My local NCJ Media hyperlocal web site has run the Cheviot sunset image that I snapped on Monday after I posted it to its Flickr group.
Your Place is a series of 22 local websites bringing localised news to every town and village in Northumberland.
Haiti Flickr filter one month on
Donate to the rescue effort via the Disasters Emergency Committee Earthquake appeal.
Images from Haiti via Flickr filter
Image via the United Nations Development Programme
Check out this Flickr filter for on-the-ground images from Haiti following the recent earthquake. There’s also a Flickr group. And then consider donating to the relief effort via the Disasters Emergency Committee.
Why doesn’t mainstream media make more use of Flickr and YouTube for newsgathering?
With the UK gripped by arctic conditions last week there was an almost blanket appeal by almost media outlets for photos and videos.
Yet a visit to Flickr or YouTube would provide any researcher or journalist with a stream of Creative Commons output tagged by location that could be incorporated within their news reporting.
But to date mainstream media has made limited use of social network as a newsgathering source.
One exception is Trinity Mirror owned ncjMedia which has created a Flickr group that it uses as a source of reader images for The Journal’s Your Place Northumberland project.
So why doesn’t mainstream media make greater use of Flickr and YouTube for newsgathering?
Ged Carroll suggested to me over the weekend that mainstream media sourced user generated content (UGC) direct as it was a means of engaging directly with its audience.
Craig McGill said that he thought that mainstream media didn’t make greater use of UGC social networks as it is reluctant to credit third part sources – and that understanding of Creating Commons was limited.
econsultancy Innovation Report spotlights examples of digital excellence
Econsultancy’s Innovation Report is a cracking document packed with more than 60 case study examples of innovation from almost every corner of the web.
The report celebrates every aspect of the digital supply chain from affiliate marketing to web analytics. The report should be required reading for anyone working in the digital sector.
Here are some examples that I particularly liked.
- eBags: a planning project by Silverpop to send out emails personally timed to generate best return. Conversation rates up 65 per cent
- Idée image search: search for Creative Commons images posted on Flickr by colour palate
- Innocent AGM promoted via Twitter: an excellent case study for the commercial use of Twitter as a communication channel
- Kiva: microfinance venture capitalist matching finance in $25 chunks to entrepreneurs in the developing world
- Nearest tube application: can I have an iPhone 3GS for Christmas please so that I can tinker with this augmented reality tube finder application from acrossair?
- The Rubicon Project: an ad network that optimises web inventory for publishers and claims revenue improvements of 30 to 300 per cent
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Full moon
There’s an incredible full moon tonight.
I took this shot at 8pm using a Canon EOS 450D with a 70 – 300mm lens. Check out the Flickr meta page for the technical data.
Inconstant Moon is a great site for moon data and information.
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Crowdsourced customer action: lessons for consumers and brands
The Internet enables individuals to unite around a shared issue or cause, small or large, in an incredibly efficient way.
Flickr-user Helen Flynn and I have both purchased rugged CAT suitcases that have failed. Helen found my Flickr post after searching for CAT’s online customer support.
My case was replaced quickly when I posted an image on Flickr and contacted the retailer Excess Baggage. Hopefully Helen’s also be replaced now that we’ve shared our experiences.
Two lessons:
- as a consumer it is always worth completing reviews and using online channels and social media to share good and bad experience; and,
- brands must monitor web channels to spot early signs of customer issues kicking off.
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Gormley’s One and Other project
Here’s a panoramic shot of Antony Gormley’s One and Other project round the corner from the Speed office in Trafalgar Square. What really struck me is how the plinth and its occupant are dwarfed by its surroundings and the other statues in the square.
Flickr: One and Other, Trafalgar Square, London (left of shot)
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Lifestreaming is bollocks
- Image byrenaissance chambara (http://www.flickr.com/photos/renaissancechambara/)
via CrunchBase
Anthropologists and historians in the future looking back on the 21st century will have an easy job. A cross section of life is laid out in blogs, Flickr Twitter, Facebook and forums.
We’re micro-blogging more than ever but are blogging less. Robert Scoble and Steve Rubel are among the A list bloggers that have switched from blogging to so-called lifestreaming.
Ged Carroll notes that Robert Scoble has seen a dramatic drop in readership since his move towards lifestreaming.
Little wonder. Lifestreaming is dull. Most people simply don’t have interesting enough lives. At best it’s a sequential record of random events recorded in a sentence or an image. To claim its anything else misses the point.
My use of Flickr is the closest I get to lifestreaming. To anyone outside my immediate network of family and friends my stream of images is boring as hell. But I make no apologies. It’s a personal record and it’s not intended to engage.
Ged reckons that blogging has passed through the hype cycle and is maturing. He’s spot on.
“Over the past ten years or so, we have seen blogging climb to what can be reasonably considered to be a peak of unrealistic expectations and it could be considered to heading towards a trough of disillusionment.”
Likewise Stuart Bruce says blogging – not lifestreaming – is the way forward if you want to develop thought leadership. He makes the point that blogs are far more Google friendly than micro-blogs.
Take note.
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Photo stitching software
Microsoft has published a cracking software application for image stitching.
The theory goes that you shoot multiple images of a panorama and the software seamlessly glues them together. I’ve tried several numerous applications in the past and never managed to get them to work.
But the new Microsoft application is easy to use and works. I challenge you spot spot a seam or colour/contrast change. And it’s free.
Have a look at some images that myself and Flickr-mate Venn Diagram have created.
North Northumberland from Simonside, near Rothbury (4,474 x 720 pixels)
Fairground, Town Moor, Newcastle (1,502 x 491pixels)
City of London, from the south (1,559 x 551 pixels)
Natural wild swimming pool, Northumberland (4,386 x 907 pixels)
The application is called Microsoft Image Composite Editor (ICE). It works equally well with shots from a camera phone or an upmarket digital camera. Download it and tinker.
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Future of journalism debate: editors required
The debate over the future of media continues but one thing is for sure, it’s too soon to rip-up the editorial model.
The sheer volume of conversation taking place around the Iranian election result are cluttering up channels and making it impossible to hear voices that are coming directly from the country. On social networks from Flickr to Twitter messages of sympathy and support are generating huge volumes of noise.
Broadstuff’s Alan Patrick reckons that it’s a new type of spam:
[…] a new type of spam is born, “whuffiespam” where the aim is to jump on to a good cause and get social capital by being visibly (and risibly) more caring than thou.
An editorial function would separate the signal from the noise and rate the integrity of the source. It would also stop the nonsense seen yesterday from HabitatUK which has hijacked popular Twitter tags with promotional spam.
Alan reckons that this is the Future of Twitterspam. Better get used to it – or overlay an editorial model.
Hunch: potent consumer data repository?
Hunch provides you with a recommendation to a question based on responses from the Hunch community based on you answering a dozen or so Myers Briggs style questions.
The New York based start-up from Flickr’s founder Caterina Fake launched today. It uses machine based learning to generate a personal user profile and pull recommendations from its historical community data.
If you’re seeking a quick answer use Twitter as Broadstuff’s Alan Patrick suggests. I had to answers 20 questions before receiving the recommendation that I should have cornflakes for breakfast.
Hunch is intriguing but its slow and hard going. And I guess this will be the case until it collects more user data.
But you can see that Hunch will quickly become a powerful source of consumer data for market analysis, testing and selling.
I have a hunch: a quick exit to an ad serving play.
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Search cut through in less than an hour (for a niche term)
Using the natural search authority of a user generated content (UGC) or social media web site it’s possible to post content and top a Google search in a short period of time. Assuming that you are chasing an unusual search term.
The image that I posted to flickr tonight of my desktop micro allotment project was indexed by Google in less than 60 minutes. The flickr photo description directs you to my blog for more information. I’ve successful captured the number top slot for a Google search term and am directing traffic to my site.
Google’s Keyword Tool reports that there are limited numbers of web users searching for the string “desktop allotment” of course, so what’s the point? But that could be part of a sales plan for to tackle a niche market. I can build content elsewhere on the internet around the string and define a new term. Motivated searchers will follow.
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Flickr crowdsourced image remix
Networks are creating the means for people to collaborate as never before. In this case completely unknowingly.
OnetalkBelongMe remixed my photo of an old farm shed posted on Flickr yesterday and Chanzezar’s stunning image of a fantasy flower to create this conceptual image.
I’ve never met OnetalkBelongMe or Chanzezare but I’m flattered and hugely enthuased to have been involved in this simple collaboration.
