Puffbox

I mentioned last week that I’d been approached by Nike to appear in their current campaign to promote the (fantastic) Nike+ iPod gadget thing. Well, the results appeared on Good Friday, and can be seen here on Nike’s own website, or here on Runner’s World. And whilst the line about ‘meet living proof that rules are for breaking‘ is very much their wording rather than mine, I’m just a little bit proud of it. Oh, and if you’re interested… see the red gash above my right eye in the main photo? That’s where my daughter came crashing down on my head, teeth-first.

(You know what? Reading that back before I hit ‘publish’, I sound really rather casual about the whole ‘I’m in a Nike advert’ thing. I can assure you, I’m not.)

Google Maps has now added a ‘My Maps‘ feature, whereby you can create your own annotated maps, with text, photos and video in the ‘bubbles’. It makes the process very easy, but I hesitate to call it a ‘mashup’ – surely that has to require two live data sources (like this)? A few nice extra touches though: the ability to draw polygons (which isn’t easy to do manually); the ability to export in KML format for Google Earth; and (according to O’Reilly) integration with local searching. Possible uses: catchment areas, ward/constituency boundaries… etc etc.

I’m helping to put together a business proposal for a new client, based around blogging (although we’re trying not to use the word). I wanted to explain how blogging tools generally encourage a more natural, personal, engaging style of communication. But I can’t decide if this is as a result of:

• the flexibility inherent in the typical blog platform; or
• the inflexibility inherent in the typical blog platform.

Flexibility, because you’ve generally got a rich formatting, WYSIWYG-ish, Word-style authoring interface. The ability to create and add new subject tags at will. You can do more or less everything yourself, with no need to work through the IT Department. Being able to reskin your content with (relative) ease.

Inflexibility, because they work a certain way, and you’re stuck with it. One content type (admittedly with minor variations available in certain systems). You don’t waste time thinking about how you would customise a certain aspect, because you can’t customise anything. Call it ‘freedom through restriction’ or something. Anyone know of a smarter description than that?

Speaking of inflexibility… if you’ve never heard Barry Schwartz speak about ‘the paradox of choice’, you really should spend twenty minutes watching this (or listening to it).

I’ve just become the very proud owner of a Nokia E65 mobile phone, on 3’s unlimited data X-Series deal. Since most of my phone use is data, rather than incoming or outgoing calls, it seemed like the sensible option. And I have to say, the E65 is gorgeous! A good solid slider action, a wonderfully crisp screen, and loads of functionality (including Skype and MSN Messenger).

The only initial headache was getting it to sync with my PC – which, when you keep all your appointments and contacts digitally, is a serious issue. Try as I might, I couldn’t get Nokia’s PC Suite v6.82 to work with my PC. I could connect to the phone, and send files over to it, but the sync’ing application refused to work. Then, hurrah! Nokia release v6.83 this morning, and it works perfectly first time.

One tip for anyone thinking of 3’s X-Series tariffs… the X-Series site implies that you have to buy the handset for £49.99, and sign up to a £40 or £45/month tariff for 18 months. But if you go via the 3 online store, and construct the deal manually by choosing the E65 from their list of all handsets, you can have any tariff you want, and probably get the handset free too. Just be sure to add X-Series as an ‘add-on’ when you reach the shopping basket screen. That’s what I did, and I’ve got a phone in my hand to prove it worked. Haven’t seen my first bill yet though…

David Wilcox has an interesting roundup of opinions as MPs allocate themselves an extra £10,000 for improved communication. I know there are quite a few readers of this here blog who share my interest in better political comms… would anyone be interested in pooling our efforts, as volunteers or (better) on a professional basis? Not to put too fine a point on it – we all bang on about it on our blogs, but now there’s a £6m pot of money available to do something about it. Feel free to email rather than comment if confidentiality is a factor. Hello at simondickson dot co dot uk.

 Long-time readers of this humble blog may recall I mentioned the Nike-Apple joint venture to produce an iPod add-on for runners. The nikeplus is a £20 gadget in two parts: one goes on/into your running shoe, the other slots into your iPod. Then, when you’re out running, your iPod talks to you over the top of your music, telling you how far you’ve gone, and how fast. When you get it home, you can upload your data to a website, or (if you know how) download the raw XML and play with it to your heart’s content.

Suffice to say, it’s my current favourite gadget of all time. It has changed my life, and that’s no exaggeration. The availability of detailed data for every run is a real motivator; it shows that you’re making progress, and it makes you feel terrible if you ever slack off.

So anyway, last week, I got an email from Nike’s advertising people. They’re running a campaign to promote the nikeplus, and would I like to take part? I’m not really sure how they picked me out of all the users of their website, but it sounded like fun… so why not? This morning a photographer came round, and we went down to the local canal to take some action snaps. Then this afternoon, I did a quick ‘phone interview’ with one of their copywriters.

It looks like the article will run on nikeplus.com, as well as branded areas of Runners’ World and Men’s Health. If I understood correctly, I’m going to be their featured runner for ‘pace’ – which is very generous, as I’m quicker than average, but hardly Olympic class. And I’m pretty sure that most runners would frown upon my ‘run like mad til you’re shattered, then limp home’ approach to pacing. I’m rather nervous to see what they make of me.

I just went to the Amazon homepage… and its interpretation of ‘products I might like’ was quite interesting.

So apparently I only like books with plain yellow covers. Any recommendations, folks? 🙂

The product of Sky’s engagement with Google Video is now live, at skycast.com. But despite the site’s claims, it’ll only be ‘a new kind of entertainment experience’ if you’ve never seen YouTube. Frankly, if YouTube weren’t owned by Google, I bet they’d be considering a lawsuit. Your best starting points for now are the areas owned by various Sky channels, like News or Travel. (An eclectic choice of highlights from the News library, incidentally!)

The unique selling point, such as it is, is that ‘we will showcase our favourite ‘Clips of the Week’ on the Sky interactive TV platform and the very best home-grown entertainment will be hand picked to appear on national television.’ (The report in Media Guardian talks specifically about Soccer AM and Sky News.)

We’re in tricky territory here. Is it better to build your own community, or join an existing one? My inclination remains the latter, based principally on volumes of traffic, cost of development and maintenance, and the proven successes coming from YouTube and Myspace. Why bother… unless you’ve got something new, innovative and really substantial to offer? Granted, it’s early days for Skycast… but I don’t immediately see that compelling reason to upload my stuff to them, rather than the clear market leader.

I’m really starting to wish I’d put a few quid on David Miliband becoming the next Labour leader. I see he’s on the front cover of this week’s New Statesman, offering ‘My Vision‘. A nice photo of the chap knocking on the door of No10, too. (Shame about the Robert Mugabe photo alongside, though.)

The Miliband piece revolves around the notion of ‘the politics of “I can” ‘: ‘I am convinced that a fourth election victory, and fundamental changes to the landscape of Britain, are possible precisely because a more demanding, educated, savvy population want the power and control that modern progressive politics can offer. I believe the opportunity is as great as at any time in the past 60 years.

‘In the “I can” era, people want to be players, not just spectators. They want to be contributors, not just consumers. Technology is enabling these aspirations to be fulfilled and new institutional models to emerge. Politics cannot stand apart from these changes. A generation is coming to political maturity that expects not just high standards of provision, delivered quickly to specification, but also real control.’

Does that or does that not sound like leadership talk? It’s a clear statement of what Milibandism is all about… and for those of us engaged in the ‘blogsphere’ (to quote Michael White), it doesn’t come as any surprise. He’s only preaching now what he has been practising for a while.

Previously on these pages, I wondered openly if it was too early for him. I’m beginning to wonder again. It’s almost certainly not the timing he would choose, but you don’t often get to make a choice. And Gordon Brown’s appearance with a bunch of kids on Channel Five this Friday is a little cringey, judging by the clips shown so far.

PS: I didn’t realise it was also in today’s Telegraph. I wonder why?

Yes, the Guido Fawkes interview on Newsnight was an embarrassment. But at least Paul admits it on his own blog: ‘the live interview was definitely a mistake and against my better judgement, as was the in-the-shadows idea of the editor.’ What amuses me most, though, is the comment thread beneath the mea culpa posting on the Guido blog. Half the comments are saying that Guido/Paul came across as a bit of a prat – correct, he did. The other half are having a go at fellow interviewee Michael White of The Guardian, for being arrogant / smug / petty / inaccurate with an ultimately trivial allegation. The irony is apparently lost on them.