With Stephen Fry on the BBC talking about the joys of Twitter, and the Twestival coming up on 12 February, it appears Twitter is reaching the mainstream in the UK?
Twitter gets mainstream
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Category Archives: Social software-Blogs
LabourList launches today
Thanks to Bristol East MP Kerry McCarthy I came across the new LabourList blog which launches today. It also has help on starting your own blog which is great.
Welcome to LabourList, the must read online forum for Labour minded people to come together to share news and views and, hopefully, also have a laugh.
Over the last few weeks, there have been a number of misinformed reports about what we are trying to achieve with this website. Most have been completely inaccurate. A quick summary is available here.
What we’re really about is pretty simple. LabourList aims to provide a platform for debate for every level of our movement, and for those who disagree with us.
To encourage this discussion, we’ll have access to and insight from government ministers; we’ll host voices from the fringe and from the traditional media; and we’ll have regular reports from the grassroots that make our movement so powerful.
Typepad Connect looks useful
Says on the site that you can “turn your audience into a lively community with a suite of powerful commenting and community tools” which looks useful.
- Make your blog the center of discussion.
- Track and manage comments with ease.
- Create a lively community with reader profiles.
- Free and compatible with Movable Type, WordPress.org, Blogger, Tumblr, TypePad.
More here to chew on if that wets your appetite
Confessions of a CEO blogger
Five of the best from the CEO of Forrester Research. Like the point about the relationship between the time it takes and views on the site. The more the views the more time is likely to be taken up. BTW the CEO of Forresters complains he had a ‘cheat sheet’ 6 pages long. Bet I could have got that down to 3 pages with a bit of effort! I mean if you can produce a new web content style sheet for the General Medical Council, anything else is pretty manageable.
Le Web 08 here we come
Looking forward to start of Le Web 08, especially as it’s being carried online (programme pdf here), some great looking sessions. Free live webstreams on ustream.tv. I see one of the official bloggers is IT Counts very own Dennis Howlett, who recently gave me a nice hat tip in relation to starting a poll on the VAT reduction.
Have a great Le Web 08 Dennis.
Moderation & liability advice
Drilling in to the issue of moderation and liability I had a very useful discussion with Struan Roberts last week. He’s a technology lawyer with Pinsent Masons and Editor of OUT-LAW.
Looking at moving from a system of light moderation on IT Counts, where we allow registered users to post comments at their own risk, to one where we will pre-approve comments for guest users (pre-moderation is the jargon term) there remains the issue of how to handle liability.
Struan explained that in principle you can’t limit liability for users whose comments are moderated, though it helps to greatly remove the risk by dealing with any complaints promptly and use wording to encourage guest users to take care with their content.
He added that current registered users would not be a liability risk as their comments will continue to appear without moderation.
Very useful advice indeed.
Jakob lets rip on blog posting
“To demonstrate world-class expertise, avoid quickly written, shallow postings. Instead, invest your time in thorough, value-added content that attracts paying customers.” Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, July 9, 2007
PS: So this is an example of a blog that has not invested a great deal of time and trouble;-)
Web site editor beaten with hammers
The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Monday’s brutal attack on Ognian Stefanov, editor of the investigative news Web site Frognews, in Bulgaria. The editor and his family had recently received anonymous phone calls warning Stefanov to stop his journalism or face consequences, Stefanov’s deputy, Aleksandar Ivanov, told CPJ. The site publishes investigations into the activities of public officials, and particularly those in the state security services.
Stefanov is hospitalized in critical condition, with broken arms and legs, a brain concussion, and severe blood loss; he is unconscious, Ivanov told CPJ. According to the Bulgarian Web site News, prosecutors are investigating the case as an attempted murder.
Stefanov, 54, was leaving a restaurant called Kiparisite in Bulgaria’s capital, Sofia, at around 11 p.m. on Monday, when he was approached by four men in black clothes and hats. The men reportedly asked the journalist if he was Ognian Stefanov; when he confirmed his identity, they started beating him with hammers, according to multiple local press reports. The Bulgarian Interior Ministry issued a statement saying witness accounts could not confirm the exchange. The statement also denied a report that said the attackers had introduced themselves as police officers. Ivanov has not regained consciousness since the incident. (Read more in Scoop)
Updated blogging software is a nod to the convergence of blogging and social networks
Movable Type Pro launched today combines blogs with social networking, not unlike the WordFrame platform used for IT Counts: “The type of Web site that you build with Movable Type doesn’t have to look like a classic two- or three-column blog,” said Chris Alden, Six Apart’s CEO.
“It can be structured to look like any Web site you see surfing the Web. Web publishing is moving from a heavily process-driven activity to being something more decentralized, something more inclusive of community, and being able to build Web sites in a more rapid and agile fashion. We really view Movable Type as part of sea change in Web content management toward a social publishing direction,” he added.
Hmm, thanks Chris, nice comments. <Update> I mentioned this in Twitter just yesterday, taking the essence from another report: “Blogging is getting social + social networking is fragmenting. Means niched sites attracting more visitors, with more qualified audiences.” Kinda reminds me of IT Counts. Though Dennis didn’t think so, I wasn’t gonna argue with the guru.
Blogware migration to WordPress, thanks to PressHarbor
Thanks to the team at PressHarbor my blog has successfully migrated to WordPress. Now to explore the depths of the software further.
As you can see from John’s comment below I made a mistake thinking that it’s being hosted by Rackspace too, the servers we use for IT Counts. However, what that error did throw up was that Rackspace IPO’d on 7 August, one of the first cloud computing companies to go public. However, on its opening day, the stock price plunged 20% to $10. Ironically enough, Wall Street was hoping that the Rackspace deal would help spark the IPO market.
Called up my UK-based share dealing service, share.com, which I have already got US trading rights sorted only to be told that it’s too early to buy, and to try back in a few weeks. Cheers!