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National Newspapers and Web 2.0
2007-11-04 17:19:00
How do national newspapers compare in their Web 2.0 compatbility.The Sun Online is my favourite online newspaper site for interactivity.It is one of the three sites I am comparing as part of the website I am helping build.It has:1. A visible RSS feed.2. A link to a discussion board.3. A toolbar you can install, which enables you to search various parts of the site wherever else you are on the Web.4. An easy-to-navigate left menu with headings.5. "Viral Videos"6. E-mail alerts and the chance to get "Sun stories" on a mobile phone.7. Subsites which enable you to shop, travel, gamble, find jobs and find a date.You can also promote yourself by writing a blog on the site.My least favourite site for interactivity is the Independent OnlineThe links for having an e-mail newsletter and RSS Feeds are hidden at the bottom of the site.I'm just glad the search engine wasn't put there as well.The articles on the site are just copy from the print edition.They haven't been re-written for the web...
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Latest news from Zimbabwe
2007-11-04 13:30:00
This morning, I picked up a copy of the excellent The New Zimbabwe from outside Kenton tube station.It seems that the Movement for Democratic Change is suffering another split.Lucia Matiben, the former head of the women's wing of the party, is holding parallel elections to those called by Morgan Tsvangiral.This follows a split in 2005 when MP's attacked Tsvangiral for not fielding candidates in senate elections.Many in the party blame Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF for engineering problems in the party.They allege intelligence service members loyal to Zanu PF are involved.A letter from "Grand Ayatollah el-Dismantler" in the New Zimbabwe berates criticsm of Tsvangiral and calls him "the Lion of Zimbabwe".And while the MDC battles itself, Zanu PF destroys Zimbabwe.According to the BBC, only twenty per cent of adults have a job.People are queuing for hours just to obtain bread.And other African leaders such as Thabeo Mbeki are failing to speak out.I wonder how Mr Mbeki would fare if he had...
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Guardian Digital Archives
2007-11-03 11:37:00
A searchable digital archive of the Guardian and the Observer is now online.The archive goes back to the first issue of each paper.That's 1821 for the Guardian, and 1791 for the Observer.For some reason, the website adress given in today's thearchive supplement is wrong.The digital archiveYou can purchase timed acess, for 24 hours (£7.95), 3 days (£14.95) or 4 months(£49.95) It is also possible to take part in a one day free trial.The process:Guardian newspapers are stored on microfilm, maintained by US company ProQuest.They are then scanned into computers by Olive Software, who are based in Hod Hasaron, in Israel. The pages are divided up and inspected.They are then shipped back on hard drives to the Guardian's HQ in Farringdon Road, London.
More About: Digital , Archives , Hive

Operation Firefox
2007-11-02 16:18:00
Firefox's latest publicity drive is making full use of interactivity.It allows anyone who lives in a country containing a Firefox office to pretend to be a secret agent.The idea is to submit to Mozilla a plan of where they'd stick a 3.5 foot fathead sticker.The sticker should communicate an aspect of Firefox that Mozilla wants to promote.The four catagories are: Performance, Customization, Security and Community.As mentioned on the front page, you can win a Macbook Pro or one of three Nintendo Wiis.This is PR at its finest.The site is laid out like a secret briefing, as if the viewer is Harry Palmer with Web 2.0.However, the downside is that you can only enter the competition if you live in North America, Canada (except Quebec), China, New Zealand and Japan.These are the only countries with a Mozilla office.Why countries such as the UK or Germany do not have a Mozilla office I do not know.Firefox is marketed as the underdog, an alternative to Microsoft.Mozilla even has a forum whe...
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David Lammy on Saudi Arabia
2007-11-02 14:34:00
Last night on Question Time David Lammy claimed that human rights were raised by Gordon Brown during the Saudi King's visit.Today, however, an article in the Independent says otherwise."We haven't talked of human rights," Prince Saud al-Faisal told Sky News. "Human rights is the responsibility for the government of its own people, not of other governments. We are doing what our people expect us to do."So either Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal or David Lammy is wrong.
More About: Saudi Arabia , Arabia

Reactions to Tony Parsons: Pleading his case before the PCC?
2007-11-01 18:42:00
On the 29th October I blogged on the xenophobic and biased comments made by Tony Parsons .I found them offensive, and am concerned that they may add to the negative picture of British people that many in other parts of Europe have.It seems many share my view.A twenty-one page thread on the Mirror forums expressing dismayAnd a rather unusual attack on the UKMany people are complaining to the Press Complaints Commission.Do they have a case?The Code of Practicei) The press must avoid prejudicial or pejorative reference to an individual's race, colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation or to any physical or mental illness or disability. I think describing a Portuguese diplomant as "sardine-munching" is a breach of that section of the Code.Unless Tony Parsons can prove that Antonio Santana Carlos has a reputation for regularly eating sardines.Which is unlikely.
More About: Case , Reaction

Flickr
2007-11-01 18:22:00
For those who want to display photos from a digital camera for Free, Flick r is an essential website.You need a Yahoo ID to access the site, and this is relativly easy to obtain.There is a 100MB hosting restriction per month. 100MB is roughly 50 photos or so.Uploading is relativly rapid and it is easy to add comments.My Flickr accountIf you want to use a photo you find on Flickr, it is best to contact the person. If you have a Flickr account, you can send a message from within the site, otherwise e-mail contacts are usually displayed.

Saga Zone
2007-10-31 20:01:00
As reported in the Daily Mail today, social networking sites are now finding niches.Bebo is used by those under 16.Myspace is offers "Myspace Music" and is used by bands as a marketing tool.Facebook is primarily used by the under-30's. and is seen as a student-centric tool.Dogbook is a Facebook application that allows canines to maintain an online presence.I have no idea what Web sites dogs look at.www.givethedogabone.com?I sound barking mad.Now social networking sites specifically for the elderly are taking off.Saga Zone , part of the Saga Group, which offers services for old people.The signup page is easy to navigate and is completly free.I feel Saga Zone will take off.Let's hope it stays application free.

Pettiness
2007-10-31 19:44:00
Some people in life can be so petty.Up until yesterday I had on my door a photo of one of my (16 year old) sister's guinea pigs.She took the photo a while ago and gave it to me before I left the dreaming spires of Oxford for university.Our housing is managed by a company called Unilet.This afternoon I came home from Webdesign to find my pig picture in the bin.No attempt had been made to slip it under my door.Given that one of my housemates was in, the Unilet official could have given it to her.But it was just stuck it in the bin.Had I not seen it, it would have gone the next day when the cleaners came.My housemate was told that pictures on the outside of doors were a fire risk.How?Are photographs going to burst into flames?I enjoy my degree, I like the people on my course and I like my flatmates.However, it seems pettiness is everywhere.

Will the tigers be wiped out?
2007-10-31 10:50:00
The Independent today leads on the wipeout of tigers in India.Between 2000 and 2007, the numbers of tigers lowered from 5000 to 1300.During the 1900's, India had around 100,000 animals.Tigers are also declining in China and Indonesia.If more is not done to prevent poaching, by 2025 they will be extinct throughout the world.The World Wildlife Fund has more information on what can be done to prevent their extinctionAccording to Mahendra Shresta of Save The Tiger Fund, global commitment from NGO's and governments is needed to save the tigers.

Online Newspapers: Web 2:0 guide
2007-10-30 17:05:00
I have a keen interest in the evolution of newspapers on the Internet.Below I have written a guide for local newspaper journalists (which can also be used by others).Want to attract more readers?For my website I have been researching the rise of online newspapers and their interactive content.This website will be up and running within a few weeks.I will link to it when it is.These are my thoughts, after discussion with David Dunkley Gyimah and others on my course.Ways newspapers can improve their online content:1. Remember, writing for the Web is different for writing for a print publication or a television script. You will be writing for search engines such as Google and MSN Search.Therefore, do not make your text too blocky. Include key words in your text, so robots are able to rank your webpage at the top of each search.Notice how each of my paragraphs are one or two sentences. Most of them are less than twenty words.Don't simply republish newspaper copy.When people perform a se...
More About: Newspapers , Online , Guide , Guid

Smoking in The Smoke
2007-10-30 12:45:00
This is the text of an article I wrote on the July smoking banIt was published today in Westminster University's student newspaper, the Smoke .The controversial public smoking ban introduced on the 1st July has seen a dramatic improvement in the air quality, with researchers from the Tobacco Control Collecting Centre in Warwick visiting 59 establishments where smoking was a common health hazard around the country, in a study funded by Cancer Research UK.As revealed at the National Cancer Research Institute Conference, the exposure of an employee to secondhand smoke on average was the equivalent of smoking 190 cigarettes a year before the legislation was brought in three months ago. After the legislation, the exposure lowered to the equivalent of 44 cigarettes a year. Cotnine, a by-product of tobacco smoke exposure which is though to have an effect on the chances of developing Altzheimer’s, disease, was also found to have been four times more prevalent in June than in August.The st...
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Coca-Cola disguise
2007-10-29 10:39:00
Aya Tsukioka, a Japanese designer, has invented a vending machine costume, according to the New York Times pullout in yesterday's ObserverThis will enable people walking on their own to disguise themselves to avoid a pursuer.Like the UK, you can get bulletproof school uniforms as well.I wonder if the fake vending machine will take off over here?It seems in this country we're quite used to vending machines that don't dispense anything anyway.
More About: Coca-Cola , Coca Cola , Coca , Cola

Tony Parsons
2007-10-29 10:21:00
Is the Mirror turning into the Sun?Tony Parsons seems to be helping it along the path to xenophobia.Today his column included an attack on just about everyone in Portugal because they haven't been feting the McCanns while wearing yellow ribbons.And it's not the first time he has attacked those who don't venerate the McCann'sHe calls the Portuguese Police cruel and stupid, and accuses "locals" of jeering at Kate McCann.Yet he doesn't complain about Sky News following the McCann's home on a flight.He doesn't complain about the speculation in the British press.It seems that the only people who have done something wrong in the mind of Tony Parsons are Portuguese.He even calls the Portguese ambassador a "sardine muncher". It's like reading Kelvin McKenzie.It would be nice if British culture could lose its xenophobia "Little Englandism" and embrace diversity.No doubt most Portuguese now think the UK is full of small-minded Sun readers with a BNP registration form in one hand and a...

Chauncey Bailey
2007-10-28 13:14:00
The Observer Magazine today has a feature on Chauncey Bailey , a former editor of the Oakland Post.He was murdered this August, allegedly by an organised criminal network known as the Bakery.What came through from the article was how Chauncey became the centre of the community through his determination to write to help. There is a quote from the story that sums him up "When he wrote up a story he would often take its characters under his wing".Another striking feature of the article is the difference between Bailey and Yusuf Bay. Both grew up in a city with a high murder rate and the Symbionese Liberation Army.Yet Bailey decided that journalism was the best way to help himself and his community, while Bay set up an organized crime network and failed to pay back a $1.1m loan.Happily, while Bay's criminal network is dissolving, Bailey's work is being continued.The Chauncey Bailey Project has been set up to continue his work.I never met Chauncey Bailey, but I would liked to have done....

Webscape with Kate Russell
2007-10-21 17:07:00
The BBC needs to grow up when reporting on technology.On News24 twenty minutes ago,Kate Russell peppered her report for Click on PC rebooting with the phrases such as "getting a life" and "geeks".The BBC is meant to have a neutral viewpoint.It has no business passing comment on those who are "net-savvy".Indeed, understanding the Internet is essential for any journalist.Spencer Kelly didn't seem taken aback either.Given that he was discussing the BBC's video stream straight after, maybe he should have done.But as long as some presenters label understanding technology as geeky and uncool, people will be scared of using the Internet.

NUJ Student Press Card
2007-10-21 13:42:00
My NUJ Student Press Card arrived earlier this week.It's surprisngly big but still fits between my Oyster and X90 card.Although the picture of me isn't as good as the one on my student card, it's still nice to have.I do look like a cross between Russ from Hollyoaks and the Owl of the Remove, however.

No furtive rustling in the carriage?
2007-10-21 13:30:00
For my Webdesign course I am researching the future of newspapers.Hopefully the rise of the free newspaper (such as Metro) will give newspapers a reprieve from cultural death.It is quite scary to imagine a world without them.Envisage an Underground carriage full of commuters with handheld computers or MP3 players.No one able to get a news fix by glancing at a front page.No quiet rustling as a tabloid is unfolded.Just the sound of thirty electronic devices bleeping and clicking away.And judging by the number of people unable to turn off keyboard bleeps, people like it when their device makes pointless noises.If I have to listen to that every journey, I will rebel against the wholly electronic media age.I will strap myself to the roof of the Underground carriage each time I make a journey.Let’s hope newspapers survive for a few decades longer.Otherwise I’d better log off and try and find some industrial strength tape.As you can see, I haven’t even worked how to strap myself to t...
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Enemybook
2007-10-21 13:14:00
Enemybook is a Facebook application developed by MIT student Kevin Matulef.According to the Guardian, so far 1,200 have added the Facebook application.It allows you to display people as enemies on your Facebook page, and also to tell your friends to enemy someone.The Enemybook home page features a guide to how the Facebook application worksWith Facebook a popular networking site among schoolchildren, I wonder if this application will increase cyberbullying.Imagine if one class member was added as an enemy by the rest of the class.Perhaps it is time for some Facebook applications to have an age restriction.But I am not sure how this would happen.

I'm Backing Brian Paddick
2007-10-20 15:37:00
I am very pleased that Brian Paddick, the former Lambeth police commander, is a Liberal Democrat candidate for London Mayor.I hope he will be selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate.Brian Paddick is realistic about the hopelessness of our current drugs policy.We cannot keep spending finite police resources on prosecuting those in possession of cannabis.There is a concern over the mental health effects of cannabis, which I share.Yet due to low morale and low pay, the British police are stretched to the limit.We don’t need our police filling in paperwork because they’ve arrested a youth smoking a joint.We need them policing clubland at weekends, chasing joyriders and arresting serious offenders.Just consider how few rapes are prosecuted in this country.According to a BBC news story a few months ago, only 5% of rapes result in a convictionPublic rallies took place in Lambeth after Paddick was transferred after a press outcry.Ken Livingstone has been a decent Mayor of London, yet...
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Brian Reade
2007-10-19 13:27:00
Brian Reade’s column in yesterday’s Mirror really made me angryThere is nothing wrong with columnists writing controversial material to stimulate debate.In fact, I would regard this as an essential part of any magazine or newspaper.Yet Reade’s argument is less convincing than any tale spun by Jeffrey Archer.Let us deconstruct.Firstly, Reade’s designation of the political journalist as Peregrine was clearly designed to alienate Mirror readers.Unless Peregrine Worsthorne had been speaking to him.Secondly, Reade does not provide any evidence that when the political journalist said “the stories that really affect our lives”, he meant stories from inside Westminster.And just because 90% of the people Reade knows drool over the McCann story with their plastic empathy, it doesn’t follow that this repeats across the country.No doubt many of the 90% are Mirror journalists who monitor the news so they can discover what to write about.Apparently anyone who doesn’t agree with th...
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Liberal Democrat Leadership Candidates: The Hemming Way
2007-10-18 21:29:00
The latest news on the Liberal Democrat Leader ship is that there are three candidates, 1.Chris Huhne (13/5 according to Guido Fawkes), 2.Nick Clegg (1/2), who described a list of offences New Labour had created at the 2006 Liberal Democrat conference.3. John Hemming. MP for Birmingham Yardley.A Birmingham City Councillor.If Hemming wins, the Liberal Democrats will be doing things the Hemming way...
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Article 19
2007-10-18 12:45:00
Article 19 is a global human rights organisation, with an emphasis on freedom of expression.Currently they are campaigning to free imprisoned Burmese politican and campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi, as well The organisation has an excellent website for journalists.It follows the grid system and is easy to navigate.I first came across it this summer while I was browsing the Westminster Journalism site, and I have signed up to the free e-mail updates. I highly recommend them. Most of the e-mails are press releases urging action in a part of the world.Article 19 is a worthy cause and you can donate money here
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Facebook
2007-10-17 10:09:00
Facebook is the online curate’s egg-good in places. That’s a high compliment considering how tedious many social interaction sites are.Bebo is a good example of this, a site that always makes me feel like someone has vomited a bellyful of misspelt words onto their profile. Inevitably, Bebo profiles are accompanied by videos to rival the worst of You Tube, such as two teenagers pouring beer all over themselves while sitting in their car.However, Facebook does have some downsides. The first is the Anglocentric nature of its networking. While America and the UK have regional networks, countries such as Poland and Germany have only educational and country-wide networks, which seems ridiculously lazy. As a result various other versions of Facebook not in English are springing up, geared towards a single country or language. I’m also astonished by the plethora of applications springing up. While I don’t share the sentiments of one of my friends, who said he was “disappointed th...
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Liberal Democrat Latest
2007-10-16 19:05:00
It seems like only yesterday that I was listening to Menzies Campbell strut his stuff at the Liberal Democrat Conference in 2006 at the Brighton Centre.Campbell was referred to fondly by the delegates as "Uncle Ming", yet he came across to me as uncomfortable, unlike a speech by former leader Charles Kennedy.And now-just over a year on-he's resigned, with the Lib Dems dropping to 11% in the polls. It makes me concerned that we face a future with a two-party system, with neither party differing in policy in some areas.It looks like Nick Clegg will be the successor-although he seems dispassionate.

Royal Mail talks
2007-10-16 12:44:00
It seems that the postal strike could be coming to an end after CWU representatives and Royal Mail have agreed to talks.There have been a program of rolling strikes over the summer, crippling mail deliveries, and ever since late September the majority of postal staff have been on strike continously.I have every sympathy with the CWU, given the failure of the Government to support the postal industry in the way it bailed out Northern Rock, and the obsession with competition.Last week Tony Benn wrote on this subject in the Guardian, and made the point that other public services such as the police run at a loss.
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Dispatches
2007-10-12 20:30:00
Building on the success of last Friday’s excellent lecture on financial regulation, a subject that I’m particularly keen to specialize in, today’s lecture was given by a Dispatches reporter. She has been working on a programme dealing with late-term abortions and the procedures undergone during them, which will be broadcast next Wednesday on Channel 4 at 10:40pm. The first person to make a film on Osama Bin Laden, she has also reported on Iraq and cirrhosis of the liver caused by excessive drinking. The latter involved a mobile liver testing station being set up in Manchester, which resulted in over 50% of visitors being diagnosed with liver problems, no doubt saving many lives. We were also privileged to watch extracts from the Dispatches documentaries she has made, working with production companies such as Oxford based Quicksilver Media Limited. These included a report on the brutality used in the American prison system, which seems to have spilled over into America’s...

Diana Inquest Accident at Paris Ritz
2007-10-09 10:36:00
Rather ironically, the coach carrying the Diana jurors has crashed outside the Paris Ritz, colliding with a police motorcycle escort. A tire burst and the wheel trim came off. However, no-one was hurt, although the motorcyclist did fall off his bike.Poorly written Yahoo News story herehttp://uk.news.yahoo.com/skynews/2007 1008/tuk-diana-inquest-coach-crashes-at-p aris-45dbed5_2.htmlMetro story here:http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article. html?in_article_id=69341&in_page_id=3 4
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More Time For Politics
2007-10-09 10:24:00
Tony Benn is a prolific diarist as well as a parliamentary legend. Nine volumes have been published so far, covering the years from 1940 (when he was still a schoolchild) to early 2007. The Diaries improve with time, with the first three volumes differing little from a standard political biography, although Benn’s years as the Postmaster General give a taste of the radical and amusing content found in the latter diaries. From 1970, however, Benn starts to examine life outside the confines of the Labour Party and the constituency, and begins his interest in trade unionism and grassroots politics. The next three decades see his unique chronicling of the disintegration of the 1974-9 Labour Government, the brutality of Thatcherism, the miners’ strike and the rise of New Labour. This Thursday I was able to purchase a copy of the latest volume, “More Time For Politic s ”. It was interesting to note that the Harrow Waterstones only had one copy (which was on order). An assistant ...

Central London Burma March
2007-10-06 17:07:00
Today I joined ten thousand red-clad marchers as we protested outside Whitehall and the Houses of Parliament at the brutality of the military regime in Burma and the inaction of the international community. The march was organized by the Burmese Democratic Movement Association, http://www.bdmauk.org, and I heard about it from an Article 19 e-mail on Friday. We set off from outside Tate Britain just after eleven o’clock, followed by a ridiculously large police presence including several vans full of police officers and a police helicopter which flew above us just before we set off. Why so many police were drafted in to monitor peaceful demonstrators I do not understand, except perhaps to reinforce the crackdown on peaceful protests. Obviously, police were needed to guide demonstrators along the route and stop the traffic, but the number of police actually standing along the cordon directing people was miniscule-around twenty or so-compared to those inside the police vans. There...
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