Citizensheep. "Michael Grimes lives in Birmingham (UK). This is his blog about anything that he fancies."

It’s dawned on me suddenly that I’m a bit fed up. I’m a bit fed up with people telling me about the great ways that charities are using digital media. The reason they do it is, of course, highly laudible: they want to help other charities and show them what’s possible. Many people are being [...]

Someone complained to me recently that he couldn’t give his product away. His company had developed a tool that it was offering to charities for free, but no-one was taking advantage of it. He was quite indignant, implying that charities should be grateful for anything they’re given. My reply was that maybe they didn’t need his [...]

I supported the idea of strategies and policies for Twitter or social media when it was evident that people in managerial positions needed a solid, reassuring case for allowing their communications staff to use those tools. But I hope things have moved on now. I keep hearing people talking about how they’ve written a ‘set [...]

A good web presence is a bit like a large public park: it has a main entrance, possibly one or two franchises, and clear indications that you’re inside it. I’ve recently been struggling a bit with explaining why I think an organisation’s web presence need not be concentrated onto one ‘front page’, and this analogy [...]

I’m trying to write an outline of key considerations for website managers. I don’t want to blind people with science; on the other hand, the audience in question are people who are paid to be responsible for websites. They really ought to know these things already; how much should I give them? I don’t want [...]

At primary school we were told a moral story that seemed to me so ridiculous that I still remember it almost thirty years later. I couldn’t believe that anyone could be quite so stupid and quite so demanding as the story’s protagonist. Last night I was talking to Paula Tew about how shifting demands placed [...]

I find it exceptionally difficult to believe that I have any skills of note, and keep meaning to force myself to try and audit them just to check. So here I’ve spelled out what I do in my day job, and some of the challenges I’ve faced. Although I’m still not sure I know any [...]

Anyone who knows me will know how bad I am at making decisions. Not knowing how to choose can result in procrastination, or – worse – avoidance. That's not good for someone who's responsible for managing an organisation's corporate web strategy. Mind Tools has actually been very helpful for me. Although at first glance it [...]