Many of you may have logged on to the site and seen the transformation. However once again it has been put on the test server after more problems.
Some of the links were not working and pictures are not appearing. We have put the original site back online with updated news stories but hope to have this sorted by the end of the week.
Thankyou for your patience.
Daniel
Friday, 9 May 2008
Friday, 18 April 2008
Analysis Of Our Website - From Dream to Reality...
Individual Role/Problems/Anything else
In the first few weeks of the project, me and John took a step back, sat down and planned our website thoroughly as opposed to jumping straight in and getting on with it.
We began by analysing what we already had to work with or in other words, what the original site gave us to work with. And unfortunately, for the transformation that we were looking to achieve, this was not a lot.
So we started the research and planning of the project by looking at three supporters club’s websites that were already out there in order to get an idea of what we looking to achieve. Immediately it became clear that most supporters club’s sites were basic and rarely updated. However those that were did not have half the features that we were planning on installing, so whilst we used these sites for ideas, most notably a personalised Google search bar, it was pretty much a case of going at it alone and breaking the conventions of the current websites for supporters clubs up and down the country.
By week 2 we had brainstormed numerous ideas individually and we sat down and analysed each others ideas. We combined the two lists and then produced a basic page by page plan, which was eventually re-drafted on numerous occasions throughout the project, but it gave us a good foundation to work with.
One idea that we decided to knock on the head was our 50/50 focus on news from the supporters club and Gillingham Football Club. Our research showed that there was plenty of sites out there that gave club news. And after all, the supporter’s club site is where members would go to look for supporter’s club news – not the other way round. In the end we decided to install a simple RSS feed for club news and
by week 3 we had finished planning all the pages, we had gone off individually and created draft banners and chosen the best one and had come up with fresh ideas for our homepage.
It was now time to get down to the nitty gritty.
This module was titled ‘Web Design and Creation’. Therefore we wanted to go out, buy some software and start from scratch as we felt that this would definitely be the most rewarding approach. We would become familiar with every last aspect of creating a website including all the features and html code, whilst the experience also meant that we had both grasped a good knowledge of using the software, Microsoft Front Page.
However immediately we had problems getting hold of the software. At one point we were going to change our minds and opt for Dreamweaver, but through my own experiences, had found it more difficult to use and get to grips with.
The problem we faced was that in the latest Microsoft Office Packages, FrontPage does not come as standard and in the 2003 edition it only comes on a second disc - something that took us a while to realise. We didn’t really want to use software from 2000 although at one point it was looking like we might have to.
Once we were all sorted, John went off and created the layout for the homepage and News page whilst I did the Away Travel and GISC pages.
As we installed a toolbar down the side, something that the previous site did not have, it meant that immediately the whole site was easier to navigate around. However through my planning, I decided that if we also installed a second toolbar along the top in the GISC and Away Travel pages, it would make navigation even easier, something that I am sure you will agree with now that the project is finished.
John then went off and did the same with the Links and Contact Us pages and it left me with the Blog, Media and Shop pages, which all in all were pretty basic pages to design.
We had reached a stage by the Easter break where we had the majority of our pages designed but it was just a case of filling in the gaps. So we deemed it necessary to meet up over the holiday to discuss how to take the site forward. By the time we went our separate ways, we had all the pages designed but I felt that we were still lacking features and most importantly of all, good news stories.
When I went back to the site to finish it off, I decided that I wasn't that keen on its look. The layout was fine but the use of colour seemed a little basic and I took the decision (as group editor) to change all that myself.
First things first I put all the text on a dark blue layer on top of the theme, experimenting with the colour blue, the traditional colour of the football club.
I then installed a title for every page, using a simple white font on a black background but this stands out and appears incredibly effective.
Next was when a good project became a website. We were lacking conventional website features and I again deemed it necessary to stand up as editor of the project and install some of these functions which are so essential to the modern website and also to the success of the project.
Firstly I installed a poll on the home page allowing for user interaction and a personalised Google Search Bar allowing users to find archived news articles easily and giving them the option to conduct a full Google search quickly and efficiently.
The RSS Feed on the News page allows users to access club news and supporter’s club news in the same place.
From the start we also wanted to install the Google Checkout function, allowing the club's members to join/renew online and ultimately modernising the website.
Next was the introduction of Google Maps. We thought that this would be a good facility, not necessarily for those getting the coach to the game, but certainly for those making their own way by car. It allows users to get directions and view the area and its surrounding amenities.
One of the major successes of the project is allowing the club's members to view the newsletter online for the first time. Members have previously requested for copies of archived material and this solves that problem. In the future, I would hope to build up an archive dating back 15/20 issues but this will be addressed at a later date.
The Shop page was originally going to advertise programmes and GISC merchandise, but we soon realised that Google would take around 8% of everything we sold and after deliberating with other members of the committee, we deemed it necessary to opt for a different approach. By simply advertising the price of programmes we have seen a rise in sales and more recently, a bunch of old programmes were advertised on EBay, so I linked the page to the auctions, again seeing an unexpected profit.
From the start, user interaction was deemed as an important aspect of our project and the installation of the message board should provide that. More so, the blogs page has seen a fan offer to blog for us on a weekly basis and there has been more interest in this from other members. I shall also blog myself at the start of the next campaign and feel that given time, this could well be a very effective and popular part of the site.
Finally we needed good stories for our homepage and after I dragged John along to a committee meeting, we went out to the opening of a new social club where we took pictures for the site; we then got together and wrote stories about the Legends Night and Player of the Year Voting and also the club’s quiz night. There were also one or two smaller stories such as the recruitment of a treasurer and the advertising of the away games against Leeds and Bristol Rovers that I did personally. I also interviewed the chairman of the GISC, which can be found in the media page.
After the site went online, it was an immediate hit with the club’s members and we saw traffic to the website increase by 33% in the first week alone. After then advertising the site through the club’s Wikipedia page, Google/Yahoo bookmarks, Technorati and Backflip, we have seen the average number of visitors to the site increase to around 200 a day, an 80% increase on its users before we began the re-design.
More recently I attended the Legends Night advertised on the site taking numerous pictures at the event of which many can be found online. I wrote the stories on the event and player of the year and got quotes etc from the chairman.
How did you identify a target market for the project and how did you manage to reach that market?
After analysing the club’s target market through our research and my own experiences from being a member we discovered that the age range that we needed to target was about 25 onwards. The club has very few younger members, but obviously all those who are members are fans of Gillingham Football Club.
What we wanted to do was modernise the site but also keep our target market in mind. For instance if you look at the homepage, it is quite clear and simple. The links are quite large and all the main areas such as away travel, membership and parking are advertised clearly. The introduction of the blog, message board was introduced with those at the bottom end of the age range in mind but everything else is quite broad and appeals to a wider market.
One idea from our research that was scrapped during the project was to have 100% online membership. However with our target age range in mind, we deemed it necessary to continue offering the postal option for renewals/new members.
THE FUTURE
I am going to continue with my role and am committed to increasing the site’s traffic and making it as popular as it used to be a few years ago. A lot of this will depend on the success of the club but with a website as successful as ours has been, it is certainly a good foundation.
In the first few weeks of the project, me and John took a step back, sat down and planned our website thoroughly as opposed to jumping straight in and getting on with it.
We began by analysing what we already had to work with or in other words, what the original site gave us to work with. And unfortunately, for the transformation that we were looking to achieve, this was not a lot.
So we started the research and planning of the project by looking at three supporters club’s websites that were already out there in order to get an idea of what we looking to achieve. Immediately it became clear that most supporters club’s sites were basic and rarely updated. However those that were did not have half the features that we were planning on installing, so whilst we used these sites for ideas, most notably a personalised Google search bar, it was pretty much a case of going at it alone and breaking the conventions of the current websites for supporters clubs up and down the country.
By week 2 we had brainstormed numerous ideas individually and we sat down and analysed each others ideas. We combined the two lists and then produced a basic page by page plan, which was eventually re-drafted on numerous occasions throughout the project, but it gave us a good foundation to work with.
One idea that we decided to knock on the head was our 50/50 focus on news from the supporters club and Gillingham Football Club. Our research showed that there was plenty of sites out there that gave club news. And after all, the supporter’s club site is where members would go to look for supporter’s club news – not the other way round. In the end we decided to install a simple RSS feed for club news and
by week 3 we had finished planning all the pages, we had gone off individually and created draft banners and chosen the best one and had come up with fresh ideas for our homepage.
It was now time to get down to the nitty gritty.
This module was titled ‘Web Design and Creation’. Therefore we wanted to go out, buy some software and start from scratch as we felt that this would definitely be the most rewarding approach. We would become familiar with every last aspect of creating a website including all the features and html code, whilst the experience also meant that we had both grasped a good knowledge of using the software, Microsoft Front Page.
However immediately we had problems getting hold of the software. At one point we were going to change our minds and opt for Dreamweaver, but through my own experiences, had found it more difficult to use and get to grips with.
The problem we faced was that in the latest Microsoft Office Packages, FrontPage does not come as standard and in the 2003 edition it only comes on a second disc - something that took us a while to realise. We didn’t really want to use software from 2000 although at one point it was looking like we might have to.
Once we were all sorted, John went off and created the layout for the homepage and News page whilst I did the Away Travel and GISC pages.
As we installed a toolbar down the side, something that the previous site did not have, it meant that immediately the whole site was easier to navigate around. However through my planning, I decided that if we also installed a second toolbar along the top in the GISC and Away Travel pages, it would make navigation even easier, something that I am sure you will agree with now that the project is finished.
John then went off and did the same with the Links and Contact Us pages and it left me with the Blog, Media and Shop pages, which all in all were pretty basic pages to design.
We had reached a stage by the Easter break where we had the majority of our pages designed but it was just a case of filling in the gaps. So we deemed it necessary to meet up over the holiday to discuss how to take the site forward. By the time we went our separate ways, we had all the pages designed but I felt that we were still lacking features and most importantly of all, good news stories.
When I went back to the site to finish it off, I decided that I wasn't that keen on its look. The layout was fine but the use of colour seemed a little basic and I took the decision (as group editor) to change all that myself.
First things first I put all the text on a dark blue layer on top of the theme, experimenting with the colour blue, the traditional colour of the football club.
I then installed a title for every page, using a simple white font on a black background but this stands out and appears incredibly effective.
Next was when a good project became a website. We were lacking conventional website features and I again deemed it necessary to stand up as editor of the project and install some of these functions which are so essential to the modern website and also to the success of the project.
Firstly I installed a poll on the home page allowing for user interaction and a personalised Google Search Bar allowing users to find archived news articles easily and giving them the option to conduct a full Google search quickly and efficiently.
The RSS Feed on the News page allows users to access club news and supporter’s club news in the same place.
From the start we also wanted to install the Google Checkout function, allowing the club's members to join/renew online and ultimately modernising the website.
Next was the introduction of Google Maps. We thought that this would be a good facility, not necessarily for those getting the coach to the game, but certainly for those making their own way by car. It allows users to get directions and view the area and its surrounding amenities.
One of the major successes of the project is allowing the club's members to view the newsletter online for the first time. Members have previously requested for copies of archived material and this solves that problem. In the future, I would hope to build up an archive dating back 15/20 issues but this will be addressed at a later date.
The Shop page was originally going to advertise programmes and GISC merchandise, but we soon realised that Google would take around 8% of everything we sold and after deliberating with other members of the committee, we deemed it necessary to opt for a different approach. By simply advertising the price of programmes we have seen a rise in sales and more recently, a bunch of old programmes were advertised on EBay, so I linked the page to the auctions, again seeing an unexpected profit.
From the start, user interaction was deemed as an important aspect of our project and the installation of the message board should provide that. More so, the blogs page has seen a fan offer to blog for us on a weekly basis and there has been more interest in this from other members. I shall also blog myself at the start of the next campaign and feel that given time, this could well be a very effective and popular part of the site.
Finally we needed good stories for our homepage and after I dragged John along to a committee meeting, we went out to the opening of a new social club where we took pictures for the site; we then got together and wrote stories about the Legends Night and Player of the Year Voting and also the club’s quiz night. There were also one or two smaller stories such as the recruitment of a treasurer and the advertising of the away games against Leeds and Bristol Rovers that I did personally. I also interviewed the chairman of the GISC, which can be found in the media page.
After the site went online, it was an immediate hit with the club’s members and we saw traffic to the website increase by 33% in the first week alone. After then advertising the site through the club’s Wikipedia page, Google/Yahoo bookmarks, Technorati and Backflip, we have seen the average number of visitors to the site increase to around 200 a day, an 80% increase on its users before we began the re-design.
More recently I attended the Legends Night advertised on the site taking numerous pictures at the event of which many can be found online. I wrote the stories on the event and player of the year and got quotes etc from the chairman.
How did you identify a target market for the project and how did you manage to reach that market?
After analysing the club’s target market through our research and my own experiences from being a member we discovered that the age range that we needed to target was about 25 onwards. The club has very few younger members, but obviously all those who are members are fans of Gillingham Football Club.
What we wanted to do was modernise the site but also keep our target market in mind. For instance if you look at the homepage, it is quite clear and simple. The links are quite large and all the main areas such as away travel, membership and parking are advertised clearly. The introduction of the blog, message board was introduced with those at the bottom end of the age range in mind but everything else is quite broad and appeals to a wider market.
One idea from our research that was scrapped during the project was to have 100% online membership. However with our target age range in mind, we deemed it necessary to continue offering the postal option for renewals/new members.
THE FUTURE
I am going to continue with my role and am committed to increasing the site’s traffic and making it as popular as it used to be a few years ago. A lot of this will depend on the success of the club but with a website as successful as ours has been, it is certainly a good foundation.
Thursday, 10 April 2008
THE END!!!!
Our site is now online at www.gillsisc.co.uk
ENJOY!!!
P.S. An analysis of the site will be posted soon.
ENJOY!!!
P.S. An analysis of the site will be posted soon.
Monday, 7 April 2008
Week 10
So week 10, the final week (well actually we've been given a 10 day extension) and you've guessed it: more bleeding problems!!
Although as reported, the site was up and running for nearly two weeks, we had to take it offline and replace it with the old template due to a host of problems.
Pictures were not appearing, toolbars were not appearing, search bars and polls were not working and at one point, whole pages were not working properly.
Apart from that everything was perfect!
Anyway the site should be back online by Thursday/Friday (a few calls to the server people should do it) as it seems we have got our head around everything but this project certainly becomes more and more stressful by the day. We were doing so well. Traffic was up, the site looked great and then...
Well enough of the past and more of the future. We are going to continue to advertise the site to drive traffic and get everything in store for the end of the week. And then maybe, just maybe you can see it in all its glory. And i can finally sit down, write the conclusion and make everything avaliable for all to see.
I should be so lucky...
Although as reported, the site was up and running for nearly two weeks, we had to take it offline and replace it with the old template due to a host of problems.
Pictures were not appearing, toolbars were not appearing, search bars and polls were not working and at one point, whole pages were not working properly.
Apart from that everything was perfect!
Anyway the site should be back online by Thursday/Friday (a few calls to the server people should do it) as it seems we have got our head around everything but this project certainly becomes more and more stressful by the day. We were doing so well. Traffic was up, the site looked great and then...
Well enough of the past and more of the future. We are going to continue to advertise the site to drive traffic and get everything in store for the end of the week. And then maybe, just maybe you can see it in all its glory. And i can finally sit down, write the conclusion and make everything avaliable for all to see.
I should be so lucky...
Tuesday, 18 March 2008
Week Eight
WOW!! Week eight already.
Well the website is finally online after a vast number of problems in recent days. Word of advice: If you are creating a website on Frontpage, check to make sure that the features you are using, dont require Frontpage Extensions and if they do, then brace yoursleves for a bit of a slog.
Anyway back to the site. We have completely finsihed revamping the website and as it seems, our problems are beyond us. We are currently working on a couple of major stories which should be online in the next couple of days but after that, it should literally be a case of keeping tabs on the site until the last week of term.
We have installed the Google search bar, Google maps and Google Checkout. We got a jolly nice fellow called Keith to blog for us, we have installed a poll on the homepage and rewritten and updated every single page on the bloody site and still found time to create a host of new ones. There's the shop, blog and media pages which are all new and bring a lot to the site and the newsletter page, which allows members to read the club's quarterly newsletter online.
But anyway I'll keep you informed of any updates or news. And hopefully no more problems.
Well the website is finally online after a vast number of problems in recent days. Word of advice: If you are creating a website on Frontpage, check to make sure that the features you are using, dont require Frontpage Extensions and if they do, then brace yoursleves for a bit of a slog.
Anyway back to the site. We have completely finsihed revamping the website and as it seems, our problems are beyond us. We are currently working on a couple of major stories which should be online in the next couple of days but after that, it should literally be a case of keeping tabs on the site until the last week of term.
We have installed the Google search bar, Google maps and Google Checkout. We got a jolly nice fellow called Keith to blog for us, we have installed a poll on the homepage and rewritten and updated every single page on the bloody site and still found time to create a host of new ones. There's the shop, blog and media pages which are all new and bring a lot to the site and the newsletter page, which allows members to read the club's quarterly newsletter online.
But anyway I'll keep you informed of any updates or news. And hopefully no more problems.
Wednesday, 5 March 2008
Is Social Networking really such a waste of time?
There has been much fuss of late over the loss of productivity brought on by employees multi-tasking between actual work and social networking. One estimate puts the cost to British industry at £6.5 billion per annum in lost productivity and questionable bandwidth usage. Another survey estimates that Britain’s social media fanatics are spending as much as 12 hours per week on these sites, no doubt eating into valuable work time.
But what is the impact of this collective social network addiction on high school and university students, our bright future? A new survey this week by IT specialists Global Secure Systems, says students are also guilty of sneaking in a fair bit of social networking during the school day.
In their survey of 500 English school children between the ages of 13 and 17, 51 per cent confess to checking their social network profiles during lessons. Over a quarter admit their in-school daily social network fix exceeds over 30 minutes each day.
If this sounds surprising, you haven’t been to school lately. Laptop-toting school kids are the norm these days, as are Wifi-enabled campuses. And when the laptop is in the locker, there are net-enabled smart phones at the ready. Add to the equation the rocket-fast texting ability of a typical 16-year-old and you get an explosion of social networking opportunities at the most unlikely points in the school day.
No educator would knowingly allow such a distraction in their classroom, and yet it appears to be happening right under their noses. It’s hard enough getting the PlayStation generation to focus for even a half-hour on a lecture of, say, King John and the Magna Carta. Try competing with the latest lunchroom gossip being broadcasted to mobiles, Facebook and Twitter. The significance of establishing modern-day democracy pales in comparison.
Before you 'oldies' shake your head and mutter something starting with the phrase “In my day…”, admit it – how many of you have shirked off work on an important business project to tend to a personal email, text or, these days, a Facebook query? How many of you have done it today? How many of you are doing it now?
Many of you might regard tidying up your profile, sending messages to friends or contacts, joining the odd group or participating in a movie knowledge quiz to be a harmless distraction, the kind of thing that keeps you sane during the workday. But us teens are deadly serious about social networks. For us, failing to attend to these duties could end friendships, sink reputations and mean missed opportunities to climb the fickle and precarious social ladder of young adulthood.
But surely we should be embracing social media and every other Web 2.0 application out there. Yes, posting photos of you and your semi-clad friends boozing it up late at night could sink your chances with a prospective employer, who will no doubt be snooping around for this very type of incriminating evidence. But the good far outweighs the bad. All this facebooking is helping even if you don't realise it. I know people who have built and promoted projects on fighting poverty and eradicating hunger, organising music gigs, art and photo exhibitions, plus coordinating meet-ups for political rallies.
Being at university myself, I admire the growing number of young students who dedicate hours to designing complicated widgets and applications too. Yes, they’re probably neglecting their history paper to complete it, but the end product is a far more valuable lesson learned in creativity, courage and computer coding. When I look at all the creativity, the collaboration and the activism being generated in these networks, I am hopeful for the future. Perhaps one day lesson five on a Monday will no longer be R.E or Citizenship, it will be facebooking...
But what is the impact of this collective social network addiction on high school and university students, our bright future? A new survey this week by IT specialists Global Secure Systems, says students are also guilty of sneaking in a fair bit of social networking during the school day.
In their survey of 500 English school children between the ages of 13 and 17, 51 per cent confess to checking their social network profiles during lessons. Over a quarter admit their in-school daily social network fix exceeds over 30 minutes each day.
If this sounds surprising, you haven’t been to school lately. Laptop-toting school kids are the norm these days, as are Wifi-enabled campuses. And when the laptop is in the locker, there are net-enabled smart phones at the ready. Add to the equation the rocket-fast texting ability of a typical 16-year-old and you get an explosion of social networking opportunities at the most unlikely points in the school day.
No educator would knowingly allow such a distraction in their classroom, and yet it appears to be happening right under their noses. It’s hard enough getting the PlayStation generation to focus for even a half-hour on a lecture of, say, King John and the Magna Carta. Try competing with the latest lunchroom gossip being broadcasted to mobiles, Facebook and Twitter. The significance of establishing modern-day democracy pales in comparison.
Before you 'oldies' shake your head and mutter something starting with the phrase “In my day…”, admit it – how many of you have shirked off work on an important business project to tend to a personal email, text or, these days, a Facebook query? How many of you have done it today? How many of you are doing it now?
Many of you might regard tidying up your profile, sending messages to friends or contacts, joining the odd group or participating in a movie knowledge quiz to be a harmless distraction, the kind of thing that keeps you sane during the workday. But us teens are deadly serious about social networks. For us, failing to attend to these duties could end friendships, sink reputations and mean missed opportunities to climb the fickle and precarious social ladder of young adulthood.
But surely we should be embracing social media and every other Web 2.0 application out there. Yes, posting photos of you and your semi-clad friends boozing it up late at night could sink your chances with a prospective employer, who will no doubt be snooping around for this very type of incriminating evidence. But the good far outweighs the bad. All this facebooking is helping even if you don't realise it. I know people who have built and promoted projects on fighting poverty and eradicating hunger, organising music gigs, art and photo exhibitions, plus coordinating meet-ups for political rallies.
Being at university myself, I admire the growing number of young students who dedicate hours to designing complicated widgets and applications too. Yes, they’re probably neglecting their history paper to complete it, but the end product is a far more valuable lesson learned in creativity, courage and computer coding. When I look at all the creativity, the collaboration and the activism being generated in these networks, I am hopeful for the future. Perhaps one day lesson five on a Monday will no longer be R.E or Citizenship, it will be facebooking...
Monday, 25 February 2008
Week 5...
Progress has been steady over the past two weeks. We had numerous problems obtaining the software we wanted so this took us slightly off schedule. However we have probably completed about 40% of the website's pages, including the News, GISC and Contact sections...
We have installed an RSS feed in the News page, which comes from Gillsconnect.com, a supporters website with an excellent reputation. This basically means that we are able to offer both Supporters Club news and that of the football club.
If any of you are unsure of how to install RSS feed check out:
http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_do_i_subscribe_to_an_rss_feed
We have chosen the colour scheme, a theme for a page and used a toolbar down the side of the page to allow easier navigation.
Apart from that nothing too spectacular though, so roll on next week.
We have installed an RSS feed in the News page, which comes from Gillsconnect.com, a supporters website with an excellent reputation. This basically means that we are able to offer both Supporters Club news and that of the football club.
If any of you are unsure of how to install RSS feed check out:
http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_do_i_subscribe_to_an_rss_feed
We have chosen the colour scheme, a theme for a page and used a toolbar down the side of the page to allow easier navigation.
Apart from that nothing too spectacular though, so roll on next week.
Monday, 11 February 2008
Week Three
The first three weeks have seen me and my partner extensively plan our website as opposed to jumping straight in. We have produced a detailed page by page plan which has come about after analysing websites of other supporters clubs and the features that we deemed necessary to add in our site.
These include:
- RSS Feed for news/blog page
- A personalised Google Search Bar
- A poll
- Message Board
- Posting the club’s newsletter online
- Getting the site’s users to blog on the site
- Setting up a Google Checkout function, allowing the club’s members to renew/join online.
- Installing Google Maps
- Interviews/podcasts/vodcasts on media page
We are literally going for a complete overhaul of the website and I will keep you updated with the progress, as we begin its development.
Wednesday, 6 February 2008
A different focus...
Now that I have begun phase two of my Web Design Course at University in which you guessed it, I am designing a website, I have decided to opt for a different approach to this blog. Whilst I will continue to post work of my own and other other journalists on the Facebook phonomenom, I would like to use this as a place where i not only promote my website, but give weekly updates on its progress.
The site's url is: http://www.gillsisc.co.uk/
The site's url is: http://www.gillsisc.co.uk/
Monday, 4 February 2008
Facebook 'sees decline in users'
Social networking site Facebook has seen its first drop in UK users in January, new industry data indicates.
Users fell 5% to 8.5 million in January from 8.9 million in December, according to data from Nielsen Online.
This was the first drop in user numbers since July 2006 when Nielsen began compiling data on the site.
Nic Howell, deputy editor of industry magazine New Media Age, said the site was no longer as popular among its core audience of young people.
"Social networking is as much about who isn't on the site as who is - when Tory MPs and major corporations start profiles on Facebook, its brand is devalued, driving its core user base into the arms of newer and more credible alternatives," he said.
Facebook, along with its main rivals Bebo and MySpace, lets users set up personal web pages and communicate with each other.
Alex Burmaster, European internet analyst at Nielsen Online, said that it was inevitable that the site's early growth rates could not be sustained and user numbers were likely to plateau.
Nielsen's figures showed that there are 712% more Facebook users than a year ago.
"Just as one swallow doesn't make a summer, so one month of falling audiences doesn't spell the decline of Facebook or social networking," Mr Burmaster said.
"However, real growth potential lies in the niche networks - those based on a particular lifestyle or interest, such as travel, music, wealth or business," he added.
The data showed that MySpace users had fallen by 5% in January, while Bebo's audience had fallen 2%.
Less popular social networking sites such as Windows Live Space, BBC Communities and Friends Reunited saw a rise in users in January, Mr Burmaster said.
Users fell 5% to 8.5 million in January from 8.9 million in December, according to data from Nielsen Online.
This was the first drop in user numbers since July 2006 when Nielsen began compiling data on the site.
Nic Howell, deputy editor of industry magazine New Media Age, said the site was no longer as popular among its core audience of young people.
"Social networking is as much about who isn't on the site as who is - when Tory MPs and major corporations start profiles on Facebook, its brand is devalued, driving its core user base into the arms of newer and more credible alternatives," he said.
Facebook, along with its main rivals Bebo and MySpace, lets users set up personal web pages and communicate with each other.
Alex Burmaster, European internet analyst at Nielsen Online, said that it was inevitable that the site's early growth rates could not be sustained and user numbers were likely to plateau.
Nielsen's figures showed that there are 712% more Facebook users than a year ago.
"Just as one swallow doesn't make a summer, so one month of falling audiences doesn't spell the decline of Facebook or social networking," Mr Burmaster said.
"However, real growth potential lies in the niche networks - those based on a particular lifestyle or interest, such as travel, music, wealth or business," he added.
The data showed that MySpace users had fallen by 5% in January, while Bebo's audience had fallen 2%.
Less popular social networking sites such as Windows Live Space, BBC Communities and Friends Reunited saw a rise in users in January, Mr Burmaster said.
Tuesday, 22 January 2008
What do parents think of Facebook?
Research has shown that more than a quarter of eight to 11-year-olds who are online in the UK have a profile on a social network site.
With none of the websites actively enforcing a minimum age limit, the watchdog Ofcom says parents need to keep an eye on what their children do online. So what do parents think? I set off to find out.
ROGER, 37 from Kent
I have worked in the internet for the past 15 years but I resigned as the director of a company that set up a social networking site in 2003. The company wanted a network aimed at young teenagers and I felt this was unacceptable.
I was told by ex-colleagues that it took 24 hours for them to find their first paedophile had registered and was trying to groom kids. It ended up with the police getting involved.
My daughter uses Facebook and despite using a profile with anonymous settings ticked and not using her real name, I was able to show her how I was able to find her school, name, form, where she lived and view her profile all without even having to register on Facebook.
I think the only way to protect your kids is to have an honest relationship and speak to them about the issues.
The danger is when you overreact then they will become secretive and actually blocking them would be to cut down on their social life, an important part of growing up.
Every month I ask my daughter for a list of all the people she has connected to and I say to her who is this ? Do you know who this person is ?
Steve, 46 from Medway
A number of children in my son's primary school set up a hate page on Facebook about him.
When I complained to Bebo the response I got was: "If you don't like the page don't look at it." They couldn't have been less helpful.
I complained to the police and a brilliant community policeman went round to the houses of the children who had set up the page and it was pulled.
But until the police got involved they did not remove a single person who set up or contributed to this page, despite being informed that they were all aged 10 or 11.
Alex, 36 from Sittingbourne
I have a 13-year-old son and a 10-year-old daughter and the trick is to stay one step ahead.
I am not from an age where I knew what Facebook and Bebo were. So I made an effort to find out for myself and I made sure I was active on Facebook before my children wanted accounts for themselves.
When they wanted to go on Facebook I helped them and made sure the privacy settings were adequate.
We are now Facebook friends, and I monitor activity every day. I do check who their friends are and make sure they don't change their privacy settings.
I think social networking sites are perfectly safe as long as parents stay one step ahead. As a parent you have to keep up with the times and not let your children become social outcasts because you do not allow them to use these sites.
MATTHEW, 56 from Bobbing nr Sittingbourne
I am a Scout leader and last year a 12-year-old girl in my Scout group registered on a lesser-heard-of social networking site and spontaneously put her MSN messenger address in.
Within hours someone had added her and was sexually harassing her online. When I heard about this it was reported to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre.
It is clear that this incident is not isolated.
Particularly since then, but also a little before, I have made educating young people about sort of 'dos and don'ts' online something I really care about and take quite seriously.
I use Facebook myself to some extent, the difference is that I am aware of how to safely do this.
With none of the websites actively enforcing a minimum age limit, the watchdog Ofcom says parents need to keep an eye on what their children do online. So what do parents think? I set off to find out.
ROGER, 37 from Kent
I have worked in the internet for the past 15 years but I resigned as the director of a company that set up a social networking site in 2003. The company wanted a network aimed at young teenagers and I felt this was unacceptable.
I was told by ex-colleagues that it took 24 hours for them to find their first paedophile had registered and was trying to groom kids. It ended up with the police getting involved.
My daughter uses Facebook and despite using a profile with anonymous settings ticked and not using her real name, I was able to show her how I was able to find her school, name, form, where she lived and view her profile all without even having to register on Facebook.
I think the only way to protect your kids is to have an honest relationship and speak to them about the issues.
The danger is when you overreact then they will become secretive and actually blocking them would be to cut down on their social life, an important part of growing up.
Every month I ask my daughter for a list of all the people she has connected to and I say to her who is this ? Do you know who this person is ?
Steve, 46 from Medway
A number of children in my son's primary school set up a hate page on Facebook about him.
When I complained to Bebo the response I got was: "If you don't like the page don't look at it." They couldn't have been less helpful.
I complained to the police and a brilliant community policeman went round to the houses of the children who had set up the page and it was pulled.
But until the police got involved they did not remove a single person who set up or contributed to this page, despite being informed that they were all aged 10 or 11.
Alex, 36 from Sittingbourne
I have a 13-year-old son and a 10-year-old daughter and the trick is to stay one step ahead.
I am not from an age where I knew what Facebook and Bebo were. So I made an effort to find out for myself and I made sure I was active on Facebook before my children wanted accounts for themselves.
When they wanted to go on Facebook I helped them and made sure the privacy settings were adequate.
We are now Facebook friends, and I monitor activity every day. I do check who their friends are and make sure they don't change their privacy settings.
I think social networking sites are perfectly safe as long as parents stay one step ahead. As a parent you have to keep up with the times and not let your children become social outcasts because you do not allow them to use these sites.
MATTHEW, 56 from Bobbing nr Sittingbourne
I am a Scout leader and last year a 12-year-old girl in my Scout group registered on a lesser-heard-of social networking site and spontaneously put her MSN messenger address in.
Within hours someone had added her and was sexually harassing her online. When I heard about this it was reported to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre.
It is clear that this incident is not isolated.
Particularly since then, but also a little before, I have made educating young people about sort of 'dos and don'ts' online something I really care about and take quite seriously.
I use Facebook myself to some extent, the difference is that I am aware of how to safely do this.
Thursday, 17 January 2008
'Voices of Medway Podcast'
I recently had a go at creating my first podcast. The breif that I was assigned to find some interesting and colourful shops and interview the people who run them. And Rochester in Kent, a wonderful blend of ancient and modern in the heart of the "garden of England", seemed like the perfect place to visit.It is a city steeped in history, dominated by a fine Norman Castle and Cathedral, bounded by the maritime traditions and spirit of past British naval dominance on the River Medway. And whats more, it has a unique blend of independent shops and some very nice shopkeepers too...
Click below to listen to the podcast:
Thursday, 10 January 2008
Facing the Future Facebook Style
Independent journalist Bill Thompson ruminates on the inevitability of Facebook being in the news in 2008...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7178954.stm
The coming year is not going to be a comfortable one for Facebook.
It might just manage to avoid upsetting its users with new services such as Beacon, the misjudged advertising feature that told your friends about your purchases.
It might spot fake profiles of famous people, like the two Bilawal Bhutto entries that fooled both Facebook and some newspapers, and remove them before they get noticed.
And it could even avoid falling victim to one of the frauds that are likely to be perpetrated against users of all social network sites.
But even if Facebook is lucky it will still get a lot of coverage.
Because during 2007 it became the social site of choice for journalists, politicians, bloggers and others who see MySpace as for the kids and LinkedIn as too business-oriented for friends.
Face off with blogger
The spat has helped highlight the issue of data ownership and data portability, and may even lead to more careful consideration of who can do what with the information found around the internet.
Bill ThompsonThat means it will be the focus of attention in any story about the impact and evolution of online activity simply because it is the site that MPs and columnists know about.
It also means that when Facebook is directly involved in a story then it will be bigger than it may otherwise have been.
We saw this recently in the fuss over the site's treatment of Robert Scoble, one of the more significant technology bloggers and a former Microsoft employee and evangelist.
Scoble, who has complained that Facebook limits him to 'only' 5,000 online friends, used a program to read each name, e-mail address and date of birth and import them into another social service, Plaxo Pulse.
When you sign up for Facebook "you agree not to use the Service or the Site to harvest or collect e-mail addresses or other contact information of other users from the Service or the Site by electronic or other means for the purposes of sending unsolicited emails or other unsolicited communications".
Since Scoble was using an automated script to harvest addresses he was clearly breaking this condition, so Facebook suspended his account just as it would for any other user.
However Scoble is an A-list blogger so when he wrote about his suspension it generated a storm of comment.
At first people were broadly on his side, criticising Facebook for acting as if it owned his network of contacts.
Others then weighed in, pointing out that the birth dates and e-mail addresses Scoble had taken didn't belong to him but to his Facebook friends, many of whom might not want to be imported into Plaxo without their consent.
Company and blogger have now made up, with Scoble having achieved his goal of enhancing his notoriety and outsider status by standing up for users right to have access to 'their' data - even when that data is personal information about other people.
And Facebook has backed away from another PR embarrassment, although not without some loss of face since it is unlikely that an unknown accountant from Basingstoke would have been allowed to return after such an egregious breach of the site's rules.
The spat has helped highlight the issue of data ownership and data portability, and may even lead to more careful consideration of who can do what with the information found around the internet.
But it also shows how important Facebook has become as the focal point for any discussion of this type. It is our lightning conductor for many of the issues which are emerging as important in the new, online world, and that will ensure that it will be dragged into stories to make a point, even when it is not directly involved.
Of course the chances are that the site will also merit some coverage because of the way it grows.
In his list of technology predictions for 2008 noted computer scientist Ed Felten includes 'a Facebook application will cause a big privacy to-do', and he's not alone in this belief.
One reason for this is that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg comes from the generation that grew up with the network in their lives, for whom the boundaries between offline and online relationships have always been indeterminate and to some extent irrelevant.
Zuckerberg's instincts are those of the children who flock to MySpace, Bebo and YouTube, not those of the older users who are now using the tools his company has developed.
This culture clash is an interesting reversal of the old order, in which teenagers would grow into a world defined by their parents and have to learn how to assert their own desires and demands.
Adults going online for the first time are entering a world that has been shaped by the interests, desires and concerns of the younger generation, a world that does not operate according to the rules they have followed in real life.
It is hardly surprising that there are differences of opinion, or that the practices of the various social sites sometimes cause concern for parents, politicians or teachers.
It will be interesting to see whether some compromise can be achieved in the coming months and years, or whether the rapid rate of network development means that even Mark Zuckerberg will end the year complaining that the youngsters are just not behaving responsibly online.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7178954.stm
The coming year is not going to be a comfortable one for Facebook.
It might just manage to avoid upsetting its users with new services such as Beacon, the misjudged advertising feature that told your friends about your purchases.
It might spot fake profiles of famous people, like the two Bilawal Bhutto entries that fooled both Facebook and some newspapers, and remove them before they get noticed.
And it could even avoid falling victim to one of the frauds that are likely to be perpetrated against users of all social network sites.
But even if Facebook is lucky it will still get a lot of coverage.
Because during 2007 it became the social site of choice for journalists, politicians, bloggers and others who see MySpace as for the kids and LinkedIn as too business-oriented for friends.
Face off with blogger
The spat has helped highlight the issue of data ownership and data portability, and may even lead to more careful consideration of who can do what with the information found around the internet.
Bill ThompsonThat means it will be the focus of attention in any story about the impact and evolution of online activity simply because it is the site that MPs and columnists know about.
It also means that when Facebook is directly involved in a story then it will be bigger than it may otherwise have been.
We saw this recently in the fuss over the site's treatment of Robert Scoble, one of the more significant technology bloggers and a former Microsoft employee and evangelist.
Scoble, who has complained that Facebook limits him to 'only' 5,000 online friends, used a program to read each name, e-mail address and date of birth and import them into another social service, Plaxo Pulse.
When you sign up for Facebook "you agree not to use the Service or the Site to harvest or collect e-mail addresses or other contact information of other users from the Service or the Site by electronic or other means for the purposes of sending unsolicited emails or other unsolicited communications".
Since Scoble was using an automated script to harvest addresses he was clearly breaking this condition, so Facebook suspended his account just as it would for any other user.
However Scoble is an A-list blogger so when he wrote about his suspension it generated a storm of comment.
At first people were broadly on his side, criticising Facebook for acting as if it owned his network of contacts.
Others then weighed in, pointing out that the birth dates and e-mail addresses Scoble had taken didn't belong to him but to his Facebook friends, many of whom might not want to be imported into Plaxo without their consent.
Company and blogger have now made up, with Scoble having achieved his goal of enhancing his notoriety and outsider status by standing up for users right to have access to 'their' data - even when that data is personal information about other people.
And Facebook has backed away from another PR embarrassment, although not without some loss of face since it is unlikely that an unknown accountant from Basingstoke would have been allowed to return after such an egregious breach of the site's rules.
The spat has helped highlight the issue of data ownership and data portability, and may even lead to more careful consideration of who can do what with the information found around the internet.
But it also shows how important Facebook has become as the focal point for any discussion of this type. It is our lightning conductor for many of the issues which are emerging as important in the new, online world, and that will ensure that it will be dragged into stories to make a point, even when it is not directly involved.
Of course the chances are that the site will also merit some coverage because of the way it grows.
In his list of technology predictions for 2008 noted computer scientist Ed Felten includes 'a Facebook application will cause a big privacy to-do', and he's not alone in this belief.
One reason for this is that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg comes from the generation that grew up with the network in their lives, for whom the boundaries between offline and online relationships have always been indeterminate and to some extent irrelevant.
Zuckerberg's instincts are those of the children who flock to MySpace, Bebo and YouTube, not those of the older users who are now using the tools his company has developed.
This culture clash is an interesting reversal of the old order, in which teenagers would grow into a world defined by their parents and have to learn how to assert their own desires and demands.
Adults going online for the first time are entering a world that has been shaped by the interests, desires and concerns of the younger generation, a world that does not operate according to the rules they have followed in real life.
It is hardly surprising that there are differences of opinion, or that the practices of the various social sites sometimes cause concern for parents, politicians or teachers.
It will be interesting to see whether some compromise can be achieved in the coming months and years, or whether the rapid rate of network development means that even Mark Zuckerberg will end the year complaining that the youngsters are just not behaving responsibly online.
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