I just joined GeekSpeakr, a “simple directory and connections system to help technical women speakers and event organisers to find each other.” If you’re a woman and a speaker, then this could be a really useful place to have a profile.

I shall be reprising my talk on how to draw a healthy line between work and play at Steph Booth’s Going Solo conference in Leeds on 12 September. Registration is now open, but don’t delay - the first 25 tickets will be going at the early bird rate of £150, and some have already gone. Once they run out, the normal price is £220.

If you’re a freelance, or are thinking of starting out on your own, then Going Solo will be invaluable - it has a great atmosphere and some stonking speakers! So go straight to registration, do not pass go, and pick up an early bird ticket whilst they are still around.

We’ve had intermittent problems with Movable Type here at Strange Attractor for months now. Every time we think it has been fixed, something else goes awry. Right now, we’re battling with a problem with rebuilds which means that every time we post an entry, or someone posts a comment, the site fails to rebuild properly and spits out naught but a blank page. This is really annoying, and we are sorry if you’re inconvenienced by it.

We are hoping that we’ll be able to move to Wordpress soon - that’s our aim, although the actual transition is in the hands of the chaps at Corante so we have no idea when it will happen. In the meantime, sorry if you have visited or tried to comment, only to get a sea of white. Please do email me if you have commented and the site is returning a blank page and I will pop in and do a manual rebuild.

Kevin Marks turned Suw and me onto the excellent WNYC programme/podcast Radio Lab. The programme deals with scientific, bordering on, philosophical issues such as Time, Morality or the biggest of big questions: Who am I? Or more precisely asking, “How does the brain make me?”

In this episode, actually an extra while they work on season 4, they talk about the craft of making the soundscapes that they create for the show. They begin by playing a clip from the Musical Language show of developmental psychologist Anne Fernald talking about how mothers talk to their babies. She said, “Sound is like touch at a distance.” Listen to them play with the sound. For journalists not working with sound, this is an inspirational master class. Listen and learn.

Technorati Tags: production, radio, sound

Monday is the closing date for the The Knight News Challenge, wherein the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation gives away $5 million to anyone with an innovative idea to change journalism. Lots of info on their site, but if you haven’t already started on your idea, you’d better get a move on!

You may noticed that there are a few error messages showing up when you go to individual post pages. The lovely people at Corante are aware of this and are trying to fix it. We apologise for the frankly fugly browsing experience that you are suffering in the meantime.

I expanded on comments I made at the recent Guardian Changing Media conference about community and news in a column for the Press Gazette. I go over some common mistakes that news organisations make when crafting and executing a communities strategy, and I highlight some success stories. Just to highlight the main points:

1. Your audience isn’t a community.
2. This isn’t just about choosing the right tool or technology.
3. This is about changing the culture to involve the public.
4. It doesn’t come for free. A little investment in a lot of engagement is a key to success.

Suw and I are speaking at the Guardian Changing Media conference today. I’m on a panel with Google, Bebo and a production company talking about Care in the Community. Suw is speaking later this afternoon on What is the business model for ‘free content’. Suw and I are very much looking forward to scaring a few dinosaurs today, and when we’re not lobbing rhetorical hand grenades, we’ll be live blogging. And if we don’t blog something, I’m sure Jemima Kiss will pick it up over on the Guardian’s Organ Grinder or Greenslade blogs.

Technorati Tags: changingmedia, Guardian, media 2.0

Like all bloggers, I’m becoming a bit of a stats junkie, and I love the simple easy to understand information provided by StatCounter. It is so much more intuitive than so-called professional systems that I struggle with at the day job. Looking through recent keyword activity, I found this: I dont want to continue using yahoo id anymore?

It’s one of several anti-Yahoo searches I’ve seen pop up in our stats recently. Sunnyvale, you’ve got a problem. Better roll out the Yahoo damage control brigade fast. You’re alienating your users.

I’m in Washington DC next week (March 3-11) on a working holiday (as much as that is an oxymoron). If you’re a blogger, in new media or want to talk about digital journalism, drop me an e-mail, and we can grab a coffee or a drink. Looking forward to being back in the old hood.