Licence to Roam

WARNING: LIVEBLOGGED – not checked

Session 1: Producing Transmedia Experiences: Stories in a Cross-Platform World
As the production of transmedia experiences becomes more commonplace, this panel seeks to pick apart some of the tensions emerging around transmedia as creative practice. As a narrative form, what is transmedia anyway? How can we keep it from being more than a shorthand excuse for multi- or cross-platform narratives? Is it anything more than that? Need it be?

Focussing around a series of case-studies, this panel digs into questions around genre, interactivity, and franchising? Are there certain genre constraints to transmedia narratives, particular genres — science fiction, drama — better suited to become transmedia properties than others? What might a transmedia event built around a romantic comedy look like? What role does interactivity play in transmedia narratives? Can transmedia narratives be satisfying simply by distributing their narrative in lots of forms, or does an “effective” transmedia narrative require opportunities for the audience to “participate” in a more active way than simply interpreting and discussing amongst themselves? Does transmedia require room for the audience to take a narrative in their own directions?

Moderator: Jason Mittell – Middlebury College. Panelists: Brian Clark – Partner and CEO, GMD Studios; Michael Monello– Co-Founder & Creative Director, Campfire; Derek Johnson – University of North Texas; Victoria Jaye – Acting Head of Fiction & Entertainment Multiplatform Commissioning, BBC; Patricia Handschiegel – Serial Entrepeneur, Founder of Stylediary.net

• JM: asked our panellists to add their own definition of Transmedia Storytelling (TS)
• PH: founder of Nine; how we see it is a solution ot the fragmented market, takes that approach to it; I bring that mindset into new places
• DJ: a definition is a cultural experience that is shared and proliferated across channels. There is a place for adaptations etc, one of the strengths is about thinking about all the different ways that it can be done.  My interest is about the media franchise, eg IP that is shared by multiple sites of production
• VJ: we don’t use TS much we tend to use the world multi-platform. they unfold across multiple places, to encourage discovery and access. We see the lifecycle of our content expanded by this world.   Expand reach, innovate and provide a platform for new talent etc.
• MM: founded Campfire, does things like True Blood.  I tend to shoot down all terms for what we do but not having an answer. It’s about freedom as a story teller, freedom from gatekeepers, freedom to tell stories in way that are unconstrained.
• BC: Mike and I both come from independent media, excited by the opposite to what HJ said. TS is the result of freedom of talent, not the goal. I tend to use the goal of experience design, interested in the performance relationship as well. It’s not about designing for each box at the time, which seems to be the TV model. It’s about making narratives about of everyday consumption
• JM: not always clear what examples people share? So I asked the panel to come along with an example to discuss.
• BC: wants to talk about an original IP we are doing – a techno-thriller. A few years ago we created an experience where we would get people lost. we had 38 hours of character immersion. we watched it all. we did not hide cameras everywhere, but we could have. The idea of losing ocntrol, of letting the audience be part of the narrative, the active protagonists of it, reshapes the idea of all media we touch, about getting it early in process.
• MM: HBO and true Blood. In writers strike, we met then, looked at building websites, about 20 of them. no connecting story, just sites that should exist outside the show. The HBO said we could not put up a bunch of sites, needed a story. We were tasked with the story of how the vampires had come out the coffin, how true Blood was developed. We had 2m views of the online episode for a show that had not been promoted. We created the framework, then we had ad agencies working off the framework. For Series 2, we were asked to reflect on how the world had changed, we worked with Gawker to integrate the blog into their network.  there were lots of issues, about control, (eg if on Gawker, it had to be written by Gawker etc)
• VJ: (played showreal) – Strictly; Ashes to Ashes, Dragons Den, Online Psychic test; The Apprentice; Just a Minute remix; Being Human.  The breadth of what we are doing – amplifying our tv programmes. One example is around a soap opera. Eastenders, The forma website is high traffic, as part of the 25 anniversary, we have commissioned 13 young writers to create a new story, of 4 students who move it. A new point of view on the characters.
• DJ: I don’t make them, I study them. Interested in the way properties are shared and co-produced. Worked with Marvel, spoke with people in a wide production network of people sharing the same world. Marvels exemplifies the breadth of production practice; it’s not just one company managing it but several. With Ironman, the studios practiced a production based licensing model, had close interaction between film and game makers.  Even though the game was badly reviewed, but it was still a cohesive story.   But animated Ironman adventures, was a different Ironman, to target a different market.   Marvel Ultimate Alliance game features Ironman, but a different version. Used the same character but little co-ordination of story.  So interested in the many different ways they are done
• PH: The New Power Girls, based on an audience of women who are trying to be moguls. we look to create content across platform that is palatable.  We create end to end content, with all elements, with own monetisation for each piece.   A blog, (NPG daily) with TV shows, it’s not just about getting them engaged but useful for whatever platform
• JM: so the 7 principles that Henry talked about – which are most relevant for the panel.
• BC: Still reflecting on how many are true when not TS. a lot is still variations on reader response and implied relationship on reader/author and how that is being stretched. Especially when it feels more intimate.  For TS, I know the audience as well as the audience knows me. When Someone come sand says they like the Art of the Heist I ask their username, and have a shared experience about it. It’s about the idea of Multiplicity makes me most exciting. a work does not have to be some finished piece, its the roll between the teller and the audience
• MM: for me, the direct interaction with the audience. the first experience was Blair Witch, it went on for 8 months before a bible was built. the story emerged in direct contact with audience and still in contact with some of them.
• JM: can I quote your twitter….MM you wrote…performance of the creator is essential (not just fans)
• MM: too often is see with clients, they want to lock down a world. They get nervous if audience tries to create things that feels like canon. The storyteller is in the midst of the performance.  You have to deal with what the audience brings you; there is active participation and I react to the audience and change as it goes along.  In Heist we built a story and 2 weeks after launch it was gone and we changed.
• BC: When you point a camera at something, you are capturing the performance; it is not just documentation, The relationship is changing,
• VJ: the catalytic power of performance is what creates the drillability, how this transforms into audience performance in response to this. Drillability chimes enormously, the hunger of fans for extra story, or proximity of talent. It’s a Hygiene factor, we have to have other sites, if we don’t then the BBC has not done it’s job
• PH: our audience participation is in the community where the PG share online.
• DJ: on drillability, we talk about what can the users investigate. So for the Producers, how does this impact, the ability to produce more, or licencees have the ability to drill more into a property.
• JM: Comics are interesting, multi-authored by design. a set of stable characters, but you know there will be shifts in authorships.   Many of them focus on non-realistic genres. For genres, what opens up for the producers when talking about a non-fantastic genere – eg Eastenders. What are the limits? What pre-existing properties seem ripe for this. Or are their properties that are difficult?
• BC: you tend to see more escapist genres at the birth of an artform. Horror and scifi, existing fanbases, this is low hanging fruit. I got stuck with The Lakehouse! there are some stories that do not provide enough universe to get it started. I want to see a comedy, I want to see the opportunities explored.
• VJ: consistent motivations for the audience, get involved, connect, drill down, take part in action. The creative expression is different for different genres.  So Playalong, light interaction, instant gratification for Entertainment properties. Interactivity etc, I-TV. For Comedy, engagement triggers are sharing funny stuff, shortform video, It pens up the canvas and other forms – puppets, magic, animation, expands it. Drama – more conventionally in TS, for soap opera etc.  We have to be clear on where the audience is in their journeys,, we have to be clear where the fanbase is. With Eastenders is a lot more handholding.  Eve if we point to the website after each show, most EE audience are not aware of it.
• PH: all is non-fiction. Reality shows. it is not fantasy. In the past, Bravo used it a lot as a marketing channel; so now we have to ask what the audience wants. A lot is to touch the characters.  
• BC: so want to do a puppet show!
• DJ: PH does the ability to play a little, share your interaction with audiences. Is it more about creating a system them a story world.
• VJ: the desire for audience to measure and understand themselves, the web allows this. Eg Sex/gender quiz. It is about extending learning journeys through content.  More product driven approach, ef wildlife, food recipe, earth news. There is a category approach for knowledge, and still a lot of innovation.  Adam Curtis – He created a ‘kit’ to describe a journey, movies and documentary, immersive theatrical things.
• JM: About the audience, you can know your audience, you can conceive ideas about the group…when you are talking about an emergent property, how do you concieve of the group before it starts. Is it from the client, this demo etc, or from the storyteller POV. And then there is reality, so how do you cope?
• BC: so an ad agency would say….our aspiration customer is an 18-24 yo girl in her first job who want to be taken seriously, our real is a 45-55 men who is cheap!  But everyone has a sense of narrative. You get the client to tell the narrative, it becomes more goal orientated.   you have a concept, but it’s an internal justification to allow you to tell the story anywhere. In TS it is a highly interactive process. If it has not launched publically, it has not happened.  In most cases, the narrative is far richer if iterative. haters are a problem, dealing with them that is the real test and most frequently the rest of the audience works out a way yo deal with them
• MM: for original projects, it always starts with the story.  Once you have the story, you can envisage the audience. For marketers, it is about trying to draw out who is the real audience and then looking at their behaviours.
• DJ: it’s about Multiplicity, you don’t have a single audience, you can’t please all of them all the time, you have to do different things. 
• PH: it’s the most critical element in storytelling. We have to know our category. We don’t create for brands, but we have clients, we have to keep our finger on the pulse, know what will sell, what the audiences are.
• MM: the goal is emotional goal. it drives everything else. If you make this you can do a lot. 
• VJ: we are clear abut having an audience agenda on commissioning. Largely it’s fans we are pitching the ideas at, those with a high level of engagement. Too many producers underestimate the appetite for the multiplatform content.  You can get producers who over-estimate it though, there is danger of too much expectations, have to get the right reasons.
• MM: one thing I find disappointing, the gatekeepers tend to view the audience as ‘freaks’ or obsessives,
• JM: is the primary goal to TS to motivate people who would not get involved or those who are fans anyway?
• BC: for independents the web is a way to build an audience before you are done. you can share what you are making in the process; you can shape what you are making and loyal fanbase.
• MM: we had about 1000 people on list a year before it…they had ALL connected with it. Those 1000 fans, called shows to talk about; called Sundance to ask for the film. they called the cinemas asking for the film.  We had a core fanbase and it grew and then we reset the topline experience to attract new people and had another layer to connect with the originals. So we had 2 levels.
• JM: so today, can we do 2 levels etc?
• MM: absolutely, the most difficult challenge to do
• BC: but is this a false dichotomy.   We did some work on 39 Clues, with Scholastic,. It was designed for multi-channels, To send readers who wanted the Owl to know that they had moved if they were going to get the Owl letter inviting them to Hogwarts.. We created something to make it real – letters back to the kid
• VJ: fan management has a bif deal. it is not something that we are skilled with. As we socialise our content, we have a relationship. Some fans are really hard core..we have had to increase management 3x on message boards as the fans are not happy with the way the show is going. this puts off new people, who just want to chat. so how do we host conversations that are worthwhile and fun, this is causing some issues. There are use cases on other platforms, some want to just catch up, others want more immersive, others want to add fictions etc
• PH: No, the goal is to reach audience where they are at.  fragmentation is what happens..it is to reach them, lots don’t watch TV, they want different behaviours. TS is to reach peple
• DJ: what VJ is talking about is a central tension; how to leverage TS in a way that is managed. Central vs decentralised. It’s not about shutting down, but incorporating
• PH: fostering the community allows them to play a part int he management – they can do things to regulate.
• JM: is it the tension between control of property and the audience.  But what’s the tension between the various producers interest.
• MM: this a legal issue. Compromise is needed
• BC: there’s no framework for it. If there’s a no risk attitude then it won’t work
• MM: tension between audience and canon/created. In most cases it’s clear and most people move between OK.  But a lot of tension is between the creators/partners. I often come in via marketing. But you have partnerships, like with Gawker. So only Gawker could write content on Gawker, We had to create content for Gawker writers to write about.  It seemed Gawker were not prepared to deal with fans of the show..and there seemed to have been a lack of comms between marketing and editorial.  Content in advertising spaces – upset when advertising does not act like advertising.  It put off the fans – the story focused on Gawker and their attitude.  We shy away from it more..if media is creating content on behalf of advertisers.
• BC: but independent is still full of lots of partners, creators, who are specialists, You need to get a whole load of people who would not necessarily work together. There is tension there as well
• MM: on Blair Witch, we saw the need early to create a Bible, then handed it to licensors. Comic etc . When they added stories we would look at it to see if would be added to canon.
• VJ: We are a broadcaster, moving towards being a content provider. A big shift. Many producers are less familiar, less excited,  They feel it’s about visibility. Some of the younger get it, they invest in it from the start, that is when it cuts through with the audience. They sell in as a rounded project. we have had most success when this happens. Comedians and comedy world really get it. Sometimes you have to re-engineer shows to recognise it. There are real challenges form talent as well, about signposting this stuff. So many things to balance.  It’s complex. In commissioning, we have to understand strategically what we are trying to achieve and which of the hurdles we are prepared to tackle,
• PH: we are coming in with an end-to-end franchise, well thought out, and that is why we doing well. It is becoming more about thinking before hand, not add-on.
• DJ: so TS, talking about bridges across different production studios. It’s not even. So with Marvel, then film is always the lead – even if it a comic book company. cultural issues of prestige and value and meanings, have shaping influencers.
• JM: so how do you define success and failure.  When does it work and for whom
• VJ: there are very blunt tools. we don’t have th overnight measures. We have reach metrics etc. Reach/Quality/ Impact/Value for Money. We set out things before a project. So entertainment may be focusing on Impact.  For others it is reach…a big show that does not have a lot of numbers is a failure. So Quality, recommendations is another measure. We map out in advance. so we know what we sign up for. We are now getting a sense of the numbers. Simple light, well-executed, thought through are best. nothing much has changed – performance, story telling, timing etc is the same.  It’s   of tools, be strategic about what you use.
• BC: back to the pastiche idea. Any success you want to prove, there are metrics already. I look for metrics that our clients are already bought into and how do you use these metrics. Eg advertising ROI and marketing efficiency.
• JM: as a storyteller, when do you feel you have done something that has worked?
• BC: no two films have the same goal etc.  there are diferent goals. There is no one metric of success.
• MM: do you have fans (as a storyteller)
• DJ: so the implicit question is why is something valued. It is easier to measure commercial success. 
• BC: it is hard to prove transmedia sometimes So what produced what, everything has a synergistic lift effect. So movie clients are amongst the most difficult, How do you show a dent with $100m movie marketing budget

(Now onto questions)

For the next couple of days I’m going to be liveblogging from the Futures of Entertainment conference being held at MIT. The sessions are long and intense – so expect some long posts!

Twitter Lists got widely released this past week and people are trying to get their head round what they mean. It’s a slow process categorising people, as there’s no quick way to put people into lists. With a new tool and a slow process, I think it’s going to take a while before user behaviour and list norms get established. It hasn’t stopped people putting their opinions out there though. Chris Brogan has decided he does not like the lists:

Immediately, I realized what I’m not going to like about them: they will exclude people. Sure, on the one hand, they’re a great way to group people and information together. For instance, I might make a list for news feeds. I might make a list about travel, like hotels and airlines. But the minute you move into the people department, things get sketchy quick.

Scoble responds:

Sorry Chris, but life isn’t fair. Steve Gillmor tells me all the time I’m not in control of how people view me. That’s why I don’t feel bad about lists I’m not on. I CAN control my own lists, though, and even when I do my own lists I leave myself off of most of them. That does NOT make me feel bad.

He gives examples of lists that are obviously exclusionary by nature, eg VCs; they’re a fairly objective description of what a person is, so lists like this are self-selecting. The problems that Chris refers are are going to more prevalent when lists are more about what a person is like, when it starts to move towards personal, subjective viewpoints; that’s when feelings are going to get hurt, in the same way that they can be if a person is not followed back. (because unfortunately that’s what people are like).

Another set of posts are about what lists are for – which this one probably falls into. As Alan says on Twitter, there was always bound to be one about how lists are the new measure of influence

Twitter Influence (screenshot from Twitter)

On that linked post, Todd Zeigler says

I think Twitter Lists will end up helping separate the men from the boys when it comes to influence. In addition to seeing a Twitter users follower count, we can now see the number of other Twitter users who have added them to lists (example to the right). I would argue that getting added to a list is a bigger deal than simply getting someone to follow you.

And some are already acting on that, with mashable.com basically begging to be added to lists. But as I said earier, I think it’s still too early to determine where lists will go. Being on a list labelled ‘idiots’ or ‘met’ or ‘Bristol’ is not a measure of influence because the lists are being used for a different reason than to categorise expertise in an area.

So I’m going to examine ways in which I think may be used, having taken a look around the developing list frenzy. I think there could 3 main ways that people will categorise things

• To organise the information for themselves. With no thought of others, the lists are there to see sub-sections of the people and entities they follow. From what I’ve seen, this will be the most common use, reflecting the personalised nature of Twitter usage for groups.
• To organise information for others. These will be people who will do the most talking of about the lists, about how good they are, how they will replace the SUL and follow friday. They provide the lists to help others find good stuff (or to demonstrate their influence)
• As a temporary element, around a conference or an event – a list of people attending, a way of pulling all the tweets together.

So how are list users categorising tweeters? Here’s a few methods that I’ve seen so far.

• By their relationship, eg met is a common name at the moment, also buddies, best mates etc
• By their employment, eg company lists, or job type lists, such as Rackspace, or journalists
• By their perceived expertise or role, eg social media, programming
• By their perceived social role, eg connectors, celebs
• By Geography eg London
• By type, eg news, objects, organisational tweets.
• By perceived worth, eg cool, interesting,
• favourite

So how are you using your lists?

I love how even an august organisation such as the BBC can sometime have typos (yes, I know I have no leg to stand on with the frequency of mine)

BBC Baloon

I like the idea of augmented reality, the idea that using a device (usually a mobile) I can get more out of the world. For someone who sits watching TV with the laptop, so I can dig into more information about what I’m watching, being able to do that on the move would be great. Yes, I can look it up via the web, but it can be easier to have it all pulled together.

Whenever I talk about the subject, I bring up my most desired application. Tube stations and restaurants tourist places and all that are fun and useful but I want something with a bit of depth, and that depth is time. I want a history tool. I want to be able to walk around London and know that Marble Arch used to be Tyburn. That this is the path of the Fleet. That Trafalgar Square used to be the Royal Mews. Point my phone at something and it would offer me the chance to move back and forward in time, giving me information about what it was. In some places, where the images are there, I want to see what it looked like. A perfect example is the paintings on the walls of one of the Tube tunnels at Charing Cross, which gives you street plans and drawings of buildings of the area. Let’s put that on the phone.

This isn’t a simple mash-up, it’s not pulling ready-made data together, because as far as I know, it’s not there. We’ll have to build the database, turn into historians to pull it together. I think that Layer is a possibility, with the ability to create data sets. This is what I want, but I have no idea how to build it..anyone out there doing it already?

Update: I went along to Mobile Monday London yesterday and ended up chatting about this app. A few more ideas got developed.

• The database element and app itself appears to be fairly simple. It needs to use the location and retrieve the data for that location, and then be able to move through the different time layers.
• Collecting content is more difficult. There could be ways of partnering with museums, ie Museum of London, or other local museums. A great source would be local history groups, that often have specialised archives. It should be possible to allow users to develop the content, around a specific location.

Twitter is currently broken, it’s stopped sending out updates. But the search is still working, so you can see that everyone is still using Twitter to tweet that it’s broken!

Twitter Broken

Interesting. Twitter is now providing explanations for trending topics, which makes good sense giving sometimes you just don’t get it. Here’s the explanation for one of the ones tonight, where man of the tweets are in Portuguese.

Twitter Trend Explanation

I’ve been lucky this year in that I’ve had a Sky subscription through a friend which was part of an offer, so I pay nothing this year. I’ve never felt the need to get additional channels or pay a TV monthly subscription, so this was really an experiment to see how I liked it. And it’s been good, I’ve added a couple of programmes to my watch list and the Sky+ box works well (although not as nicely as my Tivo).

However, I have a HD TV so thought about upgrading to the HD box and service. This is when I run into the problem – if I upgrade I lose the other deal. So instead of paying £9.75 for the next few months, I have to pay the full £30 or so. Which is completely ridiculous. The service is good enough for me to consider upgrading, which means they’re going to keep me after the initial year’s end but they put this barrier up, which means I will now consider alternatives. Silly short term thinking, not long term lifetime value thinking.

• Summer in the City, Pauline McLynn. Following the lives of a group of people living on one close in London, it’s initially confusing, as you try and work out who all these people are and how they are connected, but it all starts to make sense and come together nicely. Everything ends well, a good story
• The Dirty Secret Club, Meg Gardiner, US Thriller about a forensic psychologist who constructs the state of mind of dead people, playing a central role in the cracking of a murder plot. A little over the top, but good read.
• Azincourt, Bernard Cornwell, Cornwell turns his attention to the 100 Years War, focusing on a bowman who marches with Henry V, ending at Agincourt. Basically, this is Sharp but just set in a different period. Same type of hero who gets through battles despite the odds, war and battles and same writing style.
• Kings of Albion, Julian Rathbone Another historical novel, this time set in the War of the Roses, what happened when the English got fed up of fighting the French for a while and decided to fight each other. The style vould not have been different, focusing on a ‘tourists’ version of visiting the English, full of satire and subtle comedy.
• Uglies, Scott Westerfeld. I’d read a lot about how good a YA book it is, but I was slightly disappointed at it, because it was not as expected. I still loved the book but for some reason, I expected something different (although not sure what!). No matter, it was still an excellent read, telling the tale of Tally, growing up in a world where on reaching the age of 16 you get to become a ‘pretty’, get made beautiful and move into the adult world. But all is not what it seems.
• Trust Me, Jeff Abbot. A familiar tale – in fact, Id read something similar recently – of circumstances pushing an ‘innocent’ on the run, where they learn more about themselves and those around them. Here it’s all tied into global terrorism conspiracies. However, it’s going to be most memorable to me as the first book I’ve read where Twitter is namechecked and plays a small part of the plot.
• Silks Dick Francis. Another strongly plotted racing thriller, this time co-written with his son. I’ve got a lot of his books, always awell put together story.

originally uploaded by RachelC.

This ad is for Artificial Insemination, for egg donors. And it completely annoys me whenever I see it, because it’s wrong, all wrong. Not because the idea is wrong, but the maths is.

(if you haven’t studied basic inheritance, a child gets half of its chromosomes ie genes from each parent. So a child only ever has 50% of the two biological parent’s genes. So when you use donor genetic material, replacing one part of a couple’s contribution, the child will only have 25% of their genes)

A Press Release with reference to me

TWENTYSIX LAUNCHES TWENTYSIX SOCIAL MEDIA

It was announced today that full service digital agency twentysix is launching a dedicated business unit to provide brands with much-needed support in the world of social media.

The new division, called twentysix social media, provides in-depth analysis of the social media landscape, strategies and plans for organisations to take advantage of this route to market and ways to build and maintain dialogue and brand interactions online.

It is headed by Rachel Clarke, head of social media, who joined twentysix after working for Diageo and JWT New York. Her expertise in social media is drawn from working with some of the world’s biggest brands as well as her own online presence through the Behind the Buzz and DigitalStuffing blogs.

Rachel comments: “ Many public and private sector organisations need to know more about how to best connect with customers through social media, whether networking sites, interest groups or the many others ways of receiving and distributing content and information. Currently, very few get it right first time.”

twentysix social media offers a range of services all of which cover every aspect of the online community and, crucially, allow brands to measure their success . These services include strategy and brand planning, campaign set up and monitoring through to asset creation, activity stream delivery and measurement.

Gail Dudleston, CEO of twentysix, adds: “This is a really exciting development for twentysix and complements our existing agency proposition. ‘Full service’ means covering every possible angle of digital communications and social media is a vital part of that equation. Having the expertise and knowledge in house is really important to us and our clients. A lot of clients and prospects have spoken with us about social media, underlining the need for a specialist division to handle it. We aim to deliver expert guidance across every part of the social media spectrum.”

Update: this becomes even more confusing.

• First of all, Amazon’s response was that it was policy
• Then they blamed a ‘glitch’.
• Then a troll came out of the woodwork and announced to the world that he had done it, through clickjacking and other means
• Now an ex-employee Amazon blames the French, or at least a French employee, who conflated the scope of the word ‘adult’ to include the erotic
• Now Amazon call it “an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error” affecting over 57000 books

A cataloguing error, a lack of response from Amazon followed by confusing messages and a lot of jumping to conclusions (including me) led to a social media storm that can only damage the reputation of the brand. As BL says, you need to think about how you monitor your brand all the time, not just 9-5 Mon-Fri; although Amazon did appear to be responsive over the weekend even if the answers were not fully clear.

According to Amazon, they’ve been having a ‘glitch’ over the weekend that has stripped the sales ranking form a number of books, thereby reducing the likelihood of the books appearing in searches, so impacting sales.

The only problem with this is that the glitch appears to affect gay/lesbian/sex titles only and even then the impact is inconsistent, which is unexpected if there was a logic behind it. Playboy and Girls Gone Wild is not adult under the glitch, but literature with a gay themes is, even when there’s no sex written about. Apparently, before they called it a glitch, they had called it a policy according to the email received by Mark Probst

In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude “adult” material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.

If you’re on Twitter, or have been reading feeds over the weekend, you’ll have seen this. It appears that the power of public opinion, published all over the web has forced Amazon to update a policy to a glitch and then to fix it. But is it enough to rescue their reputation or the new meaning of Amazon Rank

On Thursday evening, the CIPR ran a session for not-for-profit PR types and for bloggers interested in the same, as part of their Fifth Estate activities. The evening was set up casually, with wine and nibbles and a short overview of social media to introduce the topic; the rest of the evening was spent in conversation. Although at times I felt like I was just their to offer free consultancy, in the whole it was a good night with plenty of questions asked. The PR people wanted to learn and asked a lot of great questions. I think I had 4 key conversations:

• The group behind the Great Gorilla Run, supporting Gorillas in Africa had a lot of questions about connecting with their supporters the rest of the year, not just around the time of the race.
• A great conversation with someone who was new to using online tools but not new to social media, if you view that as getting out their, spreading the knowledge, talking , discussing, writing white papers and all that stuff. He already had all the behaviours, just needed to try a different set of tools.
• One charity who looks to develop entrepreneurial behaviour in teens. An interesting discussion about how to reach with children who are not in school and not working
• A discussion about local council usage, message boards, community management and staffing requirements. Plus about not sending out press releases as attachments!

One key thing I siad 3 or 4 times during the evening was about ASKING the people yu are trying to conenct with for ideas. If the charity is unsure how to use these tools, there’s a good chance that some of their active volunteers and supporters have a better idea, so how about involving them?

Overall a good evening and I’d be interested in doing something similar again.

I use a few location services.

• Dopplr to record my travels. You can see them all on the MyTravels section of the site
• Brightkite. Because it is a nice little mobile connection and has connections out but I’m not using it a lot at the moment. It won’t take a feed from Dopplr, but will feed into that service.
• Fireeagle. Simple, all it does it record where you are and then act as a hu to other services. I like it to use it like that, at the centre of things, but not everything is quite there yet with the other services.
• Google Lattitude. I’ve just started using, especially the mobile version, and quite like it.

I’ve been playing around with all the services over the last week and have been thinking about ways I’d like to add some control. I’m not a power user of these in anyway, but like to just play around with them

• Connectivity. Google is particularly bad, it does not appear to have any. From past experience, it’ll likely be a while before it does. What I’d like to be able to do is have Fireeagle as the hub and be able to control and feed in and out from the other services. I’m likely to drop Brightkite if Google had this – I only need one mobile version.
• Location Setting. Latitude allows you to decide to set your location manually or automatically. But it only has this per account, I’d like to be able to do this per device. I’d like anything from the computer to be set manually and anything from a mobile device to be automatic (well usually)
• Granualarity. Fireeagle allows you to tell other services your location at different levels – exact, area, city. Google seemed to miss that nicety, in allowing you to define who can see what. Every service should have the ability to fuzz things.
• Exclusion zones. I’d like to be able to set exclusion zones, so that a service will never display you at certain points (like personal addresses). When I start to approach these zones, the location becomes fuzzy, moving around a bit. I’d like to be able to turn this on at a click of a button – say if I’m visiting somewhere. I may tweet that I’m with someone but want to be able to fuzz out the location.

I think that will do for now.

You’ll have probably seen this a few times, but Twittersheep do a word analysis of the bios of your followers. I saw this when it first came out, but didn’t try it, as they were looking for username and password. They’ve fixed that problem and now you can just add your (or another) username. Then you get something like the image below. So the people following me are interested in this stuff – which means I must provide somekind of information that meets the need. I’m not sure how accurate the sizes are – I’m pretty sure “bre ♥ twittersheep” is only in one bio, so there’s something a little weird going on. It’s fun though.

In the 2009 Michelin Guide, there are 8 restaurants in London that newly have a star. A plan was hatched, to visit them all the new ones this year.

• Chapter One, Bromley British type restaurant with main courses from £16.50 at dinner, I like dishes such as Pressed Rabbit & Foie Gras Terrine, Cranberries, Mushrooms, Truffle Mayonnaise & Roasted Apples (a starter) and Slow Roast Belly of Packington Pork, Choux Crout, Baby Leeks, Caramelised Onions, Apple & Pork Jus. This is a re-entry after they lost their star a couple of years ago
• St John, Clerkenwell. This is a restaurant that does nose-to-tail eating, which does not appeal too much to me, I’m fairly conservative, but I’m happy to give it a go. Definitely British food, mains this evening include faggots and peas at £15, which I quite like.
• Ambassade de L’Ile, South Kensington. Definitely French with a name like that, it’s only been open 7 months. They have a 3 course set lunch for £30 and do a 7 course for £90! (may be a bit beyond the budget). dishes this month include steamed Scallop with Lobster coral Nage and black truffle and Mille-feuille of Pot au feu.
• Hélène Darroze at The Connaught, Mayfair. Big hotel, only open during the week and with an inability to turn their menus into HTML, it does 3 courses at lunch for £39 or dinner for £75. The menu is French, with things like le Saint-Pierre de Ligne and La Perdrix Grise, neither of which I recognise so it could be an interesting meal.
• Kai, Mayfair. And now for something completely different – Chinese. (although same problem as the previous restaurant with pdf menus). I knew this was not your regular Chinese when I saw it did Peking Duck for £118 (it is for 2 over 2 courses though!); it does a more reasonable Szechuan Chicken for £16
• Murano, Mayfair. Mayfair has it’s fair share. This is a Gordon Ramsay restaurant with a set lunch for £25 or 3 course dinner for £55 with options such as Carnaroli risotto, gorgonzola and apple, fresh walnuts and Roasted turbot, potato galette, wild mushroom duxelle and cep velouté.
• Semplice, Mayfair. This is Italian, with mains from £16 and pasta from £9. I like the look of Pheasant ravioli with potatoes and thyme sauce or Roast Chicken breast with taleggio fondue, french beans and hazelnuts, tomatoes and white wine sauce
• L’Autre Pied, Marylebone. Another French offerings, with mains around £18, they also do lunch or pre-theatre 3 courses for £20.95 with dishes such as Pithivier of Game, Savoy Cabbage, Celeriac Purée, Puy Lentils and Red Wine Sauce

The plan is to get together a group to try them out over the year, to get out there regularly. So if you want to volunteer, let me know

I’ve been digging into some history, of the house and into some of the things hanging around.

First up we have an old EKCO radio, with the various choices of Gram, Long, Medium and VHF for wavelength choices.

Then we have an old Corgi Simon Snorkel Fire Engine, model 1127. You’ll see quite a few of these for sale around the web but none quite like this. Grandad was the Chief Rate Fixer/Engineer at the Simon factory in Dudley having moved there from the Simon factory in Stockport in 1959 to start a new production site for the engine. When the first sample models were delivered to the team from Corgi, he was pretty upset that the toy manufacturer’s had got it wrong and painted the whole thing red. So he painted the lift white to demonstrate what it was supposed to look like and apparently got into a big argument with them. But he didn’t win it, as the production model still has the lift painted red.

Hope you all have a great day.

I love this, from overthinkingit.com. 40 inspirational speeches all cut together. Do you know all the films?

Survivors, a re-imaging of the 70′s series devised by Terry Nation, started last night on the BBC and there was a minor Twitter flurry of discussion about it. There’s been mixed reaction to the episode, including these from Jason, and from Savage Popcorn.

One common question that popped up is what would you do in that situation, how would you rebuild. Well, the odds are that you, or me, or most of everyone would be dead anyway. The show said something like 90% infection, which would still leave 6million in the UK alive, but the impression was there were a lot more dead than that. Even if you weren’t killed in the first infection, you’re going to have to be lucky and good to escape ongoing death from disease, cold or starvation in the first year or so.

The first episode ended with our group of heroes finally meeting and wondering what to do next – only one of them had done any thinking and collecting of goods to get to the next stage. The rest seemed woefully inadequate in their outlook. But, if, by some chance, you did survive, would you have any idea of what you would have to do? I thought I’d throw up some thoughts – and these have been done with no research, just mulling around what would need to be put in place. I’m pretty sure if I looked, I could find a whole bunch of websites giving me the information I needed. One assumption is that there is enough stuff around to survive the first month or so. Canned food, bottled water and transport with available fuel, to get to somewhere. This is about longer term thinking.

• Key things are shelter, water, food and sanitation. You’ll need a place to live, which has its own water supply – a well or a spring – and has arable land to grow food. Ideally, it should be defensible; law and order won’t be around and humans tend to fight a lot, especially over resources. A septic system would be a advantage.
• Ideally, you’d want to be away from any nuclear plants and from prevailing winds that could bring radiation. I’m not sure how safe these plants are with no electricity, no water and no manning, but some may go boom.
• You’ve found your farm, castle or where ever it is. (I fancy Windsor Castle actually, but probably a little too close to major population centres for the start, so it would be smelly and potentially disease prone in the beginning.) Now you need to start stocking it. First of all, work out where to get fuel, stock up some tanks so you have transport as long as possible. Go and raid supermarkets and get enough food (tinned, dried) for at least a year.
• Find a library/book store and grab lots of practical books for the things below. Also writing things and lots of paper, so you can start recording the new history.
• Hope the farmer had a shotgun and rifle, if not, go find some. You won’t be the only one, you’ll probably have to defend your place and you can go hunting.
• Tools – axes, knives, carpentry, farming, scissors. As much as you can
• Find some generators. You’ll need to have the option as you build up for the longer term
• Clothes and linen- stock up with tough stuff, it’s going to have to last. Store a lot for future use – including material. You’re going to have to learn to weave at some point but t may have a lower priority than starting the food supply.
• Growing things. Find agricultural suppliers and get everything you can – seed, fertiliser, pesticides.
• Animals – sheep for wool, cows for milk, meat and leather, pigs for meat, chickens for eggs and meat. Rabbits, guinea pigs and all the small stuff could be good.
• Farming. you may have a tractor and enough fuel for one year, but longer term I’d be looking for a plough and some horses. You should probably grab some horses for transport as well, along with some bikes
• Medicine. It’s not going to last, but grab what you can. Antibiotics, diarrhoea medicine, painkillers, antiseptics. (Stock up on soap as well). Iodine tablets may be useful as well

Now, you have to learn how to use all these things, how to farm, how to metalsmith, how to manage sanitation. A bit of medicine.

What have I missed, what else would you add to the list to gather and control in the first year?