We’re past the sort of digital marketing that some seek: the mid-’20s are about integrated marcom again

13.07.2023/05.01

When I first started working, there was a profession called corporate identity. It wasn’t called branding. I noticed the vernacular change in the 1990s, more so in the early 2000s when even Wally Olins started using it more to describe what Wolff Olins did. You just have to follow the market. We’re at a point […]

You can’t contract yourself out of breaking the law, Google—that’s not how it works

12.07.2023/12.12

Google has updated its privacy policy, giving itself carte blanche to take publicly available data to use for its large language models and “AI”. I don’t think whomever wrote the update has any comprehension of the law. Or that they do, but think they can get away with it. Maybe in their own country they […]

Generation Z has the right idea with flip phones and digital cameras

23.04.2023/12.29

This may be a source of comedy on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, but to me it’s obvious why young people are opting for flip phones and digital cameras. They’re smart enough to think: why should I have a device that’s addictive and wastes my time? Why should I spend time on websites […]

Latest podcast; and both Twitter and Facebook appear to be down on IFTTT

04.04.2023/12.25

I had recorded an earlier podcast but deemed it too controversial; instead, here’s something I uploaded to Anchor last week on the day Paul O’Grady passed away. It’s a little tribute to him (and Lily Veronica Mae Savage). There’s a little bit about a racist builder, and I conclude with the Business Book Awards. No, […]

If you take out Tiktok, then why not Meta, too?

24.03.2023/01.45

The Hon Debbie Ngarewa-Packer MP was right when she questioned our government’s decision to ban Tiktok from parliamentary devices. If it’s about foreigners getting hold of data, then why not ban Facebook and Instagram? Last I looked, Tiktok had not, unlike Facebook, been party to any genocides. Parliamentary Services says at least Meta is American […]

Cory Doctorow might be predicting the end of the web as we know it

21.02.2023/11.40

Two great pieces by Cory Doctorow came my way today on Mastodon. The first is an incredibly well argued piece about why people leave social networks. Facebook and Twitter won’t be immune, just as MySpace and Bebo weren’t. One highlight: As people and businesses started to switch away from the social media giants, inverse network […]

Google’s advertising business is a negligence lawsuit waiting to be actioned

09.12.2022/02.55

Apparently the New Zealand government says Big Tech will pay a ‘fair price’ for local news content under new legislation. Forget the newcomers like Stuff and The New Zealand Herald. The Fairfax Press, as the former was, was still running ‘The internet is scary’ stories at the turn of the century. What will Big Tech […]

Life in the fediverse

21.11.2022/04.15

Nathan Griffiths finally answers why Facebook used to freeze on the 1st of each month. I think his theory is very plausible. Now I know, after over a decade! Meanwhile, I see CBS News has suspended its Twitter account (after the likes of Balenciaga deleted theirs altogether). This was before Donald Trump was […]

On the verge of a change for the better

13.11.2022/12.34

I can’t find the original toot on Mastodon but I was led to this piece in the MIT Technology Review by Chris Stokel-Walker, ‘Here’s how a Twitter engineer says it will break in the coming weeks’. As I’ve cut back on my Twitter usage, I haven’t witnessed any issues, but it does highlight the efforts […]

I’ve left the data farms but occasionally revisit the Matrix

06.11.2022/00.04

Warner Bros. Even though Twitter is now in its MySpaceX era, I won’t shut my account. I have scripts that run through it, and I don’t wish for some schmuck to come in later and claim my username. Mastodon has taken off this week, my Twitter notifications are at a low, and as I […]