Thursday, 1 May 2008
In article <6...>, ... (Christopher England) wrote:
Isn't this being called 'Facebook fatigue' and is due to an
overload of information and people's brains about to explode?
Something I read about how people just become tired of trying to
fit it all in!
No exactly 'Facebook fatigue' more social networking fatique??
I'm can't even remember how many I've played with, and I do mean played with, to see which suits me best as a tool, not toy.
So I come down to many four services. However, what I do is link services to services so I can, for example, upload something onto place A, which has an RSS service, and just like magic it appears on places B-Z.
I guess it's a bit like the easy option of e-mail forwarding in reverse, dead easy really.
As to content, well that's a subjective area. One man/womans content heaven is anothers hell. I do agree, though, about some of the interesting images that appear on S.N. sites – jeez what were they thinking of when posting such things. Mark you I think the same when some people call talk shows and blather on and I think, der why would you phone an agony aunt to say you're having a fling when it's being broadcast live – DOH!
Where S.N. and radio appears to have a very strong link is in the area of commercial sponsorship. It appears that ad-agencies are spending all sorts of money on S.N. sites as they will still do on radio stations that appeal to modern man/woman. Woops maybe some free consultancy there.
As I was reminded last night, www is now 15 years old. Nope I forgot a listener reminded me. Sir Tim commented that even now the Internet is still a baby and there is still a lot more to come. He's correct!!!
And again returning to radio, 10 years ago stations would need to suck up to everyone, spend a fortune on PR and then if they were lucky people knew about them – well once they'd paid 20+ focus groups to find out. That put HUGE pressure on smaller, non Borg, stations without such budgets.
Today the S.N. sites produce a level playing-field to share that which you are doing – new shows can be promoted to hundreds of thousands of people in an instant. Now in terms of making a level playing-field for broadcasters that surely has to be a good thing (discuss).
Returning to other things like Twitter, that again is a great way to communicate with your audience – assuming the station actually wants to communicate with its audience which many don't appear to want to do.
Any way, enough – it's a bank holiday here so I'm going off to see some friends from the UK (there will be pictures, I hope) on my blog soon. http://ericwiltsher.blogspot.com
Eric
Silver Surfers day? 50connect lists its top ten useful websites
50connect.co.uk, the UK’s largest editorial-led website aimed at today’s over 45s, has named its top ten useful websites as Silver Surfers day approaches on 23rd May.
“The aim of Silver Surfers Day is to bring the benefits of the internet to those who are afraid to use a PC or who are not yet online,” says Rachael Hannan, Editor of 50connect. “We chose these sites to illustrate the variety of the web and to show that the advantages of getting online encompass all areas of life. These websites provide some extremely useful practical guides and advice, along with money-saving services that you can’t find offline.”
With the escalating price of fuel this site is a boon. Simply enter your postcode into the search box for a list of the cheapest fuel prices in your area. Register with the site and you will receive a newsletter each week, listing the garages selling the cheapest petrol in your location. The site also has a blog with the latest fuel news, a gallery of its many happy users displaying their ‘cheaper fuel’ stickers and an excellent ‘environment’ channel, with information on bio fuels, green cars and lift-shares.
Once you get past its apocalyptic name, add this site to your favourites. The design is simple, but the information indispensible. The site aims to expose bogus and bona fide email scams, virus warnings and hackers. Use the menu on the left hand side to navigate, or the article menu on the homepage. If you are worried about an email you have received, you can search for a specific virus warning or email hoax in the search box at the top right-hand side of the site. If you want virus warnings and hoax email alerts straight into your inbox, sign up to the useful newsletter.
Save money on your gas, electricity, telephone and broadband costs with this price comparison site. As well as finding the cheapest supplier, Energy Helpline offers £15 cash back if you switch via their website. Simply enter your postcode and your current rate, hit the submit button and see the saving you pocket by switching supplier. You can also compare costs on mortgages, loans and green energy.
4. www.medguides.medicines.org.uk
An indispensible guide to prescribed medicines, with online patients’ leaflets, information on what to do if you missed a tablet, the most effective way to take it, what’s in your medication plus any known side-effects. Click on the ‘Browse Medicines’ guide on the left-hand menu for an A-Z listing of medicines, then select your chosen medicine. When you click on its name, a new menu appears on the left-hand side with all information about that drug. You can also search by condition, and there is a useful roadmap detailing when new drugs will be available on the NHS.
With over five million members across the globe, Freecycle is a non-profit movement that encourages users to give and receive unwanted items for free in their own towns. You know what they say: “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” and this site provides an outlet for people to offer unwanted items. The site aims to reduce the amount of useful items that end up in landfills. Enter your town and country to find the Yahoo Group in your area. You will have to sign up to Yahoo! Messenger if you are not a member already, but once you are, you can post your items and have a look at other people’s unwanted things. Once registered, you can have the new postings emailed directly into your inbox. The only thing you have to remember is you must give something away before you can start receiving!
Known as the ‘consumer revenge’ site, and run by Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis – a regular on GMTV and now with his own show on Channel 5 – this site has reams of sensible advice on how to save money. Free of adverts, Martin’s articles compare ISA rates, suggest ways to reduce your supermarket bill, explain the benefits of switching bank accounts and how to maximise loyalty points and Child Trust Fund vouchers. The site also has an extremely good currency search tool which tells you where to go for the best exchange rate on your holiday money. Famous for his lead in urging consumers to claim back their bank charges, Martin explains the how’s and why’s, and there are downloadable letters for you to make your claim. All you need to do is fill in your details and send them off.
BigBarn aims to rebuild the country’s local food supply chains, by helping users locate the best in locally grown, accountable and tasty food and drink. Enter your postcode into the red search box on the right of the homepage for an interactive map of your area with a key to local veg box schemes, farmers markets, pick your own, butchers and more. Simply click on the icon on the interactive map to bring up the name, web address and contact details of the supplier. The site also features a ‘what’s in season’ guide, recipes and a food issues blog.
8. www.discountvouchercodes.co.uk
Before you part with your hard earned cash, remember to visit Discount Voucher Codes. The site lists discounts and the relating voucher codes available at major retailers like John Lewis, Curry’s, Dell and many more. To find an offer, use the menu on the left hand side to select your product or alternatively chose a retailer. To claim your discount, simply go to the participating website, and enter the promotional code at the checkout before you pay for the item.
Look up directions, a specific address or local business on Google’s interactive map by entering the name or post code into the search box to bring up the town or the business you are looking for. Then use cursor keys on the left of the map to navigate. It’s great if you are away from home, because if you want to find a non-specific business – add ‘cinema’ for instance after the postcode – a list of cinemas in that area will appear on the left hand side of the page. Click on one of these and the map will pinpoint the exact location. With a click of your mouse, you can change the map to display a satellite image of the location, which is an asset if you are house hunting, or just plain nosy! Ramblers and cyclists might find the terrain setting useful when planning a route.
10. www.youtube.com
No other website contains footage from The Who’s 1968 concert or Queen live at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1974, but with YouTube, the possibilities are endless. Anyone can upload video clips onto YouTube and anyone in the world can watch them, which means there are clips on just about everything imaginable. The videos range from interviews with the London Mayoral candidates, clips of Top Gear and a promo for Alan Bennett’s West End production The History Boys, to cookery videos, language learning videos, adverts from the 1950s and 60s and home-made spoofs of current chart toppers. Even if you aren’t looking for something specific, simply enter a random word in the search box and see what wonderfully crazy and subversive clips people have added. You will never fail to be amused, amazed, repulsed or simply intrigued.
What’s Yours?
50connect is running an interactive feature on the website, asking its audience to nominate their favourite websites in time for Silver Surfers Day.
http://www.50connect.co.uk/home_and_family/technology/intern...
About The Demographic
50connect is the leading site for over 45s in the UK and is officially re-launching today, 1 May 2008.
Here are some statistics about the mature market:
- 35% of the UK’s web users are over 45
- 1/3 of over 50s are online
- 60% of over 50s shop online
- By 2020, over half of the UK population will be over 50
*Sources of statistics: Sourcewire and Millennium Direct
Eric Tesug <...> said:
Silver Surfers day? 50connect lists its top ten useful websites
WHAT! Not a radio site in the list. Where is: http://www.anoraknation.com/ ?
Christopher England said:
The issue with Twitter that dumbfounds me is that it is just a poor relation to Jaiku.
It's certainly not waning over here though. It's doing a Bebo. ('Doing a Bebo' refers to the USA based MySpace/Facebook lookie-likey called Bebo which has limited interest amongst the American yoof, yet huge interest throughout Europe – I've no idea why though 'cos Bebo's as crap as MySpace imho.)
Twitter (or Jaiku) is not a rival to MySpace or Facebook, more a supplement – or 'application' (to use that overused word) with a specific purpose which is different to MySpace and Facebook. (Interestingly, European Facebook usage is waning slightly too.) Indeed, both Twitter and Jaiku have 'applications' that nicely integrate their functions into Facebook to enhance your Facebook experience. (Not that I personally like Facebook, no matter how many 'applications' are used to try to make it sexier! I hate it, but am forced to use it 'cos everybody's using it.)
Anyway, don't write Twitter off, it'll change and migrate as any other Web 2.0 application does, but the basics of it will continue for a very long time yet. Short bites of 'presence' information or quick-fire comments are the new way. Long meandering posts like this one are soooooo yesterday!
* Christopher England just said that *
...........................................................
I use MySpace and Facebook in different ways, MySpace is very much networking and contacts in the music industry most though are Stateside based, Facebook I keep more personal but again more US friends, I do use both though political wise with work on the US nomination race, BeBo I now use very little.
Twitter I introduced to several London political friends who do full time "Blogs" they got into it for a few weeks and soon got bored and they are real gadget people, I have found quite a few people in the USA sign up to up to 23,000 plus on Twitter, why? it is not for the content I'm sure. I will stand by my statement Twitter will fade in the USA and never really take off big in the UK, I can't see it doing much in 12 months time the next Fad will come along.
Hope you are watching the changes starting to happen at City Talk, I don't listen any longer (Sorry Richard mate)
John
Q_1_2_3_4_5_6 <...> said:
Hallo everyone. Next week Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Radio Seagull
and Radio Waddenzee will both become really off-shore radio stations,
broadcasting from the Dutch Waddensea near the bird-island "Griend". The
transmitter on its schip "Janni Baynton" will then be used and will be
better received in England than its land-transmitter at Pietersbierum.
For more details about this you can read
http://www.radioseagull.com/news.htm
Greetings of Nico from Gouda, the Netherlands.
Today tilll this Saturday Radio Waddenzee is now indeed really become a "pirate" station! At the Waddensea the "windforce" is now six on the scale of Beaufort today from SW, so the "Janny Baynton" will a litte bit roll on the waves of the Waddensea equal the "Ross Revenge" did at a gale. Listen to the 1602 kHz for the first time to an active "pirate station" from a ship since november 1990! The receipt is very good in Gouda, so I think by myself that tonight Radio Seagull will be easily heard in large parts of Mid and South England.
Greetings of Nico from Gouda, the Netherlands.
From: "Q_1_2_3_4_5_6" <...>
so I think by myself that tonight Radio Seagull will be easily
heard in large parts of Mid and South England.
Greetings of Nico from Gouda, the Netherlands.
I'll have a dabble and tune in, but I doubt I will get it in NW England though.
What is the power on 1602?
Steve Martin <...> said:
From: "Q_1_2_3_4_5_6" <...>
so I think by myself that tonight Radio Seagull will be easily
heard in large parts of Mid and South England.
Greetings of Nico from Gouda, the Netherlands.I'll have a dabble and tune in, but I doubt I will get it in NW England
though.What is the power on 1602?
... Just only 500 Watt from the ship and (from Sunday again) from the land-transmitter near Harlingen 1000 Watt (=1 kW).
But from the Waddensea to your radio is about the half of the receipt-traject over the Northsea from Waddensea to the environment of Hull. The second half from Hull to your radio is over land and the signal on the 1602 kHz will then weaken quickly. Greetings of Nico from Gouda, the Netherlands.
Quoting a previous tesug contribution:-
However, what I do is link
services to services so I can, for example, upload something onto place
A, which has an RSS service, and just like magic it appears on places
B-Z.
Aha, Socialthing.com!
—
* Christopher England just said that *
Quoting a previous Jay BS contribution:-
Hope you are watching the changes starting to happen at City Talk,
Yep. I'm sat waiting by my phone for that call. :-)
—
* Christopher England just said that *
Christopher England said:
The issue with Twitter that dumbfounds me is that it is just a poor
relation to Jaiku.
I just don't get the Twitter thing. I think it's so simple, it attracts simple people to use it. My 5 year old son could design a better interface than what seems to be a poor, cheap, crap html representation of what seems a half-hearted effort produced by ex- ZX Spectrum graphic designers.
Image nowadays is the way forward, especially in business and I steer well clear of gimmicks such as Twitter and can't take anyone seriously using it. It's an extension of Geek perversion, a 'look at me' tool that's akin to a Social Worker dressed in a tank top, cordroy jeans and a pair of hush puppies.
The Guff
RC Guff <...> said:
<html><head><title></title></head><body><blockquote><p>Christopher England said:</p><p>The issue with Twitter that dumbfounds me is that it is just a poor<br />relation to Jaiku.<br /> </p></blockquote><p>I just don't get the Twitter thing. I think it's so simple, it attracts simple people to use it. My 5 year old son could design a better interface than what seems to be a poor, cheap, crap html representation of what seems a half-hearted effort produced by ex- ZX Spectrum graphic designers.</p><p>Image nowadays is the way forward, especially in business and I steer well clear of gimmicks such as Twitter and can't take anyone seriously using it. It's an extension of Geek perversion, a 'look at me' tool that's akin to a Social Worker dressed in a tank top, cordroy jeans and a pair of hush puppies.</p><p>The Guff</p></body></html>
......After just checking out Twitter to see if they have had the expertise to upgrade the look and feel of it I Just to add this; the twitter 'USP' is still crap: quote: "Twitter is a free service that lets you keep in touch with people using the web, your phone, or IM" Errrrr????? WOW! That's unique! Whats the point, if I want to keep in touch with people I USE my Mobile Phone, Web or IM insterad of Twitter! I also use email to keep in touch or contact people in a list. If I want to let anyone know things I want them to, I use the web and integration tools that look much more professional than a 'html kiddie interface'. Twitter?! What's the point? It even looks crap, No - It looks pathetic.
Facebook I get, My Space I get, but Twitter? It's just a 'Coffee Shop' style fad, ie. I pay £5 for a cup of coffee just to be seen in Star*uck's Coffee. Infact, Star*ucks makes an absolute sh*tpot coffee full of foam that could put out a burning, fully fuel ladened Boeing 747. The same goes for Twitter, it's a catchy name that's used or seen to be used because of the catchy name, despite the actual product looking like a pound shops ornament display.
That said, I don't like twitter and am starting to question those who orgasm over it.
