Chasing the sun from Amsterdam to Beijing #fb

See the full gallery on Posterous SHARE THIS: * Share * * Twitter [https://theplan.co.uk/chasing-the-sun-from-amsterdam-to-beijing-fb/?share=twitter] * Email [https://theplan.co.uk/chasing-the-sun-from-amsterdam-to-beijing-fb/?share=email] * * LinkedIn [https://theplan.co.uk/cha

Investigation into London Weekly at HMI

Would you work for nothing in the hope of earning some commission from a newspaper that appears to nick content – from editorial to the words on their own marketing website – from all over the web?  There’s an ongoing investigation into the launch of London Weekly taking place at Help Me Investigate

drm

How to read an eBook – they’re the future you know

First, get logged in through the paywall – I used an Athens password, so find a student to help you. This is what you get. It looks like the book should load in the big empty space, but it doesn’t. Click on some of the links down the side… oh they download PDFs. Not one… Continue reading How to read

hack

Recording calls on iPhone

I’ve been asking around for a while for a way to record voice calls on my iPhone. I don’t have much call to do this, but there have been a few times when it would be handy it seems obvious that the phone should do this (it makes calls, it has a voice recorder), but… Continue reading Recording calls

birmingham

A Birmingham amendment to Godwin’s Law

Godwin’s Law is an Internet adage that states: As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1. I’d like to table a local amendment, which we’ll call Brummie’s Law (because I’m not naming it after myself): As an online discussion about Bir

Today I’m appearing in a Twitter panto. Oh yes I am. #twitpanto

What are you doing at 3:30pm GMT today? Nothing much I’ll bet. You’ll no doubt be sleeping off a cheeky Christmas pint, or “filing” to pass the last half hour before you break up for Christmas. Make that last hour at work count, by heading over to Twitpanto where yours truly will be playing Little…

We work for them.

Members of the popular careers website Guardian Jobs recently received an email notification that the website had been hacked. Members’ personal details had been stolen by the hackers, with the breach affecting members who were currently engaged in job searching as well as those whose job search may

birmingham

Who does the most social media? Some data. Maybe.

I keep hearing how great Birmingham is at blogging and social media. That’s a subjective thing and anyone can say it but I also keep hearing people saying or suggesting we do it the best, we do it the most, and that we’re at the centre of it. That’s a bit more problematic and I… Continue reading Who

Just in case an “online interactive website” is difficult for you

Michael Grimes retweeted a link to the North Wales Pioneer today, who are reporting on social media policies at Conwy Council. The way the article discusses blogging (or “internet blogging” as they would say) suggests the newspaper or its readers are not all that comfortable with the Internet. Perha

bsmc

Thank you for coming to #bsmc

Movie 1.mov Watch on Posterous BCU sponsored the social media café so it fell to me and Paul Bradshaw to say thank you. SHARE THIS: * Share * * Twitter [https://theplan.co.uk/thank-you-for-coming-to-bsmc/?share=twitter] * Email [https://theplan.co.uk/thank-you-for-coming-to-bsmc/?share=emai

twitter

How I use Twitter

Firstly, credit where credit’s due, I have based this on Michael Grimes’s Twitter Following Policy (I have lifted a lot of it, I’m sure Mike won’t mind: he’s a lovely man, please read his blog). How I use Twitter I follow a lot of people, possibly too many. I’ve developed my own ways of making… Cont

free

The meek shall inherit the earth?

Well, as Monty Python pointed out, the meek have had a hell of a time*.  I had a thought last night about newspaper pay walls. It’s a very lazy thought, and I’m jumping to conclusions (hence why this is on my personal blog and not http://www.interactivecultures.org or http://www.masocialmedia.com).

Civic Life Online: Learning How Digital Media Can Engage Youth

Hyperlinks to chapters from Civic Life Online: Learning How Digital Media Can Engage Youth The content is free, but some people were having problems getting the page to load yesterday Foreword   Mizuko Ito, Cathy Davidson, Henry Jenkins, Carol Lee, Michael Eisenberg, Joanne Weiss Civic Life Online:

arts

Empty shops into art galleries, Erdington

This summer my local community arts group have taken over a disused supermarket to create a gallery and workshop space. I’ve heard a lot about pop-up exhibitions, and indeed there have been some Birmingham folk talking about doing some on Twitter. I get the impression that these tend to be fairly hi

Talking of bleak and Torchwood…

This is from my friend Toby, over on Facebook, in response to my tweet / status update on how bleak Torchwood was: What was bleak about Touchwood ? We can only dream of a Britain where corrupt evil government officials almost literally do the honourable thing and fall on their swords….rather than th

Spymaster spoofing

I’m not really sure I care too much about Spymaster either way. I know a lot of people are enjoying it and others are really angry about it. Probably the closer you are to an early majority or later adopter of Twitter the more likely you are to like it. Anyway, I half signed up… Continue reading Spy

Lending a hand or cutting costs?

From time to time I do some business with Birmingham City Council. Today they sent me a cheery letter: “Following the introduction of Birmingham City Council’s new procurement and payments system in October 2007 we bring you some news about developments that may be welcome to you in the present econ

Digest of my Twitter contacts’ budget summaries

siwhitehouse@jonhickman We’ve bought the handcart, now in which direction does it need pushing?about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck in reply to jonhickman      rtunstall@jonhickman In: New cars, environment, innovation, savings Out: high-earners, booze, petrol, fags, growth, public sector, recovery, Lab

#masocialmedia I need to crowdsource a reply to this email:

Wow, just got this email: ——————– In these times of redundancy especially in your part of the country you should be ashamed.  How about getting a grant to see how some of Brums manufacturing industry can actually weather this storm. Talk about “History Man” this is why academia gets such a bad name.

networking

Some thoughts on good meetings

I love the fact that “good meeting” is an emergent meme on Twitter: the phrase is seen by a lot of people on Twitter as an empty platitude, the twitter equivalent of saying “er”. We can see it as an example of one of the ways we just keep the conversation going. Perhaps we could even go… Continue re

twitter

Brum TwitPic Chain (#brumchain)

This game is based on Flickr Chains (e.g. http://www.flickr.com/groups/thelondonchain/): a chain of photos linked by themes (and probably memes knowing you lot).  To keep it simple, let’s try a chain where we nominate the next person in the chain. How to play If you receive an @ message on Twitter t

cluedo

How to NOT play @cluedo

It’s not the first time in my life I’ve been accused of breaking twitter, but I was a little surprised when @dubber told me I’d done it again. The nice thing about twitter is that even when being curmudgeonly, people in the community can be helpful. Dubber

cluedo

How to play @cluedo

🙋Note from Feb '25: I had forgotten we did this. I'm not sure how many games we got before someone took the keys and did nothing. It would be fun to work out who killed the game. It would be interesting to try it again on Blueksky

food

Done my Christmas baking, four weeks late

🙋Edit, Feb 2025: the last few years I've seen something like these in the shops which is pretty cool. I actually didn't get around to making these the past few years but they will always take me back to my childhood Christmas memories. Mum hasn'

bcu

a three hour walking tour of Brum, thinking about art, design and creativity in the city

I took two groups of our BA students around Birmingham this week. Our mission: to find where the creative industries hang out, and to think about how design lives and breathes in the real world. We spent three hours and covered a lot of ground. Unfortunately we didn’t get