Pageflakes, the BBC and free lunches.

The BBC Internet Blog have for some time been making use of Pageflakes as a tracking tool, using it as a one stop site where they pull together comment and conversation about the BBC. It's quite a good and interesting read. Some of it's a bit parochial, but it is their page. They have made it public, so they must want to share.

It is not only BBC insiders that use the facility, this author is among several who read the flake.
On A Hill has in the past experienced little surges in readership stats when the blog has featured in their Google blog reactions feed.

The BBC are a little upset, concerned, and worried because they have noticed that their PageFlakes page has changed.
New flakes and horror of horrors adverts have appeared.

I went to have a look and have to confess that it took me a while to discover the sponsored flake.
Those of us who spend long periods of time on the Internet do not see adverts. I certainly block them out. They are a nuisance, particularly the flashy ones that vie for attention, but I don't consciously read them.
It may be that they work on me subliminally but I just don't see them. But the fact remains, the BBC sponsored / promoted Pageflakes page is carrying adverts and as we all know the BBC don't do adverts (unless they're advertising their own output).

The BBC are now wondering what's to be done with their Pageflakes page.

I went to look at my Pageflakes, produced as part of a small project I was involved with earlier in the year showcasing Web 2.0 technologies. I also discovered a sponsored flake.

In my case it doesn't matter, my pageflakes were for a small audience (who no longer read the page).
But if my flakes were to be used in the name of the University of Glamorgan, it probably would matter that adverts were appearing on a page linked with our work.
What if I were pulling together environmental feeds and there in the middle of the page appeared an advert for Jaguar cars?

There is no such thing as a free lunch, a free blog, or a free hosted Web 2.0 application.

Recreating the BBC Pageflakes page for private use would not be that difficult for those of us interested in it's content. The feeds could be pulled together on an iGoogle page, in Netvibes, in symbaloo, in SuprGlu, in an ordinary feed reader; the list is endless.

But that's not the point.

If I as a relatively private individual chose to produce a page of feeds related to my interests, say University News Feeds to share with my colleagues I am quite at liberty to use a "free" service such as Pageflakes.
In return I give Pageflakes access to my colleagues, who to Pageflakes are a ready made audience interested in particular topics. But if I then publicise that page to a far wider audience all sorts of problems arise. I wouldn't be at all surprised if such a venture would break some of the University regulations.

The problem faced by the BBC now, is that what was a possibly private internal page of links has been publicised. Perhaps it should have been kept private. Web 2.0 apps are quickly transforming our world but there's always a cost that we don't always see when we come across cutting edge applications. 

I guess the BBC Internet Blog shouldn't have an official Pageflakes page.

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Searching the Beeb

I have to confess that I tend not to use the BBC's search service (depending on Google for everything), but the new upgrade to BBC Search seems a good thing.

Searching a subject within the BBC site now produces links to tv and radio programmes in iPlayer as well as the traditional articles, BBC web pages and external links.

The look of the results page has also been changed, it looks crisp, clear and modern.

I might just have to add it to my list of search engines.

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Clive Sinclair and the Internet.

As a child I saved for ages to buy one of Sir Clive's famous calculators. As a teenager I was the proud owner of one of Sinclair's Spectrum computers; in fact it still sits in the attic.

So I guess he had quite an impact on my life.

But did you see or hear what he had to say yesterday about the internet?

"I don't use it myself directly," he said, explaining that as an inventor he tried to avoid "mechanical and technical things around me so they don't blur the mind".

Do you suppose the internet does blur the mind; or does it open it?
I think it's opened mine, but then I didn't invent a home computer, I just use one.

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On the iPlayer beta

The wizards at the BBC have been hard at work and have let the next version of iPlayer into the word. I've spent little time exploring but it's lovely!.

I turned to it on Saturday to watch Dr. Who and Elbow at Glastonbury (note fast forward four minutes).
Watching Davros and the Daleks on my Mac Book Pro was a delight, even from behind the sofa!

My only complaint as you might expect is that I still can't download programmes on the Mac, but that facility will be here soon so I should be patient.

The new site brings together TV and radio in one place, a sort of super media portal for all the BBC on demand services. They say that sound quality is improved, and the screen is 640 pixels bigger. There's some scheduling information, last played programme information and an excellent scrolling carousel. Watching television is just more fun using the iPlayer interface. The Yesterday on TV display is a clever idea, as is the bringing together of radio and televison programmes in the categories displays. If you have to stop watching a streamed programme, on returning it starts to play where you left it; no more fiddling and estimating running times.

At present the beta version is running in parallel with the mark one player, but I have read somewhere that it will be going fully live in July.

Since iPlayer arrived I have exceeded my ISP download limits twice, it's time to sign up for a new contract

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On The Apprentice, Plagiarism and CVs

I am a fan of The Apprentice.
This evenings episode had my full attention, while the remaining candidates were interviewed by Sir Alan's colleagues and friends.

It was entertaining, interesting, and unsettling viewing.
Lee's interview revealed that his CV was not all it could have been; containing some fairly basic spelling errors and what were described as inaccuracies.

Consider the spelling/grammar mistakes on a CV word processed by a man who is a sales manager for the Capita Group applying for a job as Alan Sugar's apprentice.

You might think that he would have used a spell checker; the errors highlighted included tommorrows, fulfill, ambtion, and recoingsed!
Perhaps they were typos, perhaps not. Perhaps he can't spell, perhaps he's dyslexic.
He should have checked or asked a friend to check for him. Does he not have a secretary?
Scribefire (the blogging extension for Firefox) is showing me his mistakes as I write.

Why didn't he notice?
He was writing a CV, an application for a job, and it was full of errors.
I'm not certain I would have even short listed him.

What was more worrying was the fact that he had been less than honest about his educational background, claiming to have been in receipt of a college education for two years when he actually left the course after four months!

The impression the programme gave was that this was forgivable, which is unforgivable. He lied.
Would you employ him?

Industry claims that job applicants cannot spell, are barely numerate, often lacking in social skills and ill prepared for the business environment.
In The Apprentice, a highly visible, televised selection process, the selectors note that some applicants cannot spell, lack social graces and do not always tell the truth but they still select them.

Why?

Like Universities identifying plagiarists, Lee's interviewer spotted the lie.
What is the difference between plagiarism and fabricating a CV?

Facebook and Privacy

Like toothache some doubts just never go away.

The Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Group based at the University of Ottawa has filed a complaint against Facebook citing 22 separate breaches of privacy law in Canada.

As is ever the case Facebook refutes the charges suggesting that

"We pride ourselves on the industry leading controls we offer users
over their private information. We believe that this is an important
reason that nearly 40% of Canadians on the internet use our service.

"We've reviewed the complaint and found it has serious factual
errors, most notably its neglect of the fact that almost all Facebook
data is willingly shared by users."

Notice the phrase "almost all Facebook data is willingly shared by users".

I think that is just not the case.
Many , many Facebook users have no idea how their personal data is used, manipulated and exploited for Facebook's commercial advantage.

The concept of social networking and privacy seem incompatable.

Perhaps it's time for us all to become hermits.

Welsh Digital Divide?

The BBC continues to work hard to integrate its mainstream media transmissions with those of us that inhabit the web. There is doubt that their researchers, producers and managers are working hard to drag us into the connected twenty first century.

This morning on the Internet Blog, Max Gadney points us at the visualisation of comments from BBC News' Have Your Say. I've not watched any of the programs, but the visualisation tool on the top right hand side of the series page is superb.

I love the way the data is presented, I love the way it's colour coded and the way it moves.
It's almost impossible to look at the graphic without clicking, exploring and digging deeper.
If I have a criticism, it's shame that the key and FAQs sometimes obscures part of the display.

Max expresses a preference for exploring the Emotions displayed by the commenters but my attention was drawn to the "Regional Display"




Can someone tell me why are their so few comments from Wales?

Could be that we in Wales are not interested in the issues presented in the program?

Does the obvious lack of comments reflect in some way the "digital divide" and reveal something about the way that the Internet is used in Wales?

Today is BBC News School Report day.

This is another example of the BBC making every effort to not only engage with it's viewers but to give "12 and 13 year olds from UK schools the chance to make their own video, audio or text based news at school and broadcast it for real"

Today "schools around the country will take part in a News Day, simultaneously creating news reports and publishing them on their school websites, to which the BBC aims to link."

A quick glance at the School Report location map shows only eight participating schools in Wales, (five of which are I believe schools where teaching is undertaken through the medium of Welsh). Not one school in Cardiff seems to be taking part!

Can someone tell me why are their so few participants from Wales?

Could be that the majority of schools in Wales are not interested in providing pupils with the opportunity to speak to a wider audience through mainstream media and the internet?

Does the obvious lack of participants reflect in some way another "digital divide" revealing something about the way that the Internet is used / taught in Wales?

How do you say Digital Divide in Welsh?

On the BBC!

WOW!

Now what do I do?

• Watch it live
• Watch it on iPlayer
• Tape it
• or Buy it

On MyCBBC and Social Networking

A blog that is well worth worth reading is the BBCs Internet Blog, which has risen to the top of my must read regularly list.

The BBC works hard to provide it's users, readers, watchers, listeners, consumers of all ages and nationalities with access to a vast range of material of the highest quality.

iPlayer has transformed the way I watch television. I'm watching more, now that the unmissable is really unmissable.
Right now I'm glad that downloads aren't supported on my mac, for there are only so many hours in the day that one can access media. I know the iPlayer experience isn't perfect, sometimes it's a bit clunky but it's a new technology and can only get better.

Consider this post by Richard Deverell, in which he describes clearly the BBC's plans for MyCBBC and replies to recent press and political speculation.

Children will be assisted in the creation of "a personalised space on the CBBC web site."

How brilliant is that?
What are we in academia spending our time considering?
Finding ways of assisting our students, pupils, business partners and colleagues in the creation of useful personalised spaces.

Read on

"These pages will take the form of a child's den in which they can aggregate their favourite content from BBC sites and from approved external websites. They can choose posters, furniture and gadgets to personalise their den. Each gadget will provide a useful function: the PC stores their favourite website links; the plasma screen plays video clips; the calendar gives the dates and times of favourite shows and their own personal dates such as family and friends' birthdays.

There is also a "treasure chest" in which they can store any content they have created on the CBBC site - for example, a link to their Roar park or latest message board conversations. And Newsround feeds, based on topics such as sport or current affairs, are given an engaging wrapper using the metaphor of virtual magazines.

Children can further personalise their dens by displaying their interests and hobbies by selecting the relevant "stickers" from a pre-determined list of symbols. They can design virtual versions of themselves - avatars - with different looks and clothes. They can also choose from a range of moods each day, represented by a weather system around the avatar's head."

Compare the BBC's plans with this "angry" press report, read the observations of politicians, look at the comments at the bottom of the page; and then read the last paragraph of Deverell's post and note how he highlights the need for our young people to be educated in using the web safely. It is obvious that MyCBBC is not going to be a social networking site per se, but it has enormous potential to be the place where children will learn and acquire the new skills they will need when they join their older siblings and parents in real social networking sites.

Additionally MyCBBC might be the place for them to develop their media literacy skills which will help them to distinguish fact from fiction as they watch television, listen to the radio or read our national press.

You can read more here, here and here!

We are in Your Games

It's been reported here and here, that

"A British intelligence agency has targeted a new generation of recruits by advertising in computer games."

Adverts featuring the GCHQ website are to be found in a number of XBox 360 games, in the hope of capturing "the imagination of people with a particular interest in IT"
I knew all those hours spent playing Quake (in my youth) would come in handy.
It's an excellent idea though I'm not sure that all gamers are "tech savy".
But then what do I know?
It could well be that an ability to take on the Strogg could be an assett at GCHQ.

The news generated by the story took me to the GCHQ website (via the BBC), where you can find out what they do, look at job vacancies, crack some codes and explore their press releases. I liked the site. It's good looking with obvious navigation, loads of information and a few recruitment videos. There are jobs for technologists, mathematicians, linguists etc.

It was interesting to read the press release about their successful Universities Day part of their educational outreach programme. University language and careers departments were invited to GCHQ to learn about employment opportunities.
A good example of links between "business" and academia.

The home page carries a quote from a former prime minister.
"Secret intelligence gives the Government a vital edge."

Let's hope they use it carefully.

On tennis and social networking.

An interesting story has appeared linking the world of sport with online social networking.
Read about it here and here. It's quite an interesting exercise to compare the two reports, one being the source for the other.
(If you have the time listen to the radio report.)

It seems that two up and coming young tennis stars have been burning the candle at both ends, playing tennis well and partying well. According to a report on radio5live, these teenagers drank, ate pizza, partied and chilled; then to compound their sins they posted photos of their leisure activities on Bebo.

In their report the BBC state

"Rice, the second-best British junior, and Broady, the national Under-18 champion, have had their funding withdrawn after they were deemed by the LTA to have breached contracts requiring them to act professionally. The LTA took the action after being alerted by the BBC to photos and confessions on the Bebo social networking website."

The interesting thing about this story is that the LTA hadn't noticed that there had been anything wrong with their behaviour; the incriminating photographs on Bebo were discovered by the BBC who must have rushed to inform the LTA, and then produced a news article.

I'm really not certain who's at fault here. There are several sides to the story.
I guess the fault could lie with

• The tennis stars for not understanding how the privacy controls on Bebo work.
• The tennis stars for daring to let their hair down.
• The LTA for not watching over their young professionals more carefully.
• The LTA for not explaining their expectations to their young players.
• The BBC for spilling the beans ........

How long will it be before professionals in all walks of life are expected to sign contracts stating that

thou shalt not use social networking sites.
or
thou shalt not have a social life.
or
thou shalt not combine your private and public life?

Facebook must be relieved that for once its Bebo that's making the news.

Web 2.0 in the local news.

Compare and contrast these two articles.

In the first the BBC reported on a survey which suggests that in the UK

"233 million hours are lost every month as a result of employees "wasting time" on social networking."

In the same article the BBC helpfully points to research undertaken at Sheffield Hallam University wondering whether social networking is changing the face of friendship. They find that

"Online social networks tend to be far larger than their real-life counterparts, but online users say they have about the same number of close friends as the real-life average person."

In the second article the BBC report that

"Three council workers have lost their jobs for spending too long on the internet auction site eBay. One was sacked and two resigned after managers at Neath Port Talbot Council found some staff were spending up to two hours a day on the website."

Against this sort of background I cannot help but wonder whether the rush to integrate social networking sites with PLEs is sensible.

On "No More Jam"

Back in March the BBC took the decision to suspend BBC Jam its online interactive learning service for 5 to 16 year olds. It was said that Jam had 170,000 users.

At the time there was quite a fuss about the possible loss of jobs and loss of educational provision. I remember that in Scotland and Wales some comment was made about the loss of Welsh and Gaelic language resources. Commercial providers of online interactive learning had complained to the European Commission and the BBC suspended production.

Seb Schmoller wrote to the BBC asking for further information under the Freedom of Information Act.

The data provides much food for thought. As Seb quite rightly states the killer fact is the extraordinarily low average weekly use per registered user. Jam may well have had 170,000 registered users, but they weren't really using the service provided, were they?

Once again we are faced with a set of statistics that show us how difficult / impossible it is to determine the use of an online service. We should also note that service providers who have access to meaningful statistics are reluctant to release all their data. Registered users doesn't mean what it says ........... all too often registered users are people (like me) who register (because we have to); have a look round; decide we don't like it and never go back again. Compare and contrast with the discussions about Second Life users, or the number of blogs in the world.

What was the budget for Jam? How did they spend it? Did it provide value for money?

As an ex provider of primary education (in another life) I found the graph of registered users by school year interesting and revealing. The peaks and troughs are quite telling. A peak at Year One, (why no Foundation Stage), a peak at Year Six (preparation for SATS in England or development of independent learning skills?), then an extraordinary decline as the children join the secondary school system. Jam just wasn't doing what it said on the jar.

The graph showing the number of unique users by week, although difficult to read shows troughs and peaks that presumably reflect the school year, the troughs clearly show holidays, suggesting that most Jam users came via schools. Not much evidence of independent out of school learning here.

For those of us in Wales, the preferred language stats might be of interest. Seven hundred and eighty one registered users declared their preferred language as being Welsh, that's 0.47%!
No registered users declared their preferred language as Gaelic.
(update 22.30 ......... apologies I've just realised Gaelic was not offered as a preferred language)

I'm no statistician.
Someone else can analyse those figures.

On Internet Use, Social Networking and Age

In their May press release Nielson/NetRatings tell us that 18% of online Britons are women aged between 18 and 34.

Looking at the graph, it appears that the split between male and female users of the internet is fairly equal, but in the over fifties more men than women are active online.

In the words of Nielson's chief analyst

"The Internet is no longer dominated by young male adults times have changed considerably and many will be surprised to see that women aged 18-34 are now the most prevalent group online and that a quarter of the online population is at least 50 years of age."

The BBC report on this story suggests that young women visit a variety of sites including those dedicated to fashion, family and lifestyle issues as well as social networking sites.
They're shopping!

I have to confess that I find the figures for the under 18s surprisingly low, or is my perception of internet use amongst teenagers wrong?

In the light of the Nielson data it might be interesting to examine the age profile for male and female users of social networking sites.
Rory Cellan-Jones writing for the BBC suggests that as a 40 something Technology Correspondent he found it difficult to find friends in MySpace, Bebo, Facebook and Twitter. He concludes his article by deciding that he is too old to Twitter and too mature for My Space.

In the interests of research I have profiles in several social networking sites.
I have to agree with Rory.
I'm just too old and mature (and I'm older than him).

LOL

On Podcasts, Vodcasts and Radio

For some time at Radio Five Live the BBC has been exploring and crossing the boundaries between online and on air broadcasting. The announcers and journalists announce with pride that Radio Five can be heard on 909 and 693AM, on digital tv, online and on Digital radio. Webcam views of the studios are often available and the Five Live Blogs have become an integral part of much of the station's output, many transmitted programmes are available as podcasts. Such is their enthusiasm for exploring our brave new digital world that they devote an hour of radio time each week to "covering the news as it's seen by bloggers, podcasts and citizen media". Strangely this programme is broadcast at 2AM on Tuesday mornings but digitally aware listeners can catch up via podcasts or via the programme web site.

I listen to Radio Five Live at various times during the week in the car, in bed and often while I am online. One of my favourite programmes is the Simon Mayo afternoon show where I enjoy the book and tv reviews. However the jewel in the crown of this programme is without a doubt the weekly film reviews presented jointly by Mayo and Dr Mark Kermode. I cannot always hear these reviews live and often listen to the podcast.

I was interested to notice that this week the film review has been released on line as a video podcast "radio with pictures". We can see the radio broadcasters at work. Its strange, radio as televison in a quick time movie on my laptop.

Now the original film reviews were entertaining, informative and thought provoking, Kermode and Mayo talk with interest about films sometimes supporting their discussion with soundtracks from the chosen films. No need for pictures, no need for moving images. Radio at it's best.

The video podcast contains additional information, the spoken words are the same (I think) but are now supported by still images of the movie posters and video clips from the films.

I've tried "watching" the vodcast with my eyes closed; it works.
I've watched the vodcast with my eyes open; it works.

I'm not sure which is best. Should I be comparing them?

There are things to think about here!
Do we need to see moving images of a radio programme?
Would all radio programmes benefit from the vodcast treatment.
Should radio programmes be vodcast?

Is this a case of we have a technology and we must use it?

Competition for "The Goddard"

As you know since I first wrote about Jeff Bezos' plans to enter the space race, code named Blue Origin, the Hill is still visited daily by eager users of Google who come in search of further information.

"Gradatim Ferociter" is still the most popular search term that brings me readers, closely followed by "blog evaluation", "Internet inequality" and "panopticon".
Sometimes I fear that my interest in visitor stats is just a little panoptic!

However, aware of the nature and interests of my readers, may I offer this link to the story of Top Gear in Space.
Readers from the USA should not miss this opportunity to see how we have progressed in the space race on this side of the Atlantic.

Read the production notes or watch the biggest non commercial rocket launch in Europe.
Its a longish clip but so worth watching.
They don't make the comparison, but to my eye the Robin rises higher than The Goddard!

Jeff Bezos has better look out, the Brits are coming!

Non Web Users

The BBC writes of the work of the Welsh Consumer Council today. This is obviously breaking news as I can't find the original report. (or my search skills are not as good as I'd like to think they are!).
15.02.07 The report is now available.

I don't think there is anything new in the report in which we are told that
"53% of all adults in Wales still do not have access to the Internet."........."at home, at work or in public spaces like libraries"

I believe that the population of Wales "in the 2001 census was 2,903,085, which has risen to 2,958,876 according to 2005 estimates."

A careful look at the figures does show a change since 2005, particularly in the Welsh valleys where the percentage of home Internet connections seems to have risen from 26% to 40%. The same figure for Cardiff has risen 5% to 53%.

Tellingly the report tells us that many of those not connected to the Web
"do not think being online was relevant to them or an important resource."

The Consumer Council advise that these figures show that public bodies should maintain face to face and telephone advice information systems.
No they don't.
Public bodies should maintain face to face and telephone advice information systems whatever the take up of Internet access.
There's a difference between being connected to the Internet and being able to use it.
The time has come to start considering how effectively those that are connected, use the available resources.

Education, education, education.

Writing yesterday, I explained how I suffer from my eagerness to bookmark.

This evening while culling bookmarks I came across all these links to the excellent reporting of educational issues from the BBC that I stumbled upon over the Christmas break. I shall note them here and then press the delete button.

E-mail school reports considered.
I like these ideas. I'm not certain about the sense of sending reports via mobile phones, but maintaining contact with the home by informing parents of absent, misbehaving or unpunctual children would be so easy by text message. I would also want to send praise messages informing the home of good work or behaviour.
As ever the issue of the digital divide needs to be considered! Despite what they say, this is undoubtedly about middle class parents getting an easier service.
I know of one school in Cardiff, where a blog is used to provide information about a particular course of study and where the PTA contacts those parents with email addresses in the name of fundraising.

Stars must "check science facts"
as must the rest of us!
Especially when writing on publicly accessible blogs.
This is a message that has to be brought to the attention of a minority of student bloggers.

Change on the way in tests and tables (in England).
and about time too. How lucky we are to be in Wales where league tables no longer exist. What worries me here is the use of the word "personalised" as if it were something new. In the primary school before the introduction of SATS education was always personalised. Teaching to the tests reduced personalisation, the introduction of literacy and numeracy strategies reduced personalisation. Now it has become the new buzz word. We hear it mentioned in Higher Education, e-learning, blended learning, individualised learning, private learning etc. etc. Learning has always been personal, it can't be sold, bought, traded or centrally imposed.
Equally we have to grasp the fact that not all children are actually capable of achieving the jump between levels of attainment required by our political masters. When will they learn?
Equally dangerous is the way that no one really knows what personalised learning means. Beware the emperor's new clothes.

Finally
GP launches YouTube health films.
I love this. Web 2.0 at its best, providing a personalised service to the residents of rural Wales (but again we need to consider the digital divide). I'm not sure I'll be watching the cervical screening film but I might need the others one day.