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| 27th July 2007 |
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Prompt Communications Newsletter
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Dear Reader,
Welcome to another edition of the Prompt Communications newsletter. This week we see the release of a report which found that there are no health risks associated with mobile phone masts. Hopefully this will help put to rest recent speculation about health risks linked to wireless networking hardware. While it's good that risks are adequately examined and reported, it seems that all too often these technology related health scares have more to do with headline chasing than actual scientific evidence.
For any feedback on our newsletter, or to discuss how we can help you with your technology PR, marketing, social media and blogging consultancy, copywriting or surveys, please email me at hbutters@prompt-communications.com. We are always delighted to hear from you.
Best regards,
Hazel Butters
Prompt Communications
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Enterprise Technology Update
By Lance Concannon and Dave Wilby
Badgeware license recieves OSI approval
At the O'Reilly Open Source Convention in Oregon this week the Open Source Initiative (OSI) raised a few eyebrows by endorsing an attribution license, reports The Register. Software distributed under an attribution license, or badgeware, is usually free but requires that the user displays an attribution (either a text link or graphic) on the website or application where the software is used. Purists argue that this requirement is against the "completely free with absolutely no strings" spirit of true open source and that such software should not be classified as open source at all.
Winners of 'Open Source Oscars' announced
The popular Sourceforge development community has announced the winners of its second annual Community Choice Awards for the best open source software projects. The winner of best overall project and best technical design was 7-Zip, a free alternative to archiving software like WinZip and WinRAR. The popular phpBB discussion board system won the award for best communications project and database management tool phpMyAdmin won best tool for system administrators. Techworld has the full story.
Detailed research dismisses mobile mast health fears
A three-year study by a specialist research group at the University of Essex has concluded that cellular phone masts pose no short-term health threats to consumers whatsoever. The largest and most detailed study of its kind revealed that people claiming that mobile-phone masts caused symptoms such as anxiety, fatigue and nausea experienced those ailments equally whether there was a 3G or GSM signal present or not. The investigation at the Electromagnetics and Health Laboratory at the university was conducted by a multi-disciplinary team including cognitive psychologists, electronic and biomedical engineers and a doctor.
Using a group of 44 "sensitive" individuals and a control group of 114 people, the study found that in double-blind conditions where neither testers nor the tested knew whether the signal was on or off, the sensitive group reported increased symptoms regardless of whether mobile phone signals were on or off. Principal investigator Professor Elaine Fox told ZDNetUK this week: "It is clear that sensitive individuals are suffering real symptoms and often have a poor quality of life, and it is now important to determine what other factors could be causing these symptoms."
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Marketing Update
By Lisa Facinelli
Targeting gamers with interactive advertisements
According to Advertising Age and a new study conducted on the effectiveness of advertisements in video games, it's not enough to simply display a large banner in-game. In order to gain maximum attention from the target audience, this study found that ads should be placed at eye level where most of the action is taking place, even if it means that the size is smaller. Moreover interactive advertisements are 'six times more likely to be noticed than in-game signage'. And another tip to marketers is to make the placement relevant to the gamer and not to the theme of the game itself.
The new faces of consumers
Recent data from Consumer Eyes leads marketers in a new direction with their target audiences. The latest consumers are driven by new media outlets and a better knowledge of marketing ploys. Among the nine new influencers are the 'Geek Gods' who are said to be between the ages of 20 and 35 and who are brand loyal with time and money to spare. Other 'characters' include 'Denim Dads', 'Culture Crossers', and 'Parentocrats'.
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US Media Report
By Tarryn Morley
Justin Gillis, the economics editor at the Washington Post, will join The New York Times as an editor covering energy, agriculture, retailing, and various other areas for Business Day. Gilles will start his new post in September.
Two key editorial appointments have been made at The Los Angeles Times this week as the paper continues to integrate its print and online activities. John Arthur, currently the paper's page one editor, is now the managing editor for news. John Montorio, currently the paper's associate editor, has been named the features managing editor for features.
After 22 years with the Wall Street Journal, investigative feature writer, Peter Waldman, is leaving the newspaper. Waldman will take on the role of senior investigative writer for Portfolio magazine in August.
PC Magazine has also made some internal changes. Laarni Ragaza, recently a senior editor for hardware, will now be labs director and senior editor of the magazine.
The vice president of solutions for Windward Consulting Group, Michael Biddick, has recently been named contributing editor for InformationWeek and NetworkComputing.com. Biddick will cover IT operations management for the publications.
UK Media Report
By Tarryn Morley
George Jones, political editor of the Daily Telegraph, is leaving the paper at the end of October. He will be replaced by Andrew Porter, currently the deputy political editor at The Sun. No start date has been confirmed for Porter.
Phil Elliott has been appointed editor of Eurogamer's GamesIndustry.biz after spending a year as the editor of GameSpot UK. The role was previously occupied by Ellie Gibson, who is now the content editor for the Eurogamer Network of websites.
The Economist's glossy lifestyle publication, Intelligent Life, is undergoing a revamp. The magazine will now be published quarterly and will be redesigned with the help of an external design firm. Intelligent life is written by Economist journalists and covers a variety of subjects including travel, leisure, health, personal technology. The next issue of the magazine is due out in September.
Journalists in some areas of the UK have managed to continue to work despite the problems caused by flooding this week, with staff at some newspapers wading in to work. In Tewkesbury, Mike Saxton, distribution manager of the Gloucestershire Echo, kayaked to the dry High Street to deliver several hundred copies of the newspaper to a local Tesco Metro.
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Consumer Technology Update
By Dave Wilby and Sean McManus
UK government rejects calls to extend copyright
Despite protests from rockers Cliff Richard and Roger Daltrey, the UK government has said it will not press the EU to extend the term of copyright for sound recordings. The Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee previously recommended the government lobby the EU to extend copyright by at least 20 years to at least 70 years. The committee recommendation was that artists should derive benefits from copyright in their work for their lifetimes. The government's stance (PDF) is that such a move would artificially increase the cost of music to both consumers and the economy.
The government has responded warmly, though, to a recommendation that the law is changed to allow copying of music for private use, such as ripping CDs and vinyl for use in iPods. A public consultation is due in the autumn with a view to changing the law.
The committee and the government have agreed not to intervene in the fight between publishers and search engines. "We acknowledge that activities such as indexing may serve useful public functions by enabling public access to and dissemination of information," the government concluded. "We are nevertheless aware of the concerns raised by publishers and would urge both sides to continue to work together to resolve specific issues."
Crackdown firm secures top gongs at gaming Develop Awards
Crackdown, an Xbox 360 game created by Real Time Worlds scooped the much coveted innovation prize at this year's Develop Awards, which reward the work of game developers worldwide. Ian Hetherington, co-founder of the 1980s games firm Psygnosis and current chairman of Real Time Worlds was also crowned Development Legend. Other winners hailed by the BBC included Sony taking the Grand Prix award for overall excellence, Evolution Studios' Motorstorm PS3 title awarded the best new franchise prize, Eden Games acknowledged for best online use for Test Drive Unlimited, and Rare's Viva Piņata winning the prize for visual arts.
Big firms make big bucks
A series of impressive financial results announced this week reveal that the biggest names in the technology industry continue to reap the biggest profits. Amazon's profits more than tripled to $78 million (£38m) thanks to low expenditure, growth across product lines and the Harry Potter factor. Quarterly revenue jumped 35% to $2.89 billion (£1.41bn), including 27 per cent growth in its core business selling books, movies and music. Nintendo boasted a fourfold net profit increase in its fiscal first quarter as Wii popularity continues to outsell the competition, raising its full-year profit forecast by 40 per cent.
Sony is still holding its own though, doubling its own net profit despite obvious losses in the gaming market caused by Nintendo's success. Finally, Apple continues to ripen and grow, reporting profits of $818m (£399m), or 92 cents a share, for its fiscal third quarter, up 73 per cent year-on-year. The company sold 270,000 iPhones in just 30 hours before the quarter ended on 30th June.
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Web 2.0 Watch
By Lance Concannon
Whenever somebody comes up with a really good idea for a website, the one thing you can be sure of is that it won't be long before the open source community develops some free software that does exactly the same thing. Digg, for example, was the inspiration for an open source package called Pligg, which lets anybody with rudimentary technical skills launch their own social news service. The downside of this is that the web will inevitably become littered with a thousand pale imitations of Digg, but the upside is that it enables people with a bit more imagination to take a great idea and apply it to their own specific niches. PlugIM, Sk*rt and MotorcycleFacts are just a few example of the kind of special interest sites powered by Pligg.
Originally developed with the education space in mind, Elgg is the open source answer to MySpace. Like Pligg, it allows anybody with a basic web-hosting service and minimal technical ability to quickly launch their own social networking site. While many users simply stick with the out-of-the box look and feel, and hope somehow to become the next Web 2.0 success story, smart users build customised templates for the software and focus on specific niches that are currently ignored by the mainstream sites. The University of Brighton has an example of the project in action.
These are just two of the best known open source Web 2.0 projects, there are lots more out there. When you think of what's happening in Web 2.0 it's easy to focus only on the big stories, Digg, MySpace, Flickr, YouTube etc... But for every one of these billion dollar behemoths, there are thousands of smaller sites flapping around at the thin end of the long tail. Thanks to the open source movement, jumping on the Web .20 bandwagon has never been easier.
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Best of the 'Net
By Sean McManus
Drawball
This collaborative art site is probably more fun to look at than participate in. Before you can doodle on the giant ball, you have to solve a pointless brainteaser (connect the dots without doubling the lines), and then you only get a few splashes of ink. You have to come back another day to get more ink in your pot. Given these restrictions, it's amazing anything worthwhile ever got created on the virtual canvas. But if you zoom in, you'll see some impressive illustrations, all created in Flash using the most basic of brush tools.
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