Comments by Ben

I love the collaboration of maths and art. I always use the “Rule of thirds” or “noughts and crosses” grid when taking my pictures, but this takes it to a new level.

Posted on 1st March 2010 in response to Maths for Designers, Episode 1: The Fibonacci sequence
Access to the internet as a basic human right is an interesting concept, one I was not convinced of until I did some further reading. Article 19 in the 61 year old, UN Declaration of human right says;

“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

The internet has become a crucial medium for freedom of speech supporters all over the world. Blocking or preventing access to this network in my opinion would seem to go against the article 19.

Should it be named a basic human right? – I’m still not sure, but one thing I am sure of is that blocking or preventing access to this network does contravene the 60 year old right to the freedom “…to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”.

Posted on 1st March 2010 in response to Digital Inclusion
Interestingly for the last 3 years I have left my wireless internet purposely unencrypted, meaning that anyone in range could use my connection. Friends, family, neighbours have all enjoyed this freedom, one example of why i do this a few week back my neighbours router went down and he had to finish and send off a report, so he was able to log in to my connection and get his work done, he even popped over to say thank you and gave me a bottle of wine! ( i think it was an important bit of work!).

But when i first read about this bill, I have to say I felt I had little choice but to encrypt. This bill, as it stands is terrible, I understand the reasoning behind it – but come on there must be a better solution that this!

Posted on 3rd March 2010 in response to To the digital barricades
Bertie, you are in good company, I think it was Albert Einstein who said “everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler”.

I agree with Mr Einstein, I don’t think the effectiveness of the mail above is diminished by the simplicity. It’s simple, clean and I bet it has a very low bounce rate!

Posted on 3rd March 2010 in response to Oh my god, you’re beautiful!
A few months back the “Re-tweet of the week” in social media circles was the “US Air Force blog assessment flowchart”. While not the answer to all problems, it is a nice framework for dealing with trolls, ragers, misguided and unhappy users.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremiah_owyang/3154057414/sizes/o/

While I’m not sure about the response to trolls being “monitor only” it does allow a blog owners (or brand owner) a way of categorising negative posts.

Sometimes the obviously inappropriate posts, such as the one mentioned above, are easier to deal with as it is very black and white (not to take away for the seriousness of the issue), but what about those posts where is it just unhelpful or inconsiderate, how much time should we dedicate to these posts?

I believe understanding the influence of a post, group or user as well as the content they have published should dictate how much time and effort is given to correction.

It is not an easy issue, it would be great to hear how others with experience in dealing with trolls and ragers have dealt with the fall out.

Posted on 11th March 2010 in response to Social Media Trolls
Ewan, that’s is an interesting point – should we be using HTML and plain text in different ways?

Perhaps a broadcast email such as general marketing or “visual publication for you to read at your leisure” should use HTML, but if we are looking for a response from the user to do one thing, maybe plain text is the way to go?

Posted on 11th March 2010 in response to Oh my god, you’re beautiful!
This story got me thinking about apathy, especially British apathy. As a nation we like to grumble a little moan makes us feel better, but then every now and then someone goes just a little too far, and we erupt, we stand up and start shouting and pointing until the rage has dispersed and we are left feeling a little exposed and self conscious.

It seems to me that generally it is the final straw that drives us over the edge, the focus of our rage is what ever is in front of us, the man who threw is cigarette butt on the floor rather than in the bin that was 3 feet away, the girl with the loud headphones on the tube. But these things by themselves are not enough to make us react, they are the culmination of events.

Anger can not be time boxed, we don’t schedule a rant for a specific time, however we will support another mans anger provided it is just. We will back up the old man that confronts the teenager that litters, or we will beep in support of a protest that we believe in.

I wonder as “charity people” do we need to get angry? To show our emotion, it seems that if we want to gain advocates and supports we need to be the one standing, shouting and pointing – not just providing the tools to allow other to do so.

Posted on 23rd July 2010 in response to The SAS wouldn’t put up with this….
What Orange* can bring to the table is “reach”, as a large organisation with a large user base, and powerful marketing ability they can do things small organisation can only dream of. I guess it would be nice if they were to build on some of the existing work that organisations like Samasource have done, but let’s be honest they are also doing this work for promotional reasons (that’s not a bad thing at least they are doing something) and as Orange are very fussy about their brand working with other organisation does not give them the level of control they would want over products and their brand.

It will be interesting to see what comes out of this idea, how much influence will Orange have on the entrants and he resultant ideas? But I do welcome this kind of thinking from large organisation – Well done Orange!

*Other networks are available!

Posted on 24th August 2010 in response to Entering Orange's volunteering app competition? Look to Samasource first
Nice article. I agree with you about the potential power of Facebook Places, it is next natural step for the platform. Combine this with Facebook Credit and you have a powerful closed loop!

There is (as always) some back lash about the privacy aspect of letting people know where you are, or where you will be. Facebook also allows you to tag other people in places (check your privacy settings if you don’t want this to happen to you), But I am excited to see where this will go, How will brands and organisation start to use this technology.

However if you’re thinking about using places – I’ll give you some free advice. I will only use it if there is something in it for me. Selfish, yes – but if you want me to use Places – make it interesting, fun and above all valuable for me….

Posted on 31st August 2010 in response to Want to grab the attention of Generation Y? Here's how Facebook Places could help