Search results matching tag 'Guardian'

Education, education, education (part three...and final)

2175094 — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:40:00 GMT

I’ve banged the drum in previous weeks about the importance of consumer education about behavioural advertising, and the IAB's recent research has highlighted the need for this.

Today the IAB has published a guide on behavioural advertising specifically for industry, our first step in helping educate the market about this practice (although you’ll be glad to know that this will be my last blog – for now - talking about education). The guide explains how behavioural advertising works, how it differs to other types of targeted advertising on the internet, its benefits to web publishers and advertisers, consumer attitudes as well as online privacy and industry good practice.

The guide – sponsored by technology company Audience Science – hasn’t been written exclusively by the IAB but by the experts themselves, with contributions from the likes of AOL, Guardian, Profero, Post Office, Yahoo!, ValueClick Media and, of course, Audience Science.

It may not make the Amazon bestsellers list (its free after all) but for anyone who wants to know a little more about behavioural advertising, this one’s for you. Enjoy!

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Who's the celebrity loony?

1704826 — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:10:00 GMT

The newspaper industry is congratulating itself for a 'victory for openness' after the court ruled that the media could attend hearings about whether a young celebrity should have decisions made for him by others.

The media is forbidden from naming the man, who is described as 'a young man with an international reputation' and referred to as A. He is appearing at the little-known court of protection (formerly presided over by the 'Master of Lunacy') because of concerns that his condition makes him unable to manage his affairs.

The media, and in particular The Guardian, which brought the legal move, are smugly patting themselves on the back and arguing that the principle of open justice should apply to adults with impaired mental capacity where there is a public interest. They also say the ruling is a victory for freedom of expression blah blah.

Yeah right. I'd argue it's got little to do with that and more to do with tasteless voyeurism.

Anyway, my guess is that he's a footballer.

Not Citizen Journalism... but what is Crowd Sourcing exactly? Who cares, it's great.

980161 — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:57:00 GMT

I am starting to get fed up with the MPs expenses scandal, I mean who hasn’t put in a dodgy expenses claim (though I suspect a moat and a duck house are two of the most unusual... even a bunch of creatives with a Cannes Lion in mind couldn’t come up with gems like that). But one thing that has happened since the full (or at least partly full seeing as how the juiciest bits have been blacked out) list of expenses was released last week has been the Guardian launching a ‘crowd sourcing’ project asking members of the public to look over the volumes of expenses data released last week and report anything they think may be worthy of further investigation.

As the Guardian says on its website, there is nearly half a million thousand pages of data of which over 21,000 people have reviewed a third of these so far. The Guardian is asking people to review these and then report back anything that might be of interest which they can then look into further and start to build a big picture of what has been going on.

I couldn’t help myself but have a sneak at my local MP. For my local member of parliament, a Tory peer no less, there are 292 pages of expenses that are available to view from 2005 onwards. Each page you look at asks you to classify the type of page it is by clicking the relevant button (a claim, a receipt, a cover page etc.) and you can mark it as whether it’s interesting and needs investigation, interesting but already known, or not worth investigating. It’s good fun, I highly recommend it, though I doubt I'll ever get any answers as to why he has to have a weekly railcard as well as a monthly one (especially as his constituency is a ten minute bus ride away from Westminster and you couldn’t travel there by rail even if you wanted to) and why on earth our taxes should be funding the wholly partisan Kensington & Chelsea Conservatives Foundation (primary aim to support and sustain Conservative values in the area, though probably not much of a stretch in that part of town) – shame on Sir Rifkind for his expenses.

This kind of thing is fantastic. There is no way that a Guardian journalist could sift through all of this quickly enough to pick out any headlines that the Telegraph hasn’t yet thought of. I can imagine many ways in which it could be used. Environmental groups could go crazy for this kind of thing, as would shareholders of public companies. It’s a great way to get interested members of the public to wade through pages and pages of detail at no cost to the media owner. There may not yet be an obvious commercial application for this kind of involvement however as the issue would have to be wide enough to attract interest, and the subject matter would have to involve hundreds of thousands of documents to make it worthwhile asking for help on this scale.

No matter if a large amount of the 21,000 people who have so far done this may be members of opposing parties looking to do some dirt-slinging of their own, or even MPs wondering if they really have done something dodgy when seeing it in black and white from the public’s point of view (answer yes: all of this stuff looks dodgy to me!), this is a great exercise and well done to the Guardian for setting this up. I look forward to seeing what they do with the cases that have been reported. Hopefully despite expenses claims fatigue, they will find some way to take these crowd sourcing results and produce something interesting and engaging for their readers to benefit from. Fantastic idea, and a great way of using the net and bringing people in to a big story. Another great use of online from the Guardian.

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Inside the mind of master tactician David Pleat

1715701 — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 10:41:00 GMT

Good evening all…

Ever wondered what goes on inside the mind of David Pleat?

Apparently, a load of incomprehensible gobbledy-gook if this ridiculous feature by The Guardian is anything to go on.

The paper asks ‘Agree? Disgree?’… What? Firstly, I don’t care. And secondly, I have no idea what the relevance of his chalkboard is.

I think – on closer inspection – it tells me that Manchester United defender Namaja Vidic doesn’t give the ball away very much. T’rrific.

If this insight is the sort of thing Pleat scrawls onto the chalkboard during his team briefings its little wonder he finds himself in the commentary box rather than in the dugout these days.

Hazel Blears - here's some reasons why Mirror readers should not run the country

1704826 — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:17:00 GMT

Labour minister Hazel Blears thinks that readers of the Daily Mirror should run the country, according to today's errrr Daily Mirror.

‘We need more and more MPs who read the Mirror and fewer who write for the Guardian or Telegraph,' she says in the news story.

Well I'm all for a bit more diversity - particularly when the Guardian is involved - but let's look at the evidence based on the editorial content in today's Mirror and therefore, presumably, the issues that its readers care about.

Aside from coverage of Obama, the rest is questionable. Page 3 is dominated by celebrity tat - ‘Enter Robo Posh' - Victoria Beckham arrives at Heathrow airport dressed in leathers, while the second story on the page is about some bloke from Strictly Come Dancing may miss a show because he's injured. A full page on X Factor follows ‘X Factor Rachel SACKS mentor Dannii', while there are also stories on Gwyneth Paltrow and a bloke who is scared of fireworks.

Do we really want people like this running the country? I think I'd rather have retired colonels and polytechnic lecturers any day.

Be a Curator, not a Custodian

2154489 — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 22:51:00 GMT

If you love words, but (like me) are spelling-challenged, it is fun to try the Thesaurus as an extra and educational way to double spell check. (I also use Google as a spell checker, which is more common than you'd think.)

It can start an unexpected brain thread, as it did when I looked up "steward" —as in brand steward — and found these synonyms:

guardian, keeper, custodian, curator

Many agencies folks rightly consider themselves brand stewards in partnership with our clients. But what exactly does that mean?

As a brand "guardian", your job would mostly be to keep that brand safe. Virginal even. Be a Guardian Angel.
The synonym "keeper" reminds one of a zoo professional, and so simply keeping your brand alive (and on a leash) ticks the box. While a "custodian" might be expected to just keep it clean.

Now, it seems to me that "curator" is the synonym to strive for. Because their job is to keep the collection interesting. Prune the mistakes. Acquire new pieces. Discover fresh talent. This is a job that sounds like fun.

AOP 08: Meet the digital pioneers

2371004 — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 11:45:00 GMT

10:30 a.m. – Four digital pioneers converge on the stage to share their highlights over the last ten years and what they believe the future will hold. Nick HIgham moderates a panel which includes:

Emily Bell, director of digital content, Guardian News & Media

Peter Cowley, managing director, digital media, Endemol UK

Ajaz Ahmed, founder of AKQA and;

Andrew Walmsley, founder of i-level

The panel give their various opinions regarding the role digital media will play in the future of business, and how their particular companies have struggled, adjusted and thrived doing so.

Ajaz Ahmed brings up a unique point, that we are now entering an age of “perfect information” where the consumer can use search engine capabilities to comb through bits of information to find the one that best suits them.

“The Age of Perfect Information” has brought three profound changes that have never occurred previous the digital boom. Firstly, the consumer has risen as a creator. Ahmed gives the example of YouTube star Fred, the 14 year old whose videos have garnered more than 8.5m views, almost competing on the same level as terrestrial TV shows like X Factor and Coronation Street.

Secondly, “it’s now all about me”. The proliferation of online communities like Facebook, Bebo and Myspace have proved that the average consumer cares much more about themselves and their close friends and family, rather than what is going n in the world.

Thirdly, search engines like Google, where the best content tends to rise to the top, consumers have never had such ease of access to find what they like, bringing on the age of perfect information.

Andrew Walmsley added to Ahmed’s point saying that the whole medium of social networks changes the existing “contract” between readers and media owners.

For example, when you purchase a newspaper, you pay a low cover price in exchange for having a few advertisements on the page. However, in social networking, the media belongs to the consumers and advertisers don’t have an automatic right to that existing “contract”, advertisers need to earn that right.

Emily Bell changed the pace with addressing the challenges that face traditional media companies making the transition into the digital world. Something that companies must do is embrace the international audience, in countries like China, India and beyond. It will be difficult to build an international model, but crossing boarders is inevitable for strong brands with a big audience.

Most large companies are not prepared to make the transition into international markets, mainly due to the fact that there is not a suitable cross-platform advertising market, but now is the time to seriously invest.

Peter Cowley said that one of the biggest challenges for the television industry will be to fully take advantage of the growth of the on-demand type market. Sites like iTunes and PVR services offer consumers the media that they want. That means that the consumers are no longer seeking out the traditional media owners, and that the roles have switched, companies need to seek out the consumers.

Ahmed added to Cowley’s point saying that traditionally advertisers would rely on media owners to reach consumers, but now the consumer has removed the middle-man, allowing advertisers to invest in their own companies.

The Guardian wants to know what we think. Cool.

2154489 — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 21:43:00 GMT

Full disclosure—I am a longtime brand fan of the Guardian, long pre-dating my residence here in London. People of my progressive political persuasion use their site to get a less biased version of news in American than our own mainstream media seems inclined to provide. And imho it is a newspaper that totally gets social media.

Today, folks at the office were viraling this: Jay Rayner is ..."just starting work on a large piece examining the arguments around genetically modified foods, and I want your help...

"We'd like those of you with something to say about GM foods to tell us what you think now, at the beginning of the reporting process, so that your take on the subject can become a part of the finished article"

How cool is that? Wonder if he will get a bunch of PR folks responding too. Hope they self-identify. You have to assume both the pro and the anti GM lobbies want in on Jay's article. But it is real people's opinions Jay Rayner is seeking and I hope he gets what he needs for a great article. Knowing much less about GM food than I do about open source and social media, my opinion is simply, "Well done Jay".