Mobile content, language tech & communication strategy (Top3ics, 21 March)

Apologies for the delay - I’m still settling in to the world of juggling Multiple Clients. The main Topics this time are language technology, mobile innovation and EU communications, with a few extras to catch-up since the last edition.

As always, browse all issues & subscribe. And if you find these links useful, or know someone who would, forward this to them or Tweet it.

Mobile content innovation: Apps, Messaging & Bots

Media and journalism innovation provides a huge source of new ideas for communications work. In particular, the past few years have seen massive investments in mobile content. The latest NYTimes’ mobile app is apparently:

“not a newspaper gone digital. It’s something else” - The New York Times reinvents Page One — and it’s better than print ever was

More radical, perhaps, was Quartz’s messaging-based news app. Two key articles:

• You Don’t Read the News. You Chat With It 
• One size fits all? What the detractors of Quartz’s news app have missed 

Which is just the tip of the messaging iceberg - witness:

• How the BBC is stepping up its use of chat apps with Viber and WhatsApp
• Introducing the Forbes newsbot on Telegram
• Line is The Wall Street Journal’s fastest-growing platform

And that doesn’t even touch upon what bots will do to our information experience - see:

• What happens next with Conversational UIs 
• Why bots and why now?
• How to Think About Bots

Watching media move on from their century-old ‘deadtree paradigm' gives hope that governments will one day abandon their 'brochureware paradigm’, and embrace what the Internet truly offers. Or perhaps not.

More: resources and posts tagged mobile, messaging, bot, brochureware, content strategy, egovernment

Blogplug: What language technologies offer Europe

One of Europe’s highest hurdles - multilingualism - could be a great asset.

Languages are more than a vocabulary and set of grammatical rules. Each language gives it’s speakers a unique framework for approaching problems, as shown by studies demonstrating that multilingual, multicultural teams innovate better.

While Europe’s linguistic diversity gives it a population that could solve problems more creatively, however, that same diversity prevents them from doing so, because ideas have a hard time traversing language barriers.

Europe has what’s known as a Content Discovery Problem, and it's holding it back. I’ve been exploring how advanced language tech could help for a while. Recently:

• Exploring Translated Syndication at Future Media Lab 2016 with EurActiv
• I’ve been invited to prepare a “Technology Buyer Challenge” for the Language Technology Industry Summit this May on 'Hashtag Platform’ (once known as the bloggingportal reboot)

More: bloggingportal, semantic, machine translation, public space, innovation

Catching up: Bubbles, Trump & Trolls

One reason for this edition’s delay is that many of the resources I’ve Hubbed recently have been on topics I’ve covered in recent newsletters, like:

• Trump: the terrific rise of American authoritarianism prompted this European perspective from me: “So you think “President Trump” is the worst case scenario?”.
  More: 8 resources tagged Trump,
• Brussels Bubble: some of those posts are also tagged fascism, and among them is How Establishments Fall, a brilliant analysis of how groupthink blinds leaders and elites. On a slightly smaller scale, I recently wondered how to actually measure the Brussels filter bubble onTwitter. 
  More: 15 resources tagged #bxlsbbl, filter bubbles and groupthink
• I covered Community, Comments & Trolls in early December, but interesting resources on making online spaces more productive and civil keep popping up. Hence the 98 resources tagged community, and the 69 tagged comments

BlogPlug

Towards a 21st century EU Communications Strategy explores (inter alia) native advertising and the dangers Europe faces from the decline of independent journalism.

Essentially, I’m arguing that an enlightened EU communications strategy would focus on helping media build the EU Online Public Sphere, which would carry the EC’s message more efficiently than any communications project ever could (to quote a much older post).

A few weeks later, a quick look at the way the American and EU State of the Unions were treated provided a small example: Unfair comparisons: #sotu v #soteu

Footnote: Welcome to my World

Next time you call in someone to help with a website, please read If Architects Had To Work Like Web Designers first. I’m not actually a Web Designer, but this totally nails the process nevertheless.

See also: How to tell the difference between a social media maven, a ninja, and a guru

More: humour