For the rest of us however (i.e. those operating without multi-million dollar budgets - or without even any budget worth mentioning) there are thankfully numerous other options available, ranging from very basic home video editors to more professionally-orientated, but reasonably-priced, tools with various features. Below I've tried to offer a quick guide for people trying to choose which video editing software would be best for them, starting with a few general principles and then moving on to discuss a few selected specific programs.

(n.b. If you're on a budget for software, I'm assuming you're also on a budget for hardware - so most of my recommendations will be geared towards middle market systems which might be a couple of years old on average).

• First off, let's start with the stuff which is legally free - of which there is plenty. The problem however is that most of it is designed for various Linux distributions and doesn't work for Windows or Mac. For Windows, you have only a handful of free options - most of them very basic (VirtualDub & Avidemux) and one very advanced (Lightworks). For Linux, you have a much broader spectrum going all the way from simple stuff like Kino, versatile semi-pro packages like OpenShot, and then more advanced ones like Cinelerra (which also works for Mac OS). My main experience is with Windows compatible packages, so apologies if this article focuses more on those than any others.
• Your main concern is likely to be hardware-based however, as many of these packages are extremely demanding and require a fairly recent mid to high end system to run properly. If you are in the habit of obtaining software illegally (through torrents or whatever) then the easiest way around this problem is to download an older release of your chosen package, corresponding roughly to whenever your machine was made. Alternatively you could check ebay for people selling older legitimate boxed versions, but in my experience it's sometimes hard to find the exact release you're after.
• If you are planning on purchasing a new computer for purposes of video editing, then be sure to check which software bundles are included with the options you are considering since many contain pretty handy entry-level editors as standard (all new Macs come with iMovie, while Windows Live Movie Maker was bundled with XP and Vista for a while - but has now been dropped from Windows 7). If your editing needs are any more advanced than the most basic clip back-up and editing, then in any case, these bundled packages are unlikely to be adequate.
• It is important to consider how much time you are willing to invest in learning a new software package. Some of these tools are highly advanced (Lightworks, a free package, was used to edit recent Oscar winners including The King's Speech - which proves that 'free' doesn't always mean basic or simple) so you need to be realistic. It takes pro editors years of full-time work and study to fully learn all the functions of packages like Avid Media Composer, so it's important to consider the learning curve you are willing to tolerate - which will naturally depend on the results that you are hoping to achieve.
• Another hardware consideration: if you have a spare monitor lying around, or can buy one on the cheap, I strongly recommend connecting it to your set-up for purposes of having a decent playback monitor. Unless you have a very sizeable primary monitor (21" plus) this will be the only decent way to enjoy proper playback without constantly toggling between your editing interface and a full screen playback. Furthermore, for laptop users - get yourselves a decent three button USB mouse - a built-in laptop mousepad will waste you so much time that you might as well give up now.
• Often, your software preferences will ultimately come down to the details of the user interface since 'under the hood' many of the packages whose capabilities match - also match in their optimal hardware demands. In truth, whatever your needs (excluding of course Avatar director James Cameron) there'll be at least two or three packages that would be ideal for you.

Anyway, there's a few general things to think about for newcomers while perusing the list below, which briefly summarizes some of main options which I would recommend (again, it's very Windows orientated initially, but there is quick tip for Mac and Linux users at the end):

• For Windows users with a relatively decent system (4GB RAM, at least dual-core processor), Lightworks represents a great option if you have a little time to learn this very versatile and powerful software. Simply register on the site and then download the beta software for free in minutes. It's been around as long as Avid (since 1989) and is regularly used even in professional Hollywood productions so you needn't worry about its stability or features. The only concerns here are if your machine can handle it - and if you have the patience for something with a fairly decent range of features (and thus slightly steeper learning curve for editing newcomers).
• If you are running a slightly older machine, but again with Windows - and have similar ambitions to those that would be catered for by Lightworks, then I recommend getting yourself an older version of something like Sony Vegas Pro. Anything around 6.0-8.0 should run OK on an older computer (I use 7.0 on a 4 yr-old laptop I own and it's by and large mostly workable).
• For people who simply want something free and simple to use for basic video editing (i.e. cutting the boring bits of home movies) then Avidemux and VirtualDub are fine (with the former of the two having slightly greater functionality and better performance).
• For Mac and Linux users with serious ambitions (and serious machines), then Cinelerra is free and powerful. Linux users can also enjoy LiVES, which is equally powerful and would suit everyone from a beginner, right through to a semi-pro owing to its neat interface.
• Alternatively, something for ultra quick and basic editing on Linux systems: Kino.
• For animators and people wishing to do complex graphic effects, Blender is an excellent open source package - and best of all, it works for Mac, Windows, and Linux. However, the downside is pretty obvious sadly: it really needs a monster of machine to maximise its potential.

Ok, I think I'll leave it there - feel free to ask below if none of these options work for you. In summary, unless you want to spend loads of cash (Avid Media Composer, approx $2100) or even quite a lot of cash (Sony Vegas Pro, Adobe Premiere, Final Cut Studio, ranging between $500-$1000) then you'll be facing a choice between the free stuff and the $40-$90 stuff - both of which there are plenty. First consider your OS, then your editing needs and patience, and then get dabbling with some of the above (or check Wikipedia which has a very nice comparative table of different packages) - there's always a little trial and error in the beginning but soon you'll find a software package that works for you.

First off, it should be noted that US consumers have far more choice when it comes to Kindle devices, with the media-tablet Fire model, the larger screen Kindle DX, and Touch and 3G options also offered for the standard model (that's all on top of the two devices currently available here in the UK, which are also on sale at Amazon.com).

As if that wasn't annoying enough for non-US customers, they must also contend with the fact that, owing to current exchange rates, they will typically pay between 20-40% more for their Kindles than if they bought one through the US site. However, I've not got many tips for getting around this as I've not looked into ordering through a US account - though I imagine this'd be completely feasible as long as you had a US shipping and billing address (you can then later change the device location to UK, France or whatever, to access things like UK versions of newspapers etc).

Anyway, assuming you don't fancy any of these slightly more complex options, then you'll be faced with a much simpler choice over at Amazon.co.uk (but before you grumble about this, bear in mind that over in France you wouldn't have any choice at all - at Amazon.fr there is only the most basic Kindle model on offer). More importantly, there is little reason to grumble anyway since both the models on offer here in the UK are  excellent and should satisfy most consumers (not that we wouldn't like to at least have the option of the larger format DX or the cheapie Fire media-tab).

So if you are a UK Amazon customer, basically you have the Kindle and the Kindle Keyboard 3G to choose from (note that the Kindle Keyboard wi-fi only model - the one which marked the real turning point for the Kindle device with massive sales for two years at the 110 GBP price is no longer available). Here are the main considerations for choosing between the two which are available:

Price. Ok, so this is the context which will frame the decision - the basic model Kindle retails at 89 GBP while the Keyboard 3G goes for 149 GBP. So, the latter is two-thirds more expensive - and yet is in some respects inferior, so it's important to consider your specific likely usage habits when choosing the best model for you.

Keyboard. Let's start with the obvious distinguishing features. The keyboard is far from essential for the Kindle device since you very rarely need to use the character-set. On the occasions that you do it can be a little slow to use the 5-way pad to select individual letters from an on-screen character-set, but since this amounts to only a few seconds per month for each user, it's not really that inconvenient.

The only times you'd need the keyboard are to name and re-name collections, search a document/text, search the Kindle store and use the experimental browser (remember that most of the time you'll be simply reading). Unless desperate, you should probably forget the last option of the web browser (it's OK for last minute emergency info checking, but provides a pretty poor experience under normal circumstances). Anyway, in my experience the keyboard is convenient but very far from essential - plus without it, the smaller basic device has some key advantages, as you'll see below.

Weight, size, & build. The cheaper Kindle option is also smaller in size than the keyboard counterpart (though importantly screen size remains the same) and is also therefore lighter. This all makes it a little easier and more pleasant to handle, while some of the cost saving from removing the keyboard has been invested in a stronger metallic back casing for the device, which is much sturdier than the plastic used for the older Keyboard and Keyboard 3G models (both of which came on the market a good couple of years before the new Kindle).

If you expect to take your Kindle out and about a fair bit, and if you have a track record of dropping phones, iPods etc, then maybe the sturdier, newer, and cheaper model is for you. This is probably your best insurance since the device itself is not really expensive enough to warrant its own insurance policy (like an iPhone would be for example) - unless you can get it added onto an existing policy for only a few quid.

3G. This really is the big selling point of the more expensive model. You can access the Kindle store, the web browser, or simply receive new documents wherever you are, regardless of wi-fi availability. If you likely to be in remote places with your Kindle (holidays on beaches or in forests etc) then this option will probably be best for you. Likewise, if you simply need to keep your device up to date with your latest documents for work purposes perhaps - and tend to be on the move a lot - then the 3G option would much more effectively remove the hassle of finding connections for this. (Note also that this 3G service is free so doesn't incur billing for usage).

Audio. Again, this is perhaps a more niche feature but one that will be important to some users. The Keyboard 3G model has a 3.5mm audio out (i.e. small headphone jack) which can be used for two main purposes: listening to music while you read, or having texts/books read out to you as audio books. So, if you don't have a basic mp3 player function on your phone or other device, or simply fancy keeping it simple and using only one device at a time, then the Kindle Keyboard 3G enables you to listen to music and read text at the same time.

Likewise, is you fancy plugging the device into headphones, an external speaker system, a car stereo or whatever else for purposes of listening to audiobooks then this is the model for you. (Note: with the 'Read-to-me' feature, the device can actually read out texts for you which you have stored as pdf or txt files for example - you don't necessarily need to convert to audio book format or anything like that, though audiobook format is also accepted by the device).

Battery life & memory. Pretty simple comparison here - the more expensive model has twice the battery life and twice the storage of the cheaper one. For most people however this is likely to be pretty insignificant as even the cheaper one can go a month without charging and store 1,400 e-books.

So, that's about it really - in summary I recommend the newer and cheaper Kindle model for most users with its sturdier construction and lighter weight. However, if purchasing a Kindle for some more extended travelling, then I'd certainly opt for the Keyboard 3G with its longer battery life and 3G features particularly relevant. As for the pros and cons of the other models which our US counterparts enjoy access to, you'll have to click over to Amazon.com to get a sense of what they offer (or if you happen to own one, please let us know your impressions below).

The survey of 20,000 US mobile customers was carried out by Nielsen, and compared smartphone ownership rates across six different age groups and then within each age group according to income. As mentioned above, two obvious trends were observed in that smartphone ownership and age are inversely correlated, while income and ownership rates are positively correlated.

In a separate graphic, Nielsen measured the smartphone ownership for those taking a contract in the past three months against those who've had one for longer and also found that, unsurprisingly, those taking subscriptions more recently were more likely to choose a smartphone.

But the real headline is that even for young people earning less than $15,000 a year, smartphone ownership rates are astoundingly high. 56% of those aged 18-24 and earning less than $15k own a smartphone, which might be considered an anomaly due to frequent parental financial support for people of this age were it not for the fact that the same income group for the higher age bracket (25-34) has an ownership rate only 13% lower, at 43%.

When you consider that most smartphone contracts will typically cost somewhere between $400 and $800 a year, then the above ownership rates become increasingly surprising, especially as, after tax, a $15k annual salary will be closer to $13k-$14k (depending on exemptions and deductions). Additionally it's important to note that this income bracket was measured as 'less than $15k' which means that many of the respondents might have an annual income closer to $10k or even less (which would put them within the definition of living in poverty in the US).

It is quite possible that many of these smartphone owners might forgo other products such as home broadband or laptops, cameras, mp3 players etc and instead attempt to economize by running an 'all-in-one' device such as an iPhone. The data on other gadget ownership would certainly have been valuable in a study such as this, though Nielsen have yet to release it (if they even collected it in the first place).

Likewise I would be curious about which non-gadget sacrifices are being made in order to be able to own a smartphone - are people prioritising phone services over home heating for example? Is a car considered more or less of an essential than a smartphone?

One thing is for sure, judging by the trend for those taking subscriptions in the past 3 months to choose smartphones across all ages, it seems that the day when smartphones become the norm for US, and probably other OECD, markets might be a lot closer than we might have thought a few years ago - especially since it is clear that the 'prohibitive' cost of owning and running these devices is actually not as much of an obstacle as one might reasonably have assumed.

The one obvious implication from this for web developers is pretty clear - whereas a few years ago many web developers considered mobile apps and services as an added extra to their standard activities, within another year or two I expect we'll see more and more firms acknowledging that mobile now makes up a core aspect of their revenue model. Likewise, it increasingly seems absurd that a new start-up might not have a mobile app or site in their development plan (while the idea that they might launch with only a mobile app does seem perfectly common and feasible).

The knock on consequences of all this for the smartphone app market are therefore highly encouraging: potential app markets are growing all the time at an exceptional rate, even for income groups which one might have assumed would not have disposable income to spend on mobile apps. All this might be bad news for manufacturers of devices and products which are being superceeded even quicker than expected by smartphones (mp3 players, cheap digital cameras, netbooks), but it is very welcome and exciting news for mobile web developers, smartphone manufacturers, and app creators.

Letterbanc is simple. First, it matches your profile information with information about internships, scholarships, and academic funding (it's not a general job site like fish4jobs or Monster, but instead focuses on a sector where available money for posts is rarely advertised on traditional job services). Then, once you've been matched to appropriate opportunities for your preferences, Letterbanc really comes into its own by speeding up the whole application process with its services for requesting and storing the letters of recommendation for future use.

So, if this sounds like it could improve your chances for academic and professional success, then try it today! It is free to use and only becomes a paying service once you are actually storing and sending documents. I would also mention the lovely user interface and clean design, but we'll leave that for your to judge.  Our clients worked with us to design a system that would address some of the major challenges they identified while students and/or academic staff at institutions of higher education like Berkeley, University of London, Oxford, and Stanford.

You probably recognise these kind of tweets because they are also common on Facebook as uninteresting status updates proclaiming that the user has just performed some sort of mundane activity, in a mundane and uninteresting way. In essence, there is nothing worth sharing here and, unless you are a super celebrity (with a very devoted following) most other twitter users won't care to receive such tweets. (The other exception is if you are a very talented writer/thinker who can make anything and everything seem interesting - in which case you don't need any advice from me on how to be successful with twitter).

The problem is that new or inexperienced twitter users sometimes don't know what else to tweet - which is why they either look around them, or into the past 5 minutes of their life, in order to find some potential content for a tweet. This is the same as walking around in the street and telling people 'I want some chips' or 'Can't wait for Christmas' - there's nothing wrong with this particularly except for the fact that those statements/utterances, however valid and true, are not likely to interest anyone else (again if you are Madonna or Britney Spears, then that would be an exception to the rule).

So, tip number one is to avoid the mundane statements about doing something mundane. Either the sandwich needs to be interesting - or your thoughts on it do. Both is even better, while neither is a waste of everyone's time.

The next point is to think about why you are communicating on twitter and with whom. If people are likely to follow you for professional reasons, then you might want to focus the majority of your tweets on related matters. If this is not why you joined twitter, then that's fine - but maybe make this clear in your info description (e.g. 'Joe Bloggs, CEO of a major corporation and keen fisherman. Follow me for thoughts about my favourite hobby' or something of the sort).

Finally, remember that if you want to get tweeting, the most interesting results will come from tweets that promote engagement from other users - and that the best way to do this is to offer something interesting or unique. Only users with established public prominence (whether celebrities, politicians, or high-profile companies) can count on getting users simply because of who they are. For the rest of us, here are two very successful twitter users who are good examples of how to either offer a unique concept (@shitmydadsays) or a variety of consistently interesting personal tweets (@stephenfry).

Anyway, as I said in the last post - the best way to get the most out of twitter is to use your intuition and play around with it and see what works for you. Happy tweeting!

1. Ask yourself this question: What do I want to get from my twitter experience? Do you want to use it for purposes of following all the latest news and developments in your professional area? Or maybe to keep up to date with what's happening in relation to your hobbies and interests? Do you want your experience to be one-way (i.e. you only want receive info) or would you like to also participate with your own tweets? If you choose the latter of those last two options, what is the purpose of your participation? For fun and leisure or for professional reasons such as building a social media profile, getting noticed by potential employers, or something else entirely?

You don't of course have to choose only one of these options - and indeed there are far more potential uses for twitter than the few mentioned above. However, one problem that users consistently find with twitter (as we shall also see in the next post) is that their experience is sometimes rather flat and doesn't quite fit with the rave reviews that some other experienced users are espousing. One common reason for this is that users haven't considered any of the above questions at all.

2. Avoid excessive noise. Some people/organisations/companies tweet endlessly and these users can quickly clog up your display so that they drown out the full range of follows that you have chosen. For users like this it is especially important to decide whether or not it is worth the bother, since many other tweets will simply get lost by the quick turnover of these very active accounts (news organisations especially function in this way, so if you follow the news using other apps/websites - maybe don't do so on twitter as well unless you're specifically focused on this one area).

3. Avoid duplication. This point is connected to the above and is again aimed to improve the quality of experience on twitter. For example, if you import all your Facebook friends into twitter and follow them all, you will inevitably end up with a lot of crossover between status updates and tweets (many people post the same thing for both). Again, not all users do this but, if you are an active Facebook user, you might want to seriously consider whether it's worth using twitter to connect with the exact same people - and in the exact same way - as you do on Facebook. This is something to be especially careful with when you're prompted to import contacts from other services (Hotmail, MSN, Gmail, Yahoo) upon joining twitter.

4. If you want to get involved by writing your own tweets - and especially if you are doing so from a professional position - then you'll need to consider the way you present yourself on the network. Choose a profile photo and a short description that makes sense to the people you'd like to communicate with. You might also want to limit the number of tweets unrelated to professional matters, otherwise people who follow you for work-related reasons might decide it's not worth the bother (maybe make a separate work account if you are highly active user on this front). Also, remember to add a disclaimer in your description that the views of your twitter account do not reflect your employer's views - it can help save a whole lot of hassle.

5. Remember that most other twitter users are also other people (they far outnumber organisations and companies on the network). The service is therefore at its best when you build connections with people that you otherwise couldn't reach so easily and build a communicative network that you don't have on Facebook or LinkedIn. Twitter is a bit like other social networks, but it also has many unique features which are most evident if you try to use it a bit differently than you would those other services.

Anyway, you might already have figured out that the best way to really get into twitter is just to start using it for yourself. The longer you play around with it, the more logical and intuitive it will seem and you'll probably be better positioned to work out exactly why you're there and how to make the most of it. Next time, I'll discuss the problem of 'I just ate a sandwich' type tweets, why, and how, to avoid them.

For those who are unaware of Misha Glenny's work, he has built up an increasingly distinguished career reporting on the region of Eastern Europe, first as Balkan correspondent for the BBC and then more recently as an independent author (covering extensively the fall of Yugoslavia), freelance speaker and journalist.

His experience of Eastern Europe undergoing post-Socialist transformations in the 1990's enabled him to closely observe some of the key fallout from those rapid and unpredictable socio-political changes, especially the rise of organised crime networks in Russia and former USSR states. This research formed the basis of his 2009 book, McMafia: Seriously Organised Crime, which looked at less well-known and under-studied global crime networks covering everything from Nigerian 419 fraud, the Japanese Yakuza, Eastern European smuggling and global money laundering operations (see his TED talk on this here).

Glenny has now followed this up with Darkmarket, a book-length study of one of the most modern, fast-growing - and, consequently, little understood - forms of organised crime: cybercrime. He spent two years (between 2009 and 2011) conducting a wealth of interviews with key players in a number of high-profile busts related to credit card and bank fraud, centred in particular on three notorious websites Shadowcrew, CarderPlanet, and Darkmarket. Everyone from cyber security experts, police officers (from as far afield as Istanbul, Pittsburgh, and Scunthorpe), fraud victims and, most crucially of all, hackers and carders themselves are included in the research.

All of those interviews have been carefully adapted and compiled into a mazy and fascinating book, that will inform you of all those things you didn't understand about the web - like why spam exists (who sends it, how, and why) to what those ads that invite you to 'earn $$$ while working from home' really mean (in short: using your online bank account to assist in money laundering for credit card fraud). Likewise, the absolute headache that the internet presents to legislators, the judiciary, and many police forces (who are often equally caught out and outmanoeuvred by the fast moving nature of cybercrime) comes through very clearly as one of the key areas of our legal system that requires reform and clarification for such purposes.

As well as meticulous research, the other thing that Glenny does exceptionally well is build human relationships with those involved - including many now-jailed hackers. This, combined with his snappy and effective writing, enables us to see both the online identities of renowned cybercriminals - and their 'real-world' human personalities and characters. Understanding the hacker as a human being (and not only as online or criminal entity) is essential - according to Glenny - if we are to truly get to grips with an issue that could be increasingly central to matters of national and global economic and military security, as well as personal privacy.

It is this aspect of Glenny's book that really elevates it to being more than an account of a few illicit web forums and the police cases surrounding them and instead a fully fledged and perceptive new contribution to thinking about cybercrime - what it is and how and why it exists. As the book makes clear, this type of crime, while often mirroring traditional organised crime networks in many ways, does have one unique element to it - the complete and utter reliance on people with an extreme level of computing ability and intelligence. Unlike most crime, it requires individuals who are at the pinnacle of human ability in a certain field (programming, maths, etc) and is totally reliant on these relatively rare creatures. Getting to the core of who the hacker is, and why he hacks is therefore the central question for those interested in understanding or reducing cybercrime (this is also the core message of his second TED talk).

Anyway, Darkmarket reads like a police/espionage thriller with all the classic elements: double agents, backstabbing, undercover cops, glamorous playboy lifestyles and so on. As befits a book about the web, the chapters are very short (almost like blog posts) and multiple narratives unfold simultaneously, overlapping, and intersecting - sometimes in the virtual world, sometimes the physical. Likewise, as we would expect with a tale of the web, the multiple identities belonging to many of the main characters also often overlap, proliferate (or are appropriated by others) - which can sometimes be confusing as a reader, but only because that is a consequence of the increasing ubiquity of the online world - identity sometimes gets very complicated and as a result we need to update our concepts somewhat for the 21st century.

In short, Darkmarket will make your head spin - both with excitement at learning and discovering something which is a tangential aspect of everyone's (virtual) reality and with confusion at the sheer complications that this creates for law enforcement and legislators. As I said earlier, Glenny's book is that very rare thing: a study of an important and complex, but potentially dry, subject - that is executed with such skill that it is never anything but thrilling, engaging and informative.

(N.B. Q1 2012, perhaps confusingly, refers to sales and revenue for the 14-week period ending December 31st 2011. The naming refers to when the results are published, i.e. early 2012 - and not the period of economic activity itself - although fiscal years do vary from country to country so this might not hold true for all the examples below - I've indicated where there's a difference).

1. Apple

The obvious starting place since their results have been the most discussed of the lot. In short: scarily good figures, record-breaking in fact. $46.33 billion in revenue ($13.06 billion of which was profit). Share prices have soared yet again and, by way of contextualisation, there's a good point over at Techcrunch: only 3 companies have ever achieved figures like this before and they were all oil companies. (Unsurprisingly, US mobile network provider and iPhone carrier AT&T also posted a decent quarter with revenues up 3.6% to $1.1 billion).

2. Google

Basically share price falling (from super high to slightly less super high, but remains higher than Apple's) mainly due to the fact that Google missed some targets despite posting more mega profits. Main worry is about the increasing move to mobile and whether Google can fully translate its profit making aspects (search and Youtube) to this arena, despite the fact that Android tablet market share is up to 39% and will probably soon surpass Apple's iOS (which runs on the iPad). 2012 will probably be an interesting year in this respect.

3. Nokia

Mixed bag for the company trying to revive their mobile standing through collaboration with Microsoft with Windows Phone models such as the Lumia devices. Note, Nokia is Finnish so their fiscal year is different - these results are for their Q4 (which is the same period as Apple's Q1). Nokia massively improved on the previous quarter, Q3 2011, but not enough to avoid a significant drop compared with the same quarter in 2010. The Lumia devices are selling well, but apparently this seems to be at the expense of Symbian phones (Nokia's previous mobile OS). The company registered an operating loss of $1.3 billion. The reports also revealed that Microsoft paid Nokia $250 million to adopt Windows Phone - a figure which had previously been kept secret.

4. Nintendo

Very poor results for Nintendo's Q3 (again, same time period but different name as Nintendo use the Japanese fiscal year from April to April). Sales are down 31.2% on the equivalent period the year before but there was a big announcement promising a turn-up of fortunes - the follow up to the Wii, the Wii U, will probably be on sale towards the end of 2012.

5. Netflix

Interesting analysis of Netflix, who recently launched in the UK, over at Techcrunch. Though revenues are at an impressive $847 million for the last quarter, the profit margins of the new streaming service (which is the fast-growing side of Netflix) operates with pretty measly profit margins when compared to the much more lucrative DVD side (which is now shrinking in subscribers).

6. AirBnB

OK, so while they're not a publicly traded company (and don't release detailed financial reports yet), AirBnB did also release some very interesting data. After registering 4 million overnights in the past year, the company will be opening 6 new international offices (Barcelona, Milan, Copenhagen, Moscow and Paris) and looks set to really break the mainstream in 2012.

There we go, a smattering of highlights from the last fiscal quarter (whatever you want to call it).

The frequency with which scandal erupts around a misjudged tweet or an offhand comment, caught on someone's iPhone and uploaded to Youtube, suggests that social media practically entraps people into such costly blunders with its pretty user interfaces and seemingly inconsequential virtual nature - and then the real world mess catches up with you. Last week for example, an English footballer was sacked by his club after posting a homophobic tweet in response to a TV show he was watching. I picked that example at random from my memory, but there were at least three or four others just from last week here in the UK (Ed Miliband, Diane Abbott, Tom Harris, Wojciech Szczesny etc).

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that we know better than ever what people are thinking - perhaps even to a detrimental degree - wherein thoughtless comments which people might not otherwise say in the company of others, get instantly shared with thousands. I'm not, however, here to debate the philosophical implications of all this. Instead, I'd just like to give a quick example where this insight into public figures' real thoughts can be quite illuminating.

Rupert Murdoch has recently joined twitter and has been using the service to share his views on SOPA (which he supports fully) and piracy (which he doesn't). His recent comments have now been excellently 'storified' by journalist and blogger Jeff Jarvis, who breaks down Murdoch's rants against Google and Barack Obama (in the wake of today's setbacks for SOPA) and illustrates the fundamental problem facing Murdoch in the internet age: he doesn't understand the web.

Ok, so this is hardly news (there was the small matter of Murdoch's News Corp. running Myspace, then the world's most successful social network, into the ground) but nonetheless, since usually his personal views reach us in a highly mediated form via his spokespeople, his media outlets and his press officers, we've never really had as direct evidence of Murdoch's web views as we have now.

The point is that, while we should be wary of reading too much into 140 character tweets, what is clear is that Murdoch personally does not display a huge degree of enthusiasm for the innovation that publishing industries are being forced into by the web and would prefer to merely port existing (but increasingly outdated models) over to the web - and protect them with prohibitive legislature.

Look at those tweets and ask yourself - would you invest in the man who wrote them if he came to you asking for funds for his web start-up business? Does he seem like someone who is gonna do something clever or new online?

The answer probably would be no. Murdoch doesn't need your money anyway (he has plenty of it already in all likelihood), but what his recent tweets illustrate, for me at least, is that he is involved with the web purely out of necessity and hasn't developed a massively sophisticated view of how the internet works. If I wanted some creative ideas and fresh views on the online publishing landscape for example, I probably wouldn't call him.

Who, for example, are the Concerned Women of America - and why do they support SOPA so much? What about the mysterious Centre for Individual Freedom? Americans for Tax Reform? Let Freedom Ring?

Well, in case you hadn't guessed from the names of these organisations, they're all US right-wing pressure groups and their presence on the SOPA list of supporters worries me. It worries me because I'm deeply suspicious of why they would invest such extensive lobbying energy supporting SOPA if all they cared about was internet piracy. Movie studios and record labels have obviously vested financial interests in the internet piracy debate and thus it is obvious why they might spend time and (lots of) money supporting anything which might even possibly curb piracy, at least in the US.

Why on earth do these right-wing pressure groups care so much about SOPA? This is the question that worries me in relation to the anti-democratic threat of SOPA (covered in my previous post). In short, I don't have any answers as to why these groups have chosen to get involved with SOPA, but I will provide a list of those signatories that I consider most alarming, and why:

• American Bankers' Association - Powerful lobby group for the financial services industry, representing many of the largest US banks. Anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of how the 2008 financial crisis came about should be deeply suspicious of any effort by finance lobbyists to influence US legislature...
• Americans for Tax Reform - Pressure group who demand economic de-regulation and flat, low, tax rates (so that basically a millionaire pays the same rate as janitor). In other words, people who share the same ideological position as the ABA above, advocating the interests of the financial services industry at the expense of regulation and transparency.
• Centre for Individual Freedom - This organisation claims to be non-partisan, which seems slightly incongruous with the incessant negative coverage of Democratic President Barack Obama, which is obviously anything but neutral or balanced (click over to get a flavour for yourself - my favourite is where they quote an anonymous tweet about Obama's 'corrupt style of governing' - a great way to circumvent the legal obligation to substantiate your stories).
• Concerned Women of America - Another openly right-wing organisation with various shocking statements to its name. My favourite is their defence of Pastor Scott Lively as a man who 'speaks the truth'. Lively is the co-author of a book which claims that Nazism's extremist excesses were actually caused by homosexuals.
• Let Freedom Ring - Another right wing pressure group which advances the level of ignorance on various issues (especially economic ones - in which 'Growth' and Government 'Spending' are shown to be diametrically opposed and mutually exclusive, and George Bush is hailed as an economically successful president, despite presiding over the reckless build-up to, and financial crisis of 2008. Incidentally, Barack Obama, is blamed for the crisis by virtue because he presides over the fall-out).

Anyway, I'll leave it there - I could have gone into more detail with almost all of the organisations above, but there's little need since a quick glance over at their websites will quickly reveal to you their ideological positions. I'll finish on a simple question - why do these right-wing groups, who between them combine traditional American religious conservatism (anti-abortion, anti-gay etc) with extreme economic neo-liberalism (you know, the exact reason why we've had yet another economic crisis - leaving millions of people without homes, jobs, or savings), want to support SOPA so much? Is it because they have suddenly become crusaders for copyright and intellectual property, and decided to expend time and energy fighting to protect it? Or could there be other ways in which SOPA might be desirable for them?