1. The Beatles 1. Album is the best selling in the US this century
2. In the 10 years to 2008, Asia’s energy use grew by 70% Source: 24 Julyhttp://matthewcain.posterous.com/what-ive-learnt-from-the-economist 1. The Beatles 1. Album is the best selling in the US this century 2. In the 10 years to 2008, Asia’s energy use grew by 70% Source: 24 July …
1. America’s prison population has risen from 1 in 400 in the 1970s to 1 in 100 now – and 1 in 19 of black men
2. Scientists are studying ants to make computers more efficient (sort of) 3. Offices that have a dog during a brainstorm are found to be more collaborative 4. Georgia is a race to watch for the Palin effect in November 5. The number of coups in Africa has fallen from 20 every 10 years (1980-89) to just over 5 (2000-09) 6. Only 40% of South Africans of working age have a jobhttp://matthewcain.posterous.com/lessons-from-the-economist 1. America’s prison population has risen from 1 in 400 in the 1970s to 1 in 100 now – and 1 in 19 of black men 2. Scientists are studying ants to make computers more efficient (sort of) 3. Offices that have a dog during a brainstorm are found to be more collaborative 4. Georgia is a race to watch …
I’ve come back from holiday with a new resolve to blog. That’s not unusual so it will be intersting to see how long it lasts. What happened over the summer was high levels of proper work with a mounting list of thing that I wanted to write about. They fused in a manner that made it harder and harder to even open my own blog, such was the embarrassment at the lack of content in much the same way that a failure to check my bank balance makes it progressively harder to check.
Attending a social media conference in July reminded me of how exciting it is to hear people’s stories of what can be achieved on social media by anyone who just gives it a go. But it’s also notable that many of Britain’s premier bloggers are either anonymous and/or providing specialists insights on a particular subject. Those that offer general commentary are often high profile in their own right. Alternatively, some of the most frequent high profile bloggers are so public as to find that it limits their ability to achieve their offline aims. Could it be that Conservative Associations know so much more about Iain Dale and his view on life than who he is standing against for selection that they would rather go with someone more unfamiliar?
So the challenge for my blog is how to be sufficiently engaging that it’s worth reading on a regular basis (although I appreciate that my thoughts on Liverpool Reserves have a very different audience to those on politics, the press or Hackney life) so that when I have something really valuable to say, it can make an impact and when I don’t (most of the time0 I don’t bore people senseless.
With any luck, in the next few weeks will follow:
And if good people such as Paul Tomkins and the Media Standards Trust are still interested, I hope that my blog will be more of a repository for stuff I write elsewhere than my very own hotel in a desert (no roads to get there – analogy courtesy of Matthew Taylor).