Saturday, December 26, 2009

Some Thoughts this Winter

  • The Boxing Day sales have arrived, and I'm yet to see anything that could be described as a bargain. What happened to the credit crunch?
  • The new Calvin Harris Album is excellent
  • Why is it no matter how much you earn, it's never enough. When does that turn around?
  • I finally got my Dad from IE7 / Outlook Express to Chrome / Thunderbird
  • Thought about moving to Gmail myself to cloudsource myself... can't see the benefit yet though
  • Tom Davenport will run the Wiltshire massive one day, and is more geeky than I am
  • It's nearly 2010, we're 10 years into the future, and 5 years from hover skateboards

This has been said before, but it bares recording here. Google will soon have their own Phone, running their own Phone OS, with their own Voice over IP application. So in effect, if I bought a google phone, all I need a network for is a data plan. This means 02 and Vodafone are in serious danger of becoming a commodity provider. Why in the world described above would I want to buy an Apple Phone to pay for my voice calls & pay for data on top?

Monday, December 21, 2009

Want Mobile Payments?

The EDC 2009 Global Payments Survey suggested that in the USA, the mobile would replace the wallet over the coming half decade. A bold statement indeed, and something we have all heard before. It's an argument that is winning traction since Square has won itself a lot of attention, mostly for some snazzy web design, and having a certain Jack Dorsey at its helm.


The problem facing these upstarts is that some very exciting companies are trying to create a solution where the consumer doesn't see a problem. Perhaps the greatest degree of disruption will come from developing economies. Payment processors and banks have been attempting to load these territories with credit cards. Whilst this might give a short term revenue burst, where is the strategy?

Africans are already using SMS as a form of payment, because its simple and low tech. Payments in the western world need to be simpler, and have no barrier to entry for the consumer. The consumer has a phone, and has a bank account. They don't have a payment mechanism that works as well as the card.


Until that is the case, we're in an interesting but risky place with mobile. mPayy and oboPay both show a lot of promise in solving the Mobile Payments problem. However until someone is able to package this service and sell it to the banks, Mobile Payments will not take off. Given that most Payment Processors still think "e-commerce" is the future (scary I know), that could take a while.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Odd Ball

And they gave me a prosthetic ball. Which the first time a girl licked, I had to giggle. I mean, she didn't even know. Couldn't she tell it has a totally different consistency? "Man this dude has an odd ball".

Maybe thats where "odd ball" came from.

There are some pokes on facebook you hold on to, because you know it will be a while until you get them back. So you return the favour by waiting 6 months yourself. Where as there are some you know you will get back pretty quickly. Sometimes I poke those people just to cheer myself up.

Is it a sign of age that I've never installed iTunes on any machine ever? Or is it just some weird old school geekery. There are teenagers now who never suffered the horror of having Napster shut down, and having to use WinMX because Limewire was full of Spyware. Bad times.

I freakin love Chase and Status.

Was supposed to wake up at midday today, and finish shopping. Woke up at 3, sat around and watched TV. It's been so long since indulging in being lazy. It was actually a pleasure.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Cold Mornings


Hooooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

Gotta love how Wolves have managed to adapt to the cold and snow. Me? Not so much. I am a walking winter weather dichotomy. On the one hand, give me shorts, and a football and I can run around (not naked) and end up sweaty. Give me all the coats in the world and I freeze.

Why is it when we get older, it feels colder? Do you know? Its bugging the shit outa me.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Leeds #CozyTweetup


We came, we saw, we drank!

Big Thanks to hebemedia / leedsonline for the banter and managing to keep @TomDavenport stimulated. That guy has some crazy ideas, and came a long way to share them!

This is why we love Social Media.

Phil will be at the Temple Works this Wednesday in Leeds. An Egyptian Temple... IN LEEDS!

Lisa is the loveliest PR manager I ever met. Enthusiasm is contagious, and I think we ended up infecting all of those around us.

My poor memory resulted in less photos than would have done the meetup justice... but on the strength of this there will be more! Good to meet you guys & girls!

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

The Social Media Vibe

"The vibe" is something that you either love or hate about twitter, and social media. Like everything that is a trend, from the outside it is downright annoying. Partially because everyone won't shut up about it. The criticism is that all people do on twitter is talk about their love of twitter. (Unless they're the celeb stalker type, I'm looking at you Justin Beiber fans).

But is there something to this twitter thing?

The mainstream media loves to talk about how big Facebook got on a slow news day, but you get the sense they still don't take it as seriously as they could... and I'm beginning to think the gap is generational. For this post to make sense, we're going to have to generalise a little, but here goes:

Baby Boomers - Born Prior to 1961


The Baby Boomers still occupy the prominent social & business positions, their thinking is the status quo for how business and society reacts to new trends. Their lens, is the lens we have used successfully for a very long time. Kudos to the Baby Boomers. Things are a changin' though...

Generation X - Born between 1961 and 1981


Generation X or the "MTV" Generation is often cited as the rebel generation and is a little more reactive. Responsible for the .com boom, the growth of the personal technology industry and further liberalisation of media Generation X lived up to its name. It still did all of this through the Baby Boomer lens of Globalisation...

Generation Y - Born between 1976 and 1990


Generation Y is the favourite of AdAge and a whole lot of PR / Marketing companies right now. Understanding Generation Y, is fundamental to getting the Social Media Vibe. Having grown up with technology and to a lesser extent the internet, as a generation; Y see's nothing wrong with giving away its data to the information for convenience. Facebook and Google are trusted because they are Trust Agents, ie. They are trust worthy in the eyes of todays youth.

Social media has real value to these Generation Y types. Not because it's a fad, but because it fits the way they see the world. These views are challenging convention and causing an awful lot of upheaval in the old economy. Just look at how unhappy News Corp is with Google, or the Advertising revenues of Newspapers. The Baby Boomers and Generation X take some level of comfort from the human interaction, but the very key of Social Media is humanising our online interactions. Being ourselves online.

It leads to a lot of philosophical questions. Am I more myself online? In person? Alone? Outdoors?

These kinds of questions don't sit well with the old world, since they challenge some pretty fundemental beliefs. The key is how this change will impact YOU. The way we interact is changing. Knowing the change is coming means you can take action today to be ready as these changes begin sweeping through into daily life, and business as usual. No matter what age you are, these trends beg some very interesting questions indeed.

  • Maybe you could pitch social media to your company?
  • Maybe you could start a blog and begin building your digital identitiy?
  • How about looking into this Social Media thing, are you part of the conversation?
  • Does this Generation Y lot have a point?

Or you could just wake when the change has already happened. You don't have to do anything, you lucky thing! There is an awful lot to be gained by taking advantage though. Worth a shot right?

Oh and a word to the wise. High pressure sales don't trick anyone but other high pressure sales types. Snake Oil is endangered.