I ‘won’ a chance to strand  on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, London for 1 hour from 3am on Monday 12 October as part of Antony Gormley’s One & Other.

On 12 October in 1797 a famous Mackem nailed the Union Flag to the broken mast of the HMS Venerable. At the time Britain was at war with France, Holland and Spain. 212 years ago British and Dutch navies met in battle off the coast of Norway, near Camperdown, close to Bergen.

During the fierce fighting, HMS Venerable was badly damaged and the main mast was broken. Jack Crawford climbed the broken mast and nailed the flag to it, whilst under heavy fire. The Union Flag was the command flag of Admiral of the Fleet. In a time without electronic communication systems this flag was a very important identifier, and a proud symbol of British power. The loss of the flag could be a great blow to morale and could affect a battle. The phrases to “nail your colours to the mast” and “show your true colours” refer back to the original use and meaning of these flags.

After the battle there was a victory procession in London. Jack’s action was said to have helped win the battle. In 1890 a bronze statue commemorating Jacks deed was erected in Mowbray Park, Sunderland and unveiled by the Earl of Camperdown, the grandson of Admiral Duncan.

I applied to be involved in Gormley’s latest art attack as I thought it would be a good excuse to stand on the plinth and see things in the square from a new perspective. Its a silly thing to do and I love a bit of nonsense now and again. Since being selected the One & Other team have asked me what am I going to do on the plinth? Like I am supposed to attempt some sort of performance for the Sky Arts Endemolesque reality show.

Friends have suggested things, which in there own right would be quite fun to do anywhere – a Punch and Judy show, Nude Karaoke or something else to get a reaction.

Plinths in Trafalgar Square are reserved for monuments of monarchs or military heroes. Places where dead heroes disappear in to the landscape of myth, legend and bird shit. People like Jack Crawford.

So i’m nailing my colours to the mast: I’ve decided to boycott my slot at One & Other. The fourth plinth should not be hi-jacked. It denigrates the value of the real plinthers.

Real ‘plinthers’ make their actions on the ground (or in the air) and the lone and level sands stretch far away.

But of course there is a serious message behind this post. You can make any noise you want. You can achieve anything you want, the only person standing in your way is you.

I’m in that podcasting mood again. Here’s a little mix i’ve assembled with a bit of randomness in mind. Its not shuffled but the links are pretty abstract. I’ve been observing a lot of freaky coincidences lately and felt this a good opportunity to celebrate it. Chances are, if we’ve not met yet, we will. And if we don’t you probably know one of the songs from this playlist and we can all draw connections between you, me and a song. And you’re thinking I’ve gone totally bonkers right?

1. Orbital – Attached
2. Blur – Tender (Cornelius Remix)
3. Blackalicious – World of Vibrations
4. The Kleptones – 1150 Closer To The Boxer
5. Ray Charles – I Got a Woman
6. Olo Worms – Tortoise Shell
7. Count Basie Orchestra & Tony Bennet – Ol’ Man River
8. DJ Shadow – Hindsight
9. Herbert – The Audience
10.Radiohead – Everything In Its Right Place
11. Pulic Enemy – Louder the a Bomb
12. Mandy Patnikin – Alexander’s Ragtime Band

Oh, and for those who don’t know – this is the Michael Rosen, Poet, Writer, Performer and Childnren’s Laureate.

Thanks for the heads up Drew.

This week i’ve been playing with the idea of the sniper approach to getting stuff done. No, not shooting from a concealed position over longer ranges but knowing what I want, going for it, then getting the hell out.

Its about saving time and a cure for trying to look busy. It means I have more time to do the stuff I want to do rather than the stuff I have to do.

That’s it. I’m off!

While the hum of the fan ticks over for the last few times, the overheating power supply ebbs out its warm glow, the screen fades to black lets take a moment to ponder who killed the PS3 and why did it happen?

The Competition

Microsoft has spewed literally billions of dollars to boot Sony off the top spot, right from the get-go with the Xbox – their goal was to damage Sonys market share by spending stupid amounts of money at a big loss. The day PS3 was due to launch in the UK (after a6 month delay – surprise surprise) Microsoft took out blanket advertising in ‘Metro’ a free newpaper with a massive readership.

Microsoft woo’ed the best developers in the industry and negotiated the sexiest liscensing deals. Microsoft sounded the starting pistol of the next gen race and pulled off the expected insurmountable task of a global simultaneuous launch – which Sony took the bate and failed miserably dissapointing millions of people. The technology was not as good as the PS3 but the Microsoft marketing machine knew no bounds and the pockets were bottomless.

Nintendo with their genre busting Wii console opened the market up with an accessible price and targetting new customers. Simplifying the over complicated control stick was the single most important development in the games industry for 10 years. Sony couldn’t compete on price or originality. Developers fell in love with the easy transition from GameCube to Wii and the afformentioned controller ignited a new spirit of imagination. Sony’s response? ‘Sixaxis’ – a bizarro attempt at ingenuity and dropping the litigously expensive rumble. Pride and poor tactical lawyering created an impotent controller which inevitably lead to flacid sales.

‘Grey’ Importers

By far the biggest own-goal for Sony was killing the ‘Grey’ Import business. Note that the trem ‘grey’ was invented by marketing people to imply some sort of shady trade – almost ‘black market’ but not as bad. Why an own goal? Well let us look at the SCEE website and see what their strategic objectives are:

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe is responsible for sales, marketing, distribution and software development for the PlayStation®, yadda yadda yadda.

So, thats Sales, Marketing and Distribution. SCEE are primarily a liscencee who gets paid for selling stuff. They are salesmen and accountants. They dropped the ball on this one. Let me explain with an analogy: The music industry has recognised for a very long time that ’street teams’ are essential in building a platform to grow a market on. Street teams are word-of-mouth machines that seed trends.

The music industry recognise ‘urban’ radio stations (read ‘Pirate’ radio) and invest vast sums of money in to this ‘grey’ sector. Although you can never connect them to Mr Big, every label with half a brain understands this concept.

Importers capitalised on Sony’s homemade logistical nightmares with the launch of the PSP a couple of years ago and some made big profits. Sony appeared inept by over hyping their products and customers remember them for breaking persieved promises. The PSP was officially launched 9 months late in Europe but on time in Japan and the US. Legal action was taken against importers under the banner of protecting intellectual property rights but really they were defending their monopoly rights on distribution of their product. Nothing wrong with that. Lawyers made a killing. Sony made a big mistake.

Sony’s bully-boys ran a tremendously successful debt collection campaign which no doubt pleased their bricks and mortar buddies but simultaneously they pissed on their own parade. Importers perhaps took a tiny chunk of their bottom line but the invisible and valuable expense was that importers fueled the hype-machine. The typical trend of the import gaming business is that they drop product from their catalogue once the ‘official’ item lands on the market because they cannot compete on price.

Early adopters cherished their overpriced imports and evangelised the PSP to a fever which would have generated ‘legitimate’ sales hundreds of times over. You can’t put a price on your customers doing your marketing for you.

Simply, importers have always been surrogate street teams to the games industry. An asset not a liability. The PS3 failing is Sony’s chickens coming home to roost. Importers didn’t touch it throug fear of being sued out of their pants.

Did the PS3 fail because it wasn’t good enough? Were Sony the masters of their own destiny? Did Nintendo put the boot in? Is there a 10 year cycle in the games industry? Who knows. One thing is sure: the PS3 is dead in the water.

The world is so small.

At five to nine Monday on BBC Radio 4 a full frontal assault on user-generated content was made by the new self-styled (user-generated?) ‘anti-christ of silicon valley’.

Andrew Keen has written a book entitled ‘Cult of the Amateur‘, he discussed his belief that “the Internet is killing our culture and assaulting our economy”.
Maybe he is right, are either of his conclusions a bad thing?

Andrew said that the traditional editor is being undermined (read: not paid). Music business is in free fall by corrupt user generated content. What? The music industry in free fall? Oh dear. People losing jobs? I’m so sad. No really, I am. But (and yes, I can start a sentence with ‘but’ if I want – the only editor here is me) isn’t it about time for the music industry to tear itself up and start again. Even Alan McGee thinks pimping artists copyright is disingenuous in a digital age.

User generated content is not in a ‘novelty phase’ as Appleyard, the other interviewee describes it, its in an emergent phase. Its going to get bigger. If businesses can’t figure out ways to make money from it then they don’t deserve to be in business. Some kids will soon come along and make billions from their ideas because music industry 1.0 is too busy wondering what the hell is going on. iTunes is for selling iPods not music.

Content is more accessible and its swelling. This is the most creatively inspired and revolutionary periods in history. Mankind is becoming more interconnected than ever. Everything is in flux. The people that figure out how the future will look will make a lot of money but in the future I don’t think money will be so important, I think it will be more about what you create and contribute. I haven’t seen any hard facts that user-generated content is damaging the economy but perhaps its just redistributing it more evenly? New big business will be small.

Keen describes this period in time as ‘a pretty stupid – temporary phase.’ He finds user generated content an ‘enormous threat – especially bloggery’, which is ‘potentially its destroying all forms of authority’. He also argues that we are creating a media illiterate culture. He goes on to say that ‘giving laptops to kids is stupid’. Finally, calling blogs an ‘absurd kind of media’. Controversial statements like these are great for drawing attention to yourself. Polarizing opinion is a great marketing tool, especially for selling books.

Instead of complaining that there aren’t ways for journalists to make money (except for bitching in provocative books like this). They should join the revolution and start looking for and inventing ways. If they create relevant and compelling content the audience will find them and if its what your after: the money will follow.

You can read more about Keen and his ideas, ironically, on his blog, or can listen to the programme here.