Web ‘to go’ – Blogging on the Train

2 07 2009

I am writing this blog post from the discomfort of a hot train carriage en route from Grantham to Manchester.  Why do you need to know that?  The answer is quite simply that you don’t.  My point is that it is now possible to blog or upload content, any time, any place, anywhere.

There is no air conditioning in my carriage but I do have a laptop with me and Internet access, although it is courtesy of a 3G mobile stick rather than having been thoughfully provided by the train operator.  Although to be fair many train operators now offer wifi (usually the same ones that manage to provide aircon).

We are increasingly moving to a point where web access is an expected utility rather than a welcome exception.  The iPhone even has a dedicated WordPress application that lets you blog directly from your phone with considerable ease, making live blogging easier than ever.   The carriage isn’t getting any cooler and I’m still an hour and a half from my stop.  I wonder what’s happening on twitter?


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Categories : Blogs and blogging, User Generated Content

Follow Friday Five #11

15 05 2009

Here are five more blogs for you to take five to look at during your busy Friday.  There are some small blogs that cover really big issues and voices of authority from PR Week and the Guardian. You might be anywhere but I’m right here in Manchester UK so I’ve added some local flavour. 

Enough hot air from me; there should be something for everyone here so click away.  

1. Planning Corner Small but perfectly formed.  Insights into the world of advertising and marketing.  Apparently Germans feel more guilty about not brushing their teeth than they do for having an affair, now where else could you find out something like that?

2.How Do  Not really a blog but a media and marketing news site that follows many of the conventions of a blog – posting comments and now updating throughout the day.  Essential reading if you work in the creative, media or marketing industries in the North West of England.

3. Ask Jack Blog The Guardian’s Jack Schofield is the godfather of tech. I have been reading his stuff in the newspaper for many years. This is the place where he answers all of those niggling technical questions.  Got a problem? Email Jack.

4. PR Week Blogs  All new look PR Week online blog community.  It’s been revamped and it is pulling in gurus from the PR sphere.  New, hot, looks good.

5. Chris Reed – Ginger and Proud  A digital PR trail blazer, blogging since 2007. Thoughtful, and opinions worth listening to about the world on online PR.


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Categories : Blogs and blogging

Has Jacqui Smith Been to Manchester?

7 05 2009

The UK government scored yet another PR own goal when it was announced today that they would trial the national ID card scheme in Manchester.  This idea is frankly bonkers on almost every possible level.

The ID cards will be £30 and ‘voluntary’.  My experience of Mancunians suggests it is unlikely that we’d volunteer to part with civil liberties and pay for the privilege. I can hear the conversation in the newsagents as we speak “…sod it cancel the paper and the lottery tickets for the next few weeks, I’ll have one of them ID cards instead. Cheers mate.”

I posted a poll on Twitter this morning – it’s a modest response but resolute (over 86% at the last count) in the view that we should resist the introduction of the scheme. Even the Labour candidate for Withington Lucy Powell doesn’t think that there will be much uptake.

What is more, we citizens of the Republic of Mancunia are not overly keen on being told what to do, especially if it’s one rule for them and another for us. Come on Jacqui take a trip up to Manchester and we’ll tell you exactly what we think.


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Categories : Politics


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