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Apparently…68% of American’s feel anxiety (PDF) when their access to the network is cut…but their reasons vary as the study looks at different age groups…Via Engadget.

…and allow you to keep in touch with what’s happening across all of your different social networks - via your mobile phone. Really interesting - I just hope they have web integration as well as it would be nice to familiarise with a single aggregation service across multiple platforms.

Link.

I’ve recently been questioning RSS as a channel for absorbing the ‘noise’ of different networks. For me, I’d like to separate out my social interaction (which I see as an ongoing social dialogue) from my day-to-day feed consumption. It just feels too cluttered.

And one other thing I’ve noticed is the value of a good email newsletter. Lo-tech, huh??! I subscribe to the daily Urban Junkies newsletter, and it’s a really well crafted piece of content that points me at some of the best things that’re going on in London. If I had the RSS feed it probably wouldn’t keep so much of my attention - which makes me think that the increased relevance and personalisation of content is key for many of the different ‘trusted voice’ web services that are out there at the moment.

I had a fun wander around Hampton Court at the weekend. I don’t normally go for the whole royalty thing, but I was struck by how the whole place smelled of power. Interesting that on the way into the King’s Chambers, the visitor has to wander past the King’s weapon collection. What does that tell you? Hmmm…The gardens were nice though…More pictures on my Flickr stream.

Guy Hands is nothing if not consistent. His latest take on the Artists & Repertoire function of EMI is that it’s full of lazy people that don’t add much value to their business - and he’s keen to hand their power to the ’suits’ (who he says should have the power to decide what’s going to sell).

Wow. Can’t imagine this makes for a motivated A&R team - and I certainly can’t see how his artists are going to connect with the people he has in mind for making decisions that will affect their career and future direction. Good A&R nurtures and supports artists so they feel confident in what they’re doing - and it also needs to be up late, out and about, finding and connecting, networking in places where suits fear to tread.

EMI will become a label focused on management and sales of back catalogue - hard to see where new innovative talent is going to come from. I’d expect a more commercial, chart-focused roster (because it’s easier to fabricate and ‘manage’).

I feel a bit sorry for current EMI artists - who must be scouring their contracts looking for a way out…

OK this isn’t ‘new’ news, being as it was announced last week, but I was jetlagged then, OK??! This is hugely important in the move for portability of data across different networks. OpenID is an open source initiative aimed at creating one online identity that can operate across multiple social networks. It acknowledges that there is an ecology of different networks that people like to belong to, and we’re getting fed up maintaining different profiles and logins. Now that Yahoo have moved this way, I’ll be able to log into Flickr, WordPress and other sites using the same ID…

AAAArrrgggh. While I completely agree with the majority of this article on the increasing blend between home and work, work and learning - and I’ve been advocating many of its ideas for some time, it does wind me up that it has to end the way it does.Just what the world needs.Another slogan. 

“Different things to different people at different times.”

Robert Hardie, Content Strategy Director for  Northcliffe Media, talking about his definition of the variables one has to play with when considering developing local services. I attended Mashup’s local event last night, and broadly speaking founded it entertaining but not hugely useful in terms of real insight. Continue reading ‘What is local?’

 I’m finding the recent daily news feed from EMI HQ fascinating - every day brings more news about artists striking, or choosing to release their albums with someone else. And of course it’s sad when people are losing their livelihoods. But. I can’t help thinking that Guy Hands, Terra Firma’s man on the ground is completely the wrong personality for somebody to head up a record label with the pedigree of EMI. He seems to be taking quite a hard line with his artists (he recently commented to the press that he wouldn’t be standing for anyone being lazy and not pulling their weight) that doesn’t seem to stack up to me. I mean, what’s any self-respecting rock star gonna do if you start telling them off?But more to the point, all this could have been so different if EMI had started considering the impact of new digital channels earlier, and had actually acted or experimented sooner. It’s not like people haven’t been predicting this for a while…

Via: Directions Magazine.It’s great to hear Sean talking about the company’s no. 1 asset - it’s people and expertise. And it’s no surprise that he’s planning to do a lot more sailing - you would, wouldn’t you :) ?