The IMO is asking the world to say ‘Thank you Seafarers’ on June 25th.

Carve has been working closely with the IMO on the social media strategy to support the day.

Organisations and individuals can play their part using the Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Flickr, YouTube and blogger toolkits.

The official press release reads:

People everywhere are being urged to voice their support for seafarers by using social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, by posting videos on YouTube, discussing seafarer issues on LinkedIn, or even writing a blog about life at sea, to mark the first ever international Day of the Seafarer, on 25 June, 2011.

Last year, the Diplomatic Conference which met in Manila to adopt milestone revisions to the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (the STCW Convention) and its associated Code, also agreed that the unique contribution made by seafarers from all over the world to international seaborne trade, the world economy and civil society as a whole, should be marked annually with a ‘Day of the Seafarer’.

The date chosen was 25 June, the day on which the amendments were formally adopted.

An innovative web-based and social media campaign forms the centrepiece of efforts to celebrate the ‘Day of the Seafarer’ and to pay tribute to the world’s 1.5 million seafarers – men and women from all over the globe – for the unique, and all-too-often overlooked, contribution they make to the well-being of all of us.

The campaign, which emphasizes the fact that shipping is the engine of global commerce, responsible for the carriage of more than 90 per cent of world trade, and that it is seafarers who ensure the engine runs smoothly, delivering the essential items and commodities on which our lives depend, has already garnered support from industry partners, seafarers’ groups and many more.

The campaign is designed to be both educational and inspirational, including live, interactive links with seafarers aboard ships at sea. Everyone is encouraged to send the simple yet powerful message: “Thank you, seafarers”.

To join the campaign, go to www.imo.org and click Day of the Seafarer.

“Like” on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SeafarerDay

Follow Day of the Seafarer onTwitter: @seafarerday

Watch videos on YouTube: www.youtube.com/seafarerday

See photos on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/seafarerday

The Secretary-General’s speech has been released on the eve of the day:

As part of our work with the Learning Trust and Success in the Making, we recently went to the House of Lords with Hackney’s Trailblazers.

On the day, we got the kids to suggest their ideas as to how they would promote Success in Hackney via social media, which they Tweeted live from the HoL through @HackneySuccess

A great afternoon, some fantastic ideas were suggested  (you can see them on Twitter),  which we hope to use moving forward.

And we reached more than thirteen thousand people in less than 3 hours.

Great job everyone.

It is coming up to the first anniversary of the Haiti earthquake and, outside of the current political upheaval, our thoughts are particularly attuned to the island for a couple of close-to-home reasons: my sister in law Mathilde is working there for Caritas (some of her articles here ), and we are helping charity Plan International tell the story of how they are helping to rebuild children’s lives.

The below film is a collection of stills from the Children of Haiti, with an introduction to the project below.   If you’d like to support Plan in any way you can, you can begin here: Haiti Recovery Plan

During The Prohibition, the manufacture, sale and transportation of alcohol was banned and the rise of the Speakeasy, where alcohol was served illegally, was prolific.  So, did Carve have a sober Christmas party? Ahem…

…not quite. This year, Carve ventured to Debut London’s Speakeasy: a trip back in time to 1930’s Chicago where we donned our finest gangsters and molls guises… (and where Adelaide, Kate & Nyima judged the ‘tache-off between Paul, Christophe & Dazmondo).

Who's got the best 'tache?

The introduction of Jager Bombs into the proceedings was definitely NOT in keeping with prohibition times… but fuelled a fantastic evening of dinner, dancing and good company. Paul even managed to stay away from his twitter stream during the proceedings (try downing a Jager Bomb whilst tweeting!) - unfortunately cutting off his followers from a sure source of entertainment.

A big thank you to the lovely Chelsey Hoefkens of CP4Me for organising.

If anyone is still interested just come across another article, an interview with Julian Assange, who apparently came out of hiding on Monday.

Julian Assange, who the feds fear may publish State Dept. secrets, talked to Philip Shenon about his outreach to Washington, his fear of criminal charges—and why Bradley Manning is a “national hero.”

The elusive founder of WikiLeaks came out of hiding in Europe Monday.

Julian Assange told The Daily Beast in an interview that while he will remain outside the U.S. indefinitely, his lawyers have opened a line of communication in Washington with the Obama administration in recent days about the website’s plans to release a leaked Pentagon video of the “carnage” of an American airstrike in Afghanistan last year.

The lawyers reached out, Assange said, in the wake of statements from American officials and news reports that the U.S. was desperate to track him down and prevent WikiLeaks from posting the video and other classified material reportedly leaked to the site by a 22-year-old American intelligence analyst now in custody in Kuwait.

“The law can be used in a number of ways if there is the political will to,” Assange said. “There is a history of abusing the legal process.”

Assange said that, whatever the public expressions of outrage in Washington about the leaks, the Obama administration had so far not attempted in any formal way to block WikiLeaks from posting additional classified material. The State Department and Pentagon raised no formal protest to site’s lawyers, he said. Nor has there been any formal threat that he faces arrest.

For more info go to:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-06-21/wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-speaks-his-outreach-to-the-pentagon/?cid=hp:mainpromo8

Since we rarely / never practice what we preach when it comes to telling the, ahem,  “Carve story“,  we thought we’d break with tradition with a quick snap from our Christmas party on Friday, held in soho’s Floridita, which is where Mezzo used to be. So it was Mojitos all round, followed by dinner and lots and lots of.. shouting. Clearly being unable to hear a word anyone says is a major draw for a fair proportion of the Friday-soir clientele.

Thank you Maddi for organising an amazing night.

Btw, for the fashion-watchers out there, I can exclusively report that Animal prints and 4-inch heels were resoundingly in. As the picture below illustrates however, attempting to smoulder an ill-fitting DJ that you forgot you owned, that is most definitely out.

xoxo Gossip Guy

Brian Solis on his PR2.0 blog has collated and published this amazing list of the top 100 ways you can use Twitter.

Twitter Client Market Share

1. Web,40.945%
2. API,11.6418% (custom applications, scripts or bots)
3. TweetDeck,6.635%
4. UberTwitter,4.288%
5. twitterfeed,3.9538%
6. txt,3.9254%
7. mobile web,3.567%
8. TwitterFon,2.4622%
9. Tweetie,2.1434%
10. TwitterFox,1.3588%
11. Echofon,1.3356%
12. Twitterrific,1.2322%
13. twidroid,0.886%
14. twhirl,0.8756%
15. movatwitter,0.8398%
16. TwitterBerry,0.835%
17. TwitPic,0.7806%
18. Seesmic,0.5524%
19. Tween,0.5414%
20. HootSuite,0.5258%
21. Power Twitter,0.3556%
22. Twit,0.3358%
23. gmedtwitpost,0.3188%
24. Snaptu,0.3018%
25. Twittelator,0.3%
26. POLLpigeon,0.2868%
27. FriendFeed,0.275%
28. P3:PeraPeraPrv,0.229%
29. DestroyTwitter,0.2188%
30. Perl Net::Twitter,0.2154%
31. Ping.fm,0.2128%
32. LOL quiz,0.1792%
33. TwitterGadget,0.1758%
34. Facebook,0.1722%
35. Twitter Tools,0.1558%
36. Tumblr,0.144%
37. RSS2Twitter,0.1412%
38. Sidekick,0.1386%
39. twitRobot,0.1338%
40. Google,0.1326%
41. dabr,0.1304%
42. CoTweet,0.129%
43. Blip.fm,0.1276%
44. Fun140,0.1274%
45. Gravity,0.1264%
46. SocialScope,0.1116%
47. Tweed,0.1074%
48. YoruFukurou,0.1064%
49. Mobile Tweete,0.106%
50. BlogTalkRadio,0.106%
51. WP to Twitter,0.1058%
52. bit.ly,0.0962%
53. iTweet,0.0914%
54. PockeTwit,0.091%
55. Tweetbots,0.0902%
56. PhotoShare,0.0862%
57. TwitterRide,0.0854%
58. NatsuLiphone,0.0794%
59. Mobster World,0.0784%
60. SimplyTweet,0.0672%
61. TinyTwitter,0.0664%
62. Digsby,0.0642%
63. Twitter4J,0.0614%
64. Reuters.com,0.0608%
65. Ustream,0.0606%
66. Tweets60,0.0584%
67. Movatter,0.0572%
68. MySpace,0.0568%
69. twibble,0.0562%
70. TwitZap,0.0526%
71. Twitter4R,0.0518%
72. Twaitter,0.0484%
73. Twitterizer,0.048%
74. Nambu,0.0464%
75. TwitterBar,0.0426%
76. Twikini,0.0412%
77. Epic Pet Wars,0.0386%
78. Twitme for WordPress,0.0368%
79. Photomemo,0.0356%
80. Mixero,0.0356%
81. yoono,0.0332%
82. Netvibes,0.0328%
83. TwitBin,0.0326%
84. Flock,0.0316%
85. Twidget,0.0312%
86. Spaz,0.031%
87. WordTwit,0.0308%
88. Twitterena,0.0304%
89. Post to Twitter,0.0298%
90. 140 Mafia,0.0298%
91. TweetSG,0.0292%
92. Fantasy Sports,0.0292%
93. Gwibber,0.0276%
94. TwiXtreme,0.0276%
95. Posterous,0.0274%
96. m.slandr.net,0.0272%
97. TwitKit,0.0264%
98. Twitter Opera widget,0.0264%
99. Tweet-U-Later,0.0264%
100. Twibbon,0.026%
101. Splitweet,0.026%
102. schuelerVZ,0.026%
103. ShareThis.com,0.0258%
104. TwitterMail,0.0256%
105. twittai,0.0252%
106. Identica,0.0236%
107. Adium,0.0228%
108. Brightkite,0.0224%
109. モバツイッター,0.0224%
110. Stickam,0.0218%
111. HTC Peep,0.0218%
112. BeTwittered,0.021%
113. TweetLeads,0.021%
114. Adjix,0.0208%
115. Twitstat Mobile,0.02%
116. TwitterIrcGateway,0.0198%
117. Viigo,0.0188%
118. EventBox,0.0186%
119. TweetGenius,0.0184%
120. twitthat,0.0184%
121. blu,0.017%
122. TwInbox,0.0168%
123. Matt,0.0166%
124. TweetPhoto,0.0166%
125. buzztap,0.0166%
126. TweetGrid,0.016%
127. Bird Feeder,0.0158%
128. JTwitter,0.0158%
129. LiveTweeter,0.0156%
130. TwitThis,0.0152%
131. TypePad,0.0152%
132. Spymaster,0.0152%
133. Flickr,0.0152%

Mind boggling really isn’t it? (More on that later…)

And what is the best one? Is it simply the one used by the most people? Obviously it depends on for what purpose you are using it for, those just keeping in touch with friends will have far different requirements than those actively monitoring their brand’s reputation.

However, I’d be interested to know if you have a favourite Twitter application you use all the time?

My personal experience is that I swap and change all the time between a few different applications, but having said that I’m not surprised really…. as a total aside (read: stop reading here if you are just interested in the Twitter story), someone asked me the other day which arm I put first into the armhole when putting on a jacket - apparently it has something to do with which side of your brain is dominant and makes a huge difference if you ever have a stroke - and, I realised I use both…but I’m still not sure what that means if I do have a stroke? Best not to think about that…

But it does reminds me of a really interesting little test we posted ages ago which determines which side of your brain you think with: Creative or Practical - here’s the link to the old post - have a go it is pretty cool. And yes, in case you were wondering she turns a different way everytime I look at her…now my mind is truly boggled.

Saw this on ReadWriteWeb and loved it.  Great photo from Mykl Roventine on Flickr

For those of you read the Guardian this morning, you’ll certainly be aware of the 10:10 initiative.  What is it?

10:10 is an ambitious project to unite every sector of British society behind one simple idea: that by working together we can achieve a 10% cut in the UK’s carbon emissions in 2010.

10:10 was launched at the Tate today, and was by all accounts a big success. We couldn’t make it (I was with Ghana farmer-owned Divine Chocolate, another important cause we’ll come back to another day) but we all followed events closely via the Twitter #1010 tag and via Scribble Live

Carve has signed up as a 10:10 partnership, and hope you’ll do the same.  Get involved here: http://www.1010uk.org/

As a small firm, we hope to make our 10% cut primarily through cutting our use of electricity - computers left on 24/7, and so on - and through using public transport whenever possible. How will you save your 10%?

You guessed it - it’s the Daily Mail-o-matic headline generator.