Marc Mclaren

The Vouchsafe project for digital identities in Scottish public services has moved into its beta phase with the team beginning to explain its operation to the public. The idea of using social vouching in the verification of digital identities has won support on both sides of the border, but seems to be moving much quicker in Scotland. It has obviously been higher on the list of priorities, but it's also notable that the Scottish Government has allowed the small team at Vouchsafe, previously known as Interrobang, really run with the project. https://lnkd.in/epWwq66P #scotland #digitalidentity #publicservices #socialvouching

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🔍 136 million words monitored 🗞️ 3,750 media mentions ⚖️ 217 verdicts on claims Plus live fact checking, manifesto analysis, round the clock shifts… oh, and a manifesto correction. Here’s how Full Fact fact checked the 2024 general election https://lnkd.in/exd5R_T3

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Looking forward to this great conversation about the importance of first party data!

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Now that everyone is flocking to Bluesky, I'd highly encourage this piece on how the platform is handling content moderation, account verification, and the overall misinfo risk. (+ add me! I'm @sirichr.bsky.social🏄‍♀️)

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Could an animation help you with stakeholder engagement? Interested, but have no idea where to start? Why not sign up for our webinar on 18 July to find out?

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How do you make the news when you're not actually that important? Ask Ed Davey. The Lib Dems could have easily been lost in this election campaign. No poll suggests that the party has a real shot of being anywhere near Government, Brexit has receded as an issue, and there are plenty of "small party fireworks" going on with Reform and the Greens. But they haven't been lost at all - and have actually gained some vote share. Here's how the strategy has worked. 🥉 Situational awareness. Lib Dem strategists know this is not an election like 2010 where they could decide the Government. They know that the media could easily squeeze them out of stories as a consequence. Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer will always get some airtime simply by being the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition - the leader of the fourth largest party simply doesn't have that same right to coverage. 🏄‍♂️ Be good TV. The best way to counter getting squeezed out is to create media moments so intrinsically visually interesting that any editor won't be able to resist including them in a story - whether as a photo or as a clip. See Ed Davey bungee jumping today, or kayaking, or doing an interview on a fairground ride. Most politics imagery is fairly boring - men in suits talking - so the media are always on the lookout for something fresh, and Davey has delivered it. 🧡 Don't lose your heart. There is a risk to overdoing step two - becoming a clown, someone who will nakedly do anything for attention. Some may argue Davey has crossed that line, but I think he's stayed just shy of it. Part of that has been integrating messaging within the stunts: Today he asked voters to 'try something they haven't tried before' and vote Lib Dem before bungee jumping. More important has been a less flashy video the party released of Davey caring for his disabled son and talking about how this drives him. The big stunts hook viewers in; the personal narrative gives them something real to connect with. It might not win you an election, but it will certainly keep you from irrelevance.

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This is such a brilliant read. I'd really urge anyone playing with models to read it. It's particularly good at encouraging thinking around use cases and separating out valid and useful applications from those which just happen to be possible. Great quote here on news summaries: "Easily available data for a task doesn’t make that task inherently worth working on. For example, it’s very easy to collect news stories in English. Because the style of many English-language newspapers puts the most important information in the first paragraph, it’s very easy to extract a decent short summary for each story, and we now have a substantial number of demonstrations for an English-language news summarizer. However, if readers of the news already know that the first paragraph of a news story is usually a summary, why build such a system? We should certainly not expect a system built on news summarization task data to carry over well to tasks that require summarizing scientific papers, books, or laws."

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A quick mention of one of the keys to my writing life. Storyteller Tactics by Pip Decks. A deck of cards that contains a library full of books about telling stories distilled down to 54 systematised, colour-coded, double-sided reference cards. A handy system for plotting out stories, characters, and tactics to make them flow and stick in the memory. I spread them out on the desktop, shuffle them round, with ideas and links dancing through my brain as I work on a presentation or an article. My detailed review is here: https://lnkd.in/g-ybe3WX

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One of the most common questions I get from candidates in job interviews is what it's like to work for a company where the entire team is remote. As we're looking for new team members to join us, allow me to answer that question. Working remotely can be incredibly freeing; it means you're not tied to living in big cities where the rent is extortionate (I'm still in London, because I like to torture myself), nor do you have to spend money on rail cards, the Tube or buses. On the flipside, working from home can be isolating. It's just the nature of the situation. This is why it's so important for companies to keep staff engaged, and I'd like to think that we do that at JP. Through trial and error, we've found our groove. There was the dreaded Zoom quiz (I think the team will all agree it wasn't a winner) but there's also the annual JamFest – where our editors Ben Nicholls and Jody Knowles invite us to Cornwall to hang out on the beach, have dinners and drinks, and 'work'. Mind you, I once swam out a bit too far and had to be rescued by a hunky lifeguard but that one's on me... We do team meetings on Zoom just to say hi. We have a Slack channel that acts as a water cooler, where writers can chat about whatever they like (they share a lot of pet photos – I can't complain). We offer trainings, call them weekly and try to be available as much as possible. I can't speak for my team but I can say that from what I've seen in the past four years, they all appear to get on pretty well – which is a rarity in many physical offices. Working from home is about mutual respect and trust – and I trust my team. Yeah, we make bad jokes. We send gifs. We have an infamous Friday Question that the brilliant Lee from the World Team drops in the afternoon. This year's JamFest is happening after summer. I've (understandably so) been banned from ordering shots. I am fairly certain there will be some karaoke (we love that mic far too much) and I know we'll have a good time. So yeah, we're not in an office. All that means is that we make extra effort to create our own version of one. Enough from me... we've got jobs going. If you're looking for a change, give us a shout.

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Have you bought/read The Grub Street Journal? For my MA in Journalism Innovation and Leadership, I'm writing a report on building audience loyalty, and would love some input from readers. If you're happy to spare 10 mins to help me (and to help Grub St!) then I have a quick survey here: https://lnkd.in/eC5rHAAq #indiemags #supportmagazines #magazines

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Really interesting piece from Sherwood News' Jon Keegan concerning engagement stats across BlueSky, X, and Threads. It's still early, but it looks like the smaller upstart platform is doing really, really well for big publishers. https://lnkd.in/eWztteAM

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The launch of Good Corp Bad Corp is something of a passion project for me, developed and launched independently of my role at Speak Media UK, but bringing a lot of that corporate content experience to bear in creating a platform to discuss these critical issues in depth. It's important to note that - perhaps contrary to my instincts as an ex-journalist (!) - the aim of the podcast is not to excoriate, over-dramatise or pass judgment, but to ask questions like: - what makes a good corp or a bad corp in today's society? - how much is public perception of a brand shaped by its ethical principles and the way it communicates and acts on those principles? - what can CEOs and senior corporate execs, particularly those overseeing ESG/CSR/governance, and corporate communications around those issues, do to deal with increasing scrutiny of their moral intent and avoid accusations of greenwashing and sportwashing? - is it down to consumers or the companies they buy stuff from to be responsible for transition to more planet and people friendly business practices? - and ultimately, how is it even possible for a corporation to be 'good', as long as its primary concern is delivering shareholder dividends? The tone we're trying to set is one of open, balanced, solutions-focused debate rather than rant-filled finger-wagging. How well we manage all that - while actually creating something interesting and relevant enough for listeners to tune into - only time, or specifically the number of streams, will tell. Not saying we'll get clear answers in a flash, but we hope to share some deep and useful insights from truly world-leading authorities in the industries we explore. So thanks to all those corporate comms experts client-side that I've worked alongside and learned from over the years, and to all the individuals who have helped me bring this project to life. I look forward to sharing more episodes and hopefully inviting some of you to participate as guests in future editions of Good Corp Bad Corp. For now, please give it a listen and let me know what you think - does this have potential do be a good pod or a bad pod?

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I must be on some [publishing] wavelength that I’m not aware of... For weeks—months!—I have been telling writers [that want to follow a traditional pub path] it’s rough out there. REALLY ROUGH. & just like the expression “at first you don’t succeed, try. try again,” you need to keep writing. In this thriller & horror writers group I’m in, someone questioned how #friedamcfadden could publish books so fast, so consistently... Another person gave a rather surprising answer—a lot of her books were already written. She wrote, got rejected, wrote, got rejected, wrote, got rejected [she did do some independently pubbed books] but then got her big break—& had a huge backlist of books to sell. [I can’t confirm this info, but it makes sense...] Also, the queen of publishing herself, Jane Friedman, started her newsletter on Saturday with: “The best quality books are not the ones that typically sell. The most talented writers are not always well known. The worthiest information rarely spreads the farthest. Or: The cream does not necessarily rise to the top.” Which is something I had been telling writers I work with—even some really excellent books are being passed on, books that would normally be picked up, are not. So what to do? Write more. (Or as Jane Friedman quoted Samuel Beckett, “Fail better.”) I’m a big believer in the idea that practice makes perfect. (In fact, that’s kinda my philosophy when it comes to #writingcoaching.) Let me help you put your best book forward! If you need help—#writingadvice, a professional set of eyes, someone to #brainstorm with, discuss your #writingideas, talk #characters or #plot or #plotholes & #plottwists—I’m here to help. HMU [email protected]

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It’s National VCR Day is the States, and the nostalgia streaming through my consciousness is incredible. The clunky, chunky Video Home System (VHS) cassettes created memories much more colourful via a VCR than a Blue-ray digital optical data disc ever could. Not technically, of course, but in grand, grainy ‘Nineties vividness. Watching Mufasa die, or Atreyu’s horse Artax sinking deeper into a muddy death, in vibrant 480P resolution provided just the level of darkness those moments deserved. Fast-forward a few years, and there was burnt-out black magnetic tape around the 25-minute mark of Basic Instinct (IYKYK) from incessant scrub-rewind, play, pause, repeat. Later into the ‘Nineties, still, I remember collecting Budweiser can ring-pulls which would be traded in for horrendous home movies – not made at home, rather ones to watch at home. Working in nightclubs (firstly The Market, and then Doc’s) which sold Budweiser cans by the boatload, I wasn’t long stocking up my stash of VHS’, which too weren’t long losing qualitative integrity. And so, decent teens would take a weekly trip to Xtra-Vision – because Blockbuster hadn’t yet broken into Ireland – on a Friday to snag one of very few copies of new releases like Drop Dead Fred or Die Hard 2, occasionally steering clear of being burned out by bush-drinking. Though inevitably, home entertainment came with a fine for returning cassettes more than 24 later, and an ensuing look of discontent when the clerk copped you hadn’t rewound the tape before clumsily clapping the big plastic case shut. The shame felt, as he’d stack it back on the shelves in a row of dramatic movie titled tiles, tutting disappointingly in your direction, is rather indescribable, though somewhat understandable when you were on the receiving end of an unwound copy of Free Willy. Incredibly infuriating! Actually, June 7 is when The Day of the Tiles (though not movie tiles) took place. In 1798, guys and gals from Grenoble tossed roof tiles onto royal troops as, deeply affected by the depressed demand for the French town’s luxurious gloves, bayonets brought blood and peasants poured into the city setting the stylish French Revolution in motion. In fact, there were six riotous outbreaks in Grenoble that day; so that the French response to societal challenges like unemployment, poverty, discrimination, and strained relations with law enforcement, to this day is to riot, is no great surprise. It’s in their fancy finger-warmed blood. PS: Happy Hug an Atheist Day. Find you a good god-fearing non-believer and give them a holy-moly cuddle! #VCR #VHS #XtraVision #Blockbuster #FrenchRevolution

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As a journalist, this story irks me. It reads like a paid advertorial, and all the links throughout the piece are Skimlink-tagged URLs that pretty much take you to the Temu website. But there's no clear indication at the beginning that this is nothing more than a promotional advert for Temu, which is verified by the list of Black Friday specials at the end. Meanwhile, the author makes statements that cannot easily be verified - and that are clearly not authenticated in the piece. The truth is that we don't exactly know all the risks that Temu is facing in its supply chains. But after personally reading through many modern slavery statements from local brands and businesses - especially those that aim for a perfect ESG score - it's near impossible to claim that any business has no modern slavery in its supply chains. In its 2024 Sustainabilty Report, Super Retail Group confirmed they found a 15-year-old working on premises at one of its second-tier factories in China - this is below the legal working age in China. Super Retail has since dealt with the issue. And that's one of many issues found across just the fashion industry in Australia. Moreover, it is hard to ignore the multitude of reports of slave labour in China's cotton industry - even from official US government departments including the US Department of Labor: https://lnkd.in/gF29MAKD My hope is that more people in this world become sceptical. We clearly need to be questioning everything...

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How can you make a survey when you don't have resources? Know your product. Know why it exists and what you're trying to do. Stick to that tone. Then talk to people like they're people. Storytelling. That's just one part. I know people who are really, really good at survey design and agonise over things like structure and flow. We're lucky in that The Continent News has a distinct voice. This helps us when we might not have the in-house skills, or budget, for better survey tools. Voice is key.

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What I appreciate more than sharing this post about AI displacement of human writers is that LinkedIn offered to write this comment with its AI. :D > ... the internet is finite. And so too is the sum of every word on every page of every book ever written. So what happens when the last pamphlet, papyrus and prolegomenon have been digitised and the model is still not perfect? What happens when we run out of words? The date for that linguistic apocalypse has already been set. Researchers announced in June that we can expect this to take place between 2026 and 2032 “if current LLM development trends continue”. At that point, “Models will be trained on datasets roughly equal in size to the available stock of public human text data.” https://lnkd.in/d5KkTt4a

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