Disqus - Latest Comments for tomsk

Re: Tom Beardshaw › Designing useful mobile services for Africa

tomsk — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 06:11:16 -0000

Interesting work by Google into the use of SMS services for search in Africa. Mobile penetration in Africa is huge - they've bypassed landlines and personal computers, so it seems the logical choice to develop SMS or mobile based services for the continent. Good stuff GOOG.

Re: Tom Beardshaw › The 6 Dangerous Fallacies of Social Media Marketing

tomsk — Sun, 31 May 2009 08:42:52 -0000

Indeed Carl.

I bookmarked this because there are some real truths in here. There's a lot of 'magic pill' thinking about marketing in social web/media/networking channels and this is a good article that pops some bubbles.

Developing online networks requires time, people, effort and a thoughful approach based on good knowledge about the online environment and how the product/brand you're marketing fits in. It's not a quick easy fix, but it can be incredibly effective if done right.

I like mythbusting. Always useful.

Re: Tom Beardshaw › National Theatre Wales Community

tomsk — Mon, 25 May 2009 16:23:52 -0000

National Theatre Wales is a new theatrical company for Wales. They're just getting started, and one of the first moves they've made has been to open a social network website to host and grow a community around them.

Carl Morris and I (NativeHQ) won the contract to build the site on the Ning platform, help them make decisions around site features and content, train them to use the software and help develop strategies for community development.

It's been a real pleasure working with John, Lucy, Catherine, Mathilde, Lesa and Rhian - the NTW team. They are at the start of a fantastic journey, creating a National Theatre company with an open and fresh approach.

There'll be a blog about this on NativeHQ's site soon. In the meantime, if you're into Theatre, head over to the site and join in the discussions.

Re: Self Hosted Lifestream Gallery #11

tomsk — Mon, 11 May 2009 06:16:10 -0000

Hey thanks for including my site. It's an evolution from Yongfook's Boxy theme for Sweetcron. I packed it up as a theme (Tangled Up in Blue) - it's available for download here: http://www.tombeardshaw.com/items/view/710

Re: Tom Beardshaw › 2 easy ways to track social networks in Google Analytics

tomsk — Thu, 07 May 2009 20:51:33 -0000

Hey this is really useful - this is a way to set up a special category which basically means "came from a social network" in your google analytics.

Re: Tom Beardshaw › Facebook Manners And You

tomsk — Mon, 04 May 2009 13:59:27 -0000

Here's interesting... and a fun, well put together vid. As new social platforms grow online, we have new contexts in which to conduct human relationships. So there is a debate about 'manners', 'etiquette' etc... essentially people trying to apply moral/ethical codes to new relationship currencies.

E.g. - we all know it's a good idea to talk to someone in person if you are ending a relationship rather than saying it by phone or text, but now, a Facebook status update can perform the action for you, if you want. But it's definitely not a good idea.

Old ideas, new contexts. Fun video

Re: My work - environment

Duncan — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 07:59:28 -0000

Well, I managed to get to one of the revolutions - it was Bulgaria, 3 November 1989 (my birthday) I was attending an international governmental conference on the environment - one of those stage managed US-Soviet events at which everyone talked about world peace and hated each other. The clever illegal opposition in Bulgaria decided to adopt the environment as a hook for their protest and decided it would be clever to stage a revolution while the Americans and West Europeans were in town. It worked. The demonstrations came onto the street the moment the conference started and Zhivkov was gone within days. I recall two things in particular: attending the rallies in the local theatres - the most exciting human events I have ever been involved in - and having a long academic discussion in the middle of all the chaos about the nature of bureuacracy with one of the leaders of the opposition, the most surreal conversation of my life.

Re: My work - environment

tomsk — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 05:46:01 -0000

Would love to hear more about 'managing a revolution'! Any plans to tell some stories from your time there?

Re: Colin Consterdine Online › Susan Boyle, Simon Cowell & Steven Spielberg

tomsk — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 14:00:21 -0000

I was just thinking that it was amazing how no one was talking about Paul Potts. It's exactly the same narrative - all the producers of Britain needs talent need to do is find a few 'unlikely' (read - not beautiful) talents and bingo, they've got a story.

Re: Tom Beardshaw › How To Do Social Media Right In 2009

tomsk — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 09:00:35 -0000

OMG - this has happened to a few people I know. Flipping horrific. They banned pictures of breastfeeding mothers too. They have complete control and quite arbitrary decision making processes. Shocked.

Re: Tom Beardshaw › Gary Vaynerchuk at FOWA Miami 09

tomsk — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 08:50:08 -0000

Great isn't he. Right on the money too.

Re: Tom Beardshaw: social web designer › Mike Wesch on YouTube, social media and education

tomsk — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:36:24 -0000

That's what my brain is doing!

Re: BBC mulls Twitter account

tomsk — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 13:09:40 -0000

World's their oyster... give it to the Director General? Feed random twitters from presenters live and concurrent with shows on radio and TV, make major announcements, be a channel of response to when the BBC becomes the news.

Make it relevant, useful, real time. run by a mix of feeds and hoomans. I'm sure they could make it an awesome Twitterer to folllow. 140 characters a time.

For posterity, here's @bbc with just 43 followers (Jan 29 2009)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blokes_pix/3236701...

Wonder if they can make it massive.
Tom

Re: BBC publishes insult via Twitter. Or does it?

tomsk — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 16:09:51 -0000

Thanks for the update Jem - well handled by Twitter and the BBC...
There are lessons to be learnt here by any brand.
Twitter squatting is the new domain squatting.
We got some of the screenshots you mentioned and blogged the story here:
http://is.gd/hHvq

Re: BBC publishes insult via Twitter. Or does it?

tomsk — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:31:29 -0000

Has the BBC been through every single tweet that came from this account to ensure that none of them have contained false financial information, links to phishing sites or any other content that didn't come directly from the BBC newsfeed?

If not, you should - quickly!
If everything's ok, you're very, very lucky.

Re: New unit to put the family back into hospital birth

tomsk — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 14:06:05 -0000

Fantastic news to see Midwives taking the lead on this issue - and congrats on the Fellowship!

Re: Tom Beardshaw › Tangled Up In Blue: Sweetcron theme

tomsk — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:29:31 -0000

Hi all
I've been having a few problems with this theme in IE, Chrome etc.
I've gone right through it and sorted out the files, then repackaged it as a theme.
If you've had any problems, download the theme again and run through it anew.
It should work like a dream now.

Re: 5 Counter-intuitive rules for creative people

aeioux — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:44:03 -0000

Tara Hunt gave an excellent talk at Thinking Digital last year about Flow - there might be some slides online somewhere. A few people talk about this but I'm not sure many understand it. Achieving 'flow' is actually a whole way of living I could imagine.

Re: 5 Counter-intuitive rules for creative people

tomsk — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 06:07:32 -0000

Love this post. The failing rule is spot on. Try. Fail. Try again. Fail better. Failing is the only true innoculation against fear - fear of damage to your reputation, of 'looking silly'. Once you've failed enough, you'll be able to let go of the fear of failure.

On the play one, it's probably worth thinking about how much work you have put into gaining a skill before you're able to play with it. Think about a musician. There's a huge amount of practice and hard work required before they can stand up and just play with their instrument. I'm sure if you think about it, you'll see the huge number of hours that you have clocked up working hard on your coding skills before it got to the point where it feels like play.

But the 'flow' you're talking about is an awesome feeling I can relate to - almost an out of body experience when a part of you is just watching yourself at work, being amazed by what you can do.

Re: Tom Beardshaw: social web designer › Voodoo Groove

tomsk — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 19:29:06 -0000

Legends of Cardiff Rock and Roll blues! Playing in my flat on my 40th birthday :D

Re: Tom Beardshaw › Tangled Up In Blue: Sweetcron theme

tomsk — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 09:45:51 -0000

Thanks to Carl for the video comment while still logged into Disqus on my computer!

Re: Tom Beardshaw › Tangled Up In Blue: Sweetcron theme

tomsk — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 09:44:13 -0000

Seesmic video reply from Disqus.

Re: Tom Beardshaw › Tangled Up In Blue: Sweetcron theme

tomsk — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 11:09:26 -0000

Cheers for the comments. Glad you're liking it.
@mqube I like the look of your stream... nicely integrated into your site - but I guess I just don't think Twitter belongs in a lifestream - it tends to flood the feed if you're really involved in the Twitter community. I prefer it in my sidebar :D

Re: Tom Beardshaw› Sweetcron boxdaddy theme

tomsk — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 09:56:55 -0000

Just released "Tangled Up in Blue" theme - which builds on Boxdaddy and has a few extra bits.
It's what I'm using on my site now.

For details, go to:
http://www.tombeardshaw.com/items/view/710

Re: Tom Beardshaw› Sweetcron boxdaddy theme

tomsk — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:31:35 -0000

I've updated the site and I'm planning to release the new theme... watch this space.