Kirsty Styles, a dedicated Compass Youth activist, tells us about its inspiring political action training day.

As a growing youth movement, enthused to bring together and support young people to build a Good Society, the Compass Youth team arranged an exciting political action training day on Saturday July 16^th. Around 25 people came to participate, from the Labour Party, the Greens and those with no party at all.

As ever, Neal Lawson, Compass Chair, opened proceedings with some often needed inspiration. In a room full of bright and enthusiastic under 30s, he emphasised that working for the ‘Democracy Industry’, making the case for change and then actually creating it, can take a very long time, “but if you never give up, then you can never fail” and that “It’s not what party card you hold, but what’s in your heart.”

Three of our most committed campaigners were then reconised on the day for their contribution this year for making space to debate and making positive change. Lewis Dagnall won the award for Campaigner of the Year, James Whitaker won Most Improved Campaigner of the Year, and Jack Wilson won Compass Youth Ambassador of the Year. All received letters of thanks from Neal Lawson.

Next, we had an inspiring workshop by Jamie Audsley (a former Compass Youther) and Jim O’Connell on political organization. We did a Power Analysis to work out where Compass and Compass Youth could seek to influence the national debate and ways to engage people. Jim said, “if you find people who are angry, ask the right questions and use your sense of humour and you can build the kinds of relationships that are necessary to help you join together and make a difference.” Jamie went on to explain how we could create hubs in community centres and schools, to take our message further.

After a bit of a break, we had a group discussion on issues of generational politics which sparked some great conversations. Zain Sardar from the Young Greens and Deborah Grayson, contributing author to the Regeneration book of the Radical Futures series gave some great insights as did our Chair, Will Cass. We explored ideas around generational identity politics, discussed the main issues facing young people now and over the next 20 years, and look at questions of intergenerational justice.

Deborah said that it is easy for young people to feel angry at the raw deal we’ve got from some of our parent’s generation and that this should only compel us to ensure that we don’t do the same thing to our children. We should also, she argued, use this as a reason to justify our right to speak. Zain went on to quote the BBC journalist Paul Mason, ‘the whole option for self-betterment has been withdrawn,’ but, he pointed out, this is the UN Year of Intergenerational Solidarityand a time to work with all generations against a common enemy.

We then were invited to get up off of our chairs when we had a practical session by Lyn Griffiths from Monkey Boat Facilitation who explained some basic principles for holding a meeting. This included the power of not having any tables, having chairs in a circle to make communication easier, how to make a clear start, listen, and ask good questions.

Then Jake Coleman then got us to explore Consensus Building. He explained that in a world that teaches us to be competitive, we should use this as a tool to make decisions that takes everyone’s views into account to create common goals. Sometimes, that means being realistic in accepting that you have to accept conflict.

The day was an excellent introduction to framing and building the discussion around how to make a Good Society a reality and how to make the case for change. Thankyou to everyone who helped to organise the day and we look forward to the next one!

We will be having many more events similar to this one over the coming year. For more information email youthchair@compassonline.org.uk, like us on facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Written for Compass Youth and first published here: http://www.compassyouth.org/compass-youth-events/compass-youth-training-day-reflections-political-organising/

Any good advertiser knows that a big key to success can be aligning your brand with a huge public event. To hijack it, so to speak. If you have been to the UK recently you will have seen some interesting commandeering of the ad space, in newspapers and on the tube, with Jubilee-themed advertising.

From ‘Queen-tisentially’ British Buxton water, to the Pimms o’clock stats news story in the Metro today, and a ‘Right Royal Dine in for 2 meal’ from Marks and Spencer’s. Matalan urges you to ‘Kit out your Royal Family’, lastminute.com thanks her majesty on our behalf for the long weekend. With liked and loved British brands, getting into bed with the Queen is like putting strawberries with cream. A perfect combo.

Other brands must run into more trouble.

So, in light of their valiant effort, the Jubilee Advertising Award has to go to my new favourite advertising team, the one in charge of Jungle Formula insect repellant.

Flies + photoshop = bunting. Sorted.

Innovation in the Mobile Sector goes to our good friends at Swiftkey, who have updated their hit Android keyboard app to include Queen’s English. Timely, and different.

As if we needed more confirmation that mobile is big and here to stay, the humble QR code has made its way into the monarchy’s media mix. Scan, enjoy, loyal subject. By Royal Decree, we urge you to enjoy the long weekend.

Olympics here we come…

Written for Somo and first published here: http://www.somoglobal.com/news/1941/

Fragmented Android landscape by Open Signal Map

Another week in mobile and, as always, many new developments in the global platform war. It looks like Google will finally be launching its very own tablet this July. As Android is by far the most popular operating system and Andy Rubin, Senior VP of Mobile, told reporters at Mobile World Congress that ‘2012 is going to be the year that we double down and make sure we’re winning in that space’, we’re expecting a big push. Somo’s Innovation Director, Maani Safa, spoke to the International Business Times about the problems with the fragmentation of Google’s operating system after OpenSignalMaps identified 3397 unique Android devices. Could this hinder Google’s attempt to disrupt the tablet market?

Google tab and Kindle Fire head-to-head?
Rumour has it that the seven inch tab will sell for just $199 – could this be a loss-leading strategy to snatch marketing share from the Kindle Fire? Amazon is yet to launch the Kindle Fire in the UK, but Brand Republic reports that the company has negotiated a deal with UK bookseller Waterstones. Although a top online retailer joining forces with the struggling publishing sector might seem counter-intuitive, Barnes & Nobile in the US is showing how a multi-channel strategy like this can work – their stores provide Nook tablets for kids to play on, and special deals for their tablet owners, to entice them in store.

Facebook to buy browser?
Facebook is rumoured to be buying the Norwegian internet browser Opera, showing yet another serious move towards becoming a fully integrated ecosystem, after a rocky week post-IPO. Microsoft, moving ever-closer to being a post-PC digital company has launched So.cl (pronounced social), its assault on the social networking space. With the ‘screen agnostic’ Windows 8 OS on the way, they may also be poised to lead in the smart TV market; VP Frank Shaw detailed that CEO Steve Balmer keeps an 80-inch in his office…

Apple Developer Conference
This multiplatform glory could be short-lived; we are all on the edge of our seats for the Apple Developer Conference on 11^th to 16^th June, where we expect to see iOS 6, without Google Maps, perhaps an NFC-enabled iPhone 5 and possibly the Mac TV. How much do you think it would take to get the UK’s ITV channel to sell their trademark? We want iTV!

Written for Somo and first published here: http://www.somoglobal.com/news/our-week-in-mobile-google-tablet-facebook-browser-rumours-and-apples-developer-conference-predictions/

Yesterday, another long-awaited opportunity was finally revealed as Facebook launched its own app marketplace, The App Center.

Facebook has a $3 billion advertising business that’s tipped to get a lot bigger. Despite recent speculation that it can’t win on mobile, the company is in a commanding position both in terms of user base and the value per user. This new social discoverability platform will soon reach one billion people, more than 50% of internet users and nearly 15% of the world’s population.

To date, only web or mobile apps built with Facebook were displayed on their platform. Developers can now promote any Android or iOS app that allows users to log in via Facebook. New ‘product pages’, similar to other app stores and brand Facebook pages, will hold app details.

The aim of this move is to drive mobile downloads, either directly or through links to the relevant app store. The center will contain paid apps, the first time they have been given visibility on Facebook.
Facebook has not yet revealed what will be taken into account when ranking new apps, however, we are expecting highly social elements – weighted towards social sharing, positive ratings and reviews.
We expect Facebook to become one of, if not the biggest, mobile publisher and this is an excellent opportunity for our clients to promote their apps in a highly populated and social setting.

End of Google Maps on Apple?

In other news in Platform Wars, Apple is likely to drop Google Maps from the next iteration of iOS. According to ‘trusted sources’ speaking to 9 to 5 Mac, this will give way to a new Map app with an Apple back-end. This is unsurprising in the race to become the ruler of mobile, but is potentially an unsettling change as many people are used to Google Map. How different can a map be you ask? Apple’s new offering should include 3D. Like you’re actually standing there…

Watch out for Apple getting rid of Google as its default search engine…

Written for Somo and first published here: http://www.somoglobal.com/news/our-week-in-mobile-facebook-app-center-deadline-no-more-maps-on-ios-and-uminski-on-the-brand-perfect-tour/

By Kirsty Styles (Communications Executive, SOMO)

Jerri DeVard addressed the few men who braved the Women in Wireless London launch with “welcome to our world, we have expertise in discomfort!”  Said with a smile and charm, she won everyone over immediately.

In a lemon dress, the tall African-American Executive VP and CMO of Nokia cut an interesting figure, and brought with her a truly inspirational story that left time poor women in the crowd scrambling to call their mother, wherever in the world she is.

Like Jerri, her audience want to be happy and successful. Before us, it felt like we had the embodiment of just that. “I wanted to be successful personally too, jobs come and go, your family is always there” she added.

The Women in Wireless launch couldn’t have been better timed, coinciding with the news that the pay gap in London is the largest in the UK, almost 23%, childcare costs stop women from going back to work, while female unemployment has risen by 7,000.

Jerri has two children, and committed with her husband that they would be ‘present’, there would always be someone to sit down and have dinner with them.  She has turned down meetings to be at their special moments.

“We all stand on someone’s shoulders” she said, of the need for women to help guide others to success . She mentors young women around the world, giving them anything from an email, a text, to a shoulder to cry on. As a teacher, you have to ask ‘How can I help you?’

“Can you have it all?”, the age old question came from the audience. “Maybe you can’t have it ‘all’ at the same time. But we owe it to ourselves to find out what ‘it all’ is. You make it work.”

She finished her address with the words of Nicky Giovannia, the American writer and activist: “I really don’t think life is about the I-could-have-beens. Life is only about the I-tried-to-do. I don’t mind the failure but I can’t imagine that I’d forgive myself if I didn’t try.”

On Work
The best thing you can say to someone in business is, ‘I’d like your help’.

Know your strengths and play to them.

There is no substitute for being good at what you do – you have to be good to enjoy it, you have to enjoy it to be good.

Lean to those people who think differently to you.

Find those people at work who will give you an honest opinion about who you are and how you are perceived.

On Family
Your mum is someone who loves you, and also someone you can trust [not  necessarily  guaranteed in a relationship.

Friends tell you what you want to hear.

Her mum put herself through college after having two children, ‘isn’t being my wife and the mother of my children enough for you?’ her husband urged. ‘No. I want to do more.’ She rose to become the Commissioner for Literacy for the State of Massachusettes.

Remarried.

On Relationships
Be careful who you choose to take on your journey.

Written for Women in Wireless and first published here: http://womeninwireless.tumblr.com/post/21717665264/women-in-wireless-london-launch

The Internet Advertising Bureau revealed their full year UK mobile ad spend figures and confirmed what many of us knew already. From the sheer number of phones (53% penetration), to the increase in mobile internet users (now 24.6 million), the percentage increase of visits to retail sites (from 2.6 to 8.2 in a year), to 1 in 8 clicks now coming from mobile – it is becoming increasingly embarrassing for the brands who haven’t yet ‘done it’.

Given that Google now attracts more revenue than all US newspapers combined, we were not surprised to see that instead of creating a paywall, the UK newspaper group, the Johnston Press, is concentrating on digital advertising, and a new, increasingly mobile audience. The Daily Mail, the newspaper the British public love to hate (but definitely must read!) not only won best newspaper at the British Press Awards, but also overtook the New York Times to become the most visited online news site. No subscription required.

Just as we are starting to see a shift, with newspapers finally facing up to the digital future, a report from Pew has begged the question ‘Could Facebook swallow up the Washington Post?’. We’ve seen a lot of social news recently, and a lot of buyouts by the big tech players. Never say never.

Can you tell what it is yet?

Everybody’s favourite new app ‘Draw Something’ sold this week for $180 million. As an app that got 1 million users in just 9 days, compared to the mighty Facebook’s 9 months, many were crying that they’d moved too early. But an app in the market today is almost incomparable to a Facebook of 2004. With hundreds of cheeky developers quick to emulate success, there would have been a few ‘Scribble me this’ type copies before the month was out, so they probably counted the pennies correctly.

Despite a UK budget that was mostly revealed beforehand, and delivered a blow to the elderly, middle-income earners, and those at the bottom – everyone really- the UK makes the highest percentage of GDP from digital of all the G20 nations. The so-called ‘Internet Economy’.  Although that might be impressive, check out the world’s biggest employers. Yikes.
From mighty armies, to those with former glory, our favourite underdogs RIM are being outsold by Apple in their native Canada… It’s getting hard to watch.

Don’t watch. Draw!

Written for Somo and first published here: http://www.somoglobal.com/news/our-week-in-mobile-iabs-uk-mobile-ad-spend-google-newspapers-and-draw-something/