And the best blog award goes to...

Jonathan Bowers, September 28th 2006, 11:08AM

There have been awards for the best blog for some time online, normally generated by those who are fuelling the explosion. However, with the growth of MySpace and other social networking sites, blog awards are now hitting areas of the mainstream.

The sector in question is (unsurprisingly) the music industry and the BT Digital Music Awards have introduced a Best Music Blog category this year.

The awards on the 3rd October will pit the likes of Lily Allen against the Streets and Sandi Thom to find the best 'online communicators' in the business.

But talking of business - I wonder when our sector's awarding bodies will start to recognise the important role blogs can play within the communication strategy enough offer rewards?

Tags: awards, blogging, myspace
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The US Government is on YouTube

Jonathan Bowers, September 26th 2006, 10:31AM

We have been talking for a while about the importance of businesses placing themselves in the same arenas online that their target audiences appear in and the US Office of National Drug Control Policy has done just that by getting itself a YouTube page.

They've uploaded their tv ads and are getting a respectable amount of hits. One video has been watched by over 10,000 people in the last week. That's people actually choosing to click on and view.

As well as the tv ads they have filmed a conference discussing the rate of teenage drug use reducing. However, the video - displayed in 3 parts reveals a naivety in the system. YouTube orders from the most recent downward and so, it highlights part 3 of the report above the other two. The result is over 2000 views for part 3, less than half this for part one and only 367 views for part 2. Does this suggest that the whole thing is not worth sitting through? Or simply indicate the time restrictions we face in reaching this audience? After all - the adverts are 30 seconds long, while the reports weigh in at 4 or 5 minutes a go.

It's a big step though and I would say it will prompt similar moves from public sectors across the world. I wonder whether the private sector will be as transparent in their involvement?

Tags: white_house_online, tvads, youtube
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Is the high street disappearing or migrating?

Jonathan Bowers, September 11th 2006, 10:30AM

This morning, the Metro free paper has emblazoned on its front page the title Internet 'killing off town stores'.

The story covers a new report on the slowing of high street spending and the increase in online sales. The average Internet shopper is now spending about £130 more per year than they did in 2002.

Firstly, I am quite surprised that online spend per person has only risen by 28% over etail's biggest growth years and secondly I'm not sure that the report takes into account those people who have migrated their business from the high street to the Internet because of the opportunities there.

The report doesn't integrate the 1.5m UK businesses online, a number which is rapidly increasing and suggests that before long our high streets will look like ghost towns.

In Manchester everywhere you can see redevelopment of residential and city areas. The spaces are being filled by different industries. While retail is moving online and competing more effectively there, the service industry is moving into our high streets and filling a very public demand.

I'd love to know figures on those businesses moving online from the high street and similarly, the proportion of retail versus service sector on the local high streets now. I think extra statistics are needed to validate a report like this.

Tags: e-commerce, economy
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A time for start-ups and pattern recognition

Jonathan Bowers, September 7th 2006, 10:19AM

Esther Dyson, editor-at-large of CNet has done a short interview with the Guardian that covers useful ground.

She has a very broad knowledge of the industry and the interview is well worth reading. I'm pleased she raised the point that developing nations are not only producers but they are consumers. We spend too much energy bemoaning the competition they bring into the market place and not enough time looking for opportunities in these fruitful consumer climates.

She also takes the idea of the semantic web in a different direction by talking about pattern recognition being the next big step on the net. Once again - it all comes back to relevance. She believes Google is not the 'be all' as Google doesn't understand meaning.

So good luck to all of you currently working on this kind of technology. I suspect it will burst into cyberspace all at once and present Google with some real challenges.

Have a read of the interview.

Tags: search, start-ups
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Building the profile of a creative sector

Jonathan Bowers, September 6th 2006, 10:07AM

Yesterday, I spent the day at FACT in Liverpool. I was producing a podcast for the Arts Council, who were presenting a one day conference for Arts organisations across the North West.

The day was all about blogging, podcasting, RSS and e-marketing and it was interesting to see the spread of knowledge across the delegates. Some knew all about the various techniques but many were there because they were entering at ground level.

Perhaps, most interesting was the fact that the majority of the clued up members worked for the smallest organisations. They'd already got to grips with various technologies through the need to stretch very limited budgets.

It felt a little bit like taking coals to Newcastle. With podcasting being a very creative medium, I spent a lot of time talking to some of the North West's most creative thinkers about how they can innovate their web services.

The podcast (online soon) offers a flavour of the day and gives direction to some pioneering thoughts about the arts sector online today - so it'll be well worth listening to. A podcast can only be as good as its subjects and there was a wealth of knowledge and experience at FACT yesterday, so I am looking forward to the end result.

Tags: blogging, fact, podcasting, rss
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