twopointouch

Some (mild) outrage about the Jackie Danicki post about her tube attacker here and here and here. There’s talk of lynchin’s in them there blogs. I find that quite bizarre.

Jackie - who I don’t know - was verbally and physically attacked during a tube journey and posted about it, together with a picture of her attacker, on her blog. She asked that anyone who could identify the person in the photo contact the police.

Let’s step back in time six months. The ‘How Not To Steal a Sidekick‘ blog was simply hilarious. (Blogger’s attempt to track down and shame thief with the aid of photos uploaded to the phone’s website, unbeknown to the thief. Blogosphere goes to Defcon 5). I don’t recall any complaints about it. In fact, I think all of us agreed it was genius.

What exactly is the difference, except that this is a more serious crime? No-one’s talking about retribution against the attacker, simply to contact the police if you know who he is, so they can investigate the matter further.

A new report into customer engagement produced by e-consultancy reveals that UK firms are likely to significantly deepen their commitment to Web 2.0 technologies over coming months. The authors, who polled 800 internet and customer experience professionals to obtain the results, found that:

42% are planning to apply user-generated content (UGC) to their websites in the next 12 months; 23% are using it already.

35% are planning to use corporate blogs in the next 12 months; 17% are using them already.

33% are planning to use podcasting in the next 12 months; 18% using it already.

35% planning to use videocasting in the next 12 month; 17% using it already.

In brief, there will be twice as many companies involved in this stuff next year. (Unless they get distracted. The report also mentions that 66% regard lack of time and resources as a “great barrier” to delivering better customer service.)

While I am an evangelist for all this stuff to some extent, it’s hard not to feel that there’s a bandwagon element to this group of respondents. While the positive impact of blogging is pretty well-established, considerable question marks remain over the impact of some other Web 2.0 elements.

Yesterday, news emerged that very few people (1%) regularly download podcasts though awareness of the format has risen considerably. I’d want rather better assurance of positive results before I advised a company to go down that route. Even more are planning to videocast. I wonder whether the very large support for this idea might be related to the news that the format is now considered the best vehicle for advertising online?

I was intrigued to read the headline ‘Widow PC Caters to World of Warcraft Fans’ on Gizmodo. It turns out that it’s a high-end PC with a very fast network card to optimise your connection to the game. Boring.

However, it made me think, and I’d like to register my copyright on the BlogWidow PC for Online Journal Fans. My wife thinks I’ve already got one, but I reckon I can take things a few steps further.

Features:

1. Integrated noise-cancelling headset for blocking out requests to go out/do housework/get off lazy arse for five minutes.
2. Implants transmit river of news directly into brain cortex, together with small electric shocks.
3. Three screens with ‘auto-cut&paste’ hotkeys for advanced EchoChamber(TM) functionality.
4. Processor, disks and all that gubbins; but you won’t be using anything but Firefox, so don’t worry about it.

Cost: £199 (+ life)

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Techmeme. It’s very useful for days when you haven’t got time to read through your RSS subscriptions (viz. most days) and just want a snapshot of what the techies in the blogosphere are talking about.

On the other hand, it tends to focus very heavily on the supposed A-listers and Silicon Valley gossip. Forgive me, but I am not too interested in what Jason Calacanis said about Nick Denton’s shoes at Michael Arrington’s barbecue. What they ought to do, I reckon, is throw out their existing reading list and use mine instead.

That idea might not fly in some circles. So that’s why I am very interested in Megite. The opening page looks much the same as Techmeme or Tailrank. But they seem to have a wider spread of sites monitored and there are a large number of subsections that allow you to focus in on topics from food to finance. The fun bit is ‘My Megite’. Basically, you email the guy - Matthew Chen - your OPML file and he’ll create a personalised page for you. [Not-so-techies: your OPML file is a list of all the feeds you subscribe to. You can export it from your news reader site or program.] Here’s the personalised page for the Search Engine Watch blog. I’ll post mine when I hear back from Matthew. (see below)

There’s not too much more information available, but it appears that the business model of the site is to license their engine to organisations. This sounds like a great idea: staying on top of the news in some industries must be a nightmare with dozens of sites and blogs to visit. Sphere, Icerocket and Technorati searches are OK, but don’t do a great job of organising the information that emerges. Good luck to them, I say, though they may need to find a slightly more elegant way of uploading OPMLs if the service takes off.

Update: Matthew is clearly working very hard. He came back to me with a link to my personal megite within two hours of this post. He also explains that there will be an online form for processing OPML files when they have secured enough resources to ensure that the server doesn’t fall over when lots of processes are submitted at the same time. Matthew points out that a link to an online OPML is better for these personalised pages because then they can keep it live when your subscriptions change. Oh, and they have a blog.

The Observer reports an interesting decision over at the Daily Mail. With the retirement of its television critic Peter Paterson, it has opted to replace him with… no-one. Since television reviews are among the best-read sections of any newspaper, the decision seemed perverse. But, as Peter Preston explains, it is actually cleverly calculated:

Once upon a time, television was full of national moments: mass audiences of 10 million or more tuning in and wanting to follow through the next day. But now that audience - fragmented across hundreds of channels - has virtually ceased to exist. Most of the time, any review of any show can only be valuable to a relatively small percentage of readers. Soaps? An exception, perhaps: you can catch up with them in the Saturday supplements. But through-the-week reviews have lost their relevance, just like television’s dominance of mass entertainment. (Goodnight ITV!) Use the space for more listings and previews, then, if you must. But recognise that the world has moved on.

I trust the bearing of this on the topic of this blog is pretty clear, even though I’ve never commented on broadcast TV. The role of ‘official opinion former’ seems, at least for the time being, to be something of an anachronism as almost every member of the audience is able to create a platform for their own opinions and to challenge those of others. Despite the fact that’s it’s a disgraceful Tory rag, the Daily Mail has actually done more than many traditional media owners in breaking down barriers between journalists and audience. Already, readers can comment on any story, even the front page headlines. Their recognition of a new reality when it comes to op/ed - that I and other readers feel as qualified to dive into the discussion as a seasoned hack. Editors become moderators and talent scouts as that discussion evolves.

Earlier this month, Jeff Jarvis noted that Guardian Online has taken similar steps with its arts and entertainment coverage, throwing its columnists into a conversation with other critics - the former audience. (More: another paper bins its critics)

From Hotwire PR comes an ipsos MORI poll of European internet users:

Blogs are now a near second to newspapers as the most trusted information source: A quarter (24%) of Europeans consider blogs a trusted source of information, still behind newspaper articles (30%), but ahead of television advertising (17%) and email marketing (14%).
High spenders are most trusting of blogs: Of those who spend more than 145€ (£100) online every month, the proportion of people who trust blogs rises to 30%.
France leads European blogging; Britain lags: Across Europe, six out of ten (61%) internet users have heard of blogging, and one in six (17%), have read a blog. France is the most blog-savvy country in Europe, with 90% of respondents familiar with blogs. The British are the least blog-aware, with only 50% having heard the term. In Germany, 55% have heard of blogs, 58% in Italy and 51% in Spain.
Blogs are now driving purchase decisions: More than half (52%) of Europeans polled said that they were more likely to purchase a product if they had read positive comments from private individuals on the internet.
They also block purchases: Nearly 40 million Europeans have not bought something after reading comments posted online.

Reassuring to see that the UK has regained its ‘poor man of Europe’ mantle. I’m sure the last piece of research I saw on this subject suggested that we were pulling ahead. Most upsetting.

The recent ’state of the blogosphere’ report from Technorati’s David Sifry has ruffled a few feathers because of the inclusion of a new semi-scientific ranking system to group bloggers into four distinct groups. Let’s call them A-D. (Aside: find out where you stand using this handy tool)

The report describes the four groups thus:

The Low Authority Group (3-9 blogs linking in the last 6 months)

The average blog age (the number of days that the blog has been in existence) is about 228 days, which shows a real commitment to blogging. However, bloggers of this type average only 12 posts per month, meaning that their posting habits are generally dedicated but infrequent.

The Middle Authority Group (10-99 blogs linking in the last 6 months)

This contrasts somewhat with the second group, which enjoys an average age not much older than the first at 260 days and which posts 50% more frequently than the first. There is a clear correlation between posting volume and Technorati authority ranking.

The High Authority Group (100-499 blogs linking in the last 6 months)

The third group represents a decided shift in blog age while not blogging much more frequently than the last. In keeping with the theme of the maturation of the blogosphere, it seems evident that many of these bloggers were previously in category two and have grown in authority organically over time. In other words, sheer dedication pays off over time.

The Very High Authority Group (500 or more blogs linking in the last 6 months)

In the final group we see what might be considered the blogging elite. This group, which represents more than 4,000 blogs, exhibits a radical shift in post frequency as well as blog age. Bloggers of this type have been at it longer – a year and a half on average – and post nearly twice a day, an increase in posting volume of over 100% from the previous group…

As Amy Gahran points out, the problem here is the word ‘authority’ when what is really being counted is the number of times these blogs are linked to. As she notes, a blog with a tiny audience and very few links might be extraordinarily influential in the niche it covers. Amy suggests that ‘popularity’ might be a better word. I’d go one further and suggest ‘linkability’ is perhaps equally apt. Drew Curtis’ Fark.com is very highly linked-to, but it couldn’t really be described as influential.

Lanjut →

A great article in the FT this week by Sarah Murray (behind their paywall) about the power of the internet to make consumers powerful broadcasters. It ends with four quick tips for companies planning to join the social media space:

• See what’s out there. New services can help companies analyse their online reputations. Blog-focused search engines such as Blogpulse or Technorati allow companies to search by keywords.
• Respond pro-actively. Companies need to take part in discussions about their brands; these discussions will take place regardless, often in the most unpredictable ways. The discovery of the geyser-like effects of putting Mentos mints into Diet Coke or Pepsi led to thousands of videos on YouTube demonstrating the phenomenon.
• Manage online conversations. Companies that enter the blogosphere need to be prepared to post even the most critical comments about their brands, products or behaviour. They also need to respond quickly and with the right voice. Communications that come across like corporate press releases will attract criticism.
• Match rhetoric with action. No amount of online communication will save a company’s reputation if it is not reflected in its behaviour. And any gap between corporate pronouncements and corporate action will be quickly spotted and will be generally derided.

The last point is particularly important, controversial and interesting. As Katy Howell of Immediate Future told me a few months ago, this is an age where a company’s wrongdoings might be blasted across the internet in a matter of moments. There really is no damage limitation that can be applied except being good.

Thanks to Drew for the tip-off and more.

One of the things that really surprised me when I started blogging earlier this year was the number of PR people who are involved in it (big list here here). For some reason, I thought there’d be more journos doing it. But then, I suppose a lot of journalists have to blog for the publications they work for. Also, the subjects I cover are frequently about communications of one kind or another.

Euroblog 2006 has done a survey of PRs to discover their use of blogs (found via Neville Hobson).

This is the upshot on their reasons for blogging (click for big):

Compare this to the reasons given by the general (American) public in the Pew Internet /American life report:

Well, there’s almost no similarity between PRs and normal people whatsoever ;).

Update: the PR survey is a year old with a new one just launched. Oops.

David Sifry posts on the state of the blogosphere. There are more than 57mn blogs, and amazingly, more than half of them are active: “About 55% of all blogs are active, which means that they have been updated at least once in the last 3 months.” The blogosphere has very slightly slowed in growth, doubling only (!) every 236 days or so.

You’d expect that, really. This doubling stuff has got as much to do with new blogs as new bloggers, I’m inclined to think. The number of bloggers may not grow nearly as much. But we diddle about with different hosts and platforms. Lose interest in one blog and start another. That’s purely based on anecdotal evidence: the 33% of my RSS subs that have changed address over the last 12 months. But those 33% are presumably pretty established (since I managed to find them, they must be) and so less volatile than the norm.

There are 1.3mn postings per day. So, only 1 in (meh..) 48 blogs get a daily update, averaged out. In reality, there’s probably a long tail: about 10% updated daily; 10% updated 2-3 times a week and the rest every now and then. I’d love to know the breakdown on that. How may of us only post once a week, a month? - quite a lot according to the stats. And what is the measure of that?

Update: Google Blogoscoped has the funniest take on this story.