December 2011
17 posts
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Who owns a Twitter account anyway?
A lawsuit in the United States raises interesting questions about employment rights for those developing social media audiences. Are they doing so in their own right or is their audience an asset “owned” by the employer? Well, a Twitter user is now being sued for $350k by his former employer for taking his online followers with him when he switched jobs. Noah Kravitz, a writer from...
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Louis CK's $5 video earns $1m →
… because Louis CK is a funny, charming presence if ever there was one. Here is the marketing story, and here is the rather more entertaining Reddit chat Louis had with fans before his “thing” went live.
PS: Louis is keeping a bit less than a quarter of his million, a quarter is going towards recouping production costs, and the rest is going to charity and for bonuses for his...
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Twitter & the Prince
“… Did you hear about the Arab prince who got a $300 million stake in the heart of Twitter. He wouldn’t let his wife drive it in …” (badabim!) Apparently, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal says Twitter is a high-growth business. [ The Guardian ]
* Twitter and the “War on Terror”: US Government gets antsy about Twitter account used by Somali resistance group [ nyt ]
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Happy f***** Birthday, Bradley Manning →
An interview with Glenn Greenwald on occasion of the birthday in detention of alleged Wikileaks whistleblower Bradley Manning. [ Democracy Now ]
* … and another with the douchebag who shopped him, Adrian Lamo
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Think Different? Steve "didn't like it" →
“He was far from the mastermind behind the renowned launch spot. In fact, he was blatantly harsh on the commercial that would eventually play a pivotal role in helping Apple achieve one of the greatest corporate turnarounds in business history.” Rob Siltanen, chairman and chief creative officer at Siltanen & Partners was the creative director and managing partner at...
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The Top Graphs of 2011
When the information is this interesting, one can spare the horses on the graphics. 12 leading economists selected these graphs to illustrate the financial turmoil of 2011. Plenty to interest, especially graph six: Why is the private sector paying down debt with interest rates so low? [ bbc ]
Who is a Journalist? →
The harassment of individuals reporting on the recent Occupy events in the United States has drawn new attention to the need for new definitions of what & who constitute “media”. [ BoingBoing ]
* Judges will decide who can tweet from court [ The Guardian ]
* Below: A conversation with a most unconventional journalist, the constitutional lawyer-turned political blogger Glenn...
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Baldwin rant recruits 300k for Zynga
Did you hear about Alec Baldwin’s spat with American Airlines? What? You’ve been in North Pole ? Well, the 30 Rock actor was kicked off a flight after refusing to stop playing “Words with Friends” on his iPhone. Well, since then, the games company has reported a boost of 300 000 downloads, according to the New York Daily News. Nice attention for the pre-IPO parent company,...
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At least one Gothamist reader thinks like me: the new Apple store at New York’s Grand Central Station feels more like a Scientology centre or a new headquarters of De Beers than an inviting retail point. [ Gothamist ]
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Is Sky the F1 limit?
It has been hilarious to read the shrill moralising of F1 fans over Sky’s new Formula 1 coverage. Folks who have no problems with the Bernie Ecclestone’s personal plaything seem to take exception at the involvement of Rupert Murdoch - a hair I could not be bothered to begin to split. Moral cavils about the Dirty Digger aside, however, what comes through loud and clear is their stubborn...
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24-hours of Flickr pictures
Erik Kessels printed out all the photos uploaded to Flickr in a 24 hour period.
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Clarkson is still "winning" 12 000 : 1
Apparently over 31 000 have already complained to the BBC about Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson’s preposterous intervention in the public sector strike debate last week (that the strikers might be “executed in front of their families …” was his insane suggestion during a live taping of the BBC’s One Show - vid). Well that makes it more or less one complaint...
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Images of 2011
Rebels hold a young man at gunpoint, who they accuse of being a loyalist to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, between the towns of Brega and Ras Lanuf, March 3, 2011. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic. “We were just passing by an area, not really the front line. We pushed ahead but didn’t see anybody so we came back to a checkpoint, somewhere between Ras Lanuf and Brega. We heard that the rebels had...
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Page 23: Life in an Ikea catalogue
Can you conceive that tomorrow’s marketing channels might come in the form of “living” blogs? Imagine the Ikea catalogue coming to life … This vision of a less-than-satisfying reality was produced during the 48 hour filmproject in Utrecht, 2011. Written and directed by: Jeroen Houben, Tim Arts, Stefan van den Boogaard. Production: Jeroen Houben, Jessie Mentjox.
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For real ...
Yes, I am looking forward to Black Mirror, penned by Charlie Booker, this weekend. You can find the trailer to the first of three dramas on the theme of our mediated culture on the Channel 4 site. Above, a clip from Booker’s other television offering, Screenwipe, which shows how “Reality TV” is edited for best impact.
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Voilà. Filet de Steve Bruce →
Sport is different. Anything goes in sport because, as they say, it’s “just the passion talking”. In fact, in sport you can find tribute pieces to fallen idols produced with such finesse they do not register as slander even while offering no tangible sign of professional redemption. Louise Taylor’s farewell to Steve Bruce in the Guardian today fillets the former...