Things to do while you wait for the washing machine

Waiting around for the next load to go through the spin cycle gives me a chance to explore Twitter which I must admit I can't really figure out an important use for just yet. I had a girlfriend once whose father used to say "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach." This because I had told him I was intending to go into teaching. But I'm not sure what twitter really adds to the sum of human knowledge and it's v time consuming. Comments on a postcard, please.

Camp as a row of web designers

Back out there in the blogosphere, a posse of crazed web designers and social networking geeks have pitched tents in London for a social innovation camp. Here are some of the ideas they'll be working on by day...

Enabled by Design: A resource for anyone looking to make adjustments to their lives, be it as a result of disability, injury or impairment.

Personal development reports: An online system that supports young people to identify their personal skills and qualities.

Prison visits: A tool to support the families of prisoners coping with the experience of being apart from a loved one.

Rate My CV: A site for helping jobseekers using Web 2.0 tools, with a focus on migrant workers.

Stuffshare: Freecycle meets Street Car: a stuff club.

This last has some definite possibilities, although I imagine there is already a tool for journalists to share contacts, find talent, etc.

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Tories cruising for a bruising

The Guardian has this about the British Conservative party wanting to scrap impartiality rules for broadcasting. Having banged on for aeons about how biased to the left the BBC is, suddenly they want to do away with the rules. Andrew Marr, who used to run my old newspaper, The Independent, thinks its a bad idea: "I would just like to say what fun it would be for all of us if we in the broadcast world were allowed to be unfair and partial in the same way as people in the tabloid world."

But what fun, eh?! Mind you, this smells rather like one of the Tories periodical attacks to undermine the licence fee.

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Beecher opens a can on Oz editorial

Eric Beecher has taken a stick to The Australian over the paper's seeming unwillingness to join the debate about the future of journalism. In his post on Crikey yesterday the internet entrepreneur savaged the national paper's leader which - with the best will in the world - was raaaaaather self-serving. Call me old fashioned, but I think using one's most influential message to big one's masthead up or savage another paper is nothing more than vanity publishing. Not really cricket, you might say - and it's hard to see it as journalism, either. Still, you can catch up with Beecher at The Future of Journalism Summit in Sydney on May 1 and 2. It'll be interesting to see what gems will emerge once we get Beecher and Roy Greenslade on the same platform as some of the big guns from News Ltd, the ABC and Fairfax. What fun! 

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Brit government calls for social networking safety curbs

This from The Guardian about calls for a raft of new pricay controls on sites such as MySpace and Facebook. These will mainly be for child protection, which is fair enough, but it also opens a debate about what information people put up on these sites should be deemed "private" and what is "public". Which is moot after the Australian press went gangbusters with pics downloaded from the Facebook sites of members of the Olympic swimming team this week. Did they really want their drunken pics spread all over the papers? Shouldn't think so... Then why put stuff like that on a public site?

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Wicked Campervans - and why I think Ms Fits is on the money  

Respect to Ms Fits of reasonsyouwillhateme fame. I spent a week in Byron bay over Christmas and these things were EVERYWHERE - and, like our blogging hero of the moment, I thought they were pretty juvenile. She writes:

According to the website:
'What Wicked Campers does is sort you out with Australian cheap rental camper vans for about the same price as hiring a car. Each van comes with a unique paintjob as well as accommodation and a kitchen built in. You won't waste your money on the frilly bits so you'll be able to afford all those great activities and have all those wicked adventures in Australia you've always dreamed of.'

You'll also share the uniqueness of passerby poking each other in the ribs and whispering: 'Look, there goes a massive cockhead who in all probability digitally penetrates hitchhikers'. Lucky thing. 

Go have a look. You'll think so too... Ill be reading more of Ms Fits (the SMH has a profile. Andrew Bolt doesn't like her much. Can't beat that recommendation...

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Indulge me here

I love detective fiction and this piece from The Grauniad has a potted history of the genre. Fun reading.

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