- Retweeting @OwenC: Sharing: “Copyright And Libel Questions Hit The Twitterverse | Techdirt” ( http://tinyurl.com/dn9cod ) #
- Reading: “The Sorry State Of Music Startup” ( http://tinyurl.com/ccptma ) #
- Reading: “Social Media Marketing Industry Report” ( http://tinyurl.com/cpqxzl ) #
- Curious about: “British University Launches £4000 Social Media Master Degree – ITProPortal.com” ( http://tinyurl.com/cew3u3 ) #
- Reading: “An Ultimatum for Carmakers From Obama – NYTimes.com” ( http://tinyurl.com/dcxsfq ) #
- Reading: “Skype For iPhone Illegal On O2’s UK Network? – ITProPortal.com” ( http://tinyurl.com/c22dt4 ) #
- Reading: “Michael White: Jacqui Smith expenses: how can we improve system of MPs’ pay and perks? | Politics | guardian.co.uk” ( http://t … #
- nice one @sherrilynne Traffic up at Sun and Telegraph sites http://bit.ly/xaVqR #
- Reading: “TV ad puts heat on Congress to pass Obama budget – CNN.com” ( http://tinyurl.com/c3d7kv ) #
- Laughing at: “Teenager draws penis on parents’ roof to lure Google Earth | UK news | guardian.co.uk” ( http://tinyurl.com/d53kgt ) #
- Reading: Obama pledges economic recovery ( http://tinyurl.com/d98ajr ) #
- Reading: “Showbiz – News – Ten Things You Never Knew About Sir Alan Sugar – Digital Spy” ( http://tinyurl.com/d6jau8 ) #
- Curious about: “FT.com / UK – Furore at Dalai Lama visa ban” ( http://tinyurl.com/d3dhau ) #
- →_→ Jamie Oliver – Official site for recipes, books, tv and restaurant – pretty damn cool site. ( http://tinyurl.com/ydv52x ) #
- Reading: “China to blame for rise in number of executions – Telegraph” ( http://tinyurl.com/cyfgvr ) #
- Reading: What do your sex dreams reveal?- interesting but I think word association is stronger. ( http://tinyurl.com/clmeyw ) #
- Reading: “Family makes us ‘happier’ than sex | Metro.co.uk” ( http://tinyurl.com/chlb9g ) #
- Reading: “Facebook and MySpace are ‘most popular place to find love’ | Metro.co.uk” ( http://tinyurl.com/d4p4qe ) #
- Reading: “Teenagers ‘prefer music to sex’ | Metro.co.uk” ( http://tinyurl.com/cq3br7 ) #
Monthly Archives: March 2009
Wcx Cool links for 2009-03-24
- →_→ Jamie Oliver – Official site for recipes, books, tv and restaurant – pretty damn cool site. ( http://tinyurl.com/ydv52x ) #
- Reading: “China to blame for rise in number of executions – Telegraph” ( http://tinyurl.com/cyfgvr ) #
- Reading: What do your sex dreams reveal?- interesting but I think word association is stronger. ( http://tinyurl.com/clmeyw ) #
- Reading: “Family makes us ‘happier’ than sex | Metro.co.uk” ( http://tinyurl.com/chlb9g ) #
- Reading: “Facebook and MySpace are ‘most popular place to find love’ | Metro.co.uk” ( http://tinyurl.com/d4p4qe ) #
- Reading: “Teenagers ‘prefer music to sex’ | Metro.co.uk” ( http://tinyurl.com/cq3br7 ) #
- Retweeting @aroujou: RT @socialmediameme: Majority Use Social Media Marketing, Still Have Questions .. http://tinyurl.com/c676kj #
- Retweeting @aroujou: RT @guykawasaki: How big companies use Twitter for marketing http://adjix.com/y4sb #
- New post: Inland Revenue vendatta : let’s catch the crooks (http://workconnexions.com/node/1422) #
- Daily Mail group cuts 1,000 job – some upsides to the recession ( http://tinyurl.com/d9glrg ) #
- Looking at: “The 14 Types of Twitter Personalities | Media Caffeine” ( http://tinyurl.com/dlqjxb ) #
- Reading: “Seth’s Blog: The myth of big salaries (it’s all marketing)” ( http://tinyurl.com/cbp48a ) #
- Reading: “Barack Obama says US needs Afghanistan exit strategy – Telegraph” ( http://tinyurl.com/ch6wgj ) #
The Rise and Fall of Facebook
With the current changes in the layout of Facebook last week. Which has caused consternation in the community. I was going to write my own post about it, but than I came across this article written by Jason Lee Miller.
Which raised the same issues that I was thinking about. The crux of the problem is that not enough people are clicking on the advertisements on their profile page. Running Facebook is not cheap. One can only hazard a guess at the number of transactions that our carried out daily on their servers, but I would put it in the hundred million for sure.
Everybody was having a good old time on FaceBook. Posting links to their new website, project, photographs etc. Of course they thought it was all free. Well it looks like the free lunch is over. I would personal start clicking on the advertisements but I do not think that would solve the problem, unless one brought what was on offer.
So what are the other options? Paid subscription service might work… May be we really have started to see the decline of the social network advertising model. Facebook are unique in that both Linkedkin and Xing offer paid subscriptions model. Of the two only Linkedkin is making any money. In fact Linkedkin is the only cash postive social media site that I know off.
Below is excerpt from the blog post by Jason available here here
“What do you do?
Do you:
A. Don’t fix something that’s not broken. And by not broken, it means that meteoric growth over the past year led your site to trounce MySpace and every sensitive person on the site is relatively happy in their social networking habitat.
B. Ignore that a growing number of people seem to like an incomprehensible platform much like a feature you already offer. Remember that you have 175 million and growing members, and that Twitter does not, and show that you have plenty of confidence in your product. After all Google didn’t just become a portal because some people didn’t get the spare interface.
C. A and B, and focus on Job 1, which is figure out a way to monetize so that you can rejoin the Masters of the Universe at Davos next year.
D. None of the above. Instead, hold a press conference. Announce you’re making the website more democratic if that’s what everybody wants and call for a vote. While everybody’s busy voting on that, change everything.
If you picked D, congratulations, you’re thinking like Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.”
Wcx Cool links for 2009-03-22
- Looking for the most interesting twit #
- Reading: “Fair judgement of Obama’s videotaped appeal to Iran takes time_English_Xinhua” ( http://tinyurl.com/d2lxs6 ) #
- →_→ “Create Workshops | WorkConnexion” ( http://tinyurl.com/cka8aa ) #
- New post: Create Workshops (http://workconnexions.com/node/1416) #
- Watching: “ZillionTV – More choice to the consumer | WorkConnexion” ( http://tinyurl.com/cp2hrj ) #
- Google Street View forced to remove images http://tinyurl.com/chsr5d #
- Oh how I feel a post coming on about new changes in FB #
- Debunking Six Social Media Myths – BusinessWeek http://tinyurl.com/amc29l
- Rocks Off – http://tinyurl.com/cvu3n3 #
- Advice on equity http://tinyurl.com/cvc5m8 #
- Fitting in vs. standing out http://tinyurl.com/d9gfmf #
- Gordon Brown’s Business Loan Scheme is a Flop http://tinyurl.com/cqsmdy #
- Yeah, but he really knows his stuff…http://tinyurl.com/c67zl6 – This is challenging but could one do it? #
- institutions or intuition a bit too similar for the spell check. #
- Ken Karpman: from Hedge Fund CEO to Pizza Driver http://tinyurl.com/c6h5yt The comments are kind of interesting #
- Chris Brown and Rihanna sex tapes could be keeping them together http://tinyurl.com/ctfj2p #
- Northern Rock makes £1.4bn loss http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7920337.stm #
- Rock response was right, says PM http://tinyurl.com/cko9bq #
- Iran’s supreme leader dismisses Obama overtures http://tinyurl.com/crltxd #
- Eddie Vedder: ‘I’m no corporate whore’ http://tinyurl.com/crgdfj #
- Lover’s arm carve woman walks free http://tinyurl.com/cbs8wv #
- My Two Cents on Charging for Content http://tinyurl.com/aszgaw #
- Mind Maps for Learning – http://tinyurl.com/ceqvcr #
- David Cameron: Debt reduction more important than tax cuts http://tinyurl.com/d888un #
- Tributes to ‘luminous’ Richardson http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7953005.stm #
Small Elections – Making them Effective
Should societies be allowed to represent institutions when they hold ineffective elections with a low turn out?
I presume the point of any society is to represent its members and their area of interest on a wider scale. (this idea is open to debate) . If members feel that elections are a more a popularity contest and by this a mean that by influencing the vote and winning the competition it will make them more popular. It makes a mockery of the society and its stated aims. A lot more could be done to insure that fair elections are held in small societies and committees.

A considerable amount of time is taken by people standing to prepare speeches and ideas and they should be judged on their contribution to the societies and the ideas that they put forward. If they feel that the process was a ineffective and due to a number of predetermined votes that have been decided before and are able to shift the balance of the outcome these elections. The society will never attract the best calibre of candidates.
If people come there purely to vote on the basis of agreement than on what each candidate can offer. The ultimate result is that people that can make a considerable contribution end up feeling short changed and mistrust the process which creates a negative and ineffective society.
Something that I would like to see implemented across all societies but for certain in smaller societies is block voting clause in the constitution to safe guard against this practise.
For a example a team of 8 people that have block voted in election from a total of 27 votes. Could insure that 5 members of that particular team that may be standing gain a place on the committee . If one mathematically breaks this down it shows that they achieved a guaranteed 25 percent of the vote. by this practise. Which is an unfair advantaged for any other candidate standing not adopting such a practise.
This link explains that theory on a bigger scale
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plurality_at_large
Constitutions of societies could also be changed so that if one considers the elections to be unfair they have some sort of readdress, ultimately decided by the current exec or an independent panel. For example, If the ballot papers were named and there appears 8 papers with the exact same voting pattern it should be easily identifiable as weather some thing is amiss considering the current election factors. With out doing something about block voting, societies will never engage and represent all the people they are suppose to. It is important for it to be seen to be fair and just and give people the idea that are being represented by a democratic process and want to get involved in the societies activities.
Another idea is to raise the minimum percentage number that needs to be present at an election before it is binding. With out at least 40 percent of the members voting. Is it representative?
The last idea is to invoke active and non active member voting rights. Where members only gain voting rights provided that you have been present at a number of the society’s events as a whole.
Wcx Cool links for 2009-03-18
- Retweeting @TechCrunch: [News] Nobody is Dancing At ChaCha. One Third Of Employees Get Pink Slips, Salary Cuts For The Rest http://twurl … #
- Retweeting @aroujou: RT @socialmediameme: Social media has weaved its way into every aspect of my life: I can thank social-networking ht … #
- Where have all the agents gone? http://tinyurl.com/chqbsc #
- Jobsworths http://tinyurl.com/cvx7sc #
- Weird Cases: ‘I’m not very good at law’ http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/columnists/article5901451.ece #
- Cassandra: phone tracker is fast track to divorce http://tinyurl.com/cuehls #
- Retweeting @ManxStef: @LeoC On a related note, @carlgardner’s take on this is excellent, as usual: http://is.gd/nqWr #
- Apple unveils new iPhone features http://tinyurl.com/dy78l8 #
- The $165m bonus question threatening Obama’s rescue deal http://tinyurl.com/dy78l8 #
- Retweeting @dankarran: Wikimedia Germany is sponsoring €15k for an OpenStreetMap-Wikipedia integration project.. cool! http://tr.im/hsFx #
- Fraud Act 2006 http://tinyurl.com/6xjqud #
- Record labels need to put more energy into creative marketing http://tinyurl.com/cj5vhm #
- Dominic Lawson: You can try to make people say sorry, but does it do any good? http://tinyurl.com/c5r66z #
- Barclays shares leap on iShares sale talks http://tinyurl.com/dm8t7r #
Wcx Cool links for 2009-03-16
- Record labels need to put more energy into creative marketing http://tinyurl.com/cj5vhm #
- Dominic Lawson: You can try to make people say sorry, but does it do any good? http://tinyurl.com/c5r66z #
- Barclays shares leap on iShares sale talks http://tinyurl.com/dm8t7r #
- F1 chief Max Mosley may still sue News of the World over ‘Nazi orgy’ claim http://tinyurl.com/cza3w7 #
- What price the value of life? http://tinyurl.com/bzsfyy – Madness #
- World Wide Web creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee fell victim to online fraud http://tinyurl.com/ah7bdg #
- Leo saw his past from an entirely different perspective to day. #
- Just like a rolling stone http://tinyurl.com/at8k3c #
- Is it just me or does there seems to be very little interesting News today. #
- Work blogging a la Francais http://workconnexions.com/node/1402 #
- Oh how I hate spam 🙂 #
- Real IRA group in ‘conflict’ warning http://tinyurl.com/bojy3o #
- Clive Stafford Smith: ‘If I had my time all over again, I’d defend paedophiles’ http://tinyurl.com/cdo2dz #
- Pivots for change http://tinyurl.com/bgm5xs #
- Second Life cracks down on adult content http://tinyurl.com/bwhvvo #
- Heroes: British music stars come out in support of fans over music downloads http://tinyurl.com/cemoaw #
- You gotta roll with it http://tinyurl.com/cmb76o #
- Film review: Bronson http://tinyurl.com/co2td2 #
- Google plugs your surf history into ad money machine http://tinyurl.com/bg5nj8 #
- Retweeting @jowyang: Someday we will ‘dial’ phone numbers from our facebook friend list –not your mobile phone memory #
- Retweeting @askleo: RT @komonews: Palin’s daughter, boyfriend break up http://tinyurl.com/b5jsb8 [Dear KOMO: why should I care? why is t … #
- In search of dolphin leather http://tinyurl.com/d44xvu – Good one this 🙂 #
- Dr S I Strong is really very good indeed when it comes to writing. #
- Coming Out of the Broom Closet http://tinyurl.com/ct3y43 – interesting blog post #
- Music stars call for more power http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7936712.stm #
- is on great form today 🙂 #