Kester Brewin

  Thanks to @designbygecko for putting me on to this extraordinary talk by Jim Gilliam at a web conference recently. Jim was brought up a fervent evanglical – and remains so, except that his faith is now truly in the Internet. He has his reasons for his conversion: he’s suffered multiple cancers and had to [...]

The debacle over super-injunctions and ‘An Un-named Premiership Footballer‘ Ryan Giggs’ misdemeanours has raised interesting questions about truth and privacy in the age of social networks. The super-injunction dissolved because Giggs’ name got so widely spread via Twitter, and by a newspaper outside of English jurisdiction. But are we the better for it? We might [...]

Tragic story been on the news about the guy who died falling from a seventh floor balcony while attempting to has his photo taking ‘blanking’ on the railing. It was 5cm wide. One of my first thoughts was this: only in our internet age. For those who don’t know what it is – as I [...]

WordPress is fantastic, but a lot of people are using Facebook now as their portal into the rest of the web, so I thought I’d share some stuff for other bloggers I’d found on integrating the two, with Twitter too. I’ve recently come across the WordPress plug-in WPBook. I think it’s great, and if you [...]

I want to retain a healthy skepticism about the power of Twitter and other social networks to bring about substantive change. There has been a lot of hype about the Green revolution in Iran, and whether it was tweeting that caused it, and I’d be tempted to side with Malcolm Gladwell – substantive change comes [...]

Good news – the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority is now extending its remit to cover marketing claims on websites. Just to make sure we’re clear, I’ve been through all claims made on this site, and can safely say that I am fully compliant. All the below can be fully verified, viz.: – Buying ‘Other‘ is [...]

Showing a remarkable lack of judgement, or knowledge of the scorpion that is Facebook, Bishop Pete Broadbent had a pop at Prince William and Kate Middleton, and inviting all good republicans to a party in Calais while the royal wedding went ahead. Lots of people have come out in support of him, which I hope [...]

Apple – the series of talks trying to think more deeply about technology – is back this Weds with the 9th event (7:30pm, The Betsey Trotwood, 56 Farringdon Road). The title is ‘Digital Obesity’ and will be a panel discussion with Simon Jenkins of ShipOfFools, Gavin O’Carrol from the Digital Health Service and Vaux’s own [...]

An interesting aside on Radio 4 this morning: the social etiquette of maintaining a minute’s silence in the workplace today suggests that most people consider it frowned upon to talk during it, but many still send emails and check social networks. We are becoming less attentive. We’re finding it easy to forget. The web distracts [...]

When you get old, do you think you’ll be lonely? Do you think you’ll want someone to talk to and reminisce with? Naturally, someone has come up with a technological solution… the ‘Senior Companion.’ Very interesting piece in this month’s Prospect. The ‘Senior Companion’ is a ‘a conversational agent designed to interact with a person [...]