Archive for December, 2007
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Is the writing well and truly on the wall for the Precedent blog?
I received the below email today…its not the most complimentary of emails as you can see. But I couldn’t agree with it more… I feel that our blog is far too worthy for its own good. Of course there are interesting nuggets in there but I believe a really successful blog needs to show attitude and display the personality of its authors. In fact the larger and more controversial, the personality the better! On the flipside this can mean that most successful bloggers may also be the most obnoxious and self obsessed… the kind of person that you don’t want to meet in a bar! Interestingly our director of Strategy Neil Davis touches on this phenomenon in his seminar “The Democratic Web.” But enough of this shameless self-promotion - back to the matter in hand.My question is: given that I have gone out of my way to fill Precedent with talented people whose company I enjoy and who are nothing like the obnoxious individuals mentioned above - how do you balance the obnoxious with the engaging, self-grandisation with nuanced discussion in order to develop a “kick arse attitude”? Or maybe we shouldn’t worry about that and just chat and blog.
Tell me I’m curious, John it’s quite alright to respond through the comments on the blog that’s what they’re there for, I’m looking forward to hearing your views
Email from John Smith
Surely the point behind a blog on a companys website is a desire to communicate, if not excite and engage, with the audience (clients or potential clients). A blog who’s tone of voice is superior and condescending and who’s subject matter is neither fresh or exciting, will do nothing but alienate the audience it is aimed at.
Just have a look down at the comments and feedback. No comments, no comments, no comments, no comments, no comments…
Has this piece of communication failed? Are your audience unaware or do they simply not care about what you are saying? Or worse, is the tone and content of your communication actually turning people off?
A blog with no interaction is no more an effective piece of communication than scrawling a message on a toilet wall.
Surely a ‘communications agency’ would be more aware of the power of any piece of communication it generates and be more interested in getting the right message across, rather than ticking the ‘ive got one of those’ box.
So, is the writing well and truly on the wall for the Precedent blog?
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Shake, rattle and roll
I’m too busy working on some great new projects to write a very long post, but couldn’t resist letting you know about a very interesting interface design developed at my old university, University of Glasgow.
Its a tactile and audio interface called ‘Shoogle’. (I can’t help wondering if the name would make any sense to those not lucky enough to be born in the west of Scotland…)
Shoogle is a lovely piece of software that enables users to check their mobile’s battery life and for unread / unheard messages by just shaking the handset.
So, you shake your phone and a combination of sound and vibrations mimics blocks or liquid trapped within. A phone full of liquid equals a full battery, just a few drops inside means time to find a charger.
Now, if someone develops a universal charger that works for every kind of mobile my life will be complete…
If you want to see, and hear, Shoogle in action visit the microsite:
http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~jhw/shoogle/index.html
