Is it war or just a coincidence?

Image via WikipediaUp and down like the Assyrian Empire... as someone once said in a Monty Python movie.

As the hysteria around wikileaks and talk of an internet war heat up, every time a website isn't accessible for someone somewhere there's a rapid and general assumption that it has been caught in the crossfire.

Before you blame 'anonymous' et al, and try retro-fitting why site A 'had it coming', try a few of the following:

1. Remember that the fact that wikileaks is so high on the issue attention cycle means we're likely to over emphasise the impact and regularity of cyber attacks of the kind that hit Paypal, Mastercard etc.

2. Websites crash all the time. Usually we don't panic or look for a cyber army to blame. We wait a few minutes.

3. Then we use something like http://isitdown.co.uk/ which tells us whether it's our problem, or everyone's.

Related articles

• Amazon UK faces cyber attack for denying services to WikiLeaks (newstatesman.com)
• Amazon Went Offline in Europe, But Not Due to Wikileaks' Supporters [Wikileaks] (gizmodo.com)
• WikiLeaks supporters' group abandons cyber attacks (reuters.com)

Discounts on Social Media In Business and Being Social

I'm speaking at a couple of London events in May. And, as is traditional, there are some discounts available for those of you who'd like to come along beyond the usual book-early stuff.

Social Media in Business - educating businesses in using social media - is on at Paypal's HQ in Richmond, London on May 21, 2010.

I'll be talking about the whole Using + Social Media = Fail thang.

Anyway. Loads of good people are lined up for it, check the agenda etc out here. Follow that link and you can also land a 15% discount if you use the code: SMIBUBNK

And then there's Being Social on May 13. Another great line up of folk - many of whom I appear to know... I'm speaking on... well that's still TBA - but favourite at the moment is What Replaces The Failed Experiment of Advertising (on a similar theme to that which we presented in Madrid).

The Death Of Advertising: Omexpo Madrid 2010

View more presentations from david cushman.

I've got 10 25% discounts (on top of the earlybird discount) to give away. Once they've gone, they're gone. Use this link and use this code: SPEAKERS_BS10

Hope to see you at one or both.

Related articles by Zemanta

• If advertising didn't exist would you feel the need to invent it? (fasterfuture.blogspot.com)
• Somesso London 2010 - The Social Business Summit (onemanandhisblog.com)

Google goes mobile with checkout

Here's something to throw into the mix of enabling networks of social prosumers - and potentially a challenge/opportunity for those seeking to move along value chains.
Mobhappy (see feeds, left) reports that google checkout can now be integrated with WAP.
So you can add it to your mobile site. And it trumps paypal mobile by opening the way for paying for digital content using it (while paypal mobile has focused on person-to-person payments and payments for goods).