So all it took was Timeline and Spotify integration* to make me go crawling back.

But, to be fair, they're both pretty neat.

And life's too short.

The end.

*This isn't strictly true: I missed the news that one of my best friends had a kid on the way as well.

I've written a piece for Cream's "Right Brain, Left Brain" blog on why brands could learn a thing or two from the recent rebirth of Number 10 E-Petitions. I've posted it below:

What a strange week in the world of digital media.

BBM has gone from cheap group messaging service to the rioter’s organising tool of choice. Two men have been jailed for inciting people to riot using Facebook.

Some politicians are even calling for a social media “blackout” during future unrest (my thoughts on this here).

But there have been positive moments too – not least the Twitter-organised “riot cleanups” that took place across the country.

And, perhaps even more unexpectedly, a much-derided Government website proved that it is finally fit for purpose.

Before now, all the Number 10 E-Petitions site (created way back in 2006) was known for was a joke call for Jeremy Clarkson to be made PM, backed by 50,000 people.

But, after a recent re-launch, it’s now packed with petitions on the issues that really concern people – from measures to prevent future rioting to removing the ban on gay blood donors.

And there’s a really simple lesson in how they’ve done it.

The only real difference between the old version of the site and the new one is a simple commitment: that Parliament will debate any petition that reaches 100,000 signatures.

A real, quantifiable output for your efforts. Users being taken seriously and given control.

And it’s easy to see why this change would make all the difference.

When we’re faced with a fake listening exercise dressed up as a way to “get involved”, we treat it with the derision it deserves.

That’s how you end up with the Clarkson petition. People thought they were being ignored – and the Government’s response (a joke YouTube video) did nothing to counter that belief.

In contrast, when we feel empowered, when we feel there’s actually a chance of something happening as a result of our actions – we take the proposition seriously and engage with it.

But let’s not kid ourselves that this is a problem that only applies to government. Brands are every bit as guilty of promising to involve people, only to subsequently ignore them.

The marketplace is now littered with failed social media campaigns that claim to be listening exercises, but are little more than cheap PR stunts.

Companies that have pulled the plug when they find out that people won’t just say what they want to hear. 

We all know that’s not the way to do things. And, with this new E-Petitons site, we have the proof – albeit proof found in a pretty unexpected place.

Treat people with respect, take them seriously, let them know what they can expect to get in return and you’ll probably have a success on your hands.

And if you don’t, you won’t. Simple, right?

I've written an opinion piece for CNN.com on the riots and why politicians rushing to regulate social media should consider its positive benefits. The first few paragraphs are posted below:

Days of introspection and debate -- in both press and parliament -- have inevitably followed the greatest civil unrest this country has seen since the early 1980s. Politicians and journalists seem to understand that the underlying problems are complex and can't be fixed overnight.

Sadly, this cautious approach hasn't extended to their attempts to understand how relatively small numbers of rioters and looters were able to leave police forces across England looking so flat-footed in their response.

For that, the finger of blame was pointed immediately at social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. Blackberry Messenger (BBM) was also implicated. The argument went that it was thanks to these services that the rioters were able to organise themselves so quickly and effectively.

And, on the surface of things, it's a tough argument to defeat. One of the side-effects of the web's ubiquity is an undoubted "acceleration of everything" that has the potential to extend from setting up last-minute drinks to celebrate a friend's birthday to the organisation of criminal activity.

Read the rest here: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/08/14/elder.uk.social.media/index.html

I recenltly wrote a think piece for MPG Media Contacts on the subject of location-based services. I've posted it below and would be very interested to hear what people reckon...

Near-constant hype in the trade press would suggest that “location-based services” are causing a revolution in consumer behaviour, brought on by a new-found ability to collect amazing discounts and deals in exchange for “checking-in” to shops, bars and restaurants. But is this really the case?

Let’s start by defining exactly what we mean by “location-based services”. Theoretically, they are anything that makes use of the GPS functions on mobile phones. But the area of real interest to advertisers is products like Foursquare or Facebook Places - extensions of the social networking concept which invite users to not just share what they’re doing, but also where they’re doing it.

Foursquare has been on the market for 2 years now, amassing an impressive-looking 7.5 million users worldwide. A social network based around a gaming mechanic, Foursquare allows users to “check-in” to venues  to collect “badges” (rewards for visiting certain places) or even become “mayor” (an award given to the person who has checked in most often over a set period of time).

While it’s been seen as a huge success so far (with figures released in February this year showing 2 million check-ins per day), much of this growth is coming from the US. Indeed, ComScore data shows that there may be fewer than 100,000 regularly active Foursquare users in the UK.

While that’s by no means an insignificant number, it’s dwarfed by the 30 million people in the UK currently using Facebook, 10 million of whom use it on their phones. And these mobile users can also now “check-in” to venues using the recently-launched “Places” feature (which essentially re-creates Foursquare’s core functionality).

Surely this will lead to an explosion of checking-in across the world’s biggest social network? Not yet, it would seem. With Facebook currently being very cagey about how many people are actually using the new feature, it’s safe to assume that Places is still to take off in the way so many in the industry predict that it will.

Indeed, a brief scan of most people’s feeds will show a small proportion of their friends checking-in – often the same people who adopted Foursquare with such great initial enthusiasm. Are the majority of consumers struggling to see a benefit to checking in? It would seem so.

With this in mind, both Facebook and Foursquare are giving retailers the opportunity to reward consumers who do check-in with free products, discounts and other offers. The benefit to retailers is clear – every time a customer checks in to your store to collect a deal, they are telling their friends where they are, advertising your offer and, by extension, also endorsing your business or product.

There’s still some debate to be had about how much this endorsement is worth, with early adopters valuing it somewhere between the price of a cup of coffee (Starbucks) to 20% off the price of a sports car (Mazda). But this is the sort of variation you’d expect from category to category.

However, it’s not just about offering money-off deals. In a potential indicator of future interaction between mobile and outdoor, a campaign for Cheryl Cole’s latest album invited users to check in to poster locations for a chance to win X-Factor tickets.

And the History Channel recently worked with Foursquare to provide “tips” on London landmarks to users of the service. More than 7,500 users checked during the first week of the partnership, demonstrating a demand for useful content and not just discounts. The partnership also points the way to small but increasingly deep interactions between users and brands.

But a technical challenge still remains for users wanting to get started with checking-in. For starters, they need to be armed with a smart phone (with GPS enabled and the right app installed) and, most importantly, be in a place where they can receive a data signal – often a challenge in itself.

So what could happen in the future to make things a bit easier for users? Certainly, Near Field Communication promises to make location-based marketing simpler, as customers will only have to touch their phone against a reader at the venue to collect deals and tell friends where they are. 

And while NFC may still be a long way from being a common feature on mobile phones, the rumoured arrival of O2’s “mobile wallet” (which allows users pay for everyday items like coffee by swiping their phones) this summer can only serve to stimulate demand for NFC technology.

But what of the short term? With Facebook currently looking for new partners for a second burst of Places launch activity, it could well be that one of these businesses hits upon something that has so far eluded everyone: a deal of significant interest to consumers for checking-in to become mainstream user behaviour.

Indeed, while location-based marketing seems be some way from a tipping point, its current state of adolescence presents brands with an excellent opportunity to “test the waters” while the rules are still being defined.

And the low cost of transferring an existing “offline” deal to Foursquare or Facebook Places has certainly encouraged experimentation. For example, Yo! Sushi’s voucher-like offer of a free meal for two to customers who checked in using Places was taken up by an impressive 1,000 Facebook users within 24 hours of launch.

So while brands would be well-advised not to put all their eggs in the location-based basket just yet, it’s clear that these platforms can already play an important role as part of a multi-channel integrated campaign – particularly in the retail and restaurant categories.

But it’s also evident that new innovation in this space will help to move location-based  services from a niche concern towards mainstream adoption – and the team here at MPG Media Contacts will be keeping a close eye on this evolution so our clients are perfectly placed to take advantage.

The good people at Silicon.com have informed us that iPads are (probably) going to be allowed in the House of Lords. Has a rare blow been struck for modernity in what often appears an archaic institution, beholden to strange conventions and even stranger titles?

Not quite. Because, while it appears that the Lords Administration and Works Committee understand how the device could replace a "pad of paper for speaking notes", they're deeply concerned that peers might use the device to 1) send messages and 2) conduct research during a debate.

Heaven forbid that peers should look up a report online, or receive an important update from a colleague that would help them better scrutinise some ill-thought-through legislation. If this report is to believed, peers must only have the information available to them when they walked into the chamber, and no more. Any benefits from them being better informed are cancelled out by the possibility of them finding something out that is "not generally available to other participants". Truly bizarre.

How exactly they intend to police this is also not clear. A noble Lord browsing through a speech on their iPad looks much like a noble Lord checking his email or browsing the web. That said, I'm all too familiar with how difficult it is to get a mobile signal on the Parliamentary estate, so perhaps they just hope peers will get tired of moving around the red benches, trying desperately to get a decent 3G signal.

So what started as a promising headline ends up with the revelation that the Lords think iPads are good because, unlike laptops, they don't make a clacking noise and are a decent substitute for A4 paper when it comes to reading speeches. If this is rather strange point of view anything to go by, it looks like their emergence from the dark ages isn't on the cards for the near (or even distant) future. What a shame.