Whatever...

Guest blog - Shut up and start arguing....

As well as being a platform for JKers to have a good old rant about the world of technology and PR, 'Whatever...' will periodically be running guest blogs from friends who live beyond the (fire)walls of Johnson King Towers.

Here’s Mr David Mancuso, Director of External Affairs at AT&T*, on why it’d be really nice if everybody just, like, chilled out a bit, and started actually listening to what the other side is saying…

Nearly a year ago, a friend at JK invited me to participate on their blog.  On most days, I am a decent human being who hates to disappoint friends, so my response was typical: "Of course.  I would love to write something insightful if not bordering on profound for you."

As a professional communicator with more than 20 years experience in marketing and PR for tech companies, and no lack of opinions on everything from world peace to what beer goes best with fish, writing a post should have been the proverbial piece of cake.

It wasn't.

Why? After several attempts to write something it dawned on me that I had nothing new, intelligent, or meaningful to add to the monologue that is the blogosphere.

Yes, despite the promise that the Internet would revolutionise social dialogue, I really think of today's blogosphere as a monologue.  Whether it's media, marketing materials or mom's apple pie recipe, to my eyes, most of what gets posted on the Internet is the view from one side of a topic or issue and not very interesting.

Sure, there are sites that try to present a variety of perspectives or allow for folks to wax poetic with their opinions, but typically, "birds-of-a-feather," mass market behaviour still appears to dominate.  News sites all churn out the same news, and those that try for a new angle are either sensationalist or have little to offer in terms of objectivity or old fashioned, cite-and-verify-your-sources credibility. 

The Internet was supposed to enhance social dialogue, improving it somehow to a new level of civility.  It has certainly turned up the volume on social conversation, but I am not sure it has added much in terms of quality.

Don't get me wrong, I am still a HUGE fan of the Internet and blogs and all they are doing to change our world.  They are making the global community smaller faster than most people or nations are ready to manage and they remain one of the greatest vehicles for free speech man has ever known.  But, just because speech is free doesn't automatically make it useful.

What seems to be missing from the blogosphere are places where one can argue constructively.

It's a win-or-lose world these days and being "right" sadly trumps being smart.  Most opinions expressed on the Web follow the same tired themes and arguments over and over.  Philosophically speaking, today's Web is more of a shouting match than an argument.

A good argument brings people together rather than forces them apart.  But from what I can see, there is hardly a valuable argument that will lead to new ground and mutual understanding anywhere out there on the public Internet.  That's a shame.

Perhaps mankind has forgotten how to argue - constructively - the way Aristotle and his crew did.  Perhaps (at least in the States) we think that argument is pretentious and raw vitriol more honest.  Or, perhaps as 'modern' online citizens, we've simply never been taught how to argue properly in the first place. 

A good argument, well thought through and well made, is as elegant as any athlete in action or work of art on a wall.  Perhaps we professional communicators should take some time to hone our logic and argument skills and teach others - including our colleagues and clients - how to do it too.  Today's world already shows us that fighting is fun (how else can you explain the popularity of Fox News). Maybe doing it constructively on the Internet might be more entertaining than we think…

* Disclaimer: this is a personal viewpoint from Dave and doesn't represent the views of AT&T

Shock horror – online business comes before human rights

By Joe Banks

Depending on your worldview, a rather depressing piece of news slipped out the other week.  At Yahoo’s annual general meeting, a proposal was tabled to oppose online censorship and set up a ‘human rights committee’ which would monitor the company’s policies around the world, particularly in China.

However, Yahoo’s shareholders comprehensively rejected the proposal, with only 4% backing the idea of a committee. 

The Independent, the only UK broadsheet to pick up on the story, reported the following pearl from Jerry Yang, Yahoo’s co-founder and new boss:

In a presentation that drew a round of applause from shareholders, Mr Yang said the private sector alone could not change the attitudes of repressive regimes, but insisted: "Yahoo! is committed to protecting human rights globally."

The temptation to respond “yeah, right…” is almost overwhelming.

It’s difficult to know how to take this type of story.  On the one hand, it’s easy to be shocked by the apparent hypocrisy and cynicism on display here.  On the other, it’s equally as easy to shrug shoulders and say “so what’s new?” 

While the internet is still regarded in certain quarters eg. the blogosphere, as being some kind of utopian global community, and Google still desperately clings to its ‘do no evil’ credo, the fact is that corporate interests dominate the web just as much as the real world. 

Of course, it’d be nice to think that such a stark illustration of internet business being red in tooth and claw would cause outraged web consumers to vote with their clicking fingers and migrate to a more ‘ethical’ service provider – but somehow I doubt this will be the case.  We might like to believe we’re living in some kind of hyper-connected global village, but at the end of the day, those guys in China, you know, well, they do things differently over there, it’s not my problem, mate…

Yeah, well, it should be. 

Turning over political dissidents’ emails in order for them to be prosecuted, imprisoned, and goodness knows what else isn’t something that companies like Yahoo should be allowed to just brush under the corporate carpet.  Because frankly, if we don’t get angry about this type of web censorship and data abuse soon, it could turn out to be the thin end of a very big wedge indeed…

Stop sneaks with Bluetooth?? This is one message I can't accept

By Tom Kirkham

In an age of hacking, ID fraud, phishing, pharming, darkmail, spyware and ransomware, it's important not to forget that old-fashioned physical break-in is still a very real problem.  Research shows that one in four of all burglaries happen as a result of ‘sneak-in’ thefts, where a burglar enters a house simply because they spy an open door or window. 

As this is likely to be a problem during the summer months, when there is at least a vague chance of the weather being warm, police in West Yorkshire are currently gearing up for a major awareness-raising campaign, using leaflets, posters and even beermats to educate the populace to this danger. 

Surprisingly, the campaign also includes plans to trial Bluetooth technology as part of the education process.  The brainchild of Innovation Leeds, part of Leeds City Council's ICT department, this involves police officers scanning their immediate vicinity (30 metres) for phones and laptops, before sending the somewhat cryptic message '1 in 4 Through An Unlocked Door - Stop The Sneak' out to any devices detected.  If the trial proves successful, it will be rolled out across the whole force, and used in other crime prevention campaigns. 

Frankly, this is up there with the London Olympic logo in terms of ill-conceived ideas.  According to detective inspector Duncan Macnay, “People are more relaxed about security when they are at home.  But while they are in the back garden or asleep, their property is particularly vulnerable".  This may well be true, but sending Bluetooth messages to people while they’re asleep doesn't strike me as an obvious remedy. 

Worse still, in order to access these words of crime prevention wisdom, you have to accept a contact request - from the West Yorkshire Police.  This is likely to result either in people casually dismissing the request as a joke, or worse, inducing panic in the unlucky recipient.  And in the unlikely case that someone does click accept, what exactly are they supposed to make of a message that reads more like a riddle than a security warning. 

As a general user guideline, the official Bluetooth website lists putting your device 'into a non-discoverable state so that you are invisible to other Bluetooth enabled devices'.  So, at best, this trial might at least manage to alert a few people that their Bluetooth is switched on, which if nothing else could help prevent the likes of Cabir and CommWarrior from spreading.   

I'm sorry for savaging Innovation Leeds' ideas, but the public sector continues to waste money on IT projects that appear poorly conceived, planned, and executed, and in many cases serve no discernable purpose.  Trials such as this aren't likely to stem the tide of popular opinion - they're just pointless gimmicks.  Doug Sutherland, head of innovation at Innovation Leeds, suggests that, "The crime prevention uses for the (Bluetooth) technology don't stop here".  Actually, they don't start here either.

The next French Revolution - from page to web?

By Marjorie Meyer

One of the hot topics at the moment here in France is the fate of Groupe Tests, a leading publisher in the IT sector recently acquired by NextradioTV.  Groupe Tests has the Sword of Damocles over its head and is to undergo a major restructuring by getting rid of six magazines (Micro photo vidéo, Univers Mac, 01 Réseaux, Décision Informatique, Décision Distribution and 01DSI).

Although the World Association of Newspapers claims newspaper circulation around the world is globally healthy despite the boom of digital media, it looks like this isn’t necessarily the case in Europe, with circulation in France having dropped 5.7 per cent in five years.  Nevertheless, the free dailies are doing well and have comprehensively invaded the metro.

However, NextradioTV has also inherited 01net.com from Groupe Tests - one of the most visited French websites - with the aim to “reinforce its Internet activity leadership”.  No doubt, so will others.  Thanks to the explosion of Web 2.0, the Internet is proving very attractive to editors and is now an integral part of their strategy. 

For instance, 20minutes.fr recently declared that it wants to be more than just an online newspaper and will invest 10M€ to achieve this goal.  Similarly, Lagardère Active decided not to launch new magazines this year – instead, it prefers to concentrate on its web activities, and is hiring 150 new people to do this. 

This is truly a media revolution.  Remember, it was only a few years ago that many publications in France didn’t even have a website.  Now, it’s commonplace across all media categories, and it’s often possible to read the entire content of a publication on the web. We can even do this offline via an e-book reader and this is sure to contribute further to the Internet's growing popularity with the media.

The impending disappearance of the Groupe Tests publications makes me think that the glory days of magazines and newspapers may be over.  I’m not saying that print press will disappear altogether, but it is no longer the main focus of media as it once was.  And as a result, it seems to me that both readers and PRs are heading towards a very new type of relationship with the press.

Social Networking - don't knock it 'til you've tried it

By Dominic Walsh

My wife is not a native of this occasionally lovely country.  We moved here two years ago, and as a result, we have a large number of friends and family living in East Asia and California, as well as scattered throughout the rest of the world.

How should we keep in contact with them? The telephone is expensive, unless we use VoIP, but that assumes a similar level of technical expertise from both sides of the conversation.  Even with cheap calls, the time difference limits conversations to either late at night or early in the morning, which is hardly ideal.  Post is an option, but the cost can soon mount up, not to mention the time involved and the risk of your package going walkabout.

So, thank heavens for social networking. We can keep in touch with our family, check quickly on their well-being and follow the progress of our nieces, nephews and godchildren.  As well as this, as an initial immigrant to an alien country, it’s been invaluable for my wife to find and meet new friends in the UK and ex-pat communities.  It’s also helped us find work and allowed my wife to quickly and easily display and send her portfolio.

Of course, not everyone looks so kindly on the whole social networking thing. Often those people are journalists, or worse, ‘columnists’.  So, Facebook might not be for you, and I myself have a deep-seated aversion to people who put their religion on the census as "Jedi"…

But what I don’t like is senseless denigration without understanding all the ways that people use it.  I probably shouldn’t get worked up about this.  I should accept that people have their views and they should be respected. But you know what? The hell with it.

If someone launches an ill-conceived, badly-researched attack on something that has been vital to my family, and decides to do so using their privileged position as a journalist on a major national paper, then I’d like to get my own oar in too (even if we have a slightly lower circulation).

It would be pretty easy (and therapeutic) to pick holes in this article.  But what’s more worrying is that mainstream journalism on ‘IT’ seems to only have two points of view.  Either it’s going to revolutionise the world and we’re all going to end up living, working and breeding (Oh please no…) in Second Life.  Or technology is ruining true communities, computer games are hives of blasphemy and everything’s going to end up a bit Judgement Day.

Considering that the vast majority of people I know – across all ages and a vast variety of professions and lifestyles – can accept most technology at face value, taking the best of what works and ignoring that which doesn’t, why then does the mainstream media find it so hard to do the same?

Goodness, you don’t think it’s deliberate, do you…?

Watch the skies – they’re watching you...

By Audrey Sternberg

In 2000, a TV series called Dark Angel featured a drone, a pilot-less aircraft operated by remote control.  In the series, it was used to observe and identify faces before then killing people.  Scary stuff!

It was fiction, of course - though drones were already being used by the army.

However, it looks like fiction is rapidly becoming reality: Liverpool has decided to use video drones to keep an eye on its citizens.  So, after the instalment of video cameras on street corners all around the UK, there will now be drones to keep the unruly masses under even closer watch.

The unmanned CCTV drone, which measures only a metre wide, is fitted with the latest in CCTV cameras and can record images from a height of 500m.  Big Brother is getting nearer and nearer!

After hearing this news, I tried to find more on the internet.  Of course, on Google News France, I found nothing about the UK drone.  But I read an interesting article about a drone which won the 2007 Lepine Award earlier this month and which is capable of detecting chemical products in the air.  It’s composed of a set of sensors which are able to detect potential pollution thanks to the association of a video camera and GPS localisation.  All this information is transmitted to a headquarters located within a radius of about 10km.

But it’s not just about pollution.  It has already been used for an anti-terrorist initiative in 2006 following a shipwreck with 10,000 tons of phosphoric acid on board.  It can also be used in airports or metros to detect possible chemical attacks.

So, not all drones are necessarily bad…  I just hope that Liverpool’s little experiment doesn’t extend to other cities or countries.

We Are The Champions

On Thursday 24 May, Johnson King decamped en masse to sunny Barcelona to pick up its SABRE Award for European Technology Consultancy Of The Year.

We came, we saw, we cheered and clapped, we ate, danced and were merry, we caused a ruckus on Las Ramblas… and of course, we took a million photographs.

Until next year…

 

Round 2: Second Life Vs Reality

By Tom Kirkham

Harassment, political violence, traumatised avatars - sounds like Second Life is finally starting to get interesting! 

Seriously, it's easy to scoff at Second Life users, to paint them as socially inept geeks who can't make a proper go of things in the real world.  However, the massive worldwide popularity that these type of online games have achieved makes you wonder if perhaps it's the ridiculers that have got it wrong. 

For starters, who's to say that Second Life is any more pointless than physical existence?  At least with Second Life you have a choice over whether or not to sign up in the first place.  And, right from the off, you're given far more options than in the real world.  Imagine how hard it would be to hold down a job in technology PR if I turned up each day wearing a giraffe's head.  On the other hand, this would not present a problem in the virtual world.

When you look at the evidence, there's a sense of inevitability about the rapid growth of these online worlds.  Our reliance on the internet has increased steadily for years - to do our jobs, to shop, to watch TV, to listen to music, to talk to our friends and family, to form relationships and to break them.  We use it every single day at home and at work, and apparently 5.7 million people in the UK now use the mobile internet too, even though it's rubbish!  We are clearly becoming an internet-dependent society, so doesn't living the whole of your life online simply represent the next logical step on from this?

Second Life user numbers continue to rise, and with more and more businesses setting up a virtual presence, fast forward several years and the opportunities to earn a decent living could match or even outnumber those in the real world.

Should this happen, many Second Life scoffers will doubtless be forced to join up, at which point they'll find themselves outcasts in a world where everyone apart from them owns an island, has a well-paid job and is firmly established within a vibrant social community.  The tables will have turned - these sad avatars won't have a clue what they're doing, they won't have any friends or any prospects, and they'll almost certainly end up having to pay for cybersex.

Many people, myself included, don't understand the appeal of Second Life, but it's here to stay, and rather than trashing it, it may be more prudent to sign-up now (in secret, if you really are that embarrassed) and buy yourself a plot of land - y'know, just in case...

Round 1 – Second Life Vs Reality

By Dominic Walsh

Linden Labs' Second Life seems to have gripped the media's attention in a way not seen since Apple decided a flat panel slider was the best way to control an mp3 player.  Yet in marked contrast to the tales of how computers are corrupting the nation's youth and stopping everyone from going outside, the coverage it's received has, for the most part, been surprisingly positive.  Whether this is deserved or not, the first impression seems to be that Linden Labs either has a superhuman PR team or has caught the media zeitgeist perfectly.

Naturally, for every pro-Second Life story, there is another, usually less high-profile, attempt to combat the assertion.  A prime concern seems to be with subscription numbers: while Linden Labs claims to have over six million users, looking at the actual figures suggests that the vast majority of these users haven't logged on even once for over two months.

Using the figure of how many residents actually spent in-game money in April - assuming this is a fair measure of those users that aren’t just one-time experimenters - we arrive at a population of just over 300,000. While a reasonable figure, it pales in comparison to other online worlds or games with more rigorous criteria for ‘citizenship’.  Really, can you imagine the need for a Swedish embassy in Coventry in the real world??

However, a high churn rate and ever-so-slightly-overestimated population needn't in itself debunk the claims that are being made for Second Life.  But what is more worrying are the continued attempts to sell Second Life as a platform for stuff it’s just not suited to.

While an excellent medium for art, music, performance, design and simple social networking, a lot of business applications that are being touted - such as conferencing, presentations and shopping - are still better suited to older, less media-friendly technologies such as 2-D websites, email and messaging, the telephone and even, heaven forefend, actual face-to-face communication. There is the risk that in the media rush, the actual benefits of Second Life will be drowned in hype.

And therein lies the main problem: what could be an interesting precursor to a "new" type of online environment is being stifled as it's co-opted for purposes it was never designed for.  There's also the problem that greater corporate involvement is pushing up the price of membership, specifically land ownership, to the degree that the original inhabitants who made Second Life newsworthy may be put off.  Crazy as it might sound, a virtual island now costs more per year than Central London council tax…

Remove those rose-tinted spectacles – switching ISPs isn’t pretty

By Lisa Talbott

Recently, we had a few issues with emails going astray and slowing internet connection speeds.  Being the person who deals with IT complaints at JK, I tried to explain that although it’s a pain, the service we were getting wasn’t that bad compared to what we’ve had in the past - and there simply isn’t an ISP out there that can guarantee a fast and reliable service. 

In fact, the service we’ve had over the past couple of years has probably been the best ever and switching would really be a hassle.

However, people never remember the old days, they only think about the here and now - maybe because they don’t want to believe things are still as problematic now as they were back then.

Still, we live in an age where the customer is meant to be, err, king, so surely something like switching an ISP should be an easy thing to do in 2007!?

In fact, given the huge problems people have encountered over the years switching ISPs, a change in the law was instigated by telecoms watchdog Ofcom in February of this year. Could it be true?  Could there really be a way of changing ISP and not having any ‘issues’? 

Well, let me tell you, we switched ISPs over a month ago - and as predicted, we’ve had missing emails, delayed emails, duplicate emails, and we even had a whole day without email, which is always nice, particularly for a PR agency.

To add insult to injury, when we phoned our new ISP to tell them we were having email issues, we were told, “there’s nothing wrong with our server” and we then had to go through the whole pantomime of convincing them, “oh yes there is”…  I mean come on, if there wasn’t a problem, I wouldn’t be wasting my time (or should I say my IT guy wouldn’t be wasting his time) phoning them - grrrrrrr !!!!

One thing’s for sure, when I hear the words “I think we should switch ISP”, a chill goes through my body.  Quite frankly, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to hear those words and then have the confidence to say, “not a problem, we’ll switch ISPs and you won’t even notice!!”

At least it’s a good way to test one’s stress levels… Now, could someone please pass me some headache tablets - all this hitting my head against a brick wall is starting to take its toll…