The first 90 days

If you are moving into a new role (irrelevant of the level), this is a great book for providing new ideas about how to approach the challenge. It provides a wide range of ideas that will apply to leadership roles in a variety of situations. Since it is so well organised, it is possible to use it as a reference book and dip into the bits that are relevant for your particular situation. The examples and chapter summaries are excellent and make the material much more accessible.

The material applies to such a wide range of situations that I suspect others might find it useful. For example, it wouldn't surprise me if consultants will find this book useful when approaching a new engagement. It provides some useful tools and approaches to tackling new problems.

A really useful book that I will revisit time and time again. As another reviewer suggested, if you are serving out your notice before starting a new job, this would be a good book to read. One thing is for sure, once you start your new job, you will only have limited time to read!

Newspaper industry

I have long been an admirer of the Newspaper industry. There aren't many industries around that have been in decline for the past 40 years and yet, year on year, never seem to fail to turn in a profit. I think there are a few Telcos around that could learn a thing or two from the great Newspaper companies.

A new report in into the Newspaper industry in the US provides some interesting insights. You can download the full report here. Some of their key findings were:

• Newspapers are experimenting with user generated content. The study found that 58 percent of newspapers allowed for user generated photos, while 18 percent accepted video and 15 percent articles. Overall, 58 percent of newspapers offered some form of user generated content in 2008 compared to 24 percent in 2007.
  
• Research shows that the number of newspaper websites allowing users to comment on articles has more than doubled in the last year. Seventy five percent of newspapers now accept article comments in some form, compared to 33 percent in 2007.
  
• Ten percent of newspapers had social networking tools, such as user profiles and the ability to “friend” other users, built into their sites in 2008. This compares to five percent of sites that included this feature in 2007. It is surprising that this number isn’t higher.
  
• Seventy six percent of newspapers offered a Most Popular view of content in some form (Most Emailed, Most Blogged, Most Commented, etc.). This compares to 51 percent in 2007 and 33 percent in 2006.
  
• Integration with external social bookmarking sites like Digg and del.icio.us has increased dramatically the last few years. Ninety-two percent of newspapers now include this option compared to only seven percent in 2006.

The interesting thing for me is that we are seeing a reduction in the need for users to register to be able to access full stories (11% of the newspapers surveyed required registration as opposed to 27% in 2007). This illustrates that newspapers are having to explore alternative methods of generating online revenues. Simply getting users to register and then bombarding then with targeted online advertising isn't going to work. Now there's a surprise!

Monetizing Social Networking

Monetizing social networking sites is still proving problematic. This article in The New York Times summarises some of the issues that Procter & Gamble have been encountering using Facebook.

It is interesting that just 3 percent of Internet users in the United States would willingly let publishers use their friends for advertising. Yet there is research that users are KEEN to publicise their views and experiences with products. According to research from DEI Worldwide 63 percent of consumers would like to share their opinions about a brand or product with a representative, and 67 percent are likely to pass along information from a brand representative to other people. Bit of a difference between 3% and 63%!

Personally, I suspect the major problem for advertisers is that social networking sites are about social interaction and not product placement - when conversing with friends and family, banner ads just seem a little inappropriate. If we aren't careful, banner ads are just going to make users feel like shills.

Interestingly, many organisations seem committed to monetizing social networking sites (asides from the social networking sites themselves that is), but only time will tell if this will work. Either way, I suspect that it is going to take longer that anyone thinks. In the meantime, users will continue to wield new found consumer powers.

Online newspapers

According to Neilsen, the Guardian remains the UK's leading online newspaper, closely followed by The Times. However, the rising star this year has been the Daily Mirror that has doubled it's online readership in the last year.

Today, it is estimated that nearly one in three adults in the UK read online newspapers. More information here: http://www.nma.co.uk/Articles/40834/The+Mirror+almost+doubles+online+audience+to+13m+users.html

Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell

I am a great fan of Malcolm Gladwell and had high expectations of this book having read both Blink and The Tipping Point. However, this book isn't quite in the same league.

The point his is making is made very well (that success is as much to do with being born in the right place at the right time - it is about riding a wave) and the case put forward is compelling enough. However, it seems that the book presents the same line of thought through many different examples. For me, the thinking didn't seem to evolve through the book - once you got the idea, it didn't really evolve. I was expecting so much more. Part One is a bit slow and repetitive, but the book picks up towards the end. As well as the main theme of the book (the power of cultural legacies and being in the right place at the right time), I found the section on Power Distance Index fascinating (chapter 7).

Having said all that, it was still interesting reading and I like Malcolm Gladwell's style - compelling and accessible.

50 Great Redesigns

I have always loved design stuff, particularly since I am so bad at it myself! This article contains a list of 50 (mainly company icons) that have been redesigned. It is interesting to look at the before and after images - almost without exception it is possible to work out which is the "before" image and which is the "after" image. See what you think!

Seth Godin's new book - Tribes

If you want to change the world, or change your bit of it, this is the book for you!

Seth Godin focuses on the role that LEADERSHIP plays in change and makes some powerful observations about the difference between MANAGEMENT and LEADERSHIP. Management is about maintaining stability, about perpetuating the status quo, it is about ensuring that things are done the same way that they have always been done. It is about avoiding change. For managers, change equals risk. Leadership, on the other hand, is about creating change that people can believe in. Leadership doesn't avoid change, it thrives on it. For leaders, change equals opportunity.

The book is incredibly well written. It feels as if every page has been handcrafted. Some many find the lack of chapters disconcerting. For me, it just helped the whole flow of the book. Ironically, it almost reads as a set of blog entries (no surprise for anyone that has read "Small is the new Big" or Seth's blog). I find it amusing that many said that the online world would kill off traditional publishing. Well, here is an example of the online world inspiring traditional publishing!

It is very easy to read. I read it in a couple of sittings and the only thing that slowed me down was the fact I made so many notes in it! I highly recommend it. If you are interested in leadership, then you MUST read this book. You will not be disappointed.

I wish I could think and write like Seth Godin. However, I suspect the only thing we have in common is our initials! Great book. Inspiring reading. Thank you, Seth.

Spamalytics

Well, here is a piece of interesting research that actually made it to the BBC website today. You will find the original research paper here.

During 26 days, researchers at UCSD sent over 350M spam emails by hijacking a net of spammer's machines. The spam emails directed to customers to a fake pharmacy site that made a note of the sale (without taking any money, of course) and then displayed an error page. According to the researchers, the only way research spammers is to be a spammer.

And the result of their 350M junk mail message, just a meager 28 sales. This equates to a hit rate of 0.00001% - far below previous estimates. Although even at this hit rate, it is estimated that the spammers could make up to $2M per year. I wonder how much money the IT industry spends preventing the majority of this spam reaching it's intended destination? Probably a bit more than the $2M the spammers earn.

WonderHowTo

I came across this site the other day and I couldn't help but browse. This site includes instructional videos on a whole range of topics - everything from knitting to weaponry. Pretty compelling stuff, however, like much of the material on the Internet you have to take care. I looked through a nuber of the videos on playing the drums and I do wonder how "expert" some of these teachers really are.

You can find the site here: http://www.wonderhowto.com/

Intel Atom Media Centre (again)

The Intel Atom Media Center seems to be working well with the Hauppauge Dual Tuner PCI card. It seems to have enough CPU to be able to record 2 channels while playing back a previously recorded programme. Indeed, looking at the performance of the machine shows that this is only using around 15% of the CPU. Overall, the unit is pretty quiet and uses only about 35-40W.

I am using a Linksys DMA-2200 Media Extender to stream TV (Freeview not HD) over WiFi to my TV. The Media Extender outputs 1080i format and is connected via HDMI to the TV. This essentially means that the extender is upscaling the image for display - the unit includes a DVD player as well as the Media Extender (this enables the playback of DVDs which cannot otherwise by played by the extender. The unit works reasonably well, but is a little short of horsepower - this shows up most of the animated Media Center user interface. You can customise the user interface not to use animation, if you want. This improves the responsiveness of the unit.

While this works technically, it isn't a great solution. It is far too expensive. The Linksys DMA-2200 retails for around £200 which makes it more expensive than an Xbox-360 which also plays DVDs and works as a Media Extender (it plays games too and is £40 cheaper!). The only advantage that the DMA-2200 over the Xbox-360 is that it is quiet. Then once you add in the cost of the Media Center, it all gets a bit ridiculous.

Since the Media Center is on all the time (to "hoover up" those TV programmes), I have decided to use it as a Print Server too. It would be really neat to see the Media Center capability built into Windows Home Server (you know the one that provides backup, file serving and remote access. This would mean taking all of the "Services" that should be running all of the time and combining them to run on a single (highly efficient) hardware platform.

Roadsign typo

I saw this post on the BBC website and it made be laugh. This is what happens when the proof reader can't read Welsh!

The English is fine, but the Welsh reads "I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated". Hehehe!

The original article is here.

Hauppauge Nova TV PCI Card

I built an Intel Atom based box a few months ago. I installed Windows Vista Ultimate on it and used the Media Center functionality to record TV programmes off Freeview. You will find the original post here.

Up until now I have been using a Hauppauge Dual Tuner USB stick, but decided to upgrade to a PCI card. The USB stick solution works well, but it isn't a particularly elegant solution. I like using this computer to record programmes since it uses such lower power (around 30W) and can be left on all the time.

The main challenge is that the mini-ITX case that I am using has space for only one PCI card and this card is positioned parallel to the motherboard so requires a right angle PCI extender. I used a Hauppauge WinTV Nova-T 500 Dual digital DVB-T PCI TV card. This provides dual Freeview tuners. The card is half length card (which is just fits in the mini-ITX case). I was a little confused since the image on the outside of the box clearly shows a full-length PCI card (see the image above). Compare this image to the image of the actual card installed into the unit shown below.

Even with a half-length card it is a tight squeeze to get all of this into a single box. As always, when the space is tight, it can be fiddly to get all of the cables installed and ensure that none of the fans are fowled. The main issue that I can see is that the PCI card lies very close (maybe 3-5mm) to the fan on the motherboard - there is only one fan on this motherboard and that is on the graphics chip. However, there aren't any major components on the PCI card that further reduce the clearance. You can see this on the image to the above.

The hard drive is then installed on top of this card, so there really isn't a lot of space inside this case (it is a Noah 3988 case).

Over the next couple of days, I will install the relevant drivers and get this unit back up and running. Hopefully, the lack of clearance over the fan will not cause any major issues.

Broadband limits

How did we ever find ourselves in this situation?

An article on the BBC website has some figures showing that nearly 1M broadband customers in the UK have either exceeded their download limit or are running close to it. So here's the situation:

• Most broadband providers impose a download limit. Even on accounts that are supposedly "unlimited" (using a "fair use" policy) - 56% of "unlimited" accounts have some sort of limit according to the BBC article;
• These "limits" vary dramatically between providers;
• Often these "limits" are not published. I suspect, for some providers, these limits have not been formally set;
• As an end user, it can often be difficult (if not impossible) to monitor usage, particularly in households with multiple PCs;
• Many providers will limit the service of those who exceed the limits or terminate the connection completely.

Now to keep this in perspective, most users get nowhere near their usage limits (many downloading less that 1GB/month). Where there are limits, they seem more than adequate for normal usage.

However, the principle remains. Broadband providers should:

1. Make their usage limits clear when the user takes out the contract;
2. Provide users with tools that allow them to monitor their usage.

Am I sounding frustrated because I have exceeded my usage limit? No. I have no idea what my limit is - my broadband provider tells me it is "unlimited" - and I have no way of monitoring the connection.

Nikon Coolpix P6000

I have been a big fan of Nikon cameras for many years - all my 35mm cameras are Nikon and my F90x and F5 are amongst my most favourite cameras. Like Nokia mobile phones, Nikon cameras are operate in a similar way - the Coolpix P6000 is no exception. This camera definitely owes much of it's heritage to the Nikon SLRs - both 35mm and digital - that have gone before it.

Form factor
It was the form of the P6000 that initially drew me to it. It has a kind of retro appearance with a large knurled knob and a hot shoe on top. Very reminiscent of my FM2 (another Nikon 35mm favourite).

If you are looking for an ultra compact digital camera, this is NOT the one for you. I have an Olympus FE-300 which I use for work. It is a 12MB compact and fits easily into my bag without me noticing it. I use it for recording whiteboards during meetings etc. For this purpose, it works really well. However, it is just too slow to use on the move (I tried, unsuccessfully, to photograph an otter swimming underwater while at the Seattle aquarium recently - the delay between the button being depressed and the shutter firing made it just about impossible). The lack of a viewfinder does not help either.

The P6000 is small enough to fit into a large pocket and has a great solid "chunky" feel to it. It feels like an F5 version of a digital compact. The body is made of magnesium alloy and is covered in part by a coarse rubber grip (which probably explains the similarity with the F5!).

The good bits
It is a well designed camera. The layout of the controls will feel familiar to a Nikon SLR user. The command wheel is used to great advantage. The layout feels as if it really has been thoroughly thought through. For example, if you are in playback mode (viewing images) and half press the shutter button, the camera flips back into camera mode. Pressing the "Delete" key immediately after taking a picture will delete it without the need to go into playback mode. Although just small touches, these do make a difference to the overall handling of the camera.

Most of the camera's settings can be set manually and there are a features that you would not expect on a compact (e.g. real curtain sync, auto bracketing, manual focus). There are even a couple of user definable user modes that can be configured.

Power up. The camera seems to power up almost immediately and, in use, there is negligible delay between depressing the button and the shutter firing.

Lens. This works really well, particularly in macro mode. It could probably do with a slightly longer focal length (x4 optical zoom), but works well as is.

Picture quality. Both picture resolution (13MB) and colour rendition is absolutely stunning (which is probably what you would expect).

Face recognition. This works well in "portrait" mode and instantly detected faces. I could even get it to recognise a face from a print on my desk. See ?????. The camera focuses on the face, even if it is off centre.

GPS. This took a while, probably 30-40 minutes, to locate the satellites once it was initially powered up. But after this, it worked well. Obviously, outdoors will produce the best results, but it still managed to find a satellite signal while sat at my desk next to the window. It seems pretty accurate. However, when moving from location to location, it can take up to 10 minutes to locate the satellites. This gets a bit annoying after a while.

All in all a great little camera. Solidly built and really easy to use.

Innovation - Breadth vs Depth: Part 2

Well, following on from my previous blog on the role of domain knowledge in innovation, here are some more thoughts (and a bit of an experiment!).

Remember that in-depth domain knowledge can often "blind" inventors to the true value of their innovation. Let's look at an example and they don't come any more famous (or infamous) than the telephone.

The diagram to the left was produced by Elisha Gray, a professional inventor, in February 11 1876. Elisha Gray discussed the idea with his peers and investors, but the conclusion seemed to be that it was “nothing more than a toy”. At the time, Gray was exploring solutions that would enable more than one set of telegraph signals to be sent simultaneously across a single pair of wires. The solution relied on using tuning forks to produce an electric current and led to a technique known as "harmonic telegraphy". In due course, the concept of the telephone was an extension of this idea. However, following the advice of his investors, Gray shelved the idea and concentrated on improvements to the telegraph.

The next diagram was produced by Alexander Graham Bell, a school teacher, it is dated March 9 1876. It would appear to post date Elisha Gray's work.

In a last minute dash to the Patent office, history would have it that Bell got there first. However, there is significant controversy around the details, but most of it is fuelled by the fact that the two diagrams look similar even though they are said to have been developed independently. If you want to find out more, try starting here on Wikipedia.

Whatever the truth, the fact remains - Elisha Gray, a professional inventor, failed to recognise the value of his invention.

The more you read about Elisha Gray and his invention, the more you have to wonder about why he didn't spot the value in what he invented. But this isn't an isolated incident. It happens all to frequently that the "great new idea" ends up being used for something other than it's original purpose - often, completely missed by the original inventor.

So, if you were Elisha Gray, would you have seen the value in the telephone? Would you to miss the obvious?

Try this. Watch this video and see if you change your mind. I bet it will make you think twice!

You will find the video here: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=voAntzB7EwE

The truth about innovation: 3. Breadth vs Depth

Check this out, 70% of inventors believe they got their ideas by exploring areas where they were not experts. Many of these inventors state that such exploration stimulates new ways of thinking and avoids preconceptions that hamper folks who have been working in the subject for many years.

Mark Granovetter, a social psychologist, looked at this phenomenon in terms of social ties. In his terminology, a group of individuals are said to have strong social ties if they share people that they know. This frequently occurs in the scientific community where researchers often know their counterparts and other people working in the same field. These connections can be internal within the same organisation or external involving academia or industry associations (in terms of yellow and green blocks below). This is shown in the diagram below - the domain knowledge is shown in terms of depth, whereas innovation often occurs by bridging these domains.

Domain knowledge tends to build strong social ties. However, as many researchers have already noted, the ties that bind are the ties that blind.

Individuals are said to have weak social ties if they do not share many connections with each other. In these situations, individuals share few mutual connections/acquaintances.

Innovation tends to originate from a balance of strong and weak ties.

The interesting thing here is that Research Labs tend to drive domain knowledge and as such individuals build strong social ties. So the issue becomes how do we maintain the balance between the two. This is what Andrew Hargadon has referred to as technology brokering - the ability for some individuals to be able to bridge these knowledge domains.

In the 1980's when I worked in HP's Research Labs, these "technology brokers" were referred to as "Renaissance Men". If you look up the definition on Wikipeadia, you will find it is the same concept, just different words.

Social networking and advertising (again)

I have commented before that advertising revenues on social networking sites seems to be challenging. I came across a couple of new articles that reinforce the same message. This is starting to sound like old news!

Here's an article covering some research from ExactTarget and Ball State University's Center for Media Design. If you follow the links at the bottom of the article, you can download the complete research report. The bottom line is that email marketing seems to be more effective than placing advertisements on social networking sites.

While there has been a rise in the number of people using review websites before major purchases, the value in these reviews is that they are independent - most of the time, from complete strangers. This doesn't seem to be the place for advertisements - it is more about personal communication. If this carries on, it is going to be difficult to provide ROI for Social Networking sites. In the current trading conditions, this could cause some difficulty for site owners, advertisers and their investors.

The second article provides some interesting insights into the usage of Internet TV sites, particularly by men. I love statistics and this article provides some interesting insights.

And while we are on the subject of interesting articles, this article provides some thought provoking material on where folks have gone "slightly less than optimally" with social networking deployments.

The Holiday Inn rapper

The truth about innovation: 2. Repurposing the past

Many innovations are, in fact, the re-incarnation of ideas that have gone before. Take the light bulb - the very epitomy of innovation. The screw thread fitting was invented around the turn of the last century by one of Edison’s technicians when looking for a mechanism to securely fix a light bulb into it's socket. The fitting is based on the threaded cap from a paraffin can that just happened to be in Edison's laboratory.

The fitting was standardised in 1909 and screw in bulbs in the UK use a standard E27 fitting - the "27" refers to the diameter of the thread in millimeters, the “E” standards for Edison. It is the one shown in the image by the way, just in case you thought the picture was purely for decoration!

Many of these innovations are purely serendipitous and depend largely on the innovator's past experiences. For example, Edison's technicians had been experimenting with charcoal for a completely different purpose before they struck on the idea of using it as a filament in the incandescent light bulb. It is these prior experiences that help innovators make connections that no one else has made before. The wider your set of previous experiences, the more "connectedness" you are likely to stumble across.

I am not the first to comment on this (see Andrew Hargadon's excellent book on technology brokering, "How breakthroughs happen" - more later) and many organisations are using this during their initial idea generating process. It makes sense to make sure that we have looked for inspiration in other industries and sectors, particularly we they are encountering similar problems, as well as looking at how past problems have been solved.

Let's look at another example. Again this is from Thomas A. Edison. In 1912, Edison launched the first home movie projection system called the Kinetoscope. Unfortunately for Edison, the home cinema projector pre-dated the home cinema camera so users were stuck with watching prerecorded 16 minute movies. These were fairly expensive due to the low volumes and even with the most interesting subject matter, you probably wouldn't want to watch it too many times. To combat this, Edison introduced a central clearing house for movies which can be exchanged by post. Ultimately, the idea failed because of a lack of take up, but the idea remains.

In 2004, LOVEFiLM launched its DVDs by post business in the UK. Today, there are over 900,000 members, 65,000 titles and 3M rentals per month in 5 countries.

I know there are lots of other examples out there. I am sure that you will have your own favourites. But the point here is that if you are looking for inspiration a great starting point can be looking to the past to understand how similar problems have been previously solved.

The truth about innovation: 1. Chance favours the prepared mind

One of the first truths that hit me when I started looking at innovation was that so many great innovations seem to have occured by accident. The harder I looked the more examples that I seemed to find. They seemed to be everywhere. There are just too many of them to have been purely accidental.

Have a look at these examples and see if you can guess what I am describing. You will find the answer if you hover over the "answer" link at the end.

Consumers would not return samples after unsuccessful trials.
Originally intended as a treatment for angina.
Stops flowers from wilting when used in dilution.

The inventor’s name is now associated with a prize.
Formed when nitro-glycerine leaked into packing material.


Developed during WWII in an attempt to produce synthetic rubber.
Formed by dropping Boric acid onto silicone.
Became one of the cult toys of the 1960’s.

The killer application was as place markers in hymn books.
The initial commercial launch was a flop until they were given away for free.
Invented by Art Fry when looking for a use for a glue that didn’t set.


Discovered by 3M in 1952 by Patsy Sherman
When a potential glue was accidentally dropped onto a white canvas tennis shoe.
Nothing could remove the glue or produce a stain.

Developed during WWII by Percy Spencer
Breakthrough occurred when a chocolate bar melted in his shirt pocket while building a magnetron
Domestic appliance related to the radar

And the list goes on....tea bags, Teflon, Penicillin, Vaseline, Velcro, Nylon.... But I think you will have got the point by now. If you are interested in reading about more of these, try "They all Laughed" which provides interesting reading.

To view these innovations purely as accidents does not do them justice. Otherwise, it would infer that these are random events that bestow fame on random people. These innovators saw what others had seen, but made NEW connections. And they acted on them.

Making these new connections requires a "prepared" mind.

Many great inventions are the result of a “Plan B” and this is a fact that many Venture Capitalists recognise. When selecting management teams, VCs will often look for a team that has a track record of being observant and changing tack when the circumstances demand. Management teams that carry on with a plan, no matter what the market tells them, are unlikely to succeed.

These events that show that “Chance favours the prepared mind” - a phrase coined by Pasteur (yes, another prepared mind!) and known as "Pasteur's dictum".

The truth about innovation

I have been doing some work recently on innovation - this is a topic that is very dear to my heart and, judging by the amount of interest people show in it, I don't think I am alone!

While there aren't many companies that would say that innovation is not important to their company, however, there aren't many that can define it. And if they can't define it, they are going to have a hard time promoting and nurturing within their organisation.

As I went through the reading material (by the way, you will find my book list on Amazon here), there were a number of riffs (i.e. patterns) that came up time and time again. They might be explained in slightly different words, but the underlying theme is essentially the same. Over the next few days, I will step through the seven riffs one by one. For completeness, there are:

1. Chance favours the prepared mind
2. Repurposing the past
3. The Future is here already, but it isn’t evenly distributed
4. Breadth vs Depth
5. Necessity is the mother of invention
6. Nurturing innovation through networks
7. You are what you innovate

YouTube and Credit Crunch Songs

It is interesting fact of life these days that YouTube videos can be used as a social indicator. By providing everyone with a platform to broadcast their views on recent events, it unleashes a new set of views (not to mention talent) on every day life.

Have a look at these videos posted on YouTube recently as a response to the Credit Crunch:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=s_iMS31mqmU
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2JwdIWjVHaU
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=HAaxeqikUlE
Or search for your own using "Credit crunch song". It makes you wonder whatever happened to such material before YouTube!

While amusing, they also provide a social commentary that just hasn't been available previously. And certainly, not within the timeframes we are seeing here. While the message has been dressed up, delivering it as piece of entertainment is no less powerful.

Food for thought

Nice summary and a set of links that provides some interesting food for thought...http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/whats_next_after_web_20.php

LinkedIn outages

One of the issues with moving towards a online services is that we can become a hostage to the system's availability. In other words, YOUR service is dependent on SOMEONE ELSE'S software. LinkedIn is the latest online service to suffer service outages. You'll find them documented on Pingdom here: http://royal.pingdom.com/2008/10/10/is-linkedin-having-scaling-issues/

I guess with the issues in the current financial markets we shouldn't be surprised that LinkedIn is getting just a little more traffic.

On a related note, at a CIO event this evening one of the speakers (Chris Neale from Harvey Nash) made a comment that people really ought to pay more attention to their profiles on online sites such as LinkedIn. In his view (and I tend to agree), people's online profiles are vastly inferior to the paper based one - often reverting to being more that a list of projects that we have worked. LinkedIn doesn't do us any favours here since the platform tends to guide us down this path, but the extra effort required will be worth it.

British Airway's Metro Twin

Well, it looks like social networking could be coming of age in the commercial space. British Airways announced this site last week to connect Londoners and New Yorkers together. The aim being to produce a community that discusses and reviews restaurants, bars, shops and places to stay.

See this commentary on Brand Republic: http://www.brandrepublic.com/BrandRepublicNews/News/848300/British-Airways-launches-social-media-network/?DCMP=EMC-DailyNewsBulletin

It is a pretty cool idea. Only time will tell if this will draw the crowds.

Trends in online retailing

So here's some recent articles that I came across (in no particular order):

• This one covers the position that TV production companies find themselves in. There is increasing interest in online video from consumers. There have been some successes with user generated content, but there are a bit hit and miss. While consumers are interested in original material, there simply isn't enough advertising revenue to pay TV production companies to produce the content. This interesting given my previous blog about advertising revenues. http://www.netimperative.com/news/2008/september/01/guest-comment-does-commercial-programming-have-a-1
• Some interesting data here on the trends in online shopping. No surprise that customer's expectations are increasing when it comes to Internet retailing. One of the major expectation is around the provision of easy to access product information. http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006568
• Continuing the riff around the power of consumer recommendations, this article contains some interesting data on the trend. When surveyed, 80% of consumers stated that reviews/recommendations played a significant part in their buying decisions. Plus sites with recommendations report 45% more traffic than those that don't. http://www.turnerinvestments.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/commentary.latest/commentary_section/Sector+Focus/CSID/387

Online advertising to outstrip TV advertising

Here's an article from today's Guardian predicting that Internet advertising will outpace TV advertising by 2010 - in the UK, this may even happen by next year.

The article goes on to discuss behavioural targeting. The issue being how it will be received by the public. Behavioural targeting is already here - the Tesco clubcard is a great example - and is happily accepted by the public. But online, it is easier to push the limits.

Mobile phones - The future platform of choice?

Some of today's high-end mobile phones have the same power as a laptop from 2000. And there are predictions that the mobile phones will outsell laptops in the next 12-18 months. This would make the mobile phone the platform of choice for many users.

Last year Nokia sold almost 200M camera phones and about 146M music phones, making it the world's biggest seller of digital cameras and MP3 players. This year Nokia is predicting selling 35M mobiles with GPS capabilities - making personal navigation the next big feature to be rolled into the mobile phone.

More information on the BBC website.

When did we start trusting strangers?

Came across this research report recently from Universal McCann, a communications agency. It provides some interesting data on something that I have seen repeatedly over the last 12-18 months. It is great to see this being reflected in empirical research.

Typography

Well, if you don't believe that typography (i.e. fonts) really matters in design, then take a look at this online quiz.

Can you guess these movies from a single letter from their poster? You'll be surprised how many that you can guess. Spotted originally on the firewire.

And while we are on the subject of design, I came across this presentation from Will Tschumy at the User Experience team at Microsoft the other day. I really thought this was a useful presentation - nice style too! You will find it here: http://www.slideshare.net/wctschumy/why-design-matters

The Very Best of the Insteps - 3 musicians and a drummer!

I found an old tape over the weekend and it made me laugh! It is from a band that I used to play in when I was in Sixth form. I played the drums.

"The Very Best of....." Not a very modest description given that these are the only tracks ever recorded!

The tracks were recorded in July 1981 at CBC 221 FM (Cardiff Broadcasting Company - a local radio station). The station disappeared in 1985 and later became Red Dragon Radio and is still on air today. The three tracks were recorded as part of a "Battle of the Bands" competition. Needless to say, we didn't win!

Dancing
Don't really want to be like you
He's so tough

Well, 27 years later, you can download the mp3 files for your iPod. How the world has changed! Who would have thought that over a quarter of a century later you would be able to download the tracks over the web to play on the equivalent of your "Sony Walkman". I have even sorted out the meta tags so the track and ablum titles should appear on your iPod.

But don't worry, somethings don't improve with age!

The late 1970's and early 1980's were a great time to be playing in a band and I have great memories of this time as well as some great vinyl. The rest of the band were Mark Wilson (Bunny), Paul Hardacre, and Geoff Munro. Guys, if you come past this way, drop me a line!

The Wizard of Menlo Park

Thomas Edison has become a legend in the field of innovation. Amongst other things, he invented the phonograph and the first practical electric light bulb. During his career he was granted over 1,000 patents across a wide range of subjects. As part of this success came fame – indeed, he is recognised as one of the world’s first celebrities – interestingly, it was a man of science rather than entertainment (in those days, I suspect that there wasn’t much difference!).

This book provides insights into Edison’s life – the roller coaster nature of being an inventor, his dogged determination to perfect the phonograph, the multiple commercial and financial setbacks, and the people behind the scenes who helped (and hindered) him along the way. I found this a compelling book, particularly having read so many dry textbooks recently on innovation. Innovation is a difficult process to describe and yet it is critical to almost all endeavours. Frequently when attempting to understand the innovation process, many authors reduce the process to a set of rather abstract processes that lack the human touch making the processes difficult to relate to. Ultimately, innovation is a by-product of an inquisitive mind in the right sort of social and commercial setting.

In many ways, it is the quintessentially human activity. This book helped to bring real life to a set of abstract processes described elsewhere. I would highly recommend reading this book AFTER reading a number of the innovation textbooks. It helps underline the more abstract issues raised by other authors as well as providing another viewpoint on the innovation process.

This book seems to take a very balanced view of Edison's life - offsetting myth against, what has become, legend. Highly recommended for anyone interested in innovation.

School of Everything

This week saw the launch of "The School of Everything" - a sort of ebay for knowledge. If you have something to teach, you can post up the details and find yourself some students. What a great idea! Why didn't I think of that!

Well, the School of Everything seems like an interesting approach to selling consultancy services. Mind you, we would all need to ensure that we have a skill to sell. What would your entry on The School of Everything be?

You will find more information on the background to The School of Everything here on BoingBoing.

Scrabulous on FaceBook

Well, I have been reading about this in the press (I was never a user) and recently came across this well balanced and sensible article from Rory Cellan-Jones on the BBC website. You will find his (amusing and well written) item here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2008/08/scrabulous_users_stunned_bemus.html

Make your own adverts! The Chevy way!

Recently came across this which, although now rather dated, still made me smile. http://digital-lifestyles.info/2006/04/07/when-corporate-mashups-go-wrong-chevy-tahoe/

It just goes to show what happens when the admen put the general public in charge of producing their own adverts. In short, it wasn't quite what they intended and although the pages have been removed from the Chevy site, there are many examples to be found on YouTube. You will find an example here: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=SiE4FXO8nDs, but a quick search on YouTube will reveal many more.

For me, this links to a previous post on the perils of advertising on Social Networking sites. You will find the post here.

Software as a Service

I was in a Skateboard shop at the weekend (yeah, I know I am 46!) and they had a till that was running as a web app over a VPN. I could see it was running in browser - the guy (or should that be dude?) on the till was using FaceBook until interrupted him to buy something!
I quizzed him about the till and how it worked and although it isn’t as integrated as it could be (the Card machine was separate), it was still pretty impressive. I asked about the business model behind the device, but I think I lost him at this point and he said he didn’t own the shop (man)!

However, I did ascertain that the software (or rather Service) is from an English company called Cybertill (http://www.cybertill.co.uk/). The other part of their business is eCommerce sites which uses the same data being used by the Cybertill. Cool!

This is a very clear example of the sort of thing to come. I can imagine that this works exceptionally well for small independent Retailers (like Bath's only independent owned skateboard shop!), but it also demonstrates the way for lots of other Retailers. I can imagine that it will be the smaller retailers and the emerging markets (i.e. India, China, etc) that first adopt this technology - it will be a while before the rather conservative High Street Retailers are confident enough to go this route. But the smaller Retailers will drive this change.

What's more important here are the business models that can be used to underpin this technology. For example, it would be very straightforward to bill Retailers on a transaction basis - thus the Retailer's costs would increase in line with their sales and the technology provider can scale out the technology as and when it is required. What a change from the current situation!

Social Computing in top 500 US companies

OK, so this is a US based study, but interesting nonetheless. It shows that of the top 500 companies (as listed by the US magazine "500 Inc"), 39% of them are using Social Computing today compared to 19% a year earlier. You can find more information here: http://www.umassd.edu/cmr/studiesresearch/blogstudy5.cfm

I guess the thing that I find intriguing is what these companies are using Social Computing for! The term covers such a wide range of topics, it is difficult to imagine that they are all doing the same thing. In my experience, many of these companies know they should be doing something - they just don't know exactly what!

What is really needed here is a framework that allows us to position all the different offerings in the marketplace and then enables us to make some intelligent decisions about our choices. I haven't seen one yet.

Small is the new big

I have just finished reading Seth Godin's Small is the new big and can't recommend this book enough. It is a thought provoking collection of nearly 200 short pieces originally published on his blog, but they also work exceptionally well as a book. Very easy to dip in and out of, but a great read nonetheless.

I always find it funny that some people say that digital media will kill off the paperback book. Yet I find that the more blogs I read, the more books I buy. There is about as much chance of digital media completely replacing books as the radio did for completely replacing the television.

And the fact that this book is a collection of blog entries is even more amusing!

My name's Paul and I will be your frogman today.

So, how do you take someone who isn't really interested in sea life and make a visit to an aquarium fun? In this case, the answer was simple - you put a guy in scuba gear in the tank along with the fishs and you mike him up so the visitors can ask him questions. Technically, I can imagine the most difficult part is getting a decent sound inside the divers mask, but the rest is relatively straightforward. This is a great example of someone creating an amazing customer experience. It was thoroughly compelling for young and old alike.

"What's that big green fish called?" a little girl asked. "Charlie" said Paul.

You can meet Paul daily at the Seattle Aquarium.

Restoring the old movies

Here an interesting article from the BBC news website on film restoration. It appears the old films are starting to deteriorate as the physical media ages. The answer? Digitise the movies and while you are at it, why not fix the colour and clean up the image?

I was intrigued by the amount of data generated by some of the film scanning - upto to 12TB per film when scanned at the higher resolution (with around 6,000 lines per frame). The article points out that this isn't a problem for the studio since they have a Petabyte of disk storage. But this is only 1,024TB. By my calculations that is enough for just over 80 films. Mmmm...sounds like it might be a good time to be in the storage business.

Guerilla Gardening

This is an ad campaign run by Addidas and on the front cover of this month's Dazed. Essentially, it is instructions on how to mix a wild flower seeds with some compost and make a "seed bomb". They even attach a packet of seeds to the front cover to help you on your way.

And for the really keen among you, there is even a competition for the best judged creations. You can find more information here: http://www.dazeddigital.com/projects/grun/

Power Pack 1 (PP1) for Windows Home Server went live today!

Well, the long awaited Power Pack for Windows Home Server (WHS) finally went live today. You will find the update package here and the release notes here.

It fixes the data corruption issue that some users have encountered (you only run into this if you have more than one hard disk in your home server) as well as providing 64-bit support (which you will need if any of your client PCs are running 64-bit Vista or XP). The install on the server is straightforward (it does require a server reboot) and the connectors on each of the client machines should update themselves automatically once the update has been installed and the server rebooted.

I seemed to run into an issue which required my router to be rebooted as well, but I am going to put this down to coincidence (it does happen, but not all that often).

I am running WHS on a Tranquil 7-HSA and it works really well. I had to get an update to the BIOS from Tranquil to change the boot order. The server seemed to be set up to boot off an external hard drive by default, if one was present. This doesn't matter unless (like me) you use an external hard drive to back up your server. If you leave the external drive attached and the server needs to be rebooted, you have to remember to unattach the drive while it is rebooting. A quick email to the support folks at Tranquil help fix it - they sent me a BIOS update on a flash drive.

Social networking and innovation

Came across this article today which covers the use of social networking in enterprises. This (together with "How do you successfully advertise on social networking sites?") seems to be a common thread amongst much of the social networking research.

Interestingly, one of the benefits that organisations seem to be getting out of social networking tools relates to innovation (see the references to Starbuck's "My Starbuck's Idea" and Dell's IdeaStorm. Since innovation is largely a social activity I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but it is interesting to see these two threads being linked together.

Digital negatives

I came across this book recently (ISBN:0240808541) and it has turned out to be really useful. It takes you through the process of producing high quality digital negatives (i.e. negatives created using an inkjet printer and OHP media) which are the cornerstone of alternative process photography (e.g. palladium prints, cyanotypes).

Since most alternative processes require that you contact print the image, the image is ultimately limited by the size of the negative. Thus, many of the traditional photographers who use alternative processes are using large format cameras. The size of digital negatives, however, are only limited by the capability of the printer and many of today's photoprinters are capable of up to A3.

I looked into digital negatives last year when I was doing some Cyanotype printing, however, this book has provided a few clues about how I can improve the images. I used an old laser printer (HP1300) to produce a couple of digital negatives using OHP media. You will find my attempts here. The images were simply inverted in Photoshop to produce a negative and then printed. The images were OK, but weren't exactly stunning - the lack a full black and the tonal range did not match the original image.

In hindsight, the "negatives" produced on a laser printer probably lacked enough optical density to completely block out the light during the exposure to produce a pure white. These OHP negatives are not as dense as a real negative. The other issue is that I had not used a correction curve in Photoshop to map the tonal range of the digital image onto the tonal range of the cyanotype print. This is where this book really helps.

It takes you through the step-by-step process for producing a correction curve for a particular alternative process and then shows you how to use this curve to produce a high quality digital negative. While some of the technology referred to in the book is slightly out of date now, the process of producing and applying the correction curves remains the same.

It is a really useful little book, although it is a little expensive and I do wish it was in a larger format with more gallery images. The associated website (where you can download some of the digital material) could be a little more aspiring and I do think the authors missed a bit of a trick in that it could have been used as a repository for readers to upload their own correction curves for others to use.

Retouching tips in Photoshop

Came across this blog entry today which seems to cover some really useful Photoshop material, particularly for portrait work. Judging from the number of comments on the page and I am not the only one that thinks this is useful material!

The thing that I find amazing is how difficult many of these tips would be in the traditional darkroom.

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/07/15/70-beauty-retouching-photoshop-tutorials/

Viral Marketing Videos: What makes them work?

Came across this fascinating blog entry today from Mike Laurie. It is the first time that I have seen someone try and make some of why viral videos work and why they don't. It is a great read with some thought provoking analysis.

More tone mapping

Just for the sheer hell of it! More tone mapping. These are shot in Osterley Park, West London earlier today. They consist of 3 images - one stop over exposed, one stop underexposed and one image correctly exposed. Shot using a Nikon D100 and auto bracketing. As you can see from the images, I only had a wide angle lens!

In terms of the settings, they are way over the top producing rather weird graphic type images. I am using Photomatix Pro 3.0 to produce these. You don't need any other software to produce these although I have resized these in Photoshop (click on any of the images to see a slightly larger version).

Tone mapping using HDR

HDR is a technique for producing a digital image with High Dynamic Range. Digital cameras unfortunately can only capture a limited range of exposures. So, if you take a picture in a room with light streaming through the windows, the camera often struggles to capture the scene outside. Here's an example I took in my living room - the image of the street outside is largely over exposed and parts of the room inside are underexposed (e.g. the shadow area of the chair in front of us). And even if we could capture such a wide dynamic range, an LCD monitor would struggle to display it!

On film, the situation is slightly different. Film has a much wider dynamic range and if I had shot the same image as above on a film camera, if we looked at the negative we would see that the details of the street outside would have been recorded as well as the details in the room (assuming I had exposed it properly!). However, photographic paper (required to make a print)- just like an LCD monitor - is not capable of displaying such a wide dynamic range. This is why traditional photographers end up dodging and burning prints in the darkroom - "burning" refers to exposing the highlights for additional amounts of time under the enlarger to bring out the details. In the example above, the details of the road outside would have been "burnt in" to have produced any detail on the print. Anyway, I have digressed, back to HDR.

HDR is a digital technique for combining images of the same scene that have different exposures in order to capture a wider dynamic range. In other words, you might take three images - one over exposed (to capture the darker areas), one under exposed (to capture the brighter areas) and a normally exposed image. Using HDR software, you can combine these images and effectively "flatten" out or compress the dynamic range. This will add detail to the darker shadows and bring out the detail in the over exposed highlights. It is a pretty handy technique and something where digital photography just beats traditional methods hands down.

Now, often when you see a HDR image, it has often been "tone mapped". Tone mapping is the process of associating a set of approximate tones with an image. Wikipedia covers the topic if you want more details. The resulting images have an almost graphic feel to them. It is possible to adjust the effects in the HDR software, so find something that you like.

Here's a test image I produced using Photomatix (you can see it is the trial version by the watermark) with three images - one exposed normally, one over exposed by 1 stop, one under exposed by 1 stop. I have made the effect pretty extreme in this example, but it is possible to turn down effects. You can download the trial software from here on the HDRsoft website. If you want to purchase a license (which allows you to produce images without the watermark), it will set you back around £50.

Video testimonials for car insurance

Came across this today. Apparently, here we have a car insurance company using user generated videos as testimonials. You will find the press release here: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/7/prweb1073734.htm

This links to the previous blog about the power of social networking being in personal recommendations. And this would seem like a great way of making those personal recommendations just a little more personal (and presumably a little more powerful).

Predictions for 2008 - how is the year doing?

Well, we are part of the way through 2008 and I wondered how the predictions made at the beginning of the year are fairing. Here's a good list to start with: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/2008_web_predictions.php

Toxel.com

Stumbled across this today. As it says, Toxel.com it is a "Design, Inspiration and Technology Blog". Take a look at the unforgettable advertisements page or the creative adverts pages. You will find a list of the most popular pages on the About page.

Michael Adams in Yosemite NP

I found this on Robert Scoble's FastCompany.TV website and found it really interesting. It is an interview with Michael Adam's (Ansel Adam's son) shot in the Yosemite National Park. The backdrop is truely awe inspiring (even when watched over the web!) and the content is a "must see" for any Ansel Adams fans (I hadn't realised that Ansel Adams' original interest was music!).

We are promised more videos to come featuring Ansel's darkroom, so it is well worth keeping an eye on!

You will find the interview here: http://www.fastcompany.tv/video/michael-adams-yosemite

Not quite what I was planning

Here's a great little book. It consists of 1,000 autobiographies - all in 6 words. It is the result of an article in the US Smith magazine where readers submitted their own 6 word biographies. Allegedly inspired by Ernest Hemingway who was once challenged to write a story in six words. He came up with "For sale: baby shoes, never worn".

My favourites?

• Occasionally wrong but never in doubt;


• Tried everything once, few things twice;
  
• Found true love, married someone else;


• Educated too much, lived too little;
  
• Lucky in everything else but love;


• Cursed with cancer. Blessed with friends;


• Never really finished anything, but cake.

It is possible to read it from cover to cover in an hour. It is inspiring and thought provoking. The thought that went through my mind is that many of these autobiographies would make great themes for photos.

I don't think it is out yet in the UK, but you can find imports on Amazon.

Ping Mag

OK, looks like this has been around for a while, but I have only just cottoned on to it.

It's a Japanese online mag that covers everything from design, fashion, architecture and design. It has an interesting cross section of items.

You will find it here: http://pingmag.jp/

Quirkology

Interesting name for a book, but it contains even more interesting content. As a psychologist, I can’t help but take the content seriously – surely, this is just social psychology. But some of the work covered in this book covers emphasises the bizarre nature of human behaviour, hence the name of the book. I love the way it is written - it makes the material easy to read and intensely compelling.

Some of the psychology studies covered appear in other works (including Blink and The myths of Innovation), so maybe the work isn't that quirky after all!

The work I am most intrigued by is that of Stanley Milgram. I am ignoring the work that he is famous for (around obedience and authority) and am just impressed with his innovative research methods. The one that sticks in my mind is the "envelope dropping" experiments where researchers would drop envelopes in the street that were already addressed and had a postage stamp. Half the envelopes would be addressed to one party and half to another. The researchers would then record how many of the envelopes were picked up by passers-by and posted. Invariably, the return rates were dependent on the addressee on the envelope. Using this method, Milgram could detect differences in political voting behaviour. The technique was later adapted to determine the friendliest towns by dropping envelopes in major cities across the US and measuring the return rates. So this is an ingenious way to infer what people are thinking by interpreting their behaviour rather than asking them the question outright.

This spurned a whole series of experiments including stalling cars at traffic lights and measuring how long it would be before someone hooted their horn. If you do this from country to country, you can identify the most impatient country in the world. Although bizarrely, the researchers found that the length of time was dependent on the nationality of the driver.

I wonder if it is possible to conduct this sort of social research online? A sort of "virtual envelope drop" experiment. It must be easier to do this stuff online. Anyone seen anything like this?

BTW, the quirkology website is well worth exploring. Do take a look at the videos.

Advertising on Social Networking Sites

I blogged on this previously. Purely because I was intrigued.

Today, I came across this quote from Martin Sorrell that goes part way to explaining what is going on here:

“Social networking is really recommendation between people about the things that they are interested in and they like… this has stimulated people’s attention in terms of the importance of PR. The people who are going on these sites didn’t want to be monetised, they didn’t want to be advertised to, so again editorial communication is so powerful, they would rather be communities that can exchange views that are untarnished.”

So what is being said here is that Social Networking sites are a mechanism for end users to provide each other with recommendations. We shouldn't underestimate this. There was a presentation at NRF (National Retail Federation) that reinforced this point. According to WSL Strategic Research, 74% of shoppers trusted the recommendations of friends or relatives. Furthermore, 40% of shoppers trusted reviews written by people who had used the product. This compares to 22% of shoppers who trusted the sales person in the store. But thank your lucky stars you are not a celebrity, only 10% of shoppers trusted their recommendations!

In similar research, Immediate Future found that 62% of shoppers trusted and used online reviews from fellow shoppers.

So, why does all this matter? Well, as social networking sites are increasing dramatically, it would appear that traditional online advertising does NOT work. If you don't believe me, take a look at these estimates from Technology Review.

Yet, ironically, 34% of bloggers admit to writing about products and brands in their blogs (according to the same report). And we know that shoppers behaviour is influenced by these views. Interesting.

The Immediate Future report on top brands in social media makes interesting reading.

Wordle

I saw this today on the FireWire blog today and thought it really interesting. The FireWire blog is well worth reading, by the way. Back to Wordle, it turns words into art - sort of! Well worth playing with. I would love to see a version

Here's one I created using the words from one of the page on my website....Have fun.

You will find it here: http://www.wordle.net/

Retail innovation

Here’s a business that it is intriguing. It sells T-shirts. Ok, so what’s so new about that I hear you ask! What makes it unique is that the T-shirts are designed by customers. The T-shirt designs are then voted on by customers and the winning designs are printed up. Customers then buy the T-shirts. They can even photograph themselves wearing the T-shirt and send it into the website for inclusion on their pages.

If you are really interested, you can even browse the designs by designer. The designer page contains a profile of the designer as well as links to his other designs. Thus, promoting browsing across the site and building an added dimension to the interaction. I think this appeals to the “story” aspect of the product.

And when you get your T-shirt, the label is printed onto the shirt itself with it’s title and the name of the designer. Again, promoting a depth to the product that would otherwise be missing. Does this count as user generated content? MMmmm

Here’s another cool idea that I liked. Little Miss Matched sells 3 single mismatched socks in a box. Yep, that’s right, 3 socks in a box. In fact, they have branched out and sell all sorts of mismatched stuff. Nothing for blokes though. They have franchises in the UK and have just won a big deal with Macy’s in the US as well as raising $17M in funding. I thought the mismatched tights were funny – although you could make up your own mismatched socks (just take one from two separate pairs), this was going to be hard to do with tights (unless they were made that way!).

And here’s another example... Nike has launched a service to enable consumers to design their own trainers based on pictures taken using a camera phone. The PhotoiD service encourages consumers to take a picture of any subject using their camera phone, which is then sent via MMS to a short code. A personalised picture of a trainer is sent back which features the predominant colours of the photo. The message comes with a unique code which can be entered into the Nike website to buy a...you guessed it – a pair of trainers.