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Diary

Joanna Shields

Wednesday, 10th October 2007

Joanna Shield, president of Bebo.com, on her week

An internet executive taking to the streets of London without a BlackBerry is about as rare a sight as the Circle Line working normally. But sometimes you have to let go of the familiar to discover important home truths. So it was that at the end of the week the entire staff of Bebo’s headquarters in London was ordered to down tools, put on T-shirts emblazoned with the company logo and embark on a scavenger hunt across the capital. Away from the business of writing code and building a social network, we actually managed to bump into our social network in person. It’s an extraordinary feeling to be mobbed by members of your audience who, spotting the T-shirts, wanted to share animatedly their life experiences with you as well as joining in the chorus of ‘YMCA’ with the team in the middle of Trafalgar Square. Being high-fived by schoolchildren and declared cool by ordinarily sullen teenagers shows just what an important part of their lives social networks like ours have become. It was the nearest we will ever come to being celebrities. I only wished my eight-year-old son had been along to see my moment of fame.

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John Jones

November 21st, 2007 10:16pm

Hey Joanna, This one person that has to say, We are proud of you from the great state of Ohio, It;s the John Jones Family via Aunt Marg link, This is great that you passed the test a doing so well. I love'd the story and I think I will tell my kids, Cody and Sara about your website. Just to give some feed back from the Great USA. Hope you get this along the wire, Happy THanksgiving. See soon Love John,Marlene,Cody,Sara Jones

A child of our time

From the economic and psychological bedlam of the global downturn has emerged a particularly dangerous false dichotomy: namely, that there is somehow a choice for ministers over the next few years between economic reconstruction and the repair of Britain’s broken society, and that the government (whether Labour or Conservative) must prioritise the former at the expense of the latter.

Diary

Anne Robinson

The daughter and I spent the last few days before the American election in Arizona.

Politics

Fraser Nelson

Fraser Nelson reviews the week in politics

The Spectator's Notes

Charles Moore

‘A money-financed tax cut is essentially equivalent to Milton Friedman’s famous “helicopter drop” of money.’ So said Ben Bernanke, now the chairman of the Fed, in a speech about how to ward off the ‘extremely small’ chance of deflation, which he delivered in 2002.

Diary of a Notting Hill Nobody

Tamzin Lightwater

Tamzin Lightwater's unique take on the week

Diary

Alexei Sayle

Alexei Sayle opens his diary

Diary

Mary Wakefield

Mary Wakefield writes her diary from Monrovia, Liberia

The Spectator's Notes

Charles Moore

Charles Moore's reflections on the week

Diary

Penny Smith

I was without my dance partner last week.

Your chance to vote in the Spectator awards

James Forsyth

After a gripping week of political theatre in Manchester, James Forsyth invites readers to submit nominations for a new category in our Parliamentarian of the Year Awards: the prize for the Readers’ Representative