Twitter Great... hey, I'm not in Main Search all of a sudden

Having tried some of the micro-blogging competitors including Jaiku and the like, in my opinion, there is nothing really out there that can rival the strength and popularity of Twitter. Used correctly it can be a very powerful tool.

Up until 2009, I hadn't really heard of the Twitter phenomena. I turned on the TV one day and saw Gyles Brandreth talking about it on the BBC's The One Show. Well, good old Gyles made a pretty good case for it so I signed up for an account in February. As is usually the case with these new fangled social Internet things, many user names were already taken and I finally ended with jenkin7nick, whick is made up of my name and the Internet Giftware store I help run.

All has been fairly well ever since. I post some tweets (as they are called) every day (these are status updates with a maximum of 140 characters) and follow a fair few people... yes, including Gyles. He is an all round good egg.

Twitter is fantastic as an information and News source with many News stations having regularly updated accounts like the BBC & ITN. Also Celebrities are using it in every increasing numbers including such huge mega-stars like Keith Chegwin. Yes, it's true.

So why should you open a Twitter account... well, something to do isn't it? Plus you can say you are "With it". You know the score and all that sort of chat that I have a very lose grip on as you can probably tell.

At the moment unfortunately, my Tweets are not appearing in Twitters search facility so I'm a bit invisible. I do not know why this is. I haven't sent any spam or tried to sell weapons grade plutonium to anybody so I'm guessing it's some kind of glitch. Well.. more hoping really. I've submitted a Help Ticket to Twitter support on the 10th July and its current status is, "This request is currently being processed by our staff". Am I worried... well, a little.

If you open an account, take leave of your senses and want to follow me, my account is jenkin7Nick. I always follow back... please don't be a serial killer.

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www.jenkin7 - www.jenkin7.com
Giftware & Collectables

BBC So... what's replaced the popular Jonathan Ross Show then?

So... now that Jonathan Ross has been suspended for 3 months for things I don't really want to go into, what is replacing his big ratings winning show in the BBC schedule?

Well... not much really. The BBC seem content with just putting a film on each week until everything blows over. Last week it was Speed which has been on about fifty times already and this week, it is Armageddon.

The BBC have really shot themselves in the foot with this one. For all his faults, Ross attracted the viewing public in their many thousands, could get the best celebrity guests and delivered an entertaining show. Now it's gone for a while and replaced with mediocrity. One waits for other possible films in the weeks to come and fears the likes of Cocoon, Honey I shrunk the Kid and Teenwolf being shown on what should be prime weekly viewing.

I think I, and many others, will be watching a different TV station for a while until the BBC are back on track. It's the 4 Poofs and a Piano, I feel sorry for.

Expect the standard of Celebrity guests on other shows to suddenly increase as they desperately find other outlets to plug their various projects.

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www.jenkin7.co.uk

YouTube and Copyright

One cannot deny, the huge success of YouTube. The Internet video sharing service has been nothing short of phenomenal. In fact, many thousands of video clips are uploaded each day and it shows no sign of slowing. How Youtube are managing to store this vast amount of ever increasing information is beyond the likes of me, but I'm guessing the place is rather large.

So... what kind of videos are being watched and uploaded? Well... just about anything really.

If you've ever uploaded anything onto YouTube, you would have seen the message,

"Do not upload any TV shows, music videos, music concerts or commercials without permission unless they consist entirely of content you created yourself. The Copyright Tips page and the Community Guidelines can help you determine whether your video infringes someone Else's copyright."

Now... I don't want to come across as hypocritical here, as I have just used YouTube to watch the whole first series of a popular TV show. Arguably, the makers could say they have lost revenue as I will not now buy it in the shops. Well... they are correct in some cases. I wouldn't have bought it though and even then the quality on the YouTube upload is not as good as the released DVDs would have been. True fans would buy the DVD box sets regardless. Even so, I'm not sure this is something I should be further exploiting as just simply watching the material could legally be problematic.

I agree with the copyright laws to protect the rights of the individual makers, but YouTube is so large and the amount of videos being uploaded so vast, it perhaps makes the task virtually impossible to police.

Major infringers of Copyright which are reported, YouTube are quick to remove. But for each video or account that is taken down, another one appears in its place just a little later if not immediately. The TV series I watched has been on show for about 5 months now. It will get noticed at some point and the account will probably be suspended. Whether legal action will be taken, I don't know. The video I watched has now been viewd over 17,000 times.

This is an ongoing problem for YouTube and for sure, any network which allows video upload. With the technology still being relatively new, it will be interesting to see how this Copyright battle develops into the future.

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www.jenkin7.co.uk