Being a semi-professional Apple-hater, I’ve not had much use for Twitter’s new YTMND style videomaker toy, Vine. However, never let it be said I don’t like to fiddle with new stuff, so we had a go at one, just to say we did it, and so we could then forget all about it. The interface is very nice (leaving all discussion of the point of it aside), and it was easy to produce something speedy around a recent campaign graphic by a very clever colleague about the Working Time Directive.
However, it annoyed me a bit that it was so disposable – it goes out on Twitter and Facebook and that’s pretty much it. Hopefully the web services for Vine will come onstream at some point (and the Android app for the rest of us…), but in the meantime, here’s a slightly roundabout way to embed your Vine on your WordPress.org blog. (more…)
Having the attention span of a gnat, my head is getting proper done in by watching and reading the impenetrable stuff coming out of WCIT in Dubai – and we’re only 3 days in. Luckily persons smarter than I are making more sense of it online for me to read on blogs & Twitter – Thank heavens for a vibrant and pluralistic and open Web, eh?
So I thought the best contribution I could make for others like myself would be to present these complex and high level debates as a series of tired old memes. It’s my way of honouring Russia’s proposals to the ITU that countries should be able to restrict the Net to just “rational” uses.
Nice news today, that Steven Slater, the JetBlue flight attendant who walked out of his job in a way that captured the imagination of the interwebs (via a foul mouthed tannoy tirade against the treatment he’d put up with for 28 years, grabbing a beer from the trolley and deploying the emergency chute to slide out and walk away – if you spent yesterday with your computer turned off) has been offered assistance by the American union AFA. (more…)
Herewith HMG’s bold master plan to fully seize the opportunities offered by new technology in government, whilst simultaneously heavily reducing actual websites, staff and cash. In one stroke this policy shall put an end to waste, open up brave new possibilities, and compeltely eliminate confusion. (more…)
Tom Watson MP is using his blog and Uservoice.com to work up a kind of digital manifesto – getting down in black and white a set of principles that will guide his decision making if the voters choose to return him to Parliament at the election. After a very credible, and creditable, stance in the run up to the passing of the Digital Economy Bill, he’s made a pretty good stab at it too. Check out his blog to see the discussion around his draft list.
He hits one of my bugbears fairly squarely: “I will support all measures to bring non-personal public data into the public domain“. I think a pretty important point on this one is that it should be freely available. It may sound obvious, but that’s not what’s happened in some recent attempts to open up data. (more…)
Amidst talk of changed strategy to duck the virtual and physical graffiti that’s dogged the Tories’ election posters so far, three new billboards have been unveiled today, detailing why people might like to consider crossing the floor and voting Tory for a change. None of them have the easy-to-deface looming face of Dave, but there’s a nice strapline and design style that should give ample room for parody.
MyDavidCameron.com are already on the case, and I’m looking forward to see how they rise to the challenge. The hashtag #ivenevervotedtory is already doing brisk business with lunchbreak surfers. Here’s my quick & dirty contribution to the fun.
The sinister Tory billboards are back with a vengeance, and so are their online alter-egos. The current posters are coming in for a bit of flack for attacking a Labour policy that isn’t actually a Labour policy. Still, it’s a nice scary picture, so MyDavidCameron.com has morphed into MyToryTombstone.com, with some very funny takes on the dramatic picture and the message gaffe. Here’s my own contribution to the fun (click for bigger).
Certainly impressed with the state of the art technology on MyConservatives.com!
I mean, being able to instantly automatically identify me as a wrong ‘un from my IP addy and targetedly refuse me access like this, whilst I imagine letting all the 2.0Tories straight in without any hiccups, that’s some mad skillz! Would expect nothing less from “probably the most advanced party political campaigning network of its kind outside of America”.
UPDATE 4/10/09: Here’s more on the story from El Reg. Admittedly much respect for the 404 pages though…
