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In the digital era, can you really disappear?

by Lindsey Challis

With Facebook’s new Timeline feature, and continuous news stories of incriminating tweets from way back when, it seems that deleting your past may be harder than you think.  Deleting your present, however, shouldn’t be so difficult – you just stop sharing, tweeting, and updating – right?

Well I’m not so sure. Take for example the tenant who just did a runner from a house my Dad is looking after.  They had no qualms walking out of a house full of furniture, plates and even a wedding dress (yes, a wedding dress), but they just couldn’t bear to leave Facebook.

Our digital identities, created through sites such as Facebook and Twitter, have become too valuable to give up.  And if we are to commit virtual suicide, it’s not just your digital self you give up, it's all of your friends’ digital personas too.  Social media has become a web of connections and information that, for some, is simply impossible to leave behind.

While digital and real personas are obviously intertwined, they are surprisingly different, and this is what many people forget when using social media.  A tweet or Facebook post is not the same as a postcard or a phone call – crucially it is public, it is searchable, and it can therefore be incriminating. 

This situation is really a testament to the value of Facebook and other social media channels.  As more and more information gets plugged into Facebook by its users, people feel as though they can’t erase it from their lives.  Doing so would impinge on their reality, be it less contact with friends or seeing fewer family photos.

But there are pitfalls to over sharing.  If too many people get burnt – either by allowing hackers to gain personal information, or by landlords finding out where defaulting tenants have ‘disappeared’ to – the bubble may burst, and people could stop trusting social media sites with their valuable information.  

I’m under no illusion that people will struggle to wean themselves off social media, but I do hope that the perception of such sites changes, and people do become more aware of how much their digital persona reveals about reality.  After all, if I can find out the location of an ex-tenant in hiding, hackers could likely find out much more.

It also begs the question – what is more important, your digital persona or your wedding dress?

BAFTA giving gaming credibility

By Mike Marquiss

I found myself looking at the BAFTA video games nominations list this week with a great big smile on my face and I can’t think of a better way to highlight the change in perceptions that gaming has achieved over the last two years than with these awards.

A truly star-studded line-up of voice and acting talent is now being deployed at all levels within gaming and is no longer something to be scoffed about (I know some of you must have when you saw that there was a BAFTAs for video games). The performer category this year will see Mark Hamill (The Joker, Batman), Stephen Fry (LittleBigPlanet 2) and Stephen Merchant (Portal 2) all compete for the honour, and that’s without even a mention of LA Noir, a game featuring what seems like half of TV’s Mad Men’s acting cast.  

It finally looks as though gaming has come out of TV and Film’s shadow, and with the recent trailers for the next GTA, I for one am convinced it can stay there.

Let Mike know who you think should win this year @mikemarquiss.

 

New limits for mobile broadband

by Mike King

Last week, T-Mobile launched a fixed monthly ‘all you can eat’ tariff and now, for £41 per month, users can have unlimited calls, texts and internet access.  Well almost.  International calls and MMS picture messages are not included in the package but it is still a big step forward for an industry that has consistently struggled with how it charges for mobile data services. 

It’s about time mobile operators got their act together and sorted out expensive and complicated tariffs and this move could well be the start of fundamental shift in the industry.  Let’s hope so.  The likelihood is the rest of the pack will follow T-Mobile’s lead and these types of deals will become commonplace.  No more data limits, complicated tariffs or unexpectedly large bills. 

Although mobile internet access has grown significantly in percentage terms, the reality is that it still represents a pretty small part of internet usage and for very good reasons. 

It has always amused me how much effort operators have put into promoting mobile broadband without addressing the fundamental consumer concerns of cost and performance.  As a Blackberry user, for example, access to the internet can only be described as crap – slow, limited access because many websites are ‘too large’ to download and, of course, high data charges. 

Even with the costs of mobile broadband coming down, the performance issues remain.  3G services were originally launched in the UK in 2004 and, eight years later, they still haven’t lived up to the early hype where they were touted as a potential future replacement for fixed broadband connections.  Last year, for example, Ofcom found that the average mobile broadband speed in the UK is less than a quarter of the average fixed broadband speed. 

MWC is just around the corner and attention is firmly on the next big move to 4G.  Forgive me for not getting too excited just yet.

Are you free?

By Valérie Sontot

In France, January saw the suspense finally end around the launch of Free Mobile, the new and fourth national phone operator – with the spotlight firmly fixed on Super Xavier Niel, our very own Steve Jobs.

The conference began at 8:30am at the company headquarters, with the star of the show fashionably late.  Like Superman, Super X. positioned himself directly as our saviour, rising against the other three operators and criticising their monopoly and pricing structures.  The 40 minute speech on a big stage was taken in by media both fascinated and… less fascinated.  Finally, Super X. announced an unlimited mobile offering for just €19.99 a month!

The media attention around the event was huge, with columns across magazines, newspapers and online filled with coverage.  In fact, it had so much interest that as PR people we may as well have had a day off!

Although the launch was popular, people have struggled with a bug-ridden website to subscribe to Free’s well-publicised offer.  With this in mind, it’ll be interesting to see how the future pans out for Super X., Free and its hungry competitors.  

Head in the clouds

By Hannah Townsend

Last week I had my first Cloud Expo Europe experience, and I have to say I was relatively impressed.  I’ve been to a number of trade shows, but not one that I would say was as consistently busy as this one.  

Both days the stands were lively and theatres were, on the most part, full to capacity as IT professionals, technology leaders and journalists strived to learn more about how to deliver an effective cloud strategy.

Johnson King was out in force at the show, and in the run up to the event, my aim was to secure as many meetings with journalists and analysts as I could in the hope of gaining some decent coverage.  With interest high and meetings aplenty, the show ended up being a fantastic introduction for all clients concerned!

The only downside I’d have to say would be the lack of heating (not a good day to forget my cardy), obscenely expensive sandwiches and a lack of seating – cue sitting on the cold floor to enjoy my unremarkable sandwich.  

Now who said PR was glamorous?!

How do you think Cloud Expo Europe measured up in the trade show stakes?  Let Hannah know on Twitter at: @HanT86