London in colour in 1927

Claude Friese-Greene shot this film in 1927, with a process developed by his father called Biocolour.



via Comment Central

Could Manchester topple London's crown?

So apparently London is the social media capital of the world.

That is according to Emma Barnett, Technology and Digital Media Correspondent of the Telegraph who argues that

1.Nearly 10 per cent of traffic to news recommendation site Digg comes from London alone,

2.London is the Facebook geographical network with the largest number of members and

3.London is the top Twitter-using city.”

Robin Hamman thinks the reason is

“London has a comparatively young, affluent and office based workforce with high levels of internet connectivity. That, combined with its status as a global communications, business and social hub, means that its population is more likely than those of similar sized cities to participate in social networking activities.”

But maybe Manchester combining its creativity backlground with its social networking scene should be mounting a challenge

Another shift in the Murdoch stable?

So does the decision by the Murdoch empire to close the London paper mark a radical shift in Rupert Murdoch's attitude to free news?

Last night his son James announced that the experiment in shoving free papers in the faces of London commuters had "fallen short of expectations.

The project which employs over 60 people lost £12.9m in the year to June 2008.

According to Patrick Smith writing at Paid Content

Murdoch’s decision to axe that paper today shows just how much the axis of publishing has shifted: just as proprietors are growing weary of readers enjoying their online news for free, there is not nearly the same confidence in the free print model there was three years ago and publishers are reverting to ways of maximising user revenue in all media instead of giving it away for nothing.

No doubt the other London freebies,Lite and the Metro will be watching developments and maybe up here in Manchester the MEN's free experiment will also be coming under scrutiny