Monthly Archive for November, 2003

Blogging and Collaboration

Published
by
Paul
on 30 November 2003
in Blogging
. 1 Comment

The Ourhouse Weblog: Blogging and collaboration

John Moore, thoughtful as ever, comments on Ton’s post Making Actionable Sense
and goes onto to note his own ideas abot collaboration via blogging and the Internet…

I know that via the net I can now tap into some pretty remarkable talents in different parts of the world. This is both exciting and frustrating. Exciting cos I really like these people and love the idea of working with them, frustrating because I’ve yet to discover how best to do it. I’ve seen a lot of putative collaborations fail because they don’t get to some kind of critical mass or level of commitment.

John has talked about this in meat space, and as I am one of the people who are in fact collaborating I hope this is a vision that has some legs and willgain the commitment he and I (and Tim for that matter hope).

In the meantime, if you haven’t already, go take a look at the Mutualist Manifesto, where the shape of a book to come is forming. If you are interested engagement or at least comments are expected.

Great Apes in Danger

Published
by
Paul
on 26 November 2003
in Environment
. 0 Comments

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | UN’s clarion call for great apes

The clock now stands at one minute to midnight for the world’s four great ape species, the United Nations says.
It is launching an appeal for $25m, the minimum it says is needed to avert their extinction within a few decades.

All the apes - gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos (pygmy chimps), and orang-utans - face a very high risk of extinction within 50 years at most, the UN says.

It hopes to establish areas where ape populations can stabilise or even grow, if it manages to raise enough money.

The appeal is being launched at a meeting in the French capital, Paris, on 26 November. It has been called by Unesco (the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) and Unep, the UN Environment Programme.

The importance of diversity in life, on this planet cannot be overemphasised. These creatures, humanities nearest cousins genetically, should not, cannot be allowed to become extinct. We can save them, because after all its humanity which has allowed them to become critically endangered.

You can find out more here and send money to the following:

Send your private donations to GRASP - Born Free Foundation at the addresses below. To ensure that your donation goes directly to the GRASP project please send an email to davidj@bornfree.org.uk giving your name and address and the date of payment, and saying that these funds are for GRASP.

(Sterling Pounds)

Bank: HSBC 67 West St., Dorking, Surrey, RH4 1BW, England
Sort code: 40 19 22
Account number: 41283677
Account name: Born Free Foundation Ltd.

(US dollars)

Bank: Leopold Joseph 99 Gresham St., London EC2V 7NG, England
Sort Code: 40 52 26
Account number: 73216555
Account name: Born Free Foundation Ltd.

Maybe a letter to your local political representative or national government could help?

McDonald’s Misled consumers…

Published
by
Paul
on 26 November 2003
in Marketing
. 0 Comments

BBC NEWS | UK | McDonald’s fries advert is banned

Burger chain McDonald’s has been banned from repeating an advert that “misled” consumers about its fries.
The Advertising Standards Authority upheld complaints from members of the public and the Food Commission.

The advert says after selecting certain potatoes “we peel them, slice them, fry them and that’s it”.

But complainants said parts of the process had been omitted, such as par-frying, freezing and adding salt and a dextrose sugar solution.

I think this sums up my last post. Manipulative and desperate.

Go buy real food!!!!

McDonald’s try to convince us they’re British

Published
by
Paul
on 25 November 2003
in Marketing
. 0 Comments

BBC NEWS | Magazine | McDonald’s ad burgers belief

the BBC News magazine occasional articles on advertising neatly outlines McDonald’s (desperate) attempt to appear moe British (English?)

This seems to be an unashamed attempt by one of the most iconic American brands of all, McDonald’s, to hitch a ride on British patriotism.

We are not British, McDonald’s seems to be saying - but we have given the British people a very special gift - a “British burger”. Something the Americans would love to get their paws on.

This is a complete U-turn on previous McDonald’s advertising, which has gone out of its way to emphasise how un-American the company is - and how British an activity “going for a McDonald’s” has become.

My personal view is that this is advertising at its worst. It fails to engage the audience, its a shameful attempt at manipulation and offers nothing the customer really wants.

I am personally anti-McDonalds. Why? Well firstly, as you may have noticed I don’t eat meat. Secondly the reason I gave up meat was primarily the over farming of various places worldwide of Beef cattle (in Amazonia for instance) which has of course at various times (however truthfully) has been linked to said company. And lastly McDonalds are the very antithesis of what I think a brand and a portfolio of products should be about i.e. something that seeks to engage with customers in a true dialogue about their needs or where that is difficult by offer a unique product that is ustainable not only in terms of profit making for the company but more importantly in tune with its stakeholders and the environment as a whole.

People should eat healthily, eat more fresh food, properly prepared and find ways of getting it at reasonalb eprices, rather than putting up with this rubbish.

WiFi uses increase…

Published
by
Paul
on 24 November 2003
in WIFI
. 0 Comments

The Register

The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company (BNSF) has found a novel use for Wi-Fi. It has started using the wireless networking technology to control trains remotely.

BNSF locomotives carry freight across the continental US. However, it is using wireless technology to move units around its rail yards. It reckons the system is more efficient - presumably one driver can run multiple locos from the same seat in the yard control centre - and a darn sight safer than putting drivers inside the engines, the Fort Worth, Texas-based company claims.

Instead, they operate a control panel that mirrors what they’d see if they were sitting in the cab. Their instructions are relayed to each loco via the “industrial strength” WLAN.

“You can even blow the horn,” says BNSF CIO Jeff Campbell in a throwaway line included in an interview with Computerworld concerning the company’s dealings with cellular providers.

Does that make this the ultimate model railway? Mobile communiations systems particularly WIFI and other Wireless protocols, offer amazing possiblities. It remains to be seen however whether in a consumer market place these opportunities will evolve into consumer need and related products…

England Win Rugby World Cup

Published
by
Paul
on 22 November 2003
in Rugby
. 0 Comments

Swing low sweet chariot and bring the William Webb Ellis Trophy home…

Well down to all assocaited with England Rugby and the towering performance of the England team in Sydney.

England are on top of the world. I’ve had several tears in my eyes today (along with the odd beer!)

Let’s home as a nation we can convert this into something special in the future in terms of sporting performance, participation and health for all.

I’m certainly looking forward to my visit to Twickenham in June to the Museum of Rugby where I can see that cup!

Birthday time

Published
by
Paul
on 20 November 2003
in Self Improvement
. 1 Comment

Another year older, another year wiser, or so they say…

I think this year I would prefer to say that I’ve made some good and interesting friends. I’ve learnt a lot of new things, and am constantly being stimulated (in an intellectual way) by people and ideas. And that my ability to love has grown as I gain more experience of what it means to be human.

Chasing Bush

Published
by
Paul
on 19 November 2003
in Politics
. 0 Comments

a site which is encouraging people to track George Bush during his visit to the UK, with the tag line, ‘George Bush thinks he can escape an angry public… He’s Wrong!’

Interwebnet.org - ‘Footman’ breaches Buckingham security

Help us track George W. Bush across London!

I’ll leave the politics aside for the moment, its amazing how quickly these types of protests can now be up and running and getting out into the public conciousness.

I wonder how effective that this will be in terms of tracking him and in terms of whether as a protest it will have any effect?

On the politics side I have little sympathy for Bush and an effect protest would be useful to see not only to focus Bush’s mind but also to focus the mind of Blair.

Boundaries

Published
by
Paul
on 18 November 2003
in Knowledge Management
. 0 Comments

The Ourhouse Weblog: Making sense of a complex and complicated world

John blogs Lilia Efimova who recently had the opportunity to listen to David Snowden. I’ve seen David speak on many occasions, always enthralling, often amusing and its always fun to engage in mutual mud slinging with the Welsh (I think the Rugby world cup is bringing out the jingoist in me and I’ll be singing ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ before long).

The engagement with his thinking on complexity and especially ideas of community, knowledge mangement and context really kicked off my intelectual muscles after being fairly dormant for about five years…

John picks out from the Sense Making paper the key conception of boundaries:

Also there’s an elegant section on boundaries which is a topic that fascinates me. Snowden distinguishes between the “shallow river” (you know when you cross it and it’s easy to cross); the “deep chasm” (crossable but only at bridges which can - for good or ill - limit access) and the “high plateau”:
the boundary with the most potential danger, because you may not be aware that
you have crossed the boundary until it is too late and you drop off the other side.
The article is packed with ideas and I can’t quite do it justice here!

David often illustrates such boundaries through storytelling (or narrative) such as only being accepted within a group by passing the entry / intiaition ‘test’ e.g. being sent for a left handed screwdriver or the tartan paint, or being sent into the dirty water at the sewerage plant.

There is also some worthy points concerning master and apprenticeship i.e. you only pass when the master is satisfied not by some objective level.

The reason I find these of interest is the need of humans to belong and the associated need of exclusion to establish communities.

Slay the RIAA

Published
by
Paul
on 18 November 2003
in Values
. 0 Comments

TeledyN: How to Slay the RIAA

Gary happens to be an excellent (well praise costs you nothing if its true) and well respected blogger. John Moore mentioned his blog on Brand Activism and therefore I decided to take a read. I realised (somewhat slowly) that Gary had commented here before (regarding my ‘at risk’ scenario in October) and his kind words were gratefully received, especially considering he himself is without portfolio at present.

While browsing the site I was intrigued (seems to be my favoured word today) by the title ‘Slaying the RIAA’ and then I read it and was inspired and motivated. The idea itself, essentially the disintermediation of record companies (and therefore the RIAA) reminds me of Scott McCloud’s Creating Comics and Reinventing Comics whereby disintermediating the publishers gives the artist and reader (consumer) greater value. Gary’s proposal is a similar and even more stimualting proposal to do this for the music industry. It is an idea whose time has come IMHO and which given enough of a community behind it could start to tip…

to producing a new portal where subscribing promoters and studios could directly announce their content and recording sessions, but where any RSS-enabled band, promoter, studio or venue could get their feed aggregated for the cost of an email message telling me the URL. I would develop the core engine, host the site, moderate and maintain the site, weed the spam, roll out new services, and fold all custom developments back into the creative commons of the Drupal.org archives.

In short, I would be working for you, the real music industry.

Please take some time to read Gary’s article in full - How to Slay the RIAA.
If you like it send him some encouragement. If you want to see the system send him some money and pledge your support. I have.