Apr 26
Freelancers ‘like being their own boss’
Freelance workers generally love being their own boss, and this is one of the bonuses cited by Journalism.co.uk’s latest Freelancer of the Fortnight, Caspar van Vark.
He said: “Some freelancers like being able to work in their pyjamas, but that’s not for me. I have a desk in a shared office and I put in normal days.
“What I love is being my own boss, and not answering to anyone. I also love the unpredictable nature of freelancing. Assignments can come out of the blue, and I enjoy the variety.”
Apr 25
Social Media still on rise: Comparative global study
Research highlights:
1. Social media is a global phenomenon happening in all markets regardless of wider economic, social and cultural development.
2. Asian markets (not including Japan) are leading in terms of participation, creating more content than any other region
3. All social media platforms have grown significantly over the three Waves: Video Clips are the quickest growing platform, up from 31% penetration in Wave 1 to 83% in Wave 3
4. Social Networks: 57% have joined a Social Network, making it the number one platform for creating and sharing content: 55% of users have uploaded photos, 22% of users have uploaded videos
5. The widget economy – 23% of social network users have installed an application – 18% of bloggers have installed applications in their blog templates
6. Blogs are a mainstream media world-wide and a collective rival to traditional media (184m bloggers world-wide, China has the largest blogging community in the world with 42m bloggers) – 73% have read a blog, 45% have started a blog
7. Social media has strong impacts over brand’s reputation – 34% post opinions about products and brands on their blog – 36% think more positively about companies that have blogs
Social media by waves: Universal McCann survey:
global-survey-march08.PNG
Apr 17
According to his survey report, ‘Britain’ is 7th in a league table of European countries for percentage of population that regularly use the internet.
Survey: Iceland leads Europe in net use – Research – BizReport
Survey: Iceland leads Europe in net use
Iceland has the highest percentage of population aged 14 and above in Europe that uses the Internet on a regular basis, finds recent research.
by Helen Leggatt
The survey, by market research firm GfK, found that 88% of the population of Iceland uses the Internet regularly.
The Scandinavian countries of Finland, Norway, Denmark and Sweden came next, followed by Austria and Britain.
Could it be that climate drives Internet use? The Scandinavian and Icelandic climates are colder than those of the countries where Internet use is lowest – Malta, Spain and Portugal – and daylight is in shorter supply.
1. Iceland – 88%
2. Finland – 81%
3. Norway – 76%
4. Denmark – 76 %
5. Sweden – 73 %
6. Austria – 67 %
7. Britain – 63 %
8. Germany – 61 %
9. Slovenia – 61 %
10. Estonia – 60 %
11. France – 56 %
12. Italy – 53 %
13. Ireland – 45 %
14. Portugal – 43 %
15. Spain – 35 %
16. Malta – 25 %
Norway has just been ranked the most technologically advanced country in the world, for the third year in a row, in The World Economic Forum’s latest Global Information Technology Report.
I would suggest that it’s not so much a cold climate as lack of daylight in the winter months that drives Northerners to spend more time on indoor pursuits.