December 2009

Cyber Monday Overtakes Black Friday as Ecommerce Flourishes

Christmas shopping rushMove over Black Friday, Cyber Monday is where the action happens. Consumer spending is heading to the virtual high street as Christmas shoppers favour etailers over their bricks and mortar counterparts.

In the US, Black Friday, the Friday after Thanksgiving, has been traditionally known as the busiest shopping day of the year. Accounting folklore suggests it's the day each year when retailers make it out of the red.

Official comScore figures reported a spend of $595 billion in online spend on this day, an 11% increase on the same day last year.

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23 December 2009 by Suzanne Morrow

Digital Industry Festivities: Chinwag's Christmas Events Roundup

i can haz ChristmasAs our thoughts to turn the holiday dash round the country, to over-eat, over-drink and play with kids' new toys instead of making small talk with the in-law, Christmas is almost upon us.

But wait...there's still a few, well a lot, of work-related festive action to cram in before the last vestiges of real-world contact are swapped with chance meetings in Farmville in post-indulgence downtime.

We're rounded up just a few of the Christmas get-togethers listed on Chinwag's Digital Events Calendar for the next couple of weeks, which we're hoping to get along to:

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4 December 2009 by Sam Michel

AudioBoo Coming to a Browser Near You

Audioboo on iPhone Flickr image

Back in March this year AudioBoo proudly claimed their mission to be the YouTube of the spoken word.

And it looks like they're just about there. Previously available in iPhone and Android flavours, the Audioboo team have announced a browser-based version launching today. Get in there people.

Following in the intrepid techno-savvy footsteps of users like Stephen Fry, he's been known to say "night night" to his Twitter followers with it, AudioBoo users will now be able to upload their recordings easily from their computers.

The service is PC and Mac compatible, runs on Safari and Firefox and the pre-launch jitters on IE are being smoothed out as I type. Unfortunately, there's no word about Chrome just yet.

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4 December 2009 by Suzanne Morrow

Difference Engine Boosts North East With £20,000 For Ten Start-ups

Angel of the North Flickr PhotoThe Difference Engine, a program to increase the growth of start-ups in Europe has been launched in the North East this week and will provide start-up capital of around £20,000, mentor support and a working environment that will allow ten teams of digital entrepeneurs to get their business up and running. 

We got in touch with The Difference Engine's Managing Director, Jon Bradford for the deets.

CHINWAG:  Can entrepreneurs can apply from anywhere in the UK?

Teams can come from elsewhere in the UK and beyond (subject to working visas). They will be required to relocate to the region for the duration of the programme.

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4 December 2009 by Suzanne Morrow

Less Women Applying for Social Media Jobs in the UK

Chanel Union Jack bagThe US picture may be bleak but are British women really as worse off as women in the States when it comes to social media salaries?

We got in touch with a UK-based social media recruitment company to find out if we really have anything to worry about.

According to Emma McNamara, Managing Director of recruitment firm Propel London, there are just more men applying for the roles at the outset:

"We have experienced more male applicants for the roles, however have not seen any gender preference from clients or differences in salaries offered. I think it really depends on the community involved and the candidates overall experience."

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3 December 2009 by Suzanne Morrow

Make A Crunchie Nomination, It's Almost Friday

The Crunchies Awards The Crunchies are to technology what the Oscars are to Hollywood and January 2010 will be the third incarnation of the start-up and technology sector's annual awards ceremony hosted by TechCrunch, GigaOm and VentureBeat.

Last year's winners included Google Reader (best service), Cooliris (best design), Shop Savvy (best application) and Facebook (best overall start up).

TechCrunch Europe's grand fromage, Mike Butcher, offers the following advice,

"...it will be of interest to European startups that they have a good chance if they nominate themselves in Best International StartUp

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2 December 2009 by Suzanne Morrow

SXSWi BizSpark Accelerator deadline - Friday, 4th Dec

SXSWi moleskin notebook sketchSXSW Interactive festival is the digital conference to attend. Yes, it helps that it's based in sunny Austin, Texas and that the BBQ food is *awesome*, but it's also packed full to bursting with top notch panels from the brightest minds in tech

There are hundreds of networking events hosted by industry leaders and an unbeatable line up of special programs showcasing the best new websites, video games and startup ideas the community has to offer - all happening over 5 days!

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2 December 2009 by Suzanne Morrow

ipadio and Sport England Bring Community Sports Hub to Facebook

Sports England, Facebook & ipadio announce Community Sports HubMore great news from companies who've taken part in the Digital Mission series, with an announcement from live phonecasting service ipadio, who recently returned from the Digital Mission to New York.

ipadio have joined forces with Sport England and Facebook  to encourage more young people to get involved with sport with the announcement of the Community Sports Hub.

The initiative will produce a beefed-up fan page on the social network which will integrate with ipadio's phone-to-web technology to encourage participation. Facebook are putting up in-kind advertising valued at £5m/year until 2013.

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1 December 2009 by Suzanne Morrow

Sun Goes Scrumping, Bites Apple TV Ad Parody

The Sun - UK's Best Handheld CampaignYou've got to hand it to The Sun for its latest set of ads. Taking firm aim at Apple and harnessing the full wit of it's sub-editor's headline legendary word smithery to great effect in these parodies created to celebrate The Sun's 40th birthday.

The ads are beautifully pitched avoiding invective and taking a tongue-in-cheek approach,

"The Sun has been the UK's best handheld for 40 years. Top news, sports, photos, gossip and games in an easy-to-share format. No waiting for pages to load, no contract, no losing reception. There's no substitute for the Sun."

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1 December 2009 by Sam Michel

Chinwag's Practical Guide to Internships: Creating a Program

woman at desk flickr photoThere are a lot of challenges for any company taking on an intern.

From where to advertise the vacancy to the costs involved in hosting and training can all be a drain on company resources.

It's been challenging at Chinwag, so I bent the ear of Dominic Potter, co-founder of Internocracy, a company that helps employers set up and run their internship programmes.

Here's a brief run-down of his top-tips to consider before taking on an intern:

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1 December 2009 by Suzanne Morrow