middledigit.net | jonathan hopkins

Random one this one. middledigit has ended up on the shortlist for the Computer Weekly IT Blog Awards in the Web 2.0 and Business blogs category - alongside Techcrunch UK (yes, Techcrunch UK!!!), Roo Reynolds, UK Web Focus and a few other blogs that I should no doubt be reading. I think I nominated myself as one of those throw away things you do to see what happens and now I’m a little surprised to find out I’m on the shortlist.

Not entirely certain what to say, other than go and vote for Mike/Techcrunch UK or another blog that I think is far more deserving than I am! You can of course vote for me if you like, but I’d urge you to think strongly about the competition. Whilst this week has seen me being particularly chuffed at the Twitter poll being referenced over at the Guardian, I think I’m a little bit off being suitable to be shortlisted alongside some of those other bloggers in the category.

Thank you for shortlisting me though Computer Weekly - just not really sure what to do, other than whack the badge up there on the right and see what happens.

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.

Almost forgot to say (and actually technically ‘today’ is now yesterday) but today is/was the first anniversary of middledigit.net. After a few attempts that went on to be abandoned, I’m really chuffed that it’s lasted this long and I now enjoy blogging so much and have really experienced the benefits of having a proper little home on the web. Even if it isn’t updated every single day . . .

Today has also been the first time I’ve blogged from my new office at home, which I’ve set up to start-up my new consultancy from and get even more involved with social media and the wonderful thing that is the web. Having worked at Cow, then Bite, I haven’t been able to resist sticking with the one syllable theme and have called my new company Shed. It’s new home will be here (currently forwarding onto middledigit.net) and I’m getting really rather excited about it all now.

So thanks to all of you for your support over the last 12 months and here’s to the next year of flipping it to old ways of thinking and a whole lot more more doing and less talking.

Some of you I think will know this already - given the efficiency of the technology PR grapevine - but as of mid-March I’m leaving Bite to set up on my own. After thinking about it for a while, I’ve finally decided that now is the time for me to go solo and become a freelance creative/digital consultant focusing on social media, online marketing and PR.

(UPDATE: Just read a piece in PR Week - ‘blog specialist’ is somewhat narrowing down what I actually do at Bite and will be doing in the future, plus the list of clients wasn’t wholly complete . . . but there you go, I should be flattered right?)

I’m currenty talking to Bite about the possibility of working on a freelance basis after my full time contract ends but we haven’t worked out the final details yet. I’ve really enjoyed more than three years at Bite and in that time I’ve worked on some amazing brands like Apple, Yahoo!, Tiger Beer, Zopa and most recently Facebook (particularly exciting after it was dubbed the most sought-after retainer of 2007!). My first event at Bite was the European launch of iTunes and it’s been an amazing ride for me along the way ever since then.

Now though I’m up for a change and am really excited about the future and working with lots more exciting people, companies and agencies - working out how to embrace this massive earth-changing thing we all know and love called the Internet.

Now I just need to think of a name and there’s one recurring theme that keeps on occupying my mind . . .

Not that I’ve been that acvtive on the blog over the last few weeks (I’ve been here and here mainly) but this is a quick one to sign out for Christmas. I’ll be back online properly on 4th January (woo hoo!) and if anything, will be Twittering in the meantime. (Follow me here). Spending Christmas in Leicestershire and in-between/New Year up north in a little village deep in the Northumbrian countryside with my family.

Next year, lots of exciting things ahead. Can’t wait. But just for the next couple of weeks, I fancy going analogue with just a small side portion of digital. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you.

Yesterday my Grandma died, aged 84. She had a good innings as they say and had been fighting with illness (including cancer) for the past few years. She loved gardening and everything that comes with it - flowers, ponds, birds and all that amazing stuff that lives outside.

So, with the feeling of immense reflection and the immediate desire to see loved ones and live my life to the full, I write this to remind me to do just that - live my life right now and do amazing stuff while I’ll still alive.

Kevin Kelly is also thinking the same thing, having installed a countdown widget to the end of his life on his desktop. Not sure if I can bring myself to do the same thing though.

Anyway, do it.

There is one Tenori-On left at BM Soho. Call 0207 439 2403 and ask for Hilit if you want it. £60 deposit, £539.99 on collection. I’d emailed in to enquire about availability and Hilit kindly reserved me one. But I don’t have £600 to splurge right now on amazing looking music gadgetry. Go on. You know you want it!

Check out the official site here if you’re thinking WTF (or watch th video below).

So, after getting married, then being away on honeymoon for a few weeks, then coming back to work for two days, getting ill, being off sick for the rest of the week, coming back to work, then having to work from home for two days because of the tube strike . . . I’m back and at last feel ready to plug myself back into everything. And it hurts.

My RSS reader is bulging to the point where I think I’m gonna wipe it and start again. Email has slowed everything down to the point where I’m using webmail while I catch up and wade through everything on the desktop. Facebook is packed full of people weeing on me, poking me, inviting me to join weird groups. And the blog . . . . well it’s just as I left it but is really intimidating me.

THere’s so much to say. Read loads while I was away. Had a chance to really think about stuff. Being submerged in a completely non-digital culture and being offline for so long has given me a really fresh perspective on everything (I think!). Plus geting married . . . what a day that was. Absolutely amazing.

So - just as when I started the blog, I’m going to plunge back into everything. This time though I’m gonna try not to hold back as much as I think I was doing before and just let everything flow. Right now though, it feels like a bit of a mountain.

Thanks Esaba

I got married on Friday and am off on honeymoon until 22nd August. Back soon.

Bite is working with Peace One Day to help create the planet’s largest ever peace community and today we’re officially launching the world’s first “digiwristband” to enable people to make their own commitments to peace in support of Peace Day on 21 September 2007. (you can see mine on the right)

Peace One Day began as a film project founded by British filmmaker Jeremy Gilley in 1999 to establish the first ever-annual day of global ceasefire and non-violence. In 2001 the Day was unanimously adopted by UN member states as 21 September annually - Peace Day. Jeremy has amassed an impressive list of high profile supporters through his work including His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Jude Law, Angelina Jolie, Chris Martin, Annie Lennow, Sam Taylor Wood, Jonny Lee Miller, Simon Fuller, Sir Richard Branson, Kofi Annan and others. In 2006, 200 countries committed to Peace including all 192 UN member states, directly involving 27.6 million people. Pretty amazing stuff.

On Peace Day, Friday 21 September, there will be activity taking place in hundreds of countries around the world. At Peace One Day’s flagship concert at the Royal Albert Hall a host of star names will perform live and contribute through messages and films. Annie Lennox, Corinne Bailey Rae, James Morrison, Beth Orton and Marc Almond will all perform live, and they will be supported by video messages and specially filmed pieces by David Beckham, Jude Law, Lord David Puttnam and others.

In support of Peace One Day in the run up to Peace Day and beyond, we are trying to make as many people aware of the project as possible and inspire individuals, schools and corporations to make a commitment to peace, create a “digiwristband” and help spread the word by displaying their commitment on their MySpace profile, Facebook, profile PC wallpaper, mobile wallpaper, email signature, blog or website.

The Peacemaker wall displays all Peacemakers around the world and you can see Jeremy Gilley at number 1, Simon Fuller at number 19, myself at number 27 (!), Corinne Bailey Rae at number 186 and Bite at number 219.

You can help support Peace One Day by:

1) Making a commitment and displaying your digiwristband on your blog, website, MySpace or other online profile that you can add HTML to
2) Adding the Facebook Peace Commitment app to your Facebook profile and inviting your friends and networks to do the same
3) Blogging about Peace One Day and encouraging other people to make a commitment and spread the word
4) Spreading the word about Peace One Day in any way you can by emailing your friends and colleagues, including it in a newsletter, featuring it on your website etc etc

Go on. Do it now. Help us create the planet’s largest ever peace community.

All images, logos and other assets can be found here.