Reflections on a mash-up

Branded Channels - we got there in the end!

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 12:57:00 GMT

After months of theory, strategy debate and ultimately planning and coding we have released our Branded Services and Webjam channels. We got there by listening to the requests of the Webjam partners and users.

Listening to the ideas of others and molding it with our own vision and interpretation was an incredibly satisfying process and pushes us further toward the engaging eco-system that we at Webjam dream of. Interconnecting related communities via our channels can only help the end-user whether it be via a brand or our very own Channels.The tenets of sharing, collaboration and empowerment that have been part of the Webjam mantra since inception are now becoming a reality.

The best examples come from our first live partners :

. ChoirZone, edited by Zone New Media, gives choirs across the UK the ability to easily create and manage their site and community and allows them to stay connected. Scroll down http://www.choirzone.net to view one of the various choir templates proposed;

. The Other Side, a free paper distributed on the London Tube, which goes beyond comments by members by letting them create their own communities across the topics they like. Check out http://www.theothersidemag.co.uk/ and see how you too could easily create your own community in your neighbourhood.

Find more information about WBS on our brand new partner site on http://www.webjam.com/branded_services/

Lifestreaming - the issue is getting people to listen?

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 09:55:00 GMT

http://www.yongfook.com/post/view/522/the-blog-is-dead

Minibar

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 11:34:00 GMT

After the great success of the last MiniBar and of course the monumental moment the official mini-bar community was launched on Webjam, it seems only natural I should wax lyrical on the future of web start-ups in the big smoke. After hearing the presentations (and the bantering background noise at the bar) it is clear that the enthusiasm for the future of our young industry is not waning.

I am sure that you enjoyed the presentation of ‘Web-Yam’ (aka Webjam) by the indomitable Spaniard Alberto Barreiro, co-founder and Creative Director as much as I did. During which, - I am sure like me, the concept of Webjam lit flames of ingenuity in your mind like a match to a petroleum canister. Quite seriously though, the mini-bar event presents us with a real vat of talent and product that can be integrated with our oh-so flexible platform.

After the launch of our Strawberry platform and the encouraging reviews we received, it became very clear to us we had struck a real chord in the industry – and internally with a now-stable platform (not for a minute suggesting that the initial beta version was not!), it set our eyes, ears and minds to the task of how we can take Webjam to the uber-mainstream and how we can use the talent around us in our fair city to take us there. Understanding if not anticipating the needs of the (novice) internet user with a purpose through a powerful and nonetheless easy-to-use service remains the goal which drives us. Thankfully the growing flow of testimonials we now receive every day shows that we are heading in the right direction by making it easy to answer the basic question : what do I want to share with whom, how and why.

Now deep into 2008 we keep building Webjam thinking that the social networking market is going to evolve into a more mature social publishing market, something we are proving ourselves with the recent online launch of a London magazine on Webjam, which publishes the user-generated content from its community (www.theothersidemag.co.uk).

When hell Freezes over

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:31:00 GMT

The following is supposedly an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid-term exam.

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant.

One student, however, wrote the following:

First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different Religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.

This gives two possibilities:

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.

2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it? If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, "it will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you", and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number 2 must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct, leaving only Heaven thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa Kept shouting "Oh my God."

Where and who does Facebook think you are

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 13:40:00 GMT

Well - it was always going to step on a lot of toes, what is interesting is - the way people react, and the visibility it gives world issues: A week ago Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg told us how his website is bringing peace to the Middle East by giving young people in Lebanon a wider view of the world.

But now it's caught up in a row with Israeli settlers on the West Bank. Jewish settlers reacted angrily when the auto-complete function on Facebook finished their addresses on the West Bank as being in "Palestine".

Facebook now offers the "Israel" option for major settlements, even though the West Bank is not in Israel - however, some settlements are still auto-completing with Palestine.

Another group - admittedly, one with only 43 members so far - has formed on the social networking site to demand that Facebook remove any reference to Palestine because it is not a country. There are networks for both Israel and Palestine on Facebook with 400,220 and 34,419 members respectively.

It is easy to see social networks as bonding, homogenising forces, but indeed what they can be are micro-magnifying glasses on very real problems.

I feel sorry for MP's

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 08:05:00 GMT

Derek Conway really dropped them in it didn't he? The institution of the local MP which through scandals and recession survived has now because of the quite ludicrous false employment of the Conway kids - is now treated with suspicion, mis-trust and an underlying contempt. What seems to be forgotten is that many of the Commons population are among the most over-worked and underpaid (proportionate to their workload and responsibility) in the entire country. There are countless dedicated souls - who far from the David Cameron's and Tony Blair's of Government, are professional MP's, that is what they do, and they serve tirelessly.

An MP is paid £60 000 a year out of public coffers - ok, granted - there are benefits, but - when supporting a household and family this is still cutting it pretty tight! Certainly NOT a life of luxury. The BBC, that fantastic and well-regarded sponge of public funds, pays Huw Edwards a reported £250 000 a year for presenting the news, is this a proportionate use of public money? My answer would be NO it is not.

The public, with the help of the hypocritical and fickle handed media are in serious danger of making the MP a dirty profession, forcing out the good and preventing anyone of worth from giving it a go.

As a final note - perhaps we could consider combining the roles of news reader and MP? Their profiles are not so different - Ann Widdecombe could take over from Natasha Kaplinski and maybe Gordon Brown could do the Weather?

Hmmm - Maybe not!

Safe Cycling awareness test - give it a go!

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 16:00:00 GMT

See you when i get back people! Skiing Hols are the best! (Jeremy Clarkson article)

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 08:14:00 GMT

Skiing through the pain barrier

Jeremy Clarkson

For your next holiday, why don’t you take all your money and put it on the fire? Then stand in a fridge for a week, beating your children with a baseball bat until their arms and legs break. And then, after you’ve eaten some melted cheese, dislocate your shoulder. If all of this appeals then you are probably one of the 1.3m British people who go on a skiing holiday at this time of year.
Skiing, for those of you who’ve never tried it, is an extremely expensive way of combining acute discomfort, butt-clenching embarrassment, mind-numbing fear and a light dusting of hypothermia. Plus there’s a better than evens chance that at least one member of your family will come home in a wheelchair.
The first thing you must understand is the ski boot. It is specifically designed to be as heavy as possible and to ensure that if you fall over – and you will, all the time – your leg will break at its most painful point: just above the ankle. The only way to prevent this happening is to cushion the fall with your face.
These holidays are called winter “breaks” because at some point you will end up in a doctor’s surgery that looks like a Baghdad market after a nail-bomb attack. Once, after I’d broken my thumb for the second year in succession, I sat in the waiting room with a chap who had a ski pole sticking out of his eye. And opposite was a pretty young girl whose left foot was on back to front.
Of course you might think it is possible to avoid such injuries by going very slowly. Unfortunately this is not possible because to counter the surprisingly powerful effects of gravity you need to dig the edges of your skis into the slope with such force that after a very short time your thigh muscles actually catch fire.
When the smell of burning flesh becomes too overpowering you let go, and suddenly you are travelling at 700mph. Then, equally suddenly, you will be breathing gas and air while the doctor sharpens his hacksaw.
This year, on my skiing holiday, the air ambulance was lifting five newly formed paraplegics off the mountain every day.
Falling over, however, is not the greatest danger. Far worse is being hit by a teenager with baggy trousers on a snowboard. Snowboarding is like skiing, except you have absolutely no control over your direction of travel, mostly because you will have had a lot of marijuana at lunch time.
It’s certainly better than eating the food. The food at ski resorts is cooked by people whose only qualification for the job is that they are called Arabella. Once, I was served salt soup. Mostly, though, it’s bread, which you dip in melted cheese.
And because you are expected to melt the cheese yourself, the Arabella has more time to have sexual intercourse with her surly French ski-instructor boyfriend.
I am a very good skier . . . in my mind. However, video evidence suggests that I’m rubbish. I look like a bus driver in a primary-coloured anorak, sitting on an imaginary lavatory. Also I can only turn right. So to mask my embarrassment, and the pain in my thighs, I ski only when very drunk. I can recommend this wholeheartedly.
However, what you must never do is ski while under the influence of Billy Idol. No, really. I can absolutely guarantee that within five seconds of putting an iPod in your ears one of your bones will shoot out of your skin.
Of course you might imagine that there are other things to do on a winter holiday apart from skiing. ’Fraid not. On a normal summer break you can sunbathe, swim, snorkel, jet ski and, if you like The Guardian, go to look at museums.
But on a skiing holiday what you do is get up at dawn, eat some salt soup and queue for hours to get on something that makes a Tube train look deserted. Then queue for some more hours because your place keeps being taken by burly Russians who have daggers tattooed on their foreheads. Then you ski until it goes dark.
You have probably heard about après-ski activities. In your mind, you see nightclubs and pretty girls and drinking fiery cocktails till dawn. Well, I’m sorry, but what actually happens is that you get back to your hotel or chalet, climb into a relaxing bath to try to jump-start your burnt-out muscles and fall fast asleep.
This is a good thing because in addition to the cost of the holiday and the flights and the ski rental and the lessons and the ski pass that lets you use the mountain, you will have been utterly bankrupted by your wardrobe. This year the cheapest pair of padded trousers we could find for my 13-year-old daughter were £250. And it’s not as if she can wear them anywhere else.
Finally there’s the weather. If it’s poor you will freeze and crash into things because you can’t see where you’re going. If it’s good – and over half-term it was very, very good – you will need sunglasses. And that means you will come home after a week with a face like a barn owl.
The thing is, though, that when the sun shines and you are whizzing along, drunk out of your mind, under a perfect blue dome with your happy, giggling children on a deserted, freshly pisted slope, and you’re about to have lunch in a restaurant with a view that is unparalleled anywhere on earth, none of the misery matters. Because there is no feeling quite like it. It’s called perfect happiness.

Virgin Atlantic Saving enough fuel (almost) to put Virgin Galactic into Space - what a joke

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 12:36:00 GMT

Virgin Atlantic became the first commercial airplane operator to fly a plane powered partially by palm oil this week. In a short but historic flight, one of the company's Boeing 747-400s flew more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) from London Heathrow Airport to Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, reaching a peak altitude of 25,000 feet (7,600 meters) during the 40-minute flight, with one of its four engines burning a blend of 20 percent coconut and babassu oils mixed with regular petroleum-based jet fuel.

"This pioneering flight will enable those of us who are serious about reducing our carbon emissions to go on developing the fuels of the future," Sir Richard Branson, president of Virgin Atlantic, said in a statement.

What i ask is - how serious can Richard Branson be about carbon emissions, when his goal of recent times, seems to be taking a family outing to Space with no expense (or fuel) spared.

Hypocritical times indeed.

Evil Eyes Baby!! Hilarious

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:53:00 GMT

Holy Cow, DIY Audi advert

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 14:24:00 GMT

Tom Cruise - Mission Insanity

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 09:35:00 GMT

I dont think i really need to say much about this. This video is so over-done, it could be from Tranformers or Spy Kids. Making himself look like a psychotic pseudo-nazi to the Mission Impossible theme. Genius. The insane passion of Tom Cruise for this ridiculous organisation is truly scary - and i worry for the ignorant legions of Bush voters that will no doubt subscribe to the brainwashing of this well-funded cult. Holy crap, this is unbelievable.

Ps watch out for the moments where Tom Cruise, saviour of 1 Billion earthlings laughs uncontrollably - but with a kind of unnerving underlying focus that leaves you extremely unsettled!

My own entertainment channel

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 17:04:00 GMT

I often visit my webjam pages - to update my blog, check my messages, and to muse over my musings. What with me working at Webjam and being a true advocate of all things Web, i am the dream publisher... i enjoy it, its interesting content (hopefully) and i have an audience (i force people to read).

I have endeavored to make the page as relevant and entertaining as possible.. there is radio, family guy youtube, my instant message addresses and a pacman game!

The problem i am encountering is - due to the miraculous cycle of fresh content - provided by the marvellous world wide web - i often spend more than half an hour, just absorbing MY OWN content!

I have created my own entertainment channel. It is a kind of underhand - yet totally unintentional way of putting my feet up and turning on the tele! Luckily writing a blog is a cathartic experience - like a digital confession box, so the quite piercing feeling of guilt (honest) has evaporated into pleasure!

Last.fm Windows Media Player Plugins

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 18:23:00 GMT

I have just discovered that if i enable the last.fm plug-in on windows media player - it researches the song/album being played through last.fm and suggests similar artists and reccomended users automatically! INCREDIBLE.

As a music lover and a technology lover, last.fm is the website of dreams - but it seems to me that cultural objects such as music, literature and the like are entwining themselves directly with the social graph. I could waffle for ages - but truly i am in wonderment at the mind-boggling developments that are afoot.

Ho HO HO

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 15:24:00 GMT

The Christmas season is upon us - i am trying this year to keep my cynicism to myself and enjoy it for what it can be, rather than what it is (a militant commercial event). So its all about Family, love, good will, snow and Mince pies - ho ho ho!

Things are never that simple however! In an age of commercialism, the children are never going to be happy - and families across the nation are sure to be served up the rancid food peddled by Iceland and the beyond irritating Miss Kerry Katona.

Web 2 point what?

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 13:44:00 GMT

What with me blogging nowadays, with my RSS feeds, widgets and general Internet plugin-ness, i think it would be fair to say that i indeed am a bonafide child of Web 2.0. For those of you who read this and think web 2 point what, do not worry, you are the quite significant majority, whatever your age. Let there be no mistaking, it is revolutionising the web, and the upshot of course is that ultimately it will change peoples lives. The tendency is, with being 'in the know' as it were, is to assume that it is a simple concept and well known term. That assumption kids, is wrong! Blogging, ten years old in its modern form, has only just reached public conciousness, and the majority of people who do know something about it tend to wonder 'whats the point'?.

I visited a well respected Brand agency yesterday, and i was asked whats the point, as well as posed with the comment that because of the shear number of them information overload has made them useless. Of course these comments could be dismissed as ignorant by the arrogant techy, who would point toward RSS, Tags, social bookmarking etc.. but i have to say, both comments were valid. The mass market have only just grasped the concept of the Blog, so Rss etc... NO CHANCE!

So next time you are approaching something with a spring in your step and Joie de Vivre Web 2.0 styleee with whatever project or activity your partaking of, remember - beyond web ad-land, no-ones going to have a frickin' clue what your talking about - treat people like idiots, they will appreciate it!

Reflections on a mash-up

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 10:13:00 GMT

The thing about blogging is - when you first start, it feels a bit forced, a bit - unnatural. After all, why would anyone want to listen to what you have to say. There are some who have the deep seated belief that they are the next Oscar Wilde - or even Chris Anderson, but dont they just come across as pretentious idiots?

Victoria Beckham started blogging a couple of weeks ago - which - providing such a window into her soul, could sound the death knell for any morsel of respect we reserve for her In all though i have decided to cast my vanity to one side, and plow on - expressing and recording my thoughts daily, who knows - someone could find it interesting!