Google Navigation and an iPad on the Tube

I’ve been travelling around London today and on one of the legs of the journey, a guy on the Tube pulled out his iPad, not sure what he had in the way of connectivity, we were underground, but nobody pointed, nobody stared, nobody seamed that interested…the novelty has warn off already.

Anyway, traveling to my meetings, I’ve been using Google Navigation, it’s great, you simply enter the postcode on your laptop/desktop, check it’s the right place and then save it to my maps, when you get near to where you need to be, just fire up Google maps, select layers, my maps, select the saved map and bingo, the address you need to get to is highlighted. You simply select it and choose navigate if your walking or directions if your driving.

Two strange offices found with a minimum of fuss, having a device this integrated and with you all times is just awesome.

Looks like Google ME is real, even though I was fed up with the hype yesterday, it looks real, so imagine the integration with location that Google can provide and their own handsets, it looks like a more interesting platform than facebook. I just hope they get the privacy right (buzz started out on the wrong foot) though.

right, it’s fast approaching beer o’clock…the pub is in my saved maps, I’m off!

Stats …whoops!

I accidentally deleted the Google code when I updated my theme, so lost a few days stats. I’ve put in the stats plugin now instead to see if more data can be gained over what Google gives.

I’d put a new XML site map in to make it easier for Google to find stuff, when I looked at the stats for yesterday and it was 0 I figured I’d stuffed something up.

WordPress 3.0 is nice too, all upgraded smoothly and I’ve been using WPDB-Manager to archive the database and then mail me a copy to gmail, where it get’s filtered out of the inbox nicely and stored away.

So all in all a nice tweak of the site, putting a bit more effort into the tags too. Just need to update my profiles on a few of the other blogs to link back here now too.

Social Computing; enabling the conversation

The Orange Live event had several really great keynote’s with a particular highlight being Peter Sondargaard. A common theme through the keynotes was Social Computing and engaging with both customers and also generation Y as they enter the workforce. As a result Sondargaard pointed out, if you have any policy to block access to sites that encourage the conversation then you need to remove them pretty quickly.

So this almost constant mention of social computing and the importance of the conversation inspired some people to come along and check out the social media team at the event and find out what was happening and how. Several customers called in and asked to speak to people who could help them engage with their customers and we were more than willing to help. We also had a participant who owned the communication channel between his business and his top 35 customers and asked if we could help him engage and take the communication with his top customers to a new level, exciting stuff.

I’m sure we could learn more about social computing and having the 10 external bloggers who’ve links to initiatives such as Amplified, Organic and Media Aces it certainly helped me to expand my horizons as to what can be achieved and how. Maybe next year one of the breakout sessions will be social computing and we’ll get a chance to take the time to explain directly to the Execs present exactly what we’re doing at Orange Business, if you can’t wait till then get in touch or simply leave a comment.

Tidying up Flickr

Finally found some time to tidy up Flickr a little bit and pulled some of my favorite pictures into a single set, which is here

One Bag – Travelling light

My bag obsession continues a pace and I’ve picked up a Patagonia MLC. There’s a review of the MLC in action at Patagonia’s own blog, the cleanest lines here

I’ve been using the two bags of late and have been forced to check my luggage in more and more frequently. Having an understanding of six sigma and knowing that 99% success rate of bag delivery still means millions will go missing, has prompted me to change my travel solution.

I’ve been reading up on onebag.com and getting some tips and I’m sure it’ll be a success. The MLC doesn’t get a great review on onebag but does get a mention which is good.

I’ve so far never lost or had a bag delayed while travelling, even when doing multi-hop trips, but I’m convinced it’s going to happen sooner rather than later. The other benefit is getting to the front of those taxi queues, Dublin and Copenhagen are both particularly bad, so a jump on the rest of the business travels can make a difference.

One day I’ll write up all the travel tips I’ve picked up..maybe I should start now…a tip I learnt in Dublin is if you are in a real rush, don’t go to the taxi queue at arrivals, drop down a level to departures and grab a cab off someone who’s just been dropped off. Frequently a driver will be happy to take the fare as it means they haven’t got to join a long queue back up at arrivals. Another tip, get the RER out to CDG, Paris taxi’s hate going out to CDG especially at rush hour, the RER costs 12 Euro’s, the Taxi can cost 70 Euro’s and be slower.

PS. my MLC is a more discreet and business-like black, but that green is nice

PPS I wrote this in 2008 and it got stuck in the Drafts folder

business, trust and the death of email

The post a matter of trust in business sparked a few conversations which is awesome, one of the longer discussions was worth turning into a post to continue the conversation online and keep a record of it;

As email slides out of favor it’s being replaced by social computing, generation Y are starting to enter the workplace and we’re faced with a change in our communication behavior. We’re seeing email replaced by IM and microblogging, documents being created collaboratively on wiki’s or gen Y’s equivalent Google Wave. Right now internal tools are often poor relations of newer cloud based tools that gen Y are already using. As we just mentioned, the wiki is a prime example compare it to Google’s Wave product; one does collaborative editing by a sinlge user, one at a time and the other multi-user collaborative editing in real time, using a wiki after Google wave is like going back from the MP3 to the CD.

As result, social computing will break down the barriers between corporations and it’s customers, discussions will take place on blogs, Twitter, in Facebook, in the open which will and should involve collaboration from people outside the organisation.

Lot’s of big brands have engaged in social computing for their benefit, but in order to maintain the relationship, it’s important that the customers trusts the organisation. The example in the blog post, the pizza company, although not the greatest example there’s plenty of better ones, deomostrates that taking part in the conversation with customers can provide a clear benefit to both.

Therefore it must be transparent communication, no hidden agendas, as every fact can be checked quicker and in more depth that the corporate world can imagine. This conversation, this dialogue based on trust will turn customers into advocates for your products, look how many videos there are for products such as the iPhone on YouTube, most if not all are created by people who have a passion for the company and it’s products, not by the manufacturer.

How does this fit if you’re a services business like Orange Business and not a product based business you may ask, as a suggestion, I’d start be exposing the product guys to customers and encourage the conversation so that the new products are anticipated and eagerly awaited and are exactly what customers want and to do all this requires …trust.

photo from Benjamin Ellis

also posted here on Orange Business Live

a matter of trust in business

A keynote from Peter Sondergaard SVP Gatner, ended with the phrase “may the computing force be with you” but spent a great deal of time covering the topic of social computing and trust. In terms of social computing and it’s clearly ‘much more than just adding a Facebook logo to your web site’ was a key message from Gartner, a hugely respected thermometer of trends, was “do not put in place a policy or technology to inhibit this”, those that do will be big losers.

The example of a major Norwegian packaged food manufacturer was used and a little know fact that 18% of Norwegians eat pizza on Christmas eve. The IT department had engaged with its consumers and was talking parts in conversations with them. As a result of engaging with it’s customers a signal was picked up that ‘paprika’ was not liked in many of its pizza products. This signal identified through trusting the IT department to engage led to the development of a product that excludes ‘paprika’. This paprika-less pizza has gone on to be the biggest selling product in the range.

The trend of social computing was the number one trend highlighted by Gartner, the ability to engage the consumer and allow them to contribute to the business is not to be ignored. Technology can enable trust to be managed, revisit behaviors as the world is changing

also posted on the Orange Business Live Blog

#orangelive10

ignore these technologies at your peril

The keynote of Gartner’s SVP, Peter Sondergaard, highlighted how the priorities of business have changed within a short period of time. Gartner identified that in 2009 the top 3 technologies were Virtualisation, Business Inteligence and cloud computing. Looking at the top three in 2010 brings a change in those technologies which are priorities to; Cloud Computing, Advanced Analytics and Client computing.

The first technology not to avoid is Cloud computing, a major technology trend is seeing huge investment, with Gartner expecting that within just a few short years, up to 20% of businesses will own no IT assets, highlighting a major shift to the cloud and managed services. Virtulisation of the client’s environment is becoming a route to cloud computing, so in affect is stepping stone to cloud computing.

Avoiding this second technology is a bad idea, Advanced Analytics. This is allowing businesses to realise that potentially the Meta data they have may be the most valuable asset. Gartner indicates that the current crops of business analysis models are outmoded and need replacing, as unstructured data becomes key data. The credit card business were highlighted as how the meta data they have is allowing them to make business decisions and subsequently offers to consumers not based on spend amounts, but how credit limits can be adjust by life style changes such as divorce even.

The third technology not to avoid is client computing; Peter Sondergaard challenged perceptions with the statement that by 2014 80% of users in western world and affluent users in emerging markets will have a smart phone. This shift to client computing requires businesses to change how they interact not only with it’s consumers but also its employees as they demand access to application to interact with the business via their Smartphone.

also posted on Orange Business Live Blog