Broadband and Me

UK online PR release

After my previous entry on UK online their PR agency has sent me the Press Release. Some facts I missed before:

London, 15th November 2004 - UK Online launches today an 8Mb consumer broadband service to 4.4 million households. Priced at £39.99 per month, it brings groundbreaking speed at a groundbreaking price and makes the digital home a reality.

The service includes WiFi as standard and users can therefore connect multiple PCs, laptops and game consoles anywhere within the home. The high speed enables home users to download MP3s within seconds, on line gaming can move up a gear, and streamed videos start to look like real TV for the first time.

On the same infrastructure, UK Online is looking to add voice, TV and Video on Demand during 2005.

Also they seem to have been around longer than I thought:

UK Online, established in 1994... The ISP is known for its customer focus, with four out of five of its customers recommending the service to family and friends. Its UK-based customer service centre offers 24-hour support to novices and experienced users alike.

UK Online is the official ISP to Team GB, the UK’s Olympic team and demonstrated its support for the team in Athens in summer 2004. This support will continue throughout the Winter Olympics in Turin in 2006.

So happy to put the record straight! And interested to note that PR companies (well Fuse PR anyway) are paying attention to blogs. Thanks to Tanya and Victoria for the info.

Power of articulation

Power of articulation

Andy Boyd:

Isn't it great how explaining yourself outloud to others, allows you to self reflect better then mulling it over in your own mind.

Lilia (via Andy) outlines talking to herself as a great method of Personal Knowledge Management (PKM). I guess I do the same thing. Just not quite as articulately :)

Political Machinations

BBC NEWS | Politics | Howard's wizard of Oz

Very good article on the Conservatives (UK political party) acquistion of Australia's successful political strategist Lynton Crosby. The article goes on to compare Crosby with Labour (Uk Political party) Alistair Campbell, which IMHO can only be bad for UK democracy.

On the other hand the man obviously knows what he is doing as this superb quote shows:

The key to winning election campaigns is building a good team, having clear central lines of authority while implementing your campaign in as decentralised away as possible, and having a leader who knows what he's on about.

Surely a dictum for how to run any organisation?

8MB link 'cos of LLU

BBC NEWS | Technology | UK broadband gets speed injection

Local loop unbundling has enabled a new(ish?) player in the UK Broadband market to offer speeds of up to 8Mbps. This huge leap will:

... initially be available to users within 2km radius of 230 telephone exchanges in areas such as London, Birmingham, Glasgow and Cambridge.

at a cost of £39.99 per month.

The BBC is positively brimming with positivity but perhaps the most exciting point is based on South Korea's experience:

In South Korea, video-on-demand over the net is cheaper than renting a DVD and online gaming is huge.

Compared to this ntl's recent announcement to go to 3-2-1Mbps tiers seems almost slow. Still, I'm not saying 'no' to 2Mbps, as it will do for me for now.

I wonder if UK Online can sustain such a price point or whether it is a penetration strategy?

What's the matter with you?

Johnnie Moore's Weblog: Keeping conversations inside the room

I often read things that make me go ah and have a little micro-moment when I think 'yeah I need to do that' but then I fail to seize the day. Unlike most 'ah' moments Johnnie's post from a while back (30 Sept 04) kept with me, and like most good things has matured with age and thinking.

...I took a different approach, which was something like this. I pointed out that what he'd said was a familiar experience for me in the health service, and talked about shadow conversations and their power. I then said, "We could talk about these difficult people who I've not met.. but I imagine you're asking that question because of some doubt of your own about the process - in which case, I'd prefer to talk about that. Or we could talk about your anxiety about confronting them - that's something that is here inside the room." Although he was a bit suprised by this, we did then get into a much more interesting conversation

To illustrate the point further this is Johnnie's point about Shadow conversations:

Then I thought of the times I've worked with bosses and found that, curiously, they do the same thing vis a vis their staff eg

Of course I agree with that, but you try getting my staff to level with me/understand etc,

These are all shadow conversations in which we humans scare ourselves with what often turn out to be untested assumptions about others, instead of focusing on our own heartfelt beliefs. And such conversations are highly infectious; once one person starts the idea, a kind of mass hysteria quickly sets in.

Its about perception and fear. The perception is that the world will naturally disagree with 'us' and that our confidence in what we are about to do is lacking and hence fear.

I can relate to this. While I have no fear about exams and my perception is always one of success (not always the truth but close) other actions which would be simple to another person, such as ringing someone I have never met, is a tough thing - not sure why but it is.

I wonder whether this whole topic stems to a kind of belief in society as a whole that failure is bad. In the big picture of course massive failure can be dreadful but the fear to even take part in something because of the possiblity of failure is dreadful.

I watched ITV's version of the classic Pollyanna yesterday and whilst I can appreciate the 'there is always something to be glad about' sentiment can be a bit twee, it certainly has more than a ring of truth in terms of positive mental attitude. Facing up to the fact that there is something blocking us is no bad thing but it is the ability to reach beyond that and find the power to focus on the positive that can bring us back on track.

If you are finding this a bit twee, remember I am writing this for me :)

Woodholmes new website

And before I forget (as I have for a while) my old colleague Stuart Smith has a page up at the new Woodholmes site. And he complained about my photo :).

He certainly manages to be inquisitive and positive, managing to get his fingers into a number of different pies and undertake a phenomenal amount of work - lecturing at the Chinese Embassy is one of his more interesting gigs! Whilst I am keenly aware the grass isn't always greener, Stuart certainly gets out and about and gets to do some exciting stuff.

(P.S. Last time I blogged him the site hits went up tremendously - wonder if this is still the case?)

Cory's latest short story -- CC-licensed, on Salon, all about gaming

Cory's latest short story -- CC-licensed, on Salon, all about gaming

Cory Doctorow:

...Salon has just published a brand-new short story of mine, called "Anda's Game," which is a riff on the way that property-rights are coming to games, and on the bizarre spectacle of sweat-shops in which children are paid to play the game all day in order to generate eBay-able game-wealth. When I was a kid, there were arcade kings who would play up Gauntlet characters to maximum health and weapons and then sell their games to nearby players for a dollar or two -- netting them about $0.02 an hour -- but this is a very different proposition indeed.

There are a lot of firsts in this story:

• It's the first story I've written since moving to the UK, and the story is told from the point of view of an English girl...

Superb story from the now UK based Doctorow - go read

Sky Subs up

BBC NEWS | Business | BSkyB subscribers beats forecasts

BSkyB added 62,000 digital satellite customers in the three months to 30 September, beating the forecasts of analysts by up to a third.

Interesting turnaround for Sky considering their last quarter results, although gorwth is lsowing considerably. Of more interest was the 77K increase in Sky Plus (Sky's PVR product) which is slowly building numbers.

My Friends

Had a wonderful time last night catching up with old friends. Gareth, Dave and Steve: three people I hadn't seen in 6-12 years. Amazing!

It certainly cheered me up and reminded me of what is important in life - friends being one of these. It was good to also meet Gareth's wife Jen and Steve's wife Rochelle (hope I've gotten that right?)

Perspective is everything, so I have put Paul Weller on the headphones and tried to get down some thoughts on work.

Shame I haven't seem my other old friend Richard in such a long time.

Multiple SIM cards in one Mobile Phone

Multiple SIM cards in one Mobile Phone

Dina ponders:

...So each person would have to carry two SIM cards - and replace them as appropriate depending on whether they are making a personal call or an official call.  Or carry two phones. And each person would have separate mobile phone numbers for personal and official calls. 

Makes no sense to me !

Makes me wonder whether there are any cell phones with two SIM card slots, without the phone having to be turned off each time you want to swap.

Totally agree. Would really like to have two SIMs in my phone but can only have one so I choose to use it with a work SIM in it. Ideally I could simply switch to my personal SIM and do so much more!!! As I commented on Dina's blog, Orange in the UK have a Line 2 option but this doesn't fulfil my needs. Does anyone know of any solutions?

Online Shopping Booms!

BBC NEWS | Technology | Consumers flock to online shops

Online buying habits have changed dramatically in the last five years, a survey has found.

Of 2,000 web-using Britons interviewed a whopping 94% had bought something online, the survey found. This compares to just 37% five years ago.

Half of those interviewed believed that 40% or more of their purchases would be done online in five years time.

This is a fundamental figure for me in my current role. I need to persuade customers to use the web and here is a survey saying that people have made that switch albeit over a five year period (I have three). Purchase though is very different from service. Some companies do this well such as Amazon (although not everyone appreciates their online only contact stance) but they have an advantage in that they (as a company) have never existed offline.

ntl has an interesting road ahead to improve its online service (I'm not talking about its products BTW) and change of customer behaviour is one. My aim (fingers crossed) is to improve things for customers but although I have a very detailed map of what I would like to do I think more research is required to pin down what will get used. Commetns as always welcome.

The customer no longer knows...

From Phil Dourado, the Web Content Director at eCustomerServiceWorld.com as part of the tip of the week within the Start the week newsletter:

“The customer no longer knows what is possible”.

- Sony founder Akio Morita on the limits of researching customer opinion when innovating in a fast-changing, chaotic world. Too many organizations kill an idea too early because customers don’t accept it in test marketing. Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith, based on your perception of latent needs and unrealised wants.

SOURCE: Crawford Hollingworth, CEO, Headlight Vision, a company that researches the future

A great line that conflicts in some levels with the oft quoted truism 'the customer is always right' and the constant new era marketing mantra, be customer centric (give them what they want). How many of us knew we wanted an iPod or a Smartphone or Broadband before we saw it, experienced it, loved it and wanted more? I think Tom Peters often hammers on the line of Fail often and fail early or Fire, Fire Fire (replacing ready, aim, fire).

Also talked about some of this at College last night when we focused on Value Based marketing. This is about a complete change in the way a firm is organised to drive marketing to a wholistic company wide approach that adds value for customers and consequently shareholders.

Ideas to get into the head:

Change is a constant; we can not sit still and wait for the market to change to our benefit. We have to change (innovate, be creative) to meet the market and that isn't easy.

Value has to be at the heart of everything we do: operations, products, vision, systems.

Digital Convergence

BBC NEWS | Technology | Tapping into a digital future

Article which skirts around the issue (an old favourite of mine) concerning digital convergence and usability of digital products:

From a technology point of view, you can push innovation and people to pick up a digital lifestyle; but the other part of it is going to be a natural phenomena," said Adrian Criddle, country manager for Intel UK.

"What concerns me is that a lot of people who hear about digital music players don't understand that, at the moment, you actually need a PC to get the content."

Funnily enough a similar point was made today by Parks Associates (a research company who focus on this area, talking about Digital Media Adapters (devices that 'talk' to your PC via wireless Home networks):

"The industry assumes that if you want to listen to Internet radio on your stereo, you are an early adopter that already owns a Wi-Fi (wireless) home network," said John Barrett, the report's author and director of research for Parks Associates. "This is not the case. Right now there is not a single one-box solution on the market that meets the needs of the 71% of consumers who don't currently own a home network. Developing integrated, data-multimedia network solutions to meet this need will be very important."

Quite telling that at one report 'the industry assumes...' and from the other,

I think we have realised that ease of use and simplification is absolutely critical to take mass market adoption of new technologies."

You would think that they would have worked it out by now or perhaps technology or the product leads the companies rather than a proper marketing approach which would look at customers and find out what they want and how they want it?

John Kerry, the New Coke

John Kerry, the New Coke
At Church of the Customer they compare Kerry's defeat to the advent of new Coke in the 80s.

The close 2004 presidential election is a superlative parallel to what many organizations face every day: Intense competition with a tough competitor, polarized customer loyalties and winning defined by 1-2 percentage points.

Certainly this election will be discussed and analyzed for years, but I see two clear reasons why George W. Bush beat John Kerry:

1. Bush's campaign consistently preached to the choir.
2. John Kerry was New Coke.

The Bush choir delivered the vote. Kerry's campaign focused on converting people not already in its choir: swing voters.

The Bush campaign consistently "super-charged" its base of true-believer volunteers in the field, whipping them up into a frenzy at every possible opportunity. Kerry's campaign army in key states resembled a professional workforce. In other words, the Republicans were more enthusiastically grassroots-oriented than the Democrats.

The point about new Coke was that it didn't appeal to the existing coke consumers and it wasn't as good at 'being Pepsi' as Pepsi was, and lost sales. Sales returned when the old formula was returned to.

The conclusions for a marketing audience being made are:

• Preach to the choir. For the 2004 election, the base turnout for each candidate may seem virtually identical: Kerry had 89% support among Democrats; Bush had 93% from Republicans. The four percent difference in the base turnout was the key -- by getting the Republican choir stirred up enough, it delivered more choir members and leapfrogged Kerry in Ohio. It saved precious resources by not courting undecideds.
• True-believer volunteers will work several percentage points harder than paid professionals. Howard Dean's true believers of enthusisatic and counter-culture young people were often ridiculed as unrepresentative of mainstream society, but they were mightily effective. The same could be said on both counts of George Bush's base of evangelical Christians. The lesson here: your most enthusiastic believers are usually out there, but they are vastly more effective in winning customers than cash-or-points referral programs or paid spokespeople.
• Your choir will help you succeed, but you must be willing to cede control. Give your true-believer customers clearly identifiable goals to meet and stop worrying about the effect volunteers will have on your "brand."

More and more often I see this particular message (put in different ways) - 'Appeal to the Choir' and yet very few companies seem to get it or indeed apply it. I wonder why?

UK National ID Card petition -- LAST-CHANCE! ACT NOW!

UK National ID Card petition -- LAST-CHANCE! ACT NOW!

Via Cory Doctorow on BoingBoing:

Britain's national ID card is back from the grave, and the government here is ploughing ahead at speed to make this an expensive, privacy-compromising reality. If you've lived in the UK for the past six months (or more), and you don't want to be issued a Soviet-style "internal passport," get to this site now and spend ten seconds filling in the No2ID petition. This may be your last chance.

I went and signed the petition perhaps its worth you taking a look too?

Management is making it difficult for people to get things done

Management is as making it difficult for people to get things done

Lilia asks how do 'management' make life difficult for people?

Some points from my list (not necessary the most severe ones, but those I care about most):

• Thinking in terms of interventions, not personal productivity (re: personal knowledge management)
• Thinking in terms of formal organisational structures, not social networks and communities
• Measuring what could be measured, not what matters (re: invisible)
• Holding controls instead of giving responsibility to people (re: attitude change)
• Managing weaknesses, not strengths (re: strengths finding)
• Fitting businesses around market changes and equipment life-cycles while forgetting about natural rhythms of people and fun of flow (re: balance)
• Relying on codified knowledge and pushing codification
• Managing conveyor belts, not social ecosystems (re: middlespace)
• Lack of reflection and skills to facilitate reflection of others
• ???

See also: leadership as releasing energy of others

My simple contribution?

• Being too serious


• Failure to take risks


• Lack of trust

You could place these within Lilia's more academic take, I think, but thought it would be useful to pull these out. After all managers often are bloated with their own sense of self worth and take themselves far too seriously. Most are risk averse and miss out on multiple opportunities because they won't experiment (perhaps not willing to experiment would be better?) and lastly not trusting people who work for you is abhorrant. I guess this fits into Lilia's control and responsibility and yet there is something here about the nature of relationships which conceivably is about hierarchy and community, gets more to a psychology of the situation rather than social structure...

Broadband numbers rise

At The Register and the BBC an announcement by BT on its Broadband numbers both in terms of Wholesale (all ISPs using BT lines) and Retail (the BT ISP).

ntl figures are broadly in line with BT retail and considering the respective geographical footprint of both companies, much better. I think this competition is beneficial not only to the public in terms of cheaper prices and faster speeds (fatter pipes) but also to the industry itself, as long as competition does not get too fierce which could inevitably lead to cut throat pricing and ISPs going to the wall.

OfCom also reports the total number of Broadband connections in the UK now tops more than 5.3 million or 7.5 per 100 heads of population. This is now greater than Germany, although still behind France, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands (who have a staggering 15.8 per 100).

ntl BB Speed Increase

Chetnet Unofficial Ntlworld Forums - Speed Increase (official)

Martyn reports ntl's decision to increase its broadband speeds from Jan 2005. My post about BT's 2Mbps has been followed up on already :)

Good news:

Basic speeds become 1Mbps, 2Mbps and 3Mbps.

No change in price

Not so sure news:

Services have download cap of 5GB , 30GB and 40GB monthly usage.

Personally can't forsee myself making 30GB worth of downloading in one month but I know some users who would. Again as I said earlier cable should remain the connection type of choice (where you have it) and this makes it more attractive for the average user. For power users you need to make a decision on what you need.

ntl also announced their Q3 results today (good day to do it). Not as convincing as the first half of the year but positive nevertheless. Press release on the results is here.

Edit: More on both items and more at The Register

The Future!

The world still holds its breath (although its all over bar the shouting) with regard to the US Presidential election perhaps articulated best by my fave online daily cartoon strip UserFriendly.

However despite all the furore in the States, plenty of news is happening on November 3rd:

Sheikh Zayed bi Sultan al-Hahyan has died

Dignitaries are gathering in the United Arab Emirates for the funeral of its president, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan, who died on Tuesday aged 86.
UAE citizens speak of a profound sense of loss over the death of Zayed, their only ruler since independence in 1971.

"Farewell our father, our sheikh and sage of the Arab world," Khaleej newspaper said in a banner headline.

I know little about the UAE, but his loss is obviously keenly felt - my condolences.

In theSudan, more abuses in a dreadful conflict:

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has called on the Sudanese government to stop its troops forcing refugees out of camps in the western Darfur region.

In Economic matters both the EU,

In Lisbon in 2000, the EU agreed on a plan to turn Europe into the world's most powerful and competitive economy.

It was recently called a failure by a top Brussels official and has since been complicated by the EU's expansion.

and perhaps more convincingly China,

As China gets richer and stronger, the world is coming to share its belief that it merits recognition and respect as a great power. Through a combination of economic dynamism, skilful diplomacy and understated threat, it is already regaining much of its old imperial supremacy across Asia.

Filling the void left by the former Soviet Union, it has also emerged as the likeliest challenger to the United States as a global superpower.

- seek to assert economic dominance over and perhaps more properly instead of, the US. An interesting statement from former Chinese foreign minister & vice-premier, Qian Qichen from monday:

The former vice-premier accused the US administration of trying to "rule over the whole world".

He added that the "philosophy of the 'Bush Doctrine' is in essence force".

In an article printed in the state-run China Daily newspaper, Mr Qian also said the US-led Iraq war had sparked an increase in terrorist attacks.

Whereas the regieme has now 'properly' changed in Afghanistan as Karzai is declared president despite some irregularities with voting (no different to the US then):

The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission said the decision to have only foreigners on the panel raised "a number of concerns" since many of the problems with the elections were blamed on international staff and organisations.

And elsewhere it appears Slavery, in its numerous forms, is stil an issue:

Cambodia's Child Sex Shame

and on a more positive note:

Timidria is receiving the 2004 Anti-Slavery Award on 3 November from Anti-Slavery International for fighting slavery in Niger.

---------------------------------------------------------

So lots going on in the world. Most of it impacted by the US election but perhaps not as much as the US would like to think.

Not sure what prompted this post per se but it seemed, like US news, too much focus has been given to the US. Despite the election's importance, the world as a whole will need to look elsewhere for answers, whatever the ultimate result turns out to be.

2Mbps trial by BT

BT broadband hits 2Mbps - silicon.com

UK ADSL users can now trial the BT 2Mbps according to Silcon.com. IP Streeam 2000 (the 2Mbps service) is launched on a trial basis today. According to the article this will open the way for additional services such as Video (TV) via the phone line.

Apparently any ISP's customer can apply for the trial although because of the inherent issues with ADSL you need to be a certain distance from the exchange.

So, its good news for the general ADSL user but it does highlight for me the advantages and disadvantages between cable and ADSL. Cable already has TV capability and can in theory, on present technology reach speeds of 3Mbps (although ntl aren't providing this as yet). Its main disadvantage is the upload speed being smaller. For most people however this is irrelevant and for the time being Cable does have the advantge. For how much longer remains to be seen. 2005 will be the crucial year in Broadband, perhaps even more significant than 2003.

For success, make unreasonable requests

For success, make unreasonable requests

Its been a while since I blogged Curt, although he is always worth reading, and perhaps from a UK perspective 'Passion Catalyst' could be perceived as cheesy, I (cynic that I am) don't think so:

I had coffee with Lisa Haneberg from Management Craft the other day, and over the course of the conversation she told me about something she does that just begged to be blogged.

Every week, she makes at least five unreasonable requests. Requests she has no business making, and that people or companies have no realistic reason to say yes to. She figures that one in ten of those comes to fruition. So once every other week there's a good chance that something off the radar screen cool (like interviewing Guy Kawasaki for her blog) is likely to pop up.

You've heard me say again and again, "Action creates opportunity." This is a great example of that. I'm going to incorporate Lisa's unreasonable request approach into my routine from here on out. Who knows where that will take me?

How about you? What unreasonable requests can you make?

So action and unreasonable requests...

Curt - can I have a full programme of career coaching for free?

I'll see if it works elsewhere too! :)

BT all in one handset

BT's all-in-one phone to debut next year - silicon.com

mobile handsets that can make mobile, internet and landline calls. The handsets will include Wi-Fi and traditional mobile technology, enabling users to make cheap calls by connecting to wireless hotspots when out and about or through their landlines with Bluetooth when at home

I had been predicting that this type of technology would make it mainstream for quite a while - better late than never. I am not entirely sure how these proposed BT handsets will work but I think the whole idea is generally a good one. Personally I would like to see my mobile phone switch to using a landline connection when I am in my house and reveert to mobile elsewhere...

Bill Loves Broadband

BBC NEWS | Technology | Learning to love broadband

Bill Thompson's technology column at the beeb is always of interest and this week is no exception. The overall tone of the piece is concerned with how embedded in people's life the internet can become, especially when its always on Broadband.

Great stuff - agree 100%. Its certainly the case for me!

Shame that the Cable Modem breaking down had to propmt this. Shame the company couldn't get a new one out for 5 days. Have you guessed which company it is yet?

Still good to know that Bill's girlfriend usually enjoys her connection...

Possibilities

Johnnie has made it to New Zealand as promised. I hope he enjoys it. For myself I am very jealous - it is my number one 'holiday of a lifetime' to visit (along with the Pacific islands such as the Cook Islands, Samoa, Rapanui (Easter Island) and Fiji). Singapore airlines is reinforced as my carrier of choice :0

Continuing with future posibilities, I received a copy of The Art of Possibility By Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander today (recommend by both Johnnie and Evelyn Rodriguez). I can se why they both like the book. I just have to try and make my answer to the the question how are you? to be 'Perfect' becuase as I commented recently its all about your world view, your perception, or as the Zanders put it - 'Its all imagined' because we construct the univers around ourselves and it is filtered through our view on life.

So from now on it isn't a dream to go to New Zealand, its a clear objective for 2009.

Audio not Video on the move

BBC NEWS | Technology | Consumers 'snub portable video'

Jupiter Research claims that European consumers are more interested in mobile audio technology than video or smartphones.

The report concluded that the driving force behind the growth of Europe's portable player market was likely to be music, rather than films or any combination of the two.

and...

Dedicated music players are the only established digital media players in Europe today despite their high prices," said Ian Fogg, Jupiter analyst.

Mr Fogg said although video players and smartphones were trying to cash in on this success they faced a tough job because of the compromises that had to be made when creating a dual-purpose device.

"Europeans care most about music playback," he said.

Seems reasonable given that most people are likely to already have a portal music player e.g. a walkman, in the past and are used to the functionality that it gives.

I think its difficult to predict accurately whether this will be the case from data such as this although common snese would suggest that mobile video in general is going to be niche for a while. General 'smartphone devices' however may have more broad based applications long term and eventually overtake pure audio. See for example the growing convergence in static digital entertainment and computing. If my PS2 / Xbox plays games, DVDs, CDs then why can't my mobile phone do the same?

Oh! It can :)