大象传媒

Mike Davidson head of Newsvine were using one of his free MySpace templates without credit during their experimental journey into the world of the youngpeoplesinternets. Worse the Senator's MySpace page was also using an image hosted on Mike's server (very, very bad netiquette).

Mike's response? Well thanks to the mistake over the image it was very easy to change the Senator's position What follows Mike call's "the immaculate hack" because it didn't require any actual hacking at all:

So, the only thing necessary to effectively commandeer McCain's page with my own messaging was to simply replace my own sample image on my server with a newly created sample on my server. No server but my own was touched and no laws were broken. The immaculate hack. Abortion? The Iraq War? Probably too heavy to joke about. Gay marriage seemed like a more of a non-lethal subject to center the prank around. So with a few minutes in Photoshop and a quick FTP, a new John McCain was born...

But McCain isn't alone in getting this kind of treatment. The Daily Show

(Thanks to )

May seem a little strange that a talk at a technology conference should be about quilts and weaving. But the editor of MAKE magazine and now CRAFT just gave a great talk about the connections between the history of sewing and weaving and technology.

A while ago I went to the science museum to interview people there about the first programmable computer designed by Charles Babbge. He was inspired by the a machine that used punch cards to store information about patterns. So the connection is clear. Dale also points out that the sewing machine was really the first machine to make it's way into the home. (image from Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester via Wikipedia)

Danah Boyd researcher into social media is about to talk about what technologists can learn from the rest of humanity. It's timely - sometimes at these tech conferences you get the sense that reality is fast disappearing in the rear view mirror

Danah is using Harry Potter as a metaphor (whcih will be a ) she wonders if technologist aren't sometimes like the dark magicians in Harry Potter who snear at the non-magical (muggles). Danah is encouraging us to learn from people's lives.

Magic has been a continuing metaphor at the conference; the Arthure C Clarke quote that sufficiently advanced technologies would be indestinguishable from magic is a theme. The preceding talk has also been about seeing ubiquitous computing as a kind of magic. We've even been treated to Mathamagic - you can see a bit of Arthur Benhamin's

UPDATE: By an odd co-incidence they've just released the

Thanks to Ian Forrester Head of 大象传媒 Backstage my interview with Tim O'Reilly is now available as a video. Tim was so generous with his time that I'm afraid Ian's camera ran out of power just before the end - but I've got the whole thing as audio and we'll post it up online soon and broadcast more of it on Monday. But, here, for your viewing pleasure is Tim O'Reilly founder of O'Reilly Media:

UPDATE: There was an issue with the video now resolved. It can be found here thanks to for his help and excellent camerawork

In a much longer interview about Web2.0 (which I'll post part of here shortly - and will run on the next Pods and Blogs) , the founder of O'Reilly Media the company behind E-tech, and one of the web's most influential thinkers reacted to events surrounding the threats to Kathy Sierra supporting calls for self-regulation and a bloggers code of conduct.

Tim condemned what had happened to Kathy, "Obviously what happened with Kathy Sierra is dreadful and the people who do those kind of things are truly despicable..those people should be incredibly ashamed of themselves."

Supporting calls for a code of conduct to prevent incidents like this Tim said, " I do think we need some code of conduct around what is acceptable behaviour, I would hope that it doesn't come through any kind of [legal/government] regulation it would come through self regulation."

But Tim was clear, rightly so in my opinion, to draw a distinction between the medium and the message: bad bloggers do not make blogging bad. In Tim's words, "The fact that there's all these really messed up people on the internet is not statement about the internet it is a statement about those people and what they do and we need to basically say that you guys are doing something unacceptable and not generalise it into a comment about this is what's happening to the blogosphere."

I think that's spot on. The issue of a code of conduct is more complex. Good manners and decent behaviour are also in a way codes - perhaps formally reminding people of these in a formal way would be no bad thing. But communities enforce behaviour in less formal more organic ways too. The reaction to this incident will, I think, make many would be trolls and flamers think twice. In their myriad of posts supporting Kathy bloggers have already laid down some new rules of behaviour.

You can catch the online archive of yesterday's programme from E-tech online here. For radio geeks the "new" satelite tech that I dragged 6000 miles didn't work, it couldn't find a satelite even though I risked life and limb waving the dish around on the fringes of a large and actve US naval base (the principal risk I should add was from falling in the water). However skype and the hotel broadband came to the rescue. Having arrived on air here's what we did:

• A chat about in the US attorney story. on further police harrasment of Egyptian bloggers.


• of Trampoline Systems on his studies in the Scilly Isles


• i and Michael Powers of YouTube discuss thes


• on negotiating with the


• on life for Iraqi's living in Jordan


• , and the

More from E-tech next week.

Bloggers are, in the main, strong advocates of free speech, so it's a shame to see it stiffled by online bullies. Kathy Sierra, author of Creating Passionate Users cancelled her talk at E-tech after receiving threats of a violent and sexual nature. This is how Kathy :

As I type this, I am supposed to be in San Diego, delivering a workshop at the ETech conference. But I'm not. I'm at home, with the doors locked, terrified. For the last four weeks, I've been getting death threat comments on this blog. But that's not what pushed me over the edge. What finally did it was some disturbing threats of violence and sex posted on two other blogs... blogs authored and/or owned by a group that includes prominent bloggers.

There's background, including an interview . The incident has certainly backfired upon those making the threats. It's the number one search term on . And bloggers are rallying to her side. Supporters of Kathy like Robert Scoble, have temporarily suspended their blogs in a show of support while others are discussing the need for a bloggers' code of conduct.

While it's not clear who is responsible Kathy Sierra has said she was disturbed that some of the threats were hosted on blogs authored by or owned by a group that includes some prominent bloggers.

Whoever is responsible, as Kathy says incitement is not protected speech. In his keynote to the conference, Tim O'Reilly, founder of O'Reilly media, extended his sympathies to Kathy. Her participation is certainly missed. This is news from the conference we could all do without.

his contacts about the key to staying enthused about blogging. You can , This is a sampling:

• Paul Miller:Write about stuff you care about. Pick one side of the 'write for yourself/ write for your audience' fence.


• noodlepie: Do you *have* to stay enthused? If you are, you are. If you're not, you're not. No big deal either way.


• division6: Get blogging buddies - interlinking / tagging between friends can definitely help!

Confused about what all this is about? More

The E-tech Emerging Technology conference is on in San Diego. I like San Diego, if you walk down to the waterfront a few blocks from where the conference is taking place you come across the Maritime Museum. At the same quay rests HMS Rose, a perfect replica of an 18thC English frigate, and crouching behind her a cold war era Soviet diesel attack submarine. In few hundred feet technological time is telescoped, and centuries of emerging technology are clearly displayed.

But not everything has changed as profoundly as naval warfare. Social relations evolve more slowly. The relationship between Captain and crew hasn't changed that much, the skills of leadership haven't altered as radically as the ships.

Until now. As one of the conference themes says "the future's here it just isn't evenly distributed yet" The web is challenging existing social connections, the way we define our communities - we have a new generation that meets friends not just in the playground but via text message and in Bebo or Habbo Hotel. The following generations may relate to one another very differently from the way their parents have.

No Twitter group is an Island
So how will our new connected lives change us and change society? I think that's one of the most important questions facing those who think about the web. One of the keynote speakers here , who you'll hear on Pods and Blogs has an interesting take on things. His career in social media began with studying how the people of the tiny island of St Agnes in the Isles of Scilly (population 80) communicated and shared information. He observed that the rules governing sharing information among the islanders reveal a great deal about our behaviour in the online world. One of the rules Charles observed was the importance of context: we happily share information with our work colleagues, but might be concerned if they then went into the pub and shouted everything we'd said to the assembled drinkers.

What I find fascinating is that we assume the web participates in these unwritten rules of gossip. But of course the web doesn't care about social mores, so people sharing very personal info with friends, often fail to realise that thanks to the net they are also shouting that info into a vast lounge bar at which bosses, wives and prospective employers are regular drinkers . As an example I remember receiving a Twitter from someone concerned that twitter chats were coming up in Google, but surely we knew that would happen, didn't we?

The new Social Media are forcing us to think about how we communicate. Either we change the web or we change the way we relate to people online, unfortunately both have huge inertia. Listen to Pods and Blogs tonight to find out what Charles thinks about some of these issues.

Alfred Banya is a former London (Southwark) Councillor and a blogger, writing the wonderful . While there are lots of interesting posts about some of the difficult issues facing Peckham there's also

I was one of the delegates asked to attend a peace conference to help chart a way forward for bringing an end to the 20 year war that has devastated Northern Uganda and Southern Sudan. A key outcome was for the delegates to emerge with one voice on the peace talks that broke down after Christmas between the rebel Lord鈥檚 Resistance Army (LRA) and the Government of Uganda (GoU).

The war in Uganda has been terrible. Take this quote from a

During the 19 years of conflict in northern Uganda, over 20,000 children have been abducted by the rebel LRA....The 大象传媒's Will Ross in Kampala says that in the LRA, the children are usually brainwashed and given the choice: "Kill or be killed".

So Alfred and his colleagues work is of the first importance. And the trip back to Uganda has left him wondering about troubles closer to home. is a thought provoking read.

A while back in an article heavily indebted Henry Jenkins keynote at Beyond Broadcast I speculated about . Well we're in the primary season, and Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama are battling it out out for the Democrats nomination. It's tricky for people in the same party to really attack one another, which is one reason why this homebrew campaign ad for Obama is grabbing the headlines:

People of a certain vintage will recognise the Apple commercial it remixes. It's been viewed over 2.5 million times - but there's a debate this piece of citizen campaigning really is.

While the video is a natural story for TV news, the real political power of the social media can be felt in the continuing political scandal embroiling the . It was the blog's investigative work that turned an on-the-backburner story into headline news. CJR's Paul McLeary posts an in-depth analysis of the story the MSM seemed to miss:

It's almost too perfect. A mainstream reporter mocks a story a blogger has been working to break, asserting that "it all makes perfect conspiratorial sense!", and that the blogger is "seeing broad partisan conspiracies where none likely exist," only to backtrack a few weeks later when the story explodes across the front pages of the major dailies.

Paul unpicks the complex relationship between blogging and journalism that lead to the news breaking.

That two very different approaches, the YouTube satire and collaborative online journalism, are having such an affect on the campaign shows how politics is changing. A hard time to be a political consultant a good time to be a citizen journalist.

Apologies for the late posting. Here's what we featured on the segment

• A clip of with US forces in Ar Ramadi and then
• Former A10 pilot
• More from the Ganges with
• Zimbabwe and Bev at put is in touch with Mike Davies, chairman of
• on jailing bloggers in Egypt
• Th with judge , and the authors of shortlisted blooks, , Andrew Losowski and , Colby Buzzell(we only had a short time with Colby - you can download a longer )

Thoughts, suggestions, comments, criticisms always welcome. Next week: The business of podcasting, with Podcasting News, more on the business of blogging with MessageSpace and reports from E-tech.

Troubling times in Zimbabwe. . Here's an email interview he was kind enough to grant Pods and Blogs.

Q - Tell me a little about yourself.
Zimpundit is a native Zimbabwean blogger. A born free (born after Zimbabwe's independence in 1980), I grew up during the bountiful days of this administrations early times and have been distraught to watch the bread literally be taken of the tops of our tables. I'm also a beneficiary of Zimbabwe's once venerable educational system.
Q - What's behind the latest crackdown?
It's fear. The last two weeks have been absolutely horrendous for this regime. They are now faced with a reality they never thought they'd face; people willingly walking into the paths of their vicious police. Now that they've tortured the MDC leadership this early in the game, the government has ironically upped the proverbial ante. Tsvangirai and Mutambara have nothing left to fear having been deep into the dredges of Zimbabwe's hellish torture system and come back from resolute to continue with their protest for a better Zimbabwe. In the past, people feared public demonstrations because they felt they were being used as political pawns by leaders who didn't want to endure the the wrath of the police on their own. Tsvangirai and Mutambara have, because of this incident gained more credibility with people. Look for this incident to spawn of more the same kind of protest.
Q - Have you noticed a change in the public mood lately?
The thing that I'm constantly hearing of is tension. There is a palatable unrelenting tension across the country. We're sitting on a knife's edge. Imagine waking up one day only to see police armed up to the teeth patrolling your neighborhood indiscreminantly assaulting people and then never going away. This what many poor, unarmed, peaceloving Zimbabweans are enduring.
Q -How do you think this situation will play out?
The MDC leadership have already announced that they will be going back on the streets to the people to ask for the people's help in hastening the process towards a better Zimbabwean. I'm of the opinion more people will come out and start working on a better Zimbabwe because the state of the nation is beyond deplorable. Even when this government isn't shooting at unarmed demonstrators or mourners at a funeral, innocent people are still dying. Almost 40 people were killed when a state owned train collided with a bus, don't you think someone in government could responsibility for some kind of role in this? As for the rest of the world, they will continue to ignore our plight because we don't have any oil to offer Western powerhouse and because Mugabe remains a demigod to many African leaders today.
Q - Why do you blog?I started blogging because the dominant western media have been insistently negligent of the plight and perspective of ordinary Zimbabewans. I felt had to put the perspective or ordinary people out there for those who are willing hear about the other side of the story. Thankfully, people are interested in hearing alternative voices.
Q - Do the authorities actively try and supress blogging?
They actively suppress anything that threatens their control of what is said about Zimbabwe. The interception of communications bill was written and targeted specifically towards online activists working to showcase the tragedy of our nation.

Also woth reading this post from Zimbabwean

I鈥檓 feeling sorry for Tsvangirai. Because he鈥檚 been assaulted, together with many other comrades, but also because I wonder whether he鈥檒l succeed with his most important challenge? Which is to persuade Zimbabweans to join him / in the flesh / in person and on the streets and present a unified rejection of the Mugabe regime. For the last 4 years it鈥檚 been a case of 鈥測ou go first鈥� (Tsvangirai to the people) or 鈥測ou go first鈥� (the people to Tsvangirai). This needs to change.

On the last segment we looked at the issue of whether or not you can make a living from blogging. , , and all took part. You can now listen to the audio of that broadcast on a permanent link here

Russell spoke in a dual capacity as an advertising industry person and a blogger. The picture that emerged..at least from my own personal perspective, is that advertisers are struggling to understand the blogosphere. The lack of an agreed way of measuring blog audiences is an issue, but if you can measure the evanescant transmissions of radio, surely measuring the popularity of blogs isn't impossible.

Of course as Mick said the big draw of blogs is that they can "fish where there fish are" but from an advertisers perspective that's harder to quantify. MessageSpace, which Mick is part of, are having success with marketing mainly political blogs to advertisers. Because advertising is thin many bloggers still rely upon t-shirt sales, book deals, writing deals, and journalism as important sources of income.

I hope this interview is just the start of a dialogue about making a living from blogs. I know there are many more views and experiences out there than our sampling. I'd love the comments on this post to continue the conversation.

Brief set of notes for today's segment - in a rush, day off, yadda, yadda:

• Shadow Chancellor George Osbourne MP on but the best bit was surely his explanation of why he won't blog


• T on how squirrels will help build the better soldier


• s the Ganges


• Ewan Spence (who's report was sadly curtailed by a smoking laptop) on the Also the same day, same venue


• Can you make a living blogging ? (more on that later)


• Blogging (at 0305AM)

All ideas for next week's segment very welcome. Leave a note in comments (which have been a bit erratic of late - sorry about that MT issues I believe) or email podsandblogs@bbc.co.uk - make sure you clearly indicate that you are not a Viagra salesman..that inbox has serious Spam issues at the moment.

. The clever idea is to collaboratively publish a blook (a book based on blog posts).

. Hmm well we've certainly had a go at that here at Pods and Blogs, which is probably why I'm a little skeptical.

is at SXSW in Texas (one of the top events on the blog calendar). Follow the action via his blog and podcast

OK hugely late to the party on this - but if you haven't taken a look this 'still-in-beta' ranking of 5000 British blogs you should. It is both useful and informative.

Before there was this blog, there was the pseudo-blog, a sort of cludged version of the show notes published not on Movabletype but a rather cumbersome bespoke content management system. Imperfect as it may have been there are lots of great links hidden away there. Well worth browsing through..there are even some show archives that you can still listen too.

• Click here for the old show archives

Ok I'm (mis)using a fancy bit of jargon to say "can you help" but if you have any thoughts on the below email or drop a note in comments. Help is indeed needed and gratefully received.

Iraq Week on the 大象传媒
Later in the month we'll be doing another Iraq Week - a focused look at the country. I've a particular interest how technology is helping to cover a conflict that's very dangerous for journalists to report. Who should we talk to? Are there overlooked blogs we should approach? Is there an aspect of the conflict that's covered on the web but not in the mainstream media?

Making Money from Blogs
Can you make a living blogging? How easy/hard is it to blog for your supper? Do advertisers understand the medium? is already on tape with a few thoughts. Would be good to hear from people outside of the so-called blog A-list about their experiences.
UPDATE: Sam's - well worth reading, you may also want to listen to the interview with Chris Anderson about the Long Tail in conjunction with his post.

Heather Hopkins of Hitwise, whose blog is one of my "must reads", has a fascinating post about the news market. Far from being confined to a few a big players there's a roles. In particular Wikipedia, in her analysis of search, beats many of the more established outlets

At the same time Wikipedia has taken a hit as . It will be interesting to see, as awareness of Wikipedia's importance grows, whether it will come under greater scrutiny from other branches of the media.

You can listen to the archive of this week's segment here. We featured:

• Injured vet and milblogger talking about conditions in Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He's also involved in - take a look if you have time


• Ethiopia based blogger Andrew Heavens of on the kidnapped Britons


• Will of with Taxi's in China. Oddly the landline kept dropping off, no concrete evidence why, probably sunspots


• Narcissism and with Professor Jean Twenge


• Ashley Highfield on the 大象传媒 and YouTube - the permalink for the interview is here


• to try and push to the top of the itunes chart..and it's all in a good cause too

Comments, questions, suggestions etc very welcome.

You can listen to the full version of the 大象传媒's Director of Future Media and Technology, Ashley Highfield's interview about the iPlayer and the YouTube partnership here.

We went on to discuss DRM and the changes that the new "on demand" era would impose upon programme makers. The interview was recorded at the where Ashley gave one of the presentations.

If you don't already subscribe to the podcast it's well worth checking out the World Service's Digital Planet programme. The last edition (which you can still catch if you are quick) in which I made a guest appearance - not sure I actually made any sense though.

Rob Hinchcliffe the editor of forwards a couple fo links. that in that jurisdiction at least bloggers aren't responsible for what people say in comments (that ruling doesn't apply here before you get any big ideas). This is an important ruling, caveat commenter.

Also interestingly Rob points to a post about why (Metro is a free London newspaper). Not sure whether I have a view one way or the other on that. My only observation would be that I'm sure some of the blogs nominated will probably exceed some parts of the printed press in readership numbers. Perhaps in a spirit of participation we need awards chosen by bloggers for the mainstream media?

Widely trailed in the press the 大象传媒 has announced a partnership with YouTube. It's obviously difficult to offer objective comment and analysis on something your own employer is doing. So why not jump in the comments and let P&B readers know what you think of the plan?

You can read all about it on the 大象传媒's Press Office Website.

I've a 大象传媒 NewsOnline article up keynote at Beyond Broadcast and as if to reinforce his point about the political importance of the fun web

Worth also checking out Bill Thompson piece and

Via Boing Boing. Good to see this getting attention in the MSM. We'll be doing something on this next week. And on the theme of bloggers facing legal issues, last time I checked Bahraini blogger Mahmood of Mahmood's Den over one of his posts. Although the issue is one of libel potentially he faces jail (rather than damages as would be the case here) if he loses. Bahraini journalists have been jailed for .

Or Does it Explode reports on protests in Iran at plans that would lead to the destruction of the tomb of Cyrus the Great (well I think it was that Cyrus perhaps a student of persian history can confirm?)

Probably generated a few I've told you so's from blog skeptics. As we reported in Pods and Blogs though blogging is still going strong beyond the English speaking world. Also while quantity might not go up I think we're seeing increasing quality as more and more people take blogging seriously as a medium