In which I studiously avoid curating anything about 2016 or David Bowie.

Social media platforms are built with all the insidious effectiveness of gambling machines, but it is possible to come out in front.

Just in time for your Christmas break, a hand-picked selection of posts designed to give you something to think about as the year turns.

Using Windows 10, Word 16 and OneDrive, and suddenly can’t open your Word files?If, like me, you like the idea of Word templates in theory but find them The Greatest Source of Pain, Hate and Frustration in your Life, you’re not alone. Word 16 was installed a few days back. Since then, I could not open some files. But most were OK. 

Over 40 new resources ... some great longreads to enjoy as the nights grow long, the productivity tips you’ll need to find the time to read them, and a free set of steak knives. The Christmas season, after all, is almost upon us.

For Jay Rosen... Blogging is doing your work in public… For me it’s slightly different – this is where I do my thinking in public

This week NHSCitizen - one of the case studies I brought to myEuroPCom 2015 workshop on online communities- holds its first NHSCitizen Assembly, where the NHS Board meets citizens to ActionPlan the participants' top 5 priorities. Time to summarise the Hangout-On-Air I had on NHSCitizen with the Democratic Society's Anthony Zacharzewski,

The number and diversity of communications skills needed to implement a communications strategy never stops growing. How are you organising them?

There's never been a better time to innovate in media, so it's good to be back to EurActiv. Eight years ago I helped launch BlogActiv, before leaving for the world of EU communications agencies. Give or take a month or two, my 6-month stint fell in the middle of EurActiv's 15 years of life so far. It's good to be back, albeit p…

In this week’s edition, a months’ reading - some 30 posts - on social media, digital transformation, content/system design and EuroPCom2015. But first some news from me

I’ve been experimenting with online communities since 2002, and thought I’d seen every useful idea already implemented. Knowledge Hub (“K-Hub”) has a lot of features common to Community of Practice platforms, and have an interesting take on Blogs, which I’ve not seen anywhere else. And it’s almost excellent...

I recently had a great live Hangout with Ezri Carlebach and Charlelie Jourdan to discuss visual communications, taking risks and creating energy in conferences.

… because in the past I used marginal notes to provide additional info, remarks and links without breaking the flow of my main text… Now it looks like I’m having a massively narcissistic conversation with myself & my Profile is a total mess

Do people really want to have a conversation with brands, or their government?

In this week’s edition, two new social media products in one week; a few good longreads for the weekend; and more stuff for your online toolbox.

"Why don't we just build our community on Facebook?" Some thoughts after a month playing with Knowledge Hub

Yes, I’m now curating news about news curation

How do you extract maximum value from a conference presentation or workshop, both for you, and your audience?

political polarisation creates groupthink creates more polarisation, which prevents ideas from circulating and developing.... Pumping resources into ensuring one side of US politics is overrepresented on Medium is bad for US politics, and bad for Medium - In response to Influencer Outreach: Progressive Politics (job ad on Medium)

Get with the community; The death and rebirth of comments: The death of the open web?

Apart from the Online Hangout(24 September, 16h30 CET), a new online community just opened for public sector communicators across Europe.

My first subscribers, surveyed last week, were equally split between the diverse formats and styles of my first four editions, so here’s a 5th.

I'm launching a enewsletter to ensure I absorb something from the social media firehose.

Any decent Communication Strategy will integrate offline, online, internal and external communications. But what about your organisation's Innovation Strategy?

In this edition I highlight only one post, and mention a few others. Topics: truth, authenticity & trust, but also productivity and digital transformation.

A tl;dr version of “From One Spokesperson To Millions” the brilliant 45-minute longread by @jessedee on taking one of the most successful campaigns of all time - Paul Hogan’s 1980s Tourism Australia campaign - and updating it for the age of user-generated content. Some key quotes:

In response to In Search of Authentic People in The Age of Automation: "Authenticity was supposed to be what social media was about — it was social, it was supposed to be about us. And... your authenticity was the best coin you had."

In response to Am I on the Right Path? Are you? …"perhaps the best path is not the high-speed one leading most efficiently to the destination we thought we wanted, but the path that will take us to the most interesting encounters… "

This morning I read How Europe turned its back on humanity, a damning opinion piece in Aljazeera on Europe’s hypocritical response to the refugee crisis:Of the 10 links chosen by Primal, all bar one (the last) are directly related to the original article. Pretty good performance.The same technology is also available for your browser’s toolbar: if …

In this week’s newsletter I return to the “3 Topics, 12+ links” template of week 1, but present things a little differently…