Your website, now illegal: how to comply with the EU Cookie Law

A new EU law prohibiting websites from placing cookies without user permission is set to become acti

How See Tickets outraged 100,000 BBC Radio 1 listeners

On the weekend of June 23, nearly a hundred thousand people will descend upon the Hackney Marshes fo

The #4amProject: A triumph for Social Media

There have been many campaigns organised on Twitter. The most high profile of them make the national

 

Your website, now illegal: how to comply with the EU Cookie Law

April 21, 2012 in How-To

These cookies are less likely to cause headaches for your web-developer. Image used via CC License from teatime-blog.com

A new EU law prohibiting websites from placing cookies without user permission is set to become active in just over a month. Not only will this essentially make statistics derived from cookie-based tracking essentially worthless, it will also mean that websites using Google Analytics for stats gathering will be violating the law once it comes into effect — if they don’t provide a way for users to opt-out of the tracking cookie.

Without going into why this is such a stupid law, there is one solution to make your community compliant with the law while exerting as little effort as possible. Read the rest of this entry →

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How See Tickets outraged 100,000 BBC Radio 1 listeners

April 19, 2012 in How-To

On the weekend of June 23, nearly a hundred thousand people will descend upon the Hackney Marshes for BBC Radio 1’s Hackney Weekend music festival. Big names such as Jay-Z, Rihanna, Florence + The Machine, Jessie J, Deadmau5 and David Guetta have been booked for the free, two-day show, with the British music-loving population clamouring to sign up for tickets ever since the lineup was announced. However, when signup opened at 11 a.m. on Saturday, March 24, users experienced enormous capacity issues as See Tickets’ servers attempted to respond to several thousand requests simultaneously. It took many users several hours to get through the three-page signup process, with many getting frustrated and quitting mid-way. Read the rest of this entry →

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The #4amProject: A triumph for Social Media

April 15, 2012 in Analysis

There have been many campaigns organised on Twitter. The most high profile of them make the national, and international, news. Many of them raise money for charity or awareness of a specific person or cause. They can even help to topple governments.

But, there aren’t many campaigns out there that manage to get normal people with a camera out of bed for 4am on a Sunday morning, just to take photographs.

That is exactly what the #4amproject has managed to 7 times now.

Organised by Karen Strunks, who works in community building and social media for Talk About Local, the project has been going for about three years now. It focuses on taking photos at 4am in different places all around the world, through mass participation. It has over 6,000 pictures to date.

It contacts and reaches out to photographers from the website 4amproject.org, its Twitter account @4amproject and the Flickr group for 4am Project, where users submit their pictures.

It’s attracted snappers from 50 countries around the world, and project organiser Karen Strunks said:

“Some of the world’s most beautiful photos are taken under the cover of night, but as we’re all tucked up in bed at that time, the moment just passes us by.

“The 4am Project aims to bring both photographers and non-photographers together, to create a global community which demonstrates how amazing our surrounding landscapes can be.

“Streets which are usually teeming with traffic are deserted, shopping centres are empty and hillsides peaceful, the perfect time to grab your camera and take some shots.”

The latest project took place on Sunday, April 15, and photos from the project are viewable in this slideshow below:

I went out to take photographs too, and these are my thoughts, from Llandudno in North Wales:

listen to ‘The #4amproject boo in Llandudno’ on Audioboo

The ability to get so many photographs from the time when we are usually asleep, and carry this on over three years, is pretty amazing. The power of social media is outstanding.

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Facebook buys Instagram for $1 Billion

April 9, 2012 in Analysis, News

An Instagram picture

Facebook has forked out a huge sum of money to buy photo editing and sharing application Instagram.

The social network, with over 800 million members worldwide, spent $1 Billion on the company popular with iPhone and now Android users. In an announcement on the company blog, Instagram said:

When Mike and I started Instagram nearly two years ago, we set out to change and improve the way the world communicates and shares. We’ve had an amazing time watching Instagram grow into a vibrant community of people from all around the globe. Today, we couldn’t be happier to announce that Instagram has agreed to be acquired by Facebook.

They say it’s important to add that Instagram will not go away. They said: “We’ll be working with Facebook to evolve Instagram and build the network. We’ll continue to add new features to the product and find new ways to create a better mobile photos experience.”

Whether it means the app will get the full technical and sharing support of Facebook, or develops into a set of filters for photos uploaded through the Facebook applications remains to be seen.

People on Twitter were generally upset about the news:

And in reaction to saying it might be good:

What do you think? Let us know below, or on Twitter

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Is Social Media the answer to solving crimes?

April 6, 2012 in News

This morning the Boston Police Force accredited social media for their increase in crime solving.

The Boston Police Department has seen a rise in crime solving tips thanks to social media and the department’s large Twitter following.

The Boston Police Force has more than 39,200 followers on Twitter. Last year they set up a Twitter campaign in which they allowed people to send anonymous messages to the department’s Crime Stoppers Unit. The programme, called Text- a Tip, was set up to reflect peoples increased use of social media sites and mobile phones.

So far Boston Police have received tips about homicides, drug deals, online suicide notes and bomb threats.

Department Spokesperson, Elaine Driscoll, said: “It’s been really amazing for us. Use of Social Media has provided an additional outlet for people to interact with law enforcement.”

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Editing IslingtonNow’s Social Media channels

March 21, 2012 in Analysis

Alex Horlock checking out the pages on the wall for the newspaper

Week two of editing IslingtonNow‘s social media channels fell to me, Andrew.

I explained about it in a bit of detail in an audioboo, posted whilst I was out doing more stories for the website. One thing I can say for definite is that it was a very busy, non-stop weekend and week.

listen to ‘Interhacktives audioboo ’ on Audioboo

Essentially, what the struggles were when using the social media is the fact the account has laid dorment for around 11 months before coming on to it. Antonia last week detailed how the first week went here.

This week, we started on Saturday with a Klout score of 36.95, and we had 965 Twitter followers.

As Antonia said:

Islington is a social media-savvy borough. The population is young and it is home to a multitude of cutting-edge companies, not least around Old Street (AKA the Silicon Roundabout). Lots of things, of London-wide and national importance, happen here. All this means it’s possible to both source and promote stories by digital means.

We used the account to source opinion on a few stories, and of course monitor what was going on around Islington.

This week, IslingtonNow saw it’s busiest day under our editorship. 315 hits on Thursday, mainly because the post about Bob The Cat went up. We also had Google Analytics live stats, which encouraged people to share the site and see the views go up throughout the day.

We have the searches set up, and monitor those for stories and hints and tips. We found, through social media, a fire that just broke out in a place within walking distance. Myself and James Titcomb went down there, and got the story fairly quickly, with pics.

At the end of it, we had Klout score of 40.69 and our Twitter followers numbered 1,002. A good increase, I think.

Next week – Week 3 of 3.

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Social Media Editor for the Hackney Post: Week 1

March 14, 2012 in Analysis, How-To

By Abby Young-Powell

This week I have been Social Media Editor for the Hackney Post. It has been stimulating, hard work and a learning curve. Here is some of what I have learnt so far…

Those who don’t know may (wrongly) assume that it’s an easy job, to Tweet for a living. So you’ve just been sitting on Facebook all day? My housemates ask. Well yes, but there’s a lot more to it than that.

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Social media at Islington Now: Week 1 of 3.

March 10, 2012 in Analysis

So, week one of Islington Now from the perspective of social media.

Just to give it some context we started with 858 Twitter followers, 15 Likes on FB and a Klout of 12. We finished it with 959, 33 and 37 respectively.

Islington is a social media-savvy borough. The population is young and it is home to a multitude of cutting-edge companies, not least around Old Street (AKA the Silicon Roundabout). Lots of things, of London-wide and national importance, happen here.  All this means it’s possible to both source and promote stories by digital means.

I decided it was best not to launch headfirst, “hi, we’re here now!” way – so a few days before we officially started the news service, I put out some teaser tweets and concentrated on all the logistical stuff; for example setting up lists on Twitter, identifying prolific local tweeters, registering us for Hootsuite and Klout.

The first Twitter success was locating a local boxer, which led to an exclusive interview.

A key pillar in our strategy was not to use social media as an adjunct to the newspaper, but to make it a living and breathing part of Islington Now. We definitely achieved this. Over the course of the week, using social media, we found and/or amplified stories on Cycle to School week, protests against the NHS bill (involving local luminaries such as MP Jeremy Corbyn), a new signing for Arsenal and land sell-off by Islington Council. From the opening of a new gastro pub to the trial of a local solicitor, social media was a lynchpin in many stories.

We wanted to be personable and encourage connectivity; and that’s definitely been a feature of Islington Now 2012’s first week. We located a witness to commuter fisticuffs at Highbury & Islington station, new street graffiti by the enigmatic Grafter, and even got mistaken for the council (which means we must be doing something right);

According to Google Analytics our social media referral rates were pretty good too;

It’s probably no coincidence that statistically the most popular article, on the Blacksmith & Toffeemaker pub, garnered tweets and was shared on FB.

Oh and top marks for getting a FB share from Jeremy Corbyn for Andrew’s NHS protest pics.

Onwards and upwards for next week!

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The Guardian’s TV advert shows how news now embraces social media

March 6, 2012 in Analysis, News

The Guardian’s open news TV advert shows how The Three Little Pigs story would be covered in print and online.

The video charts the news story after the little pigs hit the headlines for boiling the wolf alive. Conversation moves from print to the web as the issue is debated via Twitter and other social media channels, following the open news hashtag: #opennews. Although there is initial sympathy for the pigs, a Youtube video shows that the wolf is asthmatic – he therefore could not have physically blown down the pigs’ houses. This leads to the pigs being arrested for fraud; they framed the wolf after being unable to meet their mortgage repayments.

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Is social media bad for your health?

February 24, 2012 in Analysis, News

Yesterday Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, took to the lectern at a Montreal business conference and said over-use of his micro-blogging site is bad for your health.

“I like the kind of engagement where you go to the website and you leave because you’ve found what you are looking for or you found something very interesting and you learned something…”

Although it may be the first time a social media innovator has spoken out, the concerns themselves are not new.

Last year, Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Sherry Turkle published a book called Alone Together, in which she argued that technology is threatening to make us less human and more isolated.

In 2009, Dr Aric Sigman went a little further when he said choosing social networking (SN) over face-to-face interaction has a profound biological impact – and could upset immune responses and mental performance.

There can be no denying that obsessive SN, to the detriment of real-life socialising, is never a good thing. But social media can enhance well-being if used intelligently. Don’t just take it from me.

A 2010 report from Pew Internet and American Life Project found

“having a chronic disease increases the probability that someone will take advantage of social media to share what they know and learn from their peers.”

In other words, social media plays a vital role in connecting people and allaying loneliness. It can also break down barriers.

Last year Larry Rosen, a prof of psychology at California State University, while acknowledging the negative impact of overuse, said that SN can help introverted adolescents.

Digital tools also provide rich opportunities to democratise and disseminate health information. Only this week the Department of Health unveiled an initiative to encourage patients with long-term conditions to use smartphone apps to manage their health.

It’s all a question of balance isn’t it? Just as health bods say a little of what you fancy is good for you dietary-wise, so too the same is true of SN.

You can follow me on Twitter (which I use in moderation, thanks for asking) here

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