meltingman » metablog

Social media and things

Steve Curati — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:18:37 +0000

I’ve started a new tumblr thing which will be a home for all the social media and web futures links that have been filling up the blog on a daily basis.

I do this slightly wary of coming across as “another self proclaimed ‘social media expert’ twat“, but there you go. The shifting ways in which we communicate, how we can combine and recombine data to tell stories, and how we integrate online into the real world are all things I find interesting. And I want to keep all of the things I’ve read on those subjects in one place.

I’m aware that it’s very easy to think that your own online experience is a universal truth, which is why there’s a bit of suspicion when it comes to Social Media Expert Twats, and also why there are so many of them (um…us). Spend a bit of time on twitter and it’s easy to think that you ‘understand’ it and that you’re in a position explain it to everyone else.

Hopefully all the stuff collected on meltingman futures* will help to give a wider viewpoint.

*Crap name – liable to change without notice.

Apture

Steve Curati — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:17:37 +0000

I’m going to mess around with Apture, a multimedia service that let’s you embed multimedia and reference links without C&Ping embed code and displays the results in a way that I hope isn’t too obtrusive while being easier than clicking on a link.

I don’t know if I’ll persevere with it, but I do know that messing around with the demo gave me a small tingle of pleasure. And I think we could all do with the occassional small tingle of pleasure. So if you see the occassional strange-looking link, you’ll know what it is.

Still Orange

Steve Curati — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:02:57 +0000

Those bloody balloons are still bobbing up and down in the corner and I can’t remember where I stuck the script that I need to delete. Bear with me.

Edit: Gotcha.

Where have the words gone?

Steve Curati — Wed, 21 May 2008 12:16:46 +0000

It started with the nice weather, and then that mutated into heavy work stuff.

And now I’m not sure what the excuse is, but even the occasional lunchtime blog has become a bit of a struggle.

As for Bloglines (currently sitting on 2575 unread), I’m exhausted by it. It feels like I’ve stepped away from the production line and now all the bits I was happily processing are now piling up around me.

Ho Hum.

Spring-clean

Steve Curati — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:24:17 +0000

Papa’s got a brand new template.

It’s a bit messy at the moment though – I haven’t worked out how to shrink the space in the sidebars. Or, indeed, how to make it look nice, full stop.

And I’m not sure how to jump from categories to tags.
Bear with me.

Links

Steve Curati — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 14:16:45 +0000

In a vague attempt to get MM moving again, I’ve added my delicious links feed. Ideally they’d just appear in the RSS feed and not on the home page, but I haven’t worked out how to make that work. I do this internet lark for a living, you know…

Usmanov vs the world

Steve Curati — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 11:26:21 +0000

So there’s an Uzbek billionaire trying to get his grubby sausage-fingered mits into the club I love. Outspoken ex-British Ambassador of Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, posts some accusations about Usmanov’s past on his website which don’t paint Usmanov in a particularly pretty light. Usmanov’s City solicitors Schillings then bully Murray’s ISP into taking down his site (rather than taking legal action against Murray himself, who would very much appreciate his day in court) as well as those of others who have repeated the claims. As a result, several other blogs, including that of Boris Johnson, have been caught in the crossfire and have found themselves out of action. Shillings have also threatened plenty of others, including my good chum Arseblogger, who was forced to remove some of Murray’s accusations.

Happily, the whole thing appears to have backfired horribly on Usmanov and his team as the stories of heavy-handedness propagate around the internet. Labour MP Tom Watson has been raising awareness, Channel 4 News ran a piece last night, and the blog Chicken Yoghurt is tallying sites that are pushing the story.

I’d imagine Usmanov is learning that the sort of posturing, weight-throwing and bully-boy tactics that are obviously acceptable in the oligarchic world of corporate takeovers in which he has amassed his fortunes aren’t quite so effective when it comes to smothering information, irrespective of whether it be fact, fiction or opinion.

Lazy tumblring me

Steve Curati — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 12:52:52 +0000

What with a bit of a holiday, swiftly followed by a manic week at ExCeL (I’m beginning to love the ridiculous kiddie-txt name of the place) for D&AD judging. I (honest guv) haven’t had much of a chance to show my face around here. Another problem has been the discovery of tumblr, via crack unit, which is as easy to use as thinking. Now that they’ve added a desciption field for links it feels like a natural place to store those un-fleshed-out thoughts and bits that I haven’t formed into coherent sentences and posts here.

So, until I feel like writing something proper, this is where I’ll be.

amaryllis flower [melting man] Comment: “Punts, etc”

Steve Curati — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 10:01:39 +0000

I’m am going to find you and then I am going to slowly and painfully keeell you.

Do other people get hit in the region of 30-50 times a day by the same fucking spammer?

I’m going to have to sort out some comment protection I suppose. It’s a bit like not living in the fifties anymore and having to lock your front door.