I get excited about technology pretty easily, Nokia World 2011 has me more excited than usual. Recently, things have been quiet at Nokia. There have been the usual releases of handsets aimed at the developing markets, but other than that there has been a pretty resolute silence coming from the Finnish manufacturer.
After spending two weeks in the company of the N8 I was left feeling like I was ready for more. More of the famous Nokia build quality and excellent industrial design. More innovation, thought and user focus like I experienced in the old days using everything from a 5110 to an N95-8GB.
I’m excited because we simply MUST be about to witness the unveiling of the next generation of Nokia Smartphones. With Windows Phone 7 (7.5?) platform the time has surely come for Nokia to re-enter the smartphone market with a bang. Nokia handsets empower people all over the world, give them their connections to the rest of the world, and help them get their message out. I simply hope that Nokia can make a barnstorming return to the premium handset market with something big.
Good luck Nokia.
What are Cookies and why do you need to care? A guide to the new legislation for Marketing Managers.
What are Cookies?
Also known as browser cookies or tracking cookies, cookies are small, often encrypted text files, located in browser directories. They are used by web developers to help users navigate their websites efficiently and perform certain functions. Due to their core role of enhancing/enabling usability or site processes, disabling cookies may prevent users from using certain websites.
Cookies are created when a user’s browser loads a particular website. The website sends information to the browser which then creates a text file. Every time the user goes back to the same website, the browser retrieves and sends this file to the website’s server. Computer Cookies are created not just by the website the user is browsing but also by other websites that run ads, widgets, or other elements on the page being loaded. These cookies regulate how the ads appear or how the widgets and other elements function on the page.
What changes have been made to the law?
The European Directive on which the UK Regulations relating to cookies are based has been revised. UK law has been changed to implement that changed Directive. A simplified version of the changes is described below.
The previous rule on using cookies for storing information was that you had to:
- tell people how you use cookies, and
- tell them how they could ‘opt out’ if they objected.
Many websites did this by putting information about cookies in their privacy policies and giving people the possibility of ‘opting out’. The new requirement is essentially that cookies can only be placed on machines where the user or subscriber has given their consent.
Oh dear Adobe, oh dear. Once more you have managed to get your big stirring spoon out and get all the tech media in a rage about Apple, and guess what – this time they didn’t even do anything wrong! Following the recent launch of Mac OSX 10.7 Lion, Adobe claimed that Apple had removed support for hardware acceleration from their operating system – making Flash appear to perform less effectively than it had done under 10.6 Snow Leopard. The media jumped on the accusation, always keen to get an attack going on Apple.
Shortly after, the following post appeared on the Adobe Flash Player Team Blog.
“We saw that there were some questions today related to Flash Player 10.3 support for Mac OS X Lion (10.7) related to hardware video acceleration. To avoid any more confusion, we wanted to clarify:
The final release of Mac OS X Lion (10.7) provides the same support for Flash hardware video acceleration as Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6). The previous “Known Issue” described in a tech note suggesting that video hardware acceleration was disabled in Lion was incorrect and based on tests with a pre-release version of Mac OS X Lion that related to only one particular Mac GPU configuration. We continue to work closely with Apple to provide Flash Player users with a high quality experience on Mac computers.”
Sounds like a lot of fuss about nothing to me, as usual.
How can online communities improve the quality of content and increase user engagement?
Technology blogs and news sites have struggled with the quality of their user generated content for almost as long as they have existed. The comments section at the bottom of any tech related post is often be a dangerous place to be, as users discuss their passions with their peers, often seeking to get one over on supporters of another games console, operating system or mobile ecosystem. Forums are traditionally segmented down to a specific user interest, with little opportunity for sharing of ideas outside a users immediate peer group, and are often frequented by users (referred to as trolls) who look to deliberately ruin the experience of others that they disagree with by posting abuse, off-topic comments or by attacking genuine users.
Engadget.com (a popular tech news site owned by AOL) has struggled for several years to improve the quality of the comments section at the bottom of posts. Various tactics have been employed, including complete removal of the commenting functionality for a nominated period of time, with the goal of reminding users that the ability to comment on their content is a privilege and not a right. The Editor in chief will post reminders about etiquette every few months, and new technologies such as Disqus have been rolled out in order to encourage the use of social network accounts in order to capture “real” identities and encourage them to behave more like human beings and less like feral animals hunting through the bins outside a busy restaurant.
Feb 2010 – Engadget.com turns off commenting
These efforts have proven largely ineffective, and have done little to encourage user input of a higher quality. Users are used to being treated as children, subject to draconian moderation and deletion of comments, along with limited control over how their posts are presented on the site – and as such they often behave as children, becoming preoccupied with being the FIRST to comment on a new post, provoking arguments with other users and generally being a nuisance. All of this does little to encourage the cultivation of a new user base, with the vocal existing user group acting in a hostile fashion towards newcomers, generally making them feel unwelcome and treating them as outsiders.
A little further than just lively debate, often users on Engadget will use personal attacks via f.cl.ly
A new way of thinking about user generated content
Following the restructuring process undertaken by AOL in the wake of its acquisition of the Huffington Post, many of the editorial staff left the site to seek employment elsewhere. The former Editor in chief, Joshua Topolsky, and several of his ex-colleagues soon began working on a new site backed by the successful sports news and blogging network SB Nation and six months later the new site was launched to the world.
The new website, ‘The Verge’, has an entirely different approach to user generated content, pushing it to the fore and giving users similar controls and flexibility to the editors of the publication. There is no “secret sauce”, no magic ingredient that makes The Verge so successful in generating higher quality user generated content and vastly improved interactions, instead it takes advantage of a simple approach that gives users responsibility, encouraging greater thought about what is being written and released to the community.
via f.cl.ly
Examples of higher quality debate on The Verge – via f.cl.ly
The Verge allows users to produce content that looks almost as good as that created by the editors of the site and provides a place where community content is given the opportunity to shine. Editors are active in the discussions, sharing personal opinions and experiences, and users appear to receive this very well. Several posts from the community have been featured and highlighted by Verge staff members and even discussed in length during the weekly podcasts.
With the incentive of the above, combined with an intuitive design and the feeling of a clean start on a new website, it is simple to observe the vast improvement in the quality of user interaction, the reduction in trolling behaviour and other barriers to entry for new users. It is possible to comment on an existing editorial post, posts created by other users or to create your own new post, which others can then comment upon. Formatting controls are provided, allowing users to add images, links and videos, and soon more controls will be rolled out allowing even greater control over the way content looks, providing a further enhanced incentive to think carefully about what is being posted before hitting the submit button.