Saturday, May 19, 2007

Politics. As Usual.

Good day for burying awkward news?

'Just how does this fit into Gordon Brown's new attempt to build trust?'

Well, I suppose it does seem a good way of trying to erase analysis of various parties' roles in the last ten years, and 'starting afresh', in theory untainted by the fact that he and most who still surround him were in the room when it all happened... Pensions, Education, Health, Iraq...

I'm still trying to get to grips with how this government thinks they bear no responsibility for their collective actions previously - under a leader they elected, - simply because a new leader has oozed into the top slot due to lack of... well, everything really.

I for one am living what they have created and know who bears responsibility. Trouble is, when it comes to voting them out there is precious little alternative, though I'm damned if this time I'll allow my protest be deemed a 'spoiled vote'. It was a democratic statement of my view on the competence who would claim to be fit to lead us, and should have been accorded status as such.

I just hope the 'Anyone but these clowns' clown who does get in has the humility to realise that by scraping in with a pathetic percentage of a pathetic percentage who vote does not count, nor should be trumpeted as 'a mandate from the people'. What are the odds?

Indy - The MP, his quad bike and a phoney scare story - Well said. It's just another nail in the coffin of the people's faith, and trust, in those who would claim to 'serve' the public.

Letters - QED

Indy - MPs have no reason to be exempt from FoI law, watchdog warns

Crashing the party

It's pretty obvious that there are opportunities for promoting Junkk.com on social networking sites, especially as it has a lot that is visual and you can 'do'. And I'd like think our structure and style is appropriate and attractive to such audiences.

Other than the small matter of finding the time to tackle this task, it is also important to do it right. Hence I was pleased to stumble across this piece, which I found useful: Avoiding the MySpace Mistake (though the title may be a tad misleading - we should make such mistakes as MySpace! It in fact refers to etiquette upon it)

Getting Out & About

In terms of priorities, with all that is going on I seem to have a list 'yaaaaay long' of what to do first. Cloning self would be a good start.

However, pretty near the top, it seems obvious that while I have devoted so much time to RE:tie of late, Junkk.com has played second fiddle. I don't mean the site itself so much, which in theory is bubbling along on its own by being designed as a user-managed and evolving experience (exciting new features to come soon, though!), but promoting it.

For a long time I have been well aware of the potential of such sites as YouTube, MySapce, etc in offering routes to expose new markets to what we have on offer, especially as so much of it is stuff to 'DO', and is so visual. I'd also like to think we're pretty hip too, but by using that word I'm probably showing I'm not the guy to ride that particular wave.

Anyway, I was therefore grateful for this piece in BusinessWeek - Avoiding the MySpace Mistake - and even was moved to write to the author.

While my site is itself a budding social exchange, it is obvious to me that there are many opportunities for 'promotion' out there on sites such as MySpace, YouTube, etc.

The key is 'cutting through' and getting noticed, but in focusing on how to do that it would be all too easy to forget there are certain key considerations that need to be borne in mind, and this article was a valuable reminder of these.