A painted lady
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Political and politicised blogging has increased in leaps and bounds over the last 12 months (Derek Draper being a famous casualty of blogger Guido Fawkes), The Prime Mentalist (ooh I am pinning my colours to the mast) infamous YouTube spoof - no I forgot it was supposed to be serious and the levels of Twittery that have reach extraordinary levels but it this getting in the consciousness of the connected electorate?
Does the average British give a sod about the blogs of the 'great and the good' and is the Millennial generation taking any notice of web or are they sticking to the reporting to be found in the 'Metro'?
The most active voice I could ascertain in the 'resign' petition on No 10's own website, this e-Petition has now got in excess of 68,000 signatories with Facebook Groups trailing along way behind with a couple of thousand members of for or anti groups about the maximum..
With the expense revelations (mostly) behind us it will be interesting to see what breaks through the web or conventicle media and how the blog/twitter sphere reacts to it.
And when campaigning really starts in earnest lets us see how the first British election that could be really affacted by web technology plays out.
"The Internet employs 1.2 million people directly to conduct advertising and commerce, build and maintain the infrastructure, and facilitate its use. Each Internet job supports approximately 1.54 additional jobs elsewhere in the economy, for a total of 3.05 million, or roughly 2%, of employed Americans. The dollar value of their wages is about $300 billion or around 2% of U.S. GDP.
I am trying to discover the UK's stats
For example, a 300 baud modem's handshake, A dot matrix printer, the whirring noise of a 5.25 inch floppy etc, even the click of an SLR camera. The British Library are looking, or listening out for clips.
Any geek out there with kit you've been dying to fire-up but don't have a reason - now's your chance.
]]>I was musing over Skype with my old friend Jim Moffat last evening and we came to discussing new and emerging stuff - namely Google Wave.
Wave's features show what can be done when you build your features out from a single object store (and they are pretty impressive) and that brought me back (of course) to cc:Mail and what that could have become if only the investment had continued :-)
From here it was just a short step to recaling the first mover profucts that just lost the plot over the years. So I list a few here but I do invite others to contribute thier own suggestions to this list of ignomy.
Lets get starting with my favourite IBM:
cc:Mail - probably the most successful email system in the early 90's (although it was screwed over by Lotus before IBM aquired them)
Lotus Notes - 'nuff said
IBM PC - I remember when IBM used to be on everybodies desktop
I know there is more from IBM - over to you
Now lets move on to Sony, here we come to the Walkman - it was *the* brand for portable music devices and although not dead it looks like a very sick parrot from where I stand.
Of course we can't do the Walkman without mentioning Phillips (the younger audience might not remember them) they invented the audio cassette and owned the market before Sony came along (and ate their lunch).
Adobe - Acrobat has not gone away but with PDF creation appearing in so many products the 'nice little earner' that Adobe had is rapidly dissolving into a faint memory.
For old times sake lets mention US Robotics, Epson Printers and last (but by no means least) Compaq. Now I know this is a natural phenomom but as we traverse this rescession I can see many other household brands and products that were pillars of the establishement just fading away.
What do you remember with fondness? I would be interested in producing a top ten 'From hero to zero' products list
A painted lady
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Well, recently a female IT journalist who had been a commissioning editor, and thus putting food into the mouths of a large clutch of IT journalists, moved into public relations; at her first press conference for a new IT client to which she had invited all the journos she knew, and to which most had accepted, three turned up.
Now, you may say journalists are a different breed, but this is the first of a number of tales about the effectiveness or not of networks. Any view anyone has about working ones professional network are most welcome.
]]>I've put these up here as they a part of the blog thread I'm writing over the Weekend about using and maximising your personal and professional network
Dishonourable Powder Plot - Parts 1, 2 and 3
Part -1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj6V2g5zV8I
Part -2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ImmQO3YOaw
Part -3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUhrRyGmytc
Harvard Business Review (HBR) have listed The 10 Most Common Failures of Bad Leaders The Worst Leaders:
1. Lack energy and enthusiasm
2. Accept their own mediocre performance
3. Lack clear vision and direction
4. Have poor judgment
5. Don't collaborate
6. Don't follow the standards they set for others
7. Resist new ideas8. Don't learn from mistakes
9. Lack interpersonal skills
10. Fail to develop others
Anyone know any of these? :-)
]]>While benefit realisation is a good thing, the knock-on effect of all the jobs associated with cancelled or postponed projects is enormous and, it seems, just beginning to kick-in. Sadly, a nail in the coffin for the PM's Digital Britain Recovery plans.
]]>Firstly, that few of them realised how easy it would have been to claim much more for IT and get away with it without raising the public ire - everyone knows IT is expensive..
Secondly, what a bunch of laggards they are in using technology to:
1) Reduce Travel
2) Communicate with their i) constituents ii) each other
Thirdly, knowing that MP aren't bargain hunters, are they using bootleg software? It's apparent that they're not using dubious spreadsheets for expenses otherwise how could so many "mistakes" have been made!
For the techie it can get information about an IP address or a URL, find a port assignment, compute a data transfer time, look up a Unicode character, compute display characteristics from pixel count as well as a host of other useful stuff from Demographic stats to Astrophysics.
It's answer to the tongue twister "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck would chuck wood?" was a reasonable "A woodchuck would chuck all the wood he could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood."
And to "How many strings to my bow"?
| b | m | o | w | y | bebo | my | ow | y | bo | bow | my | y b | bow | my b | y do | my do | y bow | my bow
]]>Watching/listening to the politicians squirm and worm their way deeper into the expenses mire shows up each for the type of brain they've got. Where do you fit into the Class A or B Hot or Cool matrix. I'm a Class B Hot - probably the reason I'm usually up to my neck in it.
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