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The French media landscape is moving… again

 By Violaine Desmons

At the beginning of April, the NextRadioTV group, one of the most influential and well-known media groups specialising in tech topics in France, launched a new print magazine, a consumer “high tech” monthly publication named 01net.

While this could be considered good news, as very few publishers continue to invest in printed press today, this new publication is due to the merger of two other publications (see article published in LeMonde.fr - in French).

Despite somewhat of a general decline in publication numbers over the years, IT media in France is by no means dead – far from it. The fact is, most journalists working within the IT press before the market declined, still deal with IT news, in some form or another, though perhaps not as much as they would like.  And, despite the apparent gloom, some positives have also arisen from the decline.  New IT publications – some pure play titles such as LeMagIT.com or ITespresso.fr – have been launched by experienced journalists and specialist blogs are becoming more and more relevant for IT organisations.

Social networks (especially Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) have also brought a new dimension to relations between media and PR agencies, who are in the best position to handle and take advantage of this evolution.

The media landscape won’t stop evolving anytime soon and that’s by no means a bad thing! The huge rise in the use of mobile devices has changed the way that people consume news and allows media to be accessed from everywhere. So, the next challenge for the French media is to adapt itself in the face the “mobile revolution”, something it appears they’re not quite prepared for , according to the analysis published in LesEchos.fr (in French) – but they’re going to have to do it anyway, and soon. 

Deal(ing) with it

By Kasia Murphy

The Creative Director of Microsoft Studios recently underestimated the power of a single tweet, causing something of a social media storm around comments linked to a rumoured new computer console.

Adam Orth took to Twitter to express his frustration at the ‘drama’ surrounding the idea of ‘always-online’ consoles.  Specifically, Orth argued "sorry, I don't get the drama around having an 'always on' console. Every device now is 'always on'. That's the world we live in. #dealwithit".  The ensuing exchange with senior BioWare designer Manveer Heir, began the slow-motion car crash:

"Did you learn nothing from Diablo 3 or SimCity?" Heir asks him. "You know some people's internet goes out, right? Deal with it is a sh***y reason."

"Electricity goes out too," Orth replied. “Sometimes the electricity goes out. I will not purchase a vacuum cleaner.”

"You've lived in LA, San Francisco, Seattle... very connected places. Try living in Janesville, WI or Blackburg, VA," Heir countered.

"Why on earth would I live there?" Orth concluded.

While there has been speculation on the side about whether these comments confirm that there is a new console from Microsoft in the works, what’s more interesting from a communications perspective is that telling people to 'deal with it' on Twitter is perhaps not the best idea. 

All brands can use social media to come out from behind the curtain and build meaningful relationships with their followers and, while keeping the corporate hat on is important, this incident goes to show the importance of media training when just one tweet is all it takes to spark a PR disaster.

 

Facebook oversharing: like or dislike?

By Hannah Townsend 

I like social media, and can definitely see the value in it, but what still amazes me is just how much personal information people are willing to share so publicly. This was a topic of conversation when I met some friends for a couple drinks recently, as we ended up discussing what we considered to be Facebook oversharing. While one friend saw no problem in posting detailed accounts of the day, the rest of us were in agreement that letting everybody and anybody know such personal information is not only unnecessary, but in most cases, boring.   

From the likes of Facebook and Twitter, we were able to ascertain that in one day a girl from school had broken up, then got back together, with her boyfriend, another had a bad stomach, while an ex-colleague was about to embark on her second run of the day. Aside from the obvious security issues of oversharing, what bothers me most is the complete lack of privacy. I haven’t spoken to ‘Sarah’ from school for ten years, yet I know that she hates her job, is going to Spain for her holidays and likes to bombard her followers with pictures of her dinner every single day. 

Maybe I’m jealous (I want to go on holiday), guilty (I should go for a run) or simply uninterested (the food), but it looks like I’m not the only one easily frustrated with some fellow social media users. A recent survey looked into the most annoying online habits and found that diet and fitness boasters came up top, followed by meal sharers and cryptic status writers. 

Facebook and Twitter are useful communication tools and, for me, a great way of keeping in contact with friends and family I don’t get to see so often. However, while I like knowing what Facebook friends are up to, I feel there is a line and there’s really no need to broadcast your stomach upset. 

Mind you, maybe I shouldn’t complain. After all, if these people stop, what else will I have to talk to my friends about over a bottle of wine?

Women in tech: From Sheryl Sandberg to can-can dancers

By Claire Ayles

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg sure has been making the headlines recently, discussing what she thinks it takes for a woman to really make it in business (or, to put it more directly, in order to sell more copies of her new book, ‘Lean In’).  Whether you think that she’s a feminist role model or not, her media interviews and book excerpts have once again raised the question of why so few women make it to the top in the corporate world, particularly in the tech sector. 

 I won’t pretend to know the answer to this question, but a couple of things that have happened to me over the last few weeks which have reinforced that it’s still very much a man’s world out there.

A couple of weeks ago I was kindly invited to an industry awards ceremony, attended by about 500 guests.  I’d say there were about 30 women in the room, but that’s nothing unusual.  However, on this occasion the number included the can-can dancers booked as the evening’s entertainment.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m in no way offended by women showing their knickers during some high octane dancing, but it’s clear that they were booked with only the male majority in mind.  Well, as we say in PR-land, it’s important to know your audience...

One company that probably doesn’t know it’s audience quite as well as it should is the firm behind the new ePad Femme.  This ‘less complicated’ tablet has been designed especially for us girls, with a nice pink background and pre-loaded apps that make the problematic business of shopping just that bit easier.  Come on, give us some credit – my four year old can use an iPad – AND she’s a girl.

I’m past getting stroppy about incidents like this, after all – as Sandberg and many other women illustrate – the tech industry is a place where women can and do succeed.  But it would be nice if there was a few more women involved (and I don’t mean more ‘booth bunnies’).

Batteries on critical list

By Mike King

Batteries are rubbish, there’s no two ways about it.  Battery life is the one area where the mobile industry has gone backwards over the past few years to the extent that increased battery life is now top of the list of required improvements for many users.

These days any device that runs on batteries massively fails to live up to expectations. Tablets, smartphones, laptops, even electric cars, are all compromised because battery performance has fallen way behind what is needed and, as mobile devices get increasingly more sophisticated, the problem is getting worse.

There clearly needs to be a change and this week there’s news of at least some hope of improvement in the future.  Researchers at Cambridge University have developed a new type of Sulphur battery that could double the battery life of mobile devices. Unfortunately, there seems a lot of work still to be done before it becomes commercially viable.

In the meantime, we’re going to have to put up with manufacturers thinking they can simply get away with quoting unrealistic battery life figures in device specs.  In the real world, my Blackberry Bold 9900 will last half a day from full charge if it is used solely for email, a couple of hours for calls, or a day if it isn’t used at all.  Laughably, Blackberry claims around 6 hours talk time and more than 12 days (yes days) on standby.  Similarly, my Lenovo ThinkPad gives between 1.5 and 2 hours use, maximum (Lenovo claims 10 hours). A Nexus 7 gives close to Google’s claimed 8 hours active use if you stick to email and basic web surfing but play a graphics intensive game and it drops closer to 2 hours.

The team from Cambridge claim that, once they’ve resolved the current technical limitations of the Sulphur battery, they’ll double battery life at a lower cost.  Doubling current levels doesn’t sound that great but at least it’s a start. 

Surely, an absolute minimum requirement should be for a mobile device to last a full day’s intensive use? At least that would save my colleagues from having to carry around multiple Blackberry batteries or using AA batteries in a travel charger to get through the day.

Who is afraid of ‘shitstorms’?

By Nicole Melzer 

I thought we Germans already had enough potty words in our vocabulary – but it seems like we’ve run out of them. To describe a chorus of outrage on the internet, especially through social media, we have chosen the word ‘shitstorm’. The English word has quickly become established in the German language and it seems to now be an integral part of everyday life for us Germans.

The ‘shitstorm’ phenomenon has arisen out of social media, and tends to start very easily but often comes to a very quick end. Anyone and anything can become the subject of online outrage – for example, just a couple of days ago, McDonald’s had a ‘shitstorm’ on its hands in Germany. What prompted the online protest was that the well-known fast food chain added Curry Sausage into their product portfolio. Unfortunately for McDonald’s, the Curry Sausage is an untouchable ‘Holy Grail’ for Germans – Curry Sausage mixed in with Cheeseburger and Chicken Nuggets? No way! So McDonald’s was confronted with a wave of protests across the internet.

But is ‘shitstorming’ really a new trend? I don’t think so. Debates, protests and outpouring of outrage online are not a new phenomenon – especially over information technology issues. People are spending more and more of their lives online and are therefore feeling increasingly strongly about the technological infrastructure – and the surrounding ideologies which underpin it – they depend on today. Technology is now increasingly playing a role in formulating policy, with much debate online about the freedom and equality surrounding internet access, for example.

So when do these ‘storms’ of protesters strike? Despite the proliferation of social media sites like Twitter, many organisations and public figures like politicians are still playing it safe and avoiding internet-related issues, as they are afraid that they would be unable to generate support within the web community.

But I think this is the wrong approach to addressing the rising trend, as a ‘shitstorm’ can also provide a great opportunity. As daunting as a wave of online protest can look at first, it provides a chance to start communicating with users in real-time and to become part of the network and wider community. People can share and voice their opinions directly in a way that cannot be done in the offline world, so debates can be constructive and conversational. If you want to be part of the social media community, it can’t just be ignored. Instead of pretending this is a short-term trend, the web must now be viewed as a way to develop a loyal community of people who are keen to engage with your brand. Don’t be afraid of a ‘shitstorm’ – just take the simple step of not hesitating, and just communicating.  

Online ticketing rage – does this really beat the old-fashioned queuing system?

By Fiona Halkerston

Over the past couple of weeks, Twitter has been inundated with music fans complaining about how they’ve failed to purchase tickets for gigs and festivals online.  Beyonce’s UK tour tickets allegedly sold out in just 10 minutes, with many fans posting on social media sites that they were unable to even access the home page of ticketing sites.  This morning’s V Festival ticket sale also left wannabe festival goers in the cold as they struggled to reach sites to purchase tickets.

While the old fashioned system of having to turn up in person to buy tickets for events seems hugely out-dated now, there’s something to be said for the benefits of this archaic practise.  Firstly, you knew exactly where you stood, literally, when you turned up to get in line.  Straight away, it was clear to see how many people were ahead of you in the queue, and you could get an immediate indication of whether you were likely to be one of the lucky ones to get a ticket.

Online, while some sites have countdowns saying how long the wait might be (The Royal Opera House does this extremely well if you’re more in to your La Bohème than your Baby Boy), the majority of ticket sites leave fans in dark – frantically hitting the F5 refresh button in the hope of gaining access to select seats and make payments.  When these attempts are unsuccessful, people quickly take to Twitter to vent frustrations, which can sometimes reflect badly on the ticketing site if it crashed under demand.

While Twitter seems to have wised up to this problem – sightings of the infamous “Fail Whale” are now becoming few and far between – it seems that ticketing sites still have a long way to go to prepare for and cope with the inevitable influx of visitors when popular tickets go on sale.  I think I’d still rather take my chances online than physically lining up for tickets, but the system is far from perfect and the online world could learn a little from the first-come-first served principle.

Google Glass: where the reality bashes into the virtual?

By Lindsey Challis

New details of Google Glass were revealed this week, and it got me thinking, is this really going to be the next big thing, will it even work, or is it just going to become a hazard for the clumsy-inclined? 

The idea of having the ability to take photos, make a call, and consult Google with little more than a thought sounds great in principle.  I’ve only had a smartphone for about a year and the feeling of loss having left it in the back of a taxi would have seemed absurd in a my pre-smartphone life.  I could, therefore, see how such a convenient technology could become the norm.  My question is whether Google Glass will actually work – I’m not talking about whether the technology will function, I’m asking if it could actually become part of everyday life.

For me, in its present form, I’m not so sure.

Think about this situation without Google Glass.  You’re in the centre of London, walking through bustling crowds, trying to find a certain pub or restaurant.  You might ask someone nearby for directions, or perhaps more likely find a post code and rapidly type it in to your smartphone as you loiter near a coffee shop.  You convert map to memory and walk a few streets to be reconnected with that cold glass of blush rose – hooray!

Now picture the situation with Google Glass.  You realise you don’t know where you are, you speak to the Glass and request directions to your desired waterhole, to which it guides you.  In your line of sight you now have your in-house sat nav, as well as a constantly updating stream of photos and friendly chatter, not to mention what’s going on in the ‘real’ world.  If you don’t get distracted by these other virtual updates, you may make it to your desired pub, if you’re lucky.

Never before has the virtual and real world interacted so closely, or perhaps, never has the risk of the virtual and real world bashing into each other – and you looking a bit crazy – been so high.  To put it simply, you’ve just spoken out-loud to yourself in a public place, taken directions from a virtual image, and if you’re anything like me, walked into one hundred people, a few bins, and the odd telephone box.  Surely attempting to concentrate on so many things at once only spells trouble – and what happens if you’re really popular?  Does your whole visual landscape fill up?  And how on earth will you see said pub now?  I’m clumsy, it’s true, but I don’t see this evolution of multi-tasking resulting in anything but chaos, at least for me.

At the moment, the only thing I can be thankful for with Google Glass is that it probably won’t be using Siri or Apple Maps.  I’m not sure I could handle my glass of wine turning into a sign, or the pub ending up as a brick wall!

Technology for my Valentine

By Mike Marquiss

This week saw the return of Charlie Brooker’s splendid Black Mirror series and following in the footsteps of season one, the impact of technology and social media on society seems to be a central theme once again. Due to some fortuitous TV scheduling and cold/flu season decimating any sort of better plans, I was able to watch the first episode on Valentine’s Day. Although brilliant by all accounts, moving throughout and very funny in places, it served as yet another stark reminder of technology’s grip on romance and love. Whether you think it’s brilliant, sad or even frightening, it’s hard to escape the fact that nowhere is love more visible these days than online. Whether it’s online dating, relationship apps or just the status updates of an excessively affectionate couple on social media, you can’t escape the digital spectre of love.   

In case you didn’t catch the first instalment, Black Mirror episode one proposes that technology’s impact on love could one day extend beyond even death. In this nightmarish future, you can program your deceased partner’s digital existence into a voice simulator or physical avatar – it’s essentially just Jurassic Park but instead of DNA samples preserved in amber, it’s your Twitter feed, personal emails and Instagram account.

The plot is always bordering on the ridiculous but if you’re willing to make the stretch, it could be considered as an interesting illustration of big data analytics’ potential real life applications, both the romantic and less so. As we store more and more personal data online, it begs the question of ‘how much of what make you you, can be found online?’ I wouldn’t go so far as to say we’re at the cloning stage just yet (God forbid!), but just using Joe Bloggs’ LinkedIn, Facebook and email accounts, you could blag your way through a pretty tough cross-examination from even their closest contacts and fool them into thinking you’re him. Who’s to say how much further this could go in the future, but regardless to say it’s certainly an exciting prospect, if not an absolutely terrifying one.

 

More nostalgia – when the web was worse

By Mike King

Our last trip into 90s nostalgia got me misty eyed thinking back to more innocent times when the internet was still relatively new and all websites were a novelty to be marvelled at.  What fun and excitement we had transitioning from the ‘old’ physical world to the new virtual one, embracing innovation and everything online with boundless enthusiasm. 

Even then, it wasn’t long before we all got bored with online brochures that took ages to load and in the early 2000s along came the much touted Web 2.0 revolution, and with it, the new phenomenon called blogging.  Blogging was the new, new thing and almost overnight it became an integral part of every company’s communications strategy.  Of course, reader numbers for most blogs were tiny, but that didn’t matter, blogging was definitely the thing to be seen doing.

The internet wasn’t as slick back then, access speeds were slow and there wasn’t quite so much care and consideration paid to online strategies.   Here are some examples that originate from a time when even such basics as getting a domain name right didn’t seem that important and, in some instances, where the value of a carefully placed hyphen was clearly not appreciated (amusingly these domains are all still in use):

www.therapist.com  (first registered in 1995)

www.speedofart.com  (first registered in 1998)

www.wtf.org  (first registered in 1998)

www.whorepresents.com  (first registered in 2003)

Who could ever forget the infamous and, it has to be said slightly suspicious, (and still my personal favourite) www.penisland.net  (2002).