a BAD blog

This
is
an
xample
of
a
BAAAD
blog
whch
is
influancd
by
todays'
INHOUSE
lecter
on
craft
&
design.

websitse should be clera and easy to read, this means thinking about font size and clour. other thingsa to tconsider are your page layout, payoing attention to the Eyetrack III findings. if you were expecting an easy linkt to geh findongs, you are out of luck. keep serching. u should have different paragrafs for diferent ideas. u shud overcrowd pages as it can be too confising for the reader. so keep things clear, and DONT MAKE TO MANY THINGS STAND OUT, and don't underline, it looks messi. the user cannot look at everything at once.

apparently images aren't that important so...

for mor info go here, here and here.

Blog of the Week 23/10/2006

Downingsteetsays.org is an example of the democratising effect of the web. The lobby system was formally a private gathering of specially invited journos who, by their very definition, became the PM's cronies. This blog keeps the "little guy" (Iain Dale) in direct contact with major Government procedure.

*Iain Dale lecture

Iain Dale, the renowned right-wing blogger and a presenter on 18 Doughty Street, was the second guest speaker in JOMEC’s online lecture programme.

Media-savvy v. New Media-savvy

What first struck me in Mr Dale’s talk was how few British politicians have actually engaged with new media technology. Interestingly, it is not the Tories who have the Luddite-mentality, but Labour, according to Dale. Where David Cameron has embraced blog-technology (albeit embarrassingly), ‘media-savvy’ New Labour are lagging way behind.

This suggests that Labour have for too long sat too comfortably with the traditional media and let the brave new world of the net pass them by. What illustrated this best was the breaking of John Prescott’s infidelity on blogs. People in the traditional media had known about it for a number of years but didn't publish.

Mr Dale spoke of blogging as being a “marvellous research tool” because you can get instant feedback from potential voters. He also said: “The problem with parties is that they speak at people, not to them. There is no place for feedback.” This is an argument often levelled against Tony Blair’s spin-happy New Labour.

It remains to be seen if Mr Cameron’s flirt with the net will prove successful.

For a brief discussion of some of the points raised in the talk read Mr Dale's recent article on Guardian Unlimited .

Amanda Powell lecture

The first guest speaker in JOMEC’s online lecture programmewas BBCi Wales Editor Amanda Powell.Ms Powell discussed the fallout of the Neil Report, which was the BBC’s internal response to the Hutton enquiry. The report set accuracy and precision as the BBC’s paramount concern. Ms Powell said: “It must be robust and tested evidence and reinforced but note-taking.”

This was of special importance to BBCi because the web is more intransient than broadcast or print. Where newspapers are tomorrow’s chip wrappers, a web page can be accessed forever, and therefore a journalist can be accountable for lack of accuracy years down the line.

What I found interesting was when Ms Powell said even edited and removed material can be subject to defamation claims. If a claimant can produce a printed article, even if it has since been removed or doctored, the evidence will stand up on court.

This has major implications for rolling stories. For example, with the Jean Charles de Menezes case, if the BBC had reported ‘a terrorist has been shot’, rather than ‘a suspected terrorist has been shot’, the de Menezes family could have sued for defamation.

This also has legal implications for blogs. I therefore hope I have not misrepresented Ms Powell.

Blog of the Week 16/10/06

Handshaking Article

This week's blog of the week is from Interesting Thing of the Day on the etiquette of hand-shaking. It gives a brief history of the act, as well as offering a useful guide for avoiding awkwad hand-shaking scenarios.

First blog - tester