Just playing around with a new blogging tool Qumana:
| Qumana makes it easy Qumana makes it easy to p... |
| Source URL - http://www.qumana.com/qumana.html |
Qumana makes it easy Qumana makes it easy to post rich content to your blog. It is also extremely useful to all people who create and author content for publication to email, and as documents. Write and then post to your blog with one button. Or gather the stuff you find interesting so you can blog it later. |
Johnnie and James get their Sauce together:
Getting saucier...Ok, so James and I are making progress on our Open Sauce workshops.
We didn't get our act together for our original date but we are now committing. The first workshop will be on the morning of Friday March 18th at The Hub, a really interesting venue in London N1, 2 mins from Angel tube. Price of admission will be £125 for corporates, £50 for non-profits. (Plus VAT). Three and a half hours of lively discussion on how to get better value from marketing and (dare I promise) some inspiration on creative approaches to co-creation and collaboration with customers. More details soon.
Looking forward to it...
From one cause to another...
Chris Macrae informs me that a key sustainability thinker in corporate life, Ray Anderson, Chairman of Interface Inc and featured in the documentary and book The Corporation is giving a lecture at the RSA:
Lecture | 05 May 2005 18.00 | London & South East
Manifesto Challenge: Moving Towards a Zero Waste Society
Tickets are free and you can sign up online (after registering).
Here an extract that Chris sent me from the corporation:
But he [Anderson] now rejects as dangerously limited the beliefs he once shared with the large majority of business leaders "that nature is unlimited, the earth...a limitless resource for raw material, a limitless sink into which we can send our poisons and waste";" that the relevant timeframe is my lifetime, maybe my working life, but certainly not more than my lifetime"; and that the market's invisible hand will take care of everything. The market alone cannot provide sufficient constraints on corporations penchant to cause harm, Anderson now believes because it is "blind to...externalities, those costs that can be externalized and foisted off on somebody else".
Should be a very interesting lecture.
Update (24 Feb 05): I note from the BBC that an Iranian revolutionary court has sentenced Arash Sigarchi to 14 years imprisonment - to that end I have moved the banner to the top of the website and urge you to write to the Iranian embassy in your country - you can find the details on the Committee to Prtect Bloggers site.
PlusNet to trial BT's 8Mb broadband | The Register
More for you speed junkies - PlusNet are also going to offer a 8MB ADSL service - sometimes competition works but then as this other story at the register shows sometimes it doesn't and Co-operation (co-operatives even) are the key.
BBC NEWS | Technology | Britons fed up with net service
A survey conducted by PC Pro Magazine has revealed that many Britons are unhappy with their internet service. They are fed up with slow speeds, high prices and the level of customer service they receive.17% of readers have switched suppliers and a further 16% are considering changing in the near future.
It is particularly bad news for BT, the UK's biggest internet supplier, with almost three times as many people trying to leave as joining.
More and more people want to switch supplier - broadband is moving slowly to be a commodity. Although ISPs are increasingly desparate to increase customer loyalty many are seeking to compete only on price.
Note the phrase 'customer service' - its not unexpected that people want to be treated with a little respect. And the usual 'retention' trick of offering a better deal when you request to disconnect, well proven business practice it may be but I find it distinctly disingenuous.
Service providers need to be looking in the first instance to improve the customer service (and quality of service) and then start to improve value added services, rather than focus on the latter before the former.
Getting it right isn't that difficult, unfortunately getting it wrong and compensating seems to be the easiest way out.
Of course I am available to assist if you need some help :)
Today has been (in theory) my last day at ntl.
After 8 years and 5 months. Its been the best of times and its been the worst of times.
I was very touched by a gift of some Champagne and Chocolates from my old team mates in Internet - most unexpected but I am very grateful.
Thanks to them and all the other people at ntl who have made my time there a pleasure, an experience that I will never forget. It is rare you get to be at the cutting edge of a new market (broadband) and new products - I was very lucky.
Where to next? Remains to be seen but watch this space, as they say...
And now its time to say goodbyee ntl...
BBC NEWS | Technology | Full speed ahead for broadband
Simple outline from the Beeb on the higher speeds of broadband coming your way in 2005. Obviously very interested in the claim by ntl that 100mb service - although I have to point out that the quote from
Andrew Ferguson, a broadband expert and editor of the ADSL Guide, believes some of the talk could be marketing speak on NTL's behalf
Indeed! There is no way that broadband speeds can go in excess of 3.2mb without upgrading the cable modems and the platform of the network DOCSIS will not support these speeds. A number of customers of ntl will know that the physical infrastructure is also not up to it. A great deal of outlay would be needed is an understatement. A merged cable co though may have a better time of convincing the money markets but not ntl on its own.
Personally, if you want the high speeds then Bulldog or UKonline look the best bets however there isn't much to do with these speeds today so why switch to any higher than 2-3MB?
My acid test is how long it will take me to switch. We will see...