Small Data Forum Podcast
How can we make Big Data less intimidating, more actionable, and so more valuable? That is the question at the heart of the Small Data Forum, a seriously light-hearted look at the uses of data – big and small – in politics, business, and public life.
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Infinity. Perplexity. Resentment.
12/05/2023
Infinity. Perplexity. Resentment.
On a chilly 1st December, Sam takes us to the Bermudas (only virtually, sadly) – to the “Jurassic Park of crypto” that (of , and so much more fame) describes with trademark virtuosity in his fly-on-the-wall tale of almost-first-trillionaire-cum-felon, Sam Bankman-Fried (“SBF”), of . A self-declared Lewis fanboy, Sam introduces , an account of the life and times of SBF, the people in his cash-fueled orbit, and the fraudulent practices of his crypto business ventures which are now likely to have earned him . Continue reading:
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Two rants and a wry smile
10/16/2023
Two rants and a wry smile
In a distinctly un-Friday 13th Feeling, the gathered for the 78th time to pick through the familiar themes of politics and social media, separately and intermingled. Spoiler alert: this episode may contain rants. The rest is politics Sam started by reviewing the remnants and the impact of the recent U.K. party political conference season. Least said about the Liberal Democrats’ opening event the better – not least because it didn’t touch the sides, of either our or the media’s consciousness. Though as Sam pointed out, several commentators have noted that the LibDems’ decision to try to occupy the centre left when disastrous Jeremy Corbyn was dragging Labour further left has come back to haunt them. With Starmer reclaiming the centre left and the Tories lurching ever further right, there’s clear space – in terms of ideology and electorate – to occupy, and nobody’s making a play for this traditional kingmaker zone of British politics. We then consider the Tories’ week in Manchester. Comic writer – creator of the legendary and – declared satire to be dead, and that he’d have never dreamt of setting a Tory party conference in the very city where a flagship policy designed to benefit that city was axed in a keynote, leader’s speech. But sure enough, Lame Duck PM Sunak cancelled the Birmingham to Manchester link of the £100bn-plus HS2 rail project … from the lectern in Manchester. He came over as the modern day anti-matter – announcing £30bn on branch lines – but as many had already been budgeted and spent, it all rang a little hollow from the Thin (and Short) Controller. Continue reading ->
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Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who will be the sexiest chatbot of them all?
09/18/2023
Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who will be the sexiest chatbot of them all?
Another month, another deepish dive by the three podnosticators of the SmallDataForum – who Sam describes as “Thomas = the philosopher-academic and historical context-setter; Neville = the champion experimenter and enthusiastic evangelist; and Sam = the dabbler, observer, and sceptic.” This time, we dive into (as well as ) artificial intelligence, large language models (LLMs) and various chat-botty applications, including Neville’s new favourite, , “the most human-like experience”. Turing Test, anyone? Perfectly timed with our latest podcast release, launched an e-book on AI and PR, edited by friend of the show, . contains timely, critical, insightful essays from practitioners and academics. This includes a piece by yours truly, informed by decades of stochastic (a posher word for ‘random’) knowledge acquisition. Continue reading ->>
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The three sceptics of the apocalypse
08/28/2023
The three sceptics of the apocalypse
Scepticism, questioning, and an ever-present gnawing uncertainty whether what Them In Power tell us is the case actually is the case – these are three hallmarks of we three Podnosticators at the Small Data Forum. And these three qualities are all present in abundant spades as we enter our fourth, quarter-century of podcasts in fresh-minted episode 76. We gather in what the British press term ‘silly season’ – in Germany (“sour gherkin time”), Thomas tells us – and in the hours before we gathered, President Putin had cried crocodile tears over the mysterious downing of a private jet carrying disgraced Wagner mercenary leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin; , pace Vlad in full-on Marc Antony mode. And increasingly disgraced former (and future?) President Trump had his (yet another first) at the notorious Fulton County jail, his fourth criminal indictment in a growing litany of disgrace, this one for and gerrymander the 2020 US Election. Silly season indeed. Continue reading ->
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SmallDataForum’s Diamond Jubilee
07/31/2023
SmallDataForum’s Diamond Jubilee
After seven years of vigorous podnostication, the SmallDataForum reaches its diamond anniversary. Or semi-sesquicentennial (‘half one hundred and fifty’) as Sam (of course!) informs us. Seventy-five episodes of wondering and pondering about the strange times we live in, with absolutely no end in sight. Our almost hour-long Zoomwag starts with the battle of the micro-messaging platforms: , Twitter vs Meta, Elon vs Mark – the digital cage fight over the monetizable part of the networked world. Tech maven and serial early adopter and experimenter-user Neville explains it all with exemplary breadth and depth. Social anti-social media “Mega instant network” Threads is actually part of Instagram and should thus be called Instagram Threads. Neville highlights benefits – it’s so easy to attract an audience, just follow all your Insta friends – as well as costs: if you decide to uninstall it, it will also uninstall Instagram. We hear about Threads’ instant success, (though the latest news is that ). Continue reading ->
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Flushable, unflushable, or lingering round the U-bend?
06/26/2023
Flushable, unflushable, or lingering round the U-bend?
We start episode 74 of the Small Data Forum podcast – or “1 AB” as Thomas christens it; the first after B*ris – in what many are calling “the era past peak podcast”. Things haven’t worked out as well for our medium of choice as Spotify predicted and gambled, and that includes the platform’s not-so-conscious uncoupling from the Sussexes. But we – like the relentless grind of British politics – carry on regardless. Thomas recalls the halcyon days when democracy meant the executive, legislature, and judiciary: three, interlocking, interdependent branches that worked with checks and balances, each branch (or arm) keeping the other in its proper place. In banana republics (like the US and UK), this breaks down when – usually – the army takes over; what was termed or a system of coordination or total control in Nazi Germany. There have been more than shades of this under the Johnson and Trump regimes from 2016 onwards. The terrible two Sam surveys the carnage in British politics in the past month. Since we three last met, the House of has published its findings into the Partygate affair. Getting wind of a pre-publication draft, Johnson clearly saw the writing was on the wall for his political career inside Westminster, pronounced the Committee (and the report) a “witch-hunt”, and resigned as an MP. He’d have been out on his ear when the report was published – recommending a 90-day suspension, triggering a Recall Petition and a by-election in his Uxbridge constituency – so rather than be pushed, he jumped. His pre-publication Trumpian rhetoric added to the severity of the punishment, and yet still Johnson didn’t care. Continue reading ->
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We don’t do that here
05/23/2023
We don’t do that here
“In framing an ideal we may assume what we wish, but should avoid impossibilities.” This Aristotle quote opens one of my favourite books, Aldous Huxley’s last novel, (1962). It also summarises neatly Neville’s, and to a lesser degree, Sam’s, position re the appetite and capacity for, and thus the likelihood of radical change to the British political and electoral system. To be fair, Neville suggested not to focus on politics at all in our latest episode, and instead invest all of our podnosticating attention in the “only big news of the day”, . In a masterclass of persuasive communication, however, Sam and I manage to talk him round to our planned discussion of the recent and all the related fall-out. Both Neville and Sam refer to local political evidence in their respective leafy neighbourhoods in West Berkshire and East Sussex, where Conservative councillors are all but extinct. And yet, as Sam highlights, on the local election evidence, UK-psephologist-in-chief Sir John Curtice an outright Labour majority at the next general election. Continue reading ->
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Burn, baby, burn
04/24/2023
Burn, baby, burn
Fire and music go well together. Sixties rocker – a long-time resident of the liberal enclave of Lewes, home of your correspondent, Podnosticator Knowles – made an entire career out of his 1968 cult classic, Indeed, I even played roadie to him and had the honour of putting him out when during the first chorus of Fire in a Sussex gig back in 2007, my pimple on the backside of rock ‘n’ roll history. And the first time Arthur had gone up in flames since the 1971 Windsor Jazz Festival. The least successful rockstar of all time, , was given a 50th birthday present to remember when his fans “rigged” the charts in a totally legal way and bought him a second, top-ten hit in a 5,000-plus gig career, and that catchy ditty stormed the charts. Its chorus features the line “Burn, baby, burn”, a lyrical echo through the ages, from to (appropriately enough) . And “burn baby burn” is exactly what it appears the planet will be doing – even quicker than the entire combined scientific consensus has unequivocally determined it will do, thanks to our crack-like addiction to fossil fuels – if we don’t shake our very recent, very deep love of generative AI. Sam starts episode 72 of the Small Data Forum podcast with a look at the latest developments in this new technology, whose poster boy is ChatGPT and one of whose early funders was Elon Musk. But more of the Musky one, anon. Continue reading ->
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Trolley problems
04/03/2023
Trolley problems
Back in the grey drizzle of a late March Friday morning in the UK, the three Podnosticators of the SmallDataForum convene to take another sideways look at ‘events, dear boy, events’ (something Harold Macmillan ). For once, and in spite of recent headline-grabbing incidents, we give relatively short shrift to the of politics on either side of the Atlantic – though Sam briefly reminds us of the travails – one with the UK parliament’s , the other with a . Perhaps by SDF 72, there will have been some flushing. Though we’re not holding our breath. In the meantime, we focus our attention on three themes: The “sic transit gloria – quo vadis” of the Tory party The UK government’s WORLD LEADING AI plans The BBC post causa Gary Lineker Continue reading ->
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Meet the Podnosticators – the Oracle of Riogordo
03/20/2023
Meet the Podnosticators – the Oracle of Riogordo
In ancient Greece, people consulted oracles to learn about the future. The best known resided at the , where the blind priestess Pythia provided prophetic prediction for all in need of direction. Above its entrance, the temple had an inscription: Know thyself. In fact, there appear to have been a chiselled into the marble – and they are well worth studying in detail if one wants to fine-tune ones moral compass... The first three are the best-known: in addition to self-knowledge, they appeal to moderation and the avoidance of overly strong beliefs or ideology (one might be tempted to call that humility). It is no surprise that the Sam, as the classicist among the three veterans of the SmallDataForum, came up with our new name, blending the ancient Greek word describing foreknowing – prognosis (with gnosis = knowledge at its heart) with our cherished medium of podcasting. Lo and behold, in an act of neology-meets-etymology, the Podnosticators were born... Continue reading ->
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How should we shape our future digital life?
03/15/2023
How should we shape our future digital life?
The Small Data Forum podcast was created spontaneously and almost accidentally after your three co-hosts met on a panel at a media industry event in 2016, a few weeks before the EU Referendum. After a lively debate featuring sometimes radically-divergent views to keep our audience entertained well past the scheduled end time, seasoned podcaster Neville Hobson suggested to podcast ingenus Thomas Stoeckle and Sam Knowles that our ramblechats might work rather well in pod land. Who were we to argue? And so it came to pass – with Thomas’ wry titling – that the Small Data Forum came into being, with the dropping on 14 June 2016. Since then, we’ve taken a more-or-less-monthly, sideways look at the uses and abuses of data big and Small in politics, business, and public life. Continue reading ->
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Myopic PR industry set to miss yet another boat?
03/13/2023
Myopic PR industry set to miss yet another boat?
With the sun beating down on the Small Data Forum Podnosticators on day three of our podcast recording retreat in Ríogiordo, Andalucía, we turn our attention back to the world of AI and its potential impact on the world of communications. With a new generative engine popping up almost every day – for words, structure, music, images, film, translation; you name it, it’s appearing – we consider the approach taken by the communications industry to this brave new world. Neville kicks us off, citing from the U.K.’s Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) and its global sister, the International Communications Consultancies Organisation (ICCO). The study found that fully 30% of the two bodies’ members had never used ChatGPT or a similar AI chatbot, while 25% claim they never will, to assist them in their work. Neville finds these figures staggering, while for Sam this shows a remarkable lack of curiosity from an industry that could be massively disrupted by AI, as well as hugely enhanced. Continue reading ->
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Hasta la vista, Auntie?
03/12/2023
Hasta la vista, Auntie?
Fuelled by nothing more than Coke Zero and Fanta Limon, the Small Data Forum Podnosticators pop up for a special, flash, mini, 15-minute micropodcast, recorded during our podcast retreat in Andalucía over the weekend of 10-13 March. Our topic? The titanic struggle emerging on the future of independent, impartial broadcasting manifested in the battle of Gary vs Suella. For a change, Neville blows the starting whistle to get us going, passing the ball to football lovers Thomas and Sam, with a shared passion for Liverpool, Arsenal, Fulham, but probably not Brighton. Continue reading ->
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Of bots, turds and turnips
02/27/2023
Of bots, turds and turnips
Always with fingers on the pulses of the most relevant breaking news stories, the not yet scurvy-plagued triumvirate of the SmallDataForum briefly contemplates the shortages of fruit and veg on Great British supermarket shelves. And we decide that neither the Marie Antoinette-esque “” intervention of political-turnip-made Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Therese-with-accents-aigu-et-grave Coffey – nor the seemingly permanently unflushable turds, former-now-shadow Prime Ministers , are topics worth any of our (or our listeners) attention. Sam, of course, wouldn’t know much about those domestic five-a-day-struggles, given his jetting all over EUlandia (Catalonia, Amsterdam etc.), promoting his excellent, not-to-be-missed online course, building a “digital ecosystem” – and ZING, just like that, Sam won this episode’s jargon bingo. How he finds the time to read Times columns is beyond me. But read he does, and so we find ourselves discussing David Aaronovitch’s piece (if only they were selling fruit & veg). Continue reading: ->>
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Of AI, Tortoises, and online safety
01/23/2023
Of AI, Tortoises, and online safety
The world is split, riven, and – as we so often observe from the three outposts of the Small Data Forum – like never before. Milk or tea in first? Red sauce or brown sauce on a sausage sandwich? And is it still acceptable to say “Happy New Year” after (the third Monday in January and officially the most depressing day of the year, which this year was also your correspondent’s birthday)? We three podders from Plague Island seem to be in the “Aye” camp for the third of these modern dilemmas, particularly as this – episode 65 – is our first digital emission of 2023. The year in which , as Thomas notes, doubtless inspired by the work of D:Ream. So Happy New Year, podcats! Continue reading ->
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Reflections on 2022 – from Trussonomics to generative AI and goblin mode
12/19/2022
Reflections on 2022 – from Trussonomics to generative AI and goblin mode
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Reflections on 2022 – from Trussonomics to generative AI and goblin mode
12/19/2022
Reflections on 2022 – from Trussonomics to generative AI and goblin mode
It has been a tumultuous year, marked by upheaval and conflict. The people of our community have faced challenges and hardships that tested the very fabric of our society. The SmallDataForum chronicles the stories and struggles to survive in a harsh and unforgiving world. And so, we put our microphones towards the tale of this tumultuous year. For many of us, this year has been one of great change and uncertainty. But as the old saying goes, "What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger." As we look back on the events of the past year, we can take solace in the fact that we have survived, and that we are stronger for it. So let us now delve into the tale of the end of this tumultuous year and see what lessons we can learn from the challenges we have faced. Ok, perhaps there are better ways to intro our year-end pod, than asking to come up with something in the style of the . Then again, that’s what it’s for, isn’t it…? Continue reading ->
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Schadenfreude squared in the land of Big Tech’s woes
11/15/2022
Schadenfreude squared in the land of Big Tech’s woes
The 17th century French moralist François de La Rochefoucald observed in his Maximes: “In the misfortunes of our dearest friends we always find something not wholly displeasing unto us.” So there was more than just the tang of sweet Schadenfreude in the air during the recording of the latest episode – 63, no less – of the Small Data Forum podcast. For some of our dearest friends from the past six years of our data-ish ramblechats put in an appearance, like the cast of a mash-up musical all jostling for attention and approbation in light of their latest misdemeanours. Continue reading ->
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Movin' on up, you're movin' on out
10/10/2022
Movin' on up, you're movin' on out
Given our combined decades of experience in the wider media business, it’s no surprise that this post-party conference edition of the SmallDataForum takes a close look at politicians’ media performances. And boy is there a lot to look at. Front and centre, of course, is the new Prime Minister and her serial car crash interviews. Neville asks serious questions about the buffering Trussbot’s media advisers. It shouldn’t come to anybody’s surprise that Jason Stein, her , was a media advisor to Prince Andrew until with now Emily Maitlis. Despite this being as Sam informs us, our focus is more on fat cats and those that feed and breed them. So we delve straight into the cesspit of Conservative party politics, where Sam detects a distinct whiff of the mid-Nineties, that case study of Tory self-destruction where things could only get better under fresh-faced new Labour leader, Tony Blair. Continue reading ->
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The lingering whiff of sulphur in the air
09/12/2022
The lingering whiff of sulphur in the air
(Please note that this episode was recorded – and these show notes were written – on Thursday 8 September, before the of the death of Queen Elizabeth II.) The first Small Data Forum of the era sees the podcast team convene IRL on the morning of 8 September for the first time in aeons – and in a professional, West End Studio, to boot. Nothing to do with the fourth Prime Minister (not to mention ) since our ‘umble podcast started crackling over the digital airwaves. More to do with a desire to get together IRL more often post-COVID, as well as a heart-felt yearning to “up” production values, as decent as Zoom may be. Plus an opportunity for a post-pod lunch at our favourite Italian haunt, on the Cut. All trussed up and no place to go With a new Prime Minister in place, Thomas asks who fancies prognosticating on the latest incumbent of Number 10. Sam leaps in. He’s concerned about the far right, ideologically-driven agenda of Truss et al. While memes in recent days – from to may be variously misogynistic and laser-focused – Sam pinpoints the Truss administration as “continuity Johnson”. Ironically for a new team replacing de Pfeffel’s hated, ADHD-raddled regime, Sam believes Truss made a profound mis-step with her first two speeches, one to Tory Central, the other to the waiting world. Both at the Gathering of the Tories and outside #10, Truss first name-checked BoJo and all the “amazing” things he achieved, from a bungled Brexshit to “the fastest COVID vaccine rollout” (until – very soon – it wasn’t). Continue listening ->
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What happens when enough really is enough?
08/22/2022
What happens when enough really is enough?
Inflation! Energy crisis! Cost of living! Inequality! Strikes! A government out of its depth and out of touch. And that’s just 1978 … The latest episode of the SmallDataForum podcast opens with Thomas comparing the not-so-good old days of the Winter of Discontent in Britain with the dry bleak hot summer of 2022. Ah, 1978: when Margaret Thatcher was not yet Prime Minister, and the average CEO of a UK FTSE 100 company earned 11 times that of the average full-time worker (). Fast forward to today when political weathervane Mary Elizabeth Truss, erstwhile , and serial is given a to be the new Prime Minister by 5 September. The median CEO / worker ratio is now While wistfully recalling the rubbish heaps triggered by a general strike in ‘78/’79, Neville cites a long list of present societal afflictions that the UK's “zombie government” is unable to address, from inflation to climate change impact, energy bills to raw sewage dumped on beaches. Now, as then, there is plenty of anger and a strong sense that we’ve had it, that enough is enough. Continue reading ->
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Bye bye Alex
07/11/2022
Bye bye Alex
As I am typing up the show notes for our latest podcast, news has come in that former Japanese prime minister during a campaign event. A sad, sinister reminder that contrary to what the soon former prime minister of the UK would have us believe, it’s not all a laugh and a half. As if we needed reminding. The was only nine months ago, and just before the Brexit Referendum, in June 2016. Culture wars and wedge politics will only ever make things worse. Even is now pushing back against the growing Trumpification of political discourse in the UK. But that was never an issue for the P.T. Barnum of British politics and his confederacy of dunces, as Sam generously labels Her Majesty’s continuously thinning Government. But the times they are about to be a-changin: together with a majority of – not just the Westminster commentariat but – the great British public, the SmallDataForum punditariat on Friday rejoiced in the news that finally, FINALLY, the (thanks Marina Hyde) of Downing Street, the tousled blonde cherub, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, announced his resignation on 7 July as leader of the UK’s Conservative Party. He remains Prime Minister until a new party leader is voted on by Conservative MPs and party members. Continue reading ->
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The old rules don’t apply
06/14/2022
The old rules don’t apply
For once, it appears, the Small Data Forum three are ahead of the news. So often in recent months and years, we’ve recorded an episode on a Friday morning and by the Sunday night before publication we’ve had to make rapid edits to the show notes because … a president has been impeached, a special adviser been sacked, or a new lockdown announced. But today – today feels different. Is it because we were recording first thing on a Monday for next-day publication? Or is it because so much news had happened of late that we had the timing right for once? Time – of course – will tell. On day 110 of Russia’s war on Ukraine – a topic that doesn’t delay us beyond a heartfelt appeal for the nonsense to stop – Thomas opens proceedings by reflecting on Prime Minister Johnson’s “victory” in his vote of (no) confidence handed to him by his own members of parliament. Well, , while 148 (41%) wanted to see the back of him. A smaller majority than that recorded by Johnson’s lame duck predecessor, Theresa May (a 63%-37% split), who was history less than six months on. Indeed, – a in the annals of these show notes if ever there was one – it was May who was ‘the real winner’ of the vote, by virtue of turning up to the vote in a ball gown. Continue reading ->
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Where we discuss a crazy aviator, BongBong and a pigeon …
05/16/2022
Where we discuss a crazy aviator, BongBong and a pigeon …
In another case of the speed of news catching out the SmallDataForum’s best-laid arguments, Neville’s, Sam’s, and my combined Musk-whispering was rendered somewhat outdated by the announcement - just hours after our podcast recording - that enigmatic Elon has because ... oh never mind the stated reasons. Actually, it wasn’t our exploring Musk’s motivations that had become outmoded, it was merely the factual base of our musings. Will he, won’t he buy Twitter? Will he, won’t he lose billions over the deal? Musky musings Will he, won’t he instate rules and regulations that draw the line really only at whether speech has been performed by an actual human (you’re fine, and if you say something that’s “illegal or destructive to the world”, you face temporary suspension, because free speech is a more holy principle than protecting against the impacts of hate speech, ostensibly), or a bot (in which case Elon really doesn’t want you, and in fact will retract his offer if he feels he is being outbotted). The free speech issue is one of many highlighted by Neville in his characteristically well informative and well judged . Neville also points us to an Axios piece listing (surely another news item that would benefit from hourly updates), as well as challenges surrounding the commercials of the bid: a triple whammy of $9bn below Elon’s offer, Tesla’s share price down by a third from April Fool's Day, and the on Tesla’s investment position. So maybe, just maybe, Musk’s stated bot problem is a bit of a sock puppet. The Washington Post at least thinks that . Continue reading ->
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What a terrible shower!
04/11/2022
What a terrible shower!
Shoulda been in Spain! Sporting a gardener’s tan from ongoing travails in his garden in Southern Spain, Thomas welcomes Sam and Neville to the first-ever Saturday recording of the Small Data Forum podcast. We recorded on 9 April, two years to the day – as Neville points out – from when we were supposed to be on a weekend-long podcast recording sojourn to the self-same spot from which Thomas addresses us. But then Covid happened. Indeed, were it not for the , Sam should have been with Thomas, but as pointed out in that day’s paper, the country – and indeed the world – is suffering a semi-paralysis from a variant of Long Covid and is facing “a new pandemic of disruption”. Continue reading ->
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Propaganda 3.0: the end of free media (but definitely not of history)
03/21/2022
Propaganda 3.0: the end of free media (but definitely not of history)
Taking its cue from professional media commentators, the SmallDataForum kicks off with Thomas quoting Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, who is better known by his nom de class struggle, Lenin: “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” Unprecedent times, anyone? Sam is reminded of the times of Soviet openness and reconstruction, Michail Gorbatschow’s Glasnost and Perestroika initiatives of the late 1980s, ‘when it all began’ – laid out with great insight in this four-part series of podcast. To which Thomas adds some on-the-one-hand-on-the-other-hand perspective: Francis Fukuyama’s End of History essay, versus the insight of US Army educators that a permanent pulling back of the Iron Curtain will reveal a stage beset by increasing volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, which gave us – a sort of cat nip for business school educators. With the benefit of hindsight, declaring the end of history turned out to be as premature as the description of our ever-modern world as VUCA was prescient. Brexit, Trump, COVID, war in Ukraine – it doesn’t get more VUCA than that. Or so we hope. Continue reading ->
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Nick Manning interview: Time for brands to take control of their data
03/07/2022
Nick Manning interview: Time for brands to take control of their data
The Small Data Forum started its side hustle of interviews with industry experts as an experiment almost exactly a year ago, but already we’re onto our sixth. SDF co-host Sam Knowles spoke on Friday 4 March to , one of the most important, informed, and trenchant figures in media and marketing over the past 30 years. Nick founded the media agency in the early 1990s. Sam and Nick worked together at in the mid-twenty-teens in various guises, as Nick – and then CEO – bought consultancies to expand the capabilities and geographical footprint of the media investment analysis consultancy. Nick now runs his own consultancy, , and is a regular . We spoke at the end of the first week of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Continue reading ->
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Metaverse, Omniverse, diverse, averse, perverse?
02/16/2022
Metaverse, Omniverse, diverse, averse, perverse?
Tired of , the SmallDataForum takes measure of the mess surrounding Meta, where user numbers , followed by a rather , and Peter Thiel announcing that he would be leaving the Facebook board “”. Oh well. However, news of Meta’s impending demise would be awfully premature, as Sam reminds us. For all our Schadenfreude at Meta losing several hundred billion (!) $$$ in market value – at present, their share price is down a cool 35% from the beginning of the year, suffering the ignominy to temporarily on the list of largest US companies – the attention capitalist behemoths Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta now hold a share of 46% of global ad spend, as opposed to 33% pre-pandemic in figures released by the World Advertising Research Center (). And yes, that’s total as in everything, not just digital… Continue reading ->
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Gina Miller aims to bring good governance to British politics
02/14/2022
Gina Miller aims to bring good governance to British politics
The Small Data Forum podcast is both delighted and honoured to bring seasoned campaigner, , to the latest in our occasional – but increasingly frequent – interview series. SDF co-founder and co-host Sam Knowles talked with Gina on 9 February, in the week in which British politics tumbled still further into disrepute. Two days before we spoke, Labour leader Keir Starmer and MP for Tottenham, David Lammy, were of anti-everything protesters. The potty-mouthed crew were apparently fired up with confidence by premier Johnson’s “rough and tumble of debate” gibe at Starmer in the previous week’s Prime Minister’s Questions. During that session, in which Eton’s finest rifle accused Starmer of failing to prosecute serial paedophile, Jimmy Savile, while the Labour leader was . This attack – which the PM’s advisors all recommended he avoid like the plague – took the low level of political discourse in the U.K. to new depths. Sam starts by asking Gina to explain to SDF listeners why she’d founded her new political party, , and what she hopes to achieve with it. Gina believes that Britain's system of politics is outdated, no longer fit-for-purpose, and so in dire need of reform. The lack of systematic checks and balances mean our national politics lacks transparency, accountability, and good governance, and her objective in creating and launching True & Fair is to address these failings head on. Continue reading ->
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Helping brands navigate the Scylla and Charybdis of digital and social media
01/24/2022
Helping brands navigate the Scylla and Charybdis of digital and social media
In the latest in the occasional series of Small Data Forum podcast interviews with industry mavens and thought leaders, SDF co-host Sam Knowles caught up with , UK MD of brand communications and publishing house . To this content and creative-driven role, Christian brings a consultant’s mindset (with years at Bain and an MBA) as well as digital marketing smarts (from Digitas and Google) and marketing analytics expertise (his role before Looping was with Ebiquity). Sam starts by asking Christian where the smart money is going in digital marketing. Christian’s view is that digital marketing must rest on the twin levers of marketing optimisation and effectiveness, and that on this foundation brands need to build holistic customer experience. We are going through a period of renaissance, currently, for both research AND creativity and content. Continue reading ->
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