OT: 10 Things I would pay £1 a month for

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Read more! Apparently, there's no money in content, nor broadband, nor supplying us pernickety customers. I beg to differ.....

This blog post can be read at 5tth.blogspot.com


Here's what I would expect from my dumb fat pipe as extra that I would pay, in total, £10 a month for.

Currently, I get all these things for free. But I started my own business at 8 years old. You have to be sustainable. So, make money...find the customers who actually value what you do and are willing to pay.

What would I pay for? Let's get this clear though...you as an ISP cannot re-invent the wheel as I won't buy it. I want the tools I like today, some of which I have been using for well over a decade now in one form or another. You, as my fat pipe supplier, won't see a bean from moi, but this should help you make the right strategic partnerships and form JVs...perhaps.


1) Delicious

Look, I know I saved/bookmarked it but where? I use at least 3 browsers on every computer I am on. I have 4 of my own computers plus access to untold others. I need my bookmarks, going back years, in the cloud. I've used Del.icio.us since it launched. I know what you have bookmarked of mine and I want to keep it where I can find it, please.

2) WebMail

Same as above, but access to emails.And if in a few years I have hammered this Gmail account and done 7GB, even deleting all the big files, then I'll pay you to guard my emails and let's hope the storage limit now I'm paying is waaaaaay bigger. (Oh look, $3 and I get 27GB for a year, nice!)

3) Twitter

Yep, it has its uses, without a doubt. I'll pay £1 a month as I have already earned plenty from it via my guest blogs. And then there is the value of the people I have met (social more than £££s).

4) Youtube, Flickr etc

For several reasons

a) late nights, working alone, can't face getting up to find music - pick one song, leave it to jukebox me
b) marketing for my clients, YT is the place to put videos/photo/audio without explaining how to spell vimeo, flickr etc
c) Personal - how easy can it be to upload a video/photo/podcast and send it to friends and family?

5) Data storage/back up etc

If only I was on a decent connection....I'd pay for someone to hold my data somewhere else, just in case for resilience/redundancy. Until we get broadband, I simply can't upload it but...I'm working on that broadband issue. (One day, people will understand this campaign has NOTHING to do with downloads). And when I say back up, I mean my mobile too as well as all my computers.

6) Remote Access

How many times is that file I need on the computer at home, or one of the sprogs' computers?

Yep, remote secure back up is worth a quid each month. I use it every time I'm travelling.

7) Facebook & Social Networks

OK, I admit it, I like the chance to vent to my friends, play utterly pointless games like Mousehunt, and check my kids are still alive. LinkedIn matters before meetings too - who is s/he?

8) Blogger / WordPress

I can't imagine now not having a Just Add Water type tool to create a website on the fly for my latest interest.

9) LiveStreaming

The place to point your mobile when you want to show an event you are at with others who can't be there. Be it Qik or Livestream or similar. I'd definitely pay £1 a month for this, even if I was agoraphobic.

10) I'm missing one! What would be your top "I'll pay a quid a month" app for basic internet usage?

We'll get onto business apps shortly, so chuck your ideas at me.

[Product placement is welcome on 5tth now it's legal in the UK - want to push your service? Get in touch]
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Mobile broadband experiment - Land's End to JOG

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It is difficult not to find the exploits of @Documentally completely compulsive "viewing". Which may mean my mobile beeps constantly for two plus days as Twitter updates come in on his progress from Land's End to JOG (John O'Groats), and the twittersphere shows why social media is a comms mechanism of huge potential.

This blog post can be read at 5tth.blogspot.com



As an internet marketer, I've already blogged about using new tools (inc. Twitter which for many is still a mystery) as a branding exercise, as a quick win, as guerrilla marketing, for press releases etc. (Quick Tip: Put RT in your headline!) I have already blogged @Documentally's jaunt to JOG for a client, but I'm not sure they get IT!

As a broadbandIT person, I'm interested in how @Documentally is coping with mobile coverage, data transfer, info overload, juggling devices etc. To date, it seems we have videos, audioboos, photos, texts, tweets and a level of automation to spread the word that implies he is managing jes' fine. And keeping up interesting in-car conversations, sightseeing, verylastminute.com accommodation solving, as well as hitching the length of the country using only a mobile phone.

I'm also rather fascinated at how slowly traditional media are picking up on these type of stories. To the extent that I have resorted to trying multiple routes in to them to get this story coverage. The only one which seems to work is the phone - I got an answerphone on my last attempt.

It may seem a mental escapade and one for which @documentally is well suited, but if it doesn't show Big Society at work, I doubt anything does. At some point, tradmedia will pick it up, by which time, at this speed, he will be either in JOG already or on his way home!

I sort of wish he could have taken longer. Highlighting people's plight around the country for different issues, holding impromptu social media surgeries (@cyberdoyle wins for holding the first one on a bridge with council divers and diggers!), bringing new personal interest stories to light which revolve around technology, IT, broadband etc. But you can sort of understand that would need to be funded as forcing @Documentally to stay on the road without a bean in his pocket would be more than unfair, and far beyond the Big Society ethos.

In the meantime, he has reached Edinburgh from LE in 2 days - an incredible achievement. Now, who can get him to Inverness tomorrow so he can enjoy the slap up meal promised by Vodafone UK?! And I hope someone has warned him JOG is not what it used to be and provides him with a wee dram to drink when he gets there?!

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Broken Telephone

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Read more! It is with great pleasure that I can announce that I am now blogging for Computer Weekly on the Broken Telephone blog.

This blog post can be read at 5tth.blogspot.com



It would be difficult to ignore the state of UK comms, so I am very pleased to have the opportunity to comment on some of the areas where problems can be found, and to discuss some of the solutions to the issues. Please follow me on Computer Weekly as well as here, and I am, as always, open to suggestions, comments, and (vigorous) debate!
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Guest bloggers welcome!

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Read more! Just a reminder that if you wish to guest blog here, please just ask. UKFibrevolution at googlemail.com

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