DigitalAgency

Think Humanist:

Juliet, one of our Friday Coffee Morningers, has been doing some media work for the Humanist Society of Scotland.

She had the rather Web 2.0 idea of matching Radio Four's non-secular; 'Thought for the Day', with a series of podcasts from the Humanist, secular perspective.

Here's what Juliet had to say about the idea:

'When I started doing the media work for the Humanist Society of Scotland one of my firsts thoughts was to call up the people who produce thought for the day on Good morning Scotland and the Today programme and ask if they would have humanists on. they said no, they wouldn't. I thought that was a shame then saw a good opportunity for PR. So I decided to set up a website where we could podcast secular thoughts for the day and launch it with five notable figures podcasting for the first week, launching the site on Darwin day.

Tim (Mr Juliet. Ed.) came up with Think Humanist as a name and we have Stewart Lee (Jerry Springer the Opera creator), Kate Hudson (Chair CND) and Humanist philosophers AC Grayling, Julian Baggini, Nigel Warburton podcasting this week.

The site has been linked to over 7000 humanist orientated organisations throughout the world.

Obviously we hope to get on Thought for the Day at some point but we intend to keep the site going and invite thinkers from around the world to podcast and will continue to try and get notable people to podcast too. Humanists such as Stephen Fry, Harold Pinter and Iain Banks are all on our wishlist.'

(Mike again:) What I particularly like about these podcasts, apart from the rivetingly intelligent perspective of course, are the high production values, which let's be honest, are often lacking in many a podcast.

Lots of people bang on about consumer/user generated media, and that it's 'the future', but it takes a professional ear, and a lot of skill to make broadcasts like these. Something most of the 'user generators' haven't a scooby about.

Phobias. Feel the Fear and Post anyway:

I’m here to battle my fear of writing on the blog. Wordsmith Mike might refer to it as ‘scriptophobia’ (fear of writing in public), or maybe something more specific like ‘postophobia’.

But, what of phobias? Like most things psychological I admit to being fascinated. These days phobias and fears seem to have intermingled in use and strength of meaning (perhaps ‘fobias’ or ‘phears’ would be a better term). Phobias are rarely regarded as life threatening or even that inhibiting. Largely they're talked about as quirky idiosyncrasies we readily pick up on the womble through life. And apparently we don’t need to be secretive about them either. No sirree, many people are out there boasting about their self-defining foibles.

(In a previous life researching children I sometimes spoke to them about their fears. It was amazing how regularly kids would wax lyrical about 'phobias'. They’d describe amusing as well as more serious dislikes and fears, and provide some very interesting insights along the way).

Today there seems to be some consensus that fears and phobias are a lynchpin of personal growth. “Feel the fear and do it anyway” the positive psychology books scream out. So, here I am feeling the posting fear and doing it, tentatively tapping on the keyboard, and only shaking and sweating ever so slightly…

I’ll try to write something brave, bold and fear-free next time. In the meantime you might want to explore and define your own “phobia utopia” on the Web through the phobias listed here. Can you believe there’s such an eclectic range of them out there...?

As a nutaholic, Sancerre-loving, fan of fast cars, I’m particularly delighted not to suffer from arachibutyrophobia (less fortunate souls might want to look here), oenophobia or tachophobia.

And I’m hopeful that the postophobia has only been a temporary affliction...

Eggs, bacon, hold the beans:

Ah, this is the life.

Breakfast meeting today with a potential new client at The Savoy.

Yes, I know what your thinking.

And yes, I am indeed.

My blogging desk:

This morning, Iain asked in a post, about the desks we blog at.

This is mine.

Wanted to get it posted early as I'm out most of the day, but will post fuller report later.

The shot below is demonstrates the power of cropping, my desk area is in a mass of wires, papers, files and boxes etc, but the good old crop tool comes to the rescue.

ShowTime:

Merry Christmas to all our readers:

Carol, I and the dogs will be traveling down to parents and parent-in-laws over the festive season, so posting might be sporadic here.

Back on full throttle in the New Year, but until then enjoy the festive season and wishing you much health and happiness.

The Laughter of the Crowds:

I just heard an interesting report on the R4 Today programme.

Although not really connected with the typical Advertising, Marketing, Design or Web 2.0 subjects we post here, I include it because it had a great sound clip of a classic radio moment here in the UK.

(However, in a sense, I suppose, it does pertain to our industry, in that we all prefer coming out of meetings where laughter has been a component. Unless, that is, it's you that's being laughed at.)

Anyhow, the audio clip referred to is of Brian Johnston, the cricket commentator getting a fit of the giggles.

The Wellcome Trust have just published some research on laughter and cheering, and the researcher, Dr Sophie Scott was being interviewed in the studio.

Dr Scott, a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL, has observed; "We usually encounter positive emotions, such as laughter or cheering, in group situations, whether watching a comedy programme with family or a football game with friends. This response in the brain, automatically priming us to smile or laugh, provides a way of mirroring the behaviour of others, something that helps us interact socially. It could play an important role in building strong bonds between individuals in a group.

So, if you want Christmas with the extended family to go swimmingly, maybe you should switch off 'EastEnders' and dig out your 'Only Fools and Horses' DVDs."

(Note: You'll need the RealAudio plug-in to hear the link, and it's only the first 4 minutes of the segment of the Today programme.)

Hipsters, Carnaby Street & Dolly Birds.

In London for a couple of days.

I work with Princess Leia:

(Pictured: A model who thinks she's Alice who thinks she's Princess Leia.)

A few years ago Alice was a Planner in an ad agency in town.

It was the kind of agency where the Planners were geographically placed in the same part of the ad agency as the account handlers, and a million miles from the creative department.

(I know. What does that tell you about the agency? And I'm sure it had a lot to do with why Alice left, and indeed why the agency no longer exists.)

Anyhow, people talk to this day about Alice's outfit at the Christmas party where she not only dressed like Princess Leia, she was Princess Leia.

(I kid you not, Alice is convinced she is the reincarnation of PL.)

So imagine my delight when I came across a tutorial for the PL wig here.

My Mum is a bit of a dab hand in the knitting department.

So guess what Alice is getting for Christmas this year from me:-)

We ask the questions:

Lifehacker, via Ask Yahoo, shows us how to deal with Telemarketers, by turning the tables and taking that pesky cold-caller through a consumer's counter-script.

Payback time. (And I love the fact that you can try and lead the poor sod to the question: 'Is it important to have good teeth for your job?')

Marvelous stuff.

Print it out and leave by the phone.

Link: Kill that sales call with the telemarketer counter script - Lifehacker.