September 2019

The big news this week was Apple’s event to announce the latest iPhone models, along with other new products. Of particular interest to culture-tech fans was two new subscription services: Apple TV+ and Apple Arcade (mobile gaming). My takes below… What You Need To Know 👀 Apple TV+ costs $4.99 per month and launches on…

Last week I argued that blogs, Tumblr and email newsletters can offer an alternative to the Black Mirror world of social media we currently live in. In particular, that we can build this new world – the blogosphere 2.0 – around cultural content. Once again I have to caution: I don’t see this as competing…

In today’s subscriber update, I look at four cultural content products – each one demonstrating a different aspect of digital innovation. First up is a breathtaking new video game, then a classical ballet show re-imagined for the digital age, then an old-school magazine that recently re-launched online, and finally a book social network that desperately…

Today’s newsletter has a revenue focus. Here’s the latest news on how cultural organisations are making money in the digital era, or are trying to at least. What You Need To Know 👀 The Atlantic (re)joins the metered paywall club 💵 Nieman Lab reports: “More than a decade after it dropped its paywall, The Atlantic…

The following post is my argument for a new type of social networking built around cultural content. While blogs, Tumblr and email newsletters cannot compete with social media for popular attention, we can build an alternative, more thoughtful, world with these tools. Tumblr was founded early 2007, around the same time Twitter was spun off…

  Welcome Cybercultural subscribers. Today’s edition has a virtual human vibe, with a dash of AI “creativity.” But amidst all the digital wizardry, let’s not forget the next generation of human cultural creators… What You Need To Know 👀 The rise of virtual beings to preserve your legacy online 👻 Fascinating story in The Washington…