Owen Wilson & Media Sensitivity

Posted on August 30, 2007 by Thomas Purves

Not business or tech related, but I am amazed at the MSM/tabloid coverage of Owen Wilson’s suicide attempt. The metro today paper yesterday in the celebrity BUZZ (buzz in huge letters) section, the headline read along the lines of Owen Wilson SUICIDE attempt confirmed. With the word SUICIDE called out in giant pink letters complete with drop shadow. Like a children’s birthday party invitation.

While Metro is not oft esteemed for journalistic integrity, this is the first time I have actually seen the tabloid sink to the depth of grossly insulting individuals [comma, anyone with sentient intelligence and any functioning sense of empathy etc.] purely through the expedient of typeface selection. Meanwhile…

Frontpage headline of the Sun today “TEARS OF THE CLOWN”

Man, if the guy wasn’t suicidal before…

Speaking of dead media, except in exceptional circumstance mainstream media, as rule, doesn’t report on suicides. This due to the both unusual and unsettling fact that suicide is socially contagious.

I don’t know that there is legitimate evidence that teenage pregnancy is contagious.

Posted in Archive, media, memes | 2 Comments

The Case for Enterprise 2.0 Made Clear

Posted on August 27, 2007 by Thomas Purves

A great catch by Bryce of a brilliantly deck on slide share hammering home the huge gap between the power of social media in the personal/consumer space vs in the enterprise/business world.

Of course it’s a lot easier to implement social media in the public/personal realm where confidentiality, key controls, petty office politics can be significant challenges. But it’s time we overcame them.

Are you in an office? Look your head over the cubicle and do you know what that guy two cubicles down actually does? how about the rest of the floor? how about the rest of the global enterprise, partners, suppliers distributors etc?

Posted in Archive, enterprise2.0, socialmedia | Leave a comment

iPhone would cost $300/mo in Canada while U.K.’s 3 launches 10£ mobile broadband

Posted on August 23, 2007 by Thomas Purves

Thanks to Michael O’Connor Clarke for the tip:

The biggest game-changing element of the iPhone, however, is that Apple is reportedly forcing operators to offer generous voice and data plans along the lines of AT&T’s, so that the customer’s experience isn’t hobbled. AT&T’s basic monthly service plan offers 5,450 voice minutes and unlimited data for US$59.99. In Canada, where Rogers has the only network compatible with the iPhone, a plan with anything resembling unlimited data would be closer to $300; even providers in Rwanda offer unlimited data plans for less than $50. That may be an unbalanced example, but Lawrence Surtees, vice-president and principal communications analyst for research firm IDC Canada, says it highlights how bad Canadian rates are here.

“These guys have the old monopoly pricing mentality where you will pay for everything, it’s my network, my phones, I will control you,” he says. “It’s to the point of losing the big picture where none of us are going to use this stuff much or at all.”

Funny that the Rwanda meme is catching on. You heard it here first. Mobile Data Rates in Canada are worse than central Africa.

Meanwhile if the contrast was not stark enough: 3 Launches Mobile Broadband From £10 Per Month

Canadian carriers is it not time you offered 21st century data plans in this country? or are you waiting for the regulators to impose a solution?

The U.K. has a highly competitive wireless market.

Posted in Archive, Uncategorized | 4 Comments