´óÏó´«Ã½

Technorati is dominated by searches for "Saddam's Execution" and over whether or not to link to the unofficial footage of his execution. In times when no-one thought of making executions a private affair this struggle between fascination and revulsion was more commonly felt. There weren't blogs or picture-phones in Ancient Greece but peoples motives and reactions haven't changed much in the intervening millennia.

"The story is, that Leontius, the son of Aglaion, coming up one day from the Piraeus, under the north wall on the outside, observed some dead bodies lying on the ground at the place of execution. He felt a desire to see them, and also a dread and abhorrence of them; for a time he struggled and covered his eyes, but at length the desire got the better of him; and forcing them open, he ran up to the dead bodies, saying, Look, ye wretches, take your fill of the fair sight." ()

The dilemmas of a picture editor are not new. Leaving that video to one side, Iraqi bloggers have been engaged in unravelling the wider consequences. Salam Adil who writes the Iraqi blog round-up for Global Voices has an lengthy thread of reaction from across the Iraqi blogosphere to the . From the US Milblogs this early post by seemed to

In fact, there's not a great deal to add to the pages of commentary already on the net. Beyond the fact of the event itself, we know little more than we knew before his execution.

But thumbing through the Iraqi blogs on Saturday morning, clearly too early for most to respond (and many do not have easy access to the web) the overwhelming impression was one of people struggling with the unimaginable challenges of daily life: posts like , , and . Indeed Iraq was in my mind over Christmas for other reasons. Interviews can
be peculiarly intimate things, particularly when you know the interviewee is running some risk in talking to you. Zappy who writes with compelling directness about his life in Iraq on his blog Where Date Palms Grow spoke to me while in the UK. He returned over Christmas and sent an email which is largely repeated

"Coming back to Baghdad was difficult, the trip from Baghdad International Airport to Home was one of the spookiest experiences I have had, the Roads were deserted (8:00 p.m.) and the Taxi driver was so nervous) anyway I made it home my oldest daughter (X) was looking all the time through the taxi window telling my wife "Mummy where are all the people? why is Beautiful Baghdad so dirty?" A new trend is going around these days, Snipping people and sticking bombs under cars, the bad guys are snipping Innocent civilians all over Baghdad with concentration over bridges and the highways, they are also sticking explosives under the ordinary civil servant because they know he parks his car "inside" his office car park. Oh by the way, I returned to smoking."

If I have a New Years wish, it's that Zappy and all the other Iraqi bloggers we've spoken to stay safe in 2007 and that, however it happens, the violence in their country comes to an end.

Just a reminder that we'd like your suggestions for unsung blogs and podcasts of 2006. Plenty of ideas already in the comments section of the original post, and plenty pointed out too us by bloggers we've interviewed, but we'd like to get a few more thoughts together for inclusion in the New Years day recording. So jump in the comments and tells us about your favourite blog that not many people have heard of.

Hope you had a Merry Christmas! You can hear the segment by clicking on this link. On the show we featured

• - hope Cupid is feeling much better.


• Carrie from on helping injured soldiers enjoy Christmas


• Dean Whitbread's


• Johnny B on


• Interviews from the (or Geek Dinner)


• on Unsung Blogs


• Tim Ireland's


• Lastly one of your Christmas Messages

That's all folks. Next week we take a closer look at more unsung blogs a number of interviews in the can but room for more so keep suggesting your favourite less well known blogs. Also we'll be doing our annual review of the blog year. Anything you'd like discussed drop a note in comments.

I'm going to be speaking with Santa about . I hope he's not too reindeer-lagged. If any younger readers are sceptical I enclose the email exchange from the North Pole: My letter to Santa

>From: "Chris Vallance-INTERNET"
>To: "Santa_Claus"
>Subject: ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Five Live Request>Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2006 19:12:46 -0000>
>Dear Santa,
>>I produce the Pods and Blogs segment on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Five Live Would you be prepared to do a short interview with us
>once you've had a chance to put your feet up and relax?
>PS Can I have a trombone filled with sweets for Christmas?

Santa's reply:

>Chris - Since I have found you are near the top of my "nice list", I'd love to do your interview. Let me know how I
>can help.. Love,Santa
>PS Don't push your luck

While it will be an honour to speak to the great man after such a tiring day I know he's pretty tight lipped about some of his "trade secrets" not least how reindeer fly. Thankfully YouTube has the answer:

Of course any of you who get mobile phone pics of Santa should drop a note in comments with a link or email podsandblogs@bbc.co.uk. Particularly interested in evidence of his having visited - half eaten biscuits, downed glasses of sherry, audio recordings of jingling reindeer bells etc.

Anu Anand whose many ´óÏó´«Ã½ credits include presenting the World Today and World Have Your Say is blogging, with her husband the writer Tarquin Hall, from her current posting in India (and Kabul) is a lovely blog full of colour, incident and great writing. Five Live interactive's Jags Parbha has also recently returned from a trip to India where he took some - he's going to write a little about his trip for this blog soon.

Listener Drew a industry drew our writing about the fragility of airline websites during the fog: His view companies, particularly those maintaining critical systems need to better anticipate sudden peaks in traffic and be able to cope

Of course there's always a trade-off between the cost of building a bullet-proof system and the hit in PR/business terms one takes on the rare occasion systems fall over.

As individual bloggers, podcasters and vloggers we also face issues with anticipating unexpected peaks in demand. A link from a popular website can take down smaller sites or leave them facing a suddenly high bandwidth bill. One instance of this, the so-called Slashdot effect - has prompted

But having said all this it's worth pointing out that while links from a big site are an unpredictable bonus, adverse weather, thanks to the wonders of modern meteorology is forecastable. Perhaps feeds need to be added to a few IT manager's bloglines accounts.

This festive season Five Live Drive is looking for your help over Christmas

It's one of the staples of Christmas: the Queen's Christmas message but this year Five Live Drive would like you to send us your messages to play on the radio too. Tell us about your family's year, the ups and downs and your hopes for the future.

There are various ways that you can contribute. By telephone: you can leave a message on our phone line 08700 100 500 (and press option 5) or if you are feeling more ambitious and you have a microphone or webcam and broadband internet you can leave a message

If you have the means to record and edit audio you can email an mp3 to drive@bbc.co.uk There are some tips on recording mp3's here and . If you don't have audio editing software you could try this .

Keep your messages short (less than 2 minutes) and avoid too much politics. When you send us a message you are consenting to our playing it on the radio you can read the full disclaimer at the

I've slugged this entry Citizen Journalism, that might be a bit of a stretch, but it sounds like good fun I think.

In the inbox this morning an email from Nielsen one of America's leading media monitoring businesses. One of the categories that caught my eye - most cited wikipedia entries - here's the list:

Top 10 Cited Wikipedia Entries - 2006
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Probably says more about wikipedia users than it does about the zeitgeist. But it does suggest that the year of Web2.0 sent most people reaching for the online dictionary.

Brett Spencer who heads up Five Live's interactive team wants to know about your experience of switching broadband providers. We both think there may be a story in people's bad experiences in trying to move companies. If you've had trouble changing companies do drop us a note to podsandblogs@bbc.co.uk. This was Brett's experience:

Have you ever tried to change your broadband provider? If the answer is no, then you have no idea how difficult it can be. If you have, then you may have entered the gates of hell as I have. If you want to change your ISP, you need to contact them, cancel your contract and they must give you a MAC number which you need to then pass on to your new provider

However getting that MAC number is not as easy as you might think. I first tried to cancel my contract in September and was told to ring back in October when my years contract expired. I did just that and was a little unhappy that I was told I had to pay for October. But they were very pleasant and informed me contract would be terminated and I would be sent a MAC number within 48 hours. 48 Hours came and went. I rang again. I was made the same promise. Once again no MAC number. I was charged for November.

This took place no less than six times. I was told my email address must have a problem. I gave them another. No MAC number. They apologized and told me they had been having problems cancelling accounts, and they would send me a MAC number immediately.No MAC number. I have now been charged for December - although they can't have that money as I have cancelled my direct debit. They won 't release the MAC number now - until I pay the bill. Ofcom is quite clear in their voluntary code about how ISP's should behave in terms of issuing MAC numbers. My problem is that my ISP isn't signed up to the code. I think I know why.

Any advice is welcome, but more importantly we want to know if you have had any similar experiences. Please post any such tales right here but please don't name the company, for obvious, legal reasons. If you want to us to investigate further please EMAIL us as well, with the company name, and we'll look into further. I'm as mad as hell, are you? Have you managed to get a MAC number without any hassle? Or have you signed up for an ISP who have then failed to deliver? As broadband becomes an increasingly competitive marketplace it seems the standards and quality of service, both customer and technical, just does not match the glossy advertising and bountiful promises on offer.

To listen to the segment click here. This week we rearranged things to make room for memories of animation legend who died shortly before we went to air:

• remembered Joe Barbera


• Amid of the great on Hanna Barbera's influence on the industry


• Craig of


• Joel of explaining the magic of kittens


• of with thoughts on blogging and politics


• Lev Grossman of Time on their

We'll run interviews with and next week.

The excellent Regret the Error, that blog compendium of journalistic missteps (thank heavens they never cast a skeptical eye over this blog) , mistakes and downright fabrications of 2006. While the British tabs have, predictably, collected most of the gongs, there are some very special moments from elsewhere. Typo of the year goes to Reuters. R.t.e has kindly highlighted the offending section (see pic), visit the blog for a larger version. It's all high-class entertainment, and well worth remembering the next time that hoary old issue of trust in mainstream media vs the blogs rears its ugly head. Give yourself a treat..

20 UK podcasters have got together for a Britcaster Christmas leaving do. Congratulations to John Buckley for wrapping the whole thing up in brightly coloured festive paper and delivering the whole package well in time for Christmas. Download

I was at the and before that a shin-dig for the trying my very best not to submit parts of my anatomy to flickr via a social networking photocopying enthusiast site. The Geek Christmas Dinner was the brainchild of , and was probably the largest gathering of serious geeks in the UK this year: over 400 attended and the event was twice oversubscribed. I earned my ticket by interviewing some of the organisers and participants. You can hear the full unexpergated (mostly) interviews at : my favourite the Web2.0 pronouncements of a (or brand evangelists as they are now pleased to call themselves). I also did a live interview with the Weekend News'John Pienaar and Lesley Ashmall. John wanted to know "What's a geek?" an easy question to ask but one that, as befits his gift for Socratic questioning, a surprisingly difficult one to answer. But the question has inspired Kevin Anderson, the Guardian's blogs editor

A geek is someone who talks about technology as much as most men talk about football.

And Kevin goes on to say that being a geek is essentially all about genuine enthusiasm and passion for a subject. In that sense most of us are geeks of one kind or another: we all have our geeky enthusiasms, , and I know at least one colleague who is something of . True geeks we don't worry if their passions are fashionable, they're fans who stick with a team through thick, and through thin.

Yet as Kevin points out the geek-o-sphere has become a popular topic for the mainstream media. But merely creating a blog about technology or social media or citizen journalism does not a geek make.The irony is that this interest in geeky subject matter is often anything but geeky in its motivation. Geeks write about things they are passionate about. It's why the best media blogs are likewise written by true geeks, the kind of person who's first reaction to breaking news is to , the worst are produced by people who blog out of an urge to keep up with the Jones without any sense of why the Jones got into blogging the first place.

BTW if you are wondering what the picture is on the right. There was a juggling geek at the Geek Dinner too.

As noted earlier the are closing. Britcaster played a key role in the development of a thriving indie podcasting scene in the UK (full disclosure I was a member) but the announcement that it was to close has prompted some heated debate about the future of podcasting in the UK. This post by is well worth reading: of UK podcasting he says:

"the veneer of vitality has slipped, exposing a mass of conflicting symptoms that collectively, paint a far less rosy picture of its current condition than had previously appeared on the surface.The true depth of the malaise finally emerged a few days ago, following Neil Dixon's announcement that the Britcaster podcasting forum would be closing its doors for good at midnight on December 15. In the wake of this news, a major implosive event began to be played out on Britcaster with a series of heated exchanges and recriminations hurtling across modems and onto forum pages."

I encourage those with an interest in UK podcasting to read but to precis the post: John bemoans the loss of a sense of community. UK podcasting is now, according to John, fragmented and directionless. So has UK podcasting been a victim of it's own success? As the Web2.0 boom continues money has followed and large players like have entered the scene. Indeed podcasts are now a category in the the major awards of the UK radio industry. One might think all these should be taken as signs of a healthy market for UK podcasts. I asked the founder of Britcaster and now with BTPodshow for his view. This is what he had to say:

"UK podcasting community has never been in crisis, but it has been recently in a rut. The sudden, and to some surprising, closure of the BritCaster community forum has already generated a flurry of positive activity giving rise to new community projects, and once again the UK independent podcasting community is looking forward, planning, and collaborating in a way we haven't seen since the early BritCaster days in 2005. Let's hope the new energy and positive attitude to the power of community-driven progress keeps UK podcasting innovative and at the forefront of this new media."

Two different views of the current situation and I'd encourage podcasters with a view on the subject to email or jump into the comments with their own thoughts.

UPDATE: John Buckley sent me this email clarifying his thoughts: "UK Podcasting isn't in crisis, but it is undergoing a major restructuring operation! The closure of the Britcaster forums can be viewed as a good thing, but it carries within it the seeds of possible future conflict. We need to work constructively to avoid this. There will be two new forums where before there was only Britcaster. This will enlarge the forum space for everybody and encourage new people and fresh ideas into the medium. The challenge, will be to ensure that these two distinct spaces do not become antagonistic communities. It's important that we recognise this possibility and continue to work on projects that allow us to come together in a spirit of openness, collaboration and congeniality. That way we ensure the brightest possible future for everybody involved in British podcasting. "

UPDATE II Dean Whitbread of the sent his thoughts, "After two years of being in very few places, the UK podcasting scene has just evolved amoeba-like, which has caused some consternation, but I think it was actually the current dynamism of the UK podcasting scene that inevitably caused podcasting to outgrow this particular nest. From my perspective, I'm convinced that the energy is alive and well...."

Read the rest of this entry

If you want to hear our version of the joint broadcast with the World Service's Outlook programme you can listen here. On today's segment some of the links we featured were:

• (good luck with the new CD guys)
  
• .
  
• Laurie Pycroft's
  
• The
  
• Iraqi
  
• talking about fame and youth.
  
• (who didn't sound like a )

Thanks also to all our other young contributors. If you haven't visited Outlook before please do, they've been quietly encouraging Citizen Journalism for a long time now (though they'd probably never use the term) and are to my mind at the very forefront of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ in their use of audio created by their listeners

As part of our Generation Next coverage for Tuesday's programme we've an interview with . I was primarily interested in the impact of fame at a young age and the music business as it appears to the new generation. But Heather Hopkins of Hitwise has a fascinating analysis "Lil'Chris as a Case Study for Social Networks" This is

"As Lil Chris developed a "brand" and consumers were increasingly googling Lil Chris, search engines became a more important source of visits. When Lil Chris was relatively unknown, social networks were a far more important source of visits. "

You might tag the post "the evolution of a modern pop star".

We've interviewed Delta, a young tech blogger for Tuesday's programme. Here are some of his notes that he made for the show that he's kindly let us blog. I think what he says about the future of the net is really interesting.

"I'm a 12-year old blogger from Manchester. I've been using the net for years and years now, doing everything
from online games and web design to what I do now, which is blogging. I work for quite a few sites, blogging
away. My own site, , a net news site, called Profy.com and a few others.

FUTURE OF THE NET

I could go on about this for hours! Many, many, many new start-ups emerging each and every everyday. New, wacky ideas and websites emerge all the time, providing everything from viral media to organization of your contacts, diary and jobs.

The future of the net lies with us, the people. User generated content will always do better than original, old style
content, being the reason I believe blogs have taken off so much. People want a new angle on the world, and
working together, I believe we can give it to them.

Although the Internet is a multi-billion pound economy already, much of it's earning potential still remains untapped.
There is a long way to go before the Internet matures into the wonder world we imagine it to be. It's a dangerous place, not all happy smiles, networking, videos and instant messaging though. It may take 50 years
or more for people to get their heads around the more dirty tactics used by hackers and scammers, but till then,
many people will remain blisfully unaware of the darker side of the internet.

The Internet will play a major part in everybody's lives at some point. Educating people how to use it effectively, is
one hurdle. Narrowing down the masses of information, into easy to distinguish channels would help majorly in doing this. Sites like Digg.com do this, and have been huge successes. Open source will also massively contribute to the final shape of the Internet, everyone can chip in to create something at the end which is excellent, because everyone has used their strengths and talents in creating it.

The future of the internet, to the point, is in your hands. Community is the future of the net."

Bumped into Annie Mole of the - this was her suggestion for a favourite Unsung Blog/Pod of 2006 "Rats with wings or intelligent flying commuters who never carry an Oystercard? Whatever your opinions of pigeons, you probably never expected them to blog before. But when you meet you'll believe a blogger can fly. Brian's cheeky chirpy cockney take on life in London is literally a bird's eye view of living in the capital. But it's not the faint hearted. Brian's nights out with his best mate Marty and the wooing of his "bird" from Chiswick are often peppered with the sort of language you wouldn't expect from a pigeon. But then as pigeons as the chavs of the bird world perhaps you would. Check out his funny feathered freaks too."

Some not very up to date links for today

• sign a deal that will see the wire service distribute User Generated Content (your stuff, photos videos etc). They'll pay for some of it. In related links Dan Gilmour thinks professional snappers have
  
• Kevin Anderson formerly of this parish says when it comes to blogging
  
• Britcaster, the original portal for but a new site is stepping into the breech
  
• Podcasting News you'll be able to use one of those little FM transmitters to connect your mp3 player to the stereo legally.
  
• How to (and never sleep it seems)
  
• And finally when not to
  

has a very clear step by step guide to free vlogging as well as some links to interesting vlogs. If you have a vlog do let us know about it - drop a note in comments. I'm going to try it out. I may, may post the results up here.

If you missed the segment (or perhaps you threw a brick at the radio after England's ashes performance) you can listen again online here. On today's segment we featured

• A call to arms for our Unsung Blog/Pod Hero of 2006
  
• Zappy of with a very moving account of his life in Iraq
  
• Martin Stabe of and now of on blogs and newspapers
  
• Wounded Iraq vet on the Valour IT programme
  
• Blogger on Castro's health
  
• Oliver Baumann of explaining their unique union of web and radio

Again thanks for listening. If you have a suggestion for next weeks programme drop a note in comments. You can email us too at podsandblogs@bbc.co.uk

Do you have a favourite blog or podcast that's not very well known but you really like? Inspired by this post from Fimoculous, (via ) We'd like to invite readers and listeners of to suggest their Unsung Blog/Pod of 2006. We'll try and feature interviews with a few of the recommended bloggers and podcasters (and the people who did the recommending) on Five Live in the run-up to Christmas. To get the ball rolling I'm going to point out the blog ... I often forget to check it, but there's always something thought provoking there. Leave your suggestions in the comments - with a note about why you chose your nominated blog/pod

Hollywood (well Los Angeles) is going Citizen Media with the launch of a new "citizen journalism" powered online newspaper . I'm not sure why you'd want to recreate the newspaper format on the web just as newspapers are scratching their heads trying to figure out how to make the web work for them; but it's a an interesting idea. Having lived in LA for a bit, there's certainly space for more competition to The Times. One thought provoking feature of the new site: users rate articles and the ratings determine the prominence given to subsequent pieces by the author. I wonder if the same process were applied to British newspapers how the format would change. A cynic might predict page3 and Sudoku dominating the front page, more seriously I wonder whether columnists or regular "beat" reporters would fare better under this system. All to be revealed as Broowaha finds its feet over the coming months. I'll be following it with interest.

I may have to stop subscribing to the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s Director of Global News, . On his blog he reveals he's one of many people curious about their own health after taking a plane that had been contaminated with polonium-210:

Sitting in economy and having a cup of tea seems unlikely to mean i would have ingested any polonium-210 (although the tea is never great on planes). But what is that difference between "very low risk" and none? I am not concerned, but certainly curious. (via Cybersoc)

One wonders how you would calculate a risk in such unique circumstances? Perhaps a statistician can leave the answer in comments. The question Richard asks in his blog posts about the sale of polonium (you can buy it for $69) was partially answered in this excellent piece in
UPDATE: Sorry for posting this twice if you subscribe to the blog. I've had some serious formatting issues.