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Now’s the time…

6 Jan

The end of 2008 came with a whole load of personal and professional challenges for me, and I was very glad of the time off over Christmas and the New Year. But now I’m very keen to get stuck back into 2009 and believe it will be the best year yet, for many reasons. I’ll expand on my thoughts another time, but in the meantime here’s an extract from a letter written to Tim Ferriss by his mentor. Inspiring reading from his latest blog post…

While many are wringing their hands, I recall the 1970s when we were suffering from an oil shock causing long lines at gas stations, rationing, and 55 MPH speed limits on Federal highways, a recession, very little venture capital ($50 million per year into VC firms), and, what President Jimmy Carter (wearing a sweater while addressing the Nation on TV because he had turned down the heat in the White House) called a “malaise”. It was during those times that two kids without any real college education, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, started companies that did pretty well. Opportunities abound in bad times as well as good times. In fact, the opportunities are often greater when the conventional wisdom is that everything is going into the toilet.

Well…we’re nearing the end of another great year, and, despite what we read about the outlook for 2009, we can look forward to a New Year filled with opportunities as well as stimulating challenges.

Now’s the time, folks!

In the Mux

16 Dec

I remember Muxtape.com. It allowed you to make an online mixtape from a huge list of songs. It was a simple, brilliant idea, although I never used it. And I remember that it got shut down earlier this year, which is sad. But today I stumbled across the founder’s statement about what happened. It’s a very well written piece that has lots of insight for anyone in the music industry or anyone in the world of digital startups, or licensing, or working with other peoples’ intellectual property. Hell, it’s useful for anyone. Read it here.

Also, I came across OwnGig. Looks like an interesting take on the whole crowdsourcing thing, which is an increasingly popular trend. Anyone wanna pitch in with me to get Stevie Wonder to perform live in my kitchen?

Finally, I’ve just learned about the Project Triangle. Never heard of it before. Useful little tool for prioritising tasks and knowing where your product might sit in the market.

In the Mux

16 Dec

I remember Muxtape.com. It allowed you to make an online mixtape from a huge list of songs. It was a simple, brilliant idea, although I never used it. And I remember that it got shut down earlier this year, which is sad. But today I stumbled across the founder’s statement about what happened. It’s a very well written piece that has lots of insight for anyone in the music industry or anyone in the world of digital startups, or licensing, or working with other peoples’ intellectual property. Hell, it’s useful for anyone. Read it here.

Also, I came across OwnGig. Looks like an interesting take on the whole crowdsourcing thing, which is an increasingly popular trend. Anyone wanna pitch in with me to get Stevie Wonder to perform live in my kitchen?

Finally, I’ve just learned about the Project Triangle. Never heard of it before. Useful little tool for prioritising tasks and knowing where your product might sit in the market.

How much is now?

12 Dec

Seth Godin wrote this on his blog recently:

More than ever, there’s a clear relationship between how new something is and how much it costs to discover that news.

You can check your email twice a day pretty easily. Once every fifteen minutes has a disruption cost. Pinging it with your pocketphone every sixty seconds is an extremely expensive lifestyle/productivity choice.

Sure, go ahead, stay hyper-current, but realize it’s not free.

As a piece of information it’s stayed with me, as I see this as a problem for me. And several other creative entrepreneurs that I’ve asked. I’m very guilty of checking my email, RSS reader, blog comments etc on a very regular basis as I hate to think I’m “behind the curve” and not up to date with the freshest, most interesting ideas and conversations. The reality is that in the vast majority of cases it won’t matter if I’m a few hours/days/weeks slower than some.

For someone dealing in stocks and shares they need to pay a premium price for up-to-the-second data. But I deal in “ideas”, creativity, and other nebulous stuff like that.

The impact on my productivity of working like this is that I don’t spend enough solid chunks of time doing whatever’s at the top of my list. It’s like the theory I’ve talked about recently that our lives and minds are far too fragmented. In times past our days were split into just three or four sections (plough, hunt, gather, eat etc). But today we’re required to do 100′s of things an hour (check email, read article, make drink, check email, send text, write email, send email, check RSS, read article). Does anyone ever get anything done?

I know my most productive hours are those straight after a meeting when I’m enthused and have an action list to do.

I intend to write more on the big gap between the huge amounts of technology now ever-present in our minds, and our ability to deal with them effectively. But for now, I’ve got go check my email in case something incredibly exciting has arrived…

p.s. Anyone seen this? Looks very good.

How much is now?

12 Dec

Seth Godin wrote this on his blog recently:

More than ever, there’s a clear relationship between how new something is and how much it costs to discover that news.

You can check your email twice a day pretty easily. Once every fifteen minutes has a disruption cost. Pinging it with your pocketphone every sixty seconds is an extremely expensive lifestyle/productivity choice.

Sure, go ahead, stay hyper-current, but realize it’s not free.

As a piece of information it’s stayed with me, as I see this as a problem for me. And several other creative entrepreneurs that I’ve asked. I’m very guilty of checking my email, RSS reader, blog comments etc on a very regular basis as I hate to think I’m “behind the curve” and not up to date with the freshest, most interesting ideas and conversations. The reality is that in the vast majority of cases it won’t matter if I’m a few hours/days/weeks slower than some.

For someone dealing in stocks and shares they need to pay a premium price for up-to-the-second data. But I deal in “ideas”, creativity, and other nebulous stuff like that.

The impact on my productivity of working like this is that I don’t spend enough solid chunks of time doing whatever’s at the top of my list. It’s like the theory I’ve talked about recently that our lives and minds are far too fragmented. In times past our days were split into just three or four sections (plough, hunt, gather, eat etc). But today we’re required to do 100′s of things an hour (check email, read article, make drink, check email, send text, write email, send email, check RSS, read article). Does anyone ever get anything done?

I know my most productive hours are those straight after a meeting when I’m enthused and have an action list to do.

I intend to write more on the big gap between the huge amounts of technology now ever-present in our minds, and our ability to deal with them effectively. But for now, I’ve got go check my email in case something incredibly exciting has arrived…

p.s. Anyone seen this? Looks very good.

Social Networks – clash of the titans!

8 Dec

I was doing some research yesterday with the website Alexa.com. It generates usage stats for the most used websites. Very useful if you need to know that kind of thing. For example, did you know that Myspace has 0.1 percent more of its users in Germany than in the UK? And that after the US (31 percent), the UK has the most users (9 percent) of the world’s fifth most popular website, Facebook?

Anyway, does this graph tell us anything about the future of various social networks?


And I find it interesting that Bebo.com (yes, that pale line across the very bottom of the graph) has experienced absolutely zero growth in users since its $850m sale to AOL earlier this year. What do they plan to do with it?

Social Networks – clash of the titans!

8 Dec

I was doing some research yesterday with the website Alexa.com. It generates usage stats for the most used websites. Very useful if you need to know that kind of thing. For example, did you know that Myspace has 0.1 percent more of its users in Germany than in the UK? And that after the US (31 percent), the UK has the most users (9 percent) of the world’s fifth most popular website, Facebook?

Anyway, does this graph tell us anything about the future of various social networks?


And I find it interesting that Bebo.com (yes, that pale line across the very bottom of the graph) has experienced absolutely zero growth in users since its $850m sale to AOL earlier this year. What do they plan to do with it?

Convergence

8 Dec

I love taking photos, and I’ve got a very decent compact camera that I used to take with me everywhere. But it hardly ever leaves the house now. Why? Because my mobile phone takes photos like this over Sunday breakfast in a cafe:

Don’t get me wrong. The camera on my phone is very limited, and can’t compete with the sort of pics I take with my “proper” camera:

But in 99 percent of cases it’s more than good enough to record a moment in time. It got me wondering about technological convergence, and how portable items such as cameras and phones are slowly and steadily merging into one thing. My first digital camera (circa 2000) wouldn’t have been able to take a picture as good as that one at the top. But my phone now has GPS, web and email facilities too. All of which I use on a regular basis. I even subscribe to podcasts on it too, which I download via my home network using the phone’s wifi capabilities. So, where will it end?

I pondered this as I ran across the clifftops of Penarth before dawn this morning (not a regular occurrence – I couldn’t sleep). I watched the sleepy, blinking lights of England across the channel and wondered about the tankers in the shipping lanes. How would they benefit from convergence? Nothing sprung to mind, but then I know absolutely nothing about shipping. I realised that convergence is driven by portability. It’s about making stuff smaller, and reducing the amount of items to save our overwhelmed pockets and bags. Tankers, by their very nature, have plenty of space aboard. I suppose it’s not such an issue….

My phone is smaller than a pack of cards, but in most cases it means I don’t have to carry a laptop, camera, satnav, gaming console, radio etc.

As I mentioned recently we live in incredible times. And we’re seeing the world change right in front of our eyes. My good friend John Rostron pointed this out yesterday, as he wrote about the slow, inevitable decline of CD sales. Technology is moving very, very quickly. We are literally watching the world change day by day. It’s a fascinating time to be alive!

Oh, and big thanks to Mr Rostron (who’s also co-organiser of the Swn festival) for my brilliant Swn t-shirt. It’s a doozie, and a Howies one, too. I really must remember to pay him!

p.s. Play a musical instrument?

Convergence

8 Dec

I love taking photos, and I’ve got a very decent compact camera that I used to take with me everywhere. But it hardly ever leaves the house now. Why? Because my mobile phone takes photos like this over Sunday breakfast in a cafe:

Don’t get me wrong. The camera on my phone is very limited, and can’t compete with the sort of pics I take with my “proper” camera:

But in 99 percent of cases it’s more than good enough to record a moment in time. It got me wondering about technological convergence, and how portable items such as cameras and phones are slowly and steadily merging into one thing. My first digital camera (circa 2000) wouldn’t have been able to take a picture as good as that one at the top. But my phone now has GPS, web and email facilities too. All of which I use on a regular basis. I even subscribe to podcasts on it too, which I download via my home network using the phone’s wifi capabilities. So, where will it end?

I pondered this as I ran across the clifftops of Penarth before dawn this morning (not a regular occurrence – I couldn’t sleep). I watched the sleepy, blinking lights of England across the channel and wondered about the tankers in the shipping lanes. How would they benefit from convergence? Nothing sprung to mind, but then I know absolutely nothing about shipping. I realised that convergence is driven by portability. It’s about making stuff smaller, and reducing the amount of items to save our overwhelmed pockets and bags. Tankers, by their very nature, have plenty of space aboard. I suppose it’s not such an issue….

My phone is smaller than a pack of cards, but in most cases it means I don’t have to carry a laptop, camera, satnav, gaming console, radio etc.

As I mentioned recently we live in incredible times. And we’re seeing the world change right in front of our eyes. My good friend John Rostron pointed this out yesterday, as he wrote about the slow, inevitable decline of CD sales. Technology is moving very, very quickly. We are literally watching the world change day by day. It’s a fascinating time to be alive!

Oh, and big thanks to Mr Rostron (who’s also co-organiser of the Swn festival) for my brilliant Swn t-shirt. It’s a doozie, and a Howies one, too. I really must remember to pay him!

p.s. Play a musical instrument?

My word cloud

6 Dec

This ace tool by Wordle makes it easy to generate a word cloud. Ace, huh? I clearly talk about film a lot more than i thought. And my favourite words are “think” and “incredibly”.

Think incredibly?

:)

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