Lying abed yesterday (Friday morning), listening to the first hour of the Today programme on Radio 4, I happened to hear the excellent Ed Stourton interviewing the Foreign Secretary, David Milliband, via some communication system. Unfortunately, as often happens, the link broke down mid-interview, at which point, Ed asked Mr Milliband, ‘Can you hear me?’ and Milliband replied, ‘No?’
By no means the funniest thing ever heard on Today, but mildly amusing nonetheless. Today now Twitters and so, thinking that some listeners might not have heard the early interview, I fired off a quick tweet, asking if it could be played again. Within the hour, I received a reply to the tweet containing a link to the interview, including its interruption.
For me, not only another example of the growing wonders of the internet but also perhaps testament to the immediacy and usefulness of Twitter.

Tags: bbc, today programme, Twitter

Been a while since the last blog so this one is to do a bit of catching up.
Firstly, I’ve decided to put this blog back as the Home page. It makes sense that people see my most recent bits of information on first entering the site.
I’ve also been developing some Twitter content with icklestories and icklememories. The former I’ve mentioned before - a place where I can put fictional thoughts without causing confusion on my main ickledot twitter. This has led me to starting a new website using Weebly. I really like the simple format of this online web tool - and I’m a sucker for a site that looks friendly and … well … cuddly. Weebly is still in its developmental stages and its creators say they have many more ideas to improve functionality. I’ve also put a page of icklestories on this site, mainly to take advantage of the Stacks plug-in for Rapidweaver described previously.
icklememories is just something created on a whim. Might work, might not. Every so so often a jingle or lyric or bit of information comes into my head, or is heard and I thought it might be quite good to place these nuggets of pure nostalgia online. Might just kick-start a series of recollections for someone out there. We’ll see.
Also enrolled on a writing course at the Media Museum in Bradford. Bit unfortunate that the first session clashes with another meeting but I hope to get there in time to discover what it’s all about. It’s fantastic to have the national museum of media so close but as is human nature, when something is so convenient the tendency is not to take advantage.

Tags: Twitter, Icklestories, Icklememories, weebly, national media museum

Stacks, this most major of Rapidweaver plug-ins, has now been released as Stacks 1.0. Put simply, it provides for a wide variety of layouts using a simple drag and drop procedure. It removes the need for additional code or complex snippets to create layouts more complex than those offered by RW themes.
Stacks’ developer, Isaiah, has provided a number of screencasts which explain its use far better than any written description. In addition, there’s a Stacks Reference Manual for those who prefer words.
Elixir Graphics have already released a (free) nifty little Twitter Stack Plug-in. Others are bound to follow I’m sure.
Many congratulations to Isaiah for providing this wonderful addition which greatly enhances Rapidweaver’s functionality. Takes it to another level, as the football managers say.

Tags: stacks, rapidweaver, elixirgraphics, Twitter

Frightened myself with spontaneity yesterday. For a while I’ve been thinking there’s potential for writing fiction in Twitter. Didn’t want to include it in my main Twitter account. Might just lead to confusion. So I decided to launch icklestories.
I’m well aware that others have done this already, most notably arjunbasu. Another is tweettales. I’m sure there are many more.
Anyway, having set the thing up, designed a little logo and stared at the screen for a while, I came to the frightening realisation I had not a clue what to write!
Thankfully something came this morning and so the project has left the ground. I’ve decided to be easy on myself. Doesn’t have to be a collection of mini-masterpieces. Just an array of random scenes and situations from my imagination.

Tags: Twitter, fiction, arjunbasu

Been thinking about buying this software ever since I heard a positive review on Adam Christianson’s The MacCast. MacSpeech is voice recognition software and, according to Adam, is much improved on earlier versions. It claims to learn one’s voice patterns, thus becoming more accurate over time. Always on the lookout for potentially easier, faster ways to write, and seeing the price has dropped to a more affordable £143, this morning I decided to carry out a little more research on Amazon, Twitter and by writing to Adam himself:

‘I was intrigued by your review of the updated MacSpeech software a number of episodes ago.  I'm still considering whether or not to buy.  I'm assuming you are still viewing it in a positive light as you have a banner ad for it on your site.  Is that so?

I only ask as the reviews on Amazon are fairly mixed (although the positive ones are very positive)

Also you did mention that the software improves with usage.  Is this still so?

Funny thing - I twittered a question about MacSpeech.  Within seconds MacSpeech was following me.  I wrote something about them probably having an automatic following set up. Almost immediately got a DM:

No robots here. I'm just awake late here (USA). I use Twitter to find out what users want to do with MacSpeech Dictate. -Jay-

Personal service, hey?’

Tags: amazon, macspeech, the MacCast, Twitter

Been on Twitter for a number of weeks now. I really like it. Suits my approach to blogging in that I am often reluctant to write huge tracts of text whereas the odd sentence or two comes along quite easily. It’s good in terms of audience as well. Without really trying the number of my followers has grown to 40 or so and I’ve had regular correspondence with many of them.
Having bought an iPod Touch recently I have since had some trouble finding a suitable Twitter app for it. Twitterific is one I’ve used on my desktop mac but somehow for me it does not transfer well to the Touch. Next came Twitterfon. This was better but it still lacked something in terms of looks and usability. Thanks to FruitBytes, I came across Tweetie. This app comes at a cost (£1.79!) but it is a small price well worth paying. It has many benefits over others including the ability to handle more than one Twitter account. Its speech bubble listings and clever use of colour also give it a distinctive look and an element of style.
Reading a few of the latest tweets before being overcome by sleep last night, I came across one of Tweetie’s weirdest features. It takes advantage of the fact that the Touch can ‘know’ one’s location (if you decide to let it), and so Tweetie can find the latest tweets from others in the area. Using Twitter regularly, you get a feeling of knowing those you follow. In many cases they share some interests and so become friends, sort of, even though you have almost certainly never met them (and in all likelihood never will). So to see this new list of complete strangers, well, more complete strangers than your friend-strangers is most err…strange. Perhaps it’s the time of year, but several of their tweets were admissions to being more than slightly the worse for wear. Give it a try. See if you have the same reactions as me.

Tags: Twitter, twitterific, twitterfon, fruitbytes, tweetie

If you should happen to be doing some idle Googling (?) as I was yesterday and if you should search for Twitter as I did (I was on a different computer and had forgotten its site address), you will notice that, at the time of writing, the second entry on the list is the name of Barack Obama himself.
Excited by this, I clicked on the link, expecting some micro-thoughts on his latest recruits, the ecoonomic crisis or even mundanities such as what he was having for breakfast. Disappointed was I to discover he hasn’t tweeted a single line since November 5th!
Now you would have thought that if he could tweet on a daily basis during the madness of a Presidential campaign, he might manage a line or two maybe even once a week during the more relaxed President Elect period.
Hold it! Wait a minute. Was November 5th about the time of his election? Please don’t tell me his Twitter account was just another piece of cynical political marketing? He wouldn’t do that! He’s the Change We Need. He wouldn’t do that. Would he?

Tags: Twitter

Mitch Joel has raised some interesting questions about blogging in his latest article The Real Work Has Yet To Begin. It discusses the reasons why former bloggers or podcasters give up when ‘the real work’ gives them no time for this activity they see as a distraction or optional extra. He argues that blogging does constitute real work as it helps a company or individual to get more of what the former bloggers term ‘proper work’.
Personally, I think he’s right. Well, he is at least for the job he does and for the level at which he works. Firstly, he’s a journalist. Writing is part of his work and if nothing else, a blog gives him the opportunity to demonstrate his craft. Secondly, being in the social networking and marketing industry, his blog is a practical example of how blogging can help a company to grow and thrive. Furthermore, it gives him the right to write about blogging, podcasting and other web based social networking.
For the rest of us, particularly those starting right at the bottom with an audience of nil, keeping going is not quite so straightforward. What to write about is a major issue. ‘Write what you know,’ they say, and ‘don’t write trivia’ about the family dog or the kids. Trouble is, that’s what’s part of people’s lives. It is what they know and they don’t see it as trivial. I would argue that if they do it well then no problem. One of my favourite blogs is by someone who works in Starbucks. Her entries are of no great importance but the anecdotes she relates and her chatty, informal style have enabled her to build an audience to the extent that she feels confident enough to ask for tips. So, I make no apologies for trivia, particularly when I tweet.
Another good reason for blogging at the bottom and keeping going is at least it is a way of displaying a writing ability and developing a suitable style. And the more we do it, hopefully the blog will improve. And who knows? We might even get an audience.
So if, like me, you’re just starting out, why not treat your blog as a morning constitutional? Get up (a bit earlier perhaps?). Bathroom stuff. Enough clothing to be decent. Coffee. Blog.

Tags: blogging, mitch joel, Twitter, starbucks

In terms of the internet, 2008 has been an important year for ickledot. In addition to stepping out and forming this little company, earning a bit of money and meeting some wonderful people, I have also come to recognise the benefits of what has become known as Web 2.0. I realise this is around half a decade after the movers and shakers turned the internet from a passive ‘get a website and wait for others to come and visit’ to a more interactive world of blogging, Twitter, Facebook et al. From what I read, they are already moving on to version 3.
I have described how this happened for me before but briefly it began in a big way with a presentation by Ian Green of Green Communications, my reading of Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky and following the blogs of influential voices such as Dave Winer, Mitch Joel and others.
Obviously here in Sunny Oxenhope we are a world away from such high fliers (although the internet allows us to be an email away from direct contact and generally if we have something interesting to contribute a reply ensues). What interests me is how this technology can help local businesses - the butcher, greengrocer, hairdresser. How could they become part of the global network and also see their customer base and sales increase? Certainly many such institutions are under constant threat from the big supermarkets and need all the help they can get. Following on from that, is there potential for a local social networking business? If the big corporations can be served by companies such as Green Communications, could local shops and businesses benefit from similar yet smaller scale advice, particularly when sites such as Blogger, Wordpress, Flickr, UpComing or even LinkedIn mean a considerable web presence can be constructed with very little expenditure?
To compare my position with a race or journey, I look way ahead to the leaders, the front runners including the individuals and organisations mentioned above. Looking back though, there is a long tail of social networking stragglers. My excellent local butcher had never heard of Twitter when I mentioned how my tweets about his pies had got a number of responses. He might argue he’s doing very nicely thank you and doesn’t need to get involved in all that stuff. At the very least though it is self-publicity and free advertising. The potential beyond is huge. Just ahead in the race are those who have websites in the same way they have business cards, compliments slips or letterheads. Their sites exist and and are immediately forgotten. Six months later they look tired, neglected and hardly ever visited. I have even come across larger institutions such as museums that still look upon their websites as little more than virtual billboards.
So that’s one of my target for the coming year. To explore how the wonderful world of social networking can be applied successfully to local shops and businesses that are ‘under the radar’ of the big players. Watch this space.

Tags: social networking, web 2.0, green communications, Clay Shirky, Dave Winer, Twitter, facebook