I joked yesterday about writing one omnibus tweet per week. But actually, that’s not a bad idea at my current blogging rate. So here goes, my week in the Twittersphere –

The Digital Economy Bill

Not only am I totally unqualified to write any real critique on this topic, but there’s so much debate online already that any post I could write would be but a drop in an already soaking wet ocean.

On a personal note though, as much as the rushing-through of the bill exemplifies the illusion that I’ve always imagined democracy to be, it at least makes politics relevant to me; something I can’t say I’ve ever really experienced. I don’t think I’m alone here either as the comments on this TechRadar post illustrate. My own comment was as follows:

For me this whole affair has highlighted that some of us Digital Natives (I speak for myself) live in a bubble, and assume that the big issues facing our country are taken care of by others more knowledgeable in politics and economics. I had never watched the Parliament Channel before either, but if I was a teacher or a nurse you can bet I would have done. My point, if there is one, is that I agree with Gary that it is “business as usual” we just don’t usually notice.

My best hope from all of this is that the DEBill debacle has made people like me that have little contact with the grown-up world and who struggle to keep up with current affairs, realise that the Internet is just as much of a political issue as healthcare, education and taxation, and hopefully it will give me better reason to choose how I vote from now on.

Apple getting evil

Apple alters the legal terms of their developer SDK as they roll out iPhone OS4. Another topic on which there are volumes of content superior to what you’ll find here. If you need somewhere to start, my particular favourites are as follows:

• Daring Fireball appears to have become the de-facto reaction and is a great read.
• Lee Brimlow on the Flash Blog (I’m curious how much legal clout the “opinions are my own” line really carries in the end)
• Level headed response from Unity 3D (it’s not all about  Adobe, you know!)
• Phone Gap appears unaffected as Webkit is a valid way to deploy an app. nothing on their blog yet.
• I enjoyed  this existential angle

On a personal note again (deeply cynical as usual) I have never been under any illusion that there is any such thing as a benevolent corporation. (There are such organisations – they are called charities). Obviously Apple want to control every aspect of deploying to their platform, they are going to continue to do so, as sure as Google are going to enter every market place they physically can until our lives are 100% reliant upon their existence. So, am I just gong to lie down and die, you ask? (Yes, probably). Seriously though, roll on W3C Widgets – I want to see the web go mobile, not see the mobile industry lock down our web.

Nearly forgot to mention UTweet

On Tuesday the Twittersphere (or at least the digital/media corner of it) erupted in massively over-the-top debate about Uniqlo’s UT campaign site, which I imagine was aimed firmly at aforementioned (ahem) influencers. For 24 hours the dialogue went like this:

• People tweeted the link and said they liked it. Some even said it was incredible

• In purposeful contrast to this hype, further commentators said it was nothing special and didn’t see what all the fuss was about.
• The protagonists then either backed off or defended their position, creating more fuss.
• The fuss was played down as being disproportionate to the event, creating more fuss.
• People  started blogging about it, and the fact that it was never intended to be anything more than a nice looking bit of fun in the first place. (oh, the irony)
• Those that waited a whole 24 hours before commenting had the hindsight to comment on the herd itself

Not a bad exercise in getting people to talk about your brand, really.

I think I’m done. I’ve got some coding to do.