Nice one Frank

| May 8th, 2008

Yes, I know . . . another post about Twitter, just like the one before and like so many others right now. But, just wanted to acknowledge this great example of a massive company using Twitter really well as a way of keeping an eye out for customers with problems and doing everything it can to solve them. Enter Frank Eliason from Comcast, who seems to be doing everything he can to help people out. And it hasn’t gone unnoticed either - this post is currently riding high on Techmeme and look what happens if you Google Frank. Also, check out this profile of Frank here. Comcast need a bit of love, given the fact that comcastmustdie.com (blog here) made the front cover of Business Week at the beginning of the year.

Customer service and so-called social media relations/online PR are pretty much inseparable these days don’t you think?

Here’s some of Frank’s latest Tweets, closely followed by a Tweet Cloud giving you an idea of what Frank is tweeting about. Plus a user generated anti-Comcast ‘ad’ just to give you an idea of what Frank is up against.

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£12 a year on Twitter? Vote!

| April 29th, 2008

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Just a thought, but if everyone who used Twitter regularly paid £1 per month for the privilege, then Twitter would get get £2.4 million ($4.7 million) a year. And that’s based on the stats from Techcrunch that claim 200,000 active users and 1 million registered users, so if anything that figure is low.
The current growth rate is massive too so six months down the line, who knows what that figure might look like.

Or another way of looking at it is to charge 1p per message sent on Twitter (3 million are sent every day apparently) and rake in £10.95 million ($21.6 million) a year. This would work out to be £4.65 ($9.17) per month though to a user sending 15 tweets a day, which again is apparently the average amongst the 200,000 active users. That feels too much, but really probably isn’t given what you actually get compared to other stuff on the web - think of the costs of the texts alone. £1 mind . . .

So, rather than chuck ads at me or think of another way to monetize the service just ask me up front and I’ll pay. I’m sure others would too.

Anyway, just a quick not very well researched thought initiated by this I think . . . but if I do hand over the money, please Twitter can you make sure it works and pretty please look after my data. Thanks.

Would you pay £12 a year to use Twitter? Vote below or here

[Photo Credit - starring Skipper]

Ages ago I came across the image of a white cat wearing blue swimming goggles and I chose to adopt it as my avatar and profile image for Facebook. I now use it everywhere I’m online (look at the top of this blog or click through to one of the other places I am) and I’ve even just got some Moo cards printed up with ‘the cat’ on.

So, it was a bit of a shock this morning to be emailed a link to a massive picture of ‘me’ in the Daily Mail this morning - included in a feature on LOLcats. It just felt strange.

I once tried to get in touch with the owner of the original image to find out more about the cat and check he/she doesn’t mind me using their image, but the website I took it from didn’t reply. Seeing ‘myself’ this morning has made me realise how much I do really want to now more about the cat in the blue goggles so I’m going to get on the case with finding ‘my owner’. Hopefully I’ll be able to update on this soon and I might need your help in doing so!

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Human brands and beings

| April 28th, 2008

The other day, amidst the global flow of information coming at me via the interwebz, I stumbled upon this little gem that made me smile and feel all content for a second as it fits in 100% with where I’m at. It’s a clip of Noah Brier talking at the PFSK LANY (thanks for pointing out Noah) conference about how brands now have to act like people. Nothing completely radical about that statement, but for me explains in a nutshell what this internet thing is all about for brands.

Brands need to be human in order to participate in the web and social media enables them to do so (as well as lots of other web-based things that don’t get labeled as such). Brands that don’t behave like human beings and do lot’s of nasty things won’t be very popular (just like in the real world) and those that do all the same things as kind, caring, smart, creative, collaborative, honest, transparent, open, considerate people will gain the love, trust and respect of people online. It’s as simple as that. There, I said it. And I feel a whole lot better for it.

Now are you are human or a non-human brand? What was the last way in which you showed people you were human? Did you admit a mistake? Did you say sorry? Did you share something valuable? Did you help make someone’s life a little bit better?

More to come on this. Human brands and beings is something very close to my heart.

I Want You To Want Me

| April 21st, 2008

Amazing interactive installation that scrapes data from dating sites. Really beautiful and tip of the iceberg when it comes to the web powering art. It’s all about human beings and we’re slowly but surely coming back to that. Being human on the web is something I am extremely passionate about.

The interactive installation “I Want You To Want Me”, by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar, commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art, for their “Design and the Elastic Mind” exhibition.

I Want You To Want Me explores the search for love and self in the world of online dating. It chronicles the world’s long-term relationship with romance, across all ages, genders, and sexualities, using real data collected from Internet dating sites every few hours.

The piece is presented on a 56″ high-resolution touch-screen, hanging vertically on the wall, and was installed at MoMA on February 14, 2008, Valentine’s Day.

[Via Noah Brier]

Random US observations

| April 21st, 2008

For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you’ll know that I’ve been in the US for the past two weeks. I am in fact still feeling really jet-lagged which is on the whole a bit crap. I decided that although I took my laptop out there to do a few bits and bobs I wasn’t going to blog or Tweet. I failed on the Twitter front but haven’t blogged for ages, so by means of a gentle introduction back into it here’s some random US inspired thoughts, observations and images.

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1) Mobile phones with massive aerials are very common in the US. They look a bit like our toy phones that are filled with sweets with those bendy little aerials. My guess was that it’s because coverage isn’t as dense as in the UK where we have a mobile phone mast rammed up anything that can take it without the local community kicking off.

2) There is no stigma attached to hip/belt mounted devices. Related to the above, I couldn’t get over the gadget belts sported by all sorts of people. Big racks of massive mobiles with floppy aerials in leatherette cases.

3) Stereotypes exist for a reason. Sorry guys but I saw so many incredibly fat people in the US and the whole place is geared around eating and driving. Well Florida is anyway. It really did amaze me, so much so I started a bit of a collection of fat people shots. I know. Really wrong but I couldn’t help myself. Here’s three generations of big asses looking at rays.

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4) New York is very similar to London. Apart from the fact it smells different, there’s steam coming out of vents, the buildings are taller on the whole, the traffic lights swing and you can’t walk a block without getting hassled to buy something - mainly bus tour tickets.

5) The grid system is easy but a bit boring. I can see why US peeps think London is quaint with its little roads and streets. There isn’t really any of that in New York, only massive boulevards that give the impression of immense space and scale.

6) The Apple Store on Fifth Avenue really is amazing and it really is packed 24 hours a day. Bit of a mecca for me going to the Apple Store. When I got there, guess what, it was full of all the same stuff as in all the other stores. But that glass cube . . . it rocked.

7) Animals rock. Especially monkeys and killer whales called Shamu. He even has his own website. But, as Charlotte pointed out (and you can see in the image below) all the dorsal fins were bent over - a side effect of being in captivity. Left a bit of a sour taste.

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8 ) Stuff is really cheap right now. The pound is spanking the dollar so the numerous malls and cheap factory outlet sites are rammed with people stocking up on Nike trainers, jeans and other stuff. Including me. I bought a pair of Nike SB Air Tre A.D.s that I tracked down in a shop in what felt like gangland. No-one else would get out the car.

9) Twitter really delivers when you’re in a different country. One day we were all starving and wanted to go and get a full-on American breakfast (see number 3 above). I tweeted and immediately got a response from Claudine at the Telegraph (@claudineb). We then headed to the Theater Row Diner and had an amazing breakfast, while I spent the whole meal explaining what Twitter was and how I’d found it.

10) For the second time now I saw a guy ‘pleasuring himself’ in public. It wasn’t good and left Charlotte and I feeling violated. And to make matters worse it was outside the Museum of Sex which I had taken a picture of seconds earlier AND we saw him flick ‘pleasure stuff’ off his hand and onto the phonebox. (The first time was in Soho in London by a tramp in his sleeping bag). Not good and sorry to present you with that image.

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11) Going to Ground Zero is overwhelming and something you should definitely visit and pay your respects at. But for some reason I wasn’t as moved as I thought I would be. I think it’s because you see the massive US flag and you see people getting on with it and construction taking place and that stops you from reflecting 100% but instead makes you feel positive about the future. Don’t know what’s more to be said on that.

12) Britain just can’t seem to pull off a show/big thing like the US can. Disney, for all it’s cheese and tackiness, is amazing and the Magic Kingdom light show at night is insane. I think it’s down to the people. We just can’t be that false/enthusiastic/corporate/crazy/child-like/blinkered/professional (delete as appropriate). Think of Terminal 5, Millennium Dome, British Rail, Tate Modern crack etc.

Um, that’s it. I didn’t want to end on number 10 for obvious reasons and now don’t want 13 and more than that seems excessive. I’ll definitely be going back and thoroughly enjoyed my time in the US. In the meantime I feel I have a better understanding of US culture (well at least NY and FL) and an enhanced appreciation of the great things about London.

Radio Silence

| April 9th, 2008

Am (sort of) offline until 19th April. Anything urgent, please call/txt me - I’m five hours behind on US time. Normal service to resume shortly upon my return.

So, today is April Fool’s Day. And don’t we know it! As a sign of how connected we all are and how fast things move these days, here’s a comprehensive list of April Fool’s Day activity on Wikipedia already. Really does make you think about how we are indexing our own lives and everything we do on the planet. The BBC’s “Flying Penguins” seems to be a real winner in particular - especially on Twitter. Fair play I say. Do you think they were trying to beat the famous spaghetti trees April Fool’s Day prank (see below)?

Anyway, happy April Fool’s Day and all that. Why do we do it again?

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Swiss Spaghetti Harvest (1957, yes 57!)

Google in the UK has “turned its lights out” today in support of Earth hour. Nice. But the best thing, Blackle is most definitely put in its place for once and all.

As to why we don’t do this permanently - it saves no energy; modern displays use the same amount of power regardless of what they display. However, you can do something to reduce the energy consumption of your home PC by joining the Climate Savers Computing Initiative.

Does look quite good in black, though it shows up every last piece of stuff on my nice new screen.

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i ♥ anne frank bookz

| March 28th, 2008

Just catching up on my feeds and this popped up - a glimpse into what teenagers love and hate reading. Some interesting stuff in there, if a bit random - including the fact that reading “My own blog or fan fiction” comes in at number 4 most loved and that Facebook is number 9 most hated. How odd. What is encouraging is that “80% of the teenagers surveyed write their own stories and keep up-to-date with current affairs by using sites like BBC Online” but then again, it seems books with more than 100 pages are a big no-no.

Looks like it’s part of the National Year of Reading 2008 (me neither) and is tied into Piczo where you can get more of an insight into da yoof - including this little gem “i ♥ anne frank bookz. i hav been twoo the anne frankk house && it wozz rlly interesting :D”

Most loved reads
1 Heat magazine
2 Bliss magazine; online song lyrics
3 Online computer game cheats
4 My own blog or fan fiction
5 The Harry Potter series
6 Anne Frank’s diary
7 Film scripts
8 Books by Anthony Horowitz
9 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, by CS Lewis
10 BBC Online; the Confessions of Georgia Nicolson books by Louise Rennison

Most loathed reads
1 Homework
2 Shakespeare
3 Books of over 100 pages
4 Magazine articles about skinny celebrities
5 Books assigned by school/teachers
6 Encyclopedias and dictionaries
7 The Beano
8 Music (scores); the Harry Potter series; maps/directions
9 Facebook
10 Financial Times; Anything in another language

[Via Guardian]