"Government around the world is pretty good at thinking about its own needs — they often put their political needs followed by the policy needs. The actual machine of government comes second. The third need then generally becomes the system needs, so the IT or whatever system’s driving it... the user comes a poor fourth, really." Turning that ups…

"Accountability must become part of Silicon Valley’s culture... robots are taking a central role in our lives. But we need an open conversation about who shapes their values." Just because something should happen doesn't mean it will. - We can’t let tech giants, like Facebook and Twitter, control our news values | Media | The Guardian

"In a circumstance where two people who report to you are having an acrimonious disagreement, you will need a thoughtful approach with some options to resolve the problem. " - Conflict Resolution: Being a Successful Manager | LinkedIn

"An 11-point cheat sheet from a weathered Content Marketer to make it all better." Some lessons are wonderfully odd, like the fact that odd numbered titles get better clickthrus, while others are rather bland (does anyone really still need to be told to "Be precise"?) and others are not necessarily correct (one should "Keep it short" unless one d…

"The Guardian released a beta version of its new website to get reader feedback as it continues to tweak its design.... Content discovery is a major focus ... “container model” allows the paper to implement a responsive design while also retaining a story hierarchy, user experience director... Each item contains a story, which are put together…

"Since it launched in March 2012, I F*cking Love Science has attracted more than 17.9 million Facebook followers—more than Popular Science (2.7 million), Discover (2.7 million), Scientific American (1.9 million), and The New York Times (8 million) combined. ... Her empire has since expanded to include a website, IFLscience.com, which has a staff a…

While possibly a bit naive regarding Facebook's motivation for crucifying organic reach, some good points here: "- Talking doesn’t equal connecting: It seems that many brands take their audience for granted. Liking a page doesn’t always imply interest. ... - Paid reach won’t substitute for great storytelling: While paid reach might get more visib…

A new angle on the filter bubble: Facebook's ""Report Abuse" button, which is used to flag content that's hostile or inappropriate ... can also be used as a tool for stifling dissent... If you swarm a page or a person with enough abuse reports, you can kick them off Facebook. Pro-government forces in Vietnam have learned how to do it, and they’re…

"Buying traffic isn’t so much a taboo as it is a poor business decision for most publishers in most instances ... It’s expensive, and the money could usually be better invested in editors who reach an organic audience.... There are times when paid promotion makes sense. Some do paid promotion on posts that have particularly high engagement alread…

"just because the overlord of search has decided who actually wrote a post isn't all that important, doesn't mean the concept of the journalist as brand isn't still on the up.... ... 'trust' as a variable in an algorithm was unnecessary. Users use Google to search organically using keywords; they get their news from trusted sources on social med…

" in-depth article, which I’ve jointly co-written with Mark Traphagen, will cover the announcement of the end of Authorship, the history of Authorship, a study conducted by Stone Temple Consulting that confirms one of the stated reasons for cessation of the program, and some thoughts about the future of author authority in search."

"test data collected from three years of Google Authorship convinced Google that showing Authorship results in search was not returning enough value compared to the resources it took to process the data." - It's Over: The Rise & Fall Of Google Authorship For Search Results

"3 main talking points of why your B2C clients should want to work with bloggers."

"Welcome to the age of digital narcissism. Where Millennials are generally not interested in much outside of Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram. The ALS #icebucketchallenge offers an act the screams ‘look at me!’ enticing its audience to accept the challenge and share it with ‘their’ world."

Interesting & contested view of that Facebook study, by its co-author: ""If you say, 'I don't want to be experimented on,' ... what does that mean?"[Google is ] constantly needing to tweak their algorithm. If I say, 'I want to opt out of that,' does that put me back to Google search 2004? " Others beg to differ: "It's not A/B testing. It's just b…

It wasn't supposed to be this way... "The internet is ballooning with fluff, and bad content marketing is to blame. In our obsession with "engaging" our "audience" in "real-time" with "targeted content" that goes "viral," we are driving people insane... Although word on the street is that people want short, “snackable” content, the data says…

Sounds encouraging, but what would "a leading scholar of labor markets" really know about where IT's headed? "Autor argues that even as computers have gotten better at rote tasks, they have progressed far less in applying common sense... this weakness leaves plenty of opportunities for humans to serve as intermediaries of sorts between incre…

Unsurprising that LinkedIn promoted this post.... the comments rapidly turned into an interesting conversation on Linkedin v. Facebook... people seem to comment more on LinkedIn posts than elsewhere. Perhaps the return of blogging that people are starting to talk about is next.

Thoughtful longread on the past (and future?) of longreads - i.e., blogging. Plus a hint that Vox's Chorus CMS may be getting wider use in the future... "Today everyone in the media world is launching email newsletters... Great. But what I miss from emails is the sense of community, the shared experience... Obviously Twitter replaced parts of t…

Seeing more stuff on robots & AI this year than in previous 3. "In many cases, their algorithm clearly identifies influences that art experts have already found. For example, ... Klimt is close to Picasso and Braque ... the influence of Delacroix on Bazille, ... Munch’s influence on Beckmann and Degas’ influence on Caillebotte. The algorithm is …

Seems that, 3+ years after "The Filter Bubble" was pubished, it takes an event like #Ferguson to make people realise what it is. "if there was no Twitter to catch on nationally, would #Ferguson ever make it through the algorithmic filtering on Facebook? ... or be buried in algorithmic censorship?... Facebook has become like a digital version of…

"relying too heavily on Facebook’s algorithmic content streams can result in de facto censorship. Readers are deprived a say in what they get to see, whereas anything goes on Twitter." Puts some numbers to the opacity of the filter bubble experienced by Facebook users in comparison with Twitter users, by comparing coverage of #Ferguson and 'Ice B…

"Animated GIFs are something of an internet art form, shared by all. Yet, they are created by a comparatively small slice of the internet. There's no reason you can't join in the fun, though. From beginners to advanced tools, we've got the ultimate guide to making your own silent internet picture films."

"If you come across a video, all you need to do is add "GIF" before "YouTube" in the URL, and you will be redirected to the app. For example: Original video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BT1cd49pIw To convert to GIF: www.gifyoutube.com/watch?v=2BT1cd49pIw " - Add "GIF" to the Start of YouTube Links to Convert Videos to GIF

Sonar Solo allows you to search any topic to find trends and influencers about any subject, in real time. Sonar Solo visualizes what’s on people's minds right now, by combining data mining, trend intelligence and advanced sentiment analysis on the world's social media chatter.

Beat this: "Each day, HBR.org publish five to seven pieces of top-notch content with a staff of fewer than 10 full-time digital editors and no full-time writers ... four million unique visitors every month." What really stood out for me was how they get the "expert take", using the Content Partnership model I used when trying to decentralise com…

Kepler’s Tally of Planets is a wonderful NYTimes.com interactive feature: "NASA’s Kepler mission has discovered more than 950 confirmed planets orbiting distant stars. Planets with a known size and orbit are shown below" - Kepler’s Tally of Planets - Interactive Feature - NYTimes.com

(and why I joined a technology company, not another comms agency): "...organizations that had software engineers and Web enthusiasts in the room when big decisions were made navigated the seas of change more successfully than those that didn’t... When you think about how news and entertainment have been delivered over the internet so far, four m…

A wonderful presentation from Jonathan Corum, science graphics editor at The New York Times, on creating infographics and data visualisations that truly add value: "Sometimes, I feel more like a translator than a designer. Trying to translate the point the scientist is trying to make to a wider audience, and removing all of the jargon. ... If I …

“Horses aren’t unemployed now because they got lazy as a species, they’re unemployable. There’s little work a horse can do that do that pays for its housing and hay.” Are you next? Probably. - Humans need not apply