MPs are at opposite ends of the table when it comes to the hot issue of whether it’s right for council’s to take their public notices and job adverts out of local papers and put them on the internet.
Highlands and Islands MSP David Stewart has started a campaign to ‘Save Our Local Papers’. He fears that they will go out of business if they do not get their local chunk of the £6 million the Scottish Government spend on public notices every year.
Fergus Ewing thinks councils should be able to advertise public notices online
Pesonally, I think local papers could have salvaged this situation for their own benefit. They must have seen this coming. After all, they have been running stories about the swingeing cuts that council are having to make to their budgets. Publishers are primely positioned to create a platform for council advertising. Remember that the government will need to spend money to get their own system running, particularly if they are obliged to give readers multi-platform options such as delivery to mobile devices, geotagging, email, etc.
They are already publishing online and selling advertising and/or other services. That is their speciality. Public notices are very local by their nature. Publishers could sell hyperlocal geo-aware advertising on the back of such a scheme. It would also encourage more readers to their sites.
David Stewart argues that not everyone has a connection to the internet, but then not everyone buys a newspaper, and that number is declining. I suspect that, ironically, the advertising rate is increasing.
David has also opened up an avenue for protest, but he’s put it online, so not everyone will be able to sign it, particularly those he is defending.
Tags: hyperlocal, local newspapers, Media, Public notices
Despite the hype, the iPad, revealed to the world today after huge hype spanning years, is in serious danger of becoming a flop.
For one, whatever the retail price, it’s going to be another £15 a month for an unlimited data bundle. Two, it requires two hands to use it.
Mobile networks have really got to start thinking (again) about how they charge for data tariiffs.
Let’s have a new multi-device tariff that we can register SIM cards to so we don’t have to keep paying out for every device. I have a 3G dongle for use with my laptop, and have two 3G phones with unlimited data bundles. That’s tots up to around £32 a month for being connected to the internet awa from my desk. That’s on top of my calls tariff and fixed line broadband. If I bought an iPad, it’s likely going to be £15 a month which ramps up the total to £47 a month.
I’m just not that stupid.
Will it bend?
And this baby’s going to need insuring. I can’t see it bending or bouncing much. It’s a costly device with costly risks. That’s before you’ve considered the cost of iBooks, supersized apps and , dare I say it, newspaper subscriptions.
It looks gorgeous, it probably feels gorgeous too, but how do you hold it? One hand gripping while the other swipes pinches and flicks? One hand on each side like a L-plate driver? Or laid on an inclined lap while you bash away the keys. Either way, it’s a two-hander. No wonder Steve Jobs needed a chair!
It’s certainly not designed to lay flat on a table, there are no rubber feet and it has a convex back which means it’ll wobble like a wobbly thing on a hard surface.
And does it really not have any SSD or USB slots?
App-wise, I think the 3″ screen size of the iPhone and iPod touch is not going to port well to the 10″ screen, although I understand you can run them ‘minimized’.
iBooks are probably the best thing about it, but still not as easy on eye, or batteries, as e-ink. Could work well with interactive images through.
Newspapers. We saw the New York Times website in the presentation, but you’re still going to have to pinch and flick, so wouldn’t an Apple-esque newsreader been a good new app to bring to the platform?
However, there is one area I can see it fitting into perfectly. Gaming. The HD screen and side-by-side gripping position makes it ideal for accelerometer-driven driving games and shoot-em-ups.
So there you have it. Take a seat, get a grip and hold on to your wallet.
Tags: 3G, Apple, iBooks, iPad, mobile data
Today heralds the arrival of a new news product in Scotland. The Caledonian Mercury is being called a daily newspaper, but there’s no queue at the checkout to buy it and it doesn’t have traditional deadlines.
The Caledonian Mercury - Will it prove the web is a profitable publishing platform for journalists
It’s the brainchild of Stewart Kirkpatrick, who formerly edited the Scotsman website, and he has pooled much of his contributing talent from ex-Scotsman staff.
And talent is the watchword here. Stewart is branding his newspaper ‘intelligent journalism’ and he is hoping for intelligent response, even offering prizes for the best comments.
‘Proudly Scottish’, it launched on the anniversary of Robert Burns’ birth, the anniversary of the birth of the Scotsman (so I’m told), and for the techies, the anniversary of the birth of the Apple Mac. In an ironic twist of technological fate, it actually went live about six hours ahead of deadline. Oh, and the name, is revived from Scotland’s first newspaper, the Mercurius Caledonius, apparently.
Digital media consultant Craig McGill has posted a review of the ‘first issue’ over at Contently Managed and makes some interesting observations.
But let’s not be coy here. The question everyone is asking is how will it make money. Newspapers are struggling aren’t they? Yes they are. But this isn’t technically a newspaper. It’s a journalism website. Breaking news will come from links to those who already do it well. The premise is ‘do what you do best and link to the rest.’ The web has made this kind of collaboration not only possible, but journalistically fruitful.
The Mercury doesn’t have a team of hard-nosed news reporters, it has a select team of journalists. But no city centre offices, no printing presses, no huge teams of salespeople and admin staff.
I’ve said before this is the best time for journalism. Print publishing has got a hardware legacy. Colour printing presses, the last big technical innovation in newspapers before the web, are expensive to run, not least for the fact that the products they produce are rising in cost and decreasing in popularity. It’s the medium that’s dying, not the content.
So will it succeed?
The Caledonian Mercury has a staff of three and a handful of freelancers. Compare that to any daily heavyweight newspaper, and you’ve got your answer.
If you’re a journalist you’ll be in one of two camps. Those that are allowed to use social media tools while at work and those that aren’t.
There’s no doubt Twitter is a useful tool for newsgathering and distribution, but employers have been slow to allow them into the workplace for fear of abuse from staff.
But Sky News has just announced it is installing Tweetdeck on the PCs of its newsroom staff, following its increased use of Twitter as a publishing and newsgathering tool. So that’s a big thumbs up to micro-blogging from one of the world’s leading providers of news.
Journalists using Twitter is nothing out of the ordinary, but having the wholesale backing of the boss and the tools to do it is less common.
And we can also expect some more serious social media developments at Sky News, such as Facebook Connect integration and live blogging.
In an interview with journalism.co.uk, executive producer of Sky News Online Julian March, said: “The big change for us in 2010 is evolving how social media plays a role in our journalism. We no longer ghettoise it to one person, but are in the process of embedding throughout the whole team.”
The fact it has adopted Tweetdeck as its application of choice is a bonus not only for Sky in terms of managing their tweets, but for the app too. In 2009, Tweetdeck came of age. It won just about every app award going, and in 2010, we can expect to see it supporting geotagging too, which is a bonus for journalists looking for location-based data.
And as social media website Mashable points out, the vetting of Tweetdeck as an application worthy of a serious news organization is one that should not be overlooked
This week I learned of the impending launch of a new newspaper for Scotland.
Considering the current state of the publishing industry, this might seem a rash move. Only it isn’t. It’s one of the soundest moves any publisher has made in recent years, and the reason it is sound is because its content is going straight onto the web… first.
The man behind this yet-to-be-named ‘publication’ is Stewart Kirkpatrick, former online editor of the Scotsman, a publication whose website readership rocketed under his leadership.
Until this week, I admit I hadn’t heard of Stewart, and it goes without saying that he probably hasn’t heard of me or Moray Firth Live.
But since we recently doffed caps on Twitter, I’d like to give him a slap on the back. Someone in newspapers who actually believes the internet is a viable publishing platform.
Over the past five to ten years, I’ve listened to diatribes from management and journalists who have unambiguously trashed the internet as a threat to the publishing industry.
But hacks are as hard-headed as honchos are highly paid, and changing the mindset of either was a battle I never won. I had the conviction, I just didn’t have the evidence.
But they were wrong. Now is the best time for publishing and journalism. I choose my words carefully, because that doesn”t mean it’s the best time for publishers and journalists. It could be, if they thought outside their boxes.
It’s a difficult time for those, as Stewart says, who have invested heavily in printing presses and huge buildings to house them, to witness them printing less and less copies each day, week, month and year.
But right now, we have the best tools, the most economical publishing platform and in some quarters, the right mindset.
Publishing online is cheap, dynamic, adaptable and interactive. Our audience is now adept at commenting, participating, contributing. They have the tools that we have. They are publishers too. They are part of our story. Part of our future. The shape of journalism is changing, quickly and fluidly. Journalists who adapt to this model will benefit from the new (media) world order.
We need more people like Stewart to pull their finger out and keep journalists in work. They will be in huge demand. The industry didn’t die. It just changed. For the better.
Tags: Media, Moray Firth Live, Stewart Kirkpatrick
This year has been rather eventful for me as I continue to forge ahead in my digital ventures. Although I like to think that most of it went to plan, there are a number of things that are worth remembering.
Canary Dwarf started the year with a bit of a green tinge. I put forward the company for a environmental award organised by Moray Council. The bid largely highlighted the power-saving programme we have in place due to our heavy technology load. The use of efficient power supplies and energy management software and hardware won us a commendation, and I collected my certificate from MP Richard Lochhead at a ceremony in the Moray College, Elgin.
In February, we launched our ecommerce service with a commission from a local craft bakery, As U Like It, which started us on a successful partnership with a software company in Australia. Their ecommerce software was one of the best we had tested and by the end of 2009, we had put five such systems into place for local businesses in Forres with catalogues raging from a handful of products to over 40,000.
May was the month a long-held dream came to fruition. As a former chief sub editor and web editor for local newspaper publishers Scottish Provincial Press, I was keen to explore and demonstrate how news and technology could work together. As social media networks began to take a grip on society and printed newspaper sales continued to dwindle, the time was right to launch Moray Firth Live, a news aggregation service which publishes links to news and information from the Highlands, Moray and Aberdeenshire. By distributing links through social media, we were able to create a push news service which didn’t rely on a website alone to publish content.
We also produced our own content and in particular, a series of very successful videos featuring local events and news. While the video content was made available through Moray Firth Live, we also created a dedicated video news channel, MorayFirth.TV which will be further developed in 2010.
An extra member of staff came on board to make this project feasible alongside our day-to-day web consultancy.
In September, our efforts with Moray Firth Live were rewarded when social media expert, Craig McGill, listed us as one of the top 50 tweeters in Scotland for our use of Twitter to distribute news and information.
Then, in November, Moray Firth Live was put in the running for a national award. Pitched against 39 other entries including Channel 4, Moray Firth Live walked away with the GoldenTwits award for Information Service.
In October, I successfully pitched to write a column for woorkup.com, an internationally-renowned creativity blog, run by the sleepless blogger Antonio Lupetti from his home in Rome, Italy, Antonio, who has built his blog alone over several years has now amassed a readership of over 30,000 people round the world.
But 2009 was not without its failures and disappointments. We lost the opportunity to work with the RSPB when it’s tender for a service to map GPS logs from red kites was awarded to an in-house team.
We also made errors of judgement with new clients who abused our trust. This led to us now ALWAYS asking for a deposit and getting them to sign a contract.
But as December draws to a close, we look forward to starting 2010 with a full order book. Canary Dwarf will launch seven new client sites in January and February. Moray Firth Live will reach further into the community, and MorayFirth.TV will become a household name (we hope).
And we will launch two new sites of specialist interest.
Textology.co.uk is a dedicated SMS application site which marks a partnership with leading SMS networks. As a standalone service, Textology will build and manage bespoke and core applications for businesses to make use of SMS services such as text appointment reminders, voting, promotions and fundraising. We will launch this site with our first SMS app uFlirt, an entertainment service for nightclubs and venues.
Geone.ws will support my specialist interest in geolocation, the technical provision of location data through files and social networks. Geo is the next big thing and 2010 is probably the year it will explode. There are hot issues surrounding geolocation, not least that of privacy, so I will be following these closely with interest through Geone.ws
We are also working with a press photographer to create a picture agency website, and a tourism website to develop an events database.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all customers, friends and followers for supporting Canary Dwarf throughout 2009 and may I wish them a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Tags: 2009, Geone.ws, Moray Firth Live, morayfirth.tv, Textology, web design
Another Apple tablet rumour video has surfaced, and although a fake, I’m beginning to wonder whether Apple is using the creative talent of its die-hard fans as a crowdsourcing tool.
Tags: Apple
Just as geek went chic, it looks like being a twit can be a hit, or at least I hope so after officially becoming one this week.
Moray Firth Live, the social media project I have been working on over the past six months beat 38 shortlisted twitterers in the Information Service category of the debut Golden Twit awards.
And what an honour. A national award for a very small operation. It’s great for me, it’s good for my web design business, and it’s great for Moray Firth Live.
Social media has taken the world by storm, and it’s nice to know we’re doing it right.
It’s good for my clients too because they can be confident Canary Dwarf are using the right tools for the job.
It was fitting that I watched the award ceremony live over the internet. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to travel to the London venue to step on the stage and collect the award in person.
There were some mighty big names in there: Manchester City FC, Scottish Ballet, Aleksandr Orlov from Compare the Meerkat and media giants such as Trinity Mirror, The Guardian, and Channel 4. I was a little fish in a big pond.
So I was over the moon when I was picked from 40 entries in the Information Services category to win the award.
It was one of those moments, and I don’t have many of them, where what happened next just went into a blur… I was rooted to the spot while I took it all in.
In the spirit of Twitter, I was only allowed 140 characters of an acceptance speech (all shortlisted entries had been asked to send one in.) and so I never had chance to thank everyone I wanted to.
So my biggest thanks go to my wife Susan, who has tirelessly helped me get this thing off the ground and keep it running. She puts into it as much effort as I do, and although I am the journalistic drive behind it, it wouldn’t be what it is without her. So thanks Susie.
I’ve got to thank Twitter, because, and I don’t use this word lightly, it is unique. Moray Firth Live wouldn’t work the same without Twitter. I can’t think of any other service which does what it does, and it’s free! That’s a big help.
I want to thank Craig McGill from Contently Managed for making me believe the product was worthy after listing us one of Scotland’s top 50 tweeters. I think it was one of his tweets that alerted me to the contest too. Craig had a pretty impressive portfolio of tweet accounts nominated in the awards and collected two commendations. So thanks Craig, and well done to you too.
I must acknowledge all the news and information sources we link to and the quality of their content. We work on the principle ‘do what you do best and link to the rest’. Sources include the BBC, Press and Journal, Inverness Courier, Northern Scot, Scotsman, Daily Record and many more.
And of course the organisers of the Golden Twits, The Drum. I started reading The Drum about 15 years ago when it was a Scottish media magazine. Now it’s nationwide and a damn good read for anyone interested in the media.
So all that leaves me to say, is that if you’re looking for an award-winning web design team in Moray or beyond, give us a call. Or of course you can contact me on twitter.com/marchindley.
Here’s the video of the award ceremony, we’re at about 1:55:00.
Tags: Canary Dwarf, Golden Twits, Moray Firth Live, social media, The Drum
I was moved to write about taking my iPhone to France after reading Christopher Phin’s column in MacFormat, in which he describes how his wee companion proved particularly useful on his trip across the Channel.
I was heading for Paris with my wife and youngest child, more specifically Disneyland. Having got engaged there some 10 years ago, it was nice to revisit it since the new Studio Park was built. Gadget-wise, I took the iPhone. Oh, and a Nokia N95 which I still haven’t managed to completely shake off. Just for backup you understand.
Although I had a reasonably well-specced compact camera to hand, this seemed to disappear every time something good came along and I resorted to the iPhone to take pictures.
Now i say ‘resorted’ but by the end of my second day in Mickey’s place, i was choosing it over the camera.
Despite serious lack of controls over exposure, no flash, and difficult to hold, it actually produced pretty damn good pictures. Lovely vivid colours, sharp and very little shutter lag.
Sending them any place had to wait till I got back to the hotel, but the wifi was priced a little more enthusiastically than I had expected and probably would have cost me more than the Orange network my phone had defaulted to.
But I had an ace up my sleeve and that was the N95. It boasts a little app called WalkingHotSpot that turns a 3G phone into a wireless access point. And for whayever reason, Vodafone’s continental partner was offering me a generous 25Mb of data for just £4.99 and, most importantly, a text before rebilling me. A bargain compared to the £2.35 a Mb I think I would have paid through the iPhone.
Ony one drawback… no charger for the N95. As a backup phone, it left the UK fully charged, but WalkingHotSpot sucks on power like a Dyson sucks dust off lino. If I turned off Bluetooth, Exchange, and everything else I could think off, and switched the phone off between sessions, I could probably stretch it out over the four days we were there. And I did.
Christopher made far better use than I did, employing it as a translation device. I discovered you don’t need much translation in Disneyland. You can get by with ‘excusez-moi’ when you want to get past someone, ‘pardon’ when you tread on someone’s foot, and ‘ouch’ when someone treads on yours. But he did impress me by geo-pinning the location of his car so he could find it in the airport car park on his return.
Tags: France, iPhone, MacFormat, Nokia N95, Paris, WalkingHotSpot
An article I wrote recently for morayfirthlive.com on the Scottish Thistle Awards proved to be an excellent example of social media working its magic.
When I heard Forres man Gavin Ellis picked up the coveted Silver Thistle award, I did a bit of searching. I recognised the name as a local hotelier and soon discovered he was on Facebook.
It was a Sunday. I sent a friend request, he accepted it and I emailed him for some comments about his ‘win’. He responded, included a press release and an article was live on the site the morning after.
I visited Gavin at the Knockomie Hotel, which he has owned for 22 years, and took a selection of pictures, one of which was added to the article.
While there, we chatted about the award, the hotel trade, the web and social media. We even did a bit of business.
I learned that Gavin had also done a bit of research on me, and it seems I got the thumbs up from a mutual friend.
Social media lets you do that, and this is great example of how it worked in our favour. I got my story, I made a business contact, got a new Facebook friend, did a bit of business, tasted the best coffee in Forres, all in 24 hours.
Tags: Facebook, Forres, Gavin Ellis, MorayFirthLive.com, Silver Thistle, social media