The Sky's the limit

Sky News' Sky.com site has had something of a revamp. I like it. Of course I'm biased, as I'm a regular contributor/pundit on the programme, along with all sorts of proper web luminaries like Clay Shirky (his new book is excellent), Popbitch, Jeff Jarvis and Iain Dale.

They've given me and other contributors a bit of vid (apologies for the pre-roll, but I guess that's how they keep the programe on the air) to help plug the show.

Have a look, or check out their new blog. They do collect together a lot of decent stories from around the world every day. Think that programme Lenny Henry did on BBC1, but for grown ups. And without Lenny Henry. So altogether much much better.

Breakout - a number of clever homages

For some reason, Breakout is everywhere at the moment. I like the way that Altogether Digital use it on their site. But the cleverest use has to be this one to promote the N-Gage. Not only is the stop motion animation amazing. But the game is great...

A simply great application

TV Guide are in a spot of bother with the broadcasters over deep-linking to their content (and therefore wrapping their own ads around it), but that doesn't detract from a simply great product which combines information, a loose social network around something people feel very strongly about (TV), and an extremely "sticky" site.



I've long thought that in a multi-channel world, where people can access media in a non-linear fashion there are a number of key steps to ensure people can actually find that content.

1) Create advance buzz around the content itself (via trails, posters, word of mouth)
2) Deliver it via a trusted brand (hence all the broadcasters very carefully branding their channels as signposts to the content)
3) Make it easy to find - either via specific search, or by accident.

And it's point 3 that's going to be really interesting going forward, particularly when it comes to TV programmes. In short - it's whoever who controls the EPG who has the power in this relationship with the viewer. I'm not going to predict who that will be (and quite like the fact that at least some of it is regulated by OFCOM) - but it's no co-incidence that positions on the Sky EPG change hands for a small fortune.

Where it all gets even more interesting is when more and more people start to use things like tvguide, or tvtv, or even joost or bebo, using the service to both find things they want to watch them, and then to watch them within that portal. Interesting times ahead. Especially when the content is either on-demand, or the apps will record them for you (tvtv) or add a reminder to your calendar (tvguide) for you.

And I'll put good money on tvguide.co.uk being a big player in the years ahead. But Kangaroo (what a name) will launch with a bang and soon try and jump into the lead (sorry)...

Definition of a community manager

I'm not a great one for simply linking to other people's posts - but this one deserves it. Chris Brogan's post "on managing a community" is the most succinct take on the relatively new job/responsibility associated with online communities I've seen, especially when read with Nancy White's additions.

Worth reading the whole thing, but here's a taster:

Measurements

I’d measure my community manager on the following:

• Responsiveness to communications (blog comments, emails, twitter messages and forum threads) less than 24 hours max.
• Number of QUALITY blog posts read and shared via Google Reader.
• Number of meaningful comments (more than a few words, on topic, pertinent to the space) on appropriate blogs, videos, and other media per month.
• Overall quality of her Twitter stream ( maybe a 60/30/10 mix of industry-related / personal @ comments / and off-topic).
• Engagement on our blog/community/network. (Number of subscribers, number of comments, number of links out to other blogs from our community site).
• Number of quality blog posts and linking posts (probably a 40/60 split between original and linked, though some would argue for 30/70).
• Eventually, number of links from other sites to our blogs and media.

One to point people towards who are still a bit unsure of the brave new online world...

Everything you wanted to know about yourself but were always afraid to ask

One of the central principles about social media and widgety goodness is to make little applications and games useful, interesting, entertaining and/or illuminating.

There's a lot of them around, many of which FAIL, but I really liked this London Mayoral Election quiz as it actually asks specific questions which directly relate to the policies of the main candidates. Though it obviously doesn't take into account all the tactical voting which (hopefully) will make a big difference on Thursday.

Other than that (and partly because my wife recently did Myers Briggs) I've also had a play with the personaldna one, which suggests I am a "Benevolent Leader". I guess it's a bit like newspaper horoscopes - they're not exactly going to have a category which says "waste of space" are they?

Benevolent Leader

A new and expensive hobby

I wish I discovered snowboarding 20 years ago. I wish I discovered skateboarding 30 years ago. I wish I had better co-ordination and a better sense of balance.



But none of those things stopped me from learning to snowboard a few weeks ago in Austria. It was hard, hard work. But I managed it. And towards the end I really enjoyed it. To the point that I'd really like to do it again. Soon.