policy

Digital Consultant links for July 21st through July 22nd

These are my links for July 21st through July 22nd:

Arab countries ‘need a long-term digital strategy’ – I've never really considered e-strategy in the Middle East – it's not the first territory you think of when considering a high tech hub, yet countries like Oman have already invested in growing their marketplace for e-commerce and digital. According to this press release countries like Iraq don't have sufficiently developed digital strategy. Well having a safe country and telecom network may be a bit of an issue here.
The Register comment guidelines 2010 – I thought these guidelines for a heavily commented on blog were pretty sensible and worth adapting for your own community site.
Universal broadband delayed until 2015 – Another government U-Turn: the much mooted 2Mbs broadband we've been promised won't arrive until 2015, 3 years later than scheduled. The government say they are "totally committed" to having the best broadband service in Europe, but given how far we are lagging behind our European neighbours in the advancements, and right to access, faster broadband, this is more hot air.
Who owns your social media? – Superb article on the internal challenges a business faces in 'owning' a social media strategy, and the conflict and opportunity between the needs of different internal teams and departments:<br />
"Social media isn’t a two way street between you and your customer, it’s a crossroads between you, your customer, the network and all of their other customers."
Apps, Apps, and more Apps – Some beautiful design and facts on the market for mobile apps. I think this is a US only view, but the stats are quite stark: Symbian is the most popular platform by 3 to 1, far ahead of Blackberry, and trailed by iPhone. 90% of App developers don't make a sustainable return-on-investment. Are apps the news promotional tool rather than the saviour of monetizing online content?

Today’s Digital Consultant Links for March 23rd

These are my links for March 23rd from 09:22 to 23:16:

Scrolling and Attention – Jacob Nielsen, usability legend, with some very interesting research on user experience tracking in relation to below-the-fold content: 80% of users ONLY read what's above the fold, but some layout that encourage scrolling can still command attention.
5 days until Mediacamp, Nottingham’s first barcamp for creative media March 27 – If you're not following me on Twitter (please do, I'm @susioneill) I may have been remise to inform you that we're once again hosting another Mediacamp in Nottingham this Saturday. It's a day long energised discussion, presentation and exploration barcamp to discuss all aspects of how digital media is rocking our world. I'll be experimenting with social reporting, capturing highlights of the day for our website www.creativenottingham.com, and hosting a session to talk about the CreativeNottingham project and our plans. <br />
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The event is currently sold out – if you *really* want to come email me (susi@digitalconsultant.co.uk) and I'll see if I can help, otherwise they'll be live streaming of the main hall and live reporting on CreativeNottingham.com.
How to build Augmented Reality into your digital strategy – Augmented reality – building in a layer of digital information and content into real world places – is the next real innovation from the future that's already hitting our world through services like Google Goggles and Layar. This article talks about how you can bring AR into your brand's digital strategy.
Project Canvas is open and standardised – and great for consumers – The CEO of video-on-demand service Blinkbox counteracts Sky's claims that Project Canvas, providing a standardised broadband to TV service, will be bad for business. He counteracts that producers are aggregators will be able to delivery pay-as-you-watch programming and in will generative innovative 'apps' like for the iphone to provided added value services through the open network. I can't wait – this could be yet another exciting platform for technologies and video producers.
Creative funding database – Although I'm sure this is probably the same data as the funding database on Business Link site, this creative funding/business support from the excellent Creative Choices skills website works very well, it's easy to use and seems to be pretty comprehensive.
Conservatives’ ‘Cash Gordon’ web campaign backfires – And in the blue corner, the Tories have made a pigs ear of their latest venture to discredit Brown. 'Cash Gordon' site had a rent-a-crowd vibe, and was based on a back-end system used by right-wing lobbying groups against healthcare reform in the US. Trolls quickly hacked the site and used the unmoderated hashtag's on the site's display to make a disparaging remark or two. Well done Tories for going web 2.0, poor show on making such a #hashtag of it. Lessons learnt: although an election is a fast and furious thing, it's essential to allow time for user-testing of a site launch, rather than a very public flop.
Brown outlines advanced UK digital strategy – As we're all on tenderhooks for the notice of the UK election date, the parties are lining up their policies. In the red corner, Brown the encumbent plans to introduce two new bodies to advance the digital economy, An Institute fo Web Science headed up by web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, and a digital public service unit led by Last Minute.com founder and digital inclusion champion Martha Lane-Fox (one has to have double-barrelled names to succeed nowadays in government). Whilst creating two new quangos, Brown dashes against the rest, replacing 'first gen' e-government with an integrated MyGov portal (cue expensive new makeover). It will be interesting to see how the development of this policy unfolds, particularly in line with the forthcoming digital economy bill and whether this does progress through parliament despite public uproar.
Direct Marketing 2.0 – You are what you click – Net Imperative article briefing on how user insight and split-run testing can help to build better return on investment as part of a digital strategy. Some important lessons here like 'rubbish in, rubbish out' data sources, and the idea of an A-Z rather than A-B, testing iteratively all aspects of a campaign or conversion web page as an ongoing beta.

Digital Consultant links for March 8th through March 11th

These are my links for March 8th through March 11th:

PolicyTool for Social Media – A very useful tool that automatically allows you to generate a policy for social media usage at work. This is a great idea, indeed PolicyTool.net seems to be filling a particularly useful service for small business to get up to speed on policy issues. It's fairly basic and you'll undoubtedly want to change the wording for the final document, but very useful if your company doesn't currently have a social media policy.
MySpace Co-Presidents Reveal Company’s Plan for the Future – Important new for musicians: MySpace is finally getting with the programme and revamping, with the dual aim of being both a social networking site and space for content producers. Some exciting new functionality will be rolled out incrementally – but will it be enough to wean back those who've already aborted the MySpace mission and swapped to Facebook as their fan building network of choice? As a musician with a languishing MySpace profile (last time I checked I had NO friends requests. Not even from spammers) I'm exciting about the prospect of a more dynamic, responsive platform for content promotion – but it does feel like too little, too late…
Did You Know 4.0 – A video with some powerful stats on how the internet is changing the advertising and traditional industries.

Today’s Digital Consultant Links for January 13th

These are my links for January 13th from 09:54 to 13:34:

Digital Strategy: It’s Not About The Tools – Hear hear! Ace article by Digalicious that speaks to me: marketing teams are under pressure to dive into social media, but they need to think about the strategy, not the tools. Resist the allure to dive in and plan, the results can be unforgiving: "The difference is that if you try a test in the cable TV channel and it doesn't work, nobody notices. (If a TV ad runs on cable, and no one sees it, is it still an ad?) Social media and the Web are not so forgiving. If you jump into social media, and don't give it the proper attention, people may notice for a long time."
Can businesses monetise social networks in 2010? – The question everyone is asking me lately: it's still looking tough, but Dell and Debenhams have monetized social media presences, but on the flip side Facebook is dropping banner ads as they don't work for 'user experience'. So social network involvement is proving 'exciting' for cash-strapped brands, but with limited effectiveness.
Coca Cola: Online Social Media Principles – I was talking at a CMI event yesterday and asked the group what their business's social media policy was: 'we can't use it at all, or will be disciplined' several said (including Barclay employees). How very sad. However, this document on guiding employees as to how to use social media when representing the company or refering to it by Coca Cola is a little more enlightened: it acknowledges people will be talking in these spaces, and advises what they expect of their relationship with employees. I like the idea of people being 'scouts' to pass up both good and bad conversations to experts internally.

Digital Consultant links for November 2nd through November 3rd

These are my links for November 2nd through November 3rd:

Constant Transformation Is the New Normal – Piece by disruptive innovation expert Scott Anthony on how 'business as usual' ain't coming back: you need to be customer-focused, adaptable to change and have distinct, autonomous spaces for innovation.
Lord Mandelson sets date for blocking filesharers’ internet connections – In full: the timetable and approach for UK government to impose the "three strikes and your offline" policy to tackle file-sharing; which, interestingly, WASN'T a recommendation of Lord Carter's Digital Britain report from this year.
A fistful of (internet) dollars – The Guardian have produced this useful round up showing the size of the digital industries (music, TV, film, games, publishing) in 2000 compared to now, and how they are siddling with Lord Mandelson and the government on the issues around downloading and regulation.
To Be a Better Leader, Give Up Authority – Prof Vlatka Hlupic believes that in complex trading environments in knowledge industries, the leader who delegates more control to their workers can see improved levels of innovation and results. Command and control models are broke.
Expansive English Game Development Hub Discussed – The long-running 'games centre of excellence' proposal seems to be zoning in on becoming a reality, with a research, training and testing facility mooted to be established in MediaCity in Salford – which could put the noses out of joint in Liverpool, where most of the North West games industry are based.

Digital Consultant links for July 21st through July 22nd

Today’s Digital Consultant Links for March 23rd

Digital Consultant links for November 2nd through November 3rd

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