middledigit.net | jonathan hopkins

Ages ago an article in Marmalade magazine (RIP) really struck a chord with me - it predicted that people would get sick of nice brands like Innocent and start wanting to be treated a bit rougher. The ‘nasty brand’ would begin to emerge, one that gave it back once in a while, took the piss out of its customers a bit, engaged in a bit of friendly banter and wasn’t quite so nice etc.

Well Faceparty today took that to the extreme and told its users that it’s ’shut the whole site down and fucked off to the zoo” because of their recent behaviour. In could of course be a big stunt to reinforce its anti-corporation stance whilst generating lots of online buzz at the same time . . .

Listen this is our HOBBY, not our business. there was a time when you understood that - back when the net was run buy [sic] the people like us, and not by massive corporations - just because MySpace and Facebook sold out to the corporate world, doesn’t mean we did - we said no. Stop expecting “customer service” from us, cos WE DON’T HAVE CUSTOMERS - IT’S A FREE FUCKING SITE - too many of you treat us like we owe you something. And quit the “you need us attitude” cos we really fucking don’t. We don’t make money from you - it’s free. The things you pay for only cover the costs for the things you use.

On a serious note too - it does make you think about the variety of FREE internet things you use everyday and what you expect from them. Um, Twitter!!!?

[Via the Register and Whatleydude]

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]

Well said Faris. I’m just a little bit biased but there we go. Go here for a truly awesome round up of what happened this year from the nice people over at Contagious magazine.

This is super cool. Still very early days but it’s pretty amazing you can now stream to the world right from your mobile phone. Scoble is all over it and have a feeling that this is the absolute tip of the iceberg.

UPDATE - don’t think the embed code works, have tried a few times.

This looks really interesting. I’m right in the middle of lots of stuff right now so have only had a quick poke around. First stab at the holy grail . . . how to rate and rank people’s digital presences

“Be seen how you want to be seen
Up until now there has been no way to measure digital presence, to see where you fit in to the online world. At Garlik, we’ve analysed the digital profiles of the nation and have made available a QDOS score for every UK adult . Your QDOS score is made up of 4 different components:
Popularity
Who you know and the extent of your online network.
Impact
How much people listen to what you say online.
Activity
What you do online e.g. shop, chat, blog.
Individuality
How easy you are to find online according to your name, your age etc
Put simply, the more you are out there surfing, buying, selling and socialising online, the higher your QDOS score.
To find your QDOS simply enter your name and postcode in to the site - it’s as simple as that. Once you’ve found your QDOS you can also claim it, and from there you can tell us a little more about you that will help us refine your QDOS score and make it even more reflective of you. Your QDOS will also change over time according to what you do online. Take control of your online status with QDOS.”

BBC is reporting that the website MyFootballClub, set up to buy a stake in Ebbsfleet United and help run it, has been given the go ahead and a deal struck. Great idea that I’m sure you’ve heard about already. This is surely the start of a lot more exciting things like this. Maybe we could all have a say in how our country is ran? With advances in technology and the rise of the mobile, it’s now technically possible. Bring it on.

The 20,000 MyFootballClub members have each paid £35 to provide a £700,000 takeover pot and they will all own an equal share in the club. Members will have a vote on transfers as well as player selection and all major decisions.

So, someone tried to stake a claim as to what the official definition of web 3.0 is. And it’s all kicked off. Raises a lot of questions, main one being when will we stop going up in numbers. Thats all a bit “Windows 98″ isn’t it?

Interesting article on Murketing about a company called Subvert & Profit that get paid to Digg stories to try and get them on the front page. More of this to come, blatently. Can it be called Figging I wonder?

So, here’s a really good quote that sums up something that brands need to be wary of.

please describe web 2.0 to me in 2 sentences or less.
you make all the content. they keep all the revenue.

UGC is a great way of engaging with people but one day (and maybe that’s going to be sooner than we think), consumers are going to start demanding a share of the revenue from it. It all feels quite one way at the moment, although there are plenty of exciting solutions waiting in the wings and in some cases actually live.

Just a thought but why can’t I have my own account whereby everytime I view a piece of branded content I get paid for my click and this becomes a trade off for my “eyeball”. There’s obviously an incredibly big debate behind this and one I haven’t researched fully . . . but this quote and the fact it’s running on the front page of POPURLS made me think I should.

Hi there. Just emerging from everything to share this which my friend Kris shared with me. Normal service to resume shortly . . .