a safe haven from where to poke the self-appointed Manchester digerati
Friday 27 May 2011
Fight!! Fight!!
Special thanks @robyn, who emailed to draw my attention to this muscular display of professionalism from two of Manchester's loudest bloggers on the comments of a Guardian article no less.
It shows clearly a loss of perspective that is a constant danger in this Brave New Digital World, so thank heavens @goodgreeftoyboy was able to step into the fray before anyone was hurt. Fears of a handbags-at-forty-paces showdown have been set aside for the moment.
Thursday 26 May 2011
Anti-Social Media Cafe too
I decided to create a separate blog entry for another interesting aspect about the Manchester Social Media Cafe which I unearthed while researching this piece here.
It seems their Members group has been infiltrated by a spamming mad person. But I think the way the members have reacted (or rather not reacted) says a lot about they way they see the group and in at least one instance draws attention to their own naiveté.
This is the Member page of someone calling themselves "Sharon Davids". You will notice they began entering a website address then stopped and then typed a single letter as their response to the question 'What are you interested in learning about?' On May 9th they sent the following message to (as far as I could tell) all Members of Manchester's Social Media Cafe:
This exposes the hypocrisy that permeates so much of Social Media, because it turns out the Member who responded is simply a recruitment agency cynically using the SMC as a way of touting for clients. As such, they seem either to have a) wilfully decided to reply to the spam as a joke, or b) not known what on earth they are doing.
As for the failure of the group's organisers to respond to this spamming in any way and the collective apathy shown by the other members - well, as I say, it reflects badly on them all.
It seems their Members group has been infiltrated by a spamming mad person. But I think the way the members have reacted (or rather not reacted) says a lot about they way they see the group and in at least one instance draws attention to their own naiveté.
Hello,So far so mad, but surely this would have been reported and the user blocked immediately? Well, unbelievably this is not the case and incredibly a member whose profile describes themselves as a:
My name is sharon i saw your profile today at and i love it also became intrested in you,i will also like to know you more,and i want you to send an email directely to my email address so that i can reply your mail and also give you my picture for you to know whom i am.Here is my email address(sharondavids52@yahoo.com) i believe we can move from here.my love distance or colour does not matter but love matters alot in life.i am waiting to recive your
lovely reply soon,
Yours in Love sharon
Specialist in the recruitment of Marketing, PR, Advertising, Digital and Social media professionals. Looking to network with like minded people whom I may be able to assist in their next career move.Responded to the spam like this:
Hi Sharon...which has now appeared on 'Sharon's comment wall.
Thanks for your comment, I find it a little strange I must admit. But thank you all the same.
This exposes the hypocrisy that permeates so much of Social Media, because it turns out the Member who responded is simply a recruitment agency cynically using the SMC as a way of touting for clients. As such, they seem either to have a) wilfully decided to reply to the spam as a joke, or b) not known what on earth they are doing.
As for the failure of the group's organisers to respond to this spamming in any way and the collective apathy shown by the other members - well, as I say, it reflects badly on them all.
Anti-Social Media Cafe
Following on from an earlier blog on Manchester's Social Media Cafe, I thought it might be instructive - not to say constructive - to compare it with the model on which they are based. London's Tuttle Club ticks all the right boxes for me and I'm going to try to ascertain why that might be, and why the Manchester version seems to have mislaid a key element that makes Tuttle work.
I do not think that missing key element is 'fun', although it's true Tuttle seems like a lot more fun. I don't think it is necessarily the more professional feel to Tuttle's on-line presence, although it's equally true that they - and, for instance, Birmingham - have had much better quality 'associated media' - like photographs - whereas Manchester has had some truly awful cameraphone pix and video.
No, I think the true missing ingredient might be defined as "that which makes one less pretentious". Tuttle's founder Lloyd Davies is both witty and eloquent but somehow manages to remain down-to-earth and approachable even when talking or writing about the minutae of some techie chat he's just had. (Perhaps it's the ukelele). He also seems a genuinely creative person who knows a lot of other truly creative people.
Here in Manchester there appears to be a dearth of real creative talent attending the SMC meetings, but plenty of mediocre and terribly earnest I.T.-based Marketeers. Obviously they would turn puce with rage at being called merely 'I.T.-based Marketeers', preferring perhaps 'Social Media Consultants' or 'Creative Digerati' or 'Thought Leaders'. In fact I'm sure they'd prefer that because these are the terms they use when describing themselves, and it comes across as unbelievably pretentious.
No doubt there would be some who would say that Manchester's SMC is not trying to be like Tuttle. Not the authors of MancSMC's original homepage though...
And now we've soiled this page with the hideous MancSMC logo in all it's garish luridness, let's take a look at the homeblogs for the two entities.
It's worth noting that - other than the actual blog entries themselves - Tuttle only have two 'true' RSS feeds to their homepage - recent comments & recent photos. Two generic boxes state simply what Tuttle is and where to find them, and there's a tasteful header pic and simple typographic design solution for their name. It looks smart and cool.
Now let's take a trip up north to see how (obstensibly) the same sort of people have laid out their homeblog:
MancSMC has feeds for Blogposts (sitting in the top centre and displaying on May 26th 2011 the last blogpost dated April 12th), Forum (seemingly hijacked by job vacancy ads), Facebook, Events, Twitter, Members, Groups, Latest Activity, and even a downloadable big badge saying 'I'M A MEMBER OF SOCIAL MEDIA MANCHESTER'. Also prominent top-right is the Sign Up box with links to Facebook, Google and Yahoo. In contrast Tuttle makes a point of stating in their generic description box that "there is no need to sign up".
Other than the horrible aesthetic mess all these streams make, and the fact that they are vulnerable to the ebb and flow of user content (more ebb than actual flow it seems), they suggest an unappealing desperation. "Please join us. Oh, please join us. Go on. Look how popular we are. Do you want a badge? Go on, have a badge..."
You may also have noticed that instead of Tuttle's cool photograph of people chatting we get a dull, low contrast city nightscape. And the title reads 'Social Media Manchester'. What happened to the cafe? And where's the logo gone? Perhaps they've changed their name? Not so, because if you click on the Facebook link you arrive here:
And there's the old #smc logo but the page is called Social Media Manchester. It's not an actual Facebook Group page you understand, but the app page. Under each heading we read: "No content could be found for this item." Well, ain't that the truth.
Clicking through the 'Find Out More' on 'About Us' takes you to this:
So we're back to calling it the Social Media Cafe again now and the dull description makes it sound like some sort of Community Support Group. But for me the highlight has to be the photograph. Was this really the best one available? Two empty chairs and lot of people's backs?
In conclusion I think the net result of all this shoddy pretentiousness is that MancSMC continually fails to attract creatives into their midst. And unless something changes, they never will. And if they never will, then the group will remain small-minded, unimaginative, mediocre and dull.
I do not think that missing key element is 'fun', although it's true Tuttle seems like a lot more fun. I don't think it is necessarily the more professional feel to Tuttle's on-line presence, although it's equally true that they - and, for instance, Birmingham - have had much better quality 'associated media' - like photographs - whereas Manchester has had some truly awful cameraphone pix and video.
No, I think the true missing ingredient might be defined as "that which makes one less pretentious". Tuttle's founder Lloyd Davies is both witty and eloquent but somehow manages to remain down-to-earth and approachable even when talking or writing about the minutae of some techie chat he's just had. (Perhaps it's the ukelele). He also seems a genuinely creative person who knows a lot of other truly creative people.
Here in Manchester there appears to be a dearth of real creative talent attending the SMC meetings, but plenty of mediocre and terribly earnest I.T.-based Marketeers. Obviously they would turn puce with rage at being called merely 'I.T.-based Marketeers', preferring perhaps 'Social Media Consultants' or 'Creative Digerati' or 'Thought Leaders'. In fact I'm sure they'd prefer that because these are the terms they use when describing themselves, and it comes across as unbelievably pretentious.
No doubt there would be some who would say that Manchester's SMC is not trying to be like Tuttle. Not the authors of MancSMC's original homepage though...
Now let's take a trip up north to see how (obstensibly) the same sort of people have laid out their homeblog:
Other than the horrible aesthetic mess all these streams make, and the fact that they are vulnerable to the ebb and flow of user content (more ebb than actual flow it seems), they suggest an unappealing desperation. "Please join us. Oh, please join us. Go on. Look how popular we are. Do you want a badge? Go on, have a badge..."
You may also have noticed that instead of Tuttle's cool photograph of people chatting we get a dull, low contrast city nightscape. And the title reads 'Social Media Manchester'. What happened to the cafe? And where's the logo gone? Perhaps they've changed their name? Not so, because if you click on the Facebook link you arrive here:
And there's the old #smc logo but the page is called Social Media Manchester. It's not an actual Facebook Group page you understand, but the app page. Under each heading we read: "No content could be found for this item." Well, ain't that the truth.
Clicking through the 'Find Out More' on 'About Us' takes you to this:
In conclusion I think the net result of all this shoddy pretentiousness is that MancSMC continually fails to attract creatives into their midst. And unless something changes, they never will. And if they never will, then the group will remain small-minded, unimaginative, mediocre and dull.
Tuesday 17 May 2011
letsgoglobal! (with an exclamation mark but no apostrophe)
Recently, on a blog we at chez Digital Mancunian find irresistible, letsgoglobal.tv felt moved to comment on an earlier comment I had made which had ended with the question:
What's it like being a 'digirati'?*
I cannot be sure exactly what their motivation was but here is their comment:
- [AUTHOR'S NAME REDACTED]...Letsgoglobal. x said...
- Oh why is it that the snide, bitchy comments are always anonymous! Full of bile and bitterness but never willing to back it up with an identity!! [AUTHOR'S NAME REDACTED], in my humble opinion this is a brilliant review of a dynamic and thought provoking festival. But then I suppose I'm one of the digirati!!
Unfortunately letsgoglobal seems to be very much a part of an on-going effort lead by young Media Groups to dumb down such traditional 'artistic' crafts such as film-making and graphic design. A cursory Google search revealed:
A Vimeo page with a hideously pixellated JPEG logo;
a sadly neglected youtube channel forlornly declaring "we're sorry, this module has not been set up";
a Facebook page with yet another pixellated version of their logo (and by the by, has no-one told them "let's" should have an apostrophe? I mention this as they claim on their website to provide 'scripting' services, which presumably abide by standard English grammatical rules);
a home page featuring a behind-the-scenes shot of their "fully equipped broadcast studio" demonstrating at a glance that it is badly lit, badly set up and probably contravenes health & safety law with its stray BNC video cable waiting to trip up some poor suspecting studio guest (is gaffer tape really going to break the budget?)...
...But perhaps my favourite is their quite shameless 'Open Call' for a Creative Graphic Designer to produce and design not just a logo but an entire branding for £500.
Now then, professional designers can command anything from £40 - £100 an hour so presumably they are wanting to give young graduates a chance here. Therefore let's halve that hourly fee to £20 to give us a total of (£500 ÷ £20) 25 hours or three eight-hour days. Three days to implement and design a full corporate branding. Well, at least the lucky winner will probably be able to advise on JPEG sizing. Hey - they might even attempt a little Flash animation after attending letsgoglobal's one day course - though that would remove a sizeable part of their fee.
And yet, despite all this amateur hour nonsense, letsgoglobal are keen to be perceived as professional. Trafford Council describes letsgoglobal as "...a pioneering community media project: an arts-led, internet TV channel run by and for the local and diverse communities of Greater Manchester", whereas letgoglobal themselves claim that they have "...evolved from an arts-led, internet TV channel, to a dynamic media organisation offering training, workshops, video production, project management, venue hire and consultancy". Well, which is it? Also, that last part sounds like a commercial enterprise doesn't it? And yet their Facebook page describes them as a 'Non-Profit Organisation'. And do Trafford Council really mean that the channel is "run by... the local and diverse communities of Greater Manchester"? I thought the channel was being run by 'professionals'... But of course they have to say that or else it would fail its remit and the money from Europe would dry up.
Identity crises can quite often be a problem with organisations like this. You can see it in their name: Sometimes it's letsgoglobal - no apostrophes on URLs you see, sometimes it's Lets Go Global (Facebook), sometimes it's LetsGoGlobal (Vimeo). Lack of funding, skills and the practical means to do things properly or professionally can sometimes end with inexperienced people in the uncomfortable position of promising more than they could ever competently deliver. The strange thing with organisations such as this is that, in my view, the answer is staring them in the face.
If they stuck to their guns then instead of claiming they are in some way related to the broadcast industry, they could come out and engage the world as a completely different beast. True pioneering spirit. Maybe they are so conditioned by traditional perceptions of what TV is, that they cannot truly embrace the enormous creative potential just sitting there. Maybe they so much want to be part of the real TV industry, that they finish up merely playing at it just so they don't feel left out.
And as the media landscape around us changes beyond recognition at unprecedented speed there are, for sure, hundreds of thousands of untrained, undisciplined people available to populate that illusion. As the Digerati convince every commercial enterprise - no matter how small - that they simply have to have a Twitter page and must as a matter of course webcast their breakfast meetings - demand is outweighing supply.
So grab your HD camcorder and your MacBook Pro and enjoy it.
...but it's not real telly. Not yet it isn't.
* For reference this was my original comment on the original blog:
Anonymous said...
Everything Future:
An event attended by vested-interest professionals, likening everyone else as peasants in the face of this Digital Revolution; promulgating the idea of 'free' content for all, whilst trousering their public speaking/consultancy fees; shrugging off the idea of a flattened mediocre mass culture crayoned by a multitude of ill-informed amateurs - the direct result of Web 2.0; ignoring the irony of it's very own website - which, even now, some three days later - still tiredly scrolls through the same five photographs it's had for weeks whilst exclaiming "we want your content"; and now finally blogged about by yet another wannabe creative artist who, in spite of tweeting some belated advertisements linking to it, will be lucky to get even one more comment after this one.
What's it like being a 'digirati'?
Monday 16 May 2011
FutureNothing
Is the world changing forever? Can you feel the digital revolution leaving you behind? You can't? Well, you should! Keep up - or you'll be lost. Forever.
You see? If I'd wanted to I could have given a keynote talk at Manchester's FutureEverything festival/event thing. All you had to do was invoke the now widely held belief that t'internet is fundamentally changing society in ways that only Manchester's Digital Creatives truly understand. The message was simple: Teach the peasants we are not going back; the 'Spinning Jenny' is here to stay. Oh, and while you're at it, make some money off those farmers and land managers who think they have to keep up or else the crop will fail for good.
Okay, so let's leave the Industrial Revolution metaphors behind (if only the majority of speakers at FutureNothing could have taken that advice) and step back a bit.
Yes, society has changed and is changing. Very quickly. Ask your grandparents what was happening in sixties and they'll tell you the same; spaceflight! television! Ask your parents what was happening in the eighties and they'll tell you the same; the VCR! compact discs! But, you know, none of these things actually changed human social behaviour. We just had more to talk about.
And there are those of us who cast a jaded eye on the kind of events of which FutureEverything is a perfect example and think the same thing. Is there actually more content in the world nowadays? Some observers, perhaps even most people wouldn't hesitate to say "of course there is". But, if you can think back before the Web, to a time when taking up a new hobby invariably meant popping into W H Smiths to browse the hobby magazine section, a sobering thought might occur to you. Whether it was trains, amateur photography or rock climbing you were faced with a range of mags all vying for your immediate attention and after glancing through the pages you were reluctantly forced to purchase a single copy of a single title. But, of course, what you may have noticed is that all the magazines on a particular subject would carry advertisements by the same advertisers; the same new products were being reviewed; the latest news and events were being promoted... Yes, it was the same amount of information being thinly spread out and presented in different ways in a handful of similar magazines.
Now if I can drag you out of that newsagents into 2011... The Web is the biggest W H Smith you can possibly imagine and under 'Amateur Photography' you will find more 'magazines' than you could browse in a hundred thousand lifetimes. But it's just the same amount of information being spread ever more wafer thin. A new camera will have ten thousand reviews, all listing the manufacturer's specifications. An advertisement for a photographic exhibition will be potentially seen by a million viewers.
And so to FutureEverything, an event that is almost completely self-promoting in that not only those involved in it, but even those merely interested in it, will endlessly blog and tweet in the preceding weeks leading up to the event (though, perhaps rather peculiarly, appear to then fall dead silent once it's finished). The plethora of techie, geeky, digerati-related blogs and websites will fill up with 'news' about the event, announcements of guest speakers... and even during the event the humble hash tag will mean they can all txt and tweet to each other - even when they are separated by tens of yards.
But guess what - and I think you understand where I'm coming from now - IT'S THE SAME STUFF BEING SPREAD EVER MORE THINLY.
There is something quite repugnant about the media-consultant types who attend festivals and conferences like this one. Vested-interest professionals, they habitually liken everyone else as peasants in the face of this Digital Revolution, promulgating the idea of 'free' content for all, whilst trousering their public speaking/consultancy fees. They tend to shrug off the idea of a flattened mediocre mass culture crayoned by a multitude of ill-informed amateurs - the direct result of Web 2.0, but when it's all over will be found sitting in their first class train carriage listening to music or watching video on their iPhones that could never, ever have been produced by such an under-achieving, lacklustre underclass of 'hopefuls'.
And the final irony of all this is that it is now finally blogged about by yet another wannabe creative artist who, in spite of tweeting some belated advertisements linking to it, will be lucky to get a comment.
*By the way, this only applies to the speakers - the Music and Art at FutureEverything were excellent ;/)
You see? If I'd wanted to I could have given a keynote talk at Manchester's FutureEverything festival/event thing. All you had to do was invoke the now widely held belief that t'internet is fundamentally changing society in ways that only Manchester's Digital Creatives truly understand. The message was simple: Teach the peasants we are not going back; the 'Spinning Jenny' is here to stay. Oh, and while you're at it, make some money off those farmers and land managers who think they have to keep up or else the crop will fail for good.
Okay, so let's leave the Industrial Revolution metaphors behind (if only the majority of speakers at FutureNothing could have taken that advice) and step back a bit.
Yes, society has changed and is changing. Very quickly. Ask your grandparents what was happening in sixties and they'll tell you the same; spaceflight! television! Ask your parents what was happening in the eighties and they'll tell you the same; the VCR! compact discs! But, you know, none of these things actually changed human social behaviour. We just had more to talk about.
And there are those of us who cast a jaded eye on the kind of events of which FutureEverything is a perfect example and think the same thing. Is there actually more content in the world nowadays? Some observers, perhaps even most people wouldn't hesitate to say "of course there is". But, if you can think back before the Web, to a time when taking up a new hobby invariably meant popping into W H Smiths to browse the hobby magazine section, a sobering thought might occur to you. Whether it was trains, amateur photography or rock climbing you were faced with a range of mags all vying for your immediate attention and after glancing through the pages you were reluctantly forced to purchase a single copy of a single title. But, of course, what you may have noticed is that all the magazines on a particular subject would carry advertisements by the same advertisers; the same new products were being reviewed; the latest news and events were being promoted... Yes, it was the same amount of information being thinly spread out and presented in different ways in a handful of similar magazines.
Now if I can drag you out of that newsagents into 2011... The Web is the biggest W H Smith you can possibly imagine and under 'Amateur Photography' you will find more 'magazines' than you could browse in a hundred thousand lifetimes. But it's just the same amount of information being spread ever more wafer thin. A new camera will have ten thousand reviews, all listing the manufacturer's specifications. An advertisement for a photographic exhibition will be potentially seen by a million viewers.
And so to FutureEverything, an event that is almost completely self-promoting in that not only those involved in it, but even those merely interested in it, will endlessly blog and tweet in the preceding weeks leading up to the event (though, perhaps rather peculiarly, appear to then fall dead silent once it's finished). The plethora of techie, geeky, digerati-related blogs and websites will fill up with 'news' about the event, announcements of guest speakers... and even during the event the humble hash tag will mean they can all txt and tweet to each other - even when they are separated by tens of yards.
"speakr just said something really interesting"
But guess what - and I think you understand where I'm coming from now - IT'S THE SAME STUFF BEING SPREAD EVER MORE THINLY.
There is something quite repugnant about the media-consultant types who attend festivals and conferences like this one. Vested-interest professionals, they habitually liken everyone else as peasants in the face of this Digital Revolution, promulgating the idea of 'free' content for all, whilst trousering their public speaking/consultancy fees. They tend to shrug off the idea of a flattened mediocre mass culture crayoned by a multitude of ill-informed amateurs - the direct result of Web 2.0, but when it's all over will be found sitting in their first class train carriage listening to music or watching video on their iPhones that could never, ever have been produced by such an under-achieving, lacklustre underclass of 'hopefuls'.
And the final irony of all this is that it is now finally blogged about by yet another wannabe creative artist who, in spite of tweeting some belated advertisements linking to it, will be lucky to get a comment.
*By the way, this only applies to the speakers - the Music and Art at FutureEverything were excellent ;/)
Friday 6 May 2011
Outside the M60
Self-proclaimed 'hyperlocal' news blog 'Inside The M60' seems determined to continue to court controversy.
It all started so well... As early as March 2010 freelance journalist Nigel Barlow announced a manifesto for a hyper-local news website for Manchester on his own blog here:
Fellow freelance journalist Louise Bolotin in more publicity for the project stated:
The site launched a couple of months later to general indifference and shortly afterward inexplicably began to be accused by press journalists as amounting to not much more than unedited press releases with little original content. Or at least that is what the 'Inside The M60's founders read into David Ottewell's blog at the Manchester Evening News where he had made some general criticisms of hyper-local news sites. Even though he had not explicitly identified 'Inside The M60' as one of his targets, Ottewell eventually found he had to spell out his position:
September saw the introduction of a rather strange Tweet-fuelled animal known as the 'Inside The M60 Daily'. Stories posted here by numerous 'contributors' (read Twitter-ers) are unadulterated, unedited pieces that often appear on many other news sites, under general headings such as Politics, Entertainment etc., the only visual difference being the CSS template the posting arrives dressed up in.
By October 2010 Barlow was disagreeing with journalists who described 'Inside The M60' as "hyperlocal". One could not really blame them - they were getting the description from the website itself - but he went to great pains in this audio interview to explain that he no longer wanted the term 'hyperlocal' to be applied to 'Inside The M60'. In addition to this, first Barlow and then Bolotin posted separately in the comments underneath the interview defending their use of press releases:
By December Bolotin and Barlow were again sparring with blogger The Marple Leaf because he had dared to suggest that tweets Barlow was sending from a protest march direct to the 'Inside The M60' twitter account seemed to imply he was enjoying the frisson of impending violence. A site called 'How Do' was amongst those that reported this spat, and sure enough Bolotin was first in the comments to say:
By early May Louise Bolotin had "resigned" from 'Inside The M60' citing "professional differences" with Barlow, although she gave Barlow her blessing to continue the site..
So it seems that whatever the original ambiguous ambitions the two co-founders of 'Inside The M60' set out to achieve, it has all been for naught. All that can really be said for the name is that it is - thanks to its links and RSS feeds - something of a 'brand' now, but a somewhat schizophrenic one.
It all started so well... As early as March 2010 freelance journalist Nigel Barlow announced a manifesto for a hyper-local news website for Manchester on his own blog here:
"What we're looking to create is a hyperlocal news service that keeps itself at a grass roots level - filling the gaps that have been left by retreating local papers."
Louise,The day after this Barlow pursued Ottewell onto another on-line journalists blog to demand:
I’m certainly not criticising you, or your website, or the principle of hyperlocal journalism.
By October 2010 Barlow was disagreeing with journalists who described 'Inside The M60' as "hyperlocal". One could not really blame them - they were getting the description from the website itself - but he went to great pains in this audio interview to explain that he no longer wanted the term 'hyperlocal' to be applied to 'Inside The M60'. In addition to this, first Barlow and then Bolotin posted separately in the comments underneath the interview defending their use of press releases:
By December Bolotin and Barlow were again sparring with blogger The Marple Leaf because he had dared to suggest that tweets Barlow was sending from a protest march direct to the 'Inside The M60' twitter account seemed to imply he was enjoying the frisson of impending violence. A site called 'How Do' was amongst those that reported this spat, and sure enough Bolotin was first in the comments to say:
So much for accurate reporting - do you not call first to get your facts straight?On April 11th this year, the website stretched the definition of 'local' beyond breaking point when it attempted to include a trip to the International Journalism Festival in Italy as content fit for their audience, solely on the basis that Barlow would be speaking there:
By early May Louise Bolotin had "resigned" from 'Inside The M60' citing "professional differences" with Barlow, although she gave Barlow her blessing to continue the site..
So it seems that whatever the original ambiguous ambitions the two co-founders of 'Inside The M60' set out to achieve, it has all been for naught. All that can really be said for the name is that it is - thanks to its links and RSS feeds - something of a 'brand' now, but a somewhat schizophrenic one.
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