Tag: nptech

Downing Tweet: is this about the personal, celebrity or patronage?

10 Downing Street on TwitterThere has been a lot of interest in Downing Street joining Twitter. But does it really mean much, or anything, that’s new?

At the moment number 10 is using it predominantly as a means to feed us links to press releases plus the odd Youtube film. Very good.

Within less than 24 hours 178 people were following the updates and very sociably the Prime Minister’s Office has begun following fellow twitterers. Sorry if we’re a bit loud.

Simon Dickinson was very fast to blog it, as was Paul Bradshaw who treated it as a tweeting and blogging news exercise. Marshall Manson and Stuart Bruce wondered if this is the first Prime Minister(s office) on Twitter. If this is true it doesn’t seemed to have interested Twitter on their blog but has raised eyebrows in Holland, The US and Spain. Shane Richmond is sceptical about its true value, Steve Clayton treats it as a bit of fun while Matt Wardman has started laying claim all sorts of other twtiter/govt feed names.

This is not the first time the UK Government has ventured onto twitter.

I’ve been followingHMGOV on twitter HMGOV for a week or two now. Again it is quite literally a feed of news (as HMGOV sees news). What is interesting is that so far it has only attracted myself and 12 other followers (as I took that grab earlier today).

So what is going on?

Does being a top 100 follower give access to power? Glib I know but there was no equivalent rush to follow HMGOV. (Update – his was set up on the personal initiative of Justin as a personal tool for tracking news updates using twitter)
It is clear that Downing Street is potentially much more influential than a news feed from something called HMGOV (which doesn’t even have a link to a home page) and the social web is partly about patronage, attaching oneself to those with greatest/most useful influence. This is echoed by the fact that celebrities will often have the most ‘friends’ on any social network.

Is it also a minor indicator of how the web is essentially personal? Following HMGOV is like befriending the NHS – amorphous and meaningless. DowningStreet is smaller and one can imagine (just) that a known individual (called Gordon Brown) might see or even feed the feed from time to time. However I think the account might build more enduring relationships if it had a name behind it and not Gordon’s because that isn’t credible.
What other questions does this throw up:

    How do senior government figures use patronage as they extend their professional social networks online and will it differ from how they act in other networks?
    How far will their feeds, blogs, social network profiles attract such large audiences that they diminish the influence of mainstream media?

Any answers? Any other Questions?

Birmingham Blogger Pete Ashton Invades the Stage At the Guardian Media Awards

Anyone watching the Guardian Media Awards on Twitter may have had the chance of a real giggle at Pete Ashton and Stef Lewandowski’s growing frustration with the whole event.

It boiled over when Pete realised that the blogging awards (which included one for Created in Birmingham jointly with www.we-make-money-not-art.com and www.fromthefrontline.co.uk ) were not going to be recognised by giving the bloggers a chance to say something on stage. Dubber and I kept tabs with screen grabs from twitter whilst Jon Bounds quitely egged them on from afar.

If you want to watch exactly what he did you can find it here and here. An idea of what else they were saying can be found here and (brace yourself) here. Stef’s fsober summary of what went on (“Well Bloody Done Pete”) is here. Meanwhile the Guardian’s media monkey is dismissive here and Joanna Geary’s missive here. (She missed it despite being there! Free booze eh.)

All this kerfuffle Created in Birmingham.
x

Online Collaboration – Google Docs or Office Live?

Readwriteweb has this very useful comparison of the two online document services.  Google Docs is free – Office Live works with a bought copy of Office. The comparison which struck me says:

Collaboration

In Google Docs, collaborators have the ability to work on files together, in-real time. Ten people may edit and/or view a document or presentation at any given time. Fifty people can edit a spreadsheet at the same time.

Although Office Live Workspace allows for collaboration, it’s not real-time, online collaboration. Instead, if one user is editing a file, another will be informed the file is “checked out.” When they finish editing and save their changes the document is checked back in for other users to access.

In the real world how much does this matter or as Wild Apricot asks here which would be of most use to your organisation?  It depends how much you want to collaborate.  The idea of simultaneously writing documents is a new one for most people because they have not been able to do it.  Given the chance (and permission?) to really collaborate – most of us go to it with a passion.

The other thing that crosses my mind is that comparison like this encourage further comparison.  Why would you use Microsoft Office over Open Office – Vista over Ubuntu?  As the WordPress afficionado’s at Puffbox remind us:  “if anything, we’d be more worried about the longevity of paid-for tools.”

technorati tags: