Post 15, 2009: Chk-chk boom!

May 27, 2009 in Random, Ranting

There you go … now I’ve blogged about it too.
But frankly, this is all it deserves.

Post 14, 2009: Reviewing the Cuddlee

May 18, 2009 in Random, Ranting

Sometime last year, Jo White (aka @mediamum) wrote a series of tweets describing an object called a Snuggie.
If you are disinclined to follow the link it’s a fleecy blanket … with arms. And it has a “so bad, it’s good” advertorial I’ve embedded below.
There’s also a parody video.
[...]

Post 13, 2009: Events need to get over the artefact, too

May 11, 2009 in Ranting, The future of journalism, Web 2.0, Work

I’ve written several times before that I try not to attend real-world press events. They are nearly always overly-long and contain too much marketing-speak, so are not often particularly good uses of my time.
I’ve been thinking about why, and I think there are some hints in the decline of newspapers.
The thing about newspapers is that [...]

Post 72:08 Green IT is a dead meme

December 23, 2008 in Globalism, P-aaaaargh!, Random, Ranting

Throughout the year, I have been pitched countless stories about green IT.
And a couple of weeks back, when I attended a PR training session, it was the ace in many PRs’ hands.
I didn’t fall for the bluff because in my opinion greent IT is a dead meme. Or at least a dormant meme.
I say this [...]

Post 59:08 Why the Olympics matter to Australia

August 24, 2008 in Places I've been, Politics, Ranting

With the Olympics over, Australia is experiencing a paroxysm of disappointment that we did not win as many medals as last time, a situation somehow considered a failure in light of two things:

The “fact” that Australia is “good at sport”
The amount of money we spend on sport

Many are arguing that if we could increase the [...]

Post 52:08 More big questions

June 25, 2008 in Globalism, Politics, Random, Ranting, Web 2.0, social networking

There’s a very interesting OpEd in today’s SMH, in which the authors describe YouTube as ” home port for lip-syncers, karaoke singers, trainspotters, birdwatchers, skateboarders, hip-hoppers, small-time wrestling federations, educators, third-wave feminists, churches, proud parents, poetry slammers, gamers, human rights activists, hobbyists.”
They go on to say that they see YouTube as having a role similar [...]

Post 49:08 A modest musical proposal

June 10, 2008 in Random, Ranting, Web 2.0

Did you watch Insight last week on SBS? It was about music downloads. The recurring theme from the Internet industry was that the music industry needs to innovate to make sure it has a future in the digital world.
Here’s how I would do it if I were them.
First up, the music industry should create a [...]

Post 45:08 My $0.05 on Bill Henson

May 27, 2008 in Politics, Random, Ranting

Every so often, society gets its knickers in a twist and indulges in an orgy of moral panic.
Hence the current Bill Henson mess.
Here’s what I reckon we should do.
If you have ever taken photos of kids in the bath or on the beach, shot a snap of your kids innocently vamping it up in an [...]

Post 40:08 Tabloid broadsheets and public broadcasting

May 9, 2008 in Globalism, Politics, Ranting, Web 2.0, social networking

There’s a fair bit of noise around at the moment about how established, quality media outlets conduct themselves online. Crikey and Media Watch have both had a go in the last few days, targeting SMH.com.au. By total coincidence, the Crikey piece seems to have been written at almost the same time as I Tweeted my [...]

Post 32:08 Marketing history in the worst possible way

April 1, 2008 in P-aaaaargh!, Ranting, Web 2.0, Worst practise

Ugh. The Powerhouse Museum has hooked up with Hotmail to create Email Australia, a half-arsed attempt at creating an archive of email.
It’s a mess because you can only submit things from Hotmail. So unless you have a Hotmail account, you cannot play. Which means people are going to be opening new Hotmail account, thereby giving [...]