Me, Twitter and the BBC

Earlier this afternoon I read this story on Guido Fawkes' blog about my former young Tory sparring partner, Donal Blaney, being given permission to serve an injunction via Twitter.

My first thought, apart from that 140 characters makes for a short injunction (a link is being tweeted), was that it doesn't much help if the offender tweeter fails to comply with the injunction - enforcement is still a bit of an issue, to say the least. Short of a disclosure order against Twitter, such legal action appears to be a little fruitless - although failure to comply would constitute contempt of court, which carries sanctions far greater than any damages likely to be awarded to Donal - if the perpetrator is ever uncovered.

I made a short comment to this effect on Guido's blog (number 6) and sent a short tweet from Bootlaw and thought nothing more of it.

Then, a few minutes later I saw a tweet from BBC tech correspondent, Rory Cellan-Jones, asking Donal to send him the injunction tweet.

So, I sent Rory a direct message offering commentary on the matter, and quickly checked the Civil Procedure Rules on service of documents. Moments later I had a response from Rory, asking me to call him on his mobile. We spoke twice (he called back to confirm the details) and he asked if I was aware of any other strange examples of service of legal documents - I said I thought there was a case involving Facebook.

Literally, half an hour later, this appeared on BBC news: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8285954.stm - currently the 4th most popular story on the site!

Amazing how you can get free publicity, just using Twitter, eh Donal?

Moonlighting on Techcrunch Europe

My views on the idea of standardised termsheets for venture funding rounds (a surprising hot topic amongst those in the business, now that you ask) appeared earlier today in an co-authored guest blogpost over on the widely read Techcrunch Europe blog.

Read all about it here.

Wow - that was easy

Blog Service Announcement:

I really love the service provided by Disqus and have had its commenting system on this blog for some time now. I recently became aware that there were a number of new features available, but assumed that there would be some cumbersome process required to activate them on here.

Not so: in around five minutes flat, I have updated the features, which means you can now sign in to comment using Facebook Connect or Twitter OAuth, and this included the time it took me to set up my own Facebook App, which is required for the Facebook Connect function to work specifically for this blog.

It may be form over substance, but I hope it encourages you to "join in the conversation", as they say, and make this a more vibrant blog.

/Blog Service Announcement

Fame, at last

In a highly unscientific, unverified survey of the "Top 25 UK Political Blog Twitterers" (as in by number of followers on Twitter, rather than by quality or anything else), conducted recently by Iain Dale, I have come in at a highly dubious number 16.  In fact, if you simply rank the Tory aligned/right of centre bloggers/tweeters, I come in at number 6 (if Guido Fawkes is to be included in that list, and he doesn't really tweet anyway, he just has a feed from his site). 

The problem with this list and my ranking is that my Twittering and blogging have very little to do with one another. On Twitter, I am mainly connected to people working in the tech sector which has a relevance to my day job and am also followed by a number of other lawyers (mainly US based), a result, I suspect of being on various "lawyers who tweet" lists. 

In fact, my blogging has dramatically as my twittering has increased.  The reason is simple: engagement. I post a tweet, and it might be read by over 400 people  - or many more if it is re-tweeted - the greatest number of hits I have had on a single story on this blog is probably about 250. In reality, each tweet is probably only read by a handful of people, but they are also people I know, like and encounter in real life and so the the effect of their reading a tweet is much more significant than a random stranger stumbling over this blog. 

That said, just being recognised as a blogger by Dale (however tenuously, and having not appeared in the first draft I had to submit myself via the comments), it has reminded me that it is a "good thing" to be doing, which I enjoy and should do more of. 

Watch this space... 

Comment moderation

Until I figure out how to delete or overwrite offensive or downright weird posts, comment moderation will be on.


Sorry for that, but if you look at the comments on the post two below, you might understand why.


If anyone can help, please leave a comment....

UPDATE: That was quick. Now have figured it out, so comment moderation is back off. I will also experiment with removing the word recognition stuff as well.

Blog Wars - when will the madness end?

How many more casualties of this pointless conflict will there be before the parties finally come to their senses?

As a gesture of goodwill, and to prevent further harm being wreaked on the Great British Blogosphere, the Great Blue Heron (courtesy of Birdwatchersdigest.com) is making its first, and possibly last, appearance on this blog.

It is not a moment for soundbites, but y'know, at moments like this you really feel the hand of history on your shoulder. Or possibly the thong of history.

PS Unconfirmed reports are coming in of an impostor making offensive posts on other websites under my name. Action will be taken and perpetrators brought to justice (i.e. a stern talking to from the headmaster - Iain Dale) - updates will be provided in due course, but rest assured I am not giving up my name for nobody.

Blogging for Cash

There is nothing more irritating on the internet than pages so packed with adverts that you can't find what you are looking for. I have placed a few carefully selected adverts on here from those internet giants, Google and Amazon. In particular, I am really impressed with the Amazon service which allows you to select a category of books (or other merchandise) and it serves up a random selection. I have gone for "politics" so I hope the selection produces titles that are genuinely of interest to my few readers. I have also put up a banner for Amazon DVD rental - I can heartily recommend it as an excellent service, which I have been using for over six months very happily.

As for my readership, only one post ("too posh to push") has sparked real interest so far, and that was as a direct result of being mentioned on the NHS Blog Doc's site producing over 250 referrals. No other blog has referred more than about 15 hits to me.

In terms of outgoing traffic, the most popular link by far is my profile, followed by my twins' blog and FireHouse - suggesting that a high percentage of my readers know me (even my wife has admitted to taking a peak), and that's without sending a mass email to my friends (want to keep them as friends).

Whilst I am keen to spark lively debate (I am thinking of starting a blog war with Chip Dale - bloody nihilist!!), I am trying not to fall into the trap of commenting on every single item of current affairs and only speak when I have something sensible to say. Admittedly, this is not always possible.

One more thing, I am currently bewitched by the music of Regina Spektor, who I had never heard of until she was on Loose Ends last Saturday - it's amazing what you get on Radio 4 these days.