Blogging and all that Malarkey

Britain’s first independent television channel, ITV, unveiled both its new logo and a responsive new home page today. I’m a fan of the curvy new logo and how it changes to match a backdrop. The home page is full of thoughtful details too, made all the more interesting to me because my work at STV (the Scottish franchise for ITV) over the last year has tackled many of the same problems.

In Monkey Business, the first episode of our new show Unfinished Business, Anna Debenham and I talk about why a show about business is important and why one needn’t be boring. We chat about last week’s CES and if and when designers and developers might need to buy new devices. And of course, I talk about Planet Of The Apes while Anna nods politely.

Thanks once again to all the folks from Smashing Conference for making my son and I so welcome during our visit. One, if not both, of us will be back to sit in the audience next year. Thanks also to Marc Thiele for his hard work to make these videos available.

I’m not sure that fat fella at the top deserves to be there.

Yesterday, when I appeared on The Web Ahead, I issued this challenge to anyone who complains about hearing familiar faces speak at web conferences:

What will you tolerate in this community? Will you tolerate a conference circuit swamped by supposedly the same speakers and vote with your wallet? Or will you tolerate conference organisers being continually beaten up for genuinely trying to do the right thing? Will you tolerate speakers being abused for getting on stage and sharing their experiences? Will you tolerate harassment, bullying and exclusion? (Cynics will no doubt now accuse me of linking to my friend, another old face.)

Yesterday I had the pleasure to speak with Jen Simmons on her show The Web Ahead. We riff about design process and tools, but I start off talking about public speaking, the destructive effects of cynical criticism and I issue a challenge to those who complain about regular conference speakers. Listen in a browser Download the MP3 Open in iTunes

Being in Freiburg for Smashing Conference helped me regain my confidence for speaking. I was thrilled and honoured to be a part of it in a small way. Now Smashing Magazine are publishing interviews with all the speakers and videos of their talks. The first three excellent talks by Jeremy, Rachel and Stephen are available now.

Docracy’s Veronica Picciafuoco, a recovering lawyer, with a wide ranging article about contracts that very kindly mentions Contract Killer. Watch out for another of Veronica’s articles and an interview with me about Contract Killer and The Three Wise Monkeys NDA on Smashing Magazine, coming soon.

For the second year running, Cole Henley has compiled the results from his survey of freelancer demographics, rates and working practices in the UK.