Today’s early UK Budget coverage was interesting at multiple levels.
- Last year everyone pretty much settled on #budget09 as the Twitter hashtag. This year, HM Government used #budget10 but many wanted to use #budget2010. That caused some confusion but it didn’t worry CoverItLive which can aggregate a good number of hashtags.
- Outside of mainstream media, there were very few live video streams. I attempted one at Livestream but it quickly exposed the limitations of my equipment and upstream bandwidth as well as a need at my end to get a better grip on audio channels.
- There was an interesting contrast between reactions at The Guardian online and The Daily Telegraph online. For whatever reason – and I suspect it is because The Guardian’s online presence is better than DT, The Guardian saw many more reactions to its live coverage. At the time of writing 192 plays 31.
- In the accounting related blogs, it looks as though AccountingWeb was only aggregating #budget which inevitably meant it was missing a lot of comment from those using #budget10 but on its own Tweets used #budget2010. They were also a tad inconsistent with Tweets. In some cases, only providing links but without a hashtag. For some reason their Tweets didn’t show up in my CoverItLive (and no – I didn’t block their IP address or URL!!) I sense that media organizations are trying to corral readers around hashtags but that doesn’t work when an aggregator like CiL can accommodate many related hashtags.
- I didn’t see anything from AccountancyAge and very little from the technology titles. What happened? I don’t know but the Age looks more like an ‘old school’ print publication that went online. Maybe its readers want it that way but they’re missing the real time value of action and reaction that can be captured at places like Twitter.
- I was disappointed to see that ICAEW wasn’t playing. They completely missed the boat and failed to turn up. What was that about? They weren’t alone. I didn’t notice either ACCA nor CIMA. If our trade bodies can’t turn up then what does that say to members?
- As has become increasingly common in recent years, the Budget speech is really a politicking exercise and so while there was some excellent coverage, the devil is in the detail which we won’t learn until the tax pundits have pored over the entrails of the UK HM Treasury documents. In one sense the aggregated blogs miss out because once the main action is over, interest dies off fairly rapidly.
- This year there wasn’t much of substance in the main speech so while traffic was high with plenty of comment coming through, there wasn’t the same injection of insightful analysis as the speeches were playing out. That’s more a function of what’s going on outside of everyone’s control than a failure anywhere near the technology.
So…for 2011 – what do I think?
- 2011 is too late – we’ll likely see a re-run after this year’s election. The post-election Budget will be far more important than this one so expect more action and reaction
- CoverItLive made a big impact this time around and I expect that to continue over time. It is a terrific service that I occasionally use for events. Once again it confirmed its value as I was able to see comment and links coming in from many directions simultaneously.
- I’d like to see more video but recognize it is in its infancy as a livestreaming technology for use in the EU.
- There is definitely room for broadcasting across channels other than Liverstream. OoVoo for example would allow a couple of people to riff off one another in real-time. The problem comes in hefting all the technology. Two computers are a minimum in my view.
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