, e.g. HR or marketing or IT. So I would save your money, frankly.

Re: Working For Fame Or For Cash

Suw — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 04:35:06 -0000

One thing - always pay for design work if you can. It's very hard to find a designer prepared to work for nothing, because they are always inundated with offers to work for free, which often they rightly turn down. And if you do find a designer who's working for nothing, then you are in a very weak position if you don't like what they do, or need a change made. And design is so important that it's worth getting it right.

Re: Going Solo Venues, Open Stage, and Link Love

Suw — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 08:01:00 -0000

OK, .... let me be blunt. ;-) Every event organiser wants my linkylove. Every event organiser asks me to blog about their event, to email people I think might want to go, to pimp their ride, as it were. But they never really explain to me what it is that I get out of it. I get lots of people asking me for stuff, but very few people offering me stuff. Why should I write about any event, if I'm not in the mood to? What is it that I'm going to get out of it?

Generally speaking, I usually intent to blog about the events that I'm going to go to, but certainly over the last year I've been too busy to even do that. I don't even have time to write up my own talks! Daft.

Asking people directly for linkylove isn't going to work, because you're making it all about what you need, and offering them nothing in return. And no, a "blog badge" isn't going to cut it. I'm not sure what is, but there's got to be some exchange of value. I'm giving you my time, attention, a bit of my reputation, and the attention of my readers... you're giving me what?

This has nothing to do with the value of your event, or how interesting it's going to be, or the quality of the speakers, but is more about understanding what the transaction is that you are attempting to enter into with people.

And it's not just you. I was disappointed at how little participation there's been on the Creative Business project I'm running. But I haven't had time to really think about how to get people on board, and by the time I do, it will be all over.

So I'd say think a little bit more about what it is that you're offering, rather than what it is that you want.

Now, as this event is you, and I'm involved, then I will put more effort into blogging about it once I have all the screamingly urgent things I need to do done. What with the wedding and stuff, you can imagine my to do list. But at least the good intention is there. ;-) Others, well, yes, it's going to be hard to get them involved. It always is.

Re: Come to LIFT’08

Suw — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 05:39:04 -0000

I'm sad that I'm missing it yet again, but in two weeks I'll be in the final run up to my wedding. Oh well, fingers crossed for next year!

Re: 5 Lessons in Promoting Events Using Social Media (Back to Basics)

Suw — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 08:15:46 -0000

Really good advice. I'm promoting my own event at the moment - http://fruitful-socialtoolsadoption.eventbrite.... - about adoption of social media in business. Sending out lots of personalised emails is exhausting, but I'd feel uncomfortable spamming people.

This is my first event too, although it's much smaller than yours, I can totally empathise with what you went through with Going Solo. The problem I have is not just about finding the time and energy to promote my event whilst also having to put the nuts and bolts of it together so that it functions as a full day seminar, but also, what do I do next time round? I'm hoping to run a number of seminars on different subjects, at a frequency of one a month when things get going. But I don't want to keep bothering people with emails... we have a mailing list, but few people are signing up to it.

How does one effectively promote regular events without getting on people's nerves?

Re: Thoughts on Conference Endings

Suw — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 17:38:02 -0000

Oh, I was going to write a post that said exactly what you have! The end was awful. I was trying to have a conversation with someone at the seating outside of the B8 room, but I had a headache and the clanging and clanking of stands being dismantled really meant I couldn't cope, so we retreated to the speaker lounge. Even in there, all I could really hear were the sounds of things being taken down.

And this was *during* the last session. It really was awful - if nothing else it was rude and showed a disrespect for the final speakers, but it also left a very bad taste in my mouth. Really, was there any need for the stands to be dismantled at 4pm? The conference finished pretty early - at about 4.30pm or 5pm - and there was a party on at 10pm that night, so I can't see why there couldn't have been a closing drinks session until 7pm. OK, some people would have had to leave a bit early, but make sure there's something worth staying for on the schedule and most people will.

I've been to a lot of conferences, but I've never been to one where the expo was dismantled and gone before the talks were even over.

Re: AllAboutPalm

Suw — Sun, 22 May 2005 15:04:21 -0000

And I was so hoping to be writing on the new All About Drag Queens, or at least, All About Transvestites, but no. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to learn to live with writing about my Palm Treo instead then. Such a pity...

Re: Why Wall Street didn’t believe Steve Ballmer (and what he can do about it)

Suw — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 09:52:46 -0000

Robert, I've been trying to say the same thing to people working with me at the OpenRightsGroup.org.uk, but they aren't having any of it. I just did a BBC TV interview outside of the Apple Store here in London talking about DRM, and you know what? They didn't come to me because of a press release, they came because they want an alternative voice that will push back against the industry and they've read about me elsewhere.

Personally, I think press releases are a waste of time and effort. I have better things to be doing with my time. But the lure of old school PR remains strong. Actually, less of a lure, more of a stranglehold.

Re: Stop fighting...now. Stop writing...now.

Suw — Fri, 17 Dec 2004 06:08:02 -0000

You must see Spaced - you will love it. It’s possibily the best sitcom to come out of the UK ever. :)

Re: My Occasional British Accent Strikes Again

Suw — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 18:09:05 -0000

Not jealous. At all. Not one little bit. cough