Better Living Through Keywords

In my ever growing quest to improve myself (not to mention my job prospects) I am studying  SEO or SEM or PPC or whatever it's called.

I'm also set to train myself in all things Wordpress so I can hold a conversation with a tech for a few seconds longer than the sixteen that I can manage now.

To that end I've set up a little blog about the forthcoming Vuelta a Espana (or Tour Of Spain if you like). The URL is below (webmasters: If you honour me by linking to the blog do let me know and I'll link back).

http://vuelta2009.wordpress.com/

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uPoll: Crowd-sourcing via Twitter

Online poll services are two a penny right? They're a popular method of generating sticky content for a website and good for fostering or generating online communities.

At present, there aren't that many online poll generators which are designed to take advantage of Social Media's natural strengths when it come to crowd sourcing. Which is why uPoll has an excellent chance of leading the way in this field .

Upoll.tv is a new polling service with Twitter integration. Simply create a poll and it generates a tweet from your Twitter account directing the user back to that poll. The user then votes and is, themselves, given the option of tweeting the poll. Once the poll closes the results are tweeted.

You can also set up a poll from Twitter by tweeting @upoll, your question, and options plus the duration in minutes. This means that you can effectively crowd-source via SMS.

The application was built by Colt Seavers (no not that Colt Seavers). His background is in Community Forums but spends a lot more time on Twitter. He developed a service more suited to social networking in general and Twitter in particular:

"When I wanted to create a Poll, I looked and found there's lots of complicated voting sites, but they tend to be bulky
and monetized, rather than simple tools, for social decision making. uPoll can be used to quickly canvas opinion from your twitter friends - crowd sourcing opinion, or simply voting on where to go out at the weekend."

The polls are customisable and widgets are also available for embedding into your own website. Unusually, there is no need to register in order to use the full range of its features. "Currently we're not plugging any membership features for the site" says Colt "we decided we wanted everyone to have the same functionality ."

Also, there should be no concerns about the use and storage of the data collected from the polls: "We have no plans to store the data for closed polls. The idea is that this is disposable data. A snapshot that remains interesting only as long as it remains current."

Additional features are forthcoming which will allow you to audio, video and pictures into your poll, (fun for those goal of the week competitions on Some People On The Pitch). As a crowd sourcing tool, it looks like a lot of fun. As someone who is always looking for ways Social Media can extend democratic enfranchisement, I look forward to seeing if activists pick it up in the near future. I could easily see uPoll working well establishing frameworks for online interactive debates.

You can try out uPoll here and follow uPoll on Twitter.

tag: uPoll, Twitter, Polling, Crowd sourcing, social media

Posted via email from redduffman

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Spotify Playlist: Bond Without Barry

This Spotify playlist features a selection of tracks from soundtracks to James Bond films that were not composed by the great John Barry.

Barry is the musical maestro behind the Bond movies. His arrangement of Monty Norman's James Bond is definitive and his contribution to the sub-gnre genre is unquestioned. He composed the music for no less than 11 Bond movies.  His final score was for The Living Daylights. This list comprises of those composers who plugged the odd gap where he, for whatever reason, was not available.

I've not included the David Arnold soundtracks for two reasons. Firstly because he is the successor to Barry and not a replacement. Secondly because none of his Bond soundtracks (Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day, Casino Royale and Quantum Of Solace) are not available on Spotify.

It is for the second reason that I have only been able to include one track from Bill Conti's For Your Eyes Only. Anyone familiar with that particular film's soundtrack may regard this as a blessing in disguise.

I hope you'll agree that the playlist contains some cracking tunes from some fantastic musicians. George Martin's work on Live And Let Die has some truly memorable themes, as does Marvin Hamlisch's on The Spy Who Loved Me. Alas I can't say the same with Michael Kamen's Lethal Weapon clone Licence To Kill (although Ivory's "Wedding Party" is OK).

Eric Serra's Goldeneye remains distinctive, bold and beautiful, if not entirely popular with the all the punters. It is for this reason that I have broken the chronology and place George Martin's awesome version of the James Bond theme at the very end so as to round things off with some stonking authenticity. I hope you enjoy it.

To listen to this playlist you must download Spotify (assuming you do not have it). Once you have done that, click here to listen to the playlist.

If you feel I've made any serious omissions. Please let me know. At some point I will attempt to put together a definitive (at least in my ears) John Barry James Bond playlist.

Posted via email from redduffman

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Augmented Reality can change the way we see the World

This latest app for the iPhone 3GS uses GPS and the built in camera to help you navigate around the New York Subway system. You hold up the phone and it points you in the right direction with on-screen graphics. It's developed by Acrossair who are also working on a London Underground equivalent plus the Twitter app TwittaRound which uses that same technology to help you locate Twitter users in you area.

Pretty soon the sight of tourists roaming London with their iPhones held in front of them looking for the nearest bus or tube to Piccadilly Circus will be commonplace. As a non-tourist visitor to the capital I'm not sure I'm entirely happy with the prospect of already slow moving holiday makers gormlessly whirling around, peering through a tiny screen looking for the right entrance to Bank Station, knocking over flower stalls and the hats of disgruntled commuters. However, I suppose it stops them from just asking them and risking personal injury. That's a could thing right?

The broader point is the onset of Augmented Reality and how it will teach us more about our immediate environment. Imagine the applications for history alone.To use another tourist example, say an app was developed for the London Transport Museum where the data in their audio visual terminal was adapted for an iPhone application. Everywhere you pointed your iPhone you would learn about the exhibits around you.

Think of a places of interest in London like Whitechapel and it's gruesome history. An AR app could take you through a guided tour of the area pointing out places of interest with links to archived material, images and such. If you plugged your earphones in you could listen to an audio commentary. Of course wandering round that part of London holding an expensive phone up for all to see may not be recommended for security reasons but you get the idea.

Like all innovations there are evil applications. The technology could be used by the State to recall data about a place or conceivably a person. The usual privacy issues will need to be addressed. However, Augmented Reality has the potential to be an exciting educational, entertainment and marketing tool. It could literally change the way we look at things.

Now if someone could to develop it for the the N97 I'd be laughing.

Posted via email from redduffman

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#rebootbritain Digital Enfranchisement and the Initiative Gap

The highly anticipated Reboot Britain took place last Monday. The conference, organised by NESTA, was created to set the agenda for how governments use social media to engage, provide services and engage with people. From what I could see the conference was populated by consultants, civil servants, local governments officers, the odd politician (including the ubiquitous Tom Watson) and social media activists who were doing their best to amplify the event in the face of a decidedly flaky wi-fi service.

 

While the aim of the conference is ambitious and to be encouraged (especially for those who wouldn't mind making a bob or two) there does seem to a discernible gap between what public servants want to do and what they can do. Last week I made some remarks  on the gov2gov (#g2g) meeting organised by Futuregov at Canada House. I suggested that part of the reason why Social Media may struggle to find a foothold in Government was a lack of access to the tools needed to make Social Media happen. My concerns about this were increased after attending the session Towards An Interactive Charter. At the beginning we were each handed an A4 peice of paper with "50 Barriers To Open Government". I won't list them all however, the first four from the sub category 'Access' should give you an idea:

 

Access to Web 2.0 sites is blocked or filtered.
 
Requesting that a website is unblocked requires a form to be filled in and the request may not be actioned for 24 hours or more.
 
A site that has previously been unblocked is suddenly blocked again.
 
A site is only unblocked for the computer a staff member usually sits at - and they are unable to access Web 2.0 Sites from another part of the office or another desk.

 

It doesn't end there of course. Other sub headings are Staff and Skill, Structure, Policy and I suspect most importantly Strategy. The feeling during the session seemed to be that the people at the top either don't trust Social Media, demand unnecessary and expensive levels of control or they simply don't get them. As Helen Milner (CEO of UK Online Centres) said, many of her colleagues on her grade believe that her enthusiasm for Social Media is a phase or some sort of fad.

 

After a while we left the room to catch Alan Moore's address called 'Straight Line Thinking Stops Here - The True Promise Of The Networked Society'. Once I'd got over the disappointment of discovering that it was the philosopher rather than the guy who wrote The Watchmen I settled down to a blue sky, unremittingly optimistic and positively utopian vision of a networked of society where lateral thinking was key and the future was social. All good stuff but unfortunately it sounded a million miles away from the civil servants upstairs who could not convince their IT departments to upgrade their browser to IE7. 

For me the two sessions acted as marker posts for a large gap. On one side there is the desire and ambition to go forward to digital future where Government and people engage in a networked society. On the other are the people who want to make it happen but can't because they don't have the tools and their bosses don't have the inclination to push their network admins to supply them with the tools. Essentially what we are looking at is an Initiative Gap.

 

On a positive note, Interactive Charter are working toward bridging that gap. Their work and the work of similar agencies is as essential as Martha Lane Fox's commitment to providing broadband access for everyone in the UK. Providing universal Digital Enfranchisement is hard enough especially when Government is not fully enfranchised themselves.

Posted via email from redduffman

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Craig Newmark at #rebootbritain

  
Download now or listen on posterous

Craig Newmark.mp4 (6448 KB)

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Sir Bonar Neville-Kingdom addresses #opentech

  
Download now or listen on posterous

Bonar.mp4 (2392 KB)

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Governments are still struggling to get their heads around Social Media #g2g

I went to Canada House last Friday for the Global networks, local action: transforming communities with social media (Twitter hashtag #g2g). I thought I'd add a few thoughts about what I learned there.

While it was an insightful meeting I don't remember there being a great deal of discussion about "transforming communities" or "local action". Lovisa Williams from the US State Department is clearly an enthusiastic social networker and had a lot to say about a website that the State Department helped set up for facilitating and advising US Citizens on international exchanges. Emer Coleman from the Greater London Authority understood that, in the face of impending public service cuts, Social Media could be a good tool for finding out from people where their priorities lie in order to inform their decisions as to where to swing the axe. However, that seemed to be the extent of discussion of communities from what I could make out.

Instead, the direction of the discussion moved about how Government departments understand the characteristics of Social Media tools. I found it very interesting that the FCO assign Twitter IDs to specific trusted personnel only. This suggests that they see micro blogging as publicly available and therefore something that needs an extra layer of control in case somebody tweets the wrong thing, so to speak. The tweets aren't cleared but the people doing the tweeting are. Meanwhile, others argued that social media is a form of communication, just as e-mail and the telephone is and no one needs clearance to use that, not anymore anyway.

By way of an illustration, Colleen Graffy, former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Diplomacy at U.S. State Department recounted an unpleasant experience while using Twitter. She started micro-blogging in order to getter engage with her stakeholders only to find her thoughts, which included a few personal anxieties, exploited by the mainstream press. This was something she felt could be damaging and may deter other diplomats who are considering using Social Media.

I'm not sure to what degree this was understood at the time but it does suggest that using Twitter, is not quite like using e-mail or the phone. Twitter is a presumed public conversation while e-mail and telephone is a conversation that presumes involvement with a defined number of selected individuals or groups. If you're a public figure whose actions are open to scrutiny (and subject to misinterpretation) from third parties, this can present difficult challenges. Over time and as Social Media drops the "social" and becomes just plain Media, the relationship between the Fourth Estate and Government may change as the former's business model alters to adapt to the new media landscape. In the meantime however, its good to see that Colleen is still tweeting.

Needless to say it wouldn't be Government without an element of menace. Social Media, was not created to be sinister (unlike the Death Ray) but it can be used for sinister purposes. The discussion on "Public Diplomacy" didn't sit well with some of the non-Government people that I spoke to afterwards. Stephen Hale, Head, Of Engagement at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office seemed quite excited about the idea of engaging with other country's citizens directly by bypassing their own governments. The framework of the discussion was specifically within the realms of combating counter-terrorism, a sort of electronic equivalent of dropping propaganda leaflets out of planes if you will.In many people's eyes this may be perfectly benign and justifiable but is it Social Media?

There was a fair amount of network admin bashing as well. It seems that a number of government departments on both sides of the Pond are having problems getting access to necessary online tools (although it was intriguing to learn how they were finding their way around their departmental IT policies). Unfortunately, it is on that basis that I'm not convinced that Government is going to be pushing the boundaries of social media in matters of democracy anytime soon.

With any technological breakthrough comes an historic opportunity to better enfranchise and democratise. Social Media presents Governments with such an opportunity to provide and extend democratic services to the citizenry and further engage them in the political process. A sort of Digital Enfranchisement.

Unfortunately, I don't believe that Government is equipped or inclined to face the many challenges that Digital Enfranchisement would present. As one audience member implied (a civil servant from Culture Media and Sport whose name, alas, I do not recall), Government is very much about putting the breaks on things and stopping people from getting too far ahead of themselves.

Broadly the lessons I learned was that Governments, (in the UK and US at least), see Social Media as another means of broadcasting their message. Holding conversations is fine but it must be within their own parameters. There is no suggestion that the nature of Government's relationship with people is changing. I had also hoped to hear more on how they envisage a digital future and how they and we can become more involved in running our lives. Instead, I felt their was too much emphasis on what Social Media can do for them as opposed to what they can do with Social Media.

Nevertheless, at least they're talking about it and are prepared to have the discussion in public. Perhaps future sessions will prove more inspiring. Kudos should go to @dominiccampbell of Futuregov, @Chrisheuer at the Social Media Club and the Canadian High Commission for setting it up and laying it on.

Posted via email from redduffman

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Mobile Reporting Should Avoid The Pitfalls Of Emdedded Journalism

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Excited about Google Wave

I'm getting really excited about Google Wave. This is a new communications tool combining conventional messaging and social media concepts to create an open source platform that allows you to share media, collaborate on projects and just plain talk to each other.

The video below is a demo of the application and is worth having a look at. It looks incredibly powerful and Google have already handed over development accounts to prominent developers and should have some exciting applications when it is launched later in in the year.

My inner football blogger has me thinking about how live coverage could be revolutionised in a way that will excite the user, challenge content providers and frighten the MSM. As a Backgammon player, I'm really psyched by the gaming extensions too.

However, this is only the tip of the mind blowing ice burg. In short, Wave threatens to be the de facto form of communication on the Web. Its like e-mail, IM and Web 2 all rolled into one. The translator function looks awesome.

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Red Duffman's Space Themes

I've been mucking about with Spotify and have produced a playlist of some of my favorite sci fi movie themes and incidental music.

You'll need Spotify to access them (it's free) but I hope you enjoy my selection which features the musical talents of Messrs Goldsmith, Williams, Horner and others. Plus, of course, the legendary Geoff Love and his Orchestra.

Click here to listen to Red Duffman's Space Themes.

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@replygate #twitterfail #fixreplies #andallthat

I'm not sure how I feel about the whole @reply controversy (#twitterfail or #fixreplies). There is no question that my Twitter stream is a lot quieter these days. I find myself wondering what and who I'm missing out on as people I follow chunter away with others I don't know. Visible direct replies were like a door that would swing open to allow a brief glimpse of what was happening in the next room. Sometimes I went through and joined them, sometimes I didn't. Now that Twitter have tightened the hinges, that option is no longer available and the oppurtunities to learn and expand my network has been lessened.

However, now that I've had time to get used to the idea, I'm beginning to see some benefits.

For instance, I know that a lot of people who follow me aren't interested in football. While I'm not the world's most vociferous football Tweeter, I do enjoy watching a game on the sofa with my iPod Touch, chatting with others who are enjoying the same game as me. These days I no longer feel as though I'm burdening non-football folk with my guff.  Most of my soccer tweets take the form of conversations and replies with other people who like football and its unlikely that my non-football 'followers' would be following them too (to follow one football nut maybe regarded as a misfortune. To follow two seems like carelessness).

Knowing that I'm not burdening people with half conversations about things they're not interested in has allowed me to tweet with a bit more freedom. If Twitter is an enormous party, at least I no longer have to worry about being the loud mouthed football bore that everyone can hear from the kitchen.

Furthermore, if the Twitterverse could evolve a convention whereby you can reply publicly by adding characters prior to the "@" then we'd have the best of both worlds. Add character(s) if you want to share the secret of World Peace, don't add character(s) if you only want to share your thoughts on the modern interpretation of the offside trap. Another option is do what the admirably level headed Lee Stacey suggests and mention the person you're talking to in your tweet rather than use a direct reply.

Unfortunately, I've not detected such a convention emerging in my network which means that I either need to expand my network, or people are waiting for Twitter to put things back the way things were. How likely it is that this feature will return in quite the same way is not certain so we may have to make do and and mend instead.

tag: Twitter, #twitterfail, #fixreplies, football

Posted via email from redduffman

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Talk with your iPod Touch

If, like me, you're an iPod Touch owner you may find yourself suffering from iPhone Envy. That is the feeling of mild irritation that you can't make phone calls. However, there are a couple of applications for the Touch that allow you to use it as a phone. Both apps require WiFi and both are free, although you will need to shell out for microphone.

Skype
The daddy of Internet phone calls comes to the iPod. If you're an existing Skype user then you can sign in after having installed the app, import your contacts and away you go. The usual services are on offer, that is free Skype-To-Skype calls plus chargeable calls to other networks.

Truphone
Launched in 2008, Truphone started off as a service dedicated to the iPod Touch and iPhone. However, it has since extended to Blackberrys, Nokia and G1 phones. Basically it offers that same service as Truphone although you can make free calls to Skype users in addition to Truphone.

Delboydare and I both have an iPod Touch. Del's is the 16gig. Mine is the 32gig. We found that Skype was better in that it worked. Derek's Truphone kept dropping out every time he got pop ups about his battery and it took a number of times for us to establish a connection and on a couple of occasion only one of us could hear the other. We were testing both apps using our own wireless networks in our respective homes. If they were that flaky under those circumstances, how they would perform using a network in a busy coffee shop?

A common irritant is that you can't have concurrent applications open. This means that I can't use any other app in case the phone rings. I've heard of hanging on the telephone but this is ridiculous.

Both services offer a range of packages to subscribe to for landline and mobile while offering free calls within their own network users. On the surface, this seems like an excellent way of getting over iPhone Envy. And relative cheaply as well. What's missing of course is 3G. Neither service allows for it which is just as well because the iPod Touch doesn't have it. However, it does mean that you're constrained by the presence of WiFi in your location. As more free hotspots become available this may alleviate the problem and you could always subscribe to a paid for WiFi service such as The Cloud. However, at present mobile WiFi phone calling could probably be compared with telephone boxes, in that you can only make calls in specific locations (although WiFi hotpsots don't usually get vandalised).

Having said that, there are ways of hooking yourself up to WiFi without having to pay extra or restrict your movements to visiting coffee chains and Wetherspoons pubs. We plan to post a guide to finding free hotspots and mobile phone 3G tethering later in the week.

In summary, voice call using WiFi has a way to go but it's early days and we look forward to seeing what its like in the future. We'd definitely like to see an app developed so they could run in the background so we can still play Galaxy On Fire while waiting for a call.

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The Joy Of Posterous

I am writing this post downstairs in the living room while watching a cracking football match on the telly. That in itself is not terribly impressive (I'm just trying to establish a setting). However, the reason why I'm writing this post at all is because I'm using Gmail on  Posterous as opposed to a traditional CMS like Blogger or Wordpress.

There are those who believe that the days of the e-mail are numbered. That there is no place for POP3 this and SMTP that in a Web 2.0 world. Posterous, may give exponents of that theory pause for thought. 

Posterous offers a Web 1.0 approach but with a 2.0 result. It is a blogging format that works really well for novices, casual bloggers or people with little time on their hands but with something to blog about.  There is also plenty for the committed social networker, who can't break wind without telling everyone about it on their myriad social networking IDs, to play with.

The process is simple. Send an e-mail to post@posterous.com. You don't have to sign up for an account if you don't want to. Posterous takes the information from your e-mail address plus the body of your e-mail and publishes it as a blog. Once it's done that, you receive a confirmation e-mail supplying you with the link to your post. 

Give it a try yourself. The passage below is a typical example of a crude attempt at viral marketing. Copy it into an e-mail and send it to post@posterous.com.

Dear Posterous,

According to redduffman, all I need to do in order to post a blog is send you an e-mail. Please reply confirming that he is a lying cad and a bounder.

Regards,

A skeptical reader with fantastic taste in blogs.

Now check your Inbox... and there you go.

Of course if you do set up an account, there is an impressive array of services available including auto posting to existing blogs, dragging text, pics and videos, automatic podcast syndication etc etc. Adding tags is easy as you just include them in the body of your e-mail (tag: Posterous, Social Networking, Blogs).

The scalability and simplicity of Posterous is what's making it the platform du jour among hard core bloggers and social networkers alike. Better still, it is a fantastic tool to use for introducing people who are new to blogging and web publishing.

Posted via email from redduffman

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If Twitter was a sport and short snooker

I've been trying to imagine that if Twitter was a sport, what sport would it be? I figured it would have to take place in short bursts. It would also have to be direct and have the qualities required of all good sports. That is being really interesting and engaging or crushingly boring and mundane at any moment.  One essential component would have to be that it must be completely impenetrable to newcomers. 

To that end I've decided that if Twitter was a sport it would be Fencing. Each point is almost always brief. It has its own variety of excitement, other times its humdrum. But it is almost always it's baffling to watch for the first time. It also has a range of expressions and conventions which take time to learn and can result in the occasional faux par for the uninitiated. Fencing is a sport that demands that you conduct yourself properly and observe the proper etiquette. It helps if you have good poise as well.

I've had one fencing lesson myself and had a great time. I've always fancied giving it another go but it's a bit pricey for people like me who are most likely to give up after a couple of weeks.

I had a look on Twitter to see if their were any prominent Fencing tweeters and found none. They're missing a trick methinks and if any fencers stumble across this blog, can I suggest they consider micro blogging their matches (if that's the right term)? I'll give you a hand if you like...

The good people of Sports Business have reported the following disturbing development in the World of Snooker ahead of the world championships which starts tomorrow.

SNOOKER’S GOVERNING BODY announced it will launch a new short form of the game, provisionally called ‘Super6s’, in a bid to shake-up and modernise the sport. The ‘Super6s’ format will have six-minute matches, and will reduce the number of red balls from 15 to 6 to speed up play. Sir Rodney Walker, the chairman of World Snooker, said, “As an observer of snooker you cannot churn out the same diet year after year. Look at what Twenty20 has done for cricket. It brought in a whole new audience so what we have in mind we think would be appealing to a younger audience.”

Not being young, I've taken something of a dislike to Twenty20 cricket. I don't think that this is because my attention span has increased since I've got older, I suspect it's because I think that the players look stupid in pyjamas and have that the short version of the game has appalling taste in music. I also think that a good number of Twenty20 matches end in a whimper just as much as a one day match or a test match.

Personally, I think that there is a place for long drawn out sporting events and am not convinced that young people don't like cricket and snooker because they are long. Golf is a sport which goes on forever, but you don't hear the PGA announcing a new Pitch & Putt3Hole competition designed to appeal to those valuable 18-25s who are so dynamic that they haven't even got time for a space bar, they're just too damn busy.

No, I suspect that the problems that Snooker and Cricket have is that people either believe it is a crap sport or they know it is a crap sport. Having said that, if by producing a shortened version for the benefit of a new audience, they can attract people to their sport then I guess it's not a bad idea. However, I'm not convinced that by making your beloved sport shorter, you're sending the right message. It's like saying "Snooker6s: It's good because it doesn't drag on as much as usual."

Besides, who says proper snooker can't be played quickly?

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Film Review: In The Loop

The tradition of movies made from UK TV sitcoms is long and inglorious. Off the top of the head, Dad's Army, Are You Being Served, Bless This House and the On The Buses never really successfully crossed the bridge from cathode to celluloid.

The Thick Of It however, is more than your average half hour sitcom. It is a much more intense, thoughtful and I'm bound to say intelligent proposition altogether. The story line in Armando Ianucci's political satire has matured over its two series and when a cinematic release of the project was announce, there were very few doubts that it would be able to adapt to the big screen. It has the scope, the depth of story and lest we forget, it has Peter Capaldi as Malcolm Tucker, the magnificent, fearsome, Machiavellian spin doctor from the deepest most fettered bowels of Satan's imaginings.

In The Loop represents the next stage of Ianucci's adventure in political satire. The story centres around the machinations of the hawks in the US state department who are trying to instigate a war in the middle east while fending off the doves within their own ranks who are trying to stop them. In the middle of it all is the diminutive, in both stature and presence, Simon Foster (Tom Hollander), Minister of International Development for Her Majesty's Government who unwittingly turns both hawk and dove thanks to a succession of poorly managed meetings and press briefings.

Foster and his new advisor Toby played by Chris Addison (who played Ollie in the TV series) is sent to Washington at the request of the State Department and finds himself the poster boy for both camps. James Gandolfini plays, General Miller who thinks war is something that the US military can barely afford. Opposite him is Linton played by David Rache. A psychotic Rumsfeld type figure who is prepared to break any rule and plunge any depths to start a fight.

Eventually, Tucker joins the fray as all parties squabble, scheme, deal and no-deal around a single report that undermines the case for war and the evidence supporting conflict from the mysterious and possibly fabricated Iceman.

In places the film tends to suffer from its grander ambition. Most of the action takes place in true Whitehall farce fashion with people running in and out of offices and buildings. However, at times, you felt the film was restricted by this format and there was a bigger movie trying to break out. With some Hollywood funding, this film could have been a modern day Dr Strangelove.

However, these are only minor issues against what is a triumph for British comedy and political satire. The film features performances of immense stature and gravitas: Gandolfini as the lapsed Patton figure, devoted to his country but baffled by the way it does business; Tucker as the foul mouthed agent of Number 10. A cocaine charged genetically engineered ferret rampaging through the corridors of power on both sides of the Pond causing mayhem wherever he goes. Rache, is superb as the evangelical warmongering nutcase (fans of the 80's Dirty Harry spoof Sledge Hammer will particularly enjoy his performance). The exchanges between the him and Capaldi represent the highlight of a raft of magnificent set pieces in the film which are toe curling, foul mouthed, politically incorrect, appallingly cynical and very very funny.

The film also features a glorious cameo by Steve Coogan who plays a constituency member who's complaint about a collapsing brick wall threatens to not only bring down his mother's greenhouse but an entire Government department. It's Ianucci's instinctive understanding of the political process and how anything can be linked to everything if you are skilled, clever and devious enough that allow him to construct a story that is both unexpected yet inevitable.

In The Loop is released in cinemas April 17th.

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Social Media MA

Birmingham City University has launched a Masters Degree in Social Media.

This course is designed for the end user academic with no IT background. he aim is to build and develop networks using the usual S & M tools that we all know and love (or hate). Students will learn how to use Social Networking within a business context. This includes low cost marketing and PR. It will also teach people about blogging and podcasting

The organiser is @johnhickman. He told the The Daily Telegraph that the course is "... not for freaks or IT geeks, the tools learnt on this course will be accessible to many people."

There has been some criticism of the new course. In the same Telegraph article a student at the university called it a "... a complete waste of university resources" and that "... most people know all this stuff already".

He's got a point. There is a great deal of information on social networks on the web. Much of it is free and there are plenty of lovely people around who are happy to share their experience. There is also a strong argument that the last thing the Internet needs is an army of highly trained PRs flooding our virtual galaxy. Having said, that without seeing a full breakdown of the course details it's easy to dismiss this as a course for newbies.

There is also one aspect which piqued my interest and that was the research element:

"The research-based nature of this MA draws upon the expertise of the Interactive Cultures research unit based in the Birmingham School of Media (http://interactivecultures.org/). Our established and innovative work with music and radio industries, policy, cultural entrepreneurship as well as the practices of social media will inform class work and the directions of individual scholarship."

Much of social networking development is by entrepreneurs who are talented and very clever but are essentially start-ups, not all of which will last long. Academic institutions can contribute to the Social Media industry and could enhance new and existing services by providing them with a forum to work with. If I were developing a hot new Twitter based app, I'd be knocking on their door wanting to hook up with them.

An academic research centre will also create a timeline of Social Media's development. Sadly, a number of great services that we know and love now, will not succeed and wither away. In time, a Social Media research centre will, presumably, have data on legacy services and allow aspiring gurus to look back on applications of the past and learn valuable lessons from what they did and what they did wrong.

So all in all I think it's a good thing. I only wish I had the £4000 to pay for the course.

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Worshipping at the feet of the WFPI

I plan to write a fawning tribute to the World Football Phone in on Radio Five Live for SPAOTP during the close season when things are quieter. However, having just listened to the latest edition I had to post the following mash-up composed by 'Kalou' which was featured on the show.

For the sake of completion, its only fair to include the programme's unofficial theme tune by Real Sounds Of Africa

If you're not a disciple of Dotun Adebayo, Tim Vickery and the rest then set course for this RSS feed for the podcast. Give it time though, its charm is not readily apparent to the new listener.

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Nikegate

Back in the day, Palace’s former manager Steve Coppell referred to his boss and club chairman Ron Noades as an ‘enlightened despot’. One could easily say the same about the current chairman and owner, Simon Jordan.

The former mobile phone salesman and entrepreneur rescued the club from oblivion at the beginning of the decade when Palace were on the brink of liquidation. He has pumped millions of pounds into the club over the years. Few doubt the value of his contribution to Crystal Palace and when he finally sells the club (something he has been trying to do for some time now) he will take his place in history as the Man Who Saved Selhurst and Palace’s Most Orange Chairman (on account of his hideous permatan).

However, he has a tendency to fly off the handle. So when the local newspaper, Croydon Advertiser, ran a story on fans annoyance with the new kit manufacturers Nike designs for next season, he banned the paper from speaking to players and manager at the club.

The current home strip design is white with a red and blue sash. Its an old design and very popular among the Palace faithful (ie their paying supporters). The design is not included among the new submissions from Nike. The Advertiser had received a number of complaints from supporters about the strip’s absence and ran a story reflecting this. That’s when Jordan got all steamed up and imposed the ban.

You suspect that this decision was based on a spontaneous explosion rage on Jordan’s part and he’ll rescind the ban after one or two games once he feels he's proved his point. In the meantime, hopefully the Advertiser will decide to give more coverage to Croydon’s non-league clubs, Croydon FC and Croydon Athletic.

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Plymouth 1 Palace 3

My jaw is still firmly on the floor after Palace’s staggering away win at Plymouth tonight.

I can't say that Plymouth is a club that I have a special affinity with. I seem to recall passing through the place on a National Express coach when I was a kid. They also were the club who employed Peter Shilton as manger in the nineties. Shilton is not a character I have a great deal of time for because of Mexico ’86. Hand of God or no Hand of God, there is no way an international class goalkeeper should be second to a ball against a 5ft nothing striker, Especially when that striker was using his hand.

For me they Plymouth have two redeeming qualities: They play in green like Mexico, St Etienne and Werder Bremen plus Paul Sturrock seems like a decent enough bloke. He may well find himself out of the job after this result.

Our goals were all scored in the first half by Neil Danns, Alan Lee and John Oster. Gary Sawyer notched up Argyle's consolation.

After an appalling January when we hardly played at all due to bed weather or FA Cup ties (and when we did play we lost) its great to be back amongst the goals and moving back up the table again. Hopefully the game highlights will be on the Net soon.

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Crikey It's Nike

To the best of my knowledge, Crystal Palace have never had a Nike strip.I stand to be corrected but I reckon they remain one of the few kit manufacturers yet to give their own interpretation of the 'famous red & blue'. I'm pretty certain that Umbro haven't produced a kit for us either (although I really may be wrong about that).

I must confess I have considerable misgivings about Nike. There have been a number of pretty serious concerns expressed about their reputation as employers. They have been associated with the notorious sweatshop industry that employs child labour at rates of pay that dwarf the average salaries in Western Europe let alone the income of those sportsman who are paid to market their wares.

There is a degree of prestige for the club to be sponsored by such a big name and in that respect Simon Jordan can be pleased that he is securing high profile deals in light of today's current economic climate. His dedication to the club is admiral when you consider that he is trying to sell up.

Anyway, the kit designers have submitted a range of styles for fans to vote on by emailing info@cpfc.co.uk, stating in the subject line of the email their prefered choice. I found the picture below on the Holmesdale Online website:

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Dog Eared Moonlight: The Milk & Honey Band

I loath music reviews. I can't stand the constant need to shoe horn in bullshit metaphors that reak of self-importance and pretension. Therefore this post is more of an observation than a review.

I've known Robert White for so long that any music he produces will be so bound up by my own affection for the man that it would be impossible to be objective about anything he creates. In this instance, I don't really think it matters that much as I believe the latest album from the The Milk And Honey Band to be a work of great eloquence and beauty.

Dog Eared Moonlight is a collection of primarily acoustic melodies ideal for an evening in with good company and a nice bottle of red or if you have the means and the climate, a summer night outdoors with a cold beer.

The lyrics carry sentiment without sentimentality. My favorite tracks are No World At All which has a glorious and wistful country flavour; Disappear because it reminds me of so many other great tracks I've heard by this band (plus I'm a sucker for that mandoline sound) and Maryfaith because its just a fucking gorgeous tune.

The album is out March 9th on Ape Records and it would be really great if people bought it. More information is available on the band's Myspace page.

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Brief Book Review: Roseanna

Roseanna is the first in the Decalog 'The Story Of A Crime' written by left wing husband and wife partners Sjowall & Wahloo featuring the famous Swedish detective Martin Beck. The title character is an American tourist holidaying in Sweden who is raped and murdered on a pleasure cruise.

Martin Beck is the cop who has to find the murderer. The story is partly about sexuality in 1960's Sweden and how society copes, or fails to cope with the cultural changes taking place at that time.

Its also about boredom, and the tedium of work and life and working life. Martin Beck is a character whose sould has become somewhat shrevilled by his obsession about his work with no love for his home and only residual affection for those that live within.

The narrative is engaging and the book is easy to read despite the fact that the characters spend an awful lot of time waiting around. If you enjoy police procedurals then this book is for you.

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Tour Of Croydon Update and Stage 1.5

Lets be honest, its been a really cold winter. A hateful season. I'm not one to complain about the cold but by Christ this was different.

At least that what I have been telling myself. For you see by blaming the weather I absolve myself of the depressingly familiar feeling of guilt and self loathing for not having taken my new bike out.

So far my Tour Of Croydon has not gone so well. The route I showed you in my last post has been done on a couple of occasions with reasonable success. I have also planned out a longer route (Stage 1.5 below, I don't have the gall to advance my progress by a single number) which I completed once with hilarious consequences (if you find a 40 something MLC wobbling along on a bike gasping for breath funny and what right thinking person doesn't). I even managed to ride to my folks in Riddlesdown and back again.

That was ten days ago and its only been today that I've managed to get back on the thing and that was only for half of Stage 1.5 (.75?). I know I said baby steps but my progress on my journey back to peak fitness is little more that a glint in the postman's eye at the moment.

In fairness its not been entirely my fault. Mr Volkswagen is partially to blame. After all, if he'd designed the Polo to be wider, I could have fit my bike in the back of one and taken it to Glastonbury last weekend when me and Mrs RDM went to visit friends. At the very least it would have made my excuse for not taking it out much harder to concoct.

Anyhoo, the weekend is upon us and I'm off to Brighton so maybe I'll squeeze it onto the train and take a ride up to the Devils Dyke...

Its the way I tell' em


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Fare rises: Time something was done?

Excessive Public Transport fare increases are undemocratic.

Every year prices go up higher than the cost of living, commuters get angry, refuse to accept that the increase is justifiable, but adjust their budgets accordingly and pay.

Or do they? How many are forced to take jobs closer to home because they can no longer afford to pay their travel costs. Worse, how many young people have entered the workplace but ruled out a career in their preferred sector because the price of travel is too high for their entry level wages and opt instead to take a job closer to home which, in the longer term, is less fulfilling and pays less?

Public transport enables us all to go about their business. Without it, people's opportunity to work is hindered with broader consequences on society. In Croydon, the fairly recent Tramlink has enabled residents in some of the districts more deprived areas to travel easily to East Croydon and Wimbledon with all the transport links that those two places offer. In the past, people from places like Phipps Bridge or Belgrave Walk would most likely have left their communities in order to get near a tube stop or railway station to a better life. This is not necessarily the case any longer. While it will take time, those communities will benefit economically and socially from that connection, even if the Tramlink itself is a bit shonky at times.

It is for this reason that I believe that affordable and accessible public transport should be a democratic right. Continued over-inflationary price rises threaten to exclude people from deprived areas from good jobs or compel them to leave home, taking their economic potential with them.

But what can we do? Lets face it, existing commuters still have to commute right? There is, realistically, only one way of getting in and that's by public transport. Commuters fall into that category of consumers who need to pay for a service where no other alternative exists in the marketplace. They can't just take their business elsewhere. The collective transport operators have commuters over a barrel and there is nothing we can do about it right?

Maybe, but has anyone actually tried? Surely there are some effective means of protest that may, over time, influence policy makers and the transport operators change their pricing structures. If nothing else it give us commuters the chance to let off some steam. 'You've pissed us off so now we're going to piss you off'. I've been giving the matter some thought and come up with ways of protesting that commuters might try:

Individual

Refuse to cooperate with revenue protection staff and tell them why. No need to cause trouble, just take your time producing your ticket while at the same time politely reminding the inspector how much you are being charged. Bit naff though.

Write to your MP. Straightforward and probably only slight less effective as the former.

Complain to your operator. Ask them for a full breakdown of the costs of the price increase and what they hope to achieve with it. When they reply with a standard response, write back complaining that your complaint is not being taken seriously.

Collective

Organise protest marches. Everyone take a day off for a day of action. Alternatively...

...walk to work. Not the whole way but everyone get off at designated Zone 2 stops or stations, grab a placard and walk the rest of the way into town.

Raise money to hire a political lobbyist. This one is for the well healed. A better approach might be to...

...stand in council and/or parliamentary elections as a single issue candidate on Public Transport. Form an selection committee and choose a likely candidate. There are examples of single issue candidates succeeding electorally.

Coordinated protest campaigns can take years to have any effect, however I think in time it may be possible to affect a change of thinking and a change in prices. At the very least there should be more transparency. Operators should be compelled to give comprehensive answers to question like Why is this price increase so high? What do you hope to have achieved by the increase and by when?

Whether we have the time or inclination much less the drive to undertake such activities is the big question. However, if we do nothing... well it doesn't need to be said does it?

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