Entries from May 2007 ↓

I know it’s a bit off topic, but this did make me chuckle. Guess what’s for sale on the Tesco website?

Post of the week this week goes to Stef Lewandowski for Tool Tips: 10 sites that make running a business easier on the new, improved Digital Central website.

Whatever kind of business you’re part of, check this out. You’re bound to find some useful stuff in here. Great stuff.

Great to see that one of the top ten, Diarised, is a project developed by our friends Made Media.

technorati tags:Diarised, DigitalCentral, Business, Plaxo, Basecamp, 37Signals, MadeMedia, Birmingham, 3form, CampaignMonitor, Guru

I am.

I’m absolutely fed up to the back teeth with sitting on uncomfortable chairs for hours in Costa Coffee with crawling, 5 quid an hour internet waiting for my next meeting. But I’ve found an alternative! Last week I finally went to check out The Hub in London. It’s a co-working space just behind Angel tube station in Islington.

It’s wonderful. The space is light, airy and big; the internet’s fast and best of all the people are lovely. Maria Glausier was hosting and did a great job of making me feel welcome; the few other people I spoke to there also made me feel like it’s my kind of place. It’s also very cheap - the first rung rate is a tenner for five hours which I think is a bargain.

As well as being a shared working space there’s a community aspect to the membership which in The Hub’s case centres around social and environmental businesses. I think this is a great idea and looking at the members’ photos on the wall I think I’m going to meet some interesting people as I start to go more often.

As you may have seen on this blog a few of us have been throwing around the idea of setting one of these up in Birmingham and the idea seems to have legs. I’ll keep you posted as things move forward.

(Imagery by Christian De Sousa from from the-hub.net)

I’m not often really blown away by a new site but this one has really impressed me. Jumpcut is a system which allows users to create their own videos online quickly and easily.

To make a video you just need to:

• Upload titles and imagery.
  
• Upload your video clips (it doesn’t seem to complain much about formats which is nice).
  
• Upload background music.
  
• Whack it all together using a very simple interface.
  

I managed to put one together in five minutes flat - and the best thing is it’s already up on the web ready to add to your site. None of that waiting three hours for it to upload nonsense.

It’s beautifully made, ridiculously easy to use and is something I’ll definitely be using for projects in the future.

Sites like this are another step along the road to allowing anyone to create without needing a ton of equipment. Good one guys.

UPDATE: Also just found Eyespot which does a similar thing; will let you know how I get on with it.

technorati tags:JumpCut, OnlineVideo

I’ve recently been reading the book Clear Blogging by Bob Walsh and must say it’s the first all round introduction to blogging (both personal and business) that I’ve come across so far.

It’s pretty comprehensive, covering both the whys and the hows. Clearly written, easy to implement into your daily life - exactly the kind of book I like. If you’re blogging, I recommend getting a copy.

technorati tags:Books, Blogging, ClearBlogging

Here’s an interesting one; Mills and Boon (obviously a favourite imprint of mine) are launching a series of books for your mobile. I don’t ever think the book will die but I do think E-books will be big news over the next few years. (Courtesy of Katie Ledger)

Also there was a great article by Nick Cohen in the Observer on Sunday about Blooks (a merger of "blog" and "book". He’s a judge on the 2007 Lulu Blooker awards and gives a pretty good run down as to where things are.

Lulu’s worth checking out if you’re into writing. It allows anyone to upload a book - if someone buys it they’ll print it out, send it and pass on a percentage of the profit to the writer.