Powerful structures for product-driven organisations
Amelia's amusing analysis of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 came coincidentally on the same day that I was at a conference thingy and had been having exactly that discussion: what was 2.0 and how much of it was pure marketing sentiment. I couldn't disagree more. I think 2.0 is a radical shift in society. It… Continue reading Third time lucky
A good day, yesterday for things fitting together and falling into place (to mix up the metaphors a little). The day started reading Amelia's amazing piece in the Spectator. However much you're in to new media there's no denying how cool it is to read people you know in august titles like that, especially when… Continue reading In my day
Several discussions today have reminded me of the great quotes from Alan Kay and Samuel Goldwyn about making predictions. Alan Kay (inventor of the term 'object-orientated programming'): The best way to predict the future is to invent it. Samuel Goldwin (who also coined "a verbal contract isn't worth the paper it isn't written on") Never… Continue reading Thinking about the future
I'm as big a fan of Ray Kurzweil as the next man but this post by Northern Planner- fast turning into a favourite (and extremely prolific) blogger - reminded me of something I meant to do a post about ages ago. Kurzweil and other futurologists often talk about how long it will be before computers… Continue reading No room for manoeuvre
When it comes to technology innovation, it's interesting to hear some people still talk about a "five-year plan". After all, YouTube went from zero to £1.65bn in 18 months. Google only lost their beta tag 7 years ago. Paradigms can change literally overnight. In this fascinating interview, Jobs and Gates reveal that they've not got a… Continue reading The Bill and Steve show
A great video on Ted Talks from Sir Ken Robinson challenges the targets which we set for kids in school. He argues that modern teaching methods are virutally designed to hamper creativity, polarising right and wrong and setting a premium against exprimentation. A brilliantly witty presentation in its own right, this talk brings to bear some of the same thinking… Continue reading School’s out
Like Antony, I'm waiting for Royal Mail (or rather Amazon) to deliver my copy of Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder by David Weinberger. From reading around the book, it seems it will be a fascinating look at the role for taxonomy in the new world order of infinite capacity. The traditional taxonomies of… Continue reading Truth and classification
Rather than trying to predict new trends across the whole of the interweb, let's take things one at a time and try and trend spot just what will happen on Facebook, the site which - within the agency echo-chamber at least - appears to be becoming a bit of a phenomenon. With the minor exception of their API privacy… Continue reading Future of facebook
The site that promised to measure the size of the internet has failed dismally. It failed for the same reason that "viral" campaigns fail on the internet and in the real world - because the message or motivation wasn't strong enough. But this shouldn't be suprising, messages that captivate everyone are incredibly rare. Advertising people… Continue reading Size matters
A lot of arguments are about complex nuance and deeply entrenched beliefs. They seem intractable because they are so closely related to ideology. Well here's one that isn't. This is just the difference between X as tool and X as hobby: Linux people can never understand why people would want to use Windows: all those fidgety… Continue reading The battle for hearts and desktops
Leading product 