My interview with Ruth Davies, the winner of both Best Writing on a Blog and Best Blog at the Wales Blog Awards 2010.

Location, location, frustration?

Tue 5 Oct 2010 By Katie Chappelle Sixth Columnist

Big Brother is watching you - and you keep telling him exactly where you are

YOU’VE PROBABLY noticed an increase in your Facebook friends ‘checking in’ at home, or at the local pub. Or perhaps you’ve seen people adding locations to their tweets or linking their Twitter account to Foursquare? It’s down to the location-sharing explosion on social networking. Whether you’re embracing it, or you simply find it annoying, you may not realise that sharing this kind of information could actually have more seriously implications.

Foursquare and Gowalla are well-established mobile applications. For those that don’t know, they allow social media users to “check in” to a place when they’re there, thereby alerting nearby friends who may want to join them and also tracking the history of where they’ve been and who they’ve been there with – sort of an online locations diary.

In August of this year, Facebook launched its Places application in the US. It started working in the UK earlier this month. Places aims to do pretty much the same as Foursquare and Gowalla (they are actually partners in the application, along with Yelp and Booyah), but Facebook Places makes it easier to share the information instantly on your Facebook profile. Facebook bosses also boast that Places will tell you if your friends are nearby and says its main point of difference is that it will recommend locations it thinks you might like, using places you’ve recently checked into. Facebook Places only works using your smart phone’s GPS – your PC won’t do it for you. The iphone application is up and running, while there are plans to introduce Places to android phones and blackberries very soon.

Twitter Locations is another application you may have seen more of recently. Twitter has “data partnerships” with TomTom and Localeze to make Twitter Locations work. The company’s blog says using Locations “can provide additional information that makes your Tweets more meaningful”.

Twitter Locations also features Foursquare and Gowalla integration and can be added at your PC. It’s already been rolled out to 65 countries and is working to add Twitter Places to its iPhone, Blackberry and Android applications.

There are plans to team up with companies to offer rewards or deals in the future – so if you’re a regular at your local pub – you could find vouchers being emailed to you from that bar – or offers from nearby bars that want to gain your custom.

This online openness and sharing of information has led to criticism. There are concerns, mainly over privacy – an issue which has dogged Facebook for a while.

Facebook says the privacy settings on Places are defaulted to ‘friends only’, it has a “not now” feature – should you wish to not broadcast your location and you can also remove any check-in at any time. You can only be tagged at a location by a friend and you can remove that tag if you want to – or even switch tagging off completely. If there’s a place that’s inaccurate or you don’t want on the system (such as your home address), you can report it.

There’s an opportunity for location-based applications to be used as a marketing tool for businesses. If a ‘place’ is set up, it will automatically be given a Facebook page, if it doesn’t already have one. Small businesses are always recommended to use social networking – and there are numerous success stories from businesses embracing online PR.

However, there is a sobering warning that this sort of activity should be taken with care. You’d be unlikely to tell stranger in the street that your home was unoccupied and hand over the address. Saying something online about your whereabouts isn’t always much different. It is worth checking your privacy settings and now might be the time to have an audit of your friends. You may have forgotten that you added that strange bloke you met at a conference four years ago. Do you really want him knowing where you are all the time?

This sort of activity could also put you at financial risk. Insurance companies are warning people who use social media that they could face increases in their home insurance premiums after a spate of burglaries targeting people using Facebook Places in the US.

If you are going to use Facebook Places, Twitter Locations or any of the other location-based services on offer, now is the perfect time to make sure your privacy settings are up to date. And please, try not annoy too many of your online friends by checking in every time you go somewhere. Thanks.

Tagged as: facebook, social media, Twitter

This article originally appeared on WalesHome.org on 5th October 2010

One of a series of films we produced for Wales & West Utilities' in-house management training programme. This film deals with how you should and should not approach recruitment.

A film for Welsh Water warning young people about the dangers of swimming in reservoirs. The film was devised by Warwick Emanuel PR and produced by Wordley Productions.

Shakespeare al fresco

Sun 18 Jul 2010 By Katie Chappelle Review

Creating an atmosphere: The Lord Chamberlain's Men play in the open

THERE’S something quite refined about spending a summer’s evening watching a performance of a Shakespeare play in the fading daylight. Throw in picnic and a jug of Pimms and it’s pretty much got the quintessential British summer evening.

Shakespeare productions have historically been performed outdoors. The famous Globe theatre, built in London in 1599, was built without a roof, meaning the actors often had to shout their lines and use exaggerated gestures to get over the disrupted acoustics. Outdoor performances of the Bard’s work came back into fashion in 1950s New York, when actors began staging performances in Central Park. It’s a tradition that continues today and New Yorkers can often be seen queuing around the block for hours on end to get a ticket. It’s a trend that is also growing here in Wales.

The Lord Chamberlain’s Men have kicked off the Cardiff Festival programme of events with an open-air performance at the city’s castle since 2004. Past productions have included A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet and Twelfth Night.

This year they performed The Tempest, Shakespeare’s last play, on July 1 and 2. The Tempest is both a comedy and romance, but perhaps one of the playwright’s more unusual works, featuring spirits and magic. The story begins when King Alonso of Naples and his men encounter a terrible storm (or Tempest) while returning from his daughter’s wedding in Africa. The men are stranded on a strange island, inhabited by magician Prospero, his daughter Miranda and a strange spirit named Ariel. Prospero was the Duke of Milan until his brother Antonio, conspiring with Alonso, usurped his position. Prospero uses Ariel and the spirits to meddle in his daughter’s love life, while Alonso’s men stumble around the island, getting drunk and into various scrapes, until Prospero is finally reinstated as the Duke of Milan and ensures a safe journey home for the men.

Named after William Shakespeare’s original troupe of travelling players, The Lord Chamberlain’s Men pledge to follow the same principles of the Bard himself: “Clear, bold and dynamic storytelling in the open air, seasoned with a healthy dose of music, songs and comedy”. The troupe is made up of seven experienced actors and musicians who tour to more than 80 venues around the UK over the summer.

The troupe’s small cast has its pluses and minuses. Men playing woman (as was done in Shakespeare’s day) can be incredibly funny. However, despite sticking quite faithfully to the script, it also meant that large parts of the play were cut, as the actors were forced to double up their parts.

The best parts of the production were the slapstick scenes, which were well choreographed. Personally, The Tempest wasn’t as enjoyable as the other performances by The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, but it’s not my favourite of Shakespeare’s works. However, the play is likely to see a resurgence in interest with the imminent release of the film, starring Helen Mirren and Russell Brand.

The winning factor in this event is the spectacular backdrop of Cardiff Castle. As daylight fades the small stage is lit up with spotlights and the castle buildings in the background are illuminated too. The audience (sat on their own camp chairs or picnic blankets) can huddle up and watch the action. It is of course, all in the open air and the play must go on – even in the terrible weather. I gather the audience the night before I went were completely soaked. But we were lucky, and only endured a slight chill at the end.

Less than two weeks later I found myself heading over to the Welsh History Museum in St Fagans for the Everyman Theatre’s performance of Much Ado About Nothing. Founded in 1942, Everyman has held a open air summer festival since 1983 – a mixture of Shakespeare, musicals and plays for younger audiences.

Everyman calls itself “Cardiff’s liveliest and most adventurous theatre company”, so it’s only right that their performance should be something out of the ordinary. And this is definitely what the audience got.

Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy about two pairs of lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, and Claudio and Hero. The play centres around  gossip, rumour, and  misunderstandings. Benedick and Beatrice are tricked into confessing their love for each other, while later in the play Claudio is tricked into rejecting Hero at the altar by the villan, Don John. However, the evil trickery is discovered and Claudio and Hero eventually get married, with everyone celebrating at the end.

Everyman set their version of this play in 1940s Messina, featuring British and American allied troops. It meant some fantastic period costumes for the females, forces uniforms for the men and the addition of 40s music, giving an excuse for the actors to lindy-hop and swing dance around the stage. The director’s substitution of nuns replacing the characters of the night watchmen was a rather hilarious turn, if a little out of keeping with the original play – the Mother Superior had a distinctly northern accent and one of the nuns was even named sister Mary Cheesecake.

The actor playing Benedick was the star of the show. He bounced off his co-star Beatrice and played to the audience with his ridiculous dance moves and silly declarations that he would never marry.

What I also enjoyed about this performance was that the audience is given proper seating, undercover, making it more comfortable, particularly if it rains. The lighting at the end was stunning, illuminating the impressive trees in the background. It wasn’t, however, as stunning or as atmospheric backdrop of Cardiff Castle.

If you like something different, an Everyman production is probably for you. But I preferred the traditional Shakespeare ethos of the Lord Chamberlain’s men, in the stunning castle grounds.

Everyman’s summer festival continues until July 31^st with productions of HMS Pinafore and Winnie the Pooh. Shakespeare’s comedy Twelfth Night is at Tredegar House in Newport from Monday 19th – Saturday 24th July.

Tagged as: Shakespeare, Theatre

A new World Cup winner

Sat 12 Jun 2010 By Katie Chappelle Sixth Columnist

Expect to see a lot more of this man. Oh, yes

THOSE of you trying to avoid the football this coming month will not only have to leave the television and the radio switched off. You’ll have to give the internet a swerve, too. This is the the first social media World Cup.

The tournament is all over whatever social network you use. If it’s not people talking about the games in their status updates on Facebook, it’s the hashtag #wc2010 on Twitter, or even the ability to switch your background to twitter’s new World Cup theme.

Advertisers have realised that social media is the way to interact with football fans, and they are willing to pay good money to do it. Global web company Yahoo! announced this week that ex-England football captain David Beckham – no stranger to endorsements – has signed to be their first ‘global sports ambassador’ and will front all of their World Cup content. The internet giant will also feature Golden Balls in its online sports channel, where he’ll share his experiences of playing in past World Cups. So expect plenty on getting sent off during crucial games, then. His coverage will then continue beyond the tournament when the AC Milan/LA Galaxy player will deliver rolling content, including chat sessions with users of Yahoo! Messenger and Yahoo! Answers.

It’s a trend that most of the big-hitting advertisers are following. Why blandly broadcast your wares widely to millions, without receiving real-time results, when you can interact with dedicated fans on a one-to-one basis? Most big brands have launched some sort of social media content to accompany their traditional advertising.

Beer company Budweiser is taking a tip from Big Brother and has gone so far as to launch its own reality programme on YouTube, featuring 32 fans from 32 countries living under one roof and watching every game together. It’s doubtful it will be as popular as the final series of Big Brother currently playing out on Channel 4, but then it’s unlikely to contain the same amount of, ahem, interesting characters.

Coca-Cola is going for interactive content by launching its own YouTube channel and encouraging fans to upload videos of their own goal celebrations. The winner of the longest celebration will be awarded tickets to the World Cup final. It’s an fine example of interactive content working to engage the public and we wait to see with an inventive YouTube generation can come up with.

If you’re looking for online games, Continental Tyres is offering to pit you against your friends using its conti tire kick game – challenging you to avoid the obstacles and simply kick the ball into the back of the net.

Big-budget World Cup television commercials often have the ‘talkability’ factor and this year they are getting the social media treatment, too. Nike’s Write the Future advert features players such as Wayne Rooney, Didier Drogba and Ronaldo thinking through the consequences of their next kick. Shorter versions of the advert are currently being shown on television, but over 14 million have logged on to see the full three-minute ad on YouTube, featuring cameos from Roger Federer, Gael García Bernal and Homer Simpson. At the time of writing, the film sits at seventh in the world’s viral video chart.

There is no shortage of iPhone and Android apps to keep you up to date with the World Cup. There’s an app if you’d like to keep pace with all the news from BBC Sport and ESPN,  there’s the official FIFA app, which includes a full games schedule and stats for each player in the tournament, and even a world cup trivia app – if you’re one of those people that likes to impress your mates with obscure football knowledge.

Be warned though – if you’re following Steven Gerrard or Frank Lampard on Twitter, don’t expect to hear their insights into what goes on behind the scenes at the tournament. England’s players have all been banned from using Twitter and Facebook during the World Cup and will only be allowed to air their views through the FA’s official website.

Social networking has historically been an ongoing headache for football clubs and players. Most football fans will remember sometimes England player Darren Bent was forced to apologised after posting a less-than-friendly message to the chairman of his then club, Spurs. Manchester United has completely banned its players from having any social media profiles.

Football fans may argue that players will have a more important matters to focus on rather than updating their profiles while out in South Africa. But why not give fans the latest information and see what goes on behind the scenes – perhaps with some social media training in what they should or shouldn’t say? Tennis player Andy Murray manages to Tweet while taking part in high-level competitions, and this helps to engage and involve fans.

But with all this social media surrounding the World Cup 2010 and fans and journalists regularly updating from South Africa , it will be almost impossible to miss the beautiful game. Even while you’re away from your TV screen.

Tagged as: David Beckham, online, social media, World Cup

The categories for the Wales Blog Awards will be:

Best Blog

This will be sourced from the other categories, the winners of each category go through to be judged against each other for the honour of being the best blog in Wales.

Best Welsh Language Blog

Celebrating everything that is great about the Welsh language, if you write in Welsh about any subject you can be entered into this category.

Best Writing on a Blog

It could be a diary blog, you might just have brilliant use of adjectives. This is a way to celebrate the quality writing that is out there on the web.

Best Political Blog

An insight into the corridors of power, declaring bold new political ideas. We are on the hunt for the best political blogger.

Best Community Blog

Blogs can be a pillar of the community, informing people about what’s happening in their area. Community blogs could be about a very small area, or a wider area – or for a specific community of people.

Best Lifestyle Blog

This is a bit of a catch all category, if you blog about travel, leisure, fashion or food & drink – chances are you’ll be in this one. Wales has some brilliant lifestyle bloggers and we want to showcase them.

Best Technology Blog

Getting a bit geeky now, those who blog about coding, computer games or web design. This is the place where technical know-how comes to the fore, technology blogs are some of the most popular on the web and we have no doubt Wales has its experts.

Best Sports Blog

From the grassroots to monitoring the fortunes of Cardiff City, sport is an area that’s opened up on the blogosphere – allowing everyone to give their opinion on their favourite sport.

WEPR is running this year's Wales Blog Awards. Log on to enter your blog or nominate a blog you enjoy reading

Vidcast produced by WEPR for Energy UK

WEPR produced this film for Welsh Water, to publicise their affordability tariffs to customers

www.cancerresearchuk.org/relay - Cardiff is hosting its very first Relay For Life event at Cardiff High School Old Boys RFC, Whitchurch on July 24th-25th 2010 and we want you to be a part of it. We are really excited to be holding this fun-filled overnight event in Wales' capital city!

Relay For Life is an event that anyone can take part in so why not get together with your friends and family and enter a team and help us make history, and raise money for Cancer Research UK at the same time?

Relay For Life gives your community the chance to celebrate the lives of those touched by cancer and to raise money to bring hope for the future.