Back in 2006, I was in Barcelona for the 3GSM conference. After part of the team announcing a new product from Nokia, I went to a gathering organised by Real Networks, and then was planning to go to another event. On the way, I quickly, and I mean quickly, took a photograph by balancing my Casio camera on a bollard. (That’s me taking it, thanks to Nick). I took just one, and carried on walking.

I was quite pleased with the final result, and slung it into my Flickr stream. And thought nothing particularly about it.

Until a few months ago, when the Ministry of Sound contacted me about the photo. Could they use it for the cover of a new album? Sure. We agreed terms, I waited a few months… and there it is, in the niftily-produced photo montage above.

This isn’t the first time I’ve been published. Photographs I’ve taken have been used (at least, cleared for use) in the Russian edition of Time magazine; in a few books, some of which haven’t come out yet; in some postcards in Switzerland (oddly); in a video montage used by a comany to flog stuff; and apparently this one has also been used for a San Miguel promotion (the agency promised to send me lots of beer as payment, but I guess they never used it in the end).

What’s interesting is how excited I am about my photograph being produced in a way that the public will see it. And then I reflected that my photographs are everywhere, thanks to the magic of Creative Commons. The thrill is that it’s available in a physical format, rather than just another link from another website somewhere.

Which says a lot about why most people prefer physical CDs, rather than downloads; why bookshops and travel agents still exist on the high street; and why newspapers are still read by a large amount of the population. The internet’s gone some way; but the physical is still just as important sometimes.

That’s not a photo up there: that’s a video from my colleague Duncan Robertson. He says, not unreasonably, “I think completing a tough challenge within a Flickr long photo (90 seconds) could catch on.” And so do I. Most impressive.

(Not got the photo in your RSS reader? click this.)

This is the BBC Somerset mobile studio, this is.

Oooh

jamescridland's Bookmarks on Delicious
Crikey. Delicious has changed a bit, hasn't it? Coo. Good redesign: it's kept the simple feel of the original, while brought up to date. Good stuff

Interesting BBC data to hack with [Derivadow.com]
…including the first public release of at least one of these things. Nice.

Ahhh

Stats for me on Twitter [Twitterholic]
Apparently, I was the 54,213rd person to sign up to Twitter. Not sure how many users it now has, but disappointed I came to the party so late

Oh dear

iPhone 2.0: The glory wore off in wash -[37signals]
Another person who is less than impressed with the new iPhone 3G - like me.

Fail of the Week: My New iPhone [Veronica Belmont]
Everyone's favourite geek-girl appears to share my thoughts about the iPhone. Oops.

A Fabulous Summary of Carphone Warehouse’s iPhone Debacle (And Possible Barclaycard Ones?)
Oooph. And illustrated, naturally, with my iPhone image.

It’s hardly finished yet. But Matthew Shorter has posted a great post on the BBC Internet blog (albeit accompanied by a photograph which is less than flattering) explaining all about the new BBC Music website. The artist pages went into beta on Monday. Read Matthew’s blog post first if you’re a little confused why it’s a bit difficult to find your way around.

For a bit more of a techie look behind the scenes, you might try Tom Scott’s post. Tom’s a great member of my team, in spite of his apparent inability to do himself a favicon, and he does a good job of explaining what the team have been thinking of.

And it appears to be going down well: Techcrunch UK (another site without a favicon, I note) acknowledges that we’re releasing a ton of data from this system out into the wild.

What’s most neat isn’t the mashup with Wikipedia (been there, done that) or using the industry-standard Musicbrainz to use as the master data source (not least because it copes well with pop and classical music); but the link-up with programme data.

So, if I’m a fan of The Beatles, I now know that BBC Radio 2 is the station for me… and, indeed, the splendid Chris Evans plays the most Beatles tracks out of all the BBC national network presenters.

I also discover that national radio mostly shuns The Eels, with 6music being the only channel to really play them. This’ll be one of the reasons 6music appears as “super” in terms of compatibility with me on last.fm, I guess.

Linking together programmes and music is the first part of the plan. Further links with events (think “Glastonbury”), and topics (whether they’re people, places or concepts) are to come. And, of course, links to users (that’s you and me). Link all that data together, and you’ve a great way of exposing all the great things the BBC does. And making a ton of great data available for the rest of the web, too.

Well, no, not really. But hit ‘play’ and keep watching.

This is a very clever piece of customised video. Makes me think that internet advertising will get an awful lot cleverer from hereon in.

(Reading via an RSS reader? Try this to watch.)

Thanks Sam Downie for pointing this out…

From Ireland comes this interesting piece in the Irish Times, from the 10th July (I’ve had it since then, but haven’t posted it until today to give the Irish Times time to earn from their content). Click the image above to go straight to a readable version.

“Agree on technology - compete on content” was my theme when the journalist called me. My one quote was, therefore, “state radio and commercial radio has to work together to make DAB work.” (I didn’t use the phrase ‘State Radio’, since the BBC certainly isn’t run by the government, but the point still stands).

Good to see my friend Dusty Rhodes from Digital Audio Productions given a lot of quotes. Dusty’s Digital Radio Ltd website is a good one for his view on DAB Digital Radio in Ireland.

I speak at the BCI, Ireland’s answer to Ofcom, in September.

So, your business is changing name - and it’ll be against the terms of your contract to still use it in less than 60 days.

You’ve just realised that you’ve tens of thousands of images on your website, many with the old name (whether stamped into the images, or simply as logos in the background). And you’ve also realised that while tens of thousands of images are fun to go through, it would be easier if someone else did it.

The station currently saddled with the name “Virgin Radio” are in this pickle. So, step forward, Spot the Virgin, another shining example of the intelligence of that online team (and notably Anthony Abbott, their web editor).

For absolutely no reason whatsoever - well, for a new badge on my profile - the station has graciously allowed me, and you, to help with this mammoth task. And I’ve spent a considerable amount of time doing so.

I saw my old team on Friday night - waving goodbye to one of Golden Square’s IT department who’s joined the rather strange exodus to the O2 - and was amazed to hear that in less than a week, their users have already checked over 20,000 images.

A more controlling broadcaster would not have trusted their audience to do such a job - this is compliance with a legal requirement, after all, to remove the beardy Branson brand. But, what with their corporate blog - including a post by their outgoing programme director - this is a company showing a tremendous amount of trust in their employees and their audience.

Trust that is, as I’m reminded every day in my day job, markedly absent elsewhere in the industry.