Category: General

An interesting day spent at the first UK CIO Summit. Much conversation about the impact of consumerization in software services (Cloud) and also in terms of devices (Apple in particular), and an underlying assumption that both would lead to lower costs. Whilst commoditization of software services in the world of SaaS undeniably does lead to … Continue reading The costs of consumer devices

I lost my Oyster card at the weekend (for those of you outside of London, Oyster is the branding of London Transport's contactless ticketing technology). Years ago I lost an old cardboard-and-magnetic-tape season ticket, and remember the grilling that I received at the station ticket office to ensure that I wasn't simply trying to defraud … Continue reading Automating client service

Project achievements this week: - fibre vertical cabling installed in London office - positioning work re-scoped - archive solutions investigation underway - Creative Suite work moved on Additionally: - presented at Atmosphere Next week in one word: October (already!)

The thoughts last week out of using the Tobii eye-tracking system has made me realise why I struggle so much with a touchscreen to type. I'm typing this on my BlackBerry. I'm staring at the screen, because (as with a full-size keyboard) I touch type. On my Android phone, because there is no physical reference … Continue reading Touch typing

One of the scariest things about the whole "Web 2.0" thing for IT and IS management is that it seems to break the long-held problem-solution paradigm that's served the industry so indifferently for the past 50 years. As we've begun our roll-out of Google Docs, core in our thinking has been a team- and user-centred … Continue reading It’s all in the timing

I've been mulling over the ideas expressed by Don Tapscott at Atmosphere 2010 (and no doubt in his new book Macrowikinomics) about how the combination of Web 2.0 and the maturing digital generation is forcing organisations to re-evaluate traditional models of management and leadership. Rather than "coming from the top", leadership needs to be demonstrated … Continue reading Challenging leadership

Project achievements included: - kick off meeting with the partner firm and contractors for London networks - exploratory meeting with procurement firm for our managed printing service project - first cut of a business architecture for content creation, management and collaboration infrastructure Additionally: - experiments with Gladinet and Cloud Storage (very interesting) - tried out … Continue reading Weeknote 19 – n… n… n… n…

A fascinating afternoon spent with @ferrar and @kelfish from our Digital team down at Essential Travel - a company set up and run by two old friends of mine. Essential have a business that sells travel insurance, airport parking and other travel-related services over the web. Usability (or lack of) directly impacts their bottom line, … Continue reading Eyetracking Google Instant

The three most lazily titled management theories in history are Theory X , Theory Y (both Douglas MacGregor) and Theory Z (Maslow). These guys need a bit more pizzazz in their theory (see my own 'My Manager is a ****er' Theory, for example). The three Theories are simplistic, but quite useful in classifying management behaviours. … Continue reading Theories X/Y/Z