ThinkVisibility

Having seen friends in the industry raving over ThinkVisibility for the last few years, I'm very pleased to be going to this September's event in Leeds. Kieron made the case for the conference as one of the best in the calendar in his blog about the March event on Here.org.

Looking at the lineup of speakers it seems we have a very varied menu to look forward to; starting in Thailand with Ben Wolfenden and playing Championship Manager with Kelvin Newman - through to dealing with lazy affiliates with Jane Copland. The day finishes off with an evening party sponsored by Manual Linkbuilding.

I shall be there with Tom from Linkdex.com as one of the sponsors and available at pretty much any point to give a demo of the amazing Linkdex SEO platform to anyone who wants! 

 Luckily we kick the day off with bacon butties and proper brew in true Yorkshire style so we should all be suitably fortified for the event.  So if you're not signed up for it yet - get on the case! If you are one of the lucky ones going along, then I look forward to seeing you there :)

Seems like a lot of folk, I shall be staying at the Mint Hotel with what it says is a Mac in every room - very sensible!! I'll be around from Friday afternoon through to Sunday morning, so look forward to seeing you there.

Food for free

From August onwards if you go walking a bit - or have a garden with those kinds of plants - you'll start seeing plenty of free food appearing. Some will not be obvious to most people but give the opportunity for some amazing flavours to use in the kitchen.

Membrillo - fantastic with Manchego cheese,
or our own Lancashire or White Stilton

It may be something as obvious as your apple or pear tree in the garden to a quince bush, usually just grown nowadays for its orange spring blossoms but prized by our forebears and still in Spain for the amazing intense fruit tang. If you've ever tasted membrillo with a slice of manchego cheese, then you'll know exactly what I mean!

I've started looking out for the fruits of the hedgerows now and windfalls are starting to drop; the first batch of spiced apple chutney has been made with more as they fall to be followed with batches stewed apple for the freezer to form the base for sauces, to add to curries, or just on yoghourt or rice puddings. Even better combine with the blackberries that are appearing in the hedgerows around now for the classic Blackberry and Apple crumble.

If you're more adventurous, then there are sloes, medlars, rose hips and plenty more - and if you know what you are doing then huge growths of fungi are also now appearing after the damp summer we have had in the UK. Some fruits will freeze fine til you are ready to so something with them while others will need to be pickled, bottled or made into jam as soon as they are gathered. Remember to leave on the bush whatever you are not likely to use, so that others - and our wild birds - can make good use of them.

If you want to know what to do with them, the BBC website has a huge store of recipes from its collected cookery programmes from the simple through to quite complicated concoctions.

As for me, I'll be scouring the hedges and woodlands to see what's around for free to freeze or bottle and last me through to next year. I'm looking forward to the first burst of wild garlic leaves in the woods around Jesmond Dene and along the Northumberland colliery track network.

Happy walking and cooking :)

Google+ vs Facebook vs Microsoft (maybe)

There's been a lot of buzz (pun intended) about Google+ recently, mostly, given that its in Beta, in the online tech community. So yesterday, the G folk were quite rightly proud of the phenomenal speed of growth with millions of members already signed up in Beta, though it seems this is understandably slowing, as reported on Mashable.

True there are some cool tools that the tech community find wonderful - Circles is one of the best innovations, though the idea of being able to go back and edit posts is something that I've used a few times already. The idea that work colleagues can retain that title is also pretty good - you can rarely call your CEO your 'friend' which on Facebook you have to!

The trouble with it being in Beta, is that, as its all techies it feels like I'm still at work and there's a lot less pure social stuff going on there. G+ has to move beyond this to achieve anything like a critical mass that will give it the wings to grow further, and not end up like Wave, a cool tech tool that no-one actually uses.

Facebook steaming past 700 million users

Facebook meanwhile is steaming past 700 million members and already has that critical mass, and more to the point, has considerable momentum which we never saw in the earlier networks that came to market, such as Bebo and Myspace.

So, given the fleet of foot so far with Facebook developers launching innovation in the past at a pace, have they grown too large to continue high-speed development on what is becoming an ever larger piece of technology. Most people's money is on the idea that Zuckerberg's team will be adding similar functionality found in G+ to your Facebook profile on the fly in double quick time.

What then would that mean for Google? They are still a country mile behind Facebook in adoption by the vast bulk of online Social Network users in the US and Europe. There is still the huge number of mainstream users who also use Gmail, Adwords, Adsense, Google Analytics, Android, Chrome....

What also for the rumour of Microsoft's 'leaked' entry into this space with Tulalip to start a 3-way tussle for your online persona? Certainly they have a ready marketplace of users to go for all with existing hotmail, msn and XBox live accounts.

Unlike G+, they seem to have added login with Facebook or twitter buttons, which seems a bit of a strange move. Google obviously wants to distance themselves and thier offering from Facebook. It will be very interesting to see how this develops further...

Meanwhile - I look at Google+ a couple of times a day, but use Facebook. I can't help thinking that will be a similar scenario for the majority of non-techie users, particlarly the growing number who are concerned about the extent to which Google has infiltrated our lives.

this one will run and run...

News Corporation withdraws the bid

So, Murdoch and the News Corporation has withdrawn its bid to takeover BskyB in the face of massive public outcry over the amoral working methods of his news gathering operation, and the fatal pressure of an all-party accord to force him to withdraw. It was "too difficult to progress in this climate" - understatement of the century!

It as hailed by Ed Milliband as a victory for the British public - so thanks to Avaaz.org and everyone who added their pressure in this.

The share price for both BskyB and News Corporation have taken a battering and written $5Bn off NI valuation. Undoubtedly the groups will bounce back once Murdoch has crawled back under his stone and licked his wounds. That may be made more difficult as several major advertisers are instructing their agencies to cancel advertising across the News International websites; the printed media is sure to follow suit.

Now we have further questions being asked as to whether James Murdoch is himself a "fit and proper" person to be allowed to hold a broadcasting license in the UK. the Government enquiry may well grind on for a couple of years before we know what shape the landscape becomes.

Whether NI will regroup and make another bid in 6 months or so remains to be seen. Certainly there are discussions afoot to look at far tighter regulation on ownership of broadcast and published media.

The news rolls on...

Murdoch Empire crumbling - maybe

http://gawker.com/5820243/jon-stewart-tackles-the-news-of-the-world-scandalAfter managing a cunning manoeuvre to get the best possible outcome of this past week's corporate horrors and closure of NOTW, News International are now in the stronger position that regulators will review the deal solely on plurality, so wit hone less Newspaper title, that will make it an even more favourable position for them.

That does not take into account the outrageous immorality of his company's practices. It seems from the ongoing wave after wave of disclosures from all the Murdoch stable or papers that there has been a gradual erosion of any morality, so that if an investigation involved an 'illegal' practice, that was just an inconvenience to be got round.

Do you trust this man to be a "fit and proper" broadcaster?

But British law says media owners must be "fit and proper" to be trusted with broadcast licenses. That is something that News International cannot hope to be considered - not in a month of Sundays (even without a NOTW ;) ) 

So as many as possible are being asked to support the Avaaz petition and let your MP and the Secretary of State know how you feel.


This US TV show with Jon Stewart sums the whole sorry fiasco of Murdoch and the sorry procession of police and politicians in his pocket...

Choir visit to Tewkesbury

I'm very pleased to be joining St Mary's Cathedral choir from Glasgow in a weekend of singing the services in Tewkesbury Abbey on 23 - 24 July.

I've joined them on occasions during the past year while I've been working in Glasgow and now with the move back to Tyneside this will probably be the last time I'll sing with them, which is very sad.

There is one more occasion when you'll be able to catch me singing with them of course; on the CD which is published in the autumn. You can listen to some tracks here :)

Tewkesbury Abbey choir stalls

The Music for the Tewkesbury weekend if you're interested is:

Evensong:      Saturday 23rd, 5pm

Introit:            The Quiet Heart – June Collin

Responses:    Rose

Canticles:        Harwood in Aflat        

Anthem:        Blessed be the God and Father - Wesley

Sung Eucharist  Sunday 24th, 11am

Setting:            Missa Brevis Sancti Joannis de Deo (Kleine Orgelmesse) – Haydn    

Anthem:          Love Divine – Howard Goodall

Evensong:       Sunday 24th, 5pm

Responses:     Rose

Canticles:        Dyson in D     

Anthem:        Hail Gladdening Light – Charles Wood

(find a hotel in or near Tewkesbury with GreatGetaways)
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More pics to follow...

Well that is a real testament to the power of public outrage!

In a statement made to staff, Murdoch said the good things the News of the World does "have been sullied by behaviour that was wrong - indeed, if recent allegations are true, it was inhuman and has no place in our company".
"The News of the World is in the business of holding others to account. But it failed when it came to itself."

What he didn't say is that the staff only found out at the same time as the rest of us via BBC News! Perhaps that's the mark of the man.

One wonders whether the same outcome would have happened just 10 years ago, before the double effect internet; firstly to focus people's outrage via social media - and second in replacing the newspapers as the key news medium with advertising revenues following suit.


That leaves it open for News International to leave a period of grace and re-launch in about 4 months or so - perhaps as SUNday? Watch this space...