Broadband and Me

Evalutaing Conferences

Seb's Open Research

Conferences: analyzing bang for the buck
Computer science researcher Werner Vogels cooked up an interesting way to put a value to a conference.

I think there are a number of criteria to consider when selecting a conference:
Innovation - will you hear new stuff that may challenge you
Technical - will you learn about techniques/technologies you will use
Political - will you get a better of view at the strategic level
Networking - will you hook up with (new) people
Career - will this conference help you to advance your professional goals
Entertainment - Will you be able to have some fun
Location - if the conference sucks can you go somewhere else
From there, he assigns numerical values and computes ratios to rate a number of geeky conferences. As it turns out, Chris Pirillo's Gnomedex comes out on top. Now how would you rate the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, Werner?

Apologies for copying this in total but I felt it needed to be viewed in full.

I'm not sure I could apply this to ECTS :)

ECTS - What a show!

Well ECTS was every bit as good as I had hoped. Stunning games, great game play and other distractions a plenty.

Games I particularly enjoyed watching and playing were:

XIII from Ubisoft which won several accolades at the show. Cel shading, great gameplay well worth the money and on my list to purchase!

SWAT: Global Strike Team (saw this on the Xbox) - very good team based mission profile game

Metal Gear Solid Snake : Snake Eater from Konami was a very interesting demo and I look forward to that, although I hope it will be a bit more flexible in gameplay than MSG2.

Other things which are probably worth keeping an eye on are:

Half Life 2 (there were queues to see the demo so we didn't make it)

Nokia's n-gage looked really good. The games I saw were very impressive considering the size of the machines. My only slight concern would be the battery not holding out.

Vodafone Live! was also enjoyable more for the playing of retro games than anything else!

Anyway, well worth the visit.

Ch, Ch, Ch, Changes

I signed up for a course in Marketing today. I decided to take the plunge after advice from our Director of Product Marketing and Strategy and John Porcaro.

Thanks to both of them :) (John the beer is still on, I hope?)

The course is ratified by the Chartered Institute of Marketing and is their Level 2 qualification (Advanced Certificate in Marketing)

I'm genuinely excited tonight. I can't wait to begin :)

In addition tomorrow is ECTS (10am outside Earl's Court - I'm the big guy in the glasses) and Saturday is my daughter's birthday!

Fun, Fun, FUN!!!!!

Changing Blogging Culture

Guardian Unlimited | Online | Second sight

Tom Coates in the Guardian muses on the changes about to come to the 'blogosphere'.

It's a strange time to be a weblogger. Our little hobby looks like it's finally about to enter the big time. I mean, you know you've made it when Lycos has a weblogging system, right? When AOL's system has just been launched? When Blogger has been bought by Google?

He goes onto make some very good points about communication in blogging, i.e. its about listening (or reading) just as much as writing:

A future weblogging culture should be able to find counterpoints to arguments, to identify experts quickly and easily, and it should help good commentary bubble up effectively from new or low-trafficked sites. Mechanisms that help us know who to read, who to trust and who to ignore should be permeating the entire community invisibly and pervasively.

Yep, that's certainly a good point although quite how you can do this easily is unclear. It has taken me some time (a few months) to make contacts and dare I hazard acquaintances (that could be friends!). Would this be the way of the future? "I vouch for John, he tells it how it is but David talks rubbish" but then who is to say I'm playing with a straight bat? (oh more cricketing metaphors). I'm not criticising Tom's points merely wondering what kind of mechanism will arise?

Blokis

Ton's Interdependent Thoughts: Blogs, Wikis and Blokis

On KnowledgeBoard, editor Helen Baxter starts a thread on blogs, wikis and blokis (and also a thread on K-logs). Blokis being a hybrid of both weblogs and wikis.

Ton reflects on Wikis , and how he doesn't like or trust them. Blogs which he thinks are useful but personal and constrained(?).

But he warms to the hybrid bloki (which is just a great name). The key points about community and trust make great sense, and I have to say I agree with him. I just can't get Wikis. Blogs obviously. I can even see group blogs. Blokis... not sure. Think they could work but as Ton says commuity is the key. I've used a number of collaborative tools that simply did not add value or continue to get used after an initial exictment phase. Perhaps more than community and which I think Ton hints at is a key objective or sense of purpose for the collaborative effort...

Blogging to give people voice?

Matt.Blogs.It

Matt blogs 'Reforming project Management'

Create mechanisms for employees to engage fully in the mission of the company. Some people are just dying to make bigger contributions. Blogging is just one way to share ones voice.
Companies clueful enough to want to listen to their participants will find blogs to be a great way to tease them out and get them interacting.

I think this is based on Halley Suitt's article called 'Glove Girl' about an anonymous blogger inside a company.

Anyway. Some very interesting points in here worth absorbing not least of which is the idea of actually listening to your staff. How many managers do that and do it all the time rather than on token occasions or as a empty gesture. I like to think I always listened to my reports (when I had some). i didn't always agree...

I've often see mention of listening to customers, or suppliers / partners but very little made of listening to employees. Time for a change I would suggest.

Let engineer Speak unto marketing

Iunctura Daily -- Center for Strategic Relations

Establish open communications between engineering and marketing to flow this information into sales literature. This open communications helps you create products that address real solutions customers desire and are willing to purchase.

Only about 10 to 25% of your engineering efforts should focus on improvements outside of specific customer demand. It's find to have R&D focused on the next great achievement, but use improvements in the current product to finance these efforts.

Clearly connect the efforts of engineers to those of sales and marketing. Focus on improvements customers will pay for and that can be produced at a reasonable cost.

Regularly bring in small groups of engineers with marketing, sales, and support people to discuss how each group can support each other. Remember, each are all on the same team. When employees know others in these other functional areas they are more likely to work together for common business objectives.

Communication is a good thing :) Cross pollination of teams is a great idea, to be encouraged. I think I shall suggest it in work and see what happens...

Checklist Creativity

Conversations with Dina

Dina has found some more Creativity links :) (well link)

An example of a checklist:

The Five Senses

1. Touch. Feeling, texture, pressure, temperature, vibration.
2. Taste. Flavor, sweet/salt/bitter.
3. Smell. Aroma, odor.
4. Sound. Hearing, speech, noise, music.
5. Sight. Vision, brightness, color, movement, symbol.

And the point:

Customized checklists should be developed for individual problems or ideas when several factors must be considered. Listing each condition to be met or part to be covered will assure that none are overlooked. The mind can attend to only about seven items at one time; more than that will have to be recalled from memory, either by force of will or through a checklist. Checklists help enormously in keeping the idea maker or problem solver alert to multiple aspects of the issue at hand.

Sounds like using brainstorming to identify attributes that you need to consider, then using the created list to generate thoughts about the overal idea...

i like this. I think my manager tends to use similar techniques to help. Its almost like developing a process in abstract.

Apologies for all readers using non IE browsers

evilmonkey | weblog | MT and web standards

Danny tells me something about my MT implementation isn't working too well for Safari and Firebird browsers, so apologies to you!

Danny is kindly helping me fix it!

Personally think Danny is wasted at ntl and could be doing much more sexy things elsewhere. Anyone need a really good coder?

Maybe I should start my own business and employ him :)

Just got to work out what it is I'm going to do :(

How to pitch a hit!

Research - Pitching Ideas in Tinsel Town: Stanford GSB

The researchers found that the more passionate the person pitching the idea, the more effective he or she was. And the better the pitcher was at drawing in the person on the other side of the table, the more likely he or she would succeed.

The more you can make the catcher think he came up with or helped improve a good idea — that he, the suit, is creative — the better.

So when pitching an idea or selling, make sure you are passionate about your subject and make sure that the person being sold thinks they are involved.

Exploding Mobile Games

BBC NEWS | Technology | Mobile gaming 'set to explode'

This is good news for mobile phone companies, which have become increasingly desperate to find ways of getting more money from their subscribers.

They're not the only ones!

Good to see coverage of the Games week. We as a team are going to ECTS this week, on Friday and are also popping into the Playstation Experience. Anyone fancy meeting there in the ECTS bar?

Sister Act

When I came in this evening my daughter decided we should watch Sister Act, the Whoppi Goldberg comedy that makes Nuns funky (if such a thing is possible).

For some reason it started coming into my head that this was a perfect example of how innovation and change can be managed. While I accept the plot is on the UN side of believable, it showed:

• A new pattern of thinking disrupting the old
• Inclusion
• Playing to strengths
• Building of confidence
• Trust
• Passion
• Integration within the wider community
• Conversations with your 'customers'

The reason it struck me I suppose was because I need to be able to start using storytelling to my advantage. I need to invoke some passion, most noticably in me, and most of all this week I need to have some key conversations with my management, that need to convey meaning not words...

Unfortunately I don't have any Hollywood screenwriters and to use a cricket metaphor, I'm batting on a sticky wicket.. or maybe I need a Fairy Godmother

What to do about Internet newbies

Jupiter Research Analyst Weblogs: Ian Fogg

On security.... Think of new net users #

With unprotected computers becoming infected in under a minute with the MSBlast worm, think of the experience of new net users, rather than those of net veteran journalists and bloggers.
Consider this scenario: a person buys a latest model PC, takes it home, and connects to the Internet for the first time and within a few minutes they are infected (in January my sister's new computer needed over 20 'critical' Windows patches to bring it up to date).
What should be done:
1. Enable the Windows XP Firewall by default
2. Pre-install anti virus software prior to shipping.
3. Ensure that on first Internet connection a PC downloads and installs Windows security patches before allowing access to other websites.
PC software vendors are moving in the right direction but there is much left to do.

Or take John Gruber's advice

...The only reason they bought Macs is because I told them that’s what they should buy

He goes onto suggest that the Wintel (dare i say monopoly) of computing and IT is because it requires lots of IT staff. From recent expereince i would agree. Although I do run a PC at home I am seriously considering a move to a Mac.

I know Ton has also decided enough is enough...

Markleting in 6 words

Via Interactive Theories

A Marketing Definition in Six Words

Marketing means solving customers’ problems profitably

Simple. Effective. Inspiring.

Now are there any problems I can solve? (profitably of course ;) )

Netgear kit flies!

Designtechnica News - 108 Mbps 802.11b/g wireless gear unveiled

With wireless throughput up to ten times faster than 802.11b, NETGEAR’s 802.11b/g-compliant 108 Mbps wireless networking solutions are designed to support the bandwidth-intensive entertainment applications of the next generation connected home.

Hmmm... Have netgear really managed this? I await to be convinced and will be keeping an eye out for reviews.

Fixated on Numbers

The Beyond Branding Blog

John Moore kindly left me a comment telling me he had blogged about my post...

Love the links found here and may attempt to utilise these in daily conversation at work. After all, I'd rather than be authentic than 'fixated on numbers' :)

Gender based text analysis

Apparently I write like a girl...

I tried this 5 times to see whether it was only certain posts or all my writing. All suggested that I was female.

Now according to the feedback results the algorithm only gets it right about 50% of the time, either that or my writing is based on my feminine side :)

Not sure my wife would agree...

[Edit] Actually she did agree. On the basis that i was articulate, witty, and passionate. I'm not sure whether that was a compliment or not...

Micro-content

Marc's Voice

AS mentioned in yesterday's post regarding Home Networking, its not just about the hardware, but also the applications, the software that runs over the network (your home network and the Internet).

Marc is very passionate about this and is commenting here on others whom are re-discovering some of the ideas that he wants to develop.

Basically (and forgive me if I get this wrong) Micor content is about small chunks (hence micro) and content, i.e. text, audio, video, images. But the key thing is its about what you as an individaul create not big media organisations.

So a fairly simple example is using the pictures you have taken with your digital camera and creating online photo galleries. Or blogs (yes even this one!) and then distributing the conent with other micro-content creators to create a sum greater than the parts.

Perhaps more simply it could be about showing your photos (stored on your PC) on the lounge TV, backed by your favourite music tracks which you have edited together with some explantory text. Maybe its an audio file ecorded about the first steps of your child, or their first words. Maybe its developing an idea into a business proposition with people across the globe... There are lots of different ways of viewing this and lots of different applications that could be built.

Marc's vision is outlined (no pun intended) here, where the People's Mesh is discussed. This fires my imagination.This isn't about being a killer app, this is about ubiquity; embedding technology and content into an homogenous and yet diverse whole.

This stuff isn't quite here yet, but I can't wait until it is...

(I think I pushing the meme again!)

Refers and Search Results

John Porcaro: mktg@msft: Closest I'll Ever Get to GQ Magazine

Glancing at my referrers logs, I see a search result from MSN Search, for "GQ July 2003." I happen to be the Number 1 pick. Hmmm.

I don't see why John wouldn't be in GQ?

Anyway, I also have some interesting referrers. Yesterday I seem to have been linked to be a penis enlargement site... Don't ask me why, I have no idea. Answers on a post card please (well comments anyway - keep t clean - ish).

I think my favourite search string is 'government hack'...now what on earth is that about?

Have it Your Way

How to Save the World

Another older posting (well earlier this month anyway) from Dave Pollard on Social Software. I have to say without being too cohernet, that I agree wholeheartedly. While I often see calls for taxonomies and classification, I can never see how one can agree on what goes where. I mean I have difficulty fitting my posts into my Categories, so how anyone else would guess that i have filed this under networking isn't obvious (other than its at the bottom of the post :) ):

What does this mean for the networking components, the 'connecting people-to-people' aspects of social software tools? It means that each of us needs to be able to represent our networks our way, and let the software draw the bridges, connect the dots between them. It means, just as there must be no standard taxonomy to which all our blogs must conform, there must be no standard, mandatory directory format for our networks. The Dewey decimal system of knowledge taxonomy sucked. The old hard-copy Bell phone book sucked (and still does). The last thing we need is to replace these old, inflexible, restrictive tyrannies with new ones.

Life at the Edge of Chaos

Fast Company | How Business Is a Lot Like Life

An old article from April 2001 tweaked my interest while playing around with Feed Demon:

the old rules of the game rested on a management method that I call "social engineering," which operates according to three premises. First, intelligence is located at the top; Leadership is the head, organization is the body. Second, change is predictable. That is, when you design a change effort, there's a reasonable degree of predictability and control. Third, there is the assumption of cascading intention: Once a course of action is determined, initiative flows from the top down, and the only trick is to communicate it and roll it out through the ranks.

New Rules:

• equilibrium equals death - change is good
• steer near to the edge of chaos - keep innovating
• self-organization and emergence - let people direct themselves
• be biological - disturb don't direct!

  And the sentenaces that sum it up for me are:

  Old-fashioned leaders work under the preconception that their job is to make the hierarchy perform. They think that if they can figure out the best course of action, communicate it down to the troops, and then measure the results, then they'll have a high-performance organization.

  I wish my current management team would read this because they fit into the old, despite what they or other may think and,

  they're really producing organizations that are less adaptable to change -- and that may cause a cataclysmic failure. Leaders have to remember that in living systems, things happen that you can't predict, and once they do, those events can set off avalanches with consequences that you could never imagine.

  I don't want to be around for the cataclysmic failure...

  Posted by Paul Goodison at 10:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
  
  

Privacy of Information

Fast Company | There is No Corporate Privacy, and That's a Good Thing.

Seth Godin in Fast Company outlines the 'openness' of infomration that the web gives us,

One fascinating side effect of our networked world is that many things are now transparent. As consumers, competitors, colleagues, and citizens, we can see the inner workings of organizations (it's not that hard to figure out who does what anymore). We can see the traffic patterns in Detroit. We can monitor hidden cameras in London. And most important, we can raise our voices and comment.

He goes on to advocate this openness that business should actively engage in,

You can still keep secrets in a transparent world. The challenge is to enlarge the circles, to bring outsiders in. Let your customers and your competitors have easier access to your people and your data. Let your employees have two-way access to more processes and feedback. Every part of the business works better when the circles are enlarged.

The idea that companies can somehow hide rom the world or keep anything truely secret is gone. I know this to be true. Any project within ntl that effects customers will be within the public domain the minute it goes from a small circle in head office. Often customer services will complan that customers know of an offer, a problem or a change before they do. Is this bad management? Well, yes, but is based on old ways of working which are outdated, outmoded and should be abandoned.

You can try to forestall the inevitable, the way British Airways is doing, or you can embrace it. Go ahead: Post your org chart, your price list, your best-sellers, and your incoming complaints. Make it easy for customers and suppliers to understand who you are and what you do. Then get back to work. People are watching.

I'm with Seth. Let's tell people, share with them get their feedback, be open and push ourselves. After all 'people are watching' and quite rightly they don't care about shareholder value, the cost of a server or disputes with suppliers. They want a decent reliable service/product that does what they want. And they want to tell us about it too.

Online Research

The Latest in Research Tools & Findings

In what I would call a fairly staid article the author seeks to underline the importance of research to inform marketeers of the value of online marketing:

Knowing a site's traffic and the size of its audience both in terms of sheer numbers as well as demographic breakdowns is still important, but it has become secondary to more sophisticated research tools that demonstrate not only "how many" use a site but "who."

Okay sounds fairly common sense to me. Its why I have this site after all to get to talk to people about subjects that interest me :) And whenever I am developing a product its important to know the type of customer (or user) who will be utlising the product.

Very much along the line of getting closer to consumers as 'people' rather than only as 'interviewees,' it seems that there is a growing trend to take the personal status of the individual into account in terms of his/her profile of how innovative they are,” says Laurent Flores, CEO of CRM Metrix, referencing the much-regaled book by Edward Keller and Jonathan Berry. "Indeed, much is currently said on the so-called 'influencers' or 'opinion leaders.'"

Okay, so now we are gettng much deeper. Not just who is it but what kind of person and whether they can be labelled an influencer or opinion leader (does this sound like the Tipping Point definitions too?)

"Reach of the Internet can finally allow marketers to go beyond identifying consumers just in terms of socio-demographic profiles or buying behaviors to now qualifying people in terms of their innovativeness, their opinion leadership or their 'lead usage,'

So Marketeers now can identify a person who they will use to lead others to their product... This is beginning to feel rather manipulative and yet at the same time more effective in developing advertising and products. However what is missing in this whole article is the kind of view something like Cluetrain has where the real target is to have conversations, in a real voice.

The article itself seeks to measure effectiveness and while I believe measures are sometimes important, I never forget the Heisenberg Uncertainty principle that suggests:

"The more precisely the POSITION is determined, the less precisely the MOMENTUM is known"

That for a number of reasons mean to me that human interaction is of far more importance than a set of numbers.

Talk to people, real people get their views, see how they react. I feel that this gives you more insight than a research project that outlines 'Brand exposure duration'.

Home Networking

It occurred to me that not everyone understands what Home Networking is or why it is of interest.

[UPDATE 19/03/04: If you need help with Home Networking go to Chetnet as your starting point - there are lots of very helpful people who use this site and forums who can give you good advice]

4 key points for me:

• Sharing Broadband (or narrowband) connection between computers
• Sharing files between computers
• Sharing peripherals i.e. Printers, Scanners etc
• Connecting other devices to computers or Internet e.g. Xbox or PS2

ntl's broadband service currently only allows 1 device to be connected at once.Although the Aceeptable Use Policy says you can connect up to 4). You can pay extra for a PC + Console service but it doesn't really solve the many devices connected or the ability to talk to different PCs.

In order to create a Home Network you need some kind of Router, with switching, and some kind of adapter to connect to the computer (or device).

A router basically allows you to communicate between computers by directing your communication traffic around. (If you want something more technical there are some links at the bottom of the post)

My Set Up

My set up currently is thus:

2 PCs connected by ethernet (wire) via ethernet card to the router
Xbox connected by ethernet (wire) via built in ethernet card to the router
PS2 connected by 802.11b (wireless) via Network adapter and Ethernet bridge to router
Laptop connected by 802.11g (wireless) via PCMCIA Card to router

This allows me to communicate easily between the two wired computers for sharing of files, storage and division of labour. I will use one of the PCs for development & testing of website 'stuff' and mostly learning (or remembering) of how to code. The other PC is my main device for computing, connecting to the Internet and has printers, external storage and USB hub etc.

Xbox is upstairs need the PCs and is connected to Xbox Live service for networked gaming.

PS2 is downstairs and connected for networked gaming.

Laptop is for roaming Internet access and testing only.

Future development

I would like to add a PDA device with an adapter to connect to Internet and other PCs.

I would like to add some other adapaters or devices related to home entertainment. Initially this will probably be something like the Linksys Media Adapter but may well increase to something else.

I think fairly soon (2 to 3 years) more and more devices will expect an Internet connection and provide additional services to you within your Home.

Such things will include Fridges, Washing Machines and Microwaves, and applications that offer security type functionality e.g. wireless connected cameras.

Of course some people are into full home automation (see here) but I think Orange and others have proven this to be generally a step too far for most people (iSociety posting on Smart Homes).

Applications are also something to consider by which I mean the kind of software functionality that will be added to make use of all this connected hardware. I'm less clear on this but Marc Canter is a good starting point for that type of thinking, and I'll post some more later on this.

Support

If you are thinking of setting up a Home Network then good luck! It should be straightforward and easy although sometimes it can be tricky. Here are some good sites to help out (with a slight ntl bias):

Chetnet - excellent site for help on all things computer and cable modem (it has a number of colleagues support on it including my current ex-manager!)
ntl: Communities - ntl's official support site with Knowledge base (although its not much use for Home Networking) Now gone!
nthellworld.com - ntl's unoffical forum & support site (ntl owned) Also gone!
nthellworld.co.uk - non-ntl forum and support site (independently run site)
Robin Walker - lots of technical stuff about cable broadband in the UK
How Stuff Works - excellent site for explaining things - even to idiots like me :)
Linksys - education section on what, when why and how of networking
Microsoft - Sharing a computer with Windows XP
Xbox Live - UK version of the site
Sony PlayStation Network gaming guide

Linksys Kit

I have just bought a new 802.11G router

from Linksys, upgrading from by previous 'B' version.

I just love the Linksys kit. I have had several negative conversations with colleagues about its design but I like it. Its distinctive and it stands out. What's more it is very stable on top of my cable modem! And more importantly its easy to install and configure.

I think the key for me though has been its ability to be rock solid despite all the odd things I get up to. When I compare it to previous kit I've tried out (names omitted to protect the weak!) it stands head and shoulders above them. I have seen an article knocking the speed but it does perform better than the 802.11b router I had, even if it doesn't make 54 Mbps

For the record I do have a business relationship with Linksys and ntl have a deal with them (it was one of my proejcts). But I remain an advocate because of the kit not because of the deal.

BTW I'm playing around with Amazon ads at the moment. I've added one for Linksys kit just to see how it works (seems they have some good deals there at the moment too... I wonder if I need anything else?:-) ). I'd be delighted if you bought something, but they are there because I'm experimenting with the technology to see whether I would use it elsewhere, when I finally get the betaroad site up and running. Please feel free to comment as per usual.

Generate power from waste

Gizmodo : Biomass generators coming home

Biomass generators coming home #
Category: Misc. Gadgets
Speaking of portable electricity generators, a company in Colorado called Community Power Corp. is going to start selling generators that can be powered by all that rotten food you'd have to throw away because of a power outage. The BioMax generator is non-polluting and runs on biomass, or basically any kind of plant matter or agricultural waste (I'm sure you can use your imagination there); a version for home use should be available within a few years.

Ah! After Gizmodo offered up a petrol driven generator, it now offers the environmentally friendly version.

Now this I'm all for. In fact perhaps in combination with solar power my home could be electricity company free? I might have to change my toilet habits though :) Was that too much information?

Set books free? Never!

BBC NEWS | Wales | Setting free the books

To take part, people register their books at a website then set them free "in the wild" for other people to read, review and release once again.

Good Beeb article about book crossing. I like the idea of sharing books in this way. My only problem is that I have a fierce collectors streak and would be reluctant to let go of any books I own. My wife gets very annoyed about it...

Anyway I'd be interested to hear if anyone has a) done this or b) can't let the books go free (like me)

Authenticity

The Beyond Branding Blog

More on authenticity
I'm continuing to enjoy David Boyle's excellent book, Authenticity. (See earlier blog here).

What Boyle is consistently good at is showing how elusive a quality authenticity is. This is not an easy, idealistic rant but a thoughtful exploration of the challenge of achieving authenticity when business often seeks to find it and exploit it.

"The recognition by business that we need to lead authentic lives at work is in start contrast to the 'mind control' tendency in business training - reducing processes to numbers, reducing creativity to formulae and best practice. Or worse still 'internal branding'... helping people to be authentic can turn into brain-washing extremely fast."

Boyle also wrote The Tyranny of Numbers so it's easy to understand - and resonate with - his suspicions of how fanatical measurement drives out human sensibility in business.

I'm pleased to see the Beyond branding authors start a blog and this happens to be one of the thought provoking entries here.

Today I've sat through another presentation from my erstwhile MD. He was a bit more contemplative than the last presentation I went to, but what struck me again today was how much store he sets by numbers. Every piece of information is quantifiable, to the extent that when challenged by a fairly reasonable question, he attacked the questioner on what 'proof' did he have for his point of view? What were the numbers?

The phrase 'best practice' also hove into view on numerous occasions as justification for organisation, structure and improvements.

While I am never one to take someone on, head on, I intuitively feel that in a social context and even an economic one, numbers are not the answer and rarely even the question.

The point about driving out Human sensibility really hits home but then I'm not an accountant, an MBA or even a senior manager. Still I suppose he was being authentic, or maybe that's his internal branding?

Anyway, I think I will be adding David Boyle's Authenticity to the reading list!

They're small, they're round they compute all around...

Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends

Spray-on Nanocomputers Are Coming
Computing is about to really become ubiquitous if a research project started at Edinburgh University delivers its promises. In "A spray-on computer is way to do IT, the Edinburgh Evening News writes that "spray-on computers the size of a grain of sand are set to transform information technology."
Scientists at the institution have just been awarded a £1.3 million grant to develop the "ubiquitous computing" technology which uses tiny semiconductor specks that can sense, compute and communicate without wires.
Researchers are already working with staff at Edinburgh hospitals to develop a method of using the computers to monitor heart patients at home.
They plan to spray the nanocomputers on to the chests of coronary patients, where the tiny cells would record a patient’s health and transmit information back to a hospital computer.
And this isn't the only application envisioned by the scientists. Professor Arvid, who leads the project, thinks our current computer interfaces, typically a keyboard or a mouse, will completely be replaced by these nanocomputers.
Arvid said: "In the future, computers will be able to be diffused into the environment. There won't be a sharp division -- barricades will just disappear into the background.

I need to do some more research on ubiquitous computing however the ideas here behind the nanocomputer and its applications are I suppose what makes technology so fascinating for me. Infinte possibilites suggest themselves from a computer the size of a grain of sand with sensing and communication capabilites.

I can always track my children. I can check out my own health. I can network and operate the whole house very easily. I can communicate around the world without recourse to a phone or a keyboard. Science fiction moving to science fact.

Sunshine on the back burner

The Register

Lincolnshire-based ISP WRBB has delayed the launch of its rural wireless broadband service because it is still waiting for equipment to be officially certified.

The service - called Sunshine - was due to go live at the end of September, covering East Midlands and East Anglia before being made available nationwide by the end of 2005.

Now, though, the company has had to inform potential punters that the "countdown" to the launch has been halted and it won't be restarted until the necessary hardware is certified.

In a message posted on its web site, WRBB reports that while the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) approved and ratified the 802.11g standard on 12 June 2003, the WiFi Alliance has yet to complete its testing. So far, only eight products have got the thumbs up.

WRBB sales and marketing director David Acton told The Register: "Until the hardware is certified, we can't roll-out the service."

The company has put pressure on the WiFi Alliance - a group of wireless LAN manufacturers and vendors that runs a scheme to ensure that any certified device will interoperate with all other certified devices - to complete its work, but at the moment it's unclear when that might be. ®

Disappointed to see that Sunshine has been put on hold until the WIFI alliance get their act together.

We need more competition in Broadband and we need a market that ensures expansion to all areas and ensures that the big players i.e. BT and ntl are kept on their toes. The more pressure on providers, the more innovation, the better off consumers and businesses will be. Ultimately the country as a whole benefits from the communication infrastructure and associated spinoffs.

Therefore I hope WRBB are simply delaying for the reason stated and do not have problems with their business model or financing.

Monsters and KM

Ton's Interdependent Thoughts: Monsters Again

Basically, as soon as you draw lines somewhere (this is a tree, this is a shrub) you get into trouble when you encounter things that are on the border of such categories (is it a small tree, or a large shrub). Often these anomalies can be easily put into an existing category after some consideration (being put in their place), but sometimes this does not work: a Monster is born. Cultural categories spawn these monsters. (This also means that preventing monsters is not possible, yes might even be equivalent of stifling innovation and creativity for it predetermines that only things that fit within existing categories can be safely done)

A challenging posting by Ton which seeks to elaborate on a PhD dissertation by Martijntje Smits. Unfortunately I cannot read the original Dutch (?) however Ton's point about offering new models is an interesting one. Iwoder how many people adopt the positions suggested as 'weak' in a pragmatic attempt to move forward.

DNA Computer

Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends

DNA Computer Plays Tic-Tac-ToeScientists have built a DNA computer to play tic-tac-toe. MAYA, the DNA computer, is the brainchild of Milan Stojanovic, from Columbia University, and Darko Stefanovic of the University of New Mexico.
This was announced both by the Baltimore Sun in "A twist on artificial intelligence: DNA" and by Knight Ridder Newspapers in "Scientists build DNA-powered tic-tac-toe game."

This almost stunned me into silence. I hve'nt quite worked out the implications, so I'll say no more...

hackneyed cliche, allegedly?

Rick E Bruner's Executive Summary Consulting"

Hackneyed Cliches
It's ironic that the phase "hackneyed cliche" itself is a bit overused. Here, anyway, is a list of overly played phrases to avoid in good writing from Newswriting.com.

I was tempted to inflict the groaners on you. Instead I hope I have avoided them. Go read through - its quite an indictment of the way news is reported 'lazily'.

Risk, the final frontier

Postcards from the Bleeding Edge

History will remember the inhabitants of this century as the people who went from Kitty Hawk to the moon in 66 years, only to languish for the next 30 in low Earth orbit. At the core of the risk-free society is a self-indulgent failure of nerve." -- Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 11 astronaut

Great post from Mike. This quote from Buzz Aldrin stood out. Per Adua et Astra - through adversity to the stars - its actually the motto of the RAF but it sums this up perfectly. You must take risk to advance and you naturally have to weigh up the cost/benefit of that risk.

Isn't exploration of space worth it? I think it is.

No Breadcrumbs

Matt.Blogs.It

Navigate or do not. There are no breadcrumbs.
Breadcrumb navigation: Further investigation of usage. Bonnie Lida Rogers and Barbara Chaparro has summarised the results of their further research into the effectiveness of breadcrumb navigation. To quote: In this study, we designed the tasks such that navigational efficiency would be optimized through the use of... [Column Two]

Excellent blog from Australia focusing on Knowledge Management and Content Management. This peaked my interest becuase we often used to have arguments over the effectiveness of breadcrumbs. Personally I felt they added little...

Kick Out Agricultural Subsidies

Onlineblog.com - Guardian Online's weblog

Blog for the world's poorest
Bloggers have been trashed lately for being too parochial and introspective. In an attempt to hitch the medium to a global cause the Guardian (in an editorial ) today is launching a political blog with one aim: the abolition of all agricultural subsidies. In less than a month the World Trade Organisation negotiations will resume in Cancun, Mexico. There is still a vast gap between the desire of developing countries for a big cut in the $300 billion a year handed out in subsidies to Western farmers and the mood of governments, heavily influenced by agricultural lobbies, to keep the status quo in one form or another. Yet the abolition of subsidies is the nearest thing to a free lunch in economics.
Developing countries - with natural advantages in growing products like sugar, cotton and cereals - would be given an unprecedented boost if they didn't have to compete with heavily subsidised products dumped in their back gardens at uneconomic prices by Western (ie European and American) producers. And the West would have $300 billion (equivalent to over $200 a year for each of us) to spend on schools, hospitals or whatever. Reform won't happen by tinkering with the incredibly complex system of subsidies. There is only one answer: we must KICK ALL

This isn't an easy subject. I have great sympathy with rural communities not because I necessarily agree with their point of view (I'm a townie!) but because successive changes have effectively decimated their way of life. Generally though I believe that removing subsidies will be good for British agriculture and if it helps the third world, well that is motivation enough.

Social networks - Weak ties - Jobs

Joi Ito starts this conversation by elaborating that he has used his blogging, his reading of blogs and his (in)famous chat channel to recruit.

What I can see emerging is a way to amplify the strength of weak ties. (I knew this before, but it's becoming more crisp to me now.) IRC allows me to see the style and personality of many of the people online. Blogs help me see what their interests are and focus is. LinkedIn provides a professional context for referrals. I think that supporting the process of developing your assets and character and finding a job that best suits you will be one of the single most important benefits of social software. I know I've been ranting about Emergent Democracy and about level 2 and 3 in Maslow's hierarchy of Needs, but I just realized that social software may be most important in addressing level 1, finding the job that brings home the bacon. I know this is stupid of me and everyone is saying "doh" right now, but this, to me, is a big "ah ha".

I recently hired two people who were IRC regulars. I felt very comfortable after "getting to know them" over the last few months on IRC. Of course face to face meetings and interviews were essential, but the time spent with them on IRC really added to my ability to judge their character. I realize now that I am actively recruiting from my network of weak ties on the Net and also using the Net to meet interesting people to connect with others who might be good collaborators for those interesting people. The Net has always been a big part of my arsenal of networking tools, but I think it's reaching a whole new level.

Ross Mayfield then comments:

Ross Mayfield's Weblog: Social Networks, Jobs & the Third Place

Hiring someone is an act of trust. What Joi is getting at is how social networking models can augment trust.
Recall that trust is greater at the bottom of the model (see its table). Private, referral based, networks provide what Joi calls context for his hiring decision -- but fundamentally its the referrer putting their social capital on the line for the recruit. That and a Physical meeting may suffice in most cases, but first impressions often fail no matter what your interview process is.

There are also some interesting comments about how people come to get jobs, usually through people they loosely know. This of course validates the M. S. Granovetter, 'The strength of weak ties : A network theory revisited' in Sociological Theory (1), 1983. Although I have seen this in action I have never yet felt its effect. I've either got a job through no ties or through strong ties.

Can social software aid the process of 'tie' building? Undoutably, in fact it already does. I know I have built ties with a number of peopl on my blog roll.

Can it augment trust? Again I say, 'yes'. Although I don't expect anyone I converse with to 'offer' me a job, it does help me to develop a network of people who can help me, whom I can help and perhaps most importantly enrich my thinking on the world.

Microsoft listens to the Kids

John Porcaro: mktg@msft: Listening to Kids

Listening to Kids
Blake Burris points to a great post in Newsweek called Listening to the Kids.
"ABOUT THREE YEARS ago (Microsoft) began employing anthropologists, as well as teams of young engineers and recent college graduates, to observe teens around the world in their natural habitats, from Seattle shopping malls to London schools to Seoul street corners. The goal: to see how they used technology in their daily lives, and then to turn that information into new products not just for kids but for the rest of us, too. What they found has not only influenced the development of existing products, it has also led to the creation of new software: the forthcoming threedegrees, which facilitates everything from online practical jokes to virtual sales meetings. Kids drive technology today, says Microsoft anthropologist Anne Cohen Kiel. By meeting their needs, we meet everyone's needs.

This article neatly fits into the conversation that was being had around Creativity. Thinking like kids gives you the opportunity to free your thinking and be more creative. It also fits in with the earlier post around field based research. Can anyone feel a theme developing?

Anyone know what threedegrees is? I guess John will - I'll ask him.

Satisfy the Customer

Iunctura Daily -- Center for Strategic Relations

How employees can embrace customer satisfaction
Most organizations don't consider customer satisfaction as part of the business process. Often employees are overly focused on daily fires, rather than the desires of your customers.
Here are a few strategies to involve employees in customer satisfaction:
Invite customer feedback and opinion on specific points,
Help customers make better buying decisions with education,
Regularly practice customer service lessons from training,
Actively measure custoemr satisfaction interactively,
Listen to customers complaints without objection,
Pre-answer common questions before face-to-face interactions,
Help customers reduce their costs through your organization,
Let your best train the customer service team,
Document and share successes regularly in positive way,
Build customers satisfaction into your delivery and support functions,
Work from the money to the executive seats,
Encourage peer review of customer service implementation,
Focus on personable people before specific product knowledge,
Ask front-line employees, "How can we improve the customers experience?"
Understand the business is only as good as the last customer transaction,
Measure employee performance by customer satisfaction measures,
Train regularly to address specific customer concerns,...

I like this kind of thinking. Not because its new, or complicated but simply becuase it is simple to the point of common sense, although it is far from common.

I miss this about my current role. Although I do deliver projects effectively to the end customer I rarely get to think like a customer, despite being one. And perhaps even worse my customer (for my deliverables effectively end up being myself or a close colleague.

Mental note to me - have to get inside the heads of customers more...

Your own power generator!

Gizmodo : Keeping the lights on

Keeping the lights on #
Category: Misc. Gadgets
If you don't want to go without power during the next blackout, Slate recommends picking up the EU3000, a portable generator from Honda which pumps out 2,500 watts of juice.
Read

For some reason this made me laugh... I suppose because it is verging on a siege mentality. Perhaps nuclear bunkers will be coming back in vogue?

Edit - this post from Warren Ellis is what we should all be doing (I include myself in that):

Manna Jo Greene sent power Friday (during the massive blackout) to the state grid from a solar panel on a building she built behind her house. Sunshine was abundant Friday.

"The meter is literally running backwards right now," Greene said...

User Interface

elearningpost

UIE: Field Studies: The Best Tool to Discover User Needs
"The most valuable asset of a successful design team is the information they have about their users. When teams have the right information, the job of designing a powerful, intuitive, easy-to-use interface becomes tremendously easier. When they don't, every little design decision becomes a struggle. While techniques, such as focus groups, usability tests, and surveys, can lead to valuable insights, the most powerful tool in the toolbox is the 'field study'. Field studies get the team immersed in the environment of their users and allow them to observe critical details for which there is no other way of discovering."

Some very powerful points here. How can you know how your customer (the user) behaves and hope to deliver to them the best product unless you get a better understanding of how they interact with it 'in the field'. In the context where it is designed to be used.

Although it is extremely important to get customer feedback, in whatever form , it doesn't substitue from seeing your product being used, abused,broken and applied in ways you would never had dreamed. Go do some field work! I'll be joining you just as soon as I'm let out.

Networks of Practice

elearningpost

New Book: Knowledge Networks: Innovation through Communities of Practice
"There have been a large number of academic papers about Communities of Practice but, so far, only a few books. Most of the books have, by necessity, taken a rather theoretical approach. This book however will examine CoPs from a practical viewpoint; it is directed at the general reader rather than a specialist audience. Our aim is to draw on the experience of people who have researched and worked with CoPs in the real world and to present their views in a form that is accessible to a broad audience."

Interesting. Despite its sauggestion that it is a practical book, the link feels rather academic and describes online communities of practice as the next step forward. They coin the term Networks of Practice to describe this. Great idea but haven't people being doing this for some time? Take this book which outlines BP KM programme. Chris Collinson and Geoff Purcell describe a global network of practice. I have also heard similar stories concerning Shell and pharmaceutical companies.

Something about this book just turned my cynical antenna on...

If you want to know more about Communities of Practice its probably worth starting at David Gurteen's site.

Be Yourself - not a poor imitation of someone else!

Iunctura Daily -- Center for Strategic Relations

Too many companies are worried about what the competitor are doing instead of being focused on what their customers are demanding. It doesn't matter what someone else is doing when you are doing your best.
What market share do you think you will have if you,
have the best possible solution for a specific niche of customers,
are the best company to work for, and
bring together partners to profitably do the previous two?
Focus on what you do best and if valued by the customers you support. This might mean researching every aspect of your customers desires, or spending more time identifying problems in your industry. You will want to look at competitors here, but don't try to be like them.
Seek to have the best employees, best products, best customers, and best solutions available. Start from where you are now and improve incrementally to the point you want to be. Share this growth with your customers and you will strengthen their loyalty.
Every effort should focus at the core reasons you are in business. Your competitors can never catch up if you concentrate all your efforts on being the premium service provider for a specific group of customers. What are you doing to be everything your customer desires in your market place?

Another great piece from Iunctura. Two questions it throws up for me:

1. How is ntl focusing on efforts to be the premium Broadband provider in the UK?

   By focusing on price, choice and basic service. Coupled with a drive to improve customer service and quality. You can of course disagree but that's my belief.

2. How do I focus on offering what my customers/ family/ employer/ prospective employer want?

   I guess by trying to play to my strengths. Passion, love, a deep desire to understand, a joy for discovery, a determination to do my best and to teach (in its broadest sense of providing knowledge and support to others). And perhaps most importantly stop focusing on my weaknesses becasue there are too many to list :)

User Friendly - Greg is sad

UserFriendly Strip 13/08/2003

Yep!

I love this comic strip. Go any read it then go and support Illiad in keeping making it. BTW all copyright is his.

Fotoblog

betaroad`s Fotolog

New picture of me at my Fotoblog. Just thought I'd mention it. Well worth playing around at Fotoblog

Business week - Edition on the Future

BusinessWeek Online: BW Magazine

Check out some of the articles...

Trust and the Nash Equilibrium

Brain Waves: Neurotechnology on Corante

Standard economic theory (the “Nash equilibrium”) predicts that rational self-interested people should never trust another person, and if someone trusts you, you should not be trustworthy. Why? The Nash equilibrium says that if you are decision-maker 2, you should prefer more money than less so you should not be trustworthy (that is, return any money to decision-maker 1). Decision-maker 1 should realize this and therefore never send anything to the second person. Yet we see abundant trust in the lab and in daily life.

What the Nash equilibrium ignores is that humans, while certainly self-interested, also are highly social creatures and have brains designed to interpret social signals; in other words, we care what others think about us and our brains motivate us to take others into account. This could be called empathy. There is little evidence that creatures besides humans are empathetic, and indeed humans are empathetic even to strangers. This reveals an important role for the emotions in decision-making. Further, such empathy enables unrelated humans to live together with generally little violence in large cities and makes modern industrial economies possible.

Great piece on trust from Corante. Paul Zak, an assocaite professor of Economics from Claremont University certainly puts me right on Nash Equilibrium. In my defence (and its not much of one really) I would say I was interpreting from the dialogue from the film which seem to imply a different interpretation...

More importantly however is this innate notion of trust amongst Humans. If this is defintely so doesn't it have a huge impact on philosophy?

I'm a bit rusty on this but Hobbes' view of man as being inherently evil and only working together because of inherent self-interest (outlined in Leviathan)falls by the way side. Instead the idea of socialable Humans, who trust one another come to the fore which pushes this towards a view more in keeping with the ideas of Rousseau (my view of this comes from The Social Contract but perhaps other works by himare better).

Mobile Content & The Semantic Web

Mobitopia - Tuesday, August 12, 2003

There's an interesting article on The Failure and Future of Mobile Content in Brighthand by Ted Ladd, in which he describes four popular myths about why he thinks it's failed so far, and where it's going in the future -

The "myths" are:

1. It's a technical problem
2. It's a management problem
3. It's an economics problem, or no cash post-crash
4. It's a bad experience

Now I'd argue with calling most of those myths, but the second half of the article is more interesting. Here he discusses the future of mobile content and describes four generations of mobile content

• First generation: Same but smaller
• Second generation: Alerts
• Third generation: Exclusively mobile
• Fourth generation: The Disappearance of Mobile Content

A breakdown of these generations is reasonably straightforward; the first generation was about trying to reproduce existing web information in a more managable format for smaller screens and limited input capabilities; the second is about using mobile devices as glorified pagers to alert people to content that could only easily be accessible from a desktop; the third is generating mobile specific information, things that are only really relevant to a mobile environment; and the fourth being where the difference between mobile and other environments has for the most part dissappeared.

What's going to help moving to the next generation?

One way that this conundrum might be resolved is to use proper semantic markup, XHTML and RDF for the content and CSS for the presentation layer. Danny Ayers has an example of how this approach would be useful for complex queries here, his example is "has anyone Dan Brickley knows blogged about IM recently?" This is the sort of query that'd be possible to evaluate manually but a nightmare programatically unless one had decent semantic data to work with.

And that Ladies and Gnetlemen is the magic of links. This being a human one that I kind of knew but hadn't made. Although RDF could be used by machines, it can also be used by other devices to communicate more effectively with humans...

Matt doesn't like Symantec...

Matt.Blogs.It

Can I just say, as a soon to be former customer, to anyone from Symantec who may ever wander past here:
Your company sucks and you deserve to lose all of your customers and go out of business -- the sooner the better.
Thank you. I'm all better now.
(It appears I had a similar experience with them almost exactly a year ago -- I should have listened to myself back then)

See what happens when you take the 'build it and they will come' approach, or maybe that's the 'we are smug and arrogant'?

Listen to your customers! You're never too big to fall...

Amazon - Location or technology?

Up2Speed: Is Technology or Location the Key to Amazon's Success?

Business Week: Jeff Bezos on Amazon's Tech Edge

In this interview, Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos states that "technology, technology, technology" is the key to his business, and not "location, location, location," as is said to be the case in retail. But this juxtaposition might be misleading.

Metcalfe's law (The value of a network grows as the square of the number of users) springs immediately to mind as does Linked about networks.

Personal view is that the technology coupled with the content (and I don't mean just the books etc) got them there. The marketing savvy to make use of the web (the network not the technology) keeps them several steps ahead of the rest.

Community of Practice and Trust

John Porcaro: mktg@msft: My Marketing "Community of Practice"

... I read a lot of blogs (and very few email newsletters, by the way), and I'm drawn towards things I care about as a marketer. One of them is research. I'm fascinated by anything that has to do with consumer research, and getting to know consumer behavior better. It's why I read Dina Mehta, Denise Klarquist, Rick Bruner, and some of the Jupiter Research blogs. If you know of others, let me know!

I'm getting to know these guys, and I'm coming to trust them. I was anxious to meet Denise since I was coming to San Francisco. And the more I get to know her, her company, and her work, the more I'm prone to take my business to her. In fact, I hadn't heard of Cheskin two months ago when we were selecting a firm to work with (the research we're doing now is with a competing company), but I would certainly have at least sent an RFP to Cheskin if we were choosing a firm today. (Remember, too, I hadn't heard of a blog five months ago!)

The main reason I blog is to build my own "community of practice" around marketing, management, leadership, and "fast" thinking. Blogs help me do that, and I'll send my business (or Microsoft's business) to people I know and trust (starting with members of my community).

John makes some very good points here about keeping on top of knowledge by making use of a community of practice and because of trust he wants to do the networking thing and put business their way.

Trust is so important in any relationship, and especially given the kind of world we are living in perhaps never more so.

And if no one else says it, I think the same could be said of John - I know I trust him because of what I read and know of him, despite never having met.

I can't offer him any business but I can offer him a cup of tea.

Oh, and I love the new typepad blog - have I said that already?

iSociety blog is back!

iWire: We are back

I'm so glad. I'd missed them.

Use networks

Iunctura Daily -- Center for Strategic Relations

Use networking to grow new business relationships
Networking is so powerful for building business relationships, I highly recommend it. However, in this global economy it is difficult to reach out to oversea contacts. With the Internet this become eaiser than every (and very cost effective.)
I'm currently a member of both Ryze and Ecademy. (These sites are strictly for networking, but you may find the same in your trade group or private topical website like Applying Strategic Relations.) It's important for you to understand how these online communities work, how you can benefit from them, and what is expected of you as a member.
Online networking isn't selling, it's matchmaking. You are not involved in a networking group to sell your product to those individuals in the group, but to build relationships that extend your customer base. It is more valuable to you that group members refer you to their customers, than to buy directly.
Give a full description of what you have to offer. People what to help your business be more successful, so in turn you can help them be successful. But how are people going to know what you offer if you don't describe it fully. At least cover who, what, when, where, and why in your profile.
Fully describe your most ideal prospect or project.

More useful stuff from Iunctura - nothing stunning but it does get the point across. I think if I was using this site as a sales tool for a business it would certain focus more and not be quite so jumping but then the only thing I am currently selling is me. And you all want to buy that don't you? Comments definitely expected :)

Mini TV in your mobile!

Gizmodo : Sanyo's TV cellphone

First Samsung, then NEC, now Sanyo has a prototype of a cellphone with an integrated digital television tuner. The new phone has a 2.2-inch organic electroluminescent display, two built-in digital cameras, 128MB of internal memory, and we think (it's hard to tell from the translation) that it can function sort of like a TiVo and save up to 30 minutes of television programming.

Interesting idea. Not sure how practical though... I wonder if we will see this in the UK. Presumably it would be able to receive Freeview?

Bye, Bye Barclay

BBC NEWS | Business | NTL boss steps down

NTL boss steps down

Barclay Knapp steered NTL through a restructuring process last year
Barclay Knapp, the chairman and chief executive of troubled cable TV and telephone firm NTL, is stepping down.
The company said on Tuesday that Mr Knapp would make way for its current chief operating officer, Simon Duffy, by the end of the year.
News of Mr Knapp's departure came as NTL said it had cut its losses for the three months to June to £159m ($254m), a 38% decrease on the same period last year.
Sales for the April to June quarter edged slightly higher to £551m, lifted by subscription revenues from 40,000 new customers.

I did wonder when Mr Knapp would finally step down from CEO. He has been at the helm of the cable company since the beginning and by all accounts was perceived as something of a demi-god, especially when ntl were riding high on the wave of tech euphoria.

The bubble bursting was a definite a shock to Barclay, and I think to a certain extent how bad a state he, and his then mangement team got the company into.

The new owners (the Huffs) I suspect have finally gotten their way and have finally gotten ntl a CEO who merits the title. While Barclay is undoubtably a clever man he is not really the CEO of a large comapny. He is a start up man, who does best when he builds something. That was his mistake with Cabletel (the original name for what is now ntl), he couldn't let his 'dream' (as he put it in an email to staff) go.

I await to see what impact the introduction of Simon Duffy has. I have only seen him speak once and he was pragmatic, amusing and unlike the rest of the Executive level, English. Is that important? I don't know. It was just noticable.

I haven't really commented on the numbers but they are obviously good. ntl does have so much potential to really give customers an excellent set of products and a great customer experience. It might not be fast enough for everyone's liking but I really believe progress is being made to turn ntl: Home (at least) into a mature, efficient and effective consumer business.

Blogging Fridge!

f r e e g o r i f e r o | weblog

Connected appliances.

A bit of a buzz around the old idea of a screen fridge, possibly because there's a camera now that points inwards and posts pictures of what is in your fridge, so that you can check them while at the supermarket and stock accordingly.
It used to be all about magnets, now it's pixelated postcards from your refrigerator.

Leaving all other Cooltown scenarios aside I just wonder: why the surprise?

A few years ago the hot thing was "your appliances will be able to talk to one another", now your fridge has got its own weblog.

If you ask me that's simply evolution of the species.

Sergio made me smile with this little post. it reminded me of a scene from the Young Ones (UK alternative sitcom from the 1980's) where the fridge starts to eat someone. It may even talk, but I suspect it only burps... loudly!

I do kind of see the point about seeing the inside of fridges when you are out shopping but I would rather I had something that could audit what's in the fridge or indeed all my household shopping and based on my usage patterns actually do the shopping for me with my Internet Shjopping facility. My only concern I think then is that in order to do this would I actually be destroying any privacy I had left?

Imagine if the fridge did start blogging - "Well I'm still in a mess from when he dropped the milk all over me and the tomato rotted on the bottom shelf..' Privacy would efinitely be gone then :)

Jakob Nielsen pollutes...

defect | weblog

Information Pollution
Does anybody else see the irony in Jakob Neilsen's article on Information Pollution?
Excessive word count and worthless details are making it harder for people to extract useful information. The more you say, the more people tune out your message.
This summary contains undoubtedly good advice, but one line of good advice doesn't make a very good article. So Neilsen then repeats his advice over the course of the next 561 words, saying little which he didn't say in the first 27. Plus he sneaks in a swipe at weblogs with this line;

Sites overflow with either low-value stream-of-consciousness postings or bland corporatese.

Meow.

Danny has a 'go' at jakob Nielsen, with I have to say a lot of merit. I understand the point quite clearly about being concise, particularly in a large or commercial website.

Weblogs are however a different kettle of fish. Design for your audience is perhaps a better suggestion.

My audience is myself, and that's who I write for and to. Occasionally I will enter into conversation, and very valuable that is too, but its not a website in the sense that Nielsen is discussing.

Cognitive Psychology and Information Architecture

Boxes and Arrows: Cognitive Psychology & IA: From Theory to Practice

What do cognitive psychology and information architecture have in common? Actually there is a good deal of common ground between the two disciplines. First and foremost, both are concerned with mental processes and how to support those processes. Indeed, many information architects (including the author) have backgrounds in cognitive psychology or a closely related field. Certainly, having a background in cognitive psychology supports the practice of information architecture, and it is precisely those interconnections and support that will be explored.

A great little article from Boxes and Arrows, which deals with how people think influences how they interface with technology - not a great surprise I hear you say? well, no but actually appling some design principles in terms of the information architecture seems to be all too often forgotten in the design of websites (not that I'm saying I've considered it here :) ) .

An old role at ntl was being responsible for the building and maintenance of the ntl Intranetwithin what is now ntl Home. I and my team worked extremely hard to get people to always focus on the needs of the user and why they would a) want the information and b) how they would use it.

Our 'design' principles centred around attempting to show users what they needed to see and be concise in what was displayed to them. We didn't always succeed but generally we did. The reason I like this article is because although we did not have a theory to back it up, our ideas were on the right line.

AOL wants its name back.

BBC NEWS | Business | AOL pleads for name change

America Online is asking its parent, AOL Time Warner, to ditch the AOL part of its name.
The internet portal and e-mail service claims that the association with its parent firm is creating a negative image amongst its customers.
In a memo to staff, America Online chief executive Jonathan Miller told his staff that AOL had become shorthand for the media giant and that the association had been damaging.

The antics of the parent embaresses the child. Its familiar stuff. Only in this case of course its rather a marriage of unequals.

Its funny that while AOL itself has actually been listening to customers and attempting to deliver on promises and new ideas (witness AOL Journals), Time Wrner is constantly seen as the consumer's nightmare of big business picking on the little guy.

Does this mean a divorce? I doubt it. Like all mergers it semed a good idea at the time but no one really gave thought as to what ths would mean in the future. Until AOL can leverage Time Warner in a positive light, then its a case of parent being allowed to sit and watch, as long as they don't tell anyone they're related.

Creativity - the conversation rumbles on...

Dina blogs me: Conversations with Dina

And also added a comment to my previous post.

Its amazing how much we can learn from observing children

You certainly can - I have three of them so you learn a lot about social interaction, developmental learning, experimentation etc.

Have you read the book Serious Play by Michael Schrage?

Erm.. its one of several books I have on creativity but have only really skim read a couple of chapters. I should keep up to date with my reading list but with the three children (and blogging) I haven't been creative enough to figure a way of doing it!

Avi also comments:

But undoubtedly the greatest asset of childhood is lack of presumptions which make for a great creativity aide!

Absolutely, creativity and humour too!

Avi also points to his take on creativity:

Enticing them from their own realm, we have at time trapped in the imbroglio of non-realisation, for fears of one’s own. Instead of allowing them, as ideas, to seed other ideas, we stockade them with copyrights. Leave ideas unfulfilled, unrealised, because we had doubts about our own abilities.

and

If ideas truly have a realm of their own, and we bring them across to serve our purpose, should we approach ideas with such callousness? Or should we interact with a greater degree of sensitivity? For, after all they do come in to colour our existence!

Avi has an almost spiritual wonderment about ideas and that's an interesting perspective, together with his notions about imprisonment.

It reminds me rather too conveniently about the film 'A Beautiful Mind', that I happened to watch last night. In terms of John Nash's utter desire to have an original thought and pursue it (the idea which would eventually gain him the 'Nobel' prize for Economics) and the imprisonment of his creativity through a combination of mental illness and its attempted mitigation (certainly not cure). But most importantly the fact that his original thought eventually led to other applications, to his idea being used in new contexts and its importance steadily growing from this reuse until his eventual honour and recognition.

What is sacrificed by patents and the 'stockading' of ideas? I think (and I am no expert) that Nash's theory (apparently the Nash Equilibrium) actually speaks to this. Pursuit of a selfish goal, at the expense of others will ultimately lead to a loss for the greater good and perhaps even the individual. Co-operation may see less advantage for the individual but far greater advantage for the community. (Anyway click on the link and judge for yourself - I am unfortunately not an expert on game theory!)

Wifi on the train...

silicon.com - Exclusive: GNER to offer wireless broadband on trains

GNER is looking to enable a fleet of up to 40 high-speed trains with high-speed internet access on its London Kings Cross to Aberdeen and Inverness route.

With the rail industry still struggling after the Hatfield rail disaster, operators are desperate to offer unique services that will lure back passengers, especially the high-value business customers.

An interesting comparison to the previous post.

GNER run the premier main line in the UK from London to Scotland via the East coast. Its a route I am particularly fond of, not least because my father used to work as a Chief Steward from London to Aberdeen.

I feel that this type of expansion of Internet access is more exciting than static hotspots and like the news of wifi on areoplanes this is a quantum leap forward. This of course assumes customers will take up the use. The article doesn't make mention of any charge, so perhaps the model will be 'free' in first class areas. Perhaps we will see Internet kiosks on trains in the future or interfaces at ever seat? I await with anticipation.

The revolution will not be televisd but it might be blogged...

What on earth is a WIFI Hotspot?

BBC NEWS | Technology | People confused by wi-fi jargon

Most home computer users in the UK have no idea what so-called wi-fi hotspots are, a survey has found.

Just under 30% of those quizzed knew that the term refers to an area where you can connect to the internet without having to plug a cable into your computer.

The findings will prove disappointing for companies looking to tempt people to log on via wireless services in cafes, pubs and hotels.

The typical person has no idea what a Hotspot is. No real surprise there. After all, if you have no connection with the industry or technology in general why would you. Marketeers have really got to reel in their technology colleagues and start naming these products something that makes sense to the average person in the street.

BTW my personal favourite from the survey - 2% said it was something smelly that had been left in the sun for too long. I think perhaps they are right...!

Creativity: A conversation

Conversations with Dina

Dina notes a whole conversation based around her original posting on creativity (and the original posting upon which that was based).

Particularly the critical article on use of tools by Alan.

.....don't get me wrong. All of the "tools" I've mentioned, and those that I've forgot or have yet to discover, are all great. But they're not creativity tools. Simply tools that help creative people express their ideas -- once the ideas were thought of, developed and ultimately executed traditionally -- in the mind of the creator.....

....... creativity starts with the brain, cognition and the ability to unlearn things that have been taught -- much like a child -- only then can you truly be free to think. And only then should you turn to tools in order to help you express and communicate ......

I would certainly agree with these points, although as Dina points out 'perhaps we play with semantics'. Clarity is important and in such areas perhaps necessary. I think the clear principle here is one of working out ways to be creative.

My Thoughts on this:

I have also used a variety of tools, some with more success than others. None of these made me more 'creative'. They did help me channel my own creativity. Some helped me to 'play' although I don't need much encouragement to do that.

I wonder whether there isn't a contextual point here about the environments in which one can be creative and can 'play'.

Definitions (my own)

Creativity may be loosely defined as coming up with new ideas or approaches.

Play, for me, is about experimentation, its about learning and reordering the world, and to a certain extent freeing one's mind from context and constraint.

Innovation when you take that creativity, combined with some play, and apply it to the real world to some effect (usually a complete break as to what went before).

Context

Business environments generally don't lend themselves to play, they rarelt encourage innovation (at least truely encourage rather than pay lip service to the idea) and often stifle creativity too. How? By emphasising results, by expecting numbers, by establishing processes, by invoking good practice.

Are any of these things wrong? Well, I believe that the answer is 'No!' but it depends upon the context. That being what you, as a business person are trying to achieve. If you want your operations to run like clockwork in the same way, then generally that's fine. You don't want any creativity it would distract from the point. But when your competitor from down the road, lowers rpices, increases productivity and makes in roaads into your market share - you've got to respond and you have got to be creative.

But your context, the way your company works goes against that. The conclusion being that you really want to be creative all the time, keep looking for innovation and do lots of playing along the way.

A child's view
I was told a story (and apologies to whoever did - I should reference you) about a firm who invited school children in to review their business. In essence these children were deemed the consultants. Because they were children they askedall sorts of damn stupid questions, like why? what? how? and kept on asking them until they got a satisfactory answer. In doing this they started to alter the views of the people within the firm. Firstly because they challenged what existed and made people justify it. And secondly because they had a different viewpoint, naive if you will, they encouraged the employees to have a different viewpoint and start to think of new ways to work. igniting creativity, encouraging play.

Would this come under the heading of a creativity tool? Probably. I'm not suggesting everyone should go and get children to analyse their business, but rather to approach things with this kind of naiviety, without any prejudice or assumptions.

Enjoyment

Play to me also implies enjoyment, fun, laughter and a jolly good time was had by all. That also seems to get missed. I've got to be excited to be creative. I've got to be enjoying myself and that has defintely got to be the context for me delivering my best work.

Conclusion
Have fun! Be a child! Play lots.

All these are tools, processes, catalysts to get to a certain point or output. Use tools as a starting point or a block remover but always consider the points above. Context will give you better chance of success, and enjoyment will improve your hit rate.

Any of that makes sense?

Tarot Reading

Via Halley's Comment

Pick a card - Voyager Tarot - Card A Day

I did.

Apparently I am a Magician. This seems spookily in line with my thoughts on the matter (I do mean the description on the page) :0

Wonder what happens if I do it again? Time Space.

Okay I know rationally that these cards are randomly generated by a computer, but I am offically weirded out.

My Dad always did tell me not to play with tarot.

'CRADLE OF AVIATION' IN THE UK

BBC NEWS | Magazine | Concrete steeped in history

Earlier this year two of its wind tunnels were given Grade I protected status.

Built in 1934, the biggest of the two looks nothing like your typical heritage site. Driven by a six-blade mahogany fan (see top picture) with a diameter of 9.1m, the tunnel was used to test full-sized aircraft prototypes like the Spitfire.

For those who like their historic buildings to come in the shape of stately homes, ancient monuments and places of worship, it's probably no compensation to hear the awesome propeller is housed in a cathedral-like chamber.

Campaigners such as Mr Peskett, who have fought for 10 years under the banner of the Farnborough Air Sciences Trust (FAST) to save the RAE site, must now move on to phase two of their plan: restoration.

As I live in Farnborough I thought I should blog this, especially given my interest in all things historical and archaeological. Given the borough's unique history in all things military and aeronautical, you would have thought that government backing of one sort or another would easily be forthcoming. This sadly seems not to be the case, for some political reason or other.

Do go look at the site. Do think about ways to support and even give them a visit. I shall be attempting to convinve my wife to take a trip there this summer.

3G Licenses, Innovation and Charm

BBC NEWS | Business | DoCoMo shows 3G pick-up

Seen as a pioneer in the mobile telephone industry, DoCoMo's success in getting customers to sign up to 3G services is being watched closely in Europe.
Mobile companies worldwide have spent huge sums on setting up ultra-rapid 3G services, which allow subscribers to surf the internet and send audio and video clips using their handsets.
But consumer appetite for the new services has been lukewarm so far, stirring fears that mobile operators may have difficulty recouping their investment.

ntl was at one time bidding for a 3G licence in the UK. One of the best decisions it took at the time was to withdraw. it would have been catastrophic, considering the price, the ability to innovate and the problems the UK 'new' entrant Hutchison have been having.

Personally I would really like to go and indulge myself in 3G but with prices still high (though reducing), the technology unstable, (low battery life, difficult to connect, etc) I think I shall have to wait.

What will no doubt prove more interesting is when one of the current incumbant operators enter the field. Particularly Orange as they are always innovative in their use of technology.

Broadband Users Don't want extras...

PaidContent.org: August 07, 2003 Archives

The subscription-revenue potential of premium content sales to broadband consumers continues to hold more promise than profit, according to a survey by research firm Strategy Analytics. While music services tested highest among premium categories in terms of consumer interest, networked gaming may be the area most likely to generate revenue.

The best bet for providers seeking to build a subscription base is to target specific market segments, Penhune said. "Look for audiences such as online gaming, and NASCAR and other specialized sports, where people are willing to pay for a service they perceive as valuable," he said.
For a chart on the survey, see the company release

Hmmm... US report on paid for content on broadband. Targeting market segments. Now there's an idea that a certain company should consider...

Blow your own Trumpet

John Porcaro: mktg@msft

Do THEY Know What You've Done for Them Lately?

Today, I found a great article on self-promotion, from Harvard Management Communication Letter. Self-promotion is a fundamental expectation here, and virtually nobody is promoted unless his or her boss's boss knows all about what they do, and sees value in it. There's a fine line between being a pest, and doing what's best for your career.

Tom Krattenmaker is director of news and information at Swarthmore College, near Philadelphia, and shares his insight (lots more worth reading in the newsletter):

"Mastering the delicate art of selling yourself is critical to career success, but it isn't easy. Overdo the self-promotion, and you can get a reputation as a grandstander. But duck the limelight, and miss out on well-deserved plaudits.

The difference between right and wrong
Arch Lustberg, the author of How to Sell Yourself: Winning Techniques for Selling Yourself ... Your Ideas ... Your Message , sums up the difference between effective self-promotion and obnoxious boasting in one word: likability. ... "No one is going to buy your message or your idea," Lustberg says, "until first they buy you."

John, yet again finding the interesting points. It brought to mind a number of reviews on me where I have been told to quote, 'blow my own trumpet'. and yet when I compare that to advice elsewhere about 'making other people look good', I wonder.

I always view any piece of work as a team effort. In fact I rarely get to do anything self-initiated or on my own, at present.

When I discuss achievements it is mostly in terms of the team or an individual within the team (BTW 'team' refers to people working on a proejct for me. I just like to refer to them as a team).

I would rather let the success speak for itself, but I guess I don't work in an environment where that does me any good. So should I change my behaviour?

I believe I should in that I need to add in pointers to my reponsibility and be more confident in who I am and what I can do.

I worked out I had deliverd something like 8 projects this year. I believe the revenue from them is over £10m p.a.

Anyone out there teach trumpet playing?

Magic keyboards

f r e e g o r i f e r o | weblog

Typing (Minority) Reports.

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.", Arthur C. Clarke.

A few months ago I tried one of the new virtual keyboards.
The magic-feeling thing about it, I remember, was that you could actually type in mid-air, as the touch-sensitive plane is active whether there's a solid surface underneath it or not.
I also remember commenting that a 3D projection, instead of a 2D one, would have made Minority Report feel like a book from Jules Verne in the shortest time.
Silly me.

The NY Times just published "A Business Out of Thin Air", an article on holographic keyboards (might require registration).
If you care to know more: Holotouch.

The future is upon us and we barely even notice.

I like the idea of this but wonder whether there is truely a better interface to use to get information / data into a computer (assume any device with electronics inside it). A virtual keyboard while fantastic does lack the imagination of what we saw in Minority Report. It doesn't seem as advance as some of the research I've seen from Xerox-Parc a while ago either (couldn't find the reaerch I was looking for a the link).

Now a truely revolutionary input device that would be magic...

Emotional Design

Via eLearning :

Emotional Design: People and Things

In my book Emotional Design, I proposed a framework for analyzing products in a holistic way to include their attractiveness, their behavior, and the image they present to the user -- and of the owner. In this work on design, these different aspects of a product were identified with different levels of processing by people: visceral, behavioral, and reflective. These three levels translate into three different kinds of design. Visceral design refers primarily to that initial impact, to its appearance. Behavioral design is about look and feel -- the total experience of using a product. And reflection is about ones thoughts afterwards, how it makes one feel, the image it portrays, the message it tells others about the owner's taste.

Donald Norman outlining some of the main points from his new book Posted by Paul Goodison at 09:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Comments for Danny

defect | weblog | Betaroad

To answer the Paul's mention of adding comments to my weblog, right now I actually subscribe to the Dave Winer school of thought i.e. if you want to comment on something I.ve posted, then post it on your own weblog. There.s a whole bunch of reasons for this, but the main one is that I currently have almost zero readers and comments feel a bit like overkill. Having said that, I am running MovableType, so supporting comments is easy and I might just add them at some point in the near future.

Fair enough. I'll ask you for some tips on formating and extending MT - and then we'll get more readers and take over the world (evil cackling follows)

P.S. Go read UserFriendly. I am an Evil Genius in Training!

Making the Web Pay

Guardian Unlimited | Online | Making the web pay

The internet is coming close to answering the question creative people have been asking for years. Can an individual with a talent for writing, drawing, photography or music use the internet, not to create millions, but to make enough to live comfortably and do what they want to do professionally?

Ben Hammersley writing in the Guardian, offers up a basic but nonetheless useful overview of personal publishing and micro-payments. Scott McCloud is used as a prime user of the latter. A veteran comic writer and artist who has written two books on the comic genre (Understanding Comics and Re-inventing Comics), and famously suggests in both that the way forward for artists is the Internet and micropayments. A man who truely walks the talk.

BTW - I'm not proposing anyone starts paying me anything to read this but all comments are gratefully received and are the payment I would appreciate most :). Of course anyone wanting to pay me considerable sums, please email me immediately...if not sooner!

6 degrees of separation by email too!

BBC NEWS | Technology | E-mail shrinks the world

An experiment has found that messages only have to be forwarded between five and seven times to reach almost any other e-mail user.
The idea was tested by asking participants to forward an e-mail to friends, relations or colleagues they thought were closer to a randomly chosen target e-mail user.
The experiment updates a pioneering test of the small world idea carried out in the late 1960s.

So can you therefore now connect anyone to Kevin Bacon?

Obviously not to me...

Personal Intelectual Capital

Act Like An Owner.com - Think Like An Owner! 7-1

OK. Try asking yourself these questions:
Are you something worth knowing about?
Is what you know extremely useful to others?
Are you an intellectual catalyst, capable of stimulating the thinking and augmenting the knowledge of the people you meet?
Do you keep your knowledge new and exciting?
If so, you really do have the qualities of being an idea.

Found this at David Gurteen's site. He certainly fits this mould (and lives near me too!)

Do I? I certainly try. It used to even be encouraged at one point in time. Since then its rather been frowned upon.

Anyway - worth giving the series a read.

Beating the Brand

Postcards from the Bleeding Edge

Pathologically...

I paste Post-Its over every brand name in sight in MY kitchen - killing off Kenmore, masking Miletta Mill & Grill. I even cover up the clock... I shoved every visible food and supply down into places where I couldn't see them, then sat back in my kitchen chair and relaxed somewhat. I could look around my kitchen, and have a thought-train almost complete - it was... it was... there was still something else wrong - maybe it was the colors, or the clashing styles... the different colored post-its, the shelf made of not quite the right wood...
The phone rings... and rings... and rings. You don't pick it up because the last three times you did, it was somebody trying to sell you a subscription for something.

Mike Taht kindly posted a comment on a earlier article. He pointed me at his 'rant' (?), 'Beating the Brand'.

I feel after reading it I need to post a profound comment; I can feel Mike's pain from the writing, and I guess that is the essence of a good writer.

The story itself does make you question the reality that we live in, with brands plastered everywhere. I remember walking around Cadbury's World in Birmingham, seeing the old packaging that had Chocolate on it (and perhaps somewhere a mention of Cadbury Bros.) I cannot turn anywhere in work without seeing a brand for something and what does it add?

Its not aname or even a logo that I find offensive. Its the arrogance that assumes, if we shout long enough, we've done our job. Wouldn't it be better to give people something useful, listen to their comments and improve?

Rural Broadband and Community

1stbroadband.com

Ton's comment below mentions his brother's involvement in rural broadband. After a short search I came up with this link above.

I really believe strongly in this kind of effort. Especially interesting (as Ton points out) is the fact that a community has to be interested in order to progress, for obvious financial reasons. However it did bring to mind that despite being less numerous, rural communities tend to be more tightly integrated.

It reminded me of a recent survey which suggested that 'way out' interests (not my description or their's but I'm paraphrasing) also were more tightly integrated (damn can't find the link).

I'm sure there is a lesson here to learn about the establishment of online communities

7 web sins

Via John:

Seven deadly sins of web writing: July 28, 2003 issue of New Thinking by Gerry McGovern

I'm applying them now. Er... does this mean I should shut up for good? :) no 2.

I'm definitely breaking no 1 - see blog chalk in the links section right.

Sony Vs Ideo

f r e e g o r i f e r o | weblog

Yin, Yang.

Simon Tsan's "Feel factor" juxtaposes design philosophies at IDEO and Sony

An eye opening comparison! Two very different approaches, both of which produce excellent design, and some not so good.

Clearly both organisations are very good at producing innovative ideas that generally the public consume. It interesting because while the quotes suggest a more conservative approach from IDEO; it is they who I would ascribe more 'way out' designs.

Augmented Social Network

elearningpost

First Monday: The Augmented Social Network: Building identity and trust into the next-generation Internet"The ASN is not a piece of software or a Web site. Rather, it is a model for a next-generation online community that could be implemented in a number of ways, using technology that largely exists today. It is a system that would enhance the power of social networks by using interactive digital media to exploit the transitive nature of trust through the principle of six degrees of connection. As a result, people will be able to inform themselves and self-organize more effectively -- in non-hierarchical, rhizomatic social formations -- leading to more opportunities for engaged citizenship."

A very interesting read. probably blog more on this whenm I have taken it all in.

Creativity tools

Conversations with Dina

Creativity Tools

Ever been stumped with a difficult problem and looking for just the right tool or techique to break the impasse? Here's handy online catalog of creativity and systematic thinking tools with short, concise descriptions and helpful examples.
Creativity Techniques -- At a New Address. A while ago I posted a link to a comprehensive compendium of creativity tools and techniques. The original collector had abandoned it for some philosophical reason, but fortunately, the folks at mycoted (Creativity & Innovation in Science & Technology) have taken in the orphan, and sited it here. If you revisit the list, wander around the parent site a bit. They've got a equally interesting collection of puzzles there as well. [Frank Patrick's Focused Performance Blog]
[b.cognosco]

Its a tremendous resource. Another favourite is Chuck Frey's InnovationTools. Don't skip the quotes section and the weblog there. Clearly a labour of love.

Fantastic selection of resources here. I think I will have to reference these on my links so as not to lose them.

State of the ntl:Home

ntl | media centre | Aizad Hussain

Wednesday saw me attend my MDs presentation on the state of the business. His presentation was passionate, articulate and generally left me feeling that this guy knows what he is doing. I rarely feel that or indeed have felt that at ntl (with one or two notable exceptions).

He used a variety of short anecdotes, film clips as a means to comment on on the marketplaces that ntl Home competes in (some very funny) and some analysis of the numbers (he believes in the numbers). Overall I felt a great upbeat speach; one that got the message across, and its a positive message.

The tanker is turning, slowly but its turning.

Another ntl blog

defect | weblog

Spurred on by the fact that I've found another NTL employee weblogging, I've decided to start up my weblog again, if only so that I actually do something with my webspace.

Err...that would be me.

I've known of Danny for a long time and worked with him recently on a couple of projects. A very talented web programmer, who some how ended up working for ntl.

Give him a read.

P.S. Add some way of commenting on your blog!

Distinctive Competency

How to Save the World

We have forgotten all this, to our catastophic impoverishment and debasement. If we all realized that we have a distinctive competency, the consequences for our self-esteem, for our perceived value in the workplace, for the entire social and political and economic system, would be enormous, earth-shaking. It took me forty years to find mine.* We need to teach young people how to find theirs, more quickly and efficiently, to help them learn what is their true calling. We live in a world so connected that, having found our calling, what we do best, we could almost certainly find the market, and the people whose distinctive competencies are a perfect fit with ours, the people we are ideally suited, destined to make a living with. This is my vision for New Collaborative Enterprises.

Dave Pollard waxing lyrical. I believe my distinctive competency is similar to Dave's, in that I look at ideas and try and find a way to apply them, usually to benefit where I am working at the time (and occasionally me). I rarely get to use this competency these days, becasue of my current position and the context or my 'new' sub-organisation.

In companies where people are not rewarded for innovation or ideas or creativity, where accountability or 'cover your arse' syndrome proliferates, there is unfortunately no place for people who think outside the box. Robots or drones are expected. When I hear the phrase 'best practice' these days I hear 'get in the box', 'cos that's where best practice is... anyone outside is against us and open to be disciplined.

Inside the box is a very dark place... I'm hoping to apply my distinctive competency and head into the light.

People with torches, storm lights and small stars should head to Beta Road.

In Your Customers' Shoes

John Porcaro: mktg@msft

In Your Client's Shoes

Just got a note from my brother, who works in Human Resources at an auto manufacturer.

"This past week we had a "job share" event where the UAW workers on the assembly line (assembling rear axles) traded places with the management team. I worked on the line putting axle shafts into the tubes in the axle assembly. It was a lot of work (I was sore the next day) and a real eye-opener and I gained an appreciate for what an auto worker has to do day in and day out."

I think this is just a great, great idea. We've done this on a limited basis here at Microsoft, but I've entertained the idea of doing something more formal. How great would it be if we could work in a retailer, answering customer questions and stocking shelves? Or travel with the sales folks and present the marketing material we produce to our partners? Would we learn more about what our clients, partners and customers go through if we could really live in their shoes for a day or two?

And this is my comment:

We do this, in a manner of speaking. We often go and sit with call centre agents (support and sales) and go on visits with install engineers. We also spend time in meetings called coalface forums. These are meetings with people who are on the phone, at the coalface, and are designed to elicit responses about the products, processes and even new ideas. They are also held usually without any management present as they allow people to speak freely.

We don't tend to do the actual role but we get close. Some of our team actually have done the roles involved before. It makes us more responsive to our internal customers and usually able to generate better ideas and better quality products not only to our actual customers but to internal support staff too.

Its by no means perfect but it does give you a different perspective.

Steal this brand!

Steal This Brand

Remember, a brand is not about messaging. It's about a set of gaps. A belief gap, trust gap, commitment gap. If the renaming or relogo-ing is simply going to increase those gaps, it might be wise to try some 'beyond branding' first - actually listen, actually engage, actually change.

Once your relationship has evolved, you may both both get a sense that the old brand-title doesn't quite fit. Then and only then should you change.

Oh yes! I remember the ebranding exercise undertaken by ntl. Completely pointless, and damn expensive. Our current MD, Ibelieve has more sense and genuinely wants to improve. Tomorrow, I (and a few hundred others) get the pep talk. Watch the space above.

L8R to formal language

BBC NEWS | UK | Txt means goodbye to 'hello'

Tracy Blacher, MSN marketing director, said: "What is interesting is the speed that language is being modified by the adoption of new technology."

Should we worry? Should we fret? Is a Clockwork Orange around the corner?

I adore language especially those rarely used words in the English language. While txt abounds we lose some of that subtlety, some of the complexity, the richness of the communication. To describe a full back's run into the line, jinking to a try as 'coruscating' (Stuart Barnes commentating on Sky Sports on Iain Balshaw) reminds me just how much this would cost us.

Maybe technology around the corner will counteract this trend. I hope so.

Nick Higham hates Cable

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | TV and Radio | Cable firms 'losing their lead'

Cable firms 'losing their lead'

by Nick Higham
BBC media correspondent

One day someone will find the true explanation for what went wrong at Britain's cable companies: how it was that they managed to throw away the advantages of arriving first in the market and of a superior technology to become casebook examples of mismanaged businesses

Nick higham really dislikes the cable companies. While this article has a lot of truth about mismanagement, it fails to make the point that in TV the chief supplier of programming is Sky. In telephony cable is competing against a former nationalised monopoly and in internet, well actually we're not doing too bad there.

What he also failed to mention was that while Sky and BT could focus on product development and customer service (not that they do the latter that well), they didn't have to grow a business by acquistion.

This aggressive policy pursued by ntl's still encumbant CEO, seemed like a good idea. But it drained resources, and lossed the focus of the senior management team because they kept having to figure out what to do with this newly acquired business. We are still feeling the effects of this as customers (and associates / employees). True, a more developed executive team may have handled these issues better (although few companies do seem to do well after acquisitions or mergers) but they wouldn't have won the race. Even with the billions in debt, cable never had anything like the financial backing of Sky or BT.

We could have been ahead technologically; we still have a theoretically better platform but we will be extremely lucky to catch either competitor given our current masters.

Meditation is what you need!

Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends

Zen and the Art of Corporate Productivity
If you still have a job these days, chances are that you have more work to do and in less time than a couple of years ago. In other words, you feel more stressed than ever. How do you fight this trend? BusinessWeek writes that "companies are battling employee stress with meditation."
Here is an example.
Dave Jakubowski, vice-president of business development for Internet service provider United Online Inc. logs 18-hour days to help his company hit its quarterly sales targets. How to cope? "I'm in business," he says, "and I need results." So he recently turned to a mat and 60 minutes of silence. "It's amazing," he says of his new meditation practice. "I'm able to sort through work challenges in this state of calm much faster than trying to fight through it. And I make fewer mistakes."
And he's not alone.
Increasingly, the overstretched and overburdened have a new answer to work lives of gunning harder for what seems like less and less: Don't just do something -- sit there. Companies increasingly are falling for the allure of meditation, too, offering free, on-site classes.
There are no hard numbers on how many companies have added meditation benefits, but the anecdotal evidence is mounting.

I can understand this. I spent some time taking an Ashtanga Yoga course about 18 months ago. It was fantastic! Hard work initially but the benefits of being in touch with your body and because of that intense concentration a type of meditation arose. I do lots of sitting still, but i cannot let my mind ... rest(?) or reflect, so the yoga worked.

Unfortunately, what with my 3rd child and ever decreasing time, I've not kept it up. Perhaps its another thing to add to the wish list.

World of beginnings

The Doc Searls Weblog : Tuesday, August 5, 2003

World of beginnings Mike Taht has a fascinating essay inadequately titled The inner workings of the Internet mind. He launches the piece with a revisitation of Phillip Emeagwali's ideas, which expand on what Lewis Frye Richardson was imagining in 1922

And from the Mike Taht essay:

Pre-blog/pre-google there it would sit, unlistened to, unread. Oh, if you posted to usenet news, you might get a group of people that were already interested in what you said, but just to the web? Nothing. If you were a newspaper columnist you had readers in syndication, but outside that? Nothing. It's a bigger world than that now.

In it, everyone's talking, and few are listening. When a conversation takes place (people comment on other sites) the amplitude of a thought wave rises above the background noise. Strange attractors (champion bloggers) redirect and reflect and amplify the thought. Ultimately a search engine listens in, and the conversation is stored in global long term memory. Sometimes a thought gets amplified so loud that it makes a jump from the internet to conventional media - I've been really struck lately, by how often the economist picks up on a web trend two-three weeks after it passes by in conversation.

Visualize yourself as a cluster of competing thought-waves, as lightweight and as transparent as an atom, amid other clusters of competing thoughtwaves... a one of 6 billion hyperballs within the hyperball surrounding the earth... think about the parts of you you've pushed into cyberspace, and how much you depend on the part of others. Think of how your ideas would have spread in the days of the Conestoga wagon, or in the days of city to city phone service.

It never ceases to amaze me, the profound things I get to read by looking at weblogs. Go read for yourself.

Brains

Ross Mayfield's Weblog

Brains, Brains, Brains and more Brains
The smartest blogging is going on at Zack Lynch's Corante: Brain Waves, by the brainiacs of guestblogging. Pat Kane brilliantly redefined play for us last week. Steven Johnson is up next, asking "What happens to our layperson brains now that we're able to talk about our mental events in a much more direct, non-metaphoric language?"

July 28-Aug 1: The Future of Work is Play
Pat Kane, author of the forthcoming book, The Play Ethic: Living Creatively in the New Century (MacMillan 2004). "Play will be to the 21st century what work was to the last 300 years of industrial society - our dominant way of knowing, doing and creating value." See Brain Waves Post: Harry Potter and the Rise of Kidults

Aug 4-8: Personal Experiences with Neurotechnology
Steven Johnson, author of Emergence and Interface Culture describes his experiences with brain imaging, neurofeedback and other mind oriented topics. Steven also writes the Emerging Technology column for Discover magazine each month. See Brain Waves Post: Express Yourself

Aug 11-15: Neuroeconomics, Trust and Neurosociology
Paul Zak is the Director of the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies at Claremont Graduate University. He is a leading researcher on the neurobiology of trust and is in the process of raising money for a new Center

One to keep an eye on...

Why FOAF:knows ?

Practical RDF: FOAF:knows a clarification

Dan Brickley just came out with a why there's a foaf:knows but not a foaf:friend.

Ahh! Well that helps, and makes sense. However there is still a lot to examine and consider with FOAF.

The Human Battery

Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things

Blood-powered "human batteries"
Researchers at Panasonic's Nanotechnology Research Laboratory in Japan are developing a way to draw power from blood glucose -- mimicking the way the body produces energy from food. The result could be a device capable of producing electricity from blood, effectively turning bodies into "human batteries". The estimated power output per person? Around 100 watts, or enough to turn on an average lightbulb. Link

I'm sure there is a joke in here somewhere. In the meantime, it might make my laptop last longer :)

Silly Pastimes

iWire: We don't evolve, we.. revolve

6) At all times remember that a MOB is just fun.

And people say I have strange hobbies...

Knowledge Management, innovation and design

HBS Working Knowledge: Innovation: The Best Practices of Technology Brokers

In this excellent HBS article, an extract from from How Breakthroughs Happen: The Surprising Truth About How Companies Innovate. Harvard Business School Press, Copyright 2003 Andrew Hargadon; it talks about the role of technology brokers, who carry out a role of understanding technology from different industries, knowing a wide variety of people and taking those ideas and people and applying them to 'other problems.

An interesting quote here:

Gian Zaccai, the CEO of Design Continuum, recognized the power of bringing people together face to face:
You pick two people, with different experiences and maybe even different training, and put them together and you've got that kind of a synergy, an exchange of ideas. Because whatever this person says will provoke a hundred different ideas in this other one and a hundred different memories.

It brought a smile to my face as I remembered the number of events I attended where technology was the answer to KM and innovation. This finally seals the point for me; its the people who hold knowledge.

This is well worth a read especially for Dennis Boyd of IDEO's knowledge management system (or collections of junk).

Lack of Email is stressful

You guessed it! My email serer at work is down making today painful and slow.

I've just seen some mail come through but approximately 3-4 hours after they were sent. Strangely not all are arriving in the order they were sent, despite being sent by the same person (agggh, just had 1 that is 8 hours old!).

Okay its not as stressful as it could be... I still have Internet access :)

BTW - internal email is not the same as the mail that is provided to customers... it could be worse (I promise you).

Autodidatic

Via John Porcaro

Dana's Blog

They asked 'so, how did you come to know these things?' To which I replied, 'simple, read lots, and fail early and often.' In a word, all of us in the 'Internet Space' are, by default, autodidactics. We did NOT go to school for this stuff, and for many of us in the web space, the web was not available or even on the radar screen in college/grad school.

This posting is worth reading if only for the link to explain autodidatic (self-taught). Another list of points for living by, follows:

So what converged, you ask. A few things:

1. Self-learning/teaching/continuous education is an imperative in this economy
2. Meeting with people, ESPECIALLY CONSULTANTS, who do not ascribe to the above, underscores why I spend so much time researching, learning, and re-learning the craft.
3. Reinvention is not a buzzword but a way of life for those of us striving to be on the edge.

Fits in neatly with Ton's points previously.

Blogging: What's it all about?

Ton's Interdependent Thoughts: Networking Stagnation: Fatigue or Growing Pains? III

• the paradigmshift behind knowledge management is really fundamental, and is at its core about personal empowerment in a networked environment. It's more about philosophy than about business science.

• having tapped into a community of people with amazingly bright and provoking ideas, the need to be able to tap into (these type of) communities, to keep being provoked to grow shows itself to be vital.

• reinforcement of the belief that if I want to see change, I have to work towards that change myself

• blogging is about people first and people only

• personal relationships are the stuff of our lives

• I want to be self employed to be able to put my (new) beliefs to work

• cybernetworks are reinforced and stabilized by face to face meetings

A very thoughtful and passionate piece from Ton, which outlines his experience from 14 months of blogging. I'm not there yet but I can see his points clearly and I agree enough to shout loud, "YES!"

Blogging has provoked change in me already. I am starting to make use of some core skills which have been neglected, like research; and like Ton I would like independence to pursue some of these goals (although I'm not in a position where working for myself would work yet) and most of all I would like to be making the pudding rather than thinking about it, because I love eating the pudding and proving my point.

Thanks Ton.

Weblogs and Content Management

Via Doc Searls:

The Death Of The Webmaster: Why Weblogs Bring A True Revolution To Internet Publishing - Robin Good' Sharewood Tidings

Doc has a different angle on this but here's my take:

It has never been to no-one enjoyment to have to go through through lengthy, and not intuitive procedures to simply make some new text appear on a certain page of your site. Though the Frontpages and Tripods have attempted to come to our rescue we have further understood that Microsoft didn't have a clue about what we needed and how it should have been built and that advertising banners are really the most obnoxius partner of an information page.

I built ntl's intranet, the original from scratch. I developed an online information system for people (read those who talk to customer, those at the coal face to use). I had a great team who assisted who also had lots of good ideas (and some not so good). In all of this though, they and I were governed by FrontPage (early ish version) and the inability to get rid of headaches like page design and layout.

What I would have given for a Content Management system or blog tool. It would have revolutionised the way we worked and have freed up so much. It still would.

I even tried (in a different role) to implement a company wide Corporate tool, to no evail.

Perhaps its worth another go from a different angle.

Fast Switches

Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends

World's First Tunable 'Photon Copier' on a Chip
An interesting discovery leading to all-optical networks was reported last week by Science Daily.
A research team at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) has for the first time incorporated on a single chip both a widely tunable laser and an all-optical wavelength converter, thereby creating an integrated photonic circuit for transcribing data from one color of light to another.
When data is transmitted over the Internet over optical fibers, it is carried by photon streams of different colors. When data arrives to a node, it often needs to change color for the next segment. Until now, this step implied converting photons to electrons, switching electronically, and converting electrons back to photons.
With this new device, this step is eliminated. Here is a rendering of the device showing both a widely tunable laser and an all-optical wavelength converter on a single chip. (Credit: UCSB College of Engineering)

I guess this means traffic moving faster around the Internet. I wonder if its something our network will be using in the next few years?

MP3, Slimp baby!

BBC NEWS | Technology | MP3 music goes hi-fi

Ever wished you could listen to the hundreds of MP3 tracks on your PC on your stereo? A range of digital music players are springing up that let you listen to songs on a hard drive on a hi-fi.

One of these is a gadget called Slimp3, which spans the divide between your computer and the stereo in the living room.
California-based start-up Slim Devices came up with the idea to tap into a generation who grew up with the internet and the now defunct file-sharing pioneer Napster.
"They now have a disposable income and they don't think about CDs any more," said Patrick Cosson, vice-president of sales and marketing.
"They like to listen to individual songs and have masses of playlists. The Slimp3 fits in with a shift of behaviour."

I grew up with vinyl. Don't really download songs and yet can't get enough music. Love the idea of these things though. I think they are ideal devices to push home networking within the home and could be great as a Broadband value add.

I wonder whether it would work as an add on service feature?

Social Studies and IT

Anne Galloway | Purse Lip Square Jaw

Housekeeping
Because there were substantial revisions, I've replaced my Ubicomp and Everyday Life paper with the final draft. A slightly different version will appear in a forthcoming special issue of the journal Cultural Studies.

I also posted an annotated bibliography (73 KB pdf) for my Social Studies of Information & Technology course syllabus.

I read Anne's blog regularly but I think this may be only be second reference.

My first academic love is the social sciences. My principle area being Political studies, but I also studied social policy, sociology, some cultural themes and (for good measure) economics. I've also taught in most of the above too.

I've never linked those interests in with working within a technology environment. Well at least not before I started reading Anne's blog.

The above article makes reference to her paper on Ubiquitous Computing and the City, and to the reading list for a course she runs in Social Studies of Information & Technology at the University of Carelton in Ottawa, Canada. I may well buy a few books off the list and indulge my thinking muscles.

Now you've got my attention

Marc's Voice

Home LANs are the trojan horse
Jef Raskin: "If you have to set up a network it's likely to drive you crazy." Amen. Too many people forget this fact. [Scott Mace's Radio Weblog]
That's Scott Mac referencing an interview by one of the godheads of our industry: Jeff Raskin. He's pointing out that despite best efforts and sexy consumer WiFi - the practical realities and setting up and maintaining networks, especially Home LANs - is a nightmare.
So now think about it. What if your software WAS the Home LAN installation code and left behind [insert whatever it is you're hussling?] Ooops, I just revealed part of our business plan. :-)

As if Marc didn't revel in attention enough :)

I've talked about being excited by marc's ideas before. And I eagerly anticipate the Peopleaggregator but the dessscription of Home Lan installation and trojan horse has me salivating.

Somethng compelling, something that gives consumers what they need (ability to set up a fool proof home network) and what they want (value added software). Now that's a winning combination and one I would wager lots of service providers will go after.

If I have anything to do with it, an ISP close to me will at least explore this.

My Youngest turns 1!

I took the day off yesterday to celebrate my son's first birthday.

Here he is with his Mum at my sister's wedding last week.

Its a truism to say time flies however it has seemed so since his birth. So much change!

BTW Its my father-in-law's birthday today. The two are sixty years apart!