10 links a week was starting to seem like a lot of links to read. 10 amazing stories all require quite a bit of time to read, so for a few weeks I am going to trial slimming down to 6. Let me know what you think of the new, leaner, fitter 3 of the best

3 of the best

Study: Ages of social network users

Social networks aren’t just for the young, but some definitely are not used by the old! Knowing which audience is on which social network and how they are using it is important for any monitoring or engagement. So swat up!

JESS3 / The State of The Internet

The internet, in case you didn’t know, is pretty big. Just how big? Watch this video. It is easy to get caught up in Twitter and Facebook (which do post big numbers in the video) and other Western-centric sites. But it is important to start realising the internet is global, and as Africa and Asia’s populations move more and more online it opens up whole new areas to communicate with.

3 of the rest

Jamie Oliver’s TED Prize wish: Teach every child about food

If you missed it recently Jamie Oliver gave a passionate speech on how we need to better educate our children in the way of food. We wish Jamie every success!

DICE 2010: “Design Outside the Box” Presentation

A fascinating talk that is worth anyone watching. Some real food for thought and we had some more fleshed out opinions of this over here.

Roger Ebert’s New Voice

A heart warming story from a real legend of the movie industry.

5 of the best Social Media stories of the week as chosen by the Qubites. Also 5 of the rest aka “Things MC Hammer says you can touch”.

5 of the best

Google’s Privacy Principles

There are times when I worry about how much Google knows about me. They know all of my web history, my conversations, my personal blogging…the list goes on. On the one hand I can see how it creates better results for me (in both the paid and natural results) as well as providing me with plenty of highly useful services for free. How much should our privacy cost though and how much are you willing to give up? This video calms me a little that Google is thinking about these things and says they will let me remove private information when I choose, but is this enough?

UK Internet Map (as featured on the BBC’s Virtual Revolution)

The BBC’s new show on the virtual revolution had an amazing 3D diagram of how Internet traffic flows in the UK. Here you can see it in all its 2D glory and realise that maybe cyberspace isn’t as big as we think, or at least for all its size we visit a few websites very often and the many websites much less.

The State of the Internet

We love pretty graphs. Here is a collection of useful and interesting top level views of how people are using the Internet.

Five lessons from MyDavidCameron

My David Cameron is both a stab at political satire and interesting social experiment. I would recommend that everyone running social media campaigns reads the findings and see how they reflect their own experiences. I particularly like the “Crowd Sourcing is Good” and “Crowd Sourcing is Bad” section.

Government 2.0: Communication and Engagement Are On a Collision Course

Couldn’t agree more with the differences between communication and engagement strategies. There is a huge difference between using Twitter as an alternative to the phone or website and actually going out and engaging in conversations where members of the public are. Food for thought for any government officials.

5 of the rest

70-Minute Video Review of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace

Any Star Wars fan (and Phantom Menace hater) should find 70 minutes to enjoy this beautiful, witty and spot on analysis of the Phantom Menace that shows how off-base Lucas really was.

Internet archaeologists find ruins of “Friendster” civilisation

Very funny and makes you wonder how long it is until something similar to this becomes reality. Maybe I should start trawling through the way back machine for similar findings, I wonder how Friends Reunited is getting on. Also this Onion video has me chuckling .

Ashen’s Tech Dump – Retro Games

The BBC are doing some great web comedy content. Short in length but not low in quality. This is a funny look into the “past”, They don’t make them like they used to!

The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” quotation marks

This is a very “Funny” series of photos

5 of the best social media stories of the week as chosen by the Qubite’s. Also 5 of the rest aka “ Stuff we thought woz interestin’ ”.

5 of the best

Data.gov.uk

Probably the biggest news of the last week was the government launching data.gov an online platform for all its publicly available data. On a basic level this means you could search the site rather than submit a request under the Freedom of Information Act. On a more exciting level it means developers can use this data to create interesting applications and websites. Check out a couple of websites that have already been built Safer Streets and Where Does My Money Go.

Test Tube

Just like Google uses its Labs to show off new ideas and experiments Youtube is doing the same with Test Tube. Insights for Audience and Comments search are really useful for finding out what the Youtube audience is interested  in and talking about.

Preparing for the Launch of the Games and Applications Dashboards

Prepare for another change to how you use Facebook. The current Facebook interface for applications and games has always felt a little makeshift. Now Facebook have created a special dashboard for users to get all of their information in one place. Hopefully this will mean I stop getting ugly duckling gifts on my wall, thanks mum.

Does your company really want to hang out with me?

A succinct and spot on observation of how some businesses still use Social Media. I have lost count of the number of times I have heard Social Media referred to as “A marketing channel” or “promotional tool”. Stop trying to push your message for just one minute and actually listen to what the people you are shouting at want to say.

Your State of the Union

Even with data.gov it looks as though our government is still playing catchup with America. Not only will this years Citizens address be streamed live on Youtube, but users will be able to submit questions to President Obama! Users can then vote on their favourite questions and some of the highest rated will be asked to him the following week. Now that is Social Media!

5 of the rest

Charlie Simpson -  Just Giving

This young man wanted to raise some money for the people of Haiti with a sponsored bike ride. He set himself a target of £500, a whopping target for any one child to raise (I think the most I managed was £50 for a junior fun run.) He has now raised over £160k not bad…not bad at all Charlie. An amazing achievement, but I wouldn’t hire him as my financial forecaster.

Music spies a Spotify sunrise

We are big fans of Spotify here in the Qube office, but have often wondered whether or not it is financially viable. Well it seems the answer is yes and no. Other than the UK and Spain subscription levels are good, but us Brits don’t mind persevering through adverts to get ourselves a bargain. Personally I would like to see more features for my £10 a month. What would get you to upgrade to a Spotify premium account?

Billy Moyers interviews David Simon (creator of the Wire)

If you are a big fan of The Wire this is a must watch. If you haven’t seen it yet this video does contain spoilers…so don’t watch it, just go buy the complete box set here (Do we get commission for this?). You can thank me later .

Functional – why simple, small and cheap appeals to all

Some great examples of why cheap and simple works! Sometimes the best solution is the simplest.

TV shows on Youtube

Not sure how new this is but I just found that Channel 4 and 5 have put all their on demand shows on Youtube. Seems like a smart idea to me. It is a shame that they have disabled comments on the videos though, would be a great way to create conversations and get feedback on episodes.

5 of the best social media stories of the week as chosen by the Qubite’s. Also 5 of the rest aka “The Home of amazing”.

5 of the best

Old people talking about Facebook Exodus

Apparently teenagers are leaving Facebook as it is too full of adults, who wants their mum checking their Facebook wall after all. Anecdotally I don’t see much evidence to back this up, most teenagers I know cant seem to get enough Facebook! There are also a bunch of Youtube opinion videos from teenagers for some interesting insight. One thing I would say to many of those complaints against Facebook is that it is just a tool. A tool that is only as good as what you do with it, so if someones status updates annoy you just un-friend them. (more insightful Facebook advice is available on request )

The Whuffie Bank

A virtual bank, but not for your money. The Whuffie Bank is building a new currency based on our reputations. Twitter and Facebook are making our online reputation really important, we all excerpt our own influence over groups of people in different ways. This site offers you a way of turning your reputation into a currency that can be traded and used for … well whatever someone is willing to give you for it. I first scoffed at this site and thought “It will never take off”, but then I tried to be a bit more open minded about it. The money we use today is just a system we all believe in and use, what is to say a new virtual currency couldn’t exist and do the same? Food for thought.

YouTube to introduce live sports coverage

Youtube will start showing live sports shows, only Cricket for now but this marks an interesting move for the video sharing site. Obviously this means you can watch it anywhere without a TV licence, but what does it mean for the product? One of Youtube’s main features is the ability to rate and comment. This could be the beginning of live sport becoming social in a big way.

Virtual game purchases benefit Haiti Relief Fund

The recent events in Haiti have been tragic and is something we all need to help with. Whenever such atrocities happen companies often donate large sums of money, but more importantly those companies use their influence to encourage others to help. Hugely popular Facebook game Farmville has recently added some virtual items that can be purchased to support the Haiti Relief Fund. I think this is a great idea and something all people and businesses of influence should be encouraged to do. Think about how you can use your influence to help others when they need it most.

Manchester United bans players from using Twitter

After some high profile Twitter gaffs from professional footballers Man Utd have banned their players from having a presence on social networking sites. It is a shame that the club feels the need to control the PR of their players so heavily. The nice thing about footballers being allowed to use these networks is it actually made them appear as real people, with real faults. It also gave them direct contact with the fans who help pay their wages, something that is surprisingly lacking in the modern game.

5 of the rest

Silicone ‘clay’ lets consumers modify troublesome products

If the product you bought doesn’t quite fit the bill, maybe you can customise it? This stuff looks a bit like silly putty to me, but hey maybe it is just what I need to fix my action mans broken arm.

Crayola Color Chart, 1903-2010

How Crayola’s colours have evolved over the year. I like cool looking diagrams .

Crappy Taxidermy

This is a weird and slightly creepy site. Probably not for everyone and the title pretty much says it all.

Love Money

I have been whining about lack of really good online banking tools for a while, it looks like the banks aren’t listening but at least someone is! Love Money requires you put in your account name and password (which is a little scary) but in return offers you a financial breakdown of your spending in a really useful way. You can even set personal savings goals for it to track. Definitely one to watch.

Irrational Behaviour

For anyone interesting in videogames especially those create by Ken Levine (System Shock, Bioshock, X-com) should go check out Irrational games new website and should definatly check out their new podcast. A great example of how to do a company podcast and how to make it interesting.

5 of the best social media stories of the week as chosen by the Qubite’s. Also 5 of the rest aka the “Bazaar of awesome”.

5 of the best

Google end censorship in China

Google will be ending its censorship of results in China. Google’s mantra is “Don’t Be Evil” and it looks like they might be living up to it.

Ad Agencies Please Know That Social Media is Not a Tactic

Too many times companies treat social media as another tick box without much further thought.

TV ad? “check”

Print ad? “check”

Facebook page? “check”

Social media is a conversational platform and not just another place to plaster your witty advertising slogan.

Zuckerberg: I know that people don’t want privacy

A fair few articles popped up around Zuckerberg’s recent comments on privacy. I have mixed views on internet privacy but you have to hand it to Facebook for being so willing to make huge changes to their product. Many companies get stuck for years with legacy systems that just don’t fit into the ever changing landscape.

Children who use technology are ‘better writers’

I have often wondered how the internet and social media effects literacy. Using the internet means we are often reading and writing more than ever. Sure there are arguments to be made about the quality of the writing, but being able to use the internet is quite a big incentive for someone to get literate.

The great specialist vs. network agency debate

As I work for a specialist social media agency I may be biased (slightly) but I would say the network agency have quite a lot of catching up to do in the social media space.

5 of the rest

Why I believe printers were sent from hell

The Qube printer is one of Qube’s most hated office appliance. Second is the stapler that always hides itself and decides to stop working when you finally find it.

ASDA Complaint – Welsh Pizza

What a punchline!

How to make Jack Nicholson very happy

I have no idea if this picture is real, but it is perfect in every way.

Audi A5 “suicide ad” still touring the web. p.s It’s still a spec ad and not real

This advert may not be real but it is expertly put together and very funny. I wonder if there is a way to track this fake ad to traffic, brand awareness or sales of Audi?

FARMVILLE Commercial!!

After my social gaming blog post about Farmville I received this funny and spot on video.

Its 2010! We are now in the future, hooray. Lets kick off the year with a nice 5 of the best blog. Please comment below on your favourite stories .

5 of the best

4chan Presents: YouTube Porn Day

Today is Youtube Porn day! 4chan has often been a force to be reckoned with, as creators of some of the biggest internet memes they really know how to create a social movement. So whether or not you agree with their latest campaign or the reasons behind it, you have to marvel at 4chans ability to mobilise large amounts of people in such a short space of time.

Social Network Removes 5,000 Users For Putting On Weight During Holiday Season

If you put any weight on during the Christmas season you may not be eligible for the Beautiful People social network. Robert Hintze, Founder “Letting fatties roam the site is a direct threat to our business model and the very concept for which BeautifulPeople.com was founded.”

Social media challenges social rules

How have you found social media changing the social rules and your social interactions? I have found myself using Facebook at the dinner table or immidiatly tweeting a quote from somebody, I wonder how these networks and our constant access to them is changing how we interact with people.

Personalised Newspaper target young readers

With more and more people getting their news online these days it is easy to see why newspaper moguls like Mr Murdoch are scared of their paper empire folding. The personalised newspaper idea has been floated around a few times and to my knowledge with little success. Also a lot of people are getting their news up to the minute from their peers through services like Twitter, is there still a space for this sort of thing?

The 100 Most Social Brands of 2009

An interesting list, but as I don’t see Qube Media on there I doubt its validity .

5 of the rest

Regretsy

Etsy is a great website that allows creative types to sell their wares. There are some truly great and unique items on their, however there are some items that are perhaps not so great (but still unique!).

This is Photobomb

Putting bunny ears behind someones head is so last decade!

Things You Saw In A Movie

Ever been watching a film and wondered where you could also get the same treadmill used by Will Smith in I am Legend? Well now you can! The site is a little bare at the moment, but give it some time and this could be a really useful resource for perfectly recreating that scene in Ferris Bueller where he uses a dummy on a string to convince his parents he is still asleep! (That’s my dream prank…)

Nexus One

The Android vs iPhone war wages on as Google announces it is moving into the mobile hardware market with its new phone, the Nexus One. I’m not sure it is a game changer for the phone industry, but anything that creates strong competition in a market is good for all of us with a pinchant for sexy smart phones.

Peter Griffin uses Grand Theft Auto as a driving tutorial

This is how I learnt to drive and also how to deal with people. Who says videogames aren’t educational!

5 of the best social media stories and 5 festive stories for you . This will probably be the last 5 of the best until the new year. Have a merry Christmas from all of Qube!

5 of the best

The 100 essential websites

100 websites you cant live without, really useful list. A lot of the obvious things on here like Google and Youtube, some hidden gems though are Zamzar, They Work For You and  Say no to 0870.

Blippy launches the Twitter of personal finance

Personally I feel the financial services are way behind on online technologies. Not sure I want to go as far as sharing all of my purchases with my friends, but I can see personal uses for this, or perhaps allowing a parent to monitor their child’s spending. Shame it looks American like all of these awesome online finance tools (See Mint.)

Digg Dialogg: Trent Reznor

I like this use of Social Media for doing interviews (as long as the interviewer doesn’t then selectively pick and choose which to ask) but also this interview is interesting as it shows someone who understands how the internet works and how people consume media these days.

Extreme Gaming with an Epson Projector

Viral videos give me mixed feelings. Part of me feels I am falling into a marketing trap and the other part of me goes oooOO this is clever and/or funny. This viral video is more of the latter, a clever video that did kind of make me want a projector.

Will Facebook’s privacy blunder hurt advertisers most?

There have been a lot of mixed feelings over the recent Facebook privacy settings change. Are advertisers the ones who are really going to suffer most though?

5 of the fest

Family sees red over Christmas card ‘ginger kids’ joke

Bullying isn’t really a laughing matter, but sometimes people take political correctness too far. No I am not trying to say it is fine to bully people with ginger hair, it isn’t. What I am saying is she goes a bit far when she says, “I just said there was nothing wrong with being a ginger, or a ninja for that matter.”…. Err. Weren’t ninjas highly effective, trained killers?

French Roast

Ok not quite Christmassy, but there is some snow in it. Think of this as more of a Christmas present from me to you. A truly brilliant short film.

Sketchy Santa

The internet sometimes brings us together to share beautiful moments. In this case though it shows us some of the most horrifying child experiences many of us face….a sketchy looking Santa.

Rage against the machine for Christmas number one

You cant seem to move without this being discussed on social networks! Whether or not you want to partake in this, at least it is raising money for charity and now some of the band are also donating.

NORAD santa tracking

You may have seen this before but every year the NORAD (North american aerospace defense command) track santas movements across the world. I knew he was real mummy!

I am running out of collective commons images of the number 5! Might have to start making some myself. Here are this week’s 5 best social media stories and 5 other things of interest.

5 of the best

SMEs are smarter than you think

It is great to see so many SMEs using social media! In this day and age I think you would be a fool not too and it is an area that can really define you as a company. Social media isn’t free and doing it right will cost time, but the benefits are there for all to see.

November Data on Facebook’s US Growth by Age and Gender: Young Men Following the Women

A huge increase in the amount of males signing up to Facebook last month. Any ideas why? Tom in the office thinks it is because of Movember (being that girls cant enter and all) but it still seems a bit much to me! Please tell me if you know why

No Comment

I love this article (Kudos Hellogames). A really interesting perspective on what it is like for a company see their product talked about online and all the range of emotions. I went to the Eurogamer Expo mentioned and played the game with a lovely Hellogames man, and I thought Joe Danger was amazing! So put me down for a copy and here is some more positive word of mouth for you.

GiffGaff

People powered mobile phone network. Interesting. At the moment they also have free internet browsing, might drop a couple of these sim cards into some Christmas stockings .

Online portal gathers wedding photos from guests

Really interesting idea. You can already do this sort of thing with Facebook, Flickr or even Google Wave, but those services usually require a bit of tech savvy and an account! A good social service to bring all the memories from one of the most important days of your life together.

5 of the rest

My real name is David Jones

I believe we have posted about “Letters of Note” before. This one is well worth checking out .

Watson urges action on “UK Games Council”

I think it is about time Government took the UK Games Industry a bit more seriously. There is a lot more to the industry than warping our kids minds with guns and violence .

Google Me

This is like an American Dave Gorman. I have only watched a short amount of it, so will someone please let me know if it is worth watching all the way though .

Cute Overload

This is CUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTE!

The Infinite Monkey Cage

A new podcast from the BBC that is somewhere between comedy and science. I have enjoyed the first 2 episodes so far and I have learnt some really interesting things, there is a jurrasic revalation on the first epsiode that shocked me to the core!

Ten top quality stories (hopefully) half on social media and the general online world we work in….the other a mish-mash of silly, brilliant, funny, exciting, surprising and cute stories (again…hopefully)

5 of the best

Social Media Spins Into Specialization

An example of all the different services and businesses that offer Social Media in some form or another.

Oddities of outreach…

I love this quote “An outreach program should have only one objective; can I make these people fall in love with what we’re doing?” The reason the best advice in social media is to make great content and be honest is because it works! Great read.

Henry 8.0 – The Book of Faces

This is a bit hit or miss and it’s only real saving grace is Blessed. Still worth checking out though, they are all pretty short .

Just Married: Groom Changes Facebook Relationship Status at the Altar [VIDEO]

I am quite a big geek, and I think geeky things like “Should I give my child a fairly unique name so they can get the URL and a good Google rank easily”. However there is no way I am geeky enough to want to update my social networks at the altar!

Google to limit free news access

Looks like Google were the first to blink in the free news war of words with Murdoch. You can see what this is all about in a previous 5 of the best.

5 of the rest

The End Of The CrunchPad

I didn’t even know I wanted this until I found out it no longer existed. I assume $300 would translate to £300 but that would still be an amazingly cheap device considering the alternatives (which there aren’t really many of .) Fingers crossed this will flicker back to life.

Twitter Creator Launches ‘Square’ — Like Smartphone Paypal for Credit Cards

My favourite bit of how this works: “In order to accept credit card payment using Square’s iPhone app, a merchant attaches a card-reading dongle to the smartphone’s audio input — or “any device with an audio input jack.” Once the customer signs the phone with their finger, the transaction is complete, after which the app can e-mail a receipt to the customer:” Very clever! On a similar note I predict the next iPhone will have an RFID tag and allow payments oyster card style.

Christmas Cupzilla Cupcake

Feeling festive? Nothing is more festive than eating a Christmas cake..probably.

Saving Private Robin?

Robin Williams hasn’t really made me laugh in a while, but this was really funny.

Ministry of Sound To Take Over London’s Jubilee Line

This might just be so uncool that it is cool!

5 of the best

Writer Evan Ratliff Tried to Vanish: Here’s What Happened

This is a really amazing story. Have you ever thought about how secure your life is online and how much people can learn about you? It’s a bit of a read but well worth the time!

Twitter: Small Games for Simple Purposes

Some interesting and outside the box thinking on how you can use Twitter.

Ikea invents Facebook tag marketing

I’m not sure if Ikea really invented tagging people in pictures that aren’t them, but this is the first commercial use I have seen of it. What do you think, clever marketing or spammy idea?

Crowdsourcing Business Documents

How do you collaborate with your clients to deliver exactly what they want?

Social Media Needs To Become a Team Sport

I think too often emphasis is placed on one person running or controlling all of a companies social media. Just like you wouldn’t have a call centre with one member of staff maybe it is time to start thinking about the real resources good social media needs.

5 of the rest

Cutthroat Capitalism: The Game

Do you have what it takes to be a pirate in this day and age? Tom made $12m profit as a Somalian pirate on a lunch break…I challenge you to beat it!

What is Google Chrome OS? (Explained by Google)

Personally I am not sold on Chrome OS yet, however I do love the videos Google makes.