Love the Christmas web

I found out about the Portable North Pole from a friend on Facebook - you enter the details of your child (or anyone you like) and they get a personalised message from Santa, and it's completely free!

Here's a link to Logan's video. The jury is out on whether it'll cure his fear of Santa...

And I found this Tunnock's snowball game via Twitter. I love the Christmas internet.

Oscars countdown

I've been busy with a few Datablog posts lately - one on teen drug misuse, one on deadly earthquakes - but my favourite one of the moment is tracking all the major winners over the film awards season.

Until the BBC lost the rights to the Oscars, it was one of the highlights of my television year, staying up late (usually til 6 or 7 in the morning) with popcorn and beer to watch it live. I miss the build-up but now that I'm writing about it I feel excited again.

Every year I plan to watch the films that have generated the most Oscar buzz, but never get round to it. This year I'm determined to catch at least some of them at the cinema - films like Up In the Air, The Hurt Locker, Crazy Heart, all of which have done well in the nominations so far. I don't think I'll be checking out Avatar though (despite the Golden Globe nods) - I'm sure it looks amazing but the story just doesn't seem that original.

The Academy Award nominations are out later this week but I'm prepared to look stupid by casting my predictions early - Jeff Bridges for best actor, Sandra Bullock best actress (white female teacher coaches black student - it's a shoe-in unless Oscar fave Meryl Streep wins the votes), Kathryn Bigelow for director, The Hurt Locker best film, Mo'Nique and Christoph Waltz for supporting roles (they've won everything so far so not much of a gamble!). Let's hope they get nominated now!

Resolution number 1

I finally got time to blog a bit, although it's not my big post about resolutions that I will get round to eventually!

One of my main resolutions this year though is to do my chartership with Cilip. Part of this involves documenting every work-related event I attend, so to avoid bombarding you with library-themed posts and to try and compartmentalise my life just a little (and isn't that what librarians are good at?) I've started a new blog over at wordpress.

If you're interested in library-related stuff, check it out at librarianoftomorrow.wordpress.com.

Felicitating

I was searching photos of Mark on Google today (as you do) and came across one of the funniest things I've seen in ages, I'm still crying with laughter as I type. Scroll down to the bottom and note the picture caption...

Superbrain of Britain?

I had a fab Christmas chez Heslop in snowy Durham, but it wasn't quite the same without me and Dad beavering away at the computer into the wee hours, trying to find obscure photographs of northern sportsmen for the Northern Echo Superbrain quiz.

This year they've decided to run the quiz in January instead, and open it up online. Which means even less chance of winning anything, and more chance of answers cropping up on Yahoo!.

But it does mean anyone can take a look at the questions so if you're that way inclined, have a gander. Not as much fun as scribbling possible answers onto the newspaper in the back of the car on Christmas day, though.

To charge or not to charge

It seems Rupert Murdoch may have some reservations about charging for content after all, while the Guardian will be one of the first to charge for an iPhone news app - are the tables turning?

He might block Google, too - now that would make the news aggregators happy.

Who knew I was so relevant?

The Guardian's digital media page just posted this story about news aggregator NewsNow. Ignore the typos.

SLA Europe: Free v Fee, the Future of News

Attended a really interesting panel discussion on the future of newspaper content hosted by SLA Europe last night. There's a debate going on at the moment as to whether news outlets should charge for online content or continue to provide it for free, now that advertising revenue has dropped so dramatically. The Murdoch clan are all for charging, while Alan Rusbridger prefers to focus on the journalistic changes that need to occur to avoid newspapers becoming obsolete.

Andrew Hughes from the Newspaper Licensing Agency and Jeremy Lawson from Dow Jones represented the traditional news industry, while Larry Rafsky, CEO of Acquire Media, stood up for web aggregators and solicitor Laurence Kaye gave the legal perspective. The evening was ably moderated by Don Roll, of Alacra (thanks for picking my question!).

Although the panel didn't achieve a consensus (and with such opposing views from Larry and Andrew it was unlikely), everyone made some good points. What I took from the discussion is that with web technology developing so fast, newspapers (and copyright law) are playing catch-up. Business models for online content are untested and it's only once papers begin to charge that we will see whether such a model is successful. What is certainly true is that unless newspapers come up with a new approach they will struggle financially in the future market.

Below are my notes from the evening; Neil Infield at the British Library has blogged his notes here, and you can join the discussion on LiveWire.

Andrew Hughes, NLA

• NLA is working towards a licensing agreement for B2B paid-for web content
• web content is often unique - NLA study found 31.5% of online content hadn't appeared in print, and 38% of print content never makes it to the web

Laurie Kaye

• "It takes time to change the law, business models, cultures..."
• media is global so may eventually have a global legal framework, but have to begin by working within existing national copyright laws
• "copyright provides the framework for a creator to decide how their content is made available" - whether free, fee or a hybrid model
• B2B copyright is much more clearcut than personal
• need an "effects-based" approach to copyright - look at the commercial effect of republishing in the real world, and base law on that
• different tyes of intermediary require different approaches - individuals providing links between the user and the content vs people taking the content and republishing it
• "fair use" - there are about 30 exceptions for research, private study, reporting etc. Google argues fair use because they only reprint snippets of articles but it's for commercial gain so may not be
  
• there's a lack of infrastructure to police online content at the moment

Larry Rafsky, Acquire Media

• "there's no going back once you taste freedom...this toothpaste is not going back in the tube" - newspaper content is already free online, can't reverse it
• different definitions of free - difference between content that is written professionally and provided free but where the writer will be paid (what aggregators are interested in), free content written by non-professionals (user-generated, personal blogs etc) and professional content that is "gifted" (given away with no interest in payment)
  
• bad definitions - content that is free to some but not others, and content that shouldn't be free but is made so illegally
• Acquire always links to the publisher and gives sparse summaries so users have to follow the link to read the article (Google provides enough info that the reader has no need to click through)
• there is no difference between a user accessing content directly and getting it through a proxy, as long as the content provider gets the same emolument
• the web is run by links - RSS feeds, librarian recommendations, email links to friends - so "site cite" (what a web aggregator does) is not protectable

Jeremy Lawson, Dow Jones

• Dow Jones are supporting publishers and their right to decide how content is used and what the rights covering it are

Did papers start to dig their own grave when they suggested they might charge for content?

Larry Rafsky - whether papers charge depends on their existing market and where they can make money (need to analyse all models), so there's no right answer
Andrew Hughes - papers started digging their own grave when they gave content away - "free is a four-letter word"
Jeremy Lawson - papers who will have to change their business model from free to fee have an awful lot of work to do to make it viable

Do web aggregators really pose a serious threat to revenue when some argue they are increasing traffic to sites by posting links?

Laurie Kaye - linking is part of the way the web operates, but there is some potential commercial bad effects from aggregators
Andrew Hughes - "Russian doll" situation - yes, aggregators increase traffic but that doesn't necessarily lead to an increase in revenue; the NLA isn't asking to license links to friends, only those who charge and benefit financially from linking; newspapers need to assert their rights over the investment they are putting into editorial content; less than a tenth of 1% of newspaper web traffic comes from aggregators, most comes from Google
Larry Rafsky - as 85% of news traffic comes from Google, why not charge Google if you want to charge aggregators?

Is Kindle the future of newspapers?

Larry Rafsky - papers will be web-only in the future, and paper will become a novelty item like candles now, special editions and gift items; advances in flexiscreens by Microsoft will mean the death of newsprint by 2030
Andrew Hughes - no, the future lies in providing streamlined content to individual users (Liverpool fans just want sports news about Liverpool), not in recreating replicas of the print edition online

With web advances, do you foresee the death of newsprint?

Andrew Hughes - no but there will be trouble sustaining the pagination
Jeremy Lawson - print medium will become a much smaller fish in a much bigger pond but won't become irrelevant

What can the industry do to help users distinguish what is fair use and free to access and what isn't?

Laurie Kaye - we're still working through what is commercial or non-commercial but the law will reach that point
Andrew Hughes - we need to make it easier for users and businesses to know what they can and can't do
Larry Rafsky - you need to add value to content, beyond what Google provides, to make B2B paid-for content viable

Tweeting

I've finally jumped on the Twitter bandwagon. Some would say six months too late, now it's been appropriated as a marketing tool a la MySpace, but it takes celebrity stalking to a whole new level (I discovered @snoopdoog by checking out who Liz Taylor was following) so better late than never!

If you tweet let me know who you are and I'll follow you, too.

Blood typing game

Dad sent me a link to this brilliant game on the Nobel Foundation website. You have to pick the correct blood transfusion for each patient, genius!

Pretty things for a Monday afternoon

I've been cruising Etsy this morning, looking for interesting Christmas gift ideas. Sarada inspired me to think about getting the sewing kit out (Stanley has some very cool sock monkeys that she made with her sister). I say think about, whether I actually get round to it is another matter! I haven't picked up my knitting needles since Logan was born, so we shall see.



Anyway, on my Etsy travels I came across some really interesting vintage-looking jewellery, similar to the pieces on the Eclectic Eccentricity site. This Alice in Wonderland-inspired necklace is an interesting idea, although I'm not sure about the length of the pendant, and I really like this Paris locket and this pendant made out of an old typewriter key.

I wonder where the jewellery makers get their pendants from?

Blogging tea shop

Metrodeco left a comment after I blogged them on Saturday with a link to their blog. So far they've written about Nick Griffin and THAT Stephen Gately article - I like them even more!

Pretty things

I have a new favourite jeweller (apart from Christine, of course!) - Shaun Leane's cherry blossom earrings and pendants are gorgeous.

Sadly out of my price range, but they're evocative of Alex Monroe's beautiful organic pieces, and they're slightly (only slightly) more affordable. I'm saving up for a bird hoop necklace (and maybe one day a locket too)!

Until I win the lottery (or stop paying nursery fees) I'll have to settle for the still-lovely Eclectic Eccentricity. I've still got my eye on that pirate pendant!

Check me out on the Datablog!

I had a really busy day at work yesterday, most of it spent putting together a few blogposts for the Guardian's Datablog. It's quite exciting writing something directly to the web which you know people are actually going to read.

The first was a list of Patrick Swayze films and the money they made at the box office - hardly cutting edge news I know but interesting anyway. And the second was a post about crop circles, inspired by Google's crop circle doodle. Much more interesting and useful, and the data can definitely be manipulated to create some interesting mapping or diagrams (and not, as one commenter thinks, to run rampant over some poor farmer's field).

The crop circles even makes it to the top of the list on Google's news site, if you search for "crop circles" (well, almost to the top, but I can't begrudge a fellow Guardian post).

I did some work on the department spending post too, so I'm feeling pretty smug workwise.

Highbrow tweeting

In a radical move the Royal Opera House is staging an opera composed of Twitter postings to @youropera.

Get your tweets in now.

Logan's first ever blog post!

Logan sent the post below from my mobile this afternoon. Boy's a genius!

Bits and bobs

Too busy at work to post much, but these should amuse you.

Firstly, I saw a magpie attack a squirrel this morning in Highgate Woods. Is this normal?!

Carole forwarded me this video of sheep farmers (I hope!) getting all arty, which is absolute genius. Shepherding must be boring work if this is what they get up to! (not at all dodgy, btw)

And finally, that sound they play between scenes in Law and Order, which apparently is the noise made by prison doors opening? The door to my office does that. Not the best way to start the day!

Vintage furniture on the web

Stoke Newington (it was a productive weekend!) also has a couple of good vintage furniture shops, among them the Peanut Vendor, which has an online shop.

It's not the flashiest site in the world but it's unusual to find a retro store represented on the web; treat yourself to a virtual rummage (they have a very nice dressing table and some cool phones at the mo).

Meet your (jewellery) maker

I've already blogged about the very cool cherry pendant Christine gave me for my birthday. I've lost count of the number of things she's made for me over the years (my wedding band for starters). I love hearing about the different pieces she's working on.

Now she's started her own blog, so you can find out what a jeweller does all day down there in Eastbourne.

Where can you find pirates?

You've probably seen Weebl's hilarious Kenya animation before (if not, it is absolute genius; Mark used to sing it to Logan when he was wee).

Now there's an updated version - the action has switched to Somalia but the tune is just as catchy ("...can you high seas it...").

Also, check out their badger song, and the Weebl and Bob toons, v funny(pie!).