• The Subjective Web: Semantic Evolution – A nice, easy to understand article on what the Semantic Web will mean for searching and finding information online, by Raymond Bentinck.
• International SEO – An informative 26-page e-book by Hallam Internet which gives some great advice on considering your options for an international website – considering different trends in search, findability and language.
• Facebook to launch PayPal-style ‘Credits’ in September – I'm sure we've been here before but it seems that Facebook will be launching their own credit system, going head to head with Paypal to allow users to pay for physical and virtual goods within the network. If anyone can take on PayPal it's Facebook – but the jury is out as to how many of it's users will adopt it. If this works well for micropayments this could be a big step in allowing all kinds of transaction models.
• Companies Throw Their Weight Behind Online Video – State-side, we're seeing more and more growth in online video, with the vast majority of Top 50 retail companies now using video for product advertising and video blogging. The growth of video for marketing looks set to continue onwards and upwards.
• Reality Check: Just Six Percent Of TV Viewing Is Non-Linear – As us people of the future wax lyrical about time-shifted TV and video-on-demand, the stark reality is that although many people do watch VOD channels, it only accounts for 6% of TV viewing time. It seems people are happy, after all, with scheduled TV.

• Arab countries ‘need a long-term digital strategy’ – I've never really considered e-strategy in the Middle East – it's not the first territory you think of when considering a high tech hub, yet countries like Oman have already invested in growing their marketplace for e-commerce and digital. According to this press release countries like Iraq don't have sufficiently developed digital strategy. Well having a safe country and telecom network may be a bit of an issue here.
• The Register comment guidelines 2010 – I thought these guidelines for a heavily commented on blog were pretty sensible and worth adapting for your own community site.
• Universal broadband delayed until 2015 – Another government U-Turn: the much mooted 2Mbs broadband we've been promised won't arrive until 2015, 3 years later than scheduled. The government say they are "totally committed" to having the best broadband service in Europe, but given how far we are lagging behind our European neighbours in the advancements, and right to access, faster broadband, this is more hot air.
• Who owns your social media? – Superb article on the internal challenges a business faces in 'owning' a social media strategy, and the conflict and opportunity between the needs of different internal teams and departments:<br />
  "Social media isn’t a two way street between you and your customer, it’s a crossroads between you, your customer, the network and all of their other customers."
• Apps, Apps, and more Apps – Some beautiful design and facts on the market for mobile apps. I think this is a US only view, but the stats are quite stark: Symbian is the most popular platform by 3 to 1, far ahead of Blackberry, and trailed by iPhone. 90% of App developers don't make a sustainable return-on-investment. Are apps the news promotional tool rather than the saviour of monetizing online content?

• YouTube to Award $5 Million in Grants to Video Producers in Pseudo-Production Fund – Since the decline of Bebo as an online video investor, it seems YouTube will be the next big investors exchanging product investment with ad sales. It certainly makes more sense as they're more sustainably funded (by Google) and there's an interest to them to make sure the content will drive audiences.
• Why Many Teens Are Moving on from Facebook – US led research suggests Facebook may be losing it's sheen with the teens – the crucial market to ensure long-term success. The question I wonder is where are they going? Back to Bebo or MySpace? It seems not. Perhaps we are shifting now away from the big destination networks to slightly more specialist spaces.
• Social media in China: an introduction – Some useful stats on how China is adapting to the internet. Although internet adoption is low, this still represents over 400 million internet users, all hungry for engagement, content and e-commerce.
• What Can Small Businesses Learn From Old Spice Viral Social Media Campaign – Bit late to party but Old Spice is causing a splash with their video and Twitter campaign to speak to the spice's new pin-up. This is a great approach – delighting audiences with personal responses and fun content, the perfect use of social media.
• Augmented Reality Explained by Common Craft – Another lovely hand made papercut video about high technology: this time Common Craft tackle augmented reality – what it is and what you can do with it today.

• What makes the perfect Transmedia Producer? – In-depth discussion on the types of skills and approaches which are working in transmedia. It's heavily led to the Alternative Reality Game (ARG) producers rather than wider producer of entertainment media for new platforms.
• Social media monitoring: time to say ’sod it’? – Thought piece on why moderating – and interrupting – Joe Public's conversations in social media may not be a great idea. I think it depends on what you do – people often Tweet about brands because they want help/ response, and certainly being responsive on your own profiles is critical. Joining in wider conversations (e.g. forums or general discussion) will depend on how useful a contribution you can make to the discussion. This may favour technology/product suppliers more than consumer goods and services.
• UK online video stats: Youngsters favour C4 and ITV over BBC – Blimey: how online video has grown. 2010 sees 5.5 Billion online vdieo viewed each month in the UK, with BBC, ITV and BlinkX as fastest growing properties. Interestingly, the desirable youn 'uns (16-24 year olds) are preferring ITV and Channel to BBC properities.
• Concept Feedback | Free Concept Reviews for Marketers, Designers and Developers – Here's an interesting 'concept' – this website is a community of designers which lets you upload your concepts for design, websites and print and get feedback from other community members. Offer enough feedback and it's free, or pay a small fee. A great way to get feedback within a community wider than your own organisation, but in a closed setting.
• Cultivated Play: Farmville – Intelligent article by A. J Patrick Liszkiewicz on why Farmville defines many of the rules of being a good game, but creates social capital through effectively a peer pressure to be kind to your friends (& Farmville neighbours). I'm wondering in anyone in the gaming/digital industry actually like Farmville – no evidence yet, but no denying simple, formulaic social gaming is a major global phenomena. (hat tip: Pete Ashton).

• Communities Dominate Brands: Everything you ever wanted to know about mobile, but were afraid to ask – An incredibly in-depth article on the past and future of mobile communications, with lots of key facts on world-wide trends, smartphone usage and how mobile is used by different audiences. SMS is still the dominant use of the device globally, with MMS predicted to be the next major area fo use/revenue "MMS alone is bigger than the global music industry"
• Webinar: The Science of Facebook Marketing – Fascinating study into the psychology and statistic of how men & women are using Facebook, what subjects are popular and how to engage – speak plainly and simply on Facebook!
• Everything you need to know about the internet – A great philosphical, historical mini-essay all about the internet – past, present future. I like the description of Web 2.0 as 'small pieces, loosely joined' and of course the mini-rant on reforming copyright – it needs to be done, but of course it won't.
• NESTA – Creative Business Mentor Network – New call out for creative business in UK (must be trading 3 years with turnover £250K +) to be supported by an awesome collection of high level CEO mentors.
• How The World’s Online Ad Sales Stack Up – Infographic IAB stats on global ad spending, showing the greatest spend (but a decrease) in USA, with UK as next largest market (4Bn Euro spend – making Britain 10 x the spend of Sweden). Does that mean the UK has the greatest innovation in online advertising?

• What Makes Up a Social Marketing Strategy? – Research on marketers use of social media strategy – a shocking 52% are operating "without a game plan" and only 45% have a social media comapny policy. Most believe planning and delivering on social media is the main responsibility of the marketing department. Whatever happened to joined-up thinking?
• Legal considerations for people responsible for websites – Useful little primer and links for legal responsibilities for those running websites, explaining a bit about your responsibilities as moderators and for data protection.
• Marketing week: Digital Strategy supplement – Marketing bible Marketing Week have a selection of useful articles on digital strategy including the important of data, search and social media in making marketing decisions.
• Consumer health trends – Useful stats from Creation Healthcare on international health search trends in relation to digital engagement.
• Manual for bands and brands – Brand sponsorship of bands is probably the biggest growth area for investment in music. This mini e-book (a sort of commercial tribute to the Bill Drummond 'How to Have a No 1' Manual) has some good food for thought on what as a band you need to consider to make the partnership work.

• Social Media Playbook – A little 101, but some useful up-to-date stats on the latest hip and happening social media networks, and some tips as to how to use them well for business in this E-Book. I disagree with some of their frequency guidelines: this should depend on the quality of content you have and the level of engagement of your audience.
• New training courses I’m delivering: Creating Online Video for Web and Personal Branding – I've recently started to develop and deliver e-marketing training courses for Derby's Creative Exchange, a professional media training centre at University of Derby. I'm really excited about these new courses which are really expanding the reach of e-marketing to new practical and strategy elements. The first two courses are on Creating Online Video for the Web (29 June) and Personal Branding (30 June). Both are free to Derby city residents, and cost £25 if you're not.
• The future of social/E-Mail Integration – E-Marketer research on businesses linking their social media to email campaigns, and vice versa. Seems very few are doing it (which seems like a no brainer to me) but more are going to step up their integration. I always say to clients: don't throw baby out with the bathwater: email marketing is still the highest conversion, highest sharing of 'social' media and best way to build in a long term opt-in customer base.
• Margaret Gould Stewart: How YouTube thinks about copyright – Video from the Iconic TED conference series on how YouTube's technology allow rights holders to register tracks and when matches in the system are detected (including music in the background and mashups) the rights holder can decide if they wish to allow their film & music work to be used in its new context, presenting a new twist on copyright in the digital age.

• Keynote: Three Ways Business Must Scale With Social Technologies – Jeremiah Owyang from Altimeter on how brand discussions are now 'off domain' and companies (this carries through from large to small I believe) need to consider how by linking together empowered customers, internal teams and technology you can scale to meet the rising challenges off managing customers in social media.
• Google Analytics for Facebook Fan Pages – A cheeky tech way to get the power of Google Analytics from you Facebook fan page data by adding an image to your fan page. A great way to compere your site and social network data.
• Google Caffeine jolts worldwide search machine – Google has now successfully rolled out the latest changes to it's search engine, known as 'Caffeine'. This now brings you fresher, faster jolts of content and news as websites are archived more quicky page by page, meaning content published could show up on search results within hours of not minutes. Great news for content producers reacting to timely news content, and a move towards the power of the real-time web.
• Q&A: Chris Gorell Barnes on online video for brands – Chril Barnes from Adjust Your Set (great company name) on online video for brands – interesting idea about a 'holy grail' of linking mobile video with vouchers to bring people in-store, and using in-store video to enhance sales promotions. He claims online video can increase conversion by 100% and reduce product returns by 60%.

The new coalition government has launched plans to ensure more data and information on government activities, particularly spending, is accountable and shareable online, announced in an open letter from David Cameron to all government departments. Within a few days of the COINS government spending database release, the press were able to report on the scale of government losses.

Not merely a knee-jerk reaction to the Freedom Of Information (FOI) requests following the MPs expenses scandal, this follows moves by the Labour government to use open innovation to benefit the public at large (and with it the government) in the provision of services.   It’s a win-win equation: the collective time and resources of web developers, data analysts and campaigners can make light (and cost-free) work of processing data and informing the government of key trends and issues, whilst citizens benefit from better accountability for issues that matter to them.

Good thinkers from the digital sector are partly to be praised: Tom Losemore (currently head of Channel 4’s 4iP innovation fund) introduced open data concepts in his consultation role to the Cabinet; he previously established They Work For You, a means for all citizen to communicate with and bring to account their member of parliament (I remember the site when it was Fax Your MP, in the days before MPs would accept email as a legal form of communication.  The wheels of democracy move slowly).

What e-democracy needs to succeed

E-Democracy is critical for the success of society and to ensure that politicians are acting in the interests of their citizens.  This can include anything from finding out the cost of the council tax bill for your new house to having your say about a major local or national issue.  The government’s central drive to ensure more services are delivered online ultimately benefits everyone, but only if Digital Champion Martha Lane Fox succeeds in her cause  to get the 25% of British adults currently ‘digitally excluded’ online, and those entering the digital world are given the digital literacy skills to seek work, do business and communicate with others online (doing fun stuff like social networking can contribute to this too).

So it’s a step into the brave new world of the digital economy where commerce and democracy walk hand-in-hand.  But reflecting on last month’s general election, I wonder how impeded we are by uptake and the ‘crap in / crap out’ problem of capturing good data and information.  I was excited by the prospect of the first web 2.0 UK election, where well adopted tools like Twitter and Facebook could influence the democratic processes.   If Twitter uses were a representation of the voter count, I’m sure Nick Clegg would have won a landslide election, seen by the televised Leaders Debate using online comments to trigger the sentiment and approval of voters.

Digital tools and the UK General Election 2010

As a voter I found it extremely hard to find useful information on candidates standing for election.  Various online tools such as betting odds comparison, local polls and the comments from my own networks gave me a sense of the mood.  Tools that allowed me to compare my preferences with party policies, see flyers others had uploaded, and videos voters had made when being door-stepped all allowed me to get a better sense of the prospective candidates than in previous elections (NB: I would link to these sites but many strangely now seem to be invisible or erased since the election).

My biggest issue?  The lack of quality ‘input’ from candidates.  In my consistuency only the outsider Liberal and Conversative candidates bothered to enter their data and responses into online questionaires, and not all candidates provided an email contact (including the drop-landed winning candidate Chris Leslie who won a landslide victory despite only being named as the candidate 2 weeks before election and doing no online campaigning whatsoever). On election night, I discovered from the Voter Power tool that my vote was only worth 0.084 of a ‘normal’ vote.

I saw no examples in my constituency of candidates blogging (although I know others who did) and only one whom I could make contact with by Facebook and Twitter (thanks @blueewan).  Finding out when ‘real world’ hustings was impossible (I presume these are promoted in the local paper few people read) and none took the initiative to host an online chat.

Getting politicians skilled for e-democracy

I would like to see a wholesale commitment from all political parties to educate their incumbent and prospective parliamentary members, and to trickle down inclusive, digital communication skills to all those involved in supporting the democratic processes.  It would be a simple step for all the major parties to set up a blogging tool centrally for all members which they should be obliged to update with their key activities at least once a month.

Equally having a presence on the two largest social networks (Facebook and Twitter) should be mandatory, at least during the campaigning period.  Forums to host online surgeries or hustings should be provided, particularly for voters unable to attend hustings (including house-bound elderly, parents and those working away from home).

If candidates want an example of someone making it work, look to Tom Watson, the MP who blogs, Twitters and show real interest in the public at large, drawing more people into the political process.  Voters too should consider how candidates respond to online situations: do you want your MP to be someone who never answers emails or makes it as difficult as possible to fulfill their obligations to you?

E-democracy isn’t just about releasing financial data and giving us the ability to make a Freedom Of Information request.  It’s about ensuring we all have a voice to be heard and listened to; better digital communications skills are vital to this cause.

• Well, what is a good digital music strategy ? Part 2 – Social Networks – Virginie Berger with some useful advice and stats on the potential for promoting music on social networks, and some tips to be more successful (like apparently adding 'video' to your video title is a winning tactic).
• Public Enemy’s New Sellaband Target – Fan funding – getting your 'fans' to pre-pay for your material to fund its production costs – is a great new innovation in the music industry (I recently fan-funded the new Thomas Truax album and received my pre-release download of it today), but this reflection on the difficulties established group Public Enemy have had meeting their targets suggests fan funding may not yet be a mature enough funding mechanism to replace the role (particularly in sales and marketing) of the music industry.
• The State of Online Video – A new report from the Pew survey of American life showing 7/10 adults are watching video online, with a large rise in humourous, eduactional, TV and film and political videos, with an increase in user-created content.
• Experiments in delinkification – Nicholas Carr, academic and author of 'Is Google Making Us Stupid?', on why hyperlinking in text may be a distraction from the idea you are conveying, and an experiment with putting links after the text like footnotes in a book. I agree partly with this idea, but actually there's another issue (that newspapers and even some credible online publications like Mashable) that hyperlinking encourages users to leave your site rather than 'stickiness' of moving to elsewhere on your site. It's an interesting balance that needs to be struck between providing context and value to what you write, and making sure the hyperlink doesn't detract from either the flow of your idea or the user journey on your website.
• Content is everything, so just do it – This is something that has bothered me for a while: the 'signal vs noise' ratio that we all have to be producing LOTS of content (status updates, links on Twitter, blog articles) in the drive for attention and search engine indexes. Of course this is a nonsense, you should write what is good, when you can (I ususally recommend to clients some sort of minimum commitment per month of types of content e.g. status updates, video, news article depending on the needs they identify). Ideas are good, volume is bad.