I spent a fascinating day on Monday as a guest at Twiliocon at the Inmarsat Centre on Old Street Roundabout. If you're not familiar with Twilio, it's a set of services that allow programmers to easily access telephony services - text messages, calling, conference calling and wotnot. It's a clever set of APIs and … Continue reading Ephemerality and the legacy of learning
Your computer is running slower than usual? Well, "it's running like a dog". Huh? Have you ever tried to outrun an Alsatian? Turns out, much like the old phrase "pot calling a kettle black", there's a bit that's been lost at the end along the way... in the case of slow things it's the … Continue reading Crap Tech Industry Metaphors: 7 Running like a dog
Last night and this morning there has been much coverage on the BBC news channels about government plans to create a "reserve cyber army" - territorial hackers, if you will. I do hope that this is an elaborate PR exercise and has little bearing on the reality of what our defence services are doing … Continue reading Cyberarmies
Achievements this week included: - research completed on edition 2 of the stamp #socialCEO report - catching up with a few folk back at Microsoft - a fascinating afternoon with BBC R&D and UCLIC at Euston Square - time with Jonathan @ Amazon - an interesting group discussion brought together by Simon C - a … Continue reading Weeknote 169: seeking nets, avoiding brick walls
The news that Burberry's Angela Ahrendts is to join Apple as their new head of retailing operations brings into stark relief one of the strangest appointments in recent corporate history. Why on earth did Apple bring Dixon's Group chief John Browett in to head their consumer selling arm last year? Browett was Tim Cook's first … Continue reading The John Browett mystery
Achievements this week included: - great conversations with Andy and Simon at Ochre House and my next public appearance thus arranged: http://www.ochrehouse.com/Network-and-community/Events/The-Two-Pillars-of-the-21st-Century-workforce - improving my coffee shop-hopping live immeasurably by buying one of these - pondering whether it's any better being two hours early for an appointment than two hours late - discovering a wealth and … Continue reading Weeknote 168: the start of autumn
I'm currently about half way through Malcolm Gladwell's latest book, David and Goliath. The core of his thinking appears to be that where we often see the underdog as having disadvantage against the overdog, actually what are often regarded as advantages can be anything but. It's thought provoking, and as ever with Gladwell incredibly well … Continue reading The Malcolm Gladwell Effect
I've just seen a billboard advertising Lloyd's Bank, proudly proclaiming that they are "lending millions to first time house buyers every week". That sounds good, doesn't it? Well, let's unpick that number a bit. According to the BBC, the current average UK house price is running at about £242,000. First time house buyers wouldn't necessarily … Continue reading Big numbers, tiny numbers
I somewhat jokingly describe myself on my Twitter profile as "skirting the thin line between polymath and jack of all trades". My career has been one where I've had exposure (and exposed myself) to a number of areas which means that I've found myself often in a position to be able to translate things across … Continue reading The importance of adaptation
I picked up on a Forbes article that ran earlier in the year yesterday about the marketing organisation of the future, which reported on the Marketing2020 research initiative from the American Association of National Advertisers, together with the World Federation of Advertisers and EffectiveBrands. There doesn't appear to be much being published publicly on the findings, but the … Continue reading Spokes, silos and the challenges of change
