One Man & His Blog

NEXT Berlin 2012 - liveblogs

2012-05-27T08:35:45Z

Ah, I love NEXT. Unlike many tech-based conferences, which are very rooted in the now, they have a remarkable knack of looking about two years into the future, and giving you a sense of what the world might look like then. I've been working with them since January, and it's one of the pieces of work I enjoy the most. Here's all the liveblogging I did for them earlier in the month:

Day One

The Future of the Network and the History of the Computer - two keynotes that kicked off the conference, with René Obermann of Deutsche Telecom talking about a more open future for mobile networks, and George Dyson showing how the past of computing might point its way to the future.
Towards the internet of things - four talks about the emerging world of networked smart objects
Designing Digital Services by Putting People First - a great talk for agencies and product managers by Lousia Heinrich of Fjord, about human-centric success
Making Books into a shareable experience - Henrik Berggren of Readmill has ideas of how to make eBooks more networked.
Hacker kids, Maker culture and Wired clothing - my personal favourite session of the first day. It felt like a glimpse into the culture of five years hence - or what talking to the Homebrew Computer Club must have been like.
TV to come , TV to go - a panel looking at visions of Future TV.
The startup pitch winners

Day Two

The velocity of digital business - Ajaz Ahmed and James Hilton of AKQA with a vision of doing great work in a digital age
Give the teddy bears WiFi - Russell Davies' grab-bag talk of ideas from the future
Selling fashion online and printed clothes - a weird mix of pragmatic advice about selling clothes online - and whole new ways of creating clothes, including 3D printed bikinis!
Three views of the future of media - always connected consumers, updating eBooks and the psychology of publishing
Dave Weinberger & the future of everything - not a children's adventure novel, whatever the title makes it sound like. ;) Mr Weinberger takes us on a gallop through the likely consequences of the networked world.
James Bridle: Moving beyond the fanfics of technology and place - a brain-stretching journey through the cultural consequences for places and ideas of mash-up culture

Videos of all the sessions are flowing onto the site now. Loads of juicy brain food for you there!

Like Minds Exeter 2012 Liveblogs - day two

2012-05-26T22:00:42Z

Links to my liveblogs of day two of Like Minds Exeter 2012

Morning

John Rosling: is the chief executive the chief entrepreneur - an inspiring talk on being an inspring leader (and how to lead rather than manage)
Rajeeb Dey: the path to entrepreneurship - a young, successful entrepreneur lays out how others can follow in his tracks
JP Hamilton: good business is personal - Virgin Media's Pioneers programme is doing both social and economic good. Here's how...
Alan Moore: a navigation guide to a better future - fantastic climax to the morning, with a clear vision for how our organisations need to chance to compete in the new era

Afternoon

Peter Shankman: Forget Likes, be liked - live via Skype, Peter gave the most entertaining talk of the festival, highlighting the human in the network
Endeavour: GoodPeople's platform for social enterprise - Anton Chernikov outlines a vision for making a communication tool to find people for social enterprises
Neville Hobson: Take courage - Neville concludes the event with a rousing call for the courage needed to make change happen

Like Minds Exeter 2012 Liveblogs - day one

2012-05-25T11:57:31Z

Links to my liveblogs of day one of Like Minds Exeter 2012

Morning session:

Russ Lidstone: Why what you do matters - Russ kicked off the "ideas festival" with a talk that played straight to the core issues of the conference, and which explores the niches in society that make targeting so important
Shannon Springer - reflecting interconnectedness in business - Shannon gave a passionate talk, on behalf of the young people demanding more awareness of the society and environment business rests upon.
John Richardson - 1000 hours to transform your life - John's powerful talk about the rewards (and price paid) to follow your dream and be successful
Robert Bean - the 9½ rules of branding - A talk that's just as much about how to make a great business as a great brand.

Afternoon Session:

Panel discussion: does what you do matter? - the only session of the day that felt unsuccessful to me. You may disagree. :-)
Meg Grogan: challenging your business from within - 1000heads takes the conference's theme to heart
Endeavour: teaching children to problem solve in new ways - Giving children problem-solving skills for the mobile age.
Chris Moss - solving your business challenges - Chris does problem solving and advice to audience questions live on stage

Fun:

A bad social media workman is scared of his tools

2012-05-23T09:41:37Z

This visualisation of social media marketing tools has been doing the rounds of late:

I found it on Business Insider. It was created by BuddyMedia

The general reaction has been something along the lines of:

Oh no! Woe is me! It's all so complicated! I thought Social Media was just Twitter and Facebook!

You know what's worse? Look at this:

ALL THOSE TOOLS.

Whatever am I going to do with them all? House maintenance is too complicated!

Now, here's the thing: exactly how seriously would you take a tradesman who turned up to your house with one size of spanner and a single screwdriver, and complained when the job required more than that?

You'd kick them straight out the door, and throw their tools after them.

True craftsmen respect a diversity of tools, know that different occasions call for the use of different tools, and they have the skill and knowledge to adapt when the task requires it.

I wouldn't like to suggest that the social media "profession" is one rather over-burdened with amateur hacks who've learnt how to use two or three tools by rote. No, I'm not suggesting that.

I'm stating it.

The social media world is split between people who look at that diagram and go "oh my God, how do I cope" and those who go "Oooh, possibilities."

Can I suggest that you'd be better working with the latter? People who are excited by possibilities are so much more fun than those who are afraid of them...

Social Media is...

2012-05-22T14:11:59Z

Well, it got me through the mid-afternoon lull...

[via The Next Web]

OM&HB Agenda: w/c 21st May 2012

2012-05-21T09:39:41Z

The week ahead on the much-neglected One Man & His Blog:

This evening I'm off to the Brian Solis Tweetup in London (all sold out, sorry). It should be a fun evening, but I've no idea if anything bloggable will emerge. You'll find out tomorrow.

Talking of tomorrow, expect some blog catch-up activity, as I have my first day "free" for a while, and getting some serious blogging done is on my agenda, along with some bits of paid work and more unpacking at the new house. In particular, I'm hoping to get some posts done on GameCamp 5.

The end of the week is all Like Minds all the time. I'm heading down to lovely Exeter on Wednesday afternoon, and will be liveblogging on the Like Minds site for the following two days. Not quite sure what will appear here...

Tickets are still available, and if you can make it to Exeter for either of the two days, I can highly recommend the event. Like Minds has been one of the highlights of my conference schedule for several years now. It's a genuinely thought-provoking and challenging event.

How corporate structure can accidentally stifle innovation

2012-05-15T19:18:34Z

Ah, Flickr. In 2004 I loved that site. But today is not a day for nostalgia. Today is a day for looking at the mistakes corporates make, and how you learn from them. And the Flickr/Yahoo relationship is a compelling example of just that:

"The money goes to the cash cows, not the cash calf," explains one former Flickr team member. If Flickr couldn't make bucks, it wouldn't get bucks (or talent, or resources).

Because Flickr wasn't as profitable as some of the other bigger properties, like Yahoo Mail or Yahoo Sports, it wasn't given the resources that were dedicated to other products. That meant it had to spend its resources on integration, rather than innovation. Which made it harder to attract new users, which meant it couldn't make as much money, which meant (full circle) it didn't get more resources. And so it goes.

As a result of being resource-starved, Flickr quit planting the anchors it needed to climb ever higher. It missed the boat on local, on real time, on mobile, and even ultimately on social--the field it pioneered. And so, it never became the Flickr of video; YouTube snagged that ring. It never became the Flickr of people, which was of course Facebook. It remained the Flickr of photos. At least, until Instagram came along.

It's a terrifying tale of how a corporate stifled the very innovation that it had bought, because t's entire business structure was built around rewarding existing successful businesses, not nurturing the business sectors of the future. Too much management philosophy is rooted in defending and growing existing success. And as long as companies enshrine that principle in their structures, jobs and employment approach, they will not be able to innovate - or profit from buying innovation.

Has your CEO lost touch with your industry?

2012-05-15T14:29:45Z

As a recent evictee from the big corporate world, who spends some of his time working for big corporates, I'm still fascinated by the problems these huge companies face in adapting to times of massive change.

I noted this post by Seth Godin a few weeks back:

This is a sure sign of systemic failure as well as a CEO who is not doing the job she should be. When smart people who care get frustrated, something is wrong.

I recognised that feeling - that of caring about the company, and of seeing solutions which I just couldn't get implemented, because the people around me weren't in touch enough with what was happening outside their tight niche to see that the threats and opportunities were coming from elsewhere.

And then I saw this yesterday:

AirPlay, a software tool included with Apple's iPads and iPhones, is widely viewed as being potentially disruptive to the cable industry, because it makes it easy for people to view a broad variety of Internet content on a television. Time Warner Cable's leader, however, hasn't heard of it.

And that's the core problem, isn't it? A CEO who has worked his or her way up the company, in a different age, with a different set of challenges. They're not in-touch enough to know what the new landscape is. And they're not smart enough to listen to those people further down the company who are much more keenly aware of the true competitive landscape. So, it's both a systemic and a personal problem, as Godin suggests.

Try this thought experiment: imagine walking up to your CEO, if you work for a publishing business, and asking him to name his top five sites that didn't come from a traditional media background. If you can't imagine him giving sensible answers, start looking for another job.

Journalists: the problem isn't better, it's different

2012-05-15T11:39:06Z

John L. Robinson spots a great observation about journalism by Stijn Debrouwere:

Because the entire point is that journalism is not being disrupted by better journalism but by things that are hardly recognizable as journalism at all. Stepping up your game is always a good idea, but it won't save you.

It's a spot on observation.

The trick is going to be ways of finding the core values and skills of what we call journalism, and finding whole new ways of expressing them in a totally different medium.

You up to that?

New view for a new life

2012-05-14T18:14:25Z

This year has been difficult. Sure, some great things have happened, but getting our life back on track after the shock that ended last year has been tough, has required some difficult choices, and has lead to some emotional battering along the way. But those choices have lead us, finally, into a new home. And I'm in the process of getting my office set up:

Let's just take a closer look at that view...

So, yes, it's been a tough year. But some great things are coming from it... :-)

Don't mess with the NEXT Blog Squad

2012-05-09T13:35:06Z

Photos of the NEXT official bloggers from the talented lens of Luca Sartoni

Sleeping Bag Marketing

2012-05-08T13:55:14Z

Neat idea for attracting attention at a conference. I was steaming out of a conference session, in search of a coffee to sustain me for more liveblogging, when I came across this sight:

Uh, what the heck? OK, I stopped to take a photo, and while I was doing so, someone else walked up and asked her what she was doing:

And the story became clear. She's marketing for deskwanted, a site to allow people to find a better place to work than their beds. Or their sleeping bags.

Clever, attention grabbing and in line with the core idea of the site. And nicely targeted to the start-up and independent working crowd here...

When in Berlin, Liveblog

2012-05-08T07:29:18Z

Berlin. Possibly the throbbing heart of continental Europe's digital scene. Certainly the scene of one of my most over-written opening paragraphs in years. But then, what else can a city like this stimulate in you? One of the opening parties last night featured a woman dressed as a peacock. That's all you need to know.

Oh, perhaps you also need to know that I'm here for NEXT Berlin, the annually digital conference that I enjoyed so much last year. And, like last year, I'll be liveblogging it. Unlike last year, I won't be liveblogging it here - I'll be posting on the official NEXT Blog, which I've been running since January...

Not quite sure what will be appearing here - probably some analysis, random photography. And possibly peacock ladies:

New starts, several times over...

2012-05-02T15:20:46Z

Blimey. It's been a bit quiet around here, hasn't it?

Here's why: I've just moved. We finally have the house we have been working towards for the past five years or so, and not before time, given that our first child is just a few months away...

Those two facts, by the way, are the missing elements of the story of my redundancy: RBI decided to part company with me while I was in the middle of buying a house, and my wife was in the early stages of pregnancy. Nice timing, guys. Some people wondered why I threw myself so fiercely into a job hunt back in December, given that the redundancy settlement was generous - certainly generous enough that I could take several months off without any concern at all. Well, now you know the answer: child on the way, house purchase in progress. Doing all that without a job looked like a frightening prospect back then.

But here's the thing: we sorted out the house purchase without the job, and I'm finding the contracting opportunities more welcoming, and more enjoyable, than the job opportunities I'm seeing in front of me right now (and that's meat for several more blog posts to come). And so, I'm no longer a job hunter. I'm a freelance consultant, blogger and trainer (who might accept the right job offer).

2012 is certainly proving to be a year of changes for me...

Keep your eyes on this blog for the next few days, if you want to know a few more details of what I've got planned - it's not so much adders 2.0 as adders 3.0.

Laura James on Open Data, Source and Knowledge

2012-04-20T15:48:11Z

Dr Laura James, foundation coordinator of the Open Knowledge Foundation

What is open data? asks Dr James. They have the Open Definition. Open data is open. You can use it whatever organisation you're in. Data? Not personal data. There shouldn't be any personal privacy issues (most of the time).

We have lots of data, and powerful IT systems. To many eyes, all data problems will be fixed. Data needs to be open to be interwoven. It doesn't need to be semantic - it can be - but it does need to be well enough described to weave it with other information. You'll need a range of skills: developers, designers, ethnographers, to get the most from the data. But open data means we can scale.

We're in really early days for this. It's still new in government - it's barely heard of in business. There are whole new sets of activities - like data wrangling - that bring new costs. Many of those costs are because we're retrofitting open onto existing data.

This is scary disruption. We get to experiment, take risks and occasionally succeed.

Open data leads to more sustainable cities. You understand more about what's happening - so it's easier to get all kinds of organisations to work together to solve the problems. Who can make the city data useful to people? Startups, SMEs, schools, arts groups, libraries - open data brings them all together. The UK government now shares transactions over £25k monthly. Before they released this data, civil servants couldn't access it. Now they can - so civil servants can see where better deals are to be had.

But it's not a magic potion. It's got to be used - it needs individuals and organisations to build apps and services to allow it to be accessed and used. We need to collect advice around using it. And if it's open data - you want open tools. And that means open source software. Select a robust open source software project, and you have a sustainable project. You don't need to worry about a propriety vendor putting up prices or going bust. The code is free - services probably won't be. That's fine. Pay more, get better service.

We went from hand-writing html to content management systems, like WordPress. Now we need to go from hand-managed data to data management systems. And there will be a whole range of them, from propriety to open source, from basic to expert. They'll allow management, analysis, proven ace checking, data cleaning... They'll be used right through the lifespan of that data.

CKAN - an open data management system. What's it good for? Sharing, finding and using data. For example - http://publicdata.eu, http://thedatahub.org. dataGM.org - mentioned earlier - was built on it. And it's not just the Open Knowledge Foundation - you can download it yourself, work with other partners, etc.

Opening data can be good for your organisation. wheredoesmymoneygo.org had a lot of downtime when they first launched - and the treasury kept phoning to complain. It was the best way of accessing their own information...