More4 News Blog

Welcome to Conservatives 2.0

Silly title aside, the Tories' new 'Webcameron' website is a clever step forward in the world of video webcampaigning.

It's fully compliant with all the latest fashions in internet design - known to the dot-cognoscenti as 'Web 2.0'. There are easy-to-play videos, just like YouTube. There are shortcuts to the trendy social bookmark service del.icio.us. (We have them too - see the column on the right). There's even a MySpace-style 'friends' section, called the Guest Blog, though there's only one friend so far - US senator John McCain.

But though the site is a slick professional bit of work, the videos are amateurish efforts, apparently shot on wobbly handheld cameras in two minutes flat.

And that's the beauty of them. As one of the Lib Dems behind the Ming Campbell conference vidcasts explained, one of the best things about video podcasts is that they only take five minutes of the candidate's time to do. The aide points a camera, the candidate talks for a couple of minutes, then gets back to work - or in the case of the first episode of Webcameron, the washing up.

It's even quicker than a blog to do (though the minions still have to spend hours posting them). And they give a quick, unmediated glimpse into what the candidate is like as a person, without a reporter shoving a microphone up his nose.

They aren't, perhaps, the ideal forum for exploring the minutiae of fiscal policy. But they could be just the way to present the candidate as a honest, decent, dishwashing sort of chap. You know, the kind of guy you could vote for.

Such is the theory - but will the public buy it? Will those elusive swing voters and non-voters tune in for these neatly presented slices of backstage political life? Who out there really wants to watch videos of the Conservative leader up to his arms in ecological soap suds?

If they don't, here's one sure way to get the YouTube generation to tune in - film politicians mixing mentos and diet pepsi. The results would be explosive.

An interview with Esther Dyson

During the heady days of the Internet bubble, she was boss of ICANN, the body which tried (as far as is possible) to regulate the Wild World of the Web.

When we caught up with Esther Dyson, there were lots of big issues to discuss. Should people pay a penny for every email they send? Should Sarah's suit have a price tag on it, so you can buy it straight off the television? Does it matter if people add moustaches to our video Interviews? And what on earth is Web 2.0 anyway? All these questions are answered.

Her pronouncements have always divided watchers. Some think she's on the ball, others disagree - but she's always controversial. Watch the (moustache-free) interview here.

And for those of you who speak Chinese... our blog on Xu Jinglei in her own language...

徐静蕾的博客是在全世界博客看的最多，我到她的虚拟村里去看了看。　
很多世界最受欢迎的博客是有关什么比较具体的分类或者内容比如音乐或者科学等等，　老徐的博客跟它们都很不一样。他写的内容比较杂。有的地方很佻薄有的地方很哲学。她写的节奏很人性也比较舒服。而且都是关于她自己与友人的生活乐趣和困难。她在香港拍戏我门用网络设想头做个简单采访。　我问她呢，　她怎么写那么多自己生活的事情吸引那么多人的关注？　她也定不准。"中国人多嘛！"她说了。当然老徐已经是个很有名的演员和导演，　很多熟悉她作品的人会感兴趣看她的日记。但是他不是中国最有名的演员，而且现在中国很多明星写博客。　我还是觉得她的博客风格比较独特。　我也觉得做传统大观众媒体的人会向她学习不少。

有一次，　我跟制片人在一起。他是个可爱很有才能的朋友。我们在四川拍段新闻片子。我们在讨论从那个角度去说一件事。　他对我说"这片新闻不是有关你自己感兴趣的事情，是关于观众感兴趣的事情。大家晚上八点中回家看新闻直播不想听那么多。"我马上感觉很失望，也觉得很抽象。大家是有个共同大众的思想方式吗？世界就是不是都在变的向这个方向流？这个连锁点，那个大作的产品，都是给于大家的，但是最后它对任何人都不大合适都引起不了愉快。
徐静蕾博客的人气能教育传统媒体什么呢？做的个性一点，如果能做的又细又智慧又诚实也有可能是大多人喜欢的。

Chatting to the world's most popular blogger

Blogging has taken off in China in a big way. Even China's police service has a blog and it attracted over a million hits when it launched a photo section introducing the force's hottest police-women.

Partly due to a clever move by one of China's web portals sina.com, blogging has become a daily habit for many of China's rich and famous. Sina offered a blog home to around 100 Chinese celebrities; creating an enormous boost to its own traffic.  Now property tycoon Pan Shiyi has one. Hong Huang publisher of Time Out Beijing has one. Even writer Peter Mayle has a Chinese blog on Sina.

Last week Technorati revealed that for the first time it is a Chinese blog which has the most hits of all the blogs in the world.  The world's top blog belongs to Xu Jinglei an actress and filmmaker from Beijing.  She is on 10 million and rising.

While big hit blogs from around the world have focused on subjects like music, science, technology, Xu's is a little different.  She admits that her writing is totally 'za', meaning she writes on a vast range of things.  Her blog is written in a very personal way.  She writes about the little things in life, from her musings on karaoke nights out, to visits home to her grandmother, and letting off steam after frustrating days at work. Her entries move between the frivolous and the philosophical.  Her writing style is simple yet rhythmic and comfortable to read.

The cosmonaut's crusade for free computers

What would you do if you'd made £400m in the last tech boom? Relax and take it easy?

Well, for Mark Shuttleworth, the choice was easy, writes Ben King. After a quick trip to space as an amateur cosmonaut, he went back into computing.

But his choice of projects has been a fascinating one. He launched his own desktop operating system. So instead of a Windows computer or a Mac, you can run your machine on Ubuntu.

Even with those deep pockets, taking on tech industry titans like Microsoft and Apple will be tough.  But Shuttleworth is giving his product away for free.

Ubuntu will still do all the basic things you'd want a computer to do, like email, web surfing, music or document writing.

Did the Queen of Routine throw her toys out of her pram?

For some this is the tale of how the author of a best-selling parental guide cried like a baby.

For others including the woman in question - Gina Ford, left, author of 'The Contented Little Baby Book' - it's a question of protecting a reputation from incessant attack.

Attacks from users of a website called Mumsnet included the one about how Ms Ford 'straps babies to rockets and fires them into south Lebanon'.

And for the rest of us in the multimedia publishing business it raises questions about how we deal with user comments or, in the present argot, user generated content.

Here at More4 News and Channel 4 News we have a fairly pragmatic approach to potentially defamatory and abusive posts to our Forums. We allow every post to go up immediately but have a commitment to remove anything that may be libellous, defamatory or just plain abusive within 24 hours. In the business it's called post-moderation.

The upside is that approval doesn't slow down genuine debate. The downside is that unpleasant remarks might float around in cyberspace for a while.

Meanwhile, on the More4 News blog we have been - up to now - a little more conservative, choosing to pre-moderate all comments that come in. (On the other hand, we don't ask you to register before commenting).

It's a policy that's always up for review but in the light of the Mumsnet saga perhaps we'll stick to the cautious approach for a little while longer. Cowards, us?

You can watch Channel 4 News' report on Gina Ford versus Mumsnet here.

(As a post-script to the debate about the potential significance of Gina Ford versus Mumsnet, forum dwellers, publishers and ISPs alike would do well to brush up on their history - Godfrey versus Demon, seven long internet years ago, is the real case law.)

China's web stars

Last summer two bored Chinese students decided to switch on their webcam and sing along to one of their favourite songs by the teen group, the Backstreet Boys.

Their over the top performance was an instant hit on the internet. The pair have become so famous that they've been snapped up by Pepsi.

Watch the report here