Raspberry Pi – Will Some Children Be Left Behind?

February 29th, 2012

This morning there is much excitement in the media and on twitter about the launch of Raspberry Pi.  A small computer developed to help children to learn how to code.

Rory Cellan-Jones talks about how it will offer “every child in the country a cheap computer on which they can learn to programme”. There’s no doubt it’s brilliant, long overdue in a country where our education system (with a few exceptions) has largely confined classes featuring computers to learning about how to use word processing packages, rather than what’s under the hood.

I went to school in the early 80s, when learning to programme really was something for the hardened coder.  It didn’t even feature on most people’s radar as being relevant or interesting or something that was worthwhile.  But as we know now, the geeks shall inherit the earth, and programming is officially cool.  Largely thanks to the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin, Steve Wozniak et al, everyone appreciates the opportunities that can come from being a good programmer. And now there are so many resources available for anyone to teach themselves, with initiatives like Codecademy aiming to make it as accessible as possible.

So middle class parents, striving to give the best to their children, will no doubt be rushing out today to buy their Raspberry Pi’s to help give their child a head start (they may have to wait actually, stockists are already showing as sold out, presumably because vast swathes of middle aged men have already snapped them up…). And I think it’s fantastic to develop this kind of knowledge in children, I certainly will with mine. But I also worry that there will, inevitably, be a whole section of the population who will be left behind.

Martha Lane-Fox has long championed the need for digital inclusion, and Race Online 2012 is an admirable attempt to make a real difference to getting previously marginalised sections of society online.  With the launch of Raspberry Pi, we need to ensure that as well as encouraging people to get online, we also ensure that all children have access to these tools.  Because actually, programming is one of the few skills that really allows you to make a name for yourself with very little but your brains and dedication.  You don’t need friends in high places, or a daddy’s connections but you do need to have access to the tools.  Let’s hope Raspberry Pi really does make a difference.

*photo websmith (under Creative Commons)

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Top 5 favourite tools & apps

January 23rd, 2012

A quick post to share my current top 5 favourite tools & apps (this isn’t a post about new apps, more those tools I’m using a lot):

*ifttt – With the tagline: ‘Put the internet to work for you’ – is a brilliantly simple yet clever idea which automates your use of the web.  For example every time I post to Instagram, ifttt saves it to Evernote for me.  Every time I favourite a tweet, it plugs it into Instapaper.  There are some fantastic ‘recipes’ from other people you can use or you can create your own.  Which bring me on to….

*Instapaper – Save web articles to read offline.  Brilliant on the iPad and equally useful on the laptop.  I constantly come across interesting stuff on twitter and elsewhere, now I tend to store them up and read them in a bunch, and (obviously) you don’t need wifi access.

*Feedly - I still use RSS loads, to catch up on new stuff.  Feedly remains my favourite way to sort through my google reader subscriptions (although yes, Flipboard is very pretty), particularly as I can switch between views – from ‘latest’ to individual topics ‘history’ or ‘saved’ stuff.

*tweetbot – twitter client for the iPhone.  Very slick and intuitive UI.  Miles better than official iPhone (although who remembers how much we loved tweetie?)

*Evernote – Note taking on steriods.  After years of persevering, I’m finally starting to get real value out of this.  The more you use, the better it gets.  Although I still feel like I’m barely scraping the surface of all the ways I could be using it

What are your current favourite tools & apps?

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/indiamos/

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Number 10′s social media story

January 10th, 2012

Storify is one of my favourite online tools

Every time I’ve ever demoed it to someone unfamiliar with it, they always love it and it’s not hard to see why; it has a great UI, is simple to use and has a ton of different potential applications; from curating a news story, a conference or event, to pulling together a discussion taking place on twitter or other places on the web, used in the right way it gives a story depth and resonance.

It was with interest then, that yesterday I saw that Downing Street has started using Storify. The irony of course was this was just as the news broke about the fact that Olympic volunteers have been tightly restricted from using social media while at events.   Storify makes perfect sense as a PR tool, you can carefully craft exactly the story you want your audience to see, with no messy bits that haven’t been approved.  But what number 10 need to understand is that, like any good story, it’s only going to be interesting with colour and variety; if you create a corporate, vanilla version of an event, no one is going to give it a second glance.  The ‘Olympic Cabinet meeting – 200 days to go’ Story from Number 10 is little more than a glossy press release with no commentary or content from third parties (which is of course, the beauty of Storify).

So Number10gov you may find that Storify doesn’t work for you, because if you insist on having complete control over every element of your social media ‘story’, you’ll find that no-one will give it a second glance.

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Social Media & Digital Predictions for 2012

January 4th, 2012

Tech and media bloggers fall over each other to herald in the new year with predictions that 2012 will be the ‘Year of….’
I’m adding my voice to that cacophony but with the proviso that I will come back in December, revisit them and we can decide whether I was completely off the mark, somewhere near or, in fact, the leading new oracle.

So my 5 predictions for 2012:

1. From real-time to slowing down. Heard a lot of talk about this at sxsw in 2011 but seeing an increasing number of blog posts about it from tech early adopters and certainly feeling it myself. Have we all gorged ourselves on ‘real-time’ instant communications to such an extent that we are feeling the need for abstinence? Inevitably when these new technologies were created, we all crammed ourselves with them in a feeding frenzy. But frequently now I want to shout “SLOW DOWN”, it’s not a race. Faster isn’t always better.

2. The rise and rise of the storyteller. It’s arguable that storytelling is already the comic sans of the digital world, so much is the term being banded about but there are two sides to this that I want to flag up. Firstly, this is the year that I think more and more organisations will come to understand the importance of storytelling when developing their content for social media content and secondly, the rise of live storytelling in the UK (see The Moth for an idea if you’ve never been to a live storytelling event). The first London Storytelling Festival took place in October 2011 and other small events are popping up all over the UK, like Tales of Whatever, in Manchester. This can only be a good thing. There is nothing and I repeat, nothing that warms the heart as much as a good story.

3. Listening as much as reading. Audio is on the up. Audio stories (see no 2 above and please, if you’ve never done so, go to This American Life this instant and listen to one of the podcasts) and audio for reporting. I know this isn’t new but I think 2012 will be the year that audio in social really explodes.

4. A return to long form. Five years ago, Twitter turned the heads of bloggers and they skipped off into the sunset holding hands, leaving behind a trail of broken and abandoned blogs. This was desperately sad as many brilliant writers went from posting 3 or 4 times a week to once a month if we were lucky. It’s great that so many are returning to those blogs, dusting them off and reacquainting themselves. Yes I know that blogging generally has continued to grow in the last 5 years but I’m talking about the really good, thought-provoking bloggers that you can’t wait to read. There aren’t many of those.

5. The year social media stopped being talked about as a separate ‘thing’. Will 2012 be the year that the overall knowledge level as risen to such an extent that we can stop the echo chamber discussions about whether social media ‘matters’ or how to measure engagement. Personally I’m hoping on this one but realise it’s a long shot.

So they are my wise {sic} predictions. Let’s see how we get on…

*Image: J W Waterhouse’s The Crystal Ball, courtesy oubliette (reproduced under Creative Commons license)

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The 7-day no phone crash diet

December 5th, 2011

I’ve just done something that I haven’t done for over three years, well 10 years depending on which way you look at it.
About three weeks ago I was coming out of the gym, pulled my iphone out of my pocket and wham, dropped it on the floor and completely smashed the screen.  So it had to go away to be repaired with the words buzzing in my ears from the insurance company that it could take “up to 10 days to be fixed”.  10 days?!! Were they out of their minds?

Now I pause at this point to acknowledge that I fully realise not having a phone for 10 days is hardly catastrophic in the scheme of things but it’s given me a short sharp shock into the reality (positive and negative) of a life lived in the thrall of the small screen.

So what did I find?

*I am utterly and completely addicted to tapping away on my bloody iphone.  There I said it.  Obvious, right? Well yes and no, I did realise how much time I spend swiping up and down timelines, checking in, checking emails, sharing photos, looking at photos, commenting on photos, updating, sharing, searching, listening to podcasts, checking the weather and numerous other trivial and not so trivial actions but when it’s not there anymore you really feel the gaping hole that was there and appreciate just how much time you waste spend on it.

*Without the phone, I let go of twitter since without the real-time aspect, I lost interest.  It just didn’t have the same grip.

*The three things I missed most: Instagram, mobile search and my beloved This American Life podcasts, particularly while travelling.

*For a couple of days when I was out and about I borrowed my son’s, basic to the core, Samsung (see the pic).  And for a brief time there was something nice about having a phone that only does two things: make calls and send texts.  Without any clutter on the phone, I didn’t have the ever present, unconscious ‘tap tap’ in my head, that causes me to launch twitter, check email, browse Instagram and on and on (from the minute I wake up until, quite literally, the moment I go to sleep).  I’ve always been someone with a surfeit of nervous energy.  In that respect technology is bad for me, it compounds my tendency to be constantly fiddling with stuff.  Without my phone I was, stiller.

So, I missed my phone and…I didn’t miss my phone.  I was inwardly ashamed at how utterly delighted I was when it turned up a whole three days early, you’d have thought I’d was being reunited with a long lost love. It was interesting (although I don’t want to repeat it). I’m trying to learn from the experience and be more mindful of how technology can seep under your skin without you really noticing how deep it has embedded itself into you.

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Acting the part

November 16th, 2011

When I was growing up in the, ahem, 70s, big budget advertising was the only way in which we came into contact with brands, it was how a brand established itself; set out its stall and companies jostled with each other to create the next BIG advert.  And so it was that some brands went for the option of working with a ‘proper’ actor, either as a one off or in a series of ads, certainly during the 70s & 80s it was a popular option.  If done well I guess it has the benefit of aligning a brand with certain key attributes of that actor but these days it seems less common. Is it the cost? Perhaps it doesn’t seem clever enough? And of course the decline of the mass market audience means that brands are frequently diverting money away from the ad budget to other ways of communicating with their audiences.

The new advert from American Airlines sees a return to the big tickets actor approach, by using Kevin Spacey in its latest advertising campaign.  I am a huge fan of Kevin Spacey after seeing him a few years ago in Richard II and of course his other various amazing performances in American Beauty, American Confidential, The Usual Suspects plus many other brilliant film roles , he really is an incredible actor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmhVWTBlKHM

I like the new American Airlines ads, I think they use Spacey’s talents well.  They made me nostalgic for an era of big name ads. So welcome back Rutger Hauer & Guinness

and of course, Joan Collins and Leonard Rossiter (non better).

With thanks to various friends on twitter who reminded me of some of the old school ads.

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Being Influential

October 18th, 2011

Social media influence is the new black.  Who’s got it? How to get more of it? Whether it matters? All of this is endless debated, dissected and discussed (well, within the walls of the social media echo chamber anyway).  Indeed, an entire industry  has sprung up with the sole purpose of showing who’s the popular/unpopular kids in the school yard exploring the notion of influence and helping brands to ‘connect’ with key influencers.  Klout, PeerIndex and newbie Kred will all tell you how influential you are and about which topics (amongst other things).

To be fair, and despite my sarcasm, although I’m sceptical about measuring influence in this way, I do see a value in it.  But today it looks like Klout have updated their topics and this is where the system starts to fall apart. In the past I’ve been deemed to be influential about Rugby (despite knowing precisely nothing about it), bacon (no idea) and free stuff (again, whaat?) and from today ladies and gentlemen, I am officially influential about… typos.   Now of course I’m as selective in my scorn as the next person, I’m happy to claim some of my other ‘influential’ – topics, PR, Manchester, Marketing, Social Media.  But really, if you’re a bacon maker and you want to connect with me, let me tell you, I’m not the blogger you’re looking for.

Seems I’m not alone in seeing this randomness as many friends in my twitter stream shared this afternoon.  From Octupi to birds, tea to soup, there was an endless list of odd topics.  Maybe someone needs to have a tinker around with that algorithm because while there’s no doubt that it can be useful to know who is (genuinely) authoritative on a subject.  It only works if it, well, you know, works.

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I will teach my children about Steve Jobs

October 6th, 2011

Desperately sad news about Steve Jobs.  I can’t add anything insightful to the millions of tributes that are being shared today.  But I had to post in complete respect for a man who changed everything.

This morning I tried to explain the significance of his passing to my 10 year old.  He has never known a world without the technology for which Jobs was responsible. To him it’s part of the fabric of everything.  When he and his brother are a bit older I will sit them down in front of the famous Stanford commencement speech.  I want them to understand why Jobs was so important and I want them to live with that advice ringing in their ears: to grab life with both hands, to jump into it, to not waste precious time doing something they’re not passionate about.

He gave us so much more than tech.

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The execution of Troy Davis – when will this end?

September 22nd, 2011

This post is not about social media.  This is a post in support of Troy Davis and his family.

When I was 14, 24 years ago, a documentary called ‘14 Days In May‘ had a profound and lasting effect on me.  I was only 14 at the time and it opened my eyes to the reality of absolute injustice: that it existed, that no-one seemed to care about the facts, that those involved in implementing the death penalty appeared more concerned with defending their right to do so, than with the rights of Edward Earl Johnson.  I sobbed as I watched it.  I felt that surely this powerful documentary would prevent these kinds of travesties of justice from ever happening again.  But of course it didn’t.  Shame on you Georgia.

Massive respect to Amnesty International and Democracy Now for their sterling work, trying to raise awareness of Troy’s case, and other similar cases. Surely in another 24 years a supposedly democratic socieity won’t still be metering out this kind of ‘justice’.


Watch Fourteen Days in May in Entertainment  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

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Is Instagram even about the photos?

June 28th, 2011

Foursquare, Quora, Color – the next Facebook, the next twitter….  Anyone who’s involved in technology knows to be very wary of the hype cycle but occasionally you do come across something that feels different.  You use an app and it feels useful, fun, different or exciting – whatever, the fact is that you start to give it more attention than just the initial 5 minutes sign up, never to be used again (Empire Avenue anyone?).

I’ve started to feel like that about Instagram, the iPhone photo sharing app that’s getting so much attention (it helps of course when you have such heavyweight backers).  On first glance, as with many apps, it’s seems a bit pointless, a jumble of good and bad (some very bad) photos, many quite heavy on the filter use (back to that in a minute) but increasingly, these days I find myself checking my Instagram feed before Twitter.  While accepting that my next statement makes me sounds like a bit of a twit…it really does feel like the earlier days of twitter; a smaller community, more spontaneity, less extraneous stuff to clutter it up.  Of course I’m far from alone in my love of Instagram.  But what I’ve seen much more recently is an increase in the number of blog posts from people saying how much they like it from a community point of view rather than a ‘isn’t this great technology, fun, quirky’ etc.  Greg Povey’s post on just that and ‘when an app feels like the world from‘ Will McInnes both sum it up nicely for me.

An then I had an interesting conversation with Kate Bevan on twitter who feels equally as strongly about Instagram but from a slightly different point of view.  You can view the conversation on Storify but the short version is Kate hates the overuse of filters on Instagram and feels that it spoils the photos and undermines truly creative, quality photography (she’s definitely not alone in this).  This conversation made me appreciate that I look at it from a completely different perspective, which I’d sum up as follows:

- I don’t so much care about the quality of the photos, I don’t use it as an app to find lovely images (flickr is of course, much better for that) but there is something very simple about images, much more so than words; you respond to them immediately, unconsciously – you like them. Or you don’t.  Simple (and satisfying).

- Granted there is quite a lot of ‘Instagramming absolutely everything I see’ but that’s just like twitter is/was.  Excessive tweeters – excessive poster = unfollow.

- Perhaps most importantly, I come back to my point that, like twitter, it’s all about who you follow.  I follow people that I find interesting.  Some of them I find interesting because of the quality of their photos but many are for other reasons – I like to see what they’re up to, they’re perceptive, funny, witty or show me something from a different point of view.

So maybe Instagram’s success will ultimately be nothing to do with the images themselves and everything to do with the community.

* photo is a completely unrelated Instgram pic of mine

*UPDATE 6/7/2011 – I now have a instagram vanity URL  followgram.me/katiemoffat

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