I noticed Johnnie is a bleeding heart liberal and just to see where I stood I tried this out for fun…
Quite accurate I thought 
Monthly Archive for September, 2004
“Real love is a permanently self-enlarging experience.”
Just read this and struck me in two ways:
- Relationships - both sexual and
plutonicplatonic, friends and family - Interests / Hobbies - ideas that capture your interests more than simply that’s fun
Assuming that ‘Enlarging’ is equivalent to growth in this instance then I am a very lucky bod, as I love and am loved by some wonderful people and I have a number of interests which I love and which sustain me (of which one is of course blogging!!)
VBG
FT.com / Home UK - NTL to spend up to £65m on ‘local loop unbundling’
I knew this was coming and in some respects it has been around for some time but good news to see that expansion is finally back on the cards. I think that this is the right strategy for the business long term - a combination of market and product development really is the only option
Two responses from me:
The first is that ntl still needs to get the customer experience right. I believe that this is improving as management, technology and organisational changes take hold. While I know that doesn’t help those people who are upset with ntl, I feel we are moving in the right direction - could do with being faster but then it might not produce the results our customers deserve (I am a customer too btw).
So when the new greater ntl emerges my profound hope is that how we respond to customers is much improved too.
Second point is that now Ofcom have forced BT’s hand with LLU and prices, will they focus on Other licenced operators (OLO) next? If so will that mean ntl having to unbundle its local loop to competitors? Will that necessarily be good for the industry? Don’t know the answers but do know that competition is only going to get more fierce in the medium term.
If you are quick, you can also go and buy a second hand transmitter network… Shame 
Blogwalk certainly woke me up with regard to blogging. I’ve started paying more attention to my Feed reader which was feeling a bit lonely (Feed-Demon).
You might have noticed some subtle differences to the site thanks to Julian’s promptings (see this comment), and having a look at his latest posting stumbled across some useful tools. Firstly Feedburner - I have now also changed my feeds to the following - would appreciate it if you can update
Weblog feed
Comments feed
I also noted Flickr, which looks like a great tool for photos and moboblogging. Once I get a new phone this is going to happen (yeah!).
And del.icio.us also appears interesting - a tool for capturing sites of interest and sharing with others. Haven’t tried this yet but expect to see some posts related to this soon (I think)
This is a test post from 
, a fancy photo sharing thing.
Upstairs at the Old Crown
I attended the Blogwalk 4 meeting on Friday in London, unfortunately only for the morning as need to attend another meeting. Seems like I missed some good stuff not least the lunch and the walk
Good to see Johnnie again and rewarding to meet:
Lilia
Lloyd Davis
Martin Roell
Anu Gupta
Louise Ferguson
Suw Charman
Ed Mitchell
Julian Elve
Ian Glendinning
Chris Macrae
Riccardo Cambiassi
Desiree Gosby
Omar Green
Shame Ton couldn’t attend as I was looking forward to meeting him.
The primary focus of blogging within the firewall gave rise to a number of themes which have exercised me for a while namely:
Why are corporates so afraid of losing control of comms? (after all they have already lost it)
How can you ‘justify’ blogging within a company? This can be to an external audience (outside the firewall) as well as internally (inside the firewall) - (guerilla tactics?)
Can you use an authentic voice? (sometimes, but there is an element of editing and adaption of voice)
Is the channel of a blog more compelling than other media channels? e.g. website, email, bulletin board, etc. (Yes, in certain situations, particularly when authentic and use of storytelling)
After I left
Seems like Julian got tasked with looking at internal wiki/blog tools along with user requirements.
Lilia has gone onto AOIR 5.0 (which seems equally stimulating - I think I should be there rather than at work!)
Biggest benefit
Although I took a lot away from the topics themselves, the most rewarding aspect was that the event challenged me to start thinking about things more deeply again. I think I need to start blogging about experience more to gain a better perspective on things.
Other Things
On a semi-related note, noticed this post on Monkeymagic regarding the virtues of the tea-break and chit chat.
Secondly Johnnie remarks on a similar topic of learning and collective intelligence:
Traditional models of group thinking seem based on me trying to cement my well-formed brick of thought to your well-formed brick. Increasingly, I find much more satisfaction in sharing the less-formed ideas and responses I have to conversations. I sense that by doing so, it’s possible to create some sense of joint intelligence that can get beyond existing mental models.
I think Blogwalk 4 illustrated that for me - throw in a few ideas and anecdotes and see where others take them - a little like improvisation perhaps Johnnie?
BBC NEWS | Technology | Broadband starts to rival dial-up
Broadband now has more people using it than unmetered dial up in the UK. Although it still has some way to go before becoming the most common connection type as most people use pay as you go dial up services.
31% now use broadband compared to the 69% dial up (which is comprised of 29% unmetered and 35% payg) according to the Office for National Statistics.
Presumably at this rate mid way through next year broadband will be the dominant connection type.
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Britons ‘in favour of wind farms’
Despite a number of recent articles to the contrary, Britons apparently like wind farms. I can myself see both sides of the argument, although for me a truely renewable energy source like wind power must be one of the ways forward to solve our energy needs (along with others such as solar power). Any new development must be considered in context and a proper cost / benefit analysis undertaken.
Gave blood yesterday. Apparently I move up to the next rank and get a nice blue donor card rather than my current red one. Anyway the reason for this is to encourage you to go out and give blood. I’m am very nervous around needles and blood but still manage to go through with it, so go give it a try.
UK: Blood Donation
US: Red Cross
Canada: Canadian Blood Services
Taiwan: Blood Donation Services
If anyone else from other countries gives blood then please direct people via comments or drop me a mail and I’ll post the URL.
You could save lives by doing this, so take 15 minutes out of your life and as the Donation Service in Britain says, ‘Do something amazing!’
Seth’s Blog: One more thought about the echo chamber
If you’re defining yourself and your business in terms of your competition, you’re living in the echo chamber. Companies and organizations don’t grow fast at the expense of existing competitors. They grow fast for reasons that have nothing whatever to do with whether your service is 5% better or your product is a little more convenient.
You don’t beat McKinsey with better consulting advice, you don’t raise more money than the United Way by spending it more efficiently, and you don’t sell more widgets with a slightly longer guarantee.
Seth putting the case for innovation and (I think) against the pervidious benchmarking. Unfortunately, it seems, that benchmarking or ‘defining your business in terms of your competitors’ is what a large part of the corporate world seems to do and seems to expect.
” I’ve just come up with this great innovation” says Em ployee. “Ah.. but what are our competitors doing? Do they have one?”, Mr Boss asks. “Well… No, its a brand new idea we’ve developed.”, Em replies. “Then ‘no takers’ here I’m afraid. Need to benchmark against the competition, let them make the first move…”
Sound familiar?
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