Stuff you may have missed 04/09/09

Twitter commentaries from producers and stars on Fox repeats of Fringe… link here

Google CEO wants to hook search engines up to our brains… link here

He might want to concentrate on keeping Google Calender running first though… link here

Or perhaps retaining staff … link here

Amazon return Kindle versions of 1984 plus a credit… link here

Top Ten Trends on Twitter as of 14:00 today:

• Follow Friday
• TGIF
• #90s
• Michael Jackson
• Snow Leopard
• #uknowufromla
• Ernie Harwell
• AT&T
• Jay-Z
• Marriott

Stuff you may have missed | News Links 03/09/09

A quick round up of today’s Social Media News

Digg have have taken further steps to counteract spammers and SEO Black Hats by adding a “nofollow” to any link they are cannot be certain is genuine… link here

While this may be a WordPress blog, we’ve had our fair share of Blogger blogs. And Google are celebrating the popular weblog platform’s 10th birthday… link here

Mashable introduces us to Tweetsaver. The latest service designed to address the challenges behind preserving your digital legacy… link here

Facebook Mobile celebrate 65 million connections… Link here

Tea leaves knock over Apple Store.

Workarounds | Using retweets to clean up your Phoneboo

Epsom Downs Railway Station: The subject of a spooky AudioBoo

Retweeting your Boos help to better describe and comply them

AudioBoo is great isn’t it? I’ve yet to encounter anyone who has a bad thing to say about it. It’s not the only way to podcast from your phone but it’s probably the easiest right?

For those without iPhone‘s  (and I imagine there must be at least a dozen of us) there is PhoneBoo. You register the phone, dial the number, record your Boo, press hash and you’re done. What could be simpler?

The only drawback (and it is a slight one) is that you can’t give your PhoneBoo a name immediately after recording. The Boo is labelled “I’ve posted a Phoneboo” and that’s it. So if you’ve just seen a Premier League footballer in a chip shop in Leeds on Transfer Deadline Day and run off a quick Boo to tell people about it, they’re not necessarily going to know.

It is possible to change the label manually by logging in to your AudioBoo account and changing the details retrospectively. That’s OK but not always desirable on mobile phone browsers and perhaps a little late once you’ve returned to base used your desktop or laptop. Ideally, you want to be able to aggregate your content in a way that encourages people to listen while you are in the field so to speak.

There is a manual workaround that you can use until your old phone’s contract runs out and you get you’re own iPhone. A process that I happened upon by accident. Last month I went out for a curry and missed my last train. I was given a lift to another station. An eery one platform terminus which backed onto some woodland and someones back yard.

While trying not to think of every Zombie movie I’d ever seen I decided to keep my spirits up by recording a Phoneboo on my Nokia N97. Once I’d posted it I’d remembered that I had changed the settings on my account and my boos were aggregating to the wrong Twitter account. (a shared football account. I’d been at a game the Saturday before and was booing from the match but let’s not get into that). Let’s face it, the best way to get your Boos out there is by linking it to your Twitter ID right? Unfortunately, I was booing in the wrong place.

So I logged into my regular Twitter account using Dabr on my phone, picked up the tweet on my stream and retweeted it. Only while doing this I deleted “RT @SPAOTP I’ve just recorded a Phoneboo” and replaced it with this. The result was a minor flurry of @ replies which made me feel more secure and less likely to join the legion of the undead. The question is, had I posted that in its original form would I have received the same response? I reckon not.

So what I’ve done now is set up my AudioBoo to aggregate to a locked Twitter account that only I follow. From there I can retweet the boo using a mobile phone Twitter app like Dabr or Slandr from my proper Twitter ID and add a more accessible description so my network know what I’m talking about.

There are practical uses for journalists out in the field who don’t (or won’t) use iPhones and are looking for an effective human solution to correctly aggregating boos.

Also, as AudioBoo gets picked up by the the mainstream media, the principal of manually retweeting audio may be desirable if Boo’s are going to be re-broadcast on regulated platforms such as radio or TV. While Booing to a locked account first and retweeting may  immediacy and is perhaps against the spirit of Social Networking, it does allow content to be complied by a third party before it is broadcasted in the event that it contains anything that is likely to upset broadcast regulators such as the FCC or OFCOM. Social Media is changing the face of communications but unfortunately lawyers aren’t going anywhere.

uPoll: Crowd-sourcing via Twitter

Online poll services are two a penny right? They’re a popular method of generating sticky content for a website and good for fostering or generating online communities.

At present, there aren’t that many online poll generators which are designed to take advantage of Social Media’s natural strengths when it come to crowd sourcing. Which is why uPoll has an excellent chance of leading the way in this field .

Upoll.tv is a new polling service with Twitter integration. Simply create a poll and it generates a tweet from your Twitter account directing the user back to that poll. The user then votes and is, themselves, given the option of tweeting the poll. Once the poll closes the results are tweeted.

You can also set up a poll from Twitter by tweeting @upoll, your question, and options plus the duration in minutes. This means that you can effectively crowd-source via SMS.

The application was built by Colt Seavers (no not that Colt Seavers). His background is in Community Forums but spends a lot more time on Twitter. He developed a service more suited to social networking in general and Twitter in particular:

“When I wanted to create a Poll, I looked and found there’s lots of complicated voting sites, but they tend to be bulky
and monetized, rather than simple tools, for social decision making. uPoll can be used to quickly canvas opinion from your twitter friends – crowd sourcing opinion, or simply voting on where to go out at the weekend.”

The polls are customisable and widgets are also available for embedding into your own website. Unusually, there is no need to register in order to use the full range of its features. “Currently we’re not plugging any membership features for the site” says Colt “we decided we wanted everyone to have the same functionality .”

Also, there should be no concerns about the use and storage of the data collected from the polls: “We have no plans to store the data for closed polls. The idea is that this is disposable data. A snapshot that remains interesting only as long as it remains current.”

Additional features are forthcoming which will allow you to audio, video and pictures into your poll, (fun for those goal of the week competitions on Some People On The Pitch). As a crowd sourcing tool, it looks like a lot of fun. As someone who is always looking for ways Social Media can extend democratic enfranchisement, I look forward to seeing if activists pick it up in the near future. I could easily see uPoll working well establishing frameworks for online interactive debates.

You can try out uPoll here and follow uPoll on Twitter.

#rebootbritain Digital Enfranchisement and the Initiative Gap

The highly anticipated Reboot Britain took place last Monday. The conference, organised by NESTA, was created to set the agenda for how governments use social media to engage, provide services and engage with people. From what I could see the conference was populated by consultants, civil servants, local governments officers, the odd politician (including the ubiquitous Tom Watson) and social media activists who were doing their best to amplify the event in the face of a decidedly flaky wi-fi service.

While the aim of the conference is ambitious and to be encouraged (especially for those who wouldn’t mind making a bob or two) there does seem to a discernible gap between what public servants want to do and what they can do. Last week I made some remarks on the gov2gov (#g2g) meeting organised by Futuregov at Canada House. I suggested that part of the reason why Social Media may struggle to find a foothold in Government was a lack of access to the tools needed to make Social Media happen. My concerns about this were increased after attending the session Towards An Interactive Charter. At the beginning we were each handed an A4 peice of paper with “50 Barriers To Open Government”. I won’t list them all however, the first four from the sub category ‘Access’ should give you an idea:

Access to Web 2.0 sites is blocked or filtered.

Requesting that a website is unblocked requires a form to be filled in and the request may not be actioned for 24 hours or more.

A site that has previously been unblocked is suddenly blocked again.

A site is only unblocked for the computer a staff member usually sits at – and they are unable to access Web 2.0 Sites from another part of the office or another desk.

It doesn’t end there of course. Other sub headings are Staff and Skill, Structure, Policy and I suspect most importantly Strategy. The feeling during the session seemed to be that the people at the top either don’t trust Social Media, demand unnecessary and expensive levels of control or they simply don’t get them. As Helen Milner (CEO of UK Online Centres) said, many of her colleagues on her grade believe that her enthusiasm for Social Media is a phase or some sort of fad.

After a while we left the room to catch Alan Moore’s address called ‘Straight Line Thinking Stops Here – The True Promise Of The Networked Society’. Once I’d got over the disappointment of discovering that it was the philosopher rather than the guy who wrote The Watchmen I settled down to a blue sky, unremittingly optimistic and positively utopian vision of a networked of society where lateral thinking was key and the future was social. All good stuff but unfortunately it sounded a million miles away from the civil servants upstairs who could not convince their IT departments to upgrade their browser to IE7.

For me the two sessions acted as marker posts for a large gap. On one side there is the desire and ambition to go forward to digital future where Government and people engage in a networked society. On the other are the people who want to make it happen but can’t because they don’t have the tools and their bosses don’t have the inclination to push their network admins to supply them with the tools. Essentially what we are looking at is an Initiative Gap.

On a positive note, Interactive Charter are working toward bridging that gap. Their work and the work of similar agencies is as essential as Martha Lane Fox’s commitment to providing broadband access for everyone in the UK. Providing universal Digital Enfranchisement is hard enough especially when Government is not fully enfranchised themselves.

Governments are still struggling to get their heads around Social Media #g2g

I went to Canada House last Friday for the Global networks, local action: transforming communities with social media (Twitter hashtag #g2g). I thought I’d add a few thoughts about what I learned there.

While it was an insightful meeting I don’t remember there being a great deal of discussion about “transforming communities” or “local action”. Lovisa Williams from the US State Department is clearly an enthusiastic social networker and had a lot to say about a website that the State Department helped set up for facilitating and advising US Citizens on international exchanges. Emer Coleman from the Greater London Authority understood that, in the face of impending public service cuts, Social Media could be a good tool for finding out from people where their priorities lie in order to inform their decisions as to where to swing the axe. However, that seemed to be the extent of discussion of communities from what I could make out.

Instead, the direction of the discussion moved about how Government departments understand the characteristics of Social Media tools. I found it very interesting that the FCO assign Twitter IDs to specific trusted personnel only. This suggests that they see micro blogging as publicly available and therefore something that needs an extra layer of control in case somebody tweets the wrong thing, so to speak. The tweets aren’t cleared but the people doing the tweeting are. Meanwhile, others argued that social media is a form of communication, just as e-mail and the telephone is and no one needs clearance to use that, not anymore anyway.

By way of an illustration, Colleen Graffy, former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Diplomacy at U.S. State Department recounted an unpleasant experience while using Twitter. She started micro-blogging in order to getter engage with her stakeholders only to find her thoughts, which included a few personal anxieties, exploited by the mainstream press. This was something she felt could be damaging and may deter other diplomats who are considering using Social Media.

I’m not sure to what degree this was understood at the time but it does suggest that using Twitter, is not quite like using e-mail or the phone. Twitter is a presumed public conversation while e-mail and telephone is a conversation that presumes involvement with a defined number of selected individuals or groups. If you’re a public figure whose actions are open to scrutiny (and subject to misinterpretation) from third parties, this can present difficult challenges. Over time and as Social Media drops the “social” and becomes just plain Media, the relationship between the Fourth Estate and Government may change as the former’s business model alters to adapt to the new media landscape. In the meantime however, its good to see that Colleen is still tweeting.

Needless to say it wouldn’t be Government without an element of menace. Social Media, was not created to be sinister (unlike the Death Ray) but it can be used for sinister purposes. The discussion on “Public Diplomacy” didn’t sit well with some of the non-Government people that I spoke to afterwards. Stephen Hale, Head, Of Engagement at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office seemed quite excited about the idea of engaging with other country’s citizens directly by bypassing their own governments. The framework of the discussion was specifically within the realms of combating counter-terrorism, a sort of electronic equivalent of dropping propaganda leaflets out of planes if you will.In many people’s eyes this may be perfectly benign and justifiable but is it Social Media?

There was a fair amount of network admin bashing as well. It seems that a number of government departments on both sides of the Pond are having problems getting access to necessary online tools (although it was intriguing to learn how they were finding their way around their departmental IT policies). Unfortunately, it is on that basis that I’m not convinced that Government is going to be pushing the boundaries of social media in matters of democracy anytime soon.

With any technological breakthrough comes an historic opportunity to better enfranchise and democratise. Social Media presents Governments with such an opportunity to provide and extend democratic services to the citizenry and further engage them in the political process. A sort of Digital Enfranchisement.

Unfortunately, I don’t believe that Government is equipped or inclined to face the many challenges that Digital Enfranchisement would present. As one audience member implied (a civil servant from Culture Media and Sport whose name, alas, I do not recall), Government is very much about putting the breaks on things and stopping people from getting too far ahead of themselves.

Broadly the lessons I learned was that Governments, (in the UK and US at least), see Social Media as another means of broadcasting their message. Holding conversations is fine but it must be within their own parameters. There is no suggestion that the nature of Government’s relationship with people is changing. I had also hoped to hear more on how they envisage a digital future and how they and we can become more involved in running our lives. Instead, I felt their was too much emphasis on what Social Media can do for them as opposed to what they can do with Social Media.

Nevertheless, at least they’re talking about it and are prepared to have the discussion in public. Perhaps future sessions will prove more inspiring. Kudos should go to @dominiccampbell of Futuregov, @Chrisheuer at the Social Media Club and the Canadian High Commission for setting it up and laying it on.
Posted via email from redduffman

@replygate #twitterfail #fixreplies #andallthat

I’m not sure how I feel about the whole @reply controversy (#twitterfail or #fixreplies). There is no question that my Twitter stream is a lot quieter these days. I find myself wondering what and who I’m missing out on as people I follow chunter away with others I don’t know. Visible direct replies were like a door that would swing open to allow a brief glimpse of what was happening in the next room. Sometimes I went through and joined them, sometimes I didn’t. Now that Twitter have tightened the hinges, that option is no longer available and the oppurtunities to learn and expand my network has been lessened.

However, now that I’ve had time to get used to the idea, I’m beginning to see some benefits.

For instance, I know that a lot of people who follow me aren’t interested in football. While I’m not the world’s most vociferous football Tweeter, I do enjoy watching a game on the sofa with my iPod Touch, chatting with others who are enjoying the same game as me. These days I no longer feel as though I’m burdening non-football folk with my guff. Most of my soccer tweets take the form of conversations and replies with other people who like football and its unlikely that my non-football ‘followers’ would be following them too (to follow one football nut maybe regarded as a misfortune. To follow two seems like carelessness).

Knowing that I’m not burdening people with half conversations about things they’re not interested in has allowed me to tweet with a bit more freedom. If Twitter is an enormous party, at least I no longer have to worry about being the loud mouthed football bore that everyone can hear from the kitchen.

Furthermore, if the Twitterverse could evolve a convention whereby you can reply publicly by adding characters prior to the “@” then we’d have the best of both worlds. Add character(s) if you want to share the secret of World Peace, don’t add character(s) if you only want to share your thoughts on the modern interpretation of the offside trap. Another option is do what the admirably level headed Lee Stacey suggests and mention the person you’re talking to in your tweet rather than use a direct reply.

Unfortunately, I’ve not detected such a convention emerging in my network which means that I either need to expand my network, or people are waiting for Twitter to put things back the way things were. How likely it is that this feature will return in quite the same way is not certain so we may have to make do and and mend instead.

Talk with your iPod Touch

If, like me, you’re an iPod Touch owner you may find yourself suffering from iPhone Envy. That is the feeling of mild irritation that you can’t make phone calls. However, there are a couple of applications for the Touch that allow you to use it as a phone. Both apps require WiFi and both are free, although you will need to shell out for microphone.

Skype
The daddy of Internet phone calls comes to the iPod. If you’re an existing Skype user then you can sign in after having installed the app, import your contacts and away you go. The usual services are on offer, that is free Skype-To-Skype calls plus chargeable calls to other networks.

Truphone
Launched in 2008, Truphone started off as a service dedicated to the iPod Touch and iPhone. However, it has since extended to Blackberrys, Nokia and G1 phones. Basically it offers that same service as Truphone although you can make free calls to Skype users in addition to Truphone.

Delboydare and I both have an iPod Touch. Del’s is the 16gig. Mine is the 32gig. We found that Skype was better in that it worked. Derek’s Truphone kept dropping out every time he got pop ups about his battery and it took a number of times for us to establish a connection and on a couple of occasion only one of us could hear the other. We were testing both apps using our own wireless networks in our respective homes. If they were that flaky under those circumstances, how they would perform using a network in a busy coffee shop?

A common irritant is that you can’t have concurrent applications open. This means that I can’t use any other app in case the phone rings. I’ve heard of hanging on the telephone but this is ridiculous.

Both services offer a range of packages to subscribe to for landline and mobile while offering free calls within their own network users. On the surface, this seems like an excellent way of getting over iPhone Envy. And relative cheaply as well. What’s missing of course is 3G. Neither service allows for it which is just as well because the iPod Touch doesn’t have it. However, it does mean that you’re constrained by the presence of WiFi in your location. As more free hotspots become available this may alleviate the problem and you could always subscribe to a paid for WiFi service such as The Cloud. However, at present mobile WiFi phone calling could probably be compared with telephone boxes, in that you can only make calls in specific locations (although WiFi hotpsots don’t usually get vandalised).

Having said that, there are ways of hooking yourself up to WiFi without having to pay extra or restrict your movements to visiting coffee chains and Wetherspoons pubs. We plan to post a guide to finding free hotspots and mobile phone 3G tethering later in the week.

In summary, voice call using WiFi has a way to go but it’s early days and we look forward to seeing what its like in the future. We’d definitely like to see an app developed so they could run in the background so we can still play Galaxy On Fire while waiting for a call.

The Joy Of Posterous

I am writing this post downstairs in the living room while watching a cracking football match on the telly. That in itself is not terribly impressive (I’m just trying to establish a setting). However, the reason why I’m writing this post at all is because I’m using Gmail on  Posterous as opposed to a traditional CMS like Blogger or WordPress.

There are those who believe that the days of the e-mail are numbered. That there is no place for POP3 this and SMTP that in a Web 2.0 world. Posterous, may give exponents of that theory pause for thought. 

Posterous offers a Web 1.0 approach but with a 2.0 result. It is a blogging format that works really well for novices, casual bloggers or people with little time on their hands but with something to blog about.  There is also plenty for the committed social networker, who can’t break wind without telling everyone about it on their myriad social networking IDs, to play with.

The process is simple. Send an e-mail to post@posterous.com. You don’t have to sign up for an account if you don’t want to. Posterous takes the information from your e-mail address plus the body of your e-mail and publishes it as a blog. Once it’s done that, you receive a confirmation e-mail supplying you with the link to your post. 

Give it a try yourself. The passage below is a typical example of a crude attempt at viral marketing. Copy it into an e-mail and send it to post@posterous.com. 

Dear Posterous,

According to redduffman, all I need to do in order to post a blog is send you an e-mail. Please reply confirming that he is a lying cad and a bounder.

Regards,

A skeptical reader with fantastic taste in blogs.

Now check your Inbox… and there you go.

Of course if you do set up an account, there is an impressive array of services available including auto posting to existing blogs, dragging text, pics and videos, automatic podcast syndication etc etc. Adding tags is easy as you just include them in the body of your e-mail (tag: Posterous, Social Networking, Blogs).

The scalability and simplicity of Posterous is what’s making it the platform du jour among hard core bloggers and social networkers alike. Better still, it is a fantastic tool to use for introducing people who are new to blogging and web publishing.

Posted via email from redduffman

#G20 protest case study: Sky and the BBC

Last Wednesday,  journalists from Sky News were sent into G20 Protests to use Twitter and Twitpic and report on events at ground level. Below is a small excerpt of the content they produced on the day. The full coverage is here:

Sky reporters use Twitpic during the G20 Protests

1:01   juliareid21:   Around twenty tents pitched and a jovial atmosphere. Heading to american embassy to see what is what #g20

1:02 alexwatts: G20 Woman in long black veil calls for bigger bonuses for bankers in Ab Fab voice. Irony may be lost on the American contingent here 1:03 juliareid21: If you are not already see our joint feed at http://www.skynews.com #g20

1:05 juliareid21: Few protesters outside rbs headquarters but about twelve police officers and a metal fence #g20 1:07 damienpearse: #G20 Police helmets are tossed into air in Threadneedle Street.

1:07 damienpearse: #G20 Police appear to block off all exits from main square. Anger mounts.

1:09 Sky News: No word from Gold Command on how injured the police officer hurt at the Bank of England is – Sky’s Martin Brunt.

1:09 damienpearse: #G20 Police officer tells protester he will have to urinate in the street as exits blocked.

1:11 damienpearse: #G20 Can of cider thrown at officers. Barricade in Threadneedle Street under strain.

1:13 alexwatts: Police refusing to let anyone leave city protest area by Bank of England. 50 cops just ran in to make arrests. Agitated scenes

1:13 damienpearse: #G20 Teenage girl caught in the crush sobs. Is helped away by a camera crew.

1:18 juliareid21: Cabbie says lots of colleagues stayed home to avoid the aggravation and road closures #g20

1:18 juliareid21: http://twitpic.com/2of0f – Protesters climb up a Tube sign. 1:23 damienpearse: #G20 Riot police move in to Threadneedle Street. 1:23 1:23 damienpearse: #G20 Missiles launched at riot police.

1:28 alexwatts: Protesters screaming let us out as police hem crowds in. Beer bottles thrown at police. Some activists covering their faces with masks

A common example of a picture taken on the day by a Sky journalist.

This sort of reporting is much akin to ’embedded journalism’ which was used in the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. While this method is not uninteresting, it’s not entirely helpful as it only conveys snippets of what’s happening at ground level. Why, for instance, weren’t the Sky journalists at Gold Command not tweeting. Why wasn’t there a reporter in Sky’s helicopter tweeting on what he or she could see from above and give us a broader picture? And finally, why only Sky journalists? Why not publish tweets from protesters to get a broader scope of feeling plus an idea of what was unfolding through the eyes of people who were there as well as their own journalists?

Let’s take a look at how the BBC used Social Media to cover the protest do see if it differs.  Below is a snapshot of their news website’s live coverage:

1630 The BBC’s Dominic Hurst texts: Interesting chatter on twitter at the moment. Some protestors are saying police are calm and fair and letting them have a good day out.

1627 The Prime Minister’s spokesman says the G20 leaders are making good progress but they are “not there yet”. The spokesman adds that there is an “emerging degree of consensus… but there are still a number of issues that need ironing out”.

1625 The BBC’s Dominic Casciani says: Its a completely different mood at Trafalgar Square. A few thousand people have come down here for the Stop the War Coalition march. It’s a classic demo calling for troops out of Iraq, Afghanistan, a bit of Palestinian solidarity and a nuclear-free world.

1622 The BBC’s Rob Broomby says: Pretty calm now outside the Bank of England. Police are standing off for the moment and what’s left of the protesters are standing outside the Bank’s gates, dancing and shouting.

1619 The anti-war protesters gathered at Trafalgar Square sing Happy Birthday to veteran left-winger Tony Benn, who turns 84 on Friday. “We want democracy, freedom, justice and peace,” he tells them.

1610 The BBC’s Ben Brown on Threadneedle Street says: Just after four o’clock, riot police charged the demonstrators. We don’t know why, but there were some violent scenes.

Mr Matin, Singapore, says: I strongly support President Sarkozy’s demand for stricter financial regulations worldwide. The G20 meeting should control the hedge funds and eliminate if possible all sorts of short-selling in the stock market. Have your say

Fatima Nuzzi, Gran Canaria, says: The US and the UK are the main ones who caused this world economic problem and not only have they got away with it, but they are now turning it to their advantage. When a building falls down the architect is responsible and should pay for it. Have your say

Unslugged tweets: Coffee shop over the road must be getting a year’s worth of takings today. Some of their just-bought produce promptly hurled at police line.

Read Unslugged ‘s tweets.

1601 The BBC’s Dominic Hurst texts: Standoff in Queen Victoria Street. Approx 50 police in riot gear surrounded by protesters chanting “our streets”. Some pushing and missile throwing, but police holding the line.

1550 More than 1,000 economists, academics and other notables have signed a letter urging G20 leaders to promote free trade and reject protectionism, which it insists “creates poverty, not prosperity… Protectionism is a fool’s game”.

1546 The BBC’s Justin Webb says: Obama’s meeting with Medvedev was hugely important. The Russians said they understood US concerns about Iran’s nuclear programme, which suggests a real change in Russia’s approach. Both sides are also starting talks on a new nuclear arms reduction deal.

1545 The BBC’s Daniel Boettcher says: Police outside the Bank of England are trying to disperse the protesters in an orderly fashion. They are opening junction after junction once they feel they are in control. 1540 The BBC’s Dominic Casciani says: If the demonstrators set out to stop the City then they have succeeded. We’ve been walking down street after street as if cars don’t exist. Police are hemming in protesters who they think might want a confrontation, but many others are drifting about looking for something to do.

So here we have a range of reports from different locations offering different perspectives. Some are commenting from the BBC’s own Have Your Say website, others from Twitter and others still via SMS. Then there are the journalists stitching together a narrative as events unfold as opposed to Sky who seem to prefer the close to the action approach. Having said that, their was a disappointing reliance on text (unlike the BBC News channel which used plenty of user generated video content).

It is interesting to see the two methods reveal the editorial policy of the two broadcasters. Sky, are happy to embrace Social Media but only as another means of communicating in the same way rather than the BBC who seem happy to use different communication platforms and include different voices, albeit vetted and approved before publishing.

Both approaches still have their roots in traditional news delivery. Sky used the embedded approach and BBC used the open discussion set within parameters defined by itself. What would perhaps have been interesting is if either broadcaster had incorporated the G20 Twitter hashtag (#g20) into their coverage and allowed an unmediated stream of reports and comments, Twitpics, Audioboos et al to flow before the reader’s eyes.  Sky could quite easily have embedded a Twitterfall window into a web page and let their journalists fight it out to be heard amongst the deluge of media created by everyone else.  Somehow, you feel that that approach is not in the editorial guidelines for either news channel. At present, it seems that broadcast news media is still feeling their way with Social Media as they try to find a structure for Web 2.0 news coverage.
Further reading:
G20: The social media battle
Twitter On The Front Line