Remind me, video didn't actually *kill* the radio star, did it?

The other day a colleague (Richard) and I were trying to figure out which media had been killed by a successive media, or at least died due to related neglect.

I ventured the Mystery Play - but then discovered that the Guilds of York will be staging some in 2010. He got as far as audio cassette tapes - but we agreed that was a technology, not a medium.

What with us working for Channel 4 and everything, sometimes you do feel the fear - can it really be true that TV is dead?

So as I headed to the FT Digital Media and Broadcasting conference at the beginning of this week, I was hoping for some insights as to what fate has in store for TV.

Unfortunately as I turned to my notes to report back my findings, I seem to have scribbled down mostly comments that I disagreed with. For example, the excellent Blake Chandlee of Facebook stated,

"Content is what your family and friends are doing."

The way I see it, my mum isn't doing Jamie at Home any more than I did Atonement at the weekend. Yes, I realise Blake was talking from Facebook's point of view, but remember I'm looking for a diagnosis of a problem before fate deals its cruel blow and this seemed at odds with the content that the likes of Channel 4 bangs out.

And then there was Andreas Mueller-Schubert of Microsoft, again talking only really for Microsoft when he said,

"TV is no longer just a device, it's a new digital service to personalize."

Come off it - TV has been an educator, an entertainer, a piece of furniture, a friend, a pacifier, an anaesthetic even ... but just a device? Never! And now it's a new digital service to personalize is it? Well that makes it sound about as fun as an over-featured microwave. Is that really how people feel about Midsomer Murders?

After a while I did wonder whether the conference should have been renamed as something more like "stuff that digital media and broadcasters might want to think about or have been worrying they should probably at least look up", as even excellent chair Richard Waters, was moved early on to say,

"You thought you were coming to a media conference and you have to listen to a lot of talk about tagging."

That's not to say I spent the entire two days seething at semantics: David Moody of the BBC imparted some invaluable wisdom to any broadcaster based on their experience with the iplayer and the impact of distribution; Ron Galloway was very accessible and entertaining on the semantic web (and may be available for weddings and barmitzvahs his patter is so slick); and it was a shame that Viktor Mayer-Schoenberger on Search was in the conference graveyard slot (the last session on the last day) - speaking of both how search engines and data privacy handling need to be tackled with the memorable line,

"We forget, Google remembers."

I was also really sad to have missed Nova Spivack, of whom I heard great reports.

The absolute highlight for me was Moray MacLennan, Chairman Europe of M&C Saatchi. The quality of his presentation and analysis left me stimulated, ever-so-slightly reassured and, well, with a bit of a crush actually.

I loved, for example, how MacLennan expressed the way that ad agencies should feel about the mix of media that they have to play with as,

"I was drawing in black and white and now I can paint in colour."

MacLennan was a part of the strongest panel of the two days, "Innovating Revenue: The Future of Advertising" which featured Hamish Pringle of the IPA, Melanie Howard of the The Future Foundation and oh yeah, my mate Fergus of Nooked who had invited me along to the conference.

The whole panel embraced all the right digital goodness (widgets, games etc.), whilst accepting that you don't want "engagement" and "a conversation" with every brand (MacLennan stating his toilet roll brand as not one he would be befriending on Facebook) and that there will always be a place for down-time content that's all "done" for you, which was certainly backed up by Future Foundation research that Howard referred to.

And as the title of this post suggests, I don't think video killed the radio star, you know, but I'll concede it did signficantly alter his or her place in the media firmament.

I'm not being curmudgeonly or naive. Just as email led to the demise of snail mail and the marginalisation of the personal letter or card but not the end to personal correspondence, maybe Youtube heralded the start of the end of the tv set - maybe even the tv station or channel as we know them - but not TV in the sense I think we all understand it - well made audio-visual content that we can sit back and enjoy in our living rooms traditionally, but now wherever we might want a screen - bedroom, study, or hand.

What we've got to figure out is what place social networks, widgets, pvrs etc. have in our lives - and therefore the media landscape, but wisely assuming that some of the old ways and means will endure and emerge with new ways to reach audiences.

Billg Brings on the Bunnies

See I'd feel tons better if I worked at Yahoo! knowing that there are people at Microsoft with the (cheese) balls to hire Amy Sedaris. Using her world of bunnies and baking to promote Microsoft Office is delightfully bizarre.

Who knew how cute a typing rabbit could be?

Barack's Campaigning Supporters - can they? I hope so

The USA is still the most influential country on this planet, right? Someone tell me if China's edged ahead. So it's been interesting following the US elections.

Listening to Joe Klein on Newsnight last night I was relieved to hear from someone who should know, that there is little between Clinton and Obama in terms of policy, and it is pretty much about style.

I found the "Yes we can" video campaign video for Obama embedded below exciting and moving (and couldn't help but cast my mind back to Blair and his anthem - not as cool but I was excited at the time), thinking of the energy and inspiration that Obama could bring to the US and therefore the rest of the world.




Looks like Clinton has done really well last night, however, so I'll wait with baited breath. It's an interesting piece of campaigning video, anyway, and apparently not official (although now sanctioned).

Schmaps Maps - close but no banana (updated)

A few weeks ago I received an email in my Flickr inbox. It's a rare occasion, given my photographic skills amount to little more than point, shake a bit, point at the wrong thing, get distracted - and click.

Excitedly I opened my email from Emma J. Williams, who informed me that one of my photos, of a statue in Rome, had been shortlisted for inclusion in an online European city guide map called Schmap, a neat little company busy constructing media-rich guides using Flickr photos and Yahoo! maps.

At first, my worldwide-web-weary cynicism led me to assume this was some sort of scam, and by accepting their terms and conditions I would be surrendering my IP in perpetuity and so forevermore Emma and her gang would be making millions of filthy dollars from shots of my leg looking quite nice in my wedding dress [thanks for the comment, photoboy1970, can't say I'm such a massive fan of your Thai massage shots].

But when a fellow pod-dweller (for those of you uninitiated this means someone whose desk is cojoined with mine to form part of a unit - yes, we are the peas) then mentioned he also had a photo being considered by a city guide competition and had blithely accepted their terms and conditions I decided to forget worrying about the small print, ticked the box and hoped for the best. Now it wasn't just an appeal to my vanity, it was a competition.

Come on, I'm not stupid, I knew this was marketing, but this was damned sophisticated, hands-on marketing and an excellent way to source some high quality content for free. These were smart guys.

When the third pod-dweller admitted that yes, he too had been entered into a competition for a city guide map, I did start to wonder if there was something more sinister at work, who was this Emma J. Williams anyway?

All was forgiven, however, when Emma then informed me I was on the shortlist. Perfectly timed too, as I'd just forgotten about Schmaps and ceased to worry momentarily whether they were stealing my online identity and photoshopping my husband's face onto passports to be sold to the highest and most terrifying of bidders.

And then it happened. I only bloody won, didn't I? My image of Pasquino (see above), Rome's first talking statue, something I prided myself in spotting and recording, had actually made it into a Schmap!

Feeling a little smug - and let's be frank, not entirely surprised, I clicked the link to the Schmap of Rome sent by the now grateful Emma J. Williams which linked to the map, which showed my photo, credited to me, which then led users back to my Flickr photo.

Only problem was, it was attached to a cinema called "Pasquino" which has no apparent link with the statue. I was gutted. I even checked. The address is different, just the name remains the same.

Oh Emma. You very nearly had me for life. I had actually envisaged you and a colleague, maybe with one of those mini telescope things, poring over my photo and comparing my shot to some other poor Schmoe's wondering which of us really captured the spirit of the thing.

I have sent an email pointing out their error and asking for the photo to be withdrawn given their mistake, but it feels like it'll be less use than when my mum wrote to Fenchurch Street station to complain about what she perceived to be a cartel of snack vendors operating within the station falsely raising the price of chunky KitKats.

Now with no station master to appeal to, you tell me: is this a forgivable error by a company with a very smart method of both marketing and content building? Or maybe just a good old ego bubble burst for someone who forgot this used to be called vanity publishing?

P.S. Yes, I am deliberately, petulantly and pointlessly not linking to the Schmaps site.

Later note: Emma wrote to me and apologised! The weary tone of the email suggested they were not happy with a bunch of similar mistakes. I am grateful, and everyone does make mistakes. Link to site duly reinstated (I bet that stung for a while tho).

Quick Plug for Big Brother Celebrity Hijack Site

Just a quick note to encourage you to take a look at the Celebrity Big Brother Hijack sites on both Channel4.com and E4.com.

On the main site, we've updated the design significantly given the E4 hijacking, got loads more integrated video and are trying to keep the site updated as much as possible with rolling headlines as well as loads more frequent news stories.

And the programme is shaping up pretty well too ... poor John ...

Would be interested in hearing any views.

PS If you really get into it, we've also updated our Big Brother Facebook application thanks to our friends at Nooked.

Merry Festivus, One and All

Christmas Carols – Ding Dong Merrily On High
I love carols, it's more than nostalgia - we all know the words (and harmonies) to Wham's Last Christmas, but I don't get quite the same feeling en masse or the urge to sing it in a big cold, spicy smelling room lit by lots of candles.

The more committed I become to the Richard Dawkin's fan club, however, the more I struggle with how much I love Christmas even though I know I'm in a long line of other belief systems co-opting the seasonal festival for my own gains.

In my case those gains include not only carols but also the exchanging of gifts, time with family, pickled walnuts and marrons glacé. I would include mince pies but I now put myself on a self-imposed mince pie ban as once I pop (one in my mouth) I really can't stop.

So whatever you're celebrating be it Chrismukkah, Festivus or plain ole Christmas, I hope you have a joyful one full of whatever seasonal jollies do it for you.

Facebook Faux Pas: A Tribute to the Recently Departed "is"

As some of you connected to me on Facebook are already aware, I've got mildly addicted to updating my Facebook status with quite pointless updates to my life.


For those of you who don't know, a Facebook status is a sentence about you that you publish as frequently as you like, and friends connected to you via Facebook can choose to see via a sort of news feed that they receive when they log onto Facebook.

This status message starts "Louise is ..." with a gap where you fill in the details of what you're up to via web or phone. Or at least the "is" was there until this morning, when I found it had been removed, leaving my posted status message reading "Louise frosty in a nice way" which needed at least a colon to make some kind of sense.

Missing "is" aside for one moment, this weekend, as an example, you would have found out I wrote some Christmas cards, played a lot of Guitar Hero III and went to see the Arctic Monkeys. All true, mildly interesting if you know me, and pretty harmless. I do love reading everyone else's updates too - it's really an accessible form of microblogging. This morning I've discovered one friend is ill, another working too hard, and one lucky bleeder made it to Paris for Christmas shopping.

This weekend, however, you would also have spotted a message informing you "Louise is stopping herself from writing rude things in her status every day" because whilst in recent months I've toyed with the vaguely obnoxious - "Louise is wonderful", the pointless film quote - "Louise is doubting your commitment to Sparkle Motion", as well as the dull - "Louise is out of the office", I've never ventured where I'd really like to go - the plain disturbing.

So as both an exorcism of my status temptation demons and a tribute to the recently departed "is", here is a selection of things you wouldn't want to read on a status update and for some reason I've been sorely tempted to write. Here goes. And forgive me.

Louise is...

1. ... dying to tell you about an amazing investment opportunity
2. ... dying for a poo
3. ... going to poke your ex that's still on your friend list and then make friends with them
4. ... touching herself
5. ... the messiah
6. ... menstruating
7. ... completely nude
8. ... off the stalking charge and already within 50 metres of your house
9. ... horny
10. ... dead

There, now that's over, they're all out there, and it marks the end of the "Louise is ... " phase of my life. Like every annoying user that anyone's ever researched, I'll miss the "is" more than anyone who complained about it, but I suppose what the statement starting "Louise ..." lacks in temporality, it gains in freedom, whilst retaining the weird frisson you get when describing yourself in the third person.

Louise is wondering whether you have any statuses you've ever wanted to post.

When Volume Becomes a Fatal Flaw

Two experiences recently for which I have had very high expectations and actually brilliant experiences, but in possession of a common fatal flaw not in themselves, but in their execution.


1. Florence
Beautiful city - great architecture (if a little frilly for my liking), great art (I defy anyone not to gawp at Michelangelo's David), and, for the most part, very good food.


I can't tell you the thrill I felt at walking through the various piazzas, past the Uffizi and down to the Arno especially after watching A Room with a View at least fifty times in my life time (mostly concentrated between the ages of thirteen and twenty) and finally reading it just over a year ago.

I hope you can, however, taste the rising bile and feel the burn on my cheeks, when, on the second day, on walking towards the Santa Croce (home of more art than the pope could shake a stick at) I turned to Rob and screeched "I'm not getting stuck waddling behind another loud, American tour party!". There may have been some additional swearing inserted, but I'll spare your blushes.

Now I have a genuine admiration for the self belief and confidence of the US despite the fact it may contribute to the war stuff, but for a nation supposedly hooked on therapy, a little self awareness when in foreign climes would go a long way.

Let's just say volume was an issue, both in terms of the audio effects the group generated and the sheer mass the groups formed (the latter at least having the upside of making me feel like a European waif a la Vanessa Paradis, which doesn't happen too often).

So if you want to visit for a few days, my strong advice is to check whenever the hotel prices are cheapest and go then, I don't want to imagine the booming, fleshy horror that high season would entail.

2. The Arcade Fire at Alexandra Palace
A great set, a great band, and a great job of filling and inspiring a venue not built for music. Absolutely worth seeing. (More complete and professional review from an amateur on last.fm by following link in title above.)

But my very favourite song, a moving, delicate yet rousing piece "My Body is a Cage", that I'd been singing so much in anticipation it featured in my Facebook status, managed to be cocked up by the sound people and had no audible vocals whatsoever due to I don't know what. I choose not to blame that crazy rock orchestra but rather an anonymous engineer who was clearly too busy on the mixing desk getting the balance between treble and bass right to remember to turn the volume up.

However, there was an upside to this flaw, in that I'd missed half of it having been in the loo anyway and had I been able to hear it from there, I may have broken out of the cubicle, pants half mast, struggling towards the mosh pit, sobbing on bloody knees.

And if you're wondering about the gratuitous Winehouse shot, I have tickets to see big-haired Amy at Brixton Academy on Thursday night - I may be going for a hat trick of brilliance tinged with disappointment and a soupçon of rage.

Why Microsoft is no Britney to Facebook's Paris

A story by John Naughton in today's Observer about Microsoft's recent investment in Facebook, Microsoft makes Facebook a club you don't want to join, actually made me want to write about my former employer (Microsoft), for the first time in ages.

Firstly, I'm slightly irritated I read the story as I've been so immersed in lovely literature, but the company names appearing together leapt out at me with the loathsome tabloid appeal of a night on the town with Paris Hilton and a knickerless Britney.

I was finally driven to blog about it by the final comment,

"And what does Microsoft gets for its money? Officially, the chance to sell internet ads for Facebook outside the United States. Unofficially, the chance to spit in Google's corporate eye."

Whilst they wouldn't want to miss out on another deal after Yahoo! had a good year of it last year and Google's acquisition of Youtube, the importance of Microsoft getting its hands on the Facebook ad inventory should not be underestimated, or the deal written off as a PR move.

As Ballmer has said, Microsoft are weak in the online ad market - certainly significantly less than 25% I could find as the last estimate of Google's ad share in the US. And I'm pretty sure that globally, Google are even more dominant online. Google's scale and dominance online mean that the kind of ad revenue they can generate for 3rd-party sites already outweighs that which Yahoo! and Microsoft can offer you for similar traffic (as I understand it), so it would have taken a chunk of change to buy into the opportunity.

And if, as it seems, Facebook shapes up to be the social network that captures the imagination of everyone online and especially graduates, white-collar workers and silver surfers, they've got a chunk of really valuable users to target their ads at with an extraordinary amount of behavioural data to get targetting to pinpoint accuracy, and an enormous and growing number of page views.

There's a round-up of reactions here. I think I'm with John Battelle - if this enables Microsoft to play in a new form of advertising with a rapidly growing, globally dominant player - it's a smart move. But then again, maybe that's what Britney's people said about those fatal nights with Paris (the smart move bit, not the rest. although on second thoughts...).

Not Writing But Reading

In my recent blogstipated silence, I have been enduring a long reading of Crash. My breath has been taken away by it many times, let alone for Ballard's vision and daring considering when the book was written - it revolves around characters' intense juxtapositions of sexuality and car crashes, but for a slim novel it takes some reading.

It is forming part of a self-imposed and quite satisfying reading list with On Chesil Beach being the last book I completed - although I positively inhaled McEwan's Booker-nominated novella rather than the wrestle I'm having with Crash. Full of wafts of unease and desire, meals uneaten and oranges peeled, On Chesil Beach is a documentary of a time of stifled sensuous pleasures, the main characters' passion only expressed through music and and the occasional pub fight - the noisy drama of both belying their animal natures contained by their history, time and circumstance. It is a book of fading cotton cardigans.

In contrast, when reading Crash, there are times when the taste of salt blood metal in my mouth is too unbearable for more than a few pages. Some of that is fear of who's reading over my shoulder on the Northern Line, I haven't been as conscious of being identified as a sexual pervert since American Psycho on the Circle Line.

On theme, I'm now teasing myself by casually stroking the soft smooth skin of the hardback cover of Exit Ghost as the next in the list. I can never wait 'til paperback time to buy the latest Roth novel but his age now means the reading of each novel has the tinge of a tender goodbye (see title) that I want to draw out as long as possible.

His risky 8 beat my safe 7

Me overheard yesterday,

“I can’t wait to embed a Channel 4 clip in my blog.”

So here it is courtesy of our new Unmissable Clips service on Channel4.com.

Later Note: Richard has also confessed he couldn't get his mind off the obvious 5.

R.I.P. "Getting It"

I'd just like to take a moment to mourn the passing of a once oft-used phrase "s/he gets it" (in a new media sense). For those blissfully unaware it was used as a shorthand, in geek circles, as code for people that understood the implications of the likes of RSS, open APIs etc. - the whole web 2.0 shebang.

Unfortunately, if you needed that explanation and had to follow the ubiquitous wikipedia link, you would have been deemed, at the time, as someone who most definitely didn't "get it". (Note this has nothing to do with "getting it". I think there were a number of people who quite smugly "got it" but actually, when it came down to it, didn't get any.)

We would nod and smile and point at our colleagues who "got it" and those who didn't "get it" (evinced by an addiction to the likes of AOL and/or having Yahoo or MSN as your homepage - even though we all worked for these companies - or just asking "dumb" questions in meetings) we would condemn with a shake of the head and a smirking "they just don't get it". It was bordering on the religious, this state of "getting it" grace we had, and bestowed on or denied others.

I think it may have been Facebook that sounded the final death knell to "getting it". When hoardes of people have found themselves effortlessly social networking, sharing bookmarks, sharing their online data in order to improve their experiences, and even - shudder - using RSS feeds without even realising it, there really is no need to get it.

And, ironically, being active on Facebook I imagine will be much more conducive to getting it than Last.fm or Flickr ever have been...

Wonderings: could your website do with an "oo"?

After two complaints within the past twenty four hours at my lack of blog posts I decided to post something short and sweet about the things I've been wondering about over the past month.

1. Whether some video mashups/remixes (forget musical brilliance such as Jay-Z's grey album) are a manifestation of a rule of comedy - repetition. Take, for example, a small excerpt from a video showing a rodent with a strange expression on its face that has spawned many, many different versions; does that make this an ancestor of the Spam sketch?

2. If success online is predicated by an "oo" sound e.g. Yahoo, Google, Youtube, Facebook (strictly speaking only if you're from Liverpool or the Midlands), Joost and now Hulu? Yeah ok, there's eBay and Skype but c'mon... isn't there something pleasurable about making an "oo" sound? These corporates are playing with our minds! Although there was boo.com... and oops, maybe Hulu wasn't such a good choice after all.

3. About the origins of the word documentary, and how the blend of images, film and words online is the perfect fusion/medium for the communication of new information. This thought was inspired by the LA Times homicide map (imagine pieces of film integrated into that instead of just news stories). I'm thinking of this in comparison to "downtime" entertainment which possibly "sit-back" video content will always be the purest form.

4. On change in general - my boss, Andy Taylor, left Channel 4 today and New Media as a department is shifting within Channel 4 to merge with all our technology teams. Although I am desperately sad to see Andy go as he was one of the main reasons I wanted to join Channel 4, these are all good moves, I think - but changes to get used to all the same.

A theme which excuses me quoting one of my favourite lines about change from the excellent but sadly axed after three series, Strangers with Candy (n.b. don't bother with the film, try to get the DVDs)

"I've changed. People change. Changes… I'm not the same Jerri Blank who informed on those blind orphans. I'm not the same Jerri Blank who revealed the hiding place of those Guatemalans … such as yourself. And I'm not the same Jerri Blank who took a crap in the Fleishmann's holly bushes … last night."

Can you see how troubled my mind is now? Do you really want me to write some more now? Huh?

I'm *ba-ack*

Last night I thought to myself "better get these plates uploaded to the dishwasher".

On realising my hilarious new-media gaffe I then thought "I'll blog about this".

And so "real" life returns.

The Honeymoon Period is Officially Over

The Honeymoon Period is Officially Over
Originally uploaded by LouBrown.

We're back and we're wed.

The day itself was a brilliant happy occasion - the rain lashed down all day as forecast but that didn't stop ceremony, speeches, friends, family, food, wine and my new husband all being wonderful.

Photographic evidence of the day itself is slow to arrive but I've already uploaded some shots of the honeymoon fun so you can see how great Nevis was - charming, not too developed, great mix of beaches, mountains, lots of non-dangerous wildlife like bats and moths and monkeys and frogs and we stayed in a lovely homey but luxurious place.

If you can only see shots of frogs and donkeys you will need to be friends with me on Flickr in order to see the full complement of daft and often sweaty shots. I've decided to be a bit more conservative with which photos I share publicly - who knows, maybe an ill-judged photo may discount me from Hampstead Garden Suburb Stepford Wife of the Year or similar. It's a thought.

As well as "the honeymoon period is officially over" the other phrase I'm enjoying irritating my husband with is "this isn't exactly a marriage of convenience, you know ... it's bloody inconvenient if you ask me". Not that it is, of course, I just feel slightly silly using the word "husband" really.

Back to work tomorrow.

On Getting Married Very Soon

Weather's due to be shit, I haven't broken in my shoes properly, I don't know which lipstick I'm wearing and still haven't finished my speech but hey-ho, as long as I end the day with a ring on my finger and a smile on my face I'm happy.

Am really quite excited. See you in a few weeks.

Weddingwards We Go: Controlling the Uncontrollable

A wise man once advised me to focus on "controlling the controllables" and, how, if you try to do anything else, madness lies therein. Despite this phrase having some real resonance and usefulness throughout my life, this has not stopped me obsessing over a number of wedding-related nightmare scenarios over which I have very little control, a selection of which I hereby confess:

The buffet causing food poisoning
We are using a very respectable caterers and there is no trace of oysters, pork or fugu on the menu, but a story from my mate Burnsy about her grandad being so ill at a family wedding he had to be sick in his Italian leather shoes has haunted me since my early teens.

My dress creasing on the way from my house to the wedding venue
Viscose discounted as suitable wedding dress fabric due to potential overheating and general disgustingness, I am now concerned that my beautiful fabric will concertina like paper in the short journey between home and venue.

I briefly entertained investigating whether there was a private hire car company that had a fleet of popemobiles available in the London area, but quickly discounted this. I am still considering getting my mum to sit in the front of the car with me virtually prostrate across the back seat, although I realise the classic bride setting off in the car shot may look a little unconventional (but maybe this lady was actually lying on her front for the same reason).

Me crying constantly throughout the day
I know I have to minimise alcohol intake, possibly not look my future husband, mother, in-law-to-bes or caterers for that matter in the eye, and I am also practising saying the vows as they instantly set me off into an over-emotional torrent. We've even split the speech thankyous by scoring my likelihood to cry on a scale of 1 to 5 being the deciding factor on who gets to thank who - I am left with the florists and cab company. Waterproof mascara it is, then.

At the end of a long week, sometimes all you can do is sing

Helen, me and Susan - and the crowd
Originally uploaded by LouBrown.

Loads going on at the moment, mostly wedding related but also a hectic time at work what with the controversy over the programme Diana: The Witnesses in the tunnel as well as heated discussions over this week's events in the Big Brother house.

I met with the programme makers of the Diana documentary on Wednesday night (I was there to check that the forum was working properly for them so they could read and post) and was really impressed with their commitment and interest in finding out what viewers thought.

And no chance of a breather the next day - another fascinating meeting with some young tv trainees to introduce new media to them - and as it was the morning after Emily's removal from Big Brother and they were from various ethnic backgrounds there was quite a heated debate about what had gone on. I hope it was a great introduction to them for how New Media can play such a key role in interacting with programmes as the debate was already raging in the forums even tho no one had actually seen the footage at that time.

Also went to a Women, Business and Blogging conference on Friday which was really interesting - great presentations from Meg Pickard, Eileen Brown and Jory des Jardins that I'll very briefly summarize thus: Meg - hilarious, insightful and engaging on all aspects of community; Eileen - great personal insights that showed the human side of Microsoft (best PR I think they'll get this year in the UK); and Jory's presentation was the best for me - her knowledge of the economics of blogging and the role of women bloggers as key influencers for marketers was immense, with some great lessons for the UK to learn from.

And finally, the photo you can see wasn't a break-out session from the conference but actually from my hen party last night - another gathering of mostly women with a couple of special fellas. I had an absolutely brilliant time and can conclude I have the best best friends in the whole world. Not just because they let me hog the mike* big time.

*Thought I'd clear up that that wasn't one of the fellas. One of the girls showed quite a lot of interest in "roving mike" until I had to break it to her that we were talking audio equipment. Actually, that was my friend Sue's joke, but it was too good not to repeat.

Whither the Widget King?

Louise Brown, Richard Houston and Jamie Arnold
Originally uploaded by bowbrick.

Fun night on Wednesday with colleagues and other new media types at Media Widgetised, hosted by Chinwag and stylishly chaired by Steve Bowbrick (thanks to him for photo), with speakers including friends such as Fergus Burns (my contender for King of Widgets). There's a good and sensible write up here.

I put the expression on my face in the above picture down to me trying to figure out where we are in terms of a sustainable widget economy (which is what Fergus and others were trying to get us to buy into).

Not that it was talked about that much, but I understand the potential for and excitement about the death of the browser (a news reader, media player, and a couple of social network or shopping widgets or 3d environments will be all I need) and can see where as a content owner I can get value out of that (even if I don't own or create the widget).

In the short term I'm not sure how sustainable getting traffic from other web pages with embedded widgets is - we will inevitably have to pay if the traffic is at all valuable to us (look what happened to Photobucket), or at least those in the good positions will need to pay (a la paid search).

Maybe it's all part of the journey towards the browser-free web (for your average user, sure they'll still be a few of us sub-editing wikipedia).

I did go crazy

I've been worrying myself silent, thinking I had to try to do justice with words to an event which rendered me speechless.

I was there - last Thursday at Koko in Camden seeing Prince at a distance I had only dreamed of.

I joked with friends that the last time I saw Prince live, if he had impregnated me that night, our child could have voted in the recent local elections. But that really is besides the point.

He sang and played the most amazing music with the most amazing band is as much as I can bring myself to say apart from rubbish phrases like "shitting brilliant".

Thankfully, a fellow last.fm user has written an excellent review on his blog, with setlist, photos and videos. Thank you to Prince for the night, and thank you to musiclikedirt for writing this review. I'll pull out one quote from it, which was exactly how I felt,

"There are legendary singers like Sly Stone, Curtis Mayfield or guitarists like Hendrix, who you wish you’d had a chance to see. Breathtaking entertainers like James Brown, where you give thanks for the privilege of seeing them, even in later years…
And then there is Prince Rogers Nelson. The best bits of every one of your favourite artists all rolled up in 5ft 2 inches of stone cold genius."

There's just one thing I disagree with - this was definitely the highlight of the night for me ...



And I never thought I'd say "I can't wait til I get to the millennium dome" - but I am going to see him again twice at the newly christened O2 centre.