What is social media?

I met up with Spannerworks‘ head of social media Antony Mayfield this afternoon. He’s authored an e-book which covers off the basics of social media for those who are trying to get a grip on the fundamentals. “My take on him is that he’s a good, honest guy,” Antoine (who’s met Antony a few times) […]

Are they right?

I’m reading Bastard Out of Carolina* right now, and at the beginning of the book is this quotation from James Baldwin:
People pay for what they do, and still more, for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it simply: by the lives they lead.
I also like this Steven Barnes quotation, […]

No Excuses for Terror

Thanks to the guys at Harry’s Place for putting what looks to be an excellent Five documentary on YouTube and their blog for us all to see. If you want to make sense of why some otherwise intelligent people - especially here in the UK, where the extreme right and extreme left find so much […]

Happy birthday, Chocolate & Zucchini!

The lovely Clotilde, with whom I have had the pleasure to spend time in London and in Paris, today celebrates the third birthday of her blog. When she started Chocolate & Zucchini, she was an IT project manager. Now, she’s a full-time food writer for magazines and newspapers worldwide, with her own cookbook coming out […]

More on the mp3 player market

Mobile expert/influencer Tomi Ahonen has chipped in on the debate I started here when I noted Tomi’s contention that Apple’s market share of the portable mp3 player market is less than 20 per cent. Tomi’s remarks and data do illustrate just how insular our views of how ‘people’ do things can be. Some highlights:

The first […]

JP jumps ship

My mate JP Rangaswami - one of the most important thinkers in the spaces of technology, networks, conversation, the internet, and a bunch of other subjects - has left investment bank DrKW and joined BT Global Services as their CIO. When I heard this news the other day, I wasn’t entirely surprised; I knew JP […]

The first freakout of the day comes early

The first thing I had to do this morning was jump out of bed and call an ambulance for Antoine. (Loo handle snapped off, his hand ripping across the jagged, broken bit. I congratulated him for managing to cut himself on perhaps the most bacteria-ridden item in the house. The paramedics winced and looked away […]

The last word on Web 2.0

…and it comes from Foxtrot, a comic I’d almost forgotten about since emigrating to the UK.

DOs and DON’TEVENF’NTHINKABOUTITs of event attendance

Wow, I’ve wanted to write this post for a while, but I didn’t want to do it after I’d just hosted some event, because I didn’t want people to think I was talking about those who were at that event. Now that it’s been about three weeks since my last party, I’m just going to […]

Scenes from a Scrabble game

ME [slamming shut the tiny dictionary Antoine’s had since he was at the Lycée]: Man, I can’t believe douchebag isn’t in there! Grrr!
ANTOINE: Well, you can’t make it anyway.
ME: No kidding.
ANTOINE: I believe it is not a compound word.
ME: Uh, yeah it is…I think. And also, I was JOKING.
One of my favourite things to do […]

Stupid fun

The only explanation for the delight I take in this is that I must be somewhere between four and six years old. (It’s worksafe.)

What to say to socialists

Been away from the computer all day, which was nice. Spent several hours catching up with Adriana Lukas and Perry de Havilland, later joined by Antoine, plotting to spread genuine liberalism across this dirty planet. I used to spend 100+ hours a week with Perry and Adriana, and I miss so much the lengthy, funny, […]

National Slavery Museum

Bill Cosby would like every American to donate $8 - a modest sum by any measure - to build the National Slavery Museum in the midst of Civil War battlefields in Fredericksburg. I would like you, if you are American (or not American but so inclined), to donate $8 for yourself, and maybe a few […]

Paul Robeson

No matter what you’ve heard, the man was no hero or saint. Oliver Kamm shares this, from historian Harvey Klehr, referring to a favourable bio of Robeson by Martin Duberman:
In 1949 Robeson arrived in Moscow in the midst of Stalin’s notorious anti-Zionism campaign. Uneasy at his inability to find old Jewish friends, he asked to […]