Is the world stupidly brilliant or brilliantly stupid - answers in a bacterial code on a 3D printed hologram please.

Last night watching TV was an interesting dichotomy on one channel.

You had the quite brilliant Horizon programme about the future of invention Tomorrow's World: A Horizon Special

Where the rather lovely looking Liz Bonnin delved in to the world of invention, revealing the people and technologies set to transform all our lives. She examined the conditions that are promising to make the 21st century a golden age of innovation and met some of the world's foremost visionaries, mavericks and dreamers.

There really were some amazing things and some worrying too like reprogramming nature and bacteria to create fuel for us from sunlight - a brilliant idea but just imagine if it went wrong and this super bacteria did something else instead. And then there was crowd funding of new ideas, and even crowd sourcing and open data and big data - and all the things I love to think about.

Then after this programme was the equally brilliant (but not as nice looking) Charlie Brookers How TV Ruined Your Life: all about progress. Where from the moon landings to Blake's 7 to CSI: Miami, Charlie Brooker argues that television has warped our relationship with technology in his usual harpooning sardonic style - Warning: this episode contains a computerized Simon Cowell and a lady in a silver catsuit.

The two where placed together, right net to each other, one following another on the schedule - so if you watched TV continually and chronologically on one channel (who does that now a days) you had a wonderful juxtaposition of views about the future.

Which kinda got me thinking about it all and worrying a bit - as I can see myself on both sides of the equation.

On one side I see the future as an amazing thing - where the best is ahead of us - and there is almost countless opportunities and on the other I am a little gutted we are not all on hover boards as the Back to the future films said we would be by now.

I still want to own a rocket car!

Anyhoo, my other problem with it all, is focus and my lack of it. Programmes like Tomorrow's World: A Horizon Special just make me want to do something new and amazing with all the opportunities out there.

But then I have to think about where the money is for today - how are the bills going to be paid if I donate half of my working life to pie in the sky projects which might not do anything !

It also worries be that when I look at what interests me and gaze at the Hype Cycle - the two always seem in sync.





Every time I am into something or have a high tech start up client that is it's got 3 - 5 years to come to fruition!

Two years ago it was the power of tablets and mobiles in the marketing place and the potential for geo location and social analysis, last year it was mobile and augmented reality, this year it's gamifaction, HTML5 and mobile development.

All I have to do is throw in crowdsourcing and I have the full house on the rise of the hype hype hype of inflated expectations!

I suppose what I am trying to think about is - is it better to be a front runner - or do you need to be sponsored to succeed?

Research in Universities starts this off i.e. with graphene, then government does a little, then venture capitalists and then at the end private business becomes an established reality in the field - with all the money shared!

As Arthur Schopenhauer points out "All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."

Perhaps this is another way of looking at tech development - as I am sure Google Glasses is about to find out - as it gets ridiculed more and more :)

Does this indicate I should start crowdfunding to develop on it?

Answers in a bacterial code on a 3D printed hologram please.

Big Data really can make a difference - but it depends how we use it...

A couple of days ago I went to a workshop on BIG data. And got a little inspired but also a little confused by it all and the potential of it.

However, after reading this piece by Derrick Harris - it all starts to make sense.

John Taysom was right after all - we could help the world be a better place with BIG data.

After hearing about the applications of big data for better ads, song recommendations and social media analysis, nothing makes me happier than hearing about technologists coming together with non-profits to use data to fight human trafficking.

Sometimes, when I find myself reading about new ways to serve better ads or recommendations, or to analyze who likes what on Twitter, and I find myself asking who the hell cares. That’s because, sometimes, it all seems beyond trivial. When I imagine myself in the shoes of a modern-day slave being forced to work grueling hours under grueling conditions in a developing country, or a child whose parents are pimping her out to pedophiles, I can’t seem to figure out why it matters that my Starbucks coupon is delivered at the ideal time when I’m approaching the store.

So when I wrote on Monday about the work of the SumAll Foundation to bring the world of business and next-generation data analytics to non-profits, I was genuinely excited about what they were doing. The foundation’s first effort was around quantifying human trafficking and raising awareness of the problem. One of its next projects has to do with analyzing the online behavior of pedophiles. And the SumAll Foundation isn’t just gathering data and making infographics, but rather sharing deeper data with the relevant organizations and teaching them how to do some of this work themselves.

I was even happier on Tuesday when I began going through my Google Reader feeds to read about two other efforts dedicated to using data fighting human trafficking and sexual exploitation. One is from Microsoft researcher and Ivy League academician danah boyd. The other is from Google.

Tech can help when it understands human nature

Boyd’s work isn’t so much a project as it is a framework for helping the growing number of technologists she sees working with non-profit organizations and government institutions to fight the exploitation of children. On her blog, boyd notes that technology certainly can help combat human trafficking, but that there are very human and complex factors that need to be considered before just building a system like, presumably, one would for serving targeted ads.

“On too many occasions, I’ve watched well-intentioned technologists approach the space with a naiveté that comes from only knowing about human trafficking through media portrayals. While the portraits that receive widespread attention are important for motivating people to act, understanding the nuance and pitfalls of the space are critical for building interventions that will actually make a difference.”
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You can read the full four-page primer on her site, but here are the 10 points she addresses. She learned these lessons in part from discussions with leading scholars – some of whom Microsoft funded — researching the role that technology plays in facilitating human trafficking:

Youth often do not self-identify themselves as victims.

“Survival sex” is one aspect of CSEC.

Previous sexual abuse, homelessness, family violence, and foster care may influence youth’s risk of exploitation.

Arresting victims undermines efforts to combat CSEC.

Technologies should help disrupt criminal networks.

Post-identification support should be in place before identification interventions are implemented.

Evaluation, assessment, and accountability are critical for any intervention.

Efforts need to be evidence-based.

The cleanliness of data matters.

Civil liberties are important considerations.


A global network, backed by some data heavyweights

Then there’s Google, which awarded $3 million to three anti-trafficking organizations based in the United States, Asia and Europe in order to establish a Global Human Trafficking Hotline Network. The goal of the network, Google’s blog post explains, is to “collect data from local hotline efforts, share promising practices and create anti-trafficking strategies that build on common patterns and focus on eradication, prevention and victim protection.” This is critical: As the team at SumAll pointed out, one of the hardest things to do is facilitate effective data sharing across organizations so everyone has a clearer picture of what’s actually happening.

Here’s how Google explains the role of data sharing:

“Appropriate data can tell the anti-trafficking community which campaigns are most effective at reducing slavery, what sectors are undergoing global spikes in slavery, or if the reduction of slavery in one country coincides with an increase right across the border.”

This isn’t Google’s first foray into funding anti-trafficking efforts. In 2011, the company donated $11.5 million to the cause. This time, though it’s joined by the intelligence sector’s favorite data-analysis startup, Palantir, as well as Salesforce.com, which is helping to scale the call-tracking infrastructure.

And of course I understand that advertising and other commercial efforts are a necessary part of the economy, but watching data-analysis technology do little else but line the pockets of already rich individuals and corporations does get a bit old. However, when the money these efforts generate and the technologies they inspire help fund and fight some of the most egregious abuses on the planet — abuses that affect individuals from demographics no advertiser really cares about, and abuses that sometimes help corporations drive larger profits — the whole discussion around the importance of data starts to seem a lot more meaningful.

NOW that's what I call something positive coming out of open and BIG data. Perhaps this is worth thinking about more?

BIG Data, data, everywhere.... far too much... to think........ about

Big Data (which open data adds to, to make it even bigger) is something which has the potential to change the world forever.

Not just in scientific reasoning and mathematical equations (if you can say "just" around such a point) but as John Taysom (Harvard fellow and main speaker at the Technology Strategy Board sponsored event I went to) rightly pointed out - something that if we get it wrong, people will die.

Getting it wrong with big data has already caused a couple of financial crashes already which probably affected the real world somewhat.

So here I can see some MAJOR moments for business opportunity. As now companies can / do keep ALL your data, all your tweets, all your digital and social footprint, everything that is happening that you digitally interact with, and so they can predict things from this.

Mainly in marketing about your intentions and what you might do next. But we can get so much more from this. The other week, from only a couple of data points, researchers found they could predict, your sex and race and a host of other characteristics. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/03/12/facebook-likes-can-predict-personality_n_2858150.html

And then taking this to logical extensions, if governments open up their own huge data back log, we could find out much much more about people. Almost to the extent of civil liberties being taken. Or intrusion by companies - which I would partly help through great marketing.

So going to the BIG data day held by Tecelerate in Manchester was eye opening mainly because of the wisdom and future thinking of it's main speaker- Havard fellow John Taysom - who has invested in many of these BIG data specialist companies.

Companies like Grapeshot - which help real time buyers of digital marketing ensure that they have safe keyword allocation and websites which they really want to be on (something I love as work in digital and mobile marketing... where RTB is all over.)

And companies like Feature Space - who's predictive modelling technology is about to move into mobile gaming. Which is going to be a little scary for a new client of mine - dojit games - who has a similar plan.

And my personal favourite from a pure making money now, b2c, social marketing perspective client perspective - was - Duo Fertility who's clever sensor and data from 30,000 moments of taking a woman's temperature ensures she knows her most fertile time. I would love to be a reseller for this technology!

John's wisdom is not just in investing in the right technologies, he also spoke about the concept which I found fascinating about 'just in time competence', about how companies like Google could create cultural blindness unintentionally with algorithms (which can not be seen due to them being trade secrets and not legally protect able under current IP law) and how important it was for non linear and non casual relationships to be really understood.

As for me, working in marketing, all this was far to much to think about - let alone understand. But I do get that if you are today that if you are not paying for the product - you are the product. And that with this BIG data you can predict and also get some much wrong - not only for businesses but for society as a whole.

Google glasses anyone ;)

Opening up to open data. But my mind seems closed to the idea.

Big data and open data. Concepts everyone is talking about it would seem.

Both are very interesting topics, with a potential of big data to change the very way we see the world.

And with open data, a potential for business opportunities often with some large caveats around privacy etc.

However, as TechCruch reports, today another step along the road to liberating government data across the region so that startups can get their hands on it: as an EU committee made up of member states’ representatives has endorsed plans to modernise the 2003 public information directive to make all non-personal public sector info available for reuse.

Opening up public sector data is something the EC believes will help European startups and businesses by providing access to valuable data at “zero or very low cost”:

Following today’s committee endorsement, the next stage in the process will be for the European Parliament to approve the new rules.

Back in 2011 when it proposed to revise the public data directive, the EC projected that its Open Data Strategy will end up injecting €40 billion annually to the EU’s economy, driving growth and jobs.

The revised directive will include a right to reuse public information; expand the remit to include libraries, museums and archives; create a transparent pricing framework for reproduction, provision and dissemination of the information which also aims to keep costs to a marginal minimum; and encourage data to be made available in open machine-readable formats.

This only happened today (10 April 2013) so yesterday's event with the Technology Strategy Board event held by Techcelrate was rather well timed.

However, for me I realised that being a creative type, working in mobile marketing, that I simply wouldn't get some of the language used or terminology or even the concepts. And I didn't understand the business case.

With Open data, the public sector giving business access to all the data it has in many areas, makes sense for start ups to use it to make money for themselves. Got it - there are a number who have already like... Numberhood.

My issue I suppose is the second part of the equation - that the public sector will swap data with the private sector hoping that private sector cash will recycle it and add value to it and then it back to them mixed with their own data as well.

I just don't GET why a private sector organisation would do this?

On the one hand it might be very commercially sensitive and on the other hand it might be illegal!

I understand how the private sector (which I am part of with Great Marketing Works and mobile app development) has it's own BIG data opportunity. As over the years, even though the backlash has been said to have been coming, the world has given data to private companies freely and easily. Either with intent i.e. swapping almost meaningless things like points and discounts for their buying habits data or unintentionally by going to websites with cookies in them and being followed around the internet.

This has changed whole industries and created new winners in landscapes are varied as in retail grocery shopping i.e. with Tesco's rise to the top due to loyalty cards and subsequent business intelligence of their demographics to Facebook PPC advertising mechanisms and the intention economy.

Both for the record, I am a great believer of. In part as the knowledge of the cutting edge marketing of them has given me a living :)

The next level I suppose would be open data mixing with such private data to give use multiple data sets from several sources to find gold in them there hills (or perhaps another metaphor would be data being the new oil - which seems to be said a lot.)

It is simply that I do not get if the private sector has all the cards - why would it want to play with the public?

Four simple principles for highly effective teams from

Bruce Kasanoff is a writer and speaker.You can find many more of his highly positive business ideas at Now Possible. This great point about agile development in teams - so here are his points. Some good ones...




Value the value:

Too many teams operate without clear metrics, and thus they end up making fuzzy decisions. This is a slippery slope to disappointing results. Instead, teams should assign a tangible value to every deliverable, and – this is the important part – teams should track and validate these projections as work goes on. In this manner, team members can’t game the system, inflating values to give their pet projects priority treatment.

The philosophy underlying this principle is simple: businesses exist to make money, and if a project doesn’t support that goal in a tangible way, the team shouldn’t be doing it.

State the value of each project.
Create metrics that quantify the stated value.
Validate the value actually delivered, and reward team members for it.

Be open and honest:

Keep all team communications, facts and status reports in the open and highly visible.

Look at the way your team currently operates. Is the purpose of every action crystal clear? Do you know why Lisa has been locked in her office for three days, or why John is conducting 32 interviews this week?

Clear and open communications have immense benefits. It should be obvious to everyone who is doing what, and why. When team members get stuck, they get help faster. When they succeed, others follow faster.

Avoid private communications.
Conduct disciplined weekly progress report sessions.
Hold daily “stand-up” sessions (you stand to keep them short).
Use images, mockups, etc. to make things clearer.
Make it easy to understand the purpose of every work product.

Shorten workplans:

Break deliverables into smaller pieces that can be finished in shorter time periods.

The longer a team works before delivering a tangible result, the more likely the deliverable is to fall short of expectations. A far better approach is to break large projects down into smaller pieces, and to regularly complete deliverables.

By shortening workplans, teams also make it easier for team members to explore new strategies and take risks. This is because the cost of taking a risk and failing is minimized; you lose a week instead of six months. This tactic also maximizes flexibility, because at the end of each project the team can decide what to do next.

Shorten the length of time between deliverables.

Try to make every deliverable useable and functioning, rather than just a description of something that still needs to be done.

Whenever possible, make processes and deliverables reusable and adaptable for other purposes

Create interdependence:

No one wins unless everyone wins. Period.

This is the best way to get a team to function like, well, a team. It also fosters insights, flexibility, and resilience.

Create shared metrics.
Partner team members from different disciplines.
Have members with similar skills swap tasks often, even in the middle of working on a deliverable.
Share responsibilities, ideas, concerns and alternatives.

If these principles make sense to you, you might want to give them a try. But I'd like to suggest you do so only on one condition: that all team members voluntarily want to adopt these principles.

I hope I can bring them all into action at dojit - a new mobile games development house I am joining.

The challenge of focus and a lovely idea from Saleforce's Marc B

Taken from a slightly bigger article about greatmarketing (not from great marketing works) but from a chap called Danny who I rather like the sound of. Link here.

Seth Godin recently wrote about FOMO (fear of missing out) and it really resonated from a marketing perspective. Passionate marketers often run themselves and each other ragged, worrying if we’re all missing out on the latest insight, learning, app, model, idea, case study or news piece. I do it all the time.

Just spent a week on my back due to working too hard and doing to much client side computer work - and spent it learning about gamification (which is really rather interesting in itself)

And it underlies Danny point here... as....

There’s always something stopping us from focusing – that we feel we’re missing out somehow. So the hours worked add up and the days get longer......So how do you do it? How do we focus?

The Experts

Zig Ziglar, to my mind, pioneered this in the 1980s with his Goals methodology. He approaches it from a personal perspective of course, so it’s important you realise that as a perspective and translate it to apply at work…

Write your goals down

Date them

Identify obstacles

Identify the people/organisation that you need to work with to accomplish the goals

Find out what you need to know, if anything, to achieve them

Develop a plan of action, a list, with time limits

Identify “What’s in it for me?” – what rewards and benefits will I get?

As a more commercial alternative, though very familiar when you’ve read Zig’s earlier approach, also consider Marc Benioff’s system. I recently read about his V2MOM system here, he gives a lot of advice in that interview and one of his keys to success is “you should not allow yourself to get disfocused… An entrepreneur can have a sort of ADD type of thing (Attention Deficit Disorder)… and you have to build the tools to help you refocus yourself and channel that energy”.

“[At Salesforce.com] We have an internal tool that I use and a communications cadence to help me to stay focused – I can be the kind of person that needs help staying focused. That tool is called a V2MOM (an acronym that stands for Vision, Values, Methods, Obstacles, and Measures). These are five questions that I’m constantly asking of myself. I do that basically every six months for the company…”

I can paraphrase his advice for you:

Vision: What do you want? Write it down in 10 to 15 words

Values: What is most important about that vision? What are the values of the vision? Is it growth, is it quality, is it excellence? Write those things down and prioritize them.

Methods: How are you going to achieve it? What are the actions that you’re going to specifically take? In priority, write them down.

Obstacles: What is preventing you from achieving that outcome – right now? Write it down. What other obstacles may occur?

Measures: How will you know if you’re successful? What are the measurements of success? Write it down.

Benioff suggests that we recreate this on a continual basis, and get others in the team to do the same. It’s a focusing exercise, I like how he appreciates the value of others in your team and organisation seeing what you’re doing, what you’re focussing on, as much as you or I knowing what we’re focussing on.

It creates trust and alignment Of course, you’ve got to walk your talk… “If you’re gonna write it down and say you’re gonna do it, you better do it”, he says.

Which is great timing as on Monday I start work for my new company / client / big thing dojit enterprizes: makers of high quality mobile games.

Danny learnt, and I can second this that. if you don’t have alignment it can be a real battle, for everyone, especially those not in the management team. Which is what happened at Blippar and goAugmented.

But — if you can get everybody on the same page, it’s a “super-charger”, as Benioff suggests.

So Danny suggests that we create a process to align marketing

This is the really important bit – actually applying this stuff at work and with a marketing team (or wider ideally!).

Some time ago I read a book called the Toilet Paper Entrepreneur and loved it. Mike Michalowicz, the author, probably gave me the best, most obvious, advice on applying the ‘systems’ in a marketing or commercial environment where it’s about more than just you.

With your vision piece in place you know your top level focus, it’s simple to turn this into more detailed, collaborative and focussed action:

Design the daily and weekly measures:

Michalowicz advises only a handful, the really important drivers. This in itself is a powerful concept, of course the ’5′ may vary according to your role or function, I’ve found. In order to focus, tighten your attention to the measures that matter. This is going to enable to you to know if you need to dig deeper when any of those measures change negatively, and not lose focus when they’re positive by drifting into ‘nice to know’ information. Save that for specific reports on a monthly or quarterly basis if you can.

Align the whole marketing team with a ’90 day plan’.

This is the powerful bit. I always struggled with annual goals, they seem so far off that I could lose focus, whereas 90 days is long enough to impact, it’s exciting to see positive change, to deliver, yet not so long as to feel distant. Of course a 90 day (or quarterly plan) can easily cascade from an annual marketing or commercial plan once that’s created.

We set something around 5-7 SMART objectives, and then ensure all key milestones or deliverables are working towards making one or more of those goals realised, each millstone or deliverable is owned by somebody and it has a date next to it.

Using this, a whole team will know what they’re doing without having to get into each others specific task-lists – it avoids micro managing, it gives alignment and focus to the manager and the person doing it, it also enables management of expectation at the senior level of the business, total transparency as to what marketing is doing to help the business. I always found that pretty liberating!

Thanks Danny - this article was perfectly timed and the rest can be found here: Link here.

The glass of water .... a wonderful story.

A psychologist walked around a room while teaching stress management to an audience. As she raised a glass of water, everyone expected they'd be asked the "half empty or half full" question.

Instead, with a smile on her face, she inquired: "How heavy is this glass of water?"

Answers called out ranged from 8 oz. to 20 oz.

She replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute, it's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my arm. If I hold it for a day, my arm will feel numb and paralyzed. In each case, the weight of the glass doesn't change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."

She continued, "The stresses and worries in life are like that glass of water. Think about them for a while and nothing happens. Think about them a bit longer and they begin to hurt. And if you think about them all day long, you will feel paralyzed – incapable of doing anything."

It’s important to remember to let go of your stresses. As early in the evening as you can, put all your burdens down. Don't carry them through the evening and into the night. Remember to put the glass down! -author unknown