Google Australia’s blog highlights how the terrible fires in the country are permeating every walk of life.
Quite simply, they’ve built a Flash Map, which contains the latest up-to-date information about fire locations and their status from the Country Fire Authority.
Although nothing good can be said about this ongoing tragedy, Google’s reaction is an example of how offline can support online in a more humanised sense, away from ad-campaigns and ideas of marketing ROI. Equally, Google’s power online means that it’s making information more accessible to those who need it, as well as taking the strain away from other websites that are close to collapsing under massive volumes of traffic.
With an increase of recent catastophes, wars and events all being mapped through the internet, it genuinely seems to me that the internet really can call itself a global community… It will be interesting to see which direction this takes in the near future.
The long-awaited Digital Britain report is upon us and one of the major points within it is that the Government is planning to give every home in UK broadband internet access by 2012.
The report also proposed the creation of a new body to deal with the problem of people illegally copying and sharing music and films over the internet.
Highlighting that the UK is a world leader in the digital, communications and creative industries, which are now worth some £52bn a year, there seems to be an emphasis that this could reinvigorate the UK economy.
This in itself is quite concerning, as although these industries can certainly help improve a bad situation, I doubt they can turn things around totally by themselves… No pressure there, then.
35 of the UK’s leading SMEs from the digital industry head to Austin, Texas on the Digital Mission to South by South West Interactive (SXSWi) from 12-18 March 2009, one of the world’s leading conferences for emerging media. Established in 1994, the conference provides an opportunity for the Digital Mission companies to attend hundreds of conference sessions and networking events.
The Digital Mission is organised by digital networking community, Chinwag, on behalf of UKTI (UK Trade & Investment). Combined with the SXSWi, the Digital Mission provides delegates the opportunity to exhibit at SXSWi. A unique ‘Nuts and Bolts’ masterclass will help British companies understand how to establish and develop their business in the USA, taking guidance from a panel of American and British experts, whilst the “Great British Breakfast” provides a UK-focused networking event for 300 delegates during the conference.
Building on the success of the Digital Mission to New York in September 2008 - also organised by Chinwag for the UKTI – this second trip to Texas will assist firms to develop new business channels, partnerships, investment and provide a detailed knowledge of the US market.
Companies were invited to apply for the Digital Mission. The 35 successful delegates were selected from over 100 entries by an advisory board of industry experts drawn from including Mike Butcher, TechCrunch UK Editor, Herb Kim, Codeworks CEO and Sarbjit Bakhshi, Head of Information & Technology Group, UKTI.
Regular readers will know that I often mention the relationship between visual media (TV/film) and the internet; a lot of the time this is built around the issues surrounding websites such as Hulu and BlinkBox, and applications such as the BBC iPlayer, but it seems Youtube has eventually come around to the threat that this poses.
In case you missed it, they’ve partnered up with the film studio, MGM, and pretty soon you can expect to be able to watch full length films on a newly created Youtube channel called Impact.
The partnership is aimed boosting advertising revenue for both YouTube and the Hollywood studio. So, films and videos will cost nothing, but expect to be bombarded with Adverts.
Additionally, the YouTube Impact channel will feature clips from MGM classics such as Rocky, Ronin, Legally Blonde (?!?), and The Magnificent Seven, according to their press release. Full length films on show will include Lone Wolfe McQuade and Bulletproof Monk… Not sure if this is going to be a great quality channel. I’ll get the popcorn out and let you know.
Did anyone else have Didit’s press release slip under the radar?
They announced that they’re going to start running Performance Trust Accounts up to a $1million in value, such is their confidence that they’ll deliver on paid search.
If they don’t meet the pre-agreed targets, you get your money back and more.
Great article from Mashable this morning, which supports my suspicions that TV and online will one day become completely slammed together.
Some time ago, I questioned how the BBC would enforce iPlayer to non-licence holders; now it seems there has suddenly been a rush of online-based TV. New sites to check out include the US-based Hulu, which will soon have more content available to us mere mortals outside of North America, and the UK-based BlinkBox. Material can also be streamed directly through Blinkx, but you kinda feel redirected, which loses usabilty points in my book.
With the onslaught of digital TV, I’m imagining that we haven’t even begun to realise the possibilities involved with TV-produced visual-content.
Just a random Saturday thought: Why is it that sometimes good websites have such terrible online copy?
It’s not always about what the copy says… Although bad grammar and spelling mistakes on anything except certain types of blogs drives me nuts…. But also the what the content is about. A while back I worked on an audit for an extremely large, well-known, well respected British brand. It amazed me to see, on their home page, offers for certain products that were out of date by months. What better way to reinforce public confidence than by proving you can’t even manage your website and your general organisational skills properly?
Next time anyone’s just browsing around the ‘net, have a good look at what’s being said, and who’s saying it. I think you’ll be surprised how many mistakes you’ll uncover.
