Vampire Babies

Spotted in a Tokyo toy store...

Linearity & The Environment

A few weeks ago I posted about the dangers of linear thinking on caring for the environment.

I found this article today on World Car Fans. It claims that Science Magazine has reported about the bigger picture impact of using Ethanol as an alternative fuel source. The problem lies not with the fuel per se, but rather with the production process. (I've not been able to find the original report as yet).

I'm with Seth Godin - there's no such thing as side-effects. Just effects that you don't want in addition to the ones you do.

Does "A problem shared..." Scale?

If "A problem shared is a problem halved" scales, then my cold is going to be much better in the morning, having spent 12 hours on a 747.

Things That Bug Me #1

Dithering. In all contexts.

People wearing back-packs on crowded trains.

Women walking along like giant Ws with enormous bags in the crook of each arm.

People thrusting free newspapers in my face.


(I've got a feeling that this will be a frequent strand of posting.)

The Finished Article

Cool!

Work In Progress Art

To return the arty present that I gave for her birthday, my wife commissioned her up-and-coming artist cousin, Charlotte Jackson for my Christmas present. This is the work in progress photo that Charlotte emailed through. Looking forward to the finished article!

Mattel, You Are Being Stupid.

Mattel is grumbling that the Scrabulous application on Facebook infringes its copyright on the game Scrabble. It probably does.

However, Scrabulous has meant that thousands more people are playing the game across the globe than would be otherwise.

Why doesn't Mattel sponsor the site? Make Scrabulous legit? Wow, they could even find a new way of making money from their board game. I'm assuming that board games are not exactly all the rage these days, so a new revenue stream would be good, surely? Mattel could even put a link on the page for Scrabulous users to buy a copy of the board game direct.

Why don't they make some of their other board games available on Facebook?

Mattel's luddite, "this is how we've always made money so it's how we'll always make money", "let's not change the game", "let's not react to new opportunities", thinking makes me mad!

We Don't Need To Save The Planet

We don't need to save the planet. It will be around a lot longer than humans.

We don't need to save life on the planet. Life finds a way.

We don't even need to save human beings (in the short term). We're bound to be able to survive somehow. Dinosaurs are still about, albeit as dinosaurs 2.0.

When people say "save our planet", do they really mean "save my current lifestyle"?

On the Linearity of Carbon Footprints

I don't care about my carbon footprint. I care about my footprint.

Current thinking (and associated media frenzy) is too linear. Nature is a system. Changing one part of the system impacts all of it. Nature has frequently demonstrated its ability to counterbalance events - the basic predator / prey dynamic for example.

Human attempts at controlling nature are riddled with disasters that resulted from linear thinking. Releasing myxamitosis in 1950s Australia is just one fine example. Killed off the bunnies admittedly. But also endangered the predators that eat the bunnies. How on earth could someone think that introducing an incurable virus into an ecosystem is a good idea?

If we are to stay living our current little existence, we need to think more generally about our impact on the ecosystem. Yes, please reduce your CO2 output. But that's only part of it. In a few years time we'll no doubt learn how some of our CO2 reducing tactics have damaged the ecosystem in another, equally disasterous, way.

And please go and speak to a geologist to get a proper perspective on climate change through the ages.

Rackspace's Service Mentality

I came across Rackspace from a Seth Godin blog post about attitudes to customer service. So you visit Rackspace and the first thing you see is a live chat box "Welcome to Rackspace. I'm a live Sales Assistant. How may I help you today?". Whether you use the service or not, you certainly know (assume?) that you're going to be treated damn well by this company.

(p.s. I only got the pop-up window on my first visit to the site).

Uconic Plug

John Woollaston, an ex-colleague of mine, has set up Uconic. He receives photographs from customers and turns them into unique pieces of art. The photo you can see above is the painting I bought for my wife's birthday (here's the original photo). We're lovin' it. Good luck, John.

Where Next For Car Advertisers?

It seems the advertising industry is up in arms about proposals to mandate the inclusion of 20% of an ad's space to messages about CO2.

Two comments from me...
1. Get over it adland. Find ways to advertise without buying adverts. I'd be surprised if the evil European Parliament can find ways to enforce the proposals on "word of mouth".

2. Help to change the debate away from purely being about a CO2 story. The myopic current worldview focussing purely on CO2 emissions needs to end. Instead, whole life impact needs to be considered (from extracting the raw materials to recycling). When studied through this lens, cars such as the oh-so-green Toyota Prius are not as shiny as you may have thought - although naturally there's counter arguments to this (news report looking at both sides, view of the Pacific Institute think-tank).

High Time They Had A Website

Rob Mosley & Robbie Greatrex are young creative types who ditched their burgeoning careers at Proximity London to start up on their own. One of their latest projects is to come up with a website for their fledgling agency, Nonsense.

Rather than argue for months about the rights and wrongs, dithering and withering in the process, they've come up with a multi-media campaign (personal invites, facebook event, blog post etc.) to let the public decide. Check out the options & cast your vote at www.hightimewehadawebsite.com

Animoto - DIY Mood / Brand Videos

I found Animoto this morning (via TIGS). It is perfect for the likes of me who have no video software talent whatsoever to make emotive content - spot on for brand presentations etc. Simply uploads some pics. Upload or choose some music. And hey presto.


Made this cutesy video of my little boy in no time at all.

Bubble 2.0

Here's a completely unsubstantiated thought that I'd love some opinion on. Perhaps even a little evidence here and there may help!

As far as I can tell, a major cause of the first dotcom crash was limited access to affordable, high-speed internet connection. There were lots of good ideas, but they couldn't scale because hardly anyone could experience them.

Research group of one here! I remember being all excited about new websites cropping up but soon settling to a repertoire of favourites. Websites kept turning up, but they didn't offer anything new or interesting - that leap of innovation, or rather the mass acceptance of that innovation, was seemingly impossible without corresponding availability of high speed internet connection (imagine the success of You Tube with a dial-up modem?).

Broadband (etc.) enabled bandwidth hungry applications to thrive - not only to exist but also to spread and grow. The ideas that existed pre-crash could now work. This brought us "web 2.0". Multi-media experiences and connectivity that we (at least most of us) couldn't have imagined with a dial-up modem.

But are we now experiencing a second glass-ceiling - where the ideas are starting to be better than the delivery to the (mass) end-user again? Most of the new websites I've seen recently seem to be (more-or-less) copycats with frills on - they are operating within the same framework as the existing sites, limited by the same end-user parameters.

I'm sure some VC is funding a new video sharing website , a new social networking site. But why? People have settled into their favourites - Google, Facebook, YouTube etc. and it will take a massive leap in functionality to get them to change. And I doubt that this leap is possible without a significant increase in readily available connection speed.

So potentially we're heading for another crash, or at least a levelling of innovation and investment. Any views?

Geology, My Mum & Web 2.0

My Mum has had a lifelong passion for rocks. She was one of those teachers who got infectiously over-excited about her subject. And with a little help from yours truly she's now doing great things with blogs & wikis!

One of the most exciting things she's doing is Earth Learning Idea. 2008 is The International Year of Planet Earth. And for this, she and some colleagues are producing simple geology-related activities with the intent of helping teachers to teach about the Earth.

The activities will be stored at the Earth Learning Idea wiki that she's created. There's an example activity posted here. The blog is being used to help spread the idea, announce publication of the activities and generally to tell people what's going on.

Earth Learning Idea has gone multi-national and intercontinental already. Selling to Google is the next milestone, well, sort of.

If you know anyone who would be interested in this, please forward the link on.

PS3 Elegy

A disappointed gamer bemoans the quality of the PS3.

Plannerly Strolling

I saw an advert for the Green Chain on the train last night. I was amused to note that it is one of London's hyperbolically titled "strategic walking routes". How does one walk strategically? Perhaps they are routes reserved for planners to conjour magic about brands and customers.

Is Snoring Boring?

Does anyone know about variation in cultural attitudes to snoring?

In the UK there's nothing taboo about it and taking the proverbial out of snorers is fair game. I've not been able to track down any info about whether this varies by culture. Is snoring taboo in Japan? Is it a matter of great hilarity in Brazil? No idea.

Suggestions please!

How Would You Sell A Company?

Would you send an email to previous customers? Please see the email below that I just received - I bought one of these widgets roughly 3 years ago for about £5. Nice widget it is too.


Dear Sir/ Madam,

As a previous customer of smartwrap.co.uk, I thought you might be interested to know that the business is currently up for sale.

Since I have been in ownership of smartwrap.co.uk (April 2005), the business has seen impressive growth in both the retail and wholesale (bulk buy) sectors – the latter of which was entirely unexplored by the previous owner. I believe that there is a great deal of potential for further growth in both sides of the business, particularly the wholesale side. Importantly both the Smartwap and Syncwrap can be branded with an individual’s or company’s logo, name or website.

I believe that smartwrap.co.uk is a highly esteemed website with a very prolific domain name and strong reputation for customer service - as testified by our repeat customers.

I am aware of a few opportunities that have unfortunately not been taken advantage of due to time constraints and other responsibilities since I acquired the business. I am of the opinion that this makes it a very attractive opportunity for any individual or company willing to take a fresh view of the business and act on it.

There is a small portfolio of information about smartwrap.co.uk available to all those who express an interest. If you would like a copy, please send an email to the address given below and I will be more than happy to send you the details.

Best regards,

Faris Hamadeh
Proprietor, smartwrap.co.uk

enquiries@smartwrap.co.uk


Weird. However, I did like my smartwrap, so I think I'll request the details. Watch this space.