Sunday is a quiet day for blogs. It’s the day of the week you write posts comparing internet startups to sexually transmitted diseases in order to boost traffic. For newspapers, Sunday is generally the biggest day of the week. It’s the day you unveil your agenda-changing stories; scandals, major investigatons and the like.
That is unless [...]
Building a ‘global sound map’ with your mobile phone
Jun 03 2009
Posted by Martin as Geolocation, Internet, Mobile Phones
I’ve written more about this over at TheNextWeb but I just thought I’d share this video with you here. I shot it last Friday when I went to visit the University of Salford’s Acoustic Research Labs to see the work they’re doing on building a ‘Global Sound Map’ in a project called Sound Around You.
I’ll [...]
Building a personal online brand the Documentally way
May 31 2009
Posted by Martin as Internet, Manchester
On Wednesday evening I attended a talk in Manchester that was part of the DMEX (Digital Media Exchange) programme. This is a training course for television freelancers who want to diversify into digital media work. With a slump in new TV commissions, this is definitely a smart move for many of them.
The main reason I [...]
When you’ve only got 140 characters to work with, having a good URL shortening service is essential on Twitter. The default Bit.ly service is actually pretty long compared to some of the alternatives. I rounded up some of the best last year and concluded that is.gd was the best if brevity was important to you.
Now [...]
Twitter has become such a success in part because it offers an insight into its users lives in a uniquely intimate way. Reading someone’s tweets is often like lifting the top off their head and peering directly into their thoughts. If that person suddenly dies though, those tweets suddenly take on a whole new dimension.
The [...]
If you’re a web user outside the USA you may well have been in the following situation. You find a site that has an embedded video clip. “Watch this clip – it’s brilliant!” says the page author, so you click ‘Play’ and instead of a video you’re greeted by a message that says something like [...]
Forget Big Brother, in the age of the Semantic Web ‘Little Brother’ will be watching you too
May 18 2009
Posted by Martin as Internet
Over the past week the concept of ‘The Semantic Web‘ has made the jump from academic theory to fledgling reality. The launch on Friday of the first semantic search engine Wolfram Alpha has generated a lot of hype in the tech sphere. In addition to that big news, Google’s forthcoming semantic search solution, Google [...]
Confessions of a Futuresonic Liveblogger
May 16 2009
Posted by Martin as Internet, Manchester, blogs
As something of a blogging obsessive, the opportunity to spend two days writing about some of my favourite topics at the Futuresonic Social Technologies Summit was too good to pass up. On Thursday morning at the Contact Theatre, Sarah Hartley and I set up a ‘blogging booth’ at the back of Space One in the [...]
Twitter addict? Maybe it’s time to spend some time with FriendFeed
Apr 30 2009
Posted by Martin as Friendfeed, Internet, Twitter
Allow me, if you will, to pitch an idea to you; one I believe in and am excited by. I’ll give you my reasons and once you’ve read them do you promise me you’ll at least think about what I suggest?
Here’s the crux: If you’re a Twitter addict who loves the fast-paced discussions and news [...]
Put that £12,000 away – The Really Mobile Project launches
Apr 29 2009
Posted by Martin as Internet, Mobile Phones
Last month I wrote about how probably the best blog for mobile industry news, Mobile Industry Review, was shifting to a subscription model priced at £12,000 per year and aimed squarely at corporations. Suddenly all the great video content and entreatingly-written analysis that I enjoyed so much was to be gone.
Things haven’t turned out quite [...]
