This week has been marked by two almost under the wire speculative thoughts in new/social media Is the internet dead asks the Economist? “A virtual counter-revolution: The internet has been a great unifier of people, companies and online networks”.

The Economist argues that the Internet is under threat and that commercial forces are threatening to balkanise the internet. I suspect they are right.

The other question ‘is blogging dead?’ Or as Steve Rubel puts it ‘crawling to a halt’ The death of blogging is something RCJ at BBC wrote about 2 years ago (in a blog which is still going strong). He was right then ‘ … what I think we’re seeing is the development of a mixed economy, where blogging has many forms, professional, amateur, micro and mega.’ and is right still.

More here

This week has been marked by two almost under the wire speculative thoughts in new/social media Is the internet dead asks the Economist? “A virtual counter-revolution: The internet has been a great unifier of people, companies and online networks”.

The Economist argues that the Internet is under threat and that commercial forces are threatening to balkanise the internet.  I suspect they are right.

The other question ‘is blogging dead?’ Or as Steve Rubel puts it ‘crawling to a halt’ The death of blogging is something RCJ at BBC wrote about 2 years ago (in a blog which is still going strong).  He was right then ‘ … what I think we’re seeing is the development of a mixed economy, where blogging has many forms, professional, amateur, micro and mega.’ and is right still.

Then there is the continuing old media v. new media conversations. ‘Science journalism: Supplanting the old media?’ And conversely; ‘The FaceBook for science is dead: What’s next?’ The truth – or one element in a multifaceted truth is it’s all evolving – it always did and it always will.

How this broad new/emerging media is evolving is the interesting story.  One aspect is how traditional media businesses are working with new media.  Locally with UTV and PropertyPal ‘UTV seals property website deal’  (congratulations guys) and internationally Hogging the remote Old-media firms are firmly in control of internet video

But increasingly important is the growing importance of ‘local’ and ‘mobile’. ‘Local’ used to be a pejorative word. Local = parochial, narrow, unsophisticated even cheap.  Local was not ‘Metropolitan’.  The League of Gentlemen reflected what metropolitans thought about local – “This is a local shop for local people.  There’s nothing for you here.” [Video]

Local Radio – not as good as National Radio (yeah? Often – prehaps always -  more popular, though.) The global internet is reviving local. Google’s New Mobile Ads Take Users From Search To Store ABI: Location-Based Marketing To Reach $1.8B In 2015 Mobile devices need custom maps The next billion geeks: How the mobile internet will transform the BRICI countries Are You Stuck in The Mobile Divide? The new site Groupon a ‘deal of the day’ web site localised (only available in the US and Canada – come on NI entrepreneurs – here a great idea to adapt to local needs)

To say nothing of the location ‘games’ Gowalla and Foursquare which Kevin Anderson has been thinking about

So the internet isn’t dead.  Blogging isn’t dead.  They are both evolving and evolving fast.  Local is the new metropolitan.  Local is potentially the new global too as it becomes easier to reach the rest of the world while staying at home.

The new Digital Circle Steering Group has been announced: Ryan Adams, BBC; Mary McKenna, Learning Pool; Martin Gilchrist, Referalot; Ian Sayers, Giant Associates; Alan Anderson, Bluetubedesign.

more

15 minutes of gold pointing out the obvious, social media is about the people not about the shiny toys.

TEDxPennQuarter - David Armano - Reinventing Social Media

For a long time in my own inept way, I tried to create a daily page of news items that I found interesting and that other people I know might find interesting. But without programming skills and enough disposable income to get someone to do it for me, the idea fell by the wayside.

more on my posterous blog

Well, I have cast my 5 votes at the Digital Circle Ning site, and if you are a registered member of DC I encourage you to do the same. And an excellent selection of people are standing. I’m heartened there is a good geographic, gender, skills and experience spread, too.

If you don’t already know the candidates (there’s only one I don’t know personally) you can see their profiles here.

Even though I haven’t been able to be active in DC for the last few months, I still think it is an important organisation for the future of the creative and technology industries in Northern Ireland. The group of candidates would indicate a potentially positive new direction for DC. It has another year to have a more significant impact.

Good luck to you all - especially the ones I voted for.

The Big Issue for the this decade (as it was in the last) is Privacy particularly Online Privacy. While Faceboook insists no private data was compromised, are sure are users about the details they make available?

How 100 million Facebook users ended up in a list on BitTorrent | Technology | guardian.co.uk

News that details of 100 million Facebook users was understandably met with some panic - particularly because the data was then dumped on file-sharing service BitTorrent.

More good stuff on guardian.co.uk about privacy; this time Foursquare. How I became a Foursquare cyberstalker | Technology | The Guardian

It's the coolest social networking tool in the world. But is the geo-location app Foursquare a stalker's dream? Just how easy it is to uncover the intimate details of a complete stranger's life?

I don't listen much to Radio 5 Live - and consequently have missed previous editions of this programme with in a programme 'Outriders' which is broadcast at 3.00 am. This morning's programme was a 26 minute conversation with Clay Shirky. Below is the link to the blog and you can follow that to the podcast.

BBC - Outriders

"This week on Outriders a longer discussion as Clay Shirky chats about his new book Cognitive Surplus and how he switched from theater and the arts to new media observation."

I am delighted to see Digital Circle has opened nominations for the election of the Steering Group. Read about it on the DC Ning Site

A couple of weeks ago Dawn and I were in mid-Ulster for a Friday Night/Saturday Morning. I had been at an EGSA conference last year at the Bank House Hoteland decided to stay there. While there were a few poor reviews on Trip Advisor, I was not convinced they were entirely representative. In short, we were treated well and had a good time.

More on davysims.com

iPad – I’m still unconvinced

I’m not the advert – I’m not a PC, but I use a PC. The cool design and the enthusiasm of friends for Apple products have often led me to the virtual door step of the Apple Online Store. I was an early buyer (but not owner – bought presents for Adam and Owen) of iPods. When the battery died on one I went into the Apple Store on London’s Oxford Street to buy a replacement, only to be told I had to send the whole gadget to Apple to have the battery replaced ... seriously 21st century technology with 1930’s customer relations. They couldn’t even do it there and then. Bollox!

I do rather like the ease of iTunes. I have music I would never have bought in a shop. But in general I would prefer the CD, transfer it to iTunes and transfer after that as I would like to. I’m also confused by my ultra techie friends who worship at the altar of Apple but stop off at the well of open source along the way. I can’t reconcile a passion for openness and the admiration for the closed business modal of Apple. I’m genuinely shocked at how some people react when any criticism of Apple is greeted as if you’d said their children are ugly and smell of poo.

I don’t love PC or Microsoft the same way that I don’t love my garden rake. My garden rake does the job it is built to do. It takes a long time to walk to the garden shed find it out and bring it to the pile of leaves. And it takes a longer for the PC to kick in than an Apple product. But it does the job – and it runs Flash. Temptation is a terrible thing. I searched ‘buy iPad’ this evening – and entered the Apple Store. A top end iPad just under £800 – expensive, but what the hell. Temptation. But I also noticed this posting on the Google Results page ‘Why I won't buy an iPad (and think you shouldn't, either.

I’m thinking twice. I’ve never been ‘cool’ and I don’t think having a new electronic gadget will make me cool. I need a better reason to have one.

At the Science Park this afternoon for the NISP Connect pre-launch photograph as they begin planning their next phase. In the second half of this year NISP Connect are going to expand from a pilot programme to a full implementation of the CONNECT model. Good luck to Steve and Alan and congratulations on pulling together so many influential people from at least two continents for the afternoon

What do users think about Google Buzz? Not much, it would appear. See my column in the Belfast Telegraph.

This is not much more than a Sunday afternoon doodle locating the creative and digital industries (and related offices) around approximately a square mile in Belfast. The idea came from the Silicon Roundabout map in Wired (UK) 2.10 (Feb 2009) More about that here. It's not exhaustive. It's open to add as you see fit.

View Media Square Mile (and a bit) in a larger map

Read all about it on the NI Tech Blog

Or Listen Here

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This from today's Your Place and Mine on Radio Ulster.  Norman Kerr showing me around his private museum near Laurencetown.

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Last Friday I visited a private collection of agricultural equipment and (what turned out to be) technology near Gilford in County Armagh. I was there to intoerview Norman Kerr about the original mobile defibrillator he had in his collection. But there among the linen collection and farm tools was a collection of old micro-computers.

And on the way out - this horrific contraption is a dentist drill ----- Think I'd rather be toothless.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/davysims/4356670986/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/davysims/4356670798/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/davysims/4355924767/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/davysims/4356670986/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/davysims/4355924595/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/davysims/4356670066/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/davysims/4355924021/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/davysims/4356670280/

The Tube 16 March 1983 from Davy Sims on Vimeo.

This week's Twitter column in the Belfast Telegraph is 10 (very) basic rules for using Twitter for business. Read all about it ...