Spalpeen

Dick Cheney Hospitalized, reports BreakingNews on twitter.

In response to a question on the NUJ New Media email list. 

Professional blogging isn’t much different from ordinary blogging. Effectively, it is just a far more efficient and team-based version of the average blogger’s “I saw a link that is cool/new/interesting so I should write about it” ethos. The scale is just far larger.

In Engadget’s case, instead of one blogger, there is an extended team of writers. Instead of casually browsing the web to find links, we use lists of sources in group RSS readers and email tip boxes. Instead of just allowing anyone to blog, writers are trained for months before they are allowed to post on their own. There are strict guidelines regarding length, style, tone, and content of articles. There are guidelines on image sizes, comment moderation, and event coverage (especially event coverage). Our ethics policy is equivalent to the New York Times. It’s extremely hard work, often involving late hours (remember, I’m based in the UK and I write for an American website), OK but not great pay (the dollar is its lowest against sterling for 25+ years), and huge dedication.

So why do I do it? Because if you enjoy the topic and love writing, it can be extremely rewarding.

At age 19, I was flown out to Las Vegas to cover CES. I had on average 3-4 hours sleep a night, and had flu for a week afterwards, yet I got to work  face-to-face with a team of extremely intelligent people, cover new gadgets before half the mainstream media had woken up, and generally have a riot of a time talking about and playing with new gadgets.

Because of my blogging, I had the opportunity to ask Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, the first question at the Apple iPhone press conference last month. Have you any idea how exhilarating it is for a 20 year old student to be able to do such a thing? To be on an equal playing field with journalists from The FT, the BBC, the Guardian, Channel 4 News (all publications which I intensely admire)?

Those are only two of the many, many examples.

“On 24 September, Gordon Brown declared to the Labour conference: “I have no doubt that the best answer to disengagement from our democracy is to renew our democracy. And that means more change . . . change to strengthen our liberties to uphold the freedom of speech, freedom of information and the freedom to protest.” Three days later, Derek Pasquill, 48, an official at the Foreign Office, was charged on six counts of breaching the Official Secrets Act.” -New Statesman

” … it is crucial to understand that some kind of circle is being closed here by Labour.” Great column over at The Guardian by Henry Porter.

“The industry argues that exports are vital if Britain wants to retain the capacity to build its own weapons.” -The Guardian.

Bullshit. Look at Saab and the completely Sweden exclusive Viggen fighter.

Switch to a Prius dude! 

“For some reason in tech we assume people are washed up at 30? Based on what?” (Via RobotSkirts)

Based on the first tech boom, where lots of kids that were under 30 made millions and then lost it all. I agree that it’s a weird metric. Seriously though, as a 19 year old kid I find it hard to find people my age that don’t understand basic internet concepts. If I ask a middle aged demographic, I find it extremely hard to find people that do understand internet concepts. It’s all about peer based support - more young people understand the internet, so more young people start internet companies, and more young people running internet companies ask their young friends for help.

P.S. Visiting San Diego today. This place is insane.

A few tidbits on Gordon Brown and open government:

-On his site at the horrible titled GordonBrownforBritain.com, Gordon’s got a rather useless poll that asks readers “What should this site be talking about this week?” with a series of topics including the NHS, International Development, Education, and the Economy. What isn’t clear is that this message has been there for nearly ten days, with no content on the site actually discussing the NHS, which is the top voted topic. Guido Fawkes phoned up and asked about this topic, with not much luck. He also puts it all into greater perspective, here. How’s Gordon going to maintain a more transparent Government if he can’t keep a simple website on topic? Gordon Brown’s online campaign is a failure, because he knows he will be elected. That’s not democracy.

-Gordon had a nice little anecdote at the Deputy Leadership Debate in Sheffield, where he mentioned the Reagan joke (Sir, this man is an anti-communist … I don’t care what kind of communist he is etc.) and referred to press conferences in America. He mentioned that in public debates, people are only allowed to ask pre-approved questions in groups. The irony was that the layout for the debate and his talk was identical: several series of approved, grouped, three-at-a-time questions from the website, followed by questions from the audience in groups of six, with no follow up question. That means a very diluted discussion at best, and the ability for Gordon to ignore questions (which he did). To put this kind of ridiculous limits on the discussion is insane, and to mention it as open democracy in action is absurd.

-Final point: watch the first episode of Yes, Minister. Open Government doesn’t work without a radical change in behaviour.

Like a lot of politicians, Alan Johnson realises that the internet is “important”. More accurately, his PR guy does. Now, I know there’s a lot of controversy (see Miliband’s civil servant shadow blogger) over when politicians have shadow writers on blogs and other online mediums, but if we face reality, politicians are very busy people. They tend to have other people (like PR reps) to do stuff like communicate with people for them. That said, I don’t think it’s right if politicians aren’t open about who is posting on their behalf.

Take Alan Johnson for example. I know for a fact that he doesn’t write his own twitter entries over at Johnson4Deputy. How do I know this? Because I asked him at the Sheffield Hustings. He has a PR guy called Stuart Bruce running his twitter accounts, and it’s vaguely clear that the “Johnson4Deputy” campaign is being run by him (see the imprint section on this page). Still, I don’t think that makes is right for his twitter/facebook/flickr/meetup/youtube accounts to be written in the first person. He should acknowledge that the person updating his twitter isn’t him.

Putting aside the mildly deceptive element of the tactic, there’s the problem of what happens if a PR guy fucks up. Alan has to take full responsibility right? Well, it would probably force him to blame his PR campaign, which would then undoubtedly blow open the concept of why exactly he was letting another person speak on his behalf. Sure, his twitter account is a very staid affair (taking the “What are you doing?” concept to the absolute extreme), but that doesn’t mean it’s not potentially open to manipulation.

What I’m getting at with all this is that the internet has a potential that is greater than a simple PR campaign. It can be used for reasoned debate, when it is instead being used as a way to create buzz. What a deputy leadership candidate does now is directly indicative of what he/she’ll do when they get power. If Alan Johnson considers the internet as nothing more than another outlet for building buzz, he’ll go into power thinking of it as nothing more than a way of building popularity and as a support base.

Yesterday I went to the Labour Deputy Leadership Hustings in Sheffield. I noted down a few phrases (which may be paraphrased) from the debate, of which I’ll be highlighting the best, worst, and most cringeworthy, and making commentary.

David Aaronovitch to the audience: “Lets have a democratic round of applause.” (Because clapping isn’t about conformity and unquestioned respect.)

Hilary Benn on Grammar schools: “At 11 they get a letter through the door telling them they’re a failure.”

Hazel Blears on mental health treatment in the UK: “It was a Cinderella service under the Tories.” On the topic of alternative treatments, including art and drama for mental health patients: “More imagination, more innovation.”

Peter Hain on 16 years old, potential voters: “They’re the future.” (Do I even need to say “duh?”)

Jon Cruddas questioning the same issue: “Are 16 year olds of one voice on this?”

Alan Johnson: “The age of candidacy for elections should come down to 18.”

Hazel Blears on David Cameron: “Man of the people won’t wash.” Harriet Harman on Cameron: ” … David Cameron or Paris Hilton … “

Alan Johnson on John Humphrys: “He’s a bit of a pussycat.” Alan quoting Jeremy Paxman who didn’t do his homework: “‘You went to University Alan?’ No! … I hope for a softball question like that in the future.”

Harriet Harman: “We need someone who can listen to what people can say.” (Even by the low standard of the speech soundbites, this was a bad one…)

And last but very much not least, Alan Johnson had the worst soundbite by far, with an elaborate metaphor that made very little sense. Audience laughed over it. I paraphrase: “As we say in the North East, you don’t blow your own trumpet. But if I join the Gordon Brown brass ensemble, I hope to play some pretty attractive tunes.”