I had a big decision to make this week: I’ve decided to stop going to college this year. Shock horror! But let me explain why…
Last year when I was in my supposed final year of college my main tutor was ill and took several months off work. As experts in the likes of 3D and video special effects are few and far between, the college failed to get a replacement in. The result was a vastly understaffed new media course and a rabble of disorganised students bumbling towards their final exhibition without any direction.
As a so-called ‘mature’ student, I’m old enough to be able to direct myself, so I spent extra time at home teaching myself what I needed to learn and I ended up putting on a successful end of year show. But the truth is it wasn’t fun, it was harder than it should have been and a lot of the students - myself included - were feeling quite down during this time.
Fast forward to now: I’m back at college by some wicked twist of fate and was looking forward to quickly mopping up four more units to upgrade my qualification. But deja vu: the same tutor is off long-term ill again. The last two weeks I have gone into to college on a Monday afternoon to find no tutor, and as a result of the general disorganised state of the course I haven’t been given a log-in for the computers yet. I literally just sat there twiddling my thumbs.
If I’d have received a brief it wouldn’t be as bad - I could just spend the time at home and do everything self-directed. But I haven’t even received a brief yet! I sincerely doubt the college will find a replacement, but even if they did as I am a unique case (a mature part-time student studying a third year of a course which is usually taught full-time over two years and which has subsequently been replaced with a new learning syllabus… don’t ask…) there is no way a replacement would be able to help me with my unique learning needs. The other tutors are so understaffed that it’s impossible to find them, let alone resolve complex issues such as this.
To put it simply, I am quitting as the college is quite frankly not able to deliver the course this year.
I’m lucky - I qualified last year and I already work in the industry so I can make this kind of decision. What’s more I don’t pay any of the fees so it’s even easier to make this kind of decision. I’m very lucky! But what about the full time students? They’re all early-twenties or younger, they’ve all paid the course fees out of their own pockets, none of them have the industry work experience, and they’re stuck on a course which isn’t delivering the goods. It’s sad.
I must add that this criticism is in no way directed at the tutor who is ill. He’s a great guy and I’m hoping he returns to health as soon as possible. But the lack of cover just goes to show that this guy is pretty much single-handedly running things. That isn’t good enough, and maybe - just maybe - that’s why he’s ill?
I will bring my rant to a close now. As many of you will have read how I was returning to college, I felt you should know that it is no more.
Tomorrow shall see a much anticipated return to… happy posting!
It is my duty to make a quick mention for a new WordPress showcase site that was launched last week. LoopPress is the brainchild of Jim Keiffer and has been launched to showcase beautiful WordPress designs.
From LoopPress:
If you’re like me, you love Wordpress and want to know how other developers and designers are using it, designing for it and adding to it. LoopPress is a gallery devoted to beautiful websites, blogs and themes built on the Wordpress platform.
The site is still finding its feet but already it provides a great source of inspiration for WordPress users and designers. I’m proud to have my humble site listed amongst its pages as already it is in the company of some stunning WordPress designs.
LoopPress is an interesting idea and I wish Jim the best of luck with it. If you’re proud of your own WordPress site or theme why not head over to LoopPress and submit your own site?
So, microblogging eh? What is it all about? To be honest with you, I haven’t got a clue. In the past I’ve been quite vocal about the pointlessness of Twitter, but something strange must have come over me today because I’ve joined the microblogging revolution.
Before you start deleting my RSS feed and cursing me for being a hypocrite, I haven’t joined Twitter… mainly because I think it’s got a bloody daft name. Instead I’ve joined Jaiku, which of course is a much more sensible name… (at least it doesn’t mean something rude).
Aside from the cool name, I was attracted to Jaiku because I’m a bit of a Google fan (Google acquired Jaiku a couple of months ago) plus I was interested in playing around with the mobile phone app (which I’ve subsequently found is blocked by my phone provider).
The long and short of all this is that I now have a Jaiku stream. Why not check it out or even subscribe to it? You’ll be able to find out fascinating up to the minute information about me, such as the fact I am home alone with the dog, and it is raining outside, and how joyous I am at the way Manchester United are playing at the moment.
Well, maybe all that isn’t quite so fascinating, that’s up to you to decide. I’m just fascinated in why people do this? Is microblogging just a tech toy for the geeks and nerds that are just too nerdy for good old fashioned blogging? Or is there something more to it?
A lot of high profile bloggers who have their heads screwed on a lot tighter than I do are leveraging some good use out of microblogging. The likes of Chris Garrett, Darren Rowse, and Ben Yoskovitz are all using services such as Twitter, Jaiku and Pownce to generate traffic and network.
I’m sceptical whether I’ll still be using Jaiku six months from now, but then I was also sceptical I’d still be writing miLienzo.com after all this time and here I am.
Are you a microblogger?
If you are, speak to me - I need to know what this is all about? How do you use microblogging? What benefits do you see from it? If you use Jaiku, please add me
An 18 year old British student has seen the mock iPod touch advert he made in his bedroom get aired on US TV and even shown live at the World Series.
Apple fan Nick Haley made the advert in his spare time and uploaded the 30 second spot to YouTube. Naturally he couldn’t believe his ears when an Apple representative called to buy the rights to the ad (which presumably they already owned?) and invited Nick to Los Angeles to help remake the video.
I first came across this story at Ad Goodness where the mainly ad-professional community have been stroking their goatees and getting hot under their roll-neck collars, complaining that the ad lacks any creative concept or originality.
They may well be right but I think it’s a great ad. As brand developer Prescott Perez-Fox says, this ad is significant because it is one of the first examples of amateur consumer-generated content being implemented and used by mainstream professionals.
On his personal blog, risk-management consultant Indyman reflects on how refreshing it is to see Apple turn a blind eye to any copyright infringement issues and embrace the user-generated content movement.
I’ve written in the past at how Apple are the Jedi masters of marketing and PR. Here they’ve managed to produce a great ad (at a fraction of the cost of using a creative agency) and attach it to a great story (the guy next door striking it lucky). The result is a media- and blogosphere-friendly story that is well and truly going viral (almost 500,000 YouTube views, and counting).
Who needs a creative concept?
I truly love this ad, and I’m chuffed to bits for lucky Nick. What do you think?
Even the less observant amongst us wont fail to have noticed the recent disquiet emanating from the blogosphere concerning that little green bar we all love to hate. One minute it’s down, the next it’s up, leaving many bloggers in something of a stir.
For the benefit of those oblivious, here’s a quick recap:
At the end of September David Airey reported being punished by Google for selling text link ads and trying to game search engine positioning. As far as I’m aware David didn’t actually take a PR hit put was being positioned a lot lower in search results than he should have been. David subsequently had his penalty reversed by generally being quite mature and sensible (removing the offending links and kissing big G’s ass ).
Early October Andy Beard confirmed that Google were applying PageRank deductions to some blogs. Andy’s very SEO-savvy community speculated that the deductions were related to selling text link ads and possibly doing paid reviews.
Last Thursday it seemed the world and their dog got slapped with a PageRank penalty including some very prominent blogs such as ProBlogger and Engadget. Andy Beard compiled a comprehensive list of those punished and speculation suggested that some of these sites are being punished for massive interlinking between blog networks.
Today it seems that Google has completed its quarterly update of the PageRank. Many of those punished earlier in the month have regained either all or some of their PR losses. Some have lost even more! Once again, head over to Andy Beard’s blog for a comprehensive run down. Andy’s done a great job of keeping on top of the story as it unfolds.
What do I make of this to-do?
It is clear to me that Google are making a very loud statement, although I actually haven’t fared too badly. I don’t sell text links, don’t do paid reviews, and don’t interlink massively between ‘associate’ blogs. There’s been no penalties for me and today I actually saw a slight PR increase from three to four.
Personally I don’t pay much heed to PageRank as I don’t sell any advertising and thus have no need to assert my worth with these kinds of metrics. Obviously I’m all for seeing more traffic coming here from search engines so it will be interesting to see what difference (if any) this little increase has on my Google traffic.
I do have a certain amount of sympathy for Google. They have a right to protect their position as the number one search engine by protecting the integrity of their search results, and all of the activities identified above do affect organic search results. And what’s more, I don’t have much sympathy for those bloggers who put that bloody awful word, monetization, first and foremost and tread dangerously close to the thin and wobbly spam-line.
But it’s not as black and white as people using the weight of their wallets to climb search engine results. Whose to say that a text link ad or a paid review is not relevant? The fact that it is paid for doesn’t make it irrelevant by default. The same goes for blog networks: by their very nature, the interlinking is between similar and relevant blogs.
The unanswered questions…
If a blogger doesn’t declare that a link or review is paid, how can Google monitor whether it is paid for?
Therefore, will this not just force bloggers to camouflage their text link ads within their blogrolls and be more discreet about paid reviews?
Or are blogrolls against Google’s terms as well? If so 99% of bloggers should have a PR penalty now!
Google are notoriously bad at coming forward and engaging with the web-public, but if ever there was a time for one of their trademark carefully worded blog articles, now is the time. As much as Google have a right to protect their business, they also have a responsibility, as a near-monopoly, to be upfront and clear with the web community. Google has absolutely no right to play games with peoples livelihoods!
