A few weeks back usability “guru” Jacob Nielson posted on his Alertbox pulpit his views about blogging. At the time I didn’t have time to respond, except to Twitter some snarky remark about Jacob not really getting social media.

Thankfully, Scott Rosenberg posted a much more useful response.

Just a quick pointer to an interview I did with a uni student from Swinburne University on “social sustainability” - posted on the Digital Eskimo blog.

Seems I got a mention in today’s Next insert (in the SMH and Age): It’s web take 2.0. I had a few words to say on page 2 regarding WWF’s use of social media tools like blogs (and blogs) and YouTube and Flickr and MySpace and wikis (used internally).

(Just a quick note - the interview was done a few weeks ago while I was still working at WWF).

I haven’t seen the print edition yet, but they came and took my photo too. Not sure if it made the cut though… Yep - they used the photo. Big one too… Feels weird…

Priscilla posts a great chart for non-profits considering the social/participant media space: Does effort = effect?. An excellent method for evaluating which tools to invest in.

Scott Andrew posts about one band’s experience with being a featured artist on MySpace. [via 37signals]

Being in a band who is about to record, I was really interested in learning more. The short of it, despite significant exposure and friends signing up, not one CD sold. But a big jump in mailing list sign-ups.

Most of the commenters on the posts focus on “well perhaps the band sucked” argument (which is kinda valid). But what about usability? How hard was it to buy the CD? How well promoted was the CD on the MySpace profile? Scott alludes to this in his post, but unless the band in question is known, so we can check out the profile and see what the experience was like for the punter, we have no idea whether other factors were responsible for low sales. The other telling thing is there’s no indication of iTunes sales, yet.

Perhaps out of those 1200 people, a number bought downloads. Perhaps a few attempted to purchase the CD, but failed (which is more common than it should be). Perhaps it was just the demographic. Perhaps Scott’s analysis is spot on - and he does make some good points, especially suggesting additional promotions that may have tipped sales.

So unfortunately we only know a little bit more about marketing bands through MySpace. But still interesting nonetheless.

GetUp have launched Oz in 30 seconds - subtitled “Political ads authorised by you”. It’s a competition to create a 30 second political ad:

This is a chance to show us your Australia by making a 30 second political ad, which we will air on national prime time television during the lead up to the federal election.

In 30 seconds, show us a slice of your vision: perhaps it’s a call to action on an issue close to your heart; or maybe an idea that brings us closer to the Australia you want to live in; or your take on a major policy or event, rather than the spin you’ve been fed.

The title of the comp suggests it’s inspired by MoveOn.org’s successful Bush in 30 seconds competition. Though GetUp have wisely chosen to not focus on one particular candidate.

So, if you’ve got a concept, get it up

The video below is a great, no-fuss, easy to grok description of RSS and feed readers. [via Blogging Pro]

It focuses on web-based readers - for those on Mac I can also recommend NetNewsWire - my fave for a long time, or the free Vienna.

Click To Play

We made this video for our friends (and yours) that haven’t yet felt the power of our friend the RSS reader. We want to convert people; if you know someone who would love RSS and hasn’t yet tried it, point them here for 3.5 minutes of RSS in Plain English.

Amnesty International have just launched a very clever site as part of their campaign to Bring David Hicks home.

They have a “cell” - the same as the one David Hicks has been held in for 5 years without trial - that they are touring around the country with. Visitors to the cell are presented with a “passport” explaining David’s situation, and once in the cell, they can leave a video message, which is then presented on the Bring David Hicks home website.

If you have visited the cell, you can find your video by using the search/filter options on the site.

I think the site is very good - helping to bring home the reality of Hicks’ situation and allowing people to connect in a more emotional way with what is often presented as a legal or political issue.

I also love the fact that the site uses YouTube for video hosting - a fantastic use of participant media.

The site was launched yesterday by Digital Eskimo - who also helped WWF build the Future is man made site. Nice work!

Update: GetUp have also just launched a new video as part of their campaign on the same issue.

After a few months of development (and many months of thinking and strategising) I’m proud to announce the launch of the new Future is man made website.

From the blurb on the home page:

This site … is a place where people can share their ideas for living sustainably. We hope the tips and stories here will be useful for you and that you will share your ideas here too.

As part of the team at WWF, I very much hope that the site will become a hub of activity from folks around Australia can share their stories, tips and experiences to make it easier to live more sustainably.

To kick things off, and as part of the Earth Hour promotional activity, the site has a “60 things you can do in the dark” competition - submit your ideas for a chance to win a Nokia 3250 mobile phone and Planet Earth DVD.

I could go into more details about the strategy, development and details, but really, I’d just prefer to point and let y’all decide if you like it or not Feel free to let me know what you think by leaving a comment here, or through the site’s contact form.

Big props to Digital Eskimo who were fantastic to work with to get the site up and running. It’s been a blast working with them on the project - muchos kudos guys

Check out this Engadget video profile of the Sansa Connect MP3 player.

This is the type of innovation that can occur with the use and support of open systems. The Sansa uses Mono, an open source implementation of Microsoft’s .NET to implement some features, that on the surface at least, look pretty amazing.

Things like - sharing music between Sansa’s using wifi, internet radio integration and more.

Contrast this approach with Apple’s closed systems on the iPod and iPhone. Apple claims to be innovative - and they are. But if they opened the system others could innovate on their platform, increasing the value for the platform, and ultimately their customers.