I’ve always been a bit of a sceptic about Second Life (posts passim, and I mean in its utility as a marketing vehicle for brands), and I won’t pretend otherwise despite a day of inspiration and intelligence at the Virtual Worlds Forum. Yes, I now understand a bit more about why brands have been investing in the network and …read the rest of this article

I was at a roundtable debate this morning about Citizen Journalism (update: rather ungenerous of me not to mention this was hosted by the excellent people from iStockPhoto). Everyone saying they want to embrace CJ as part of their forward strategy. I suggest that mainstream media is attempting to contain rather than embrace conversations.
Me (to attendees from the Times and …read the rest of this article

via. Communities Dominate Brands
 
And apparently the most blogged about video on the ‘net at the moment. The URL of the creators, fleetingly referred to towards the end is http://www.mediatedcultures.net/ksudigg/

“… the basic idea is to create a 3 minute video highlighting the most important characteristics of students today – how they learn, what they need to learn, their goals, hopes, dreams, …read the rest of this article

In my newsletter to NMK readers today, I referred to the Internet as a ’she’. Reading that back once it arrived in my inbox, I wasn’t entirely sure how I felt about that. I think I’m happy about referring to websites as ’she’ – they are akin to vessels like ships and cars, and also domiciles – those things are …read the rest of this article

The National Roads Safety Council has done extensive testing on a newly designed seat belt. Results show that accidents can be reduced by as much as 45% when the belt is properly installed.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
via. my brother-in-law. Sorry.

Interesting piece on paidcontent.org, covering a talk by Henry Copeland, CEO and founder of BlogAds, a network which serves adverts to participating blogs. Copeland says that only around 100 of the 1500 blogs his company works with are likely to be self-sustaining from advertising – and these are the creme-de-la creme – participation in the BlogAds network is by invitation …read the rest of this article

I’m going to the Battle of Ideas conference later this month. I do recommend that (London-and-environs-based) readers take a look. Despite it being at the weekend, which might understandably dampen the ardour of any self-respecting new media flâneur, it’s looking like a veritable cavalcade of fresh ideas, innovation and debate across the disciplines. Not just technology and media, but …read the rest of this article

Update: seems like I’m not the only person who prefers Jaiku. [nb: Jyri Engestrom spoke at NMK Forum in June. We always knew he was destined for big things.]
Jaiku is nicer-looking and more functional than Twitter, and has a kick-ass mobile app for series 60 Nokia phones. However, I have about 3 Jaiku pals and 50 Twitter pals. So do …read the rest of this article