Monthly Archive for January, 2004

Hutton, Authority and Faith

Published
by
Paul
on 29 January 2004
in Politics
. 0 Comments

The Ourhouse Weblog: Hutton and faith in authority

Johnny raises some very valid points about Hutton and the culture of deference to authority, particularly judges that the vast majority of people have in the UK.

Any organisation that seeks to undertake actions in secret will generate theories of motives and inappropriate actions. However even organisations which attempt secrecy are gradually being undermined by people who ae willing to ‘leak’ and as John’s article suggests the networked world where connections and channels of communication are not controllable in the industrial world view sense. We live in complexity; adversarial systems cannot achieve justice or useful solutions, they merely implement a old and maybe outdated system of law & politics.

Responsiblity for this lies with everyone. We as a country, a society must consider that structurally what we have now is failing to reflect what we need in a post-modern age. Its essentially bankrupt but relying on the apathy of its creditors to make changes.

I don’t know what the answer is either however meaningful discussion should now take place on how to move things forward. While evolution is preferable over revolution, it cannot be at the pace of the 19th Century when we are in the 21st…

UWB - not as wide as previously thought

Published
by
Paul
on 29 January 2004
in Broadband
. 0 Comments

Ultra wideband vs. ultra wideband

Gizmodo does its continuing fine job of highlighting interesting new technology items for the consumer. In this piece linking out to two further articles Ultra Wide Band wireless is pulled apart and discussed.

The conclusion that UWB will not provide very high speeds other than within a few feet of the transmitter is very disappointing.

Looks as if we are going to have to wait for the really big bandwidths over wireless…

Alive and well and living in Beta road

Published
by
Paul
on 27 January 2004
in Site Administration
. 2 Comments

I am in fact still alive, I just took a brief hiatus and forgot to mention it. Unfogivable I know, however you will forgive me won’t you?

Oh go on! Go on, go on, go on, go on, go on!

Good. Thank you.

Some thoughts:

1) A Tom Peters quote that unfortunately I don’t do enough.

“If people aren’t pissed off with you, then you’re dead and don’t even know it” (or words to that effect).

UPDATE: the actual quote as Tom comments is:

“If no one is pissed-off with you then you are dead but just haven’t figured it out yet.”

2) The Office wins Golden Globe awards, are Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant very clever? Not so sure after seing Gervais solo stand up ‘Animals’, I think Gervais is more David Brent than we thought… Still two bookends, very understated…

3) Martin Johnson retiring from International rugby. Jonny Wilkinson comments:

“The moments Martin was at his best and most influential were in those final minutes before the start of a game,” Wilkinson said.

“He’d say something to us - maybe just one line. It might be about the opposition or us, or the occasion or game-plan, but it was always right and always so aggressive and ruthless.

“I’m sure it fired up the other guys, but I found myself becoming more comfortable.

“To see your captain like that makes you think ‘God, am I glad he’s on my side’.”

Wilkinson has particularly fond memories of this moment in the minutes before the World Cup final victory over Australia - Johnson’s last game in an England shirt.

With the teams lined up together in the bowels of the Telstra Stadium, Johnson just turned to look at his England colleagues.

“He was about to speak, but then he saw that he didn’t have to. When he turned back again, everyone knew what that meant,” Wilkinson said.

“Looking at that, I wonder what was going through the minds of the Australians next to us.

“But the genius of it for us was that it was so genuine, it wasn’t done for effect, it wasn’t contrived

I hope Johnson continues his involvement in rugby for a while and ultimately becomes a coach. The game needs someone of his stature (in both senses of the word) moving it forward.

Comments as always welcome :)

Glass ceiling still there

Published
by
Paul
on 6 January 2004
in Management Theory
. 0 Comments

BBC NEWS | Business | More women ’should get top jobs’

The EOC [Equal Opportunites Commission] research found the lives of people in this country were changing, with women having babies later and men spending more time with their children.

In its report, Sex and Power: Who Runs Britain?, the EOC said women made up 9% of top business leaders, 9% of national newspaper editors, 7% of the senior judiciary, and 7% of senior police officers.

Women accounted for 23% of top management in the civil service and 18% of MPs, but sex equality was “far from sorted”, the commission said.

It is interesting that despite legislation, chaning attitudes, females being more successful in education and high profile women being successful in business that a so called glass ceiling still exists. A glass ceiling being where women cannot rise above a certain level although it is invisible (hence its made of glass).

When considering key elements of complexity based management theory, and innovation and creativity, it suggests that the more variety the better the outcome, as there are different perspectives, cultures, opinions and ideas being brought forth. Any system that therefore limits this variety is reducing its ability to perform optimally and reducing its ability to compete and survive in an environment that changes as quickly as it does today. As the report suggests businesses are missing out, with no real need to do so.

Let’s end this and try and get some kind of balance. After all its in everyone’s mutual benefit for organisations, businesses and Government to be more effective…

The future of the net

Published
by
Paul
on 5 January 2004
in Innovation
. 0 Comments

BBC NEWS | Technology | What the net did next

The internet is set to become the basis for just about every form of communication, according to net pioneer Vint Cerf:

“You are going to see a fairly dramatic increase in services riding on top of basic internet infrastructure,” he said, “You will see more and more layers of functionality showing up in the net.”

One of the original innovators who designed TCP/IP the fundamental communication protocol of the web, Vint offers a fairly standard industry view of where the web is taking us, but interesting nevertheless in that it gets across some of the true potential of the internet - worth a little read!

Happy New Year!

Published
by
Paul
on 1 January 2004
in Actions
. 0 Comments

John Cleese Quotes - The Quotations Page

If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play.

Its 2004 and I’ve set myself a number of targets for the year (not resolutions as I never manage these) which will be a joy if I can do it. (I can do it!)

Objectives

1) Be more attentive and patient with my children
2) Be more positive and proactive at work (or fizzy and focused as a motivational speaker once said)
3) Pass my CIM exams
4) Write a book (or chapter in a book) or at very least start writing more in depth pieces
5) Take time to look around
6) Meet more interesting and exciting people (and keep the conversations going with those I already know)
7) Get fitter and healthy (agggh!)

If I can take steps towards all of these I will be very happy.

I’d also like to see more Internet enabled devices making a real difference for people and like to be part of a team that implements such services. Perhaps that should be I will be…

Quick retrospective:

Positives from 2003

Meeting new people online and in real life (Thanks for the conversations)
My blog! (Thanks for the comments)
My family (particularly my wife and children)
Colleagues at work (despite everything!)
Beyond Branding - wonderful book
Starting my CIM course
Docotor Who will return!!!!

Negatives from 2003

Too numerous to mention and besides its in the past :) Although missing seeing my friend Gareth when he was over from the States was upsetting. Hope to see you soon!