@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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