comics Geek Squared My BCU colleague Inger-Lise Bore got me into reading Piled Higher and Deeper – a web comic about being a research student. The humour is pretty geeky and quite niche on a good day, but the last three instalments have ticked all my geek boxes. The three parter is about a trip to a comic-con, and… Con
conferences Help Me Investigate: the social practices of investigative journalism Last week I attended the 2010 conference of the International Association of Media & Communication Research where amongst other things I gave a paper, Help Me Investigate: the social practices of investigative journalism. Taking all of your ideas and presenting them in less than 15 minutes is pretty
conferences Social capital: you’re doing it wrong* (img cc kelvin255) *not really. I’m being provocative, but I do have some ideas about another way of using the concept when talking about the Internet. I wrote a brief piece over at Interactive Cultures last week, which was a neat distillation of a lit review I’ve written about social capital and a
blogging Video Cultures – only £1.00 per night This week I’ve contributed two posts to Video Cultures, a new joint from two BCU colleagues. In their own words Video Cultures is: a research project looking at the history and cultural significance of the medium of video with an emphasis on the sale, rental and collecting of video formats. Develope
digital culture Web Standards is the new Comedy is the new Rock’n’Roll So when exactly did coders become rock stars? In the course of my morning I had cause to be looking at some stuff by Jeffrey Zeldman on A List Apart, and then shortly after to be on Amazon which threw up a suggestion that I buy the new edition of his book ‘Designing with Web Standards‘… Continue
learning and teaching Enabling digital participation in Higher Education OK so being as Ana and Jen (part 1 & part 2) blogged about posters, I guess that means it’s what we do now. So here’s my regulation blog post about a poster. A few summer’s ago Dave Kane, Anita Reardon and I were given a small grant for a pilot project in the uses… Continue reading Enabling digital
ethics Professional ethics and informal social media Last year I spoke to a big room full of occupational therapists at their annual conference and I promised to do a follow up with a smaller group over at Therapy Learning. So today I took a day’s annual leave from BCU, and went to Melton Mowbray (where the pies come from) to talk to a few occupationa
pr Digital Communications & Social Media This may be of interest to some of my contacts and students. It’s a report on social media in PR and comms agencies, based on interviews with industry bods. I’ve only skim read it, so this is not an endorsement of the content or the methodology, but there seems to be some interesting points raised…
blogging Why do companies blog? – The non-snake oil answer Why do companies blog? A common answer is: “to join the conversation”. That’s a pretty good answer, especially if you’re in the business of helping them to have that conversation. But actually, that’s the answer to the question “why should we have a company blog?”. Why do companies blog? A lot of c
Domain scams, digital participation, and plain English The other day I was chatting to Nick Moreton about a domain name scam someone tried to pull on his Mum. I mentioned the Domain Registry of America to him as a point of comparison. I hadn’t heard from them for a long time, but funnily enough Domain Registry of America tried to scam me the very next…
Big Culture Blog Tonight I’ve been posting a few things to http://blog.birminghamculture.org/ as part of a 24-hour snapshot of goings on in Birmingham. So far there have been 97 posts to the site. I’m going to contribute a few more things tomorrow morning before he event ends at 12pm. If you want to show your suppor
Would you do voluntary work for a big PLC? I get lots of emails with opportunities for my students and graduates. Some are for paid work, part-time, full-time and temporary; others are for unpaid placements and some are for voluntary work. It can be controversial point, but I don’t normally mind people asking for unpaid placements. Our stude
The Gas Safe Register – getting avatars wrong I’ve just had my boiler fixed by a nice guy called Laurence, who runs a business from the bottom of my road. He’s on the Gas Safe Register (that’s CORGI in old money) so I know he’s a safe pair of hands. The only thing is, you might be forgiven for thinking that your local gas engineer… Continue rea
A very polite and useful note from O2 on iPhone roaming data A week or so ago I was getting a connecting flight at Schipol airport. I was looking for some wifi to check my email, when suddenly my phone connected via 3G. I double checked, and my data roaming was definitely off (see below). That was a bit of a worry. Anyway, sure enough I got billed… Continue r
business Digital Birmingham Web 2.0 for Business Seminar This morning I spoke at a Web 2.0 for business seminar at Digital Birmingham, as part of the digital champion project Below are my slides from this morning’s Digital Birmingham seminar. Digital Birmingham – Web 2.0 for Business Seminar http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=event1-10
china Context and making meaning out of food When we teach students about textual analysis we often talk about “context” and how that can help shape meaning. By that we mean things like how someone comes to a media text (a TV programme, a film, a song, a newspaper article etc.), how and where they are consuming it, what their personal backgrou
Photo for beer commercial / self portrait #fb It’s Tsingtao time. This beer goes into second place in the “best place I’ve had a beer” all time top ten. What was your favourite beer moment? SHARE THIS: * Share * * Twitter [https://theplan.co.uk/photo-for-beer-commercial-self-portrait-fb/?share=twitter] * Email [https://theplan.c
Getting around blocks on Twitter & Facebook in China So Twitter is blocked in China. I wasn’t sure it would be. Apparently it comes and goes, as does Facebook. I don’t really have that much to say anyway, but I’m a bit worried about keeping track of what’s happening with the Fused project, and I was relying on it to update Facebook via selective tweet
Chasing the sun from Amsterdam to Beijing #fb See the full gallery on Posterous SHARE THIS: * Share * * Twitter [https://theplan.co.uk/chasing-the-sun-from-amsterdam-to-beijing-fb/?share=twitter] * Email [https://theplan.co.uk/chasing-the-sun-from-amsterdam-to-beijing-fb/?share=email] * * LinkedIn [https://theplan.co.uk/cha
Investigation into London Weekly at HMI Would you work for nothing in the hope of earning some commission from a newspaper that appears to nick content – from editorial to the words on their own marketing website – from all over the web? There’s an ongoing investigation into the launch of London Weekly taking place at Help Me Investigate
drm How to read an eBook – they’re the future you know First, get logged in through the paywall – I used an Athens password, so find a student to help you. This is what you get. It looks like the book should load in the big empty space, but it doesn’t. Click on some of the links down the side… oh they download PDFs. Not one… Continue reading How to read
hack Recording calls on iPhone I’ve been asking around for a while for a way to record voice calls on my iPhone. I don’t have much call to do this, but there have been a few times when it would be handy it seems obvious that the phone should do this (it makes calls, it has a voice recorder), but… Continue reading Recording calls
birmingham A Birmingham amendment to Godwin’s Law Godwin’s Law is an Internet adage that states: As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1. I’d like to table a local amendment, which we’ll call Brummie’s Law (because I’m not naming it after myself): As an online discussion about Bir
Today I’m appearing in a Twitter panto. Oh yes I am. #twitpanto What are you doing at 3:30pm GMT today? Nothing much I’ll bet. You’ll no doubt be sleeping off a cheeky Christmas pint, or “filing” to pass the last half hour before you break up for Christmas. Make that last hour at work count, by heading over to Twitpanto where yours truly will be playing Little…
We work for them. Members of the popular careers website Guardian Jobs recently received an email notification that the website had been hacked. Members’ personal details had been stolen by the hackers, with the breach affecting members who were currently engaged in job searching as well as those whose job search may
