Let’s all give a big blogosphere welcome for … Andrew Fairburn!

On their new blog at reputationspotlight.wordpress.com, Regester Larkin are looking at some interesting reputation management issues. My friend and former H&K colleague Andrew Fairburn (who’s always reminded me of Tiff Needell, although I’m not sure he knows that) is doing much of the writing. This is great to see; many of my better postings on my old H&K blog started off as office banter with Andrew.

I shall watch with interest. Particularly like yesterday’s Nuclear post.

People often ask me if I’ve ever worked as a journalist. Which is a fair enough question. Some of my ilk indeed are former hacks. In this line of work you need an understanding of the media mindset, you need to understand what makes the media tick and how to get the best from each other.

Some people tell me I ‘think like a journalist’, which I take as a compliment. One colleague recently commented that I dress like a journalist, which I think is a compliment.

But I’ve never been a journalist, barring the odd primary school magazine piece. Not that I would rule it out. Actually I think it would be quite fun.

‘What sort of journalist would you be?’, a (journalist) friend asked me the other day. Not a TV one. It looks dangerous.

(thanks to Theo for the clip)

No offence to Neville, but this amused me:

Perhaps a Google Reader thing – the clip works fine on his blog when not using a reader.

Too much noise on Twitter.

Stuff I like:

- Tweets that make me think, that are part of a debate
- Tweets that show me stuff I hadn’t seen before
- Retweets that introduce me to new and interesting people

Stuff I don’t like:

- Hearing that you’ve just put the kettle on. Save the mundane and the banal for facebook.
- Being told to read your latest blog entry. If I’m following you on Twitter, I already know you’ve got a blog. And if I want to read it, I will.
- Tweets like @BorisBorisovichBorisov: yeah, me too – that’s what DMing is for

So the PM says the web will be

as essential to our future prosperity in the 21st Century as roads, bridges, trains and electricity were in the 20th.

And he’s probably right.

Thought, though: In the digital age, will we need special task forces to engage with the minority who don’t have broadband?

Discuss.

from my regular reads, to brighten up your Friday.

1 – Climate change = flooded cities. High-impact, real-world examples like this one are just what’s needed to wake people up to the realities of climate change.

We’ve HSBC and Ogilvy to thank for this one, apparently.

(OK, so the water would be a dirty brown with all sorts of stuff floating on top, but you get the idea.)

via Ryan Peal at my old haunt, H&K’s Collective Conversations.

2 – The size of countries

via Theo.

3 – Matchy-matchy flickr photos. Pick a colour or two and Multicolr from Idée Labs will do the rest.

via Simon Collister.

My ten-year-old asked me yesterday if I would ‘allow’ YouTube on her computer – an ageing but still very useable PowerMac G4. (Thanks, BTW, to Apple for making parental controls so easy).

Should I?

On the one hand, it’s a great resource. Loads of stuff on there to help with homework research and so on. Not to mention all those TV shows you thought were lost in the mists of time.

On the other hand … well … let’s just say that, even without clicking the “Yes I’m 18, honest guv” box, there’s an awful lot of YouTube that I don’t particularly want her seeing right now.

Ever aware of the rapidly dwindling amount of time left before teenage surliness sets in, though, I decided to seize the opportunity to spend time doing something together. And we spent a very pleasant half-hour playing with YouTube on the AppleTV.

We found what Missy A wanted (the Fresh Prince of Bel Air is OK for ten-year-olds, right?). And I got to explain to her the meaning behind the song that’s been bouncing around my head ever since Saturday night’s ceilidh.

I think she switched off when I started explaining the significance of ‘Linwood no more’ …

Yes, it’s that election today. I’ll be off to the Election Night Party at the US Embassy in just under 24 hours.

In the meantime, some links to amuse and / or take your mind off the waiting.

Solve the Italian Job cliffhanger once and for all – RSC puts up a prize for the best entry. C’mon, we know they got away with it.

What’s wrong with Neil’s new MacBook?

Cool, we made Sky’s caption competition. You’d all have got better photos if you’d backed off like I asked …

See Obama, Hook Up! h/t Wonkette. Really?

Large Hadron Colliderscope – h/t Theo

President Medvedev and I share the same taste in hardware – according to TUAW

… and finally, some Plinkety Palin (and McCain), via Tim Ireland. Brilliant.

PS not entirely sure what happened to the ‘Scouting for Girls’ post – it was there, and then it wasn’t, and now it’s back again. Odd.

… or ‘Scouting for Audiences’

Thanks to a pair of HomePlugs, an AppleTV and a bargain Samsung LCD that no-one wanted because it’s last year’s model (and it’s white), we can now enjoy all manner of digital media in the bedroom. Including – and arguably the main reason for this technological extravagance – what I shall nostalgically refer to as Virgin Radio.

[They're 'Absolute Radio' these days, apparently, which has already upset the vodka people. I assume whatever's behind this change in nomenclature is related to the appearance of those gaudily flourescent 'Zavvi' places where the good old Virgin Megastore used to be. Progress, I guess.]

But I digress. The other morning on Absolute Virgin Radio I was delighted to learn that Scouting for Girls will be releasing ‘I Wish I Was James Bond‘ as a single on November 3rd. Excellent timing – and deliberate, no doubt, coincident as it is with the UK release of Quantum of Solace on 31 October.

Fair play, chaps. I hope it sells you some records. And if you need a venue for the single’s launch party, give me a yell.

Gives me an excuse to play you the song again, too, complete with new video …

Hello Mr Bond, I’ve been expecting you.
Martini in your hand, and that eyebrow that you move.

Scouting For Girls – I Wish I Was James bond

Russia’s big. We knew that. But sometimes it takes a new perspective to realise the extent of something you already new.

Enter ZebraMap. I love this sort of thing. I always wanted a Geochron – for now I make do with the likes of EarthDesk and OSXPlanet.

It’s just gone 8am in Moscow. 7am in Kaliningrad. For my colleagues in Ekaterinburg, it’s already after 10. It’s lunchtime in Vladivostok. And over on the Kamchatka peninsula the working day’s already ending.

Just the other side of the Bering Strait it’s still yesterday evening, but it’s too early in the morning to go there right now.

How does this translate in practice? How do you plan a conference call between Sakhalin, Moscow and Houston? Or time your announcement (or even sporting fixture) to hit prime-time in all the major cities? Or simply plan your travel across this vast country?