Recycling old media hardware – good for the environment, good for you

The Cape City Green Week and the recently held Brands and Branding for Good Conference are examples of the fact that ‘green awareness’ is spreading to beyond merely forming part of corporate CSI, to becoming wiser about the issues of green computing and green IT in a media sense.

Green computing can be broken down into green use (reducing the energy consumption of computers and other information systems, as well as using them in an environmentally sound manner); green disposal (refurbishing and re-using old computers, and properly recycling unwanted computers and other electronic equipment); and green design (designing energy-efficient and environmentally sound components; computers; servers; cooling equipment; and data centres).

I recently blogged about how South African are starting to recycle their computing equipment and old cell phones, as this keeps harmful materials such as lead and mercury out of landfills.

While media consumption is definitely on the increase – particularly in the mobile sector, with cellphone contract holders claiming a new handset every two years – the resulting ‘waste’ is fast accumulating. Take action by recycling your outdated phone, if possible – by giving it to someone less fortunate, for example.

What are your thoughts on getting businesses more ‘green-wise’? Do you work in a paper-free environment or conduct online searches on the more energy-efficient ‘Blackle‘? Feel free to share your comments below.

Newsclip expands on social media

This morning, Newsclip hosted the final leg of it’s quarterly seminars at the Bryanston Country Club. Amy Linnell of the Marketing Strategy department gave attendees insight into how to engage with the social media space properly. The key lies in both the quality and quantity of your efforts – one needs to be actively involved from the outset in terms of regularly updating their newsfeeds and responding to customers’ queries, while developing good quality, reciprocal relationships. Linnell also expanded on the dangers of social media that one should be aware of, and emphasised the importance of using both push and pull technologies in accessing information. Newsclip’s MD, Simon Dabbs, rounded off the session by fielding questions from the audience and sharing his own experiences with ‘now’ media.

If you would like to know more, look out for your next Networking Newsletter, due to hit your inbox this week. To sign up for the Networking Newsletters and to attend Newsclip’s next seminar in early 2010, contact Newsclip’s Debbi Lyle on debbi@newsclip.co.za.

Are today’s mobile phones too complicated?

As we are constantly bombarded with news of the latest mobile phone or smartphone offering even more amazing features from GPS navigation to social networking to enhance our lives and make them easier, Martin Cooper, credited as being the lead engineer of the Motorola team that developed the mobile phone, has said that today’s phones have become ‘too complicated’ and try to do too many things for too many people. He feels that when you create a universal device that does so many things for so many people, it doesn’t do any of these things well.

The alternative, according to Cooper, is rather to have several specialist devices that focus on one thing that will improve our lives. But is this really what consumers want? Would having to keep track of several different devices really be an ‘improvement’ in our lives, or would we rather take the chance that the features may not work as well as Cooper would have hoped in order to take advantage of another improvement in our lives – the convenience of having everything in the palm of our hand at the touch of a button? Sales figures suggest that consumers are seeking phones with a range of features, with smartphone sales across Europe increasing by 140%.

Dr Jon Argar of University College London feels that there is no reason to believe that people are avoiding complicated technology, or that smartphones don’t have the capacity to cope with the additions designers integrate into them. Ultimately, the future of technology is in the hands of consumers, and most of them would rather have all their needs met by one device than have to seek other devices to supplement the ones they already own.

Perhaps Cooper, who has previously criticised the iPhone for being complicated and hard to use, is still accustomed to the technology used to create the first mobile phone, which he describes as weighing “over one kilo and you could only talk for 20 minutes before the battery ran out, which was just as well because you would not be able to hold it up for much longer.” It is certainly true that with that kind of technology we would not be seeing the advancements in mobile phones we are today, but with that as a stepping stone and with the advancements in technology we have seen over the past decade, there is little doubt that not only will we keep seeing more new features available on our phones to make our lives easier, we will also come to expect and demand them, if we haven’t already begun to do so.

Virtual living offers escapism – but where to?

The shift to online has not only meant efficiency and faster communication, but an array of options that seem to have begun to offer online users the option to withdraw from their realities and escape into an online world. Newsclip’s Analysis team thinks that we might be on the verge of losing the human touch. This is fundamental because no matter how much faster we can send information out there, we are still communicating with people. Many leaders in the field have recently underlined this importance – the need to be authentic, honest and human. In terms of the marketing mix – are you taking these questions into account?

Virtual worlds set to enter reality?

In an article titled ‘Virtual cities get real bustle’, New Scientist magazine of 3 October 2009 states that: “While virtual globes such as Google Earth or Microsoft Visual Earth provide great bird’s-eye views of urban landscapes, they show ghost towns – empty streets free of traffic or people. Now, a system that can draw on real-time video from traffic and surveillance cameras, and weather sensors, is set to change that.” The article goes on to explain how the system will fill virtual towns with cars and people, and could even let online spectators zoom in on live sports events.

This marks the fact that virtual world are definitely becoming a reality and offering more than just escapism.

In another article in the magazine, Nic Fleming states that while eye-popping sums are at stake in the virtual economy, intellectual property disputes are now heading for the courts. Virtual is definitely crossing over into reality, with many crucial developments taking place… but whether this is a good thing or not is anyone’s guess. I’m all for escapism, but don’t we have enough problems to deal with in the real world?

The media holds the power to shape opinion

While news is meant to be impartial by nature, it cannot be denied that there is usually an element of control or influence involved. It sets agendas; thrusts certain issues into the spotlight; and influences how we perceive certain events.

The media has long been regarded as the fourth estate of government, and as a result, its independence has long been an issue, with certain papers seen as simply lapdogs or mouthpieces for government to make its policies felt clearly in the media.

How do you regard the media? Watchdog, or mouthpiece/ lapdog?

Post your comments below, or click here for a more in-depth discussion.

Location, location, location… is yours clear?

One of the perks of being a journalist is the numerous invitations to attend events, which may or may not be related to the beat you cover. However, one of my pet gripes as a former health journalist was the difficulty of finding accurate directions to reach the relevant event venues.

While most PRs are pretty clued up and tend to send through a map or directions to the venue with the invite – either ‘from OR Tambo’ or ‘from Sandton; (sorry for you, if you work on the West Rand!’, I’m sure that journos all over the world have celebrated the rise of Google Earth and numerous mapping applications, such as the recent Google Street View initiative. While some companies have added accurate GPS positions to their sites (great for those with GPS-equipped cars!), the majority have woken up to the importance of being ‘findable’ – they are translating this from simply being searchable online (such as by typing the address into Google Maps), to providing not just the company’s physical address, but a map of the surrounding area on their websites, too. Big help to all those who travel the roads on a daily basis, and can’t afford to flip frantically through a hefty Street Guide to match up shared areas of different pages!

What’s your opinion on private web surfing during company time?

In an article titled, ‘The internet conundrum at work’, which appeared on the front page of last week’s Sunday Times Careers section, Margaret Harris explored the idea that employers are ‘enraged by private mailing and web surfing’, adding that drawing the line is not easy.

She states that while there’s no doubt the internet has revolutionised the office, it is the ‘dark side’ that concerns managers, meaning the ‘hours lost to cyberslacking ‘ and the related expense, and adds that is often not easy to distinguish between work-related and private use. To get around possible complications down the line, Harris suggests adding a clear internet usage policy to employment contracts. In this way, employees will be aware of what they can and can’t do online in company time.

Harris adds that according to Open Orchard Research, 30% of people surveyed estimated that more than a day’s work per week was lost to staff sending personal emails and surfing the week for personal purposes.

While this all sounds like doom and gloom, and has a strong ‘ban the internet at work!’ vibe, there is a positive side – it has been found that use of social media makes people happy, turning them into more productive workers. Dr Brent Coker from the Melbourne University’s Department of Management and Marketing, found that: “People who do surf the internet for fun at work – within a reasonable limit of less than 20 percent of their total time in the office – are more productive by about nine percent than those who don’t.” He adds that Workplace Internet Leisure Browsing (WILB) includes “reading online news websites, looking for product information, watching videos on YouTube and playing online games”, and states that employees need to “free their mind to get their concentration back”. The creative industries (media and advertising especially) often provide access to social media for their employees from work, as they can then keep up-to-date with developments and trends worldwide. However, employees should be aware that posting anything online that is critical of their employer is likely to land them in hot water.

Global commenting systems: making the web more social or robbing websites of value?

In the social media space, with the ever-increasing attempt to make the web more social and encourage more user-generated content, several systems have been created which allow users to comment on even those sites that do not permit comments. This is done by creating a layer over the web so that the comments are not part of the websites but are visible to anyone making use of the external commenting system. As a result, consumers are given even more control over what they view and create on the web, while at the same time, bloggers and other web creators are robbed of the value user comments add to their sites, and have even less control over the information being shared about them on the social web. There is much debate about this form of social media, especially with the recent introduction of the Google Sidewiki, as well as other similar systems like Blerp.

Mack Collier says that these systems make any page on the internet social by allowing users to comment on the content of that page, as well as on the comments others have made. However, he notes that there are some potential problems with this type of commenting system. For example, it seems that there is no ability to moderate comments. This means that companies have no control over whether its users make use of these systems, and are also unable to see the features unless they use them themselves – they therefore have little protection from incorrect information posted. Jeff Jarvis also discusses on his blog that the systems take interactivity away from the source and centralise it – comments are taken away from web pages and blogs, thereby robbing those web pages of value.

Adding a layer of information to a web page can be useful if the commenting system in question manages to attract a significant enough user base, as user-generated content is taken to a new level and the social web becomes even more social, especially for the user. However, Beth Harte feels that if companies haven’t yet delved into social media, these systems could possibly force them to become social fast, so that they can claim the social conversation taking place about them, and attempt to maintain the value of comments and interaction on their own website.

It will be interesting to see whether global commenting systems like Google Sidewiki and Blerp catch on, or whether it is just a passing social media craze. Share your opinion here.

NASA broadcasts moon blast online

Thanks to the power of technology, people around the world were watching a live feed on NASA’s website at 13:30 South African time today. The reason for the sudden interest in the US space agency? NASA planned to crash a rocket into a crater near the moon’s south pole to kick up debris that scientists will then search for signs of water.

Our office was a buzz as we all tuned into ‘NASA TV’ in eager anticipation of watching “the moon being bombed”, and while it was great seeing the craters becoming bigger and bigger as the rocket got closer, and watching the rocket’s progress, we were all disappointed that when it was time for the big event, the feed switched to the guys in the NASA control room congratulating one another!

Anyway, one still marvels that we were able to witness such an event in real time – it really does prove how amazing technology is! Of course, ‘LCROSS’, as the mission is known, has become a trending topic on Twitter, and has its own Facebook fan page, once again also showing the capacity of social media to generate interest in world events.

It will be interesting to follow NASA’s progress and findings from this mission…watch this space!