A wiki collecting social media policy documents from around the world

City poet and writer Peter Finch looks at Cardiff as it was then, and nowWhat shape is this place? A lozenge, an edamame bean, a speed bump. Sometimes it feels like living on an earthquake printout where the centre's a fat contemporary blur and the outskirts a thin old fashioned line. Cardiff – the vertical drink capital of western Britain, the rebuilt post-industrial port where the sea is so far away hardly anyone knows it's there. Cardiff – call centre capital, shopping capital, media hub, political epicentre, administrative sprawl – a place of white high rise, glass and aluminium, red brick and Victorian charm. Cardiff was once the largest coal exporting port in the world. Dark streets, pale squares, grime on the faces of its workers. When you arrived you could see the strain of money being made and taken through the pervasive drizzle. Today it's the capital of Wales, a restructured and transformed place that people visit to enjoy and clamour to live in. Parks, clubs, bars, shops, theatres, cultural centres, sporting stadia. A destination where the world collects. No longer a stop-over on the way to somewhere else. It's small enough to know and large enough to get lost in. You could have an affair and you wouldn't be found out. Oh yes you would be, interjected a woman when I suggested this at a talk.I look for the real city. The one below the surface. How much of the city's fishing village past remains visible? (Not much). Can you track its now vanished industrial waterways? (You can). Is there anything running underneath the streets? (Yes). Is this one place? (No, it's two). Do people love it? (Depends who you ask).In Cardiff the booming population arrived from everywhere. Less than two thousand of us at the start of the nineteenth century. Well above three-hundred thousand as we roll through the twenty-first. You calls it Kaardiff or Caerdydd. If you comes from here, that is. Roman castle on the Taff. Then a walled Norman stronghold surrounded by villages. Crockherbtown. Canton. Whitchurch. Rumney. Roath. Cardiff could have been called Roath. It's only an historical accident that left the seat of power on the Cardiff side of the Taff rather than the Roath side of the Rumney. That's one theory anyway.In the past twenty years the city has gone through enormous change. The wrecked and mostly abandoned docklands have been rebuilt and rebranded, changed from a multi-cultural bay of Tigers to the leisure and media centre that is Cardiff Bay – opera and arts WMC, Barrage empounding fresh-water river delta, Senedd seat of Welsh government, more restaurants than you can shake a steak at, ash wood and sofa-filled bars, Dr Who's landscape and Torchwood's underground power base.I'm walking across the Oval Basin – it's been renamed Roald Dahl Plass after one of the city's more famous sons – but no local will call it that. Ahead of me are a bunch of tourists photographing everything in sight. The Senedd is in session, the AM's are warm in their super green aquarium. The Butetown locals who lived here before the new Cardiff began and who still live here now – aaright love – are emulsified among the new arrivals. Cardiff Bay, home for Welsh National Opera, is also the location one of the most deprived wards in Wales. High unemployment. Low educational achievement. But change is ahead. The Guardian's new Cardiff Blog will track things as they happen. The Cardiff story may have started and run with the momentous – the world's first million pound deal was struck here in 1901 at Mount Stuart Square's Coal Exchange, Cardiff created Welsh capital in 1955, Shirley Bassey on stage in a Welsh flag dress, 1999 – but it also one of people. Real things that happen to each and every one of us. For more read on. This is a guest post by Peter Finch - author of the Real Cardiff series - guides, histories, off-beat travelogues and psychogeographical rambles across the capital of Wales. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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More wisdom from Brian Solis on the changing shapes of marketing and PR relationships

The convention for creating financial opportunities is evolving and changing the way we seed prospects, promote our expertise and prowess, and connect with those who can help us learn and advance through the facilitation of strategic and mutually beneficial alliances. Digital capitalization is laying a foundation for expanding the need to cultivate and participate, not only in the real world, but also in the online networks and communities that can benefit us personally and professionally. In an era of democratized publishing and equalized influence, it can be said that engagement and participation are a new, powerful and effective form of “un” marketing. At the very least, this is an epoch of empathy. Social capital is a strong ally, an elite catalyst for lucrative relationships, and now a metric for qualification, consideration and ultimately success (however you define it).  This is a state of human economics that is thoroughly discussed in Tara Hunt’s book, The Whuffie Factor. Our “Whuffie” or social capital and intellectual assets are defined by both online and real world conduct and its “balance sheet” is available for anyone with a web browser to review, assess, and analyze. Reputation, trust, and relationships, are each earned at varying levels, through our action and words. Our interaction reinforces impressions and engenders experiences. As such, our personal and professional brands are essentially reflections of our contributions. In the end, we get out of it, what we invest in it. By participating in relevant online communities and publishing content that promotes our expertise as it empathizes with those seeking information and direction in a way that literally speaks to them, we begin the process of building and shaping our online reputation, brand, and persona that traverses virtual, augmented, and actual realities. The ideas and wisdom we share and the relationships we forge only fuel its proliferation and stature. Like any form of capital, Social capital rises and falls with the market and the individual to which it’s governed by the state of the industry and affected by the state of corresponding affairs. As it escalates, however, it unlocks opportunities that are commensurate with the community’s assessment of its value. In the same regard, the community will not support or reward lackluster, opportunistic, also-ran, or hollow engagement in the long term. Again, social capital is measured by individual value and collective perception. The Human Algorithm But trust and reputation are only as valuable as their ability to represent you in your absence. And as in anything online, perception and presence are the focus of proactive programs that enhance the discovery process and steer recognition and stature in your favor. As search plays an increasingly important role in the investigation process of surfacing qualified candidates and social objects around relevant topics, we quickly become brand managers for our intellectual and personal assets. Our livelihood now pivots on our ability to connect dots between who were are, what we stand for, and the value we offer. You will be Googled. You will also be Twittered, Flickrd, YouTubed, Facebooked, and LinkedIn’ed. While Google is the standard by which all search is measured, those active in defining their presence in traditional search will do so through organic as well as through optimized techniques such as SEO. However, as search becomes social, the role of queries disseminates beyond Google with content sought and channeled directly within Social Networks as well as new breeds of real-time search platforms. As such, prominence is then ascertained by the digital shadows we cast across the traditional and social Web (yes, there is a difference) and also through our investment in driving strategic visibility. Essentially, our brand as defined by our views, opinions, thoughts, observations, and actions, becomes a social object that requires dynamic cultivation and placement. The Human Algorithm becomes our lifeline to regulated exposure while also providing a foundation for constructing and enhancing our presence directly within the channels where prospects are seeking information. Social Customer Hierarchy As social media becomes ubiquitous, businesses will no longer possess the means to effectively scale and sustain participation across all conversations on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and other online communities. Whether you agree with this or not, brands will face the need to prioritize who they engage based on what I refer to as the Social Customer Hierarchy. The level of influence and authority a customer or prospect holds determines their placement in the chain of preeminence. Yes, we earn prominence and amass social capital through productive contributions to online societies. In the process, we increase our stature and amplify our voices and it will escalate consumer matters when other traditional means are exhausted. Brandishing this distinction however, erodes value, and over time, ranking and credibility are diminished. Our online reputation and the activity that contribute to its definition are investments in our social capital. The return on these investments is evident in the opportunities and relationships that ensue and proliferate. Our social graph, the connections we forge and actively nurture, represents a very public testimony. If you’re not actively investing in its significance, you may actually take away from its net worth. Connect with Brian Solis: Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Google Buzz, Facebook — Please consider buying my brand new book, Engage!

— Get Putting the Public Back in Public Relations and The Conversation Prism:

— Image Credit: Shutterstock

dangreen

A ReadWriteWeb Guide

South by Southwest Interactive is a favorite conference for many a geeky programmer, and its no wonder why. The talent, learning opportunities and free booze run deep and wide at this show.

We've compiled a list of ten must-see, must-do panels, parties and events - and don't worry, we won't be sending you to three identical core conversations on JavaScript. From Google's Hackathon to Facebook's Developer Garage and beyond, you'll get to learn from (and drink with) some of the greatest minds behind the greatest companies of the Web. Sponsor

This is part of a series of ReadWriteWeb guides to SXSW Interactive 2010. If this guide isn't your cup of tea, be sure to check back for more information soon!

Revenge Of Kick-Ass Mash-Ups with Punk Rock APIs

"Last time we wrote an API layer for a dozen different sites and services, using nothing but free online tools and client-side JavaScript. This time we'll crack into client-side OAuth. This time actual working code WILL BE WRITTEN BY YOU. This time ... it's personal." With Kent Brewster of Netflix.

Coding for Pleasure: Developing Killer Spare-Time Apps

"Every startup origin story is about a couple of developers who abscond to a garage and end up building the Next Big Thing. But money and fame don't need to be your end goal. You can significantly improve your life--and impact others' lives--by coding for pleasure in your spare time." With Gina Trapani, Adam Pash of Lifehacker and Matt Haughey of MetaFilter.

Mozilla SXSW Happy Hour

"Join us for happy hour drinks and appetizers at Cedar Door and learn what we are working on at Mozilla. Party is limited to the first 250 guests who arrive - please RSVP on Facebook: http://bit.ly/mozsxswparty!"

Web Framework Battle Royale

"Which web framework will rule them all? As an audience member you pick the winner! We will present an introduction to a variety of web frameworks including Rails, Django, Catalyst, and Sinatra. You can vote for the best web framework in categories such as URL handling, database integration, forms, HTML templating, documentation, testing and deployment." With Yehuda Katz of Engine Yard, Leah Culver of Six Apart, Elizabeth Leddy of Janus Health, Blake Mizerany of Heroku, Avi Bryant of Dabble DB and Dustin Whittle of Yahoo.

The Hive Awards

"The Hive Awards honor the Unsung Heroes of the Internet. The people who do the heavy lifting but rarely get any credit. Drinks, hors d'oeuvres, free admission." Sponsored by KickApps.

Facebook Developer Garage Austin - SXSW Edition

"Join the Facebook team and local developers for a deep dive into the latest and most exciting ways developers are building with Facebook technologies. Come to learn, stay to make friends! http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=331218348435"

Beyond LAMP: Scaling Websites Past MySQL

"Most startups begin with a basic LAMP stack (on PHP or Python) and then add database replication and memcache as they grow. But then what? There's a big gap between these out-of-the-box solutions and what it takes to run something bigger." With Serkan Piantino of Facebook, Alan Schaaf of Imgur, Kevin Weil of Twitter, Christopher Slowe of Reddit and Jason Kincaid of TechCrunch.

Objective C Crash Course for Web Developers

"Build your first iPhone app in 60 minutes flat. Along the way, you'll tour Apple's developer tools and learn the basics of the Cocoa Touch framework. Discover how to use your PHP and JavaScript experience for an informed approach to coding iPhone apps. Apply familiar JavaScript design patterns, for example, to handle interface programming in Objective-C." With Joris Verbogt of Mangrove.

If Objective-C isn't your bag, why not try Hold the Cocoa: Building iPhone Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and learn how to build iPhone apps "without ever touching Objective-C."

Wow, That's Cool... Fun With HTML5 Video

"Using the video tag in HTML5, developers can do all sorts of things that are hard or impossible with plugins. In this presentation, Mozilla will show the best and most interesting hacks entered into OVA's Open Video Contest - because when the webmonkeys unleash their creativity, things get interesting." With Michael Dale of Kaltura Wikimedia and Christopher Blizzard of Mozilla.

Google Hackathon

"The Google Hackathon hosted by Google will provide a hands-on workshop throughout the day where attendees will be able to build apps using a variety of Google technologies including App Engine, HTML5, Android, Chrome, and Maps/Geo technologies. Although the hackathon will run all day long (from 9:30-7:00pm), we'll be providing short 20 minute "deep dive" presentations on specific topics covered in the hands-on exercises. This panel is sponsored by Google."

Those are our SXSW Interaction recommendations for hackers of all stripes. If you've got suggestions or feedback, let us know in the comments! See you in Austin, folks! Discuss

tombeardshaw

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A site monitoring online conversations about learning Welsh, built on Netvibes for the Welsh Assembly

A coalition of activists, organisations, mothers and fathers working to promote healthy fathering on the African continent

Largest information portal for dads in the UK. Distributing Dad cards to half a million new UK dads per year

Blog site of Radio 1 Wales DJ Jen Long

A new charity focusing on the children of parents in conflict, separation or divorce.

A site monitoring web conversations about National Theatre Wales, built on Netvibes.

Website of Dr Kelly Page, from Cardiff's Business School.

The Tory party aims to strengthen marriages by introducing a tax reform, so if one parent stays at home, they'll be able to transfer their tax allowance to their working spouse. Trouble is - this doesn't support marriage, it supports a certain type of marriage - one that is out of touch with modern relationships and makes for unhappy couples.

In the 'old days' - the 1950's, 60's and to some extent the 70's, the idea of fixed gender roles had a social approval that enabled it to form the basis of an acceptable contract for a couple - mum would stay at home, look after the children, cook the food and clean the house. In exchange, the dad would go out to work and earn the money. That's what was expected and accepted, despite the unhappiness it often created (especially for women, who roundly rejected this settlement from the 1960's onwards).

It is a canon of modern gender politics that young girls should have a broad vista available to them in their life choices - the idea that they should be restricted to the home is thoroughly rejected - women should be able to participate in any aspect of public life and not be restricted to the private realm of home and children. Men are changing too - more and more now yearn for a life beyond the workplace - a real relationship with their children. After all, no one ever said on their deathbed "I wish I spent more time at the office".

The trouble with the Tory proposals is that they only benefit couples who have taken the decision to hold to the traditional division of labour - one parent works, the other stays at home - and they seem to think that this is what defines MARRIAGE. It's not - Marriage is a publically committed relationship, not a very specific 1950's conception of the domestic gender division of labour. To benefit from the Tory's tax proposal, you'd have to conform to some kind of wierd 50's ideal that no one really liked and no one really wants these days.

The Tories are interested in the stability of marriages - for the benefit of children - fair play - children thrive within stable relationships. But the stability of a marriage has become more and more dependent on the satisfaction of the partners in the relationship. When society held to a strict gender division of labour and divorce was frowned upon, marriage stability didn't necessarily depend on how satisfied each partner was - couples would stay together, often even if they were incredibly unhappy.

Not any more - without enduring satisfaction in marriage (i.e. happiness with the relationship), there is a strong likelihood of the marriage falling apart - people don't have to put up with abusive and unhappy relationships any more. So any policy that is going to increase the stability of marriage had better have a positive effect on marital satisfaction, non?

So what happens if couples organise their lives to take advantage of the Tory's tax proposals? One parent (usually the chap) has to take responsibility for all the earning, so inevitably plunges himself ever deeper into his career and has to carry the weight of responsibility for providing financially for the family. The other (usually the lady) will become a professional child carer / houseworker / cook - a slave to the home and kitchen.

In other words, their lives will diverge almost completely - the man will have very little experience or understanding of what his partner's life is like, and vice versa. They will experience very little of each others' stresses, joys, frustrations etc. They will begin to lead almost completely separate lives. 

I'd suggest that in those situations, it's going to be very hard to develop empathy in the relationship - which I reckon might be pretty high on the list of things that are going to fuel marital satisfaction. Dad won't be able to relate to mum's experience of being at home with the children all day, and she won't be able to understand the pressures on him at work. Great. Not.

So it's important to acknowledge that the Tory's proposals don't actually support marriage, they just support a certain vision of marriage - one that's been pretty much rejected and leads to unhappy couples. If the policy actually works in changing people's behaviour, I think it'll lead to less empathy in relationship, more isolated partners, and I reckon, ultimately higher levels of separation.

While all the 'standard' criticisms of their policy focus on the unlikelihood that a financial incentive will lead to people staying in marriages (good point), I think this policy will actually lead to a rise in divorce.

Law of unintended consequences, and all that.

The core idea of this presentation is to highlight the change in context that brands are facing in the digital landscape and how the notion of the "new grid" marks fundamental changes to how brands should budget, behave and interact in this space.

Parts of this presentation have been shared by numerous Nokia representatives at different social media forums across the world. It originated from a great conversation between the Search & Social team at Nokia as well as Teemu Arina and Esko Kilpi from Dicole in Finland. Conversations are the new conversion.