Web habits
Work's been a little slack lately waiting for others to do their bit. Ever since the volunteering I did in November and meeting a number of local 'social media' experts I've been addicted to Twitter. It's quite handy having a job that means I can experiment with these web technologies. I've never needed to worry about getting caught on Facebook as I can say I'm 'researching' though others would probably say 'stalking' or the industry technical term of 'lurking'. The video below (think of me as the bearded, baseball hat-wearing guru) lampoons this new trend of marketing though from the Twittering I see from such experts I really wonder whether the industry is getting away with offering these services or if their clients are really wearing the emperor's new clothes.
I've been to a couple of interesting web/social media seminars and presentations lately. Switch off now if you're not really bothered. First of all its worth noting that my working life deals with developing world issues and that any relevant training courses, seminars and the like I attend are aimed at charity types like Oxfam, Christian Aid etc, etc. It's amazing how many organisations out there that specialise and provide training in this sort of thing. Dean Russell of Precedent was one of the seminar speakers I saw the other week. His company is a design agency specialising in branding, digital communications and strategy and coincidently designed the new University of Southampton's logo - my old employer! We had a good laugh at how much of a nightmare academics are to work with. He'll also be remembered for his statement that MySpace was 'a bit chavvy'.
The second and most recent event I went to (Wednesday) was a presentation on 'how the public uses the internet to find out about the wider world'. This was a research project commissioned by a government department to find out how the British public find out themselves about developing world issues, charity, disasters, poverty etc. online. With shopping sites, social networks and news sites dominating their online time charities feel they are competing against a closed mindset. It's only when big news stories like disasters, large charity events like Comic Relief and media coverage on sweatshops for high street fashion when the public will research further than reading a news item. Traveling to another country may also raise awareness of world issues. All this just brought home at how ironic this all is to me trying to promote an organisation which researches these issues yet has the same habits as the gerenal public.
As well as the government department, DFID (Department for International Development), an organisation called the International Broadcasting Trust (IBT) were involved, which struck me as one of the more unusual outfits I've come across. There's probably a lot more broadcasting related groups around but this one tries to get TV producers and broadcasters to add more developing country content into their programming as well as producing their own programmes such as dramas about human interest in Africa etc. (to be honest, the ones I avoid watching). You could compare this to US media being pressured by Christian groups to make their programming more sickly sweet. Anyway, good for them I say and if it does raise awareness where its due then maybe it will make my job easier.
I've been to a couple of interesting web/social media seminars and presentations lately. Switch off now if you're not really bothered. First of all its worth noting that my working life deals with developing world issues and that any relevant training courses, seminars and the like I attend are aimed at charity types like Oxfam, Christian Aid etc, etc. It's amazing how many organisations out there that specialise and provide training in this sort of thing. Dean Russell of Precedent was one of the seminar speakers I saw the other week. His company is a design agency specialising in branding, digital communications and strategy and coincidently designed the new University of Southampton's logo - my old employer! We had a good laugh at how much of a nightmare academics are to work with. He'll also be remembered for his statement that MySpace was 'a bit chavvy'.
The second and most recent event I went to (Wednesday) was a presentation on 'how the public uses the internet to find out about the wider world'. This was a research project commissioned by a government department to find out how the British public find out themselves about developing world issues, charity, disasters, poverty etc. online. With shopping sites, social networks and news sites dominating their online time charities feel they are competing against a closed mindset. It's only when big news stories like disasters, large charity events like Comic Relief and media coverage on sweatshops for high street fashion when the public will research further than reading a news item. Traveling to another country may also raise awareness of world issues. All this just brought home at how ironic this all is to me trying to promote an organisation which researches these issues yet has the same habits as the gerenal public.
As well as the government department, DFID (Department for International Development), an organisation called the International Broadcasting Trust (IBT) were involved, which struck me as one of the more unusual outfits I've come across. There's probably a lot more broadcasting related groups around but this one tries to get TV producers and broadcasters to add more developing country content into their programming as well as producing their own programmes such as dramas about human interest in Africa etc. (to be honest, the ones I avoid watching). You could compare this to US media being pressured by Christian groups to make their programming more sickly sweet. Anyway, good for them I say and if it does raise awareness where its due then maybe it will make my job easier.
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