Archive for February, 2006

There is no Blogging 101

Monday, February 27th, 2006

I avoid blogging about blogging. It strikes me as depressingly meta, an admission that you’re struggling for real content. Rules are made to be broken however, so permit me this minor crime of passion.

In one of my more creative waves, I made a promise to myself: to start writing. Not for profit or for publication, just for fun. The pleasure of manipulating words. The balance of brevity and meaning. As with so many bold plans, it never reached fruition, instead generating that nagging feeling of mild self-disappointment.

Then it struck me: I do write. I’m doing it right now. Praise be, I have been saved!

I’m fortunate enough to have many articulate, intelligent friends and like any good evangelist I suggest they should blog. Typically the response is tempted but wary: “but I don’t know what to write about…” I ought to point them to Blogging for Beginners, but I don’t. I don’t because I disagree with pretty much every piece of advice it gives:

“The chances are if you have identified a niche that you think is hot at the moment that someone else will have also.”
“What’s your message?”
“One of the common reasons that I see bloggers getting into trouble with their readers or other bloggers is that they change the way they approach their blogging midstream.”

Pardon my French, but fuck all that.

The whole reason blogging has taken off is because of its flexibility. It vehemently resists structure. It’s free of editorial constraints, free of bullshit and branding. You don’t know what to say? Rubbish. Say what you say to real people in real life. Screw “positioning” or “message consistency”, and just write for the love of expressing yourself, of creating, of having a voice.

Creativity is its own reward.

Categories: blogging, creativity, writing

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Google Pages = Geocities 2.0

Thursday, February 23rd, 2006

It looks like the rumours were true: Google have launched their own webpage maker, Google Pages. My first impressions are pretty positive – Geocities 2.0 with a better UI (as you’d expect from Google), and surprisingly clean code output. Of course it’s not as good as doing it “properly” but, let’s be honest, anything that can help my Mum to make a website has to be a good step towards a more participative web.

Two thoughts:

This will put a lot of mediocre web developers and hosting companies out of business. Good riddance.
How are they planning to integrate this with Blogger?

[Above, probably my favourite Hugh Macleod cartoon in a good while.]

Categories: google, webdevelopment, webdesign, hosting, website

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Nielsen on TV

Tuesday, February 21st, 2006

Quick filler snippet: Jakob Nielsen being absolutely damn right, for once.

The entire concept of watching a broadcast at the mercy of the producers’ desire to stretch out the good parts across as much time as possible is getting to be obsolete. The experience from using the Web makes people impatient and forms a desire to control your own experience: to get what you want, when you want it. Non-clickable TV provides a sub-standard user experience for events like the Olympics with multiple components, where different people are interested in different things.

TV as we know it is dying. As I say to my friends (who are growing weary of my rants), our kids will look at us incredulously and ask “You mean if there was something on, you had to sit and watch it at the time they told you to?”.

Categories: television, jakobnielsen, broadcast

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The shooting

Tuesday, February 14th, 2006

It appears that the Nottingham shooting is approximately 100 metres away from where I used to live. My friends have been bouncing emails around about it all morning.

Lenton’s not a great part of town – burglaries are pretty much mandatory there (high student population, insecure housing), but there are worse areas. The press have of course already christened Nottingham “Gun City” since the murders of Marian Bates and Danielle Beccan, and I’ll agree that there does seem to be something of a localised gun problem. However, this is common to most big cities, and if I recall correctly the overall level of gun crime in Nottingham lags behind Luton, Blackpool and many others (I may look up a source for this later). I really do believe (hope?) that this is an isolated and tragic incident, and not indicative of “the state of the city”.

I feel safe in Nottingham. Yes, I live in quite a pleasant area in a secure building, but I’ve also spent my time in the “rougher” areas. Like most places, you know where to go, you know how to avoid trouble, and most of the time there’s absolutely no problem.

I just hope the press don’t set the dogs on the city I call home.

Categories: nottingham, crime, shooting, lenton

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Sunday, February 12th, 2006

Valentine’s Day is swinging round again, so it’s time for the annual humourous postcard of mild resentment. I’m not turning this into a Star Wars blog or anything.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah last night were resolutely okay. My last few gigs have all been bit too accessible; I feel the call of pokey venues, effects pedals and complicated time signatures. Irritated I missed Charlottefield, I should put more blind faith in the Damn You kids’ judgment.

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The Dark Side presents…

Friday, February 3rd, 2006

From PresentationZen: what would Darth Vader’s presentational style be?

Powerpoint leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. I’m working on a “Lessig Style” presentation at the moment: hopefully the exact opposite of the above. I’ll post a few slides as/when I’m able.