The Etch a Sketch clock - genius

Saw this on cool-hunting, by Angela Yuan. It reminds me a lot of my mate Nik Ramage's stuff. Very clever indeed.

Twitter - turning an SXSW audience into a lynchmob?

Now I wasn't there, but feel though I was. All the reports of just-out-of-business-nappies Zuckerberg being cold-fish interviewed by Business Week's Sarah Lacy at SXSW (Valleywag, Jarvis X 3, Wired, Jemima Kiss et all) were most entertaining. But not half as entertaining as the live twittering from the conference floor.

Drew B's take on the tweets at the time make for interesting reading. But what made a bigger impression on me than people's reactions to the "interview" was the speed at which the decision was taken by the crowd which was there - to collectively rubbish it within a few minutes of it starting. On twitter at least, there were few - if any - dissenting voices (apart from Lacy's own, natch).



With the advent of 24-hour news, and the print/online/broadcast convergence we've started to see media start to more actively compete for a different perspective, a tougher or more critical interpretation of events, and the inevitable rebalancing of speed V truth/accuracy to increase their audience share.

Now that everyone with a mobile phone or laptop can broadcast their opinions and - particularly in the geek-fest of SXSW where there is significant kudos attached to doing so - we're going to see it more and more. And when it does, I suspect it will be harder and harder to go against the flow. And mistakes will be made. I've seen it myself - being totally misquoted on Twitter by someone totally failing to condense the point I was making into the length of a text message.

But I reckon that this time the wisdom of the crowd was right, and a good private interviewer was thwarted by having to also perform tor a public audience.

I don't know what the answer is. In fact, I'm not sure what the question is - but I hope that the rush of excitement to get into social media and criticise/engage with people who oppose/share our views, doesn't encourage people to change those views simply so they can find something in common with A listers.

OK - so I wasn't there. By all accounts the interview was soft. And maybe the crowd would have been as critical even if they didn't know that they already shared eachother's opinions. But this has been the first time I've seen twitter traffic totally drive the received wisdom of a crowd. Have there been others I've missed?

I'll put good money on the fact that it won't be the last...

[update - Neville Hobson has just tweeted Brian Sollis's post. Another interesting perspective on the whole "kerfuffle, as is Bill Thompson's BBC column]

Goldfrapp v Hercules and Love Affair

Haven't yet finished listening to the new Goldfrapp album, Seventh Tree, but already loving it. Fewer big beats, more lush enveloping production values and (as ever) a fantastic voice. Almost worth walking in the torrential rain for - just so you can get lost in it. Nice one.

As for Hercules and Love Affair - still not convinced it isn't music biz hype over substance. Antony Hegarty is a musical genius and gives it huge credibility, but I'm not totally into it yet - though already I know it's going to stand the test of time more than the Scissor Sisters...Willing to give it time. And very willing to go and see them live (Camp Bestival, if not sooner).