A history of technology we use – rather than invent

Really looking forward to the publication of the The Shock of the Old: Technology in Global History Since 1900 by David Edgerton, Hans Rausing Professor of History of Science and Technology, Imperial College. Hmmm.. wikipedia only has an entry for David Edgerton the Burger King franchise founder..

There’s a Demos event entitled Shock of the Old” to launch it next wednesday at their Tooley St HQ in London. From the description:

Standard histories of technology give accounts of when things were invented. Edgerton concentrates on what people actually use. So instead of the usual timeline of inventions we are faced with a patchwork of global use: rickshaws and bicycles alongside hybrid cars and aeroplanes; stealth bombers in a struggle against suicide bombers. The world we live in today is as reliant on corrugated iron and furniture as it is on the Pill and the supercomputer.

More interesting food for thought in relation to measures. Hmm.. getting closer to the post on design thinking and metrics and it’s wider applicability and benefits.

Great site for Demos developed by Headshift who I spent much of last summer working with.

On What you measure matters the most

Measures, targets, metrics, ROI, KPIs.. we can’t escape the things. In a gem of a post, Tara Hunt explores the idea of measures for economic, social and online community health. Related and also interesting reading is the Futurebrand 100 as reported on Antony’s blog.

I think Tara’s identified a really important missing element in a shift towards social progress that’s occuring in commercial, public and private spheres, particularly amongst online communities across all three. Replacing GDP with a General Progress Indicator is spot-on. There’s more to life than economic growth indeed.

In a comment on the piece, Colin provides a great quote: “what gets measured gets done”. Or, attempts are made to get it done, and lots of effort goes into working out how to measure it, and a large amount of faffing about with powerpoint goes on regardless.

I think some politicians and many communities in the UK and elsewhere are waking up to the opportunity cost of a perpetual economic growth based model. In basic economics (as I hazily recall from university) opportunity cost is a really important concept for measuring the true cost of an opportunity – including the lost benefit of alternatives. So scary stuff for businesses that pollute overly the environment and obsessively use powerpoint. I love Edward Tufte on powerpoint by the way. I’d also love to be involved in determining the true indicators of progress.. They would surely have to be developed by an independent entity, not a single political party.. Perhaps it this could happen if the wave carrying social enterprise continues. A cross-party body balanced with outside representation?

Back to measures.. Been thinking about the Social Investment Bank concept a lot. For the benefit of those who haven’t read the previous post – this a concept of the utilisation of unused assets (or idle finance/dormant capital) by channelling it into socially beneficial initiatives – eg projects aimed at reducing poverty in deprived areas, through the support of social enterprises that generate social value as well as profit.

So a venture capital fund of sorts but with the key metric, social value, as it’s primary indicator of success. At a micro level, it’s pretty easy to set up a social enterprise as a legal entity. The growth of social enterprises would be a good and relatively easy to determine measure of progress. Amongst the metrics could be the volume and diversity of lending and success of funds shared by a Social Investment Bank. I guess I should read the full report and see if this sort of stuff is included in it’s objectives.

As for online.. for commercial entities. It seems to me that an important approach to take is to rethink what constitutes brand equity amongst groups like boutiquers and work out ways to measure it. My colleague Antony Mayfield’s post on Futurelab 100’s remix of the Interbrand 100 discusses the Futurelab criteria and the positive and interesting shift that could occur if theses measures were the norm. It’s a great way of looking at which brands ‘get it’.

Link: The Futurelab 100

Towards a social investment bank?

In an interesting episode of In Business on BBC Radio 4 tonight, Sir Ronald Cohen outlined the idea of a social investment bank. Taking the long term view, he described how idle finance (my term) or unclaimed assets could be diverted to tackling market failure on a large scale through investment in deprived communities.

Having been briefed by the Chancellor, as Head of the Social Investment Task Force, Sir Ronald’s report on idle finance led to Ed Miliband’s statement earlier this winter about further stimulating the social enterprise sector. My money’s on social enterprise becoming a central part of government thinking if Gordon Brown assumes the top job later this year. Perhaps even the establishment of an independent Social Investment Bank within the first budget. The Tories have already made noises in this area too and so there’s likely to be cross-party support for the broader idea, but as James Blitz in the FT points out, there may be dividing lines in the debate over voluntarism around the scale of enterprises, with Labour accused by the Tories of favouring larger over smaller, more localised organisations.

Under Blair, big initiatives have been the way, often fizzling out – such as pathetic ‘Big Conversation’ in 2003. I hope that if Brown is elected by the party, that he takes the long view and gives a greater role to localised, small scale social enterprise.

Peter O’Toole on getting older

Delighted to hear that Peter O’Toole is well..

“I quite like being old. I’ve said this before and I’ll repeat it: Yes, I’m 74 years old, but in here,” he says, pointing to his temple, “quite a lot of the time and in many instances, I’m 21. Nothing has changed, nothing has changed. And then I realize it’s not too wise to climb that tree. And I can’t play my beloved cricket anymore. I’m getting more and more used to my limitations, and enjoying them. … I quite enjoyed the hangover this morning. Do you know the feeling?”

Quoted in the San Jose Mercury. Inspired.

Idle generosity

My favourite guide to loafing the good life, The Idler, is giving away copies of the 35th edition, “The War on Work”.

In summary:

The issue is a great introduction to the Idler and features an interview with Situationist philosopher Raoul Vaneigem, wild man Keith Allen’s A to Z of Life, Folk Art by artist Jeremy Deller, Terry Hall’s Idler Questionnaire, plus articles by Adam Buxton, Rowley Leigh, Nicholas Blincoe, Pat Kane, Chris Yates, Pete Doherty and many more. AND there’s Dan Kieran’s indispensable guide to the Idle Life. All you have to pay is two pounds for postage and packing

I ordered mine over a week ago.. it’ll turn up when it’s good and ready.

Finding your mojo and why Flickr’s got it..

For those of us in the business of creating online strategies and spaces to connect and live out passions, Tara Hunt, one of my favourite bloggers sums up what it is that sites such as Flicker possess.

“There are some products and services that have it. You can’t quite put your finger on it, but they do.

Then there are others that don’t. And, on the surface, it looks like they are doing everything right, but it doesn’t feel right. It’s forced. It’s….gah…hard to explain.”

More on Finding your mojo.. and why Flickr’s got it.

Nice.

Moldovan businessmen acquires largest carpet factory in Romania

We don’t get much in the way of news about Moldova in the maintstream UK media. Tony Hawks’ rib-tickler, How to Beat the Moldovans at Tennis, prompted a little bit of commentary a few years. back. Otherwse, personal organ sales (livers etc not Hammonds) is the only news story that I can recall over the last while.

Having had some great adventures in Moldova, I have resolved to use one of my RSS feed sidebar widgets to bring you some news and entertainment from Moldova.

And what is currently going on in Moldova? After a quick search, the first story that struck me was the title of this post. It both delighted and amused me to hear this as amongst my fondest memories was discovering that Moldovans are very proud of their tiny little carpets, half the size of an average doormat. So things are obviously on the up.

Link:

Moldovan businessmen acquires largest carpet factory in Romania – actual story

Beach-huts in winter

Beach-huts in winter

Originally uploaded by jamesbyford.

This is my favourite recent photograph. Like most folks who live in or visit Brighton and Hove and see the colourful beach-huts and think “Oooh that would make a nice photo”, I was pleasantly delighted to get another angle. The contrast of the seasons is simple and the colours are great and my eldest daughter loves them too. Splendid.

5 great things about working in Brighton

1. Work life balance

Getting up at a reasonable hour, getting the kids ready, actually eating breakfast, then having the joy to be able to cycle or walk down the hill and over to the Metropole for a swim/sauna at lunch times.

2. Cafes – particularly RedRoaster

How a coffee shop should be. A favourite with the Spannerworks crew. It’s listed on Delocator, the great service for finding independent coffee shops.

3. Pubs – particularly the Hop Poles

My link with the recent past. One of the best boozers in town with the best pub food. Mayfield and I lunched there yesterday and as ever were bowled over by the gourmet quality of a pub lunch, Tunisian lamb shank and a portobello mushroom burger.. top notch.

4. Familiar faces

I love the fact that many strolls around town lead to a chance meeting with an acquaintance old or new. It’s also nice to bump into neighbours, members of extended family and old school friends surprisingly often.

5. The sea

Has a magnetic effect. Not many days when I don’t get sight of it. Having grown up on the coast a short way down the road, it’s taken me sometime to realise how much I actually need to be by the sea. Perhaps we’ll end up living closer to the sea at some point.. like that wonderful that Patricia Hodge as the writer lived in, in The Life and Loves of a She-Devil..

Here’s some of my pics tagged Brighton on Flickr.

iPhone – patenting and parenting

Apple’s decision to restrict the iPhone to Apple generated software is a controversial one. Whilst going against the grain of everything open standards and user-generated, it’s not a bad decision if viewed through the lens of innovation.

As a company Apple is innovation to many of it’s most committed customers, me included. Innovation has to be viewed as a mindset, a strategic commitment and equally valid in its radical and incremental/evolutionary forms.

I’ view Apple as an innovation exemplar because it combines both approaches.

There’s lots of examples such as moving from OS9 to OSX – both radical for using FreeBSD as the foundation, and incremental in the maintenance of the Classic environment. The move to Intel has been even more evolutionary with the creation of Universal applications. The launch of the iPod was radical for Apple as a business but evolutionary in the market. The iPhone also is radical for Apple as a company and thus parenting their patents makes a lot of sense.

As a user, my view is that Apple has parented it’s developers in an appropriate way. It’s given them great frameworks to create wonderful tools. Perhaps not with the same degree of freedom as Linux users enjoy, but then again, I’m sold on the experience which is not the simple utility of the software, but the joy of using the software. I haven’t experienced anything like it on any other platform. Because Apple insists on a set of values, which translate into quality standards, when put together, they keep the Mac platform way ahead of Windows and Linux in user experience terms and over the last fifteen years I’ve used every version of windows, given Gnome and K on linux a fair crack, but at the end of the day, the values inherent in Apple’s mission to provide tools to the benefit of society are in my opinion reflected in their user interfaces.

As a parent I’m well aware of the challenge of instilling values, ideas and rules that create stable and creative environments for children to grow up in. It’s hard and I’ve realised that we (Mrs and I) really have got to believe in what we think’s right and be consistent until we’re convinced that we’re ready for our children to define and create their own rules and experiences.

So I’m happy to be led by the Cupertino crew on the iPhone and choose to believe that they will allow their partners (developers and users) to help them shape the future incarnations of the product. At the end of the day, it’s only a phone and patent law does still exist to allow the creator to exercise their competitive advantage, so I’m happy to let them get on with it.

Diversity – difference and friction

I found a really interesting link about the productive value of diversity via John Hagel’s Edge Perspectives. As yesterday was Martin Luther King day, he reflected on Scott Page’s new book, The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies. John says: “it provides the most penetrating and systematic exploration yet available of various forms of diversity and precisely how diversity enhances both problem-solving and predictions.”

Sounds fantastic.. looking forward to reading that.

‘You’ and Agencies of the future

The Time piece on ‘you’ as the person of the year made me feel initially relieved and then a bit queasy. Relief in that as mainstream a media title as Time was attempting to embrace web culture, but queasy in that it still misses the whole point which is that it’s a two-way thing. Honestly.. ::sigh:: grrrrr etc..

Realted to this, a really interesting view from Neilsen/BuzzMetrics’ Max Kalehoff on why AdAge was similarly wrong to name ‘you’ as agency of the year. In his splendid riposte he sets out ten attributes that an advertising/marketing agency or more importantly, I would argue a hyrid marketing/design/technology agency needs to demonstrate in order to be considered worthy of an agency of the year title: Network utility, great experiences, word of mouth, campaign to platform mentality, expertise in innovation, product and customer service (when client’s offering is err.. lacking), listening over speaking, organise around the individual.

Btw – “>FIP is the best radio station I’ve ever heard.. I usually hate the film Grease, but right here and now, the title track, Grease is the Word is perfect. Back to twitter..

First blogging week

At the end of the first week of writing this blog, I’m delighted to have managed near on a dozen posts, started to feel comfortable with finding a voice, received a couple of encouraging comments on the site and seen traffic rise dramatically as inbound links start to emerge. I’m also realising the value and importance of writing headlines with search terms in mind and the need for brevity. There’s always that challenge!

I also managed to get my face on Yodel Anecdotal – the blog about Yahoo inside, as the company confirmed it’s purchase of MyBloglog. I happened to have been a recent visitor to some blog or other from which they screen-grabbed the ‘recent visior’ list. Thanks to friend and former client of mine, Farhan Lalji for pointing this out. MyBloglog by the way is a great concept of community – connecting readers of blogs, like a fan club.

This adventure will continue as I like most of all, the anticipation factor. I started off with the simple goal of committing to doing this and writing some stuff. However, having got some words down and as a bonus, having got a modest amount of views and a couple of real comments I’ve quickly realised that I’ve got the blogging bug and that now I’ll move forwards with a bit more focus and consideration for others who might actually be reading this.

Onwards!

Long tail, openness, people-centricity, push-to-pull, network utility: 1 year 2.0

This time last year I was working with a service design consultancy in London, sharing insight on web2.0, social media and new business trends.

Reporting on the new to visionary marketeer and pioneer Kevin Gavaghan of FirstDirect fame, I summed up the main facts and trends as I saw them in January 06 as follows:

Openness

People(user)-centricity

Push-to-pull

Long tail

When sketching out how these themes affected customers, users, people and humanity in general, I distinctly remember sitting in the same seat in the kitchen as now feeling amazed to be part of a revolution. The thought piece I wrote is attached to this post to download. It’s broad, wide-ranging and in a format inspired largely by Kathy Sierra’s great new/old contrast posts mentioned in a previous post.

What I realised is that for my entire working life I’ve been participating directly in the evolution of a transformation of business, culture, education and life in general.

Particularly since the open-source adventure at Getfrank (we ran our infrastructure and products on linux, perl, mySQL, Zope, Plone, Python etc) the social media/software movement has increasingly really been embraced into the mainstream – we were far too early in the UK. Being one of the founding partners of the Zope UK Trade Association at the House of Commons in 2004 was a great moment and just tonight on BBC Radio 4 In Business ran a half-hour feature on the impact and of the movement.

Of course there’s stacks of other memes and variations and derivations on the 4 main themes above but I guess the only one that I’d add to that list after a year is network utility. By that I mean being useful to networks and this largely derives from the insight I’ve gained from working with the great folks at search marketing specialists, Spannerworks, at home in Brighton.

The road ahead looks great – there’s stacks more adventures to be had, it really is just the beginning. I’m so glad I didn’t become a chartered surveyor.

Guardian – Jonathan Ive profile

Came across this short profile of Jonathan Ive today from The Guardian and was left inspired by these words in particular from his first employer, Martin Darbyshire at Tangerine in London:

“He’s particularly good on a broad basis, in that he can work on anything… He has a gift of not putting too much in, which is a danger for many designers. His passion to keep going and his attention to detail set him way, way apart from anything the majority of his contemporaries could produce.”

Image source: InfiniteLoop

An honorary freeranger indeed.

Boutique generation – very freerange

Tara Hunt of HorsePigCow recently posted a great piece on the Boutique Generation. It contains some good insights and fits neatly with my emerging freerange philosophy:

You may be a member of the Boutique Generation if you:

Enjoy shopping at your local pharmacy, grocer, clothing store where you know the owners and feel yourself going out of your way to give them business even if their prices are higher because you prefer to have the personalized service over cost reduction

Enjoy shopping at specialty stores, like Cheese Emporiums, Perfumeries, Tea Shops, Sephora (drooool), etc. that carry a single, narrow type of product

Will not pay much attention to the prices at these stores because the experience is worth it

You were influenced to shop at the specialty stores as well as the local boutiques and shops mostly because a friend told you his/her experience with them

You are starting to demand the same great experience from your online browsing. You prefer better designs, smoother UI, simple, streamlined checkout, some level of personalized service (ie. Oddica does a great job of this with their amazing packaging and ‘extras’), or at least a community where you feel you ‘belong’ (ie. Threadless) and you don’t mind paying for it as well.

Prefer smaller restaurants that have a beautifully detailed menu who serve interesting wine pairings, have ’stories’ for each dish and are a locals best kept secret (said restaurants don’t have to be pricey, but aren’t really a bargain).

The service is personal and you can’t have dinner there in under 2 hours

Like to wear fashions by local designers, buy vintage pieces and buy clothing and jewelry when you travel that nobody else will have, but you always have a story for

Will travel way far out of your way for a special cup of coffee, tea or mixed drink and make certain you introduce good friends to the treat of the experience

Love farmers markets and prefer organic markets when the choice is presented

Pride yourself in being able to give these ‘insider tidbits’ to others and connect to fellow customers when immersed in the experience

Whilst I’m not that much of a shopper I agree with all of this and much of my personal aversion to many big brands like Starbucks, Tescos etc is because they’ve ripped the heart out of many towns and cities in the UK and stifled experience by enforcing sanitised, standardised products. Fortunately Brighton presents its residents and visitors with plenty of independent choice. Long may it continue. Reminds me I must add some more independent Brighton cafes to the excellent Delocator directory.

How much excitement in one day?

I switched to football on BBC after checking out the reaction to the iPhone on Digg and caught the last half hour of the Liverpool v Arsenal Carling Cup quarter final. Blimey – what a match! It was already 5-1 Arsenal and ended up at 6-3 with Baptista, on loan from Real Madrid hitting four.

What to me sounded like one of the most exciting matches of the season for a neutral fan, was unfortunately subject to Mark Lawrenson’s abysmal co-commentary. He really adds nothing other than negativity when a celebration of Arsenal’s attacking flair was in order. I sincerely hope that BBC’s openness to user-generated content extends as far as inviting knowledgeable and genuine fans to support or replace their commentary teams in the future. Hopefully we’re not too far away from user-generated live audio over the web which will allow the likes me and my father who has a similar disdain for Alan Green, Lawro and the rest to choose our commentators, or do it ourselves.

iPhone – yes please

The buzz about The Steve’s Macworld keynote today had me on tenterhooks all day. Rumours about the unveiling of the iPhone and Apple TV were proved to be right. I’ve been watching the rumours on Digg for months and most of the reported patents have turned out to be true. It was also interesting to see the company ditch the “computer” from their name – very astute move in branding terms. Really sums up how far ahead of the game they are. I shall no doubt acquire an iPhone when they’re released in Quarter 4 this year in Europe as the user interface alone looks like a joyful thing. Hopefully by then they’ll be more memory available than the 4/8gb versions that will launch in June this year after FCC clearance.

I managed to catch most of it near-live via MacRumorslive.com which provided a great example of how to report an event near-live. It had me hooked to the point where Flo got much longer to play in the bath than usual whilst I checked out every photo. A very simple interface with a count-down in seconds to the next update made the theatre all the more exciting.

Life purpose defined in 20 minutes (or so)

In mid-December I had the good fortune to read a great post by Evelyn Rodriguez that landed me at Steve Pavlina’s blog. He’s an interesting chap, had a few adventures and generated a fair amount of wisdom.

Whilst mulling over the idea of defining my life purpose in 20 minutes I paused to clock his:

Steve’s purpose in life is:
to live consciously and courageously;
to enjoy, increase, and share peace, energy, passion, and wealth;
to resonate with love and compassion;
to awaken the great spirits within others;
and to fully embrace this present moment.

I took the test and it took me somewhat longer but I stuck to the task nonetheless on the basis that I would reward myself with a late-night brandy on completion. I didn’t end up crying with pure emotion as Steve suggested I would once the crud was cleared and focus found. I did however, lean back, smile and pour the brandy after number 76.

So here it is:

My purpose in life is to..

To create and share in joy, adventures and wisdom with those that love and respect life and living, past and present, with good grace, style, humour and music.

I’ve had a good few weeks to go about my everyday business and life with this in mind and yes.. it certainly has helped me to enter 2007 with a new and very positive perspective.

James Dyson on marketing and truth

I’ve been storing wisdom in Soho Notes for ages and so some of it will make it’s way on to the blog. Probably long after the rest of the chatterati have had their say.

One piece in The Independent recently that fits with much of where my work-related thinking is at came from James Dyson.

In a piece entitled Why bother with advertising if you can get editorial? he set out a few useful points in relation to the purpose of advertising going forwards..

Lessons/learnings paraphrased:

Dyson observes that advertising should only concern itself with truth and comparison (of technical features).

Engineering and design skills are more important than communications – get the product right before the ad campaign.

Design metrics – “The important thing for me as a designer is that people enjoy using my product and think that it works well and that it’s their first choice”

Nice and simple.

Sorting things out and some blogs I read regularly

Over the course of the last year I’ve been sorting out many things to do with my work, my voracious appetite for reading, my broader interests and how I manage my time. Having a second baby around the place has effected many changes (more on this later) but amidst the turbulence there’s been a bunch of blogs that have given me immense inspiration, intellectual and spiritual stimulation and a few laughs along the way.

Having compiled the list it’s a fair reflection of many of my personal and professional interests – business and innovation, creativity, design, marketing, personal exploration/productivity and technology.

Here the regulars that I read most days or at least once or twice a week via RSS:

Boing Boing – Cory Doctorow, Xeni Jardin et al

Probably the first blog I ever read and still amongst the most enjoyable for it’s freerange mix of art, politics, culture, design, science, wacky products and whatever else tickles the authors’ fancies.

Crossroads Dispatches – Evelyn Rodriguez

A great source of personal inspiration – always asking life questions and giving some great perspectives and further sources for investigation.

Gapingvoid – Hugh Macleod

Probably one of the best blogs of all. On my first visit I read all of Hugh’s How to Be Creative and just about every other post. I also had the pleasure of sharing a bottle of scotch with him on a very long journey back from a social media conference in Cambridge last year. Nice bloke with immense talents.

Pink: General Blog – Dan Pink

The author of A Whole New Mind: How to thrive in the conceptual age doesn’t blog in great detail, but does follow up on the themes in his great book.

A VC – Fred Wilson

I think I arrived at Fred Wilson’s blog via Gapingvoid and have enjoyed the mix of insight into what’s hot in the US online world and Fred’s commentary on (mostly indie) music. Our taste is very similar.

Johnnie Moore’s Weblog – Johnnie Moore

Another blogger I met at the Our Social World conference in September 2005. Johnnie writes about interventions in business, marketing, branding and authenticity. We’ve subsequently met up and there’s many shared interests and perspectives, such as Brad Blanton’s Radical Honesty which we’d both just read when we met.

Doors of Perception Weblog – John Thackara

In the Bubble: Designing in a complex world was one of the most visionary books I read last year from arguably one of the most serious and sane designers on the planet. I love his polemics on international development amongst his wide and freerange interests. I must go to a Doors of Perception conference one day.

Signal vs. Noise – 37 Signals team

Getting Real was a highlight of last year. All about making stuff that needs to be made. These guys have inspired a generation of web2.0 types, me included. They’ve also made the leap from a bunch of service-focused web designers to that of a product company with lots of customers. Respect indeed.

Creating Passionate Users – Kathy Sierra

A writer with fantastic style and fluency on a wide range of topics around designing software products. Always interesting, humane and often provides splendid illustrations that summarise complex concepts. Amongst my favourites are her posts on Manager 2.0 and Neo-Marketing last year.

Open (minds, finds, conversations) – Antony Mayfield

I’ve been on the journey with my good friend and colleague Antony since he started writing Open. He’s a visionary in social media and I salute his commitment and insight and belief in the positive power of the medium.

How to Change the World – Guy Kawaski

I’ve also watched the emergence of this blog by one of my favourite business writers. He’s so succinct and remarkably generous with his insight. I think I’ve probably read most of his posts as he has wisdom in spades.

Edge Perspectives with John Hagel – John Hagel

As one of the authors of the now seminal Push to Pull paper, I’ve found his insight and clarity wonderfully authoritative on emerging trends as business strategies.

HorsePigCow:: Marketing Uncommon – Tara Hunt

I like the punchy style, honesty and openness of this blog. I always get the sense that Tara loves what she does.

43 Folders – Merlin Mann

A great source of life-hacks, including this recent recap on a previous gem – Getting Things Done: Recap for ‘07 – all about ways and means of putting into practice David Allen’s ideas from Getting Things Done:The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. Has many great productivity tips for Mac users too.

What’s Next Blog – Bl Ochman

Relatively new to this one, but full of great examples of social media in practise – good and bad.

TechCrunch – Michael Arrington

The source of hot and new web companies and applications.

Right, next step in the evolution of this blog is to create a blogroll with the above.

On learning and learning French slowly

For the last five years or so I’ve enjoyed the immense pleasure of the eclectic French radio station FIP. Lucky us in Brighton, we can get it on FM. In fact, a guy once knocked at the door doing market research for RADAR and asked about our listening habits. Much to my surprise FIP had been mentioned by numerous other people in our street.

Anyway, I’ve come to love the mix of jazz, indie, French pop, French classics with accordian and the fact that the music is back-to-back apart from a couple of minutes of news at ten to the hour. That’s the time when I focus on learning French. I can usually get the gist of the main stories, clock the football scores and occasionally grasp what’s on musically in and around Paris.

I like the idea of learning this way. Reminds me of 50Lessons, a company with a really simple approach to sharing wisdom. I had the pleasure of working with them for a short time last summer.

I was also interested to hear on the radio yesterday about the government’s personalised learning approach to education. Having had some exposure to the BBC’s Digital Curriculum project when working with Magic Lantern in 2005 and being well aware of Charlie Leadbeater’s influential writings on this topic, it will be interesting to see how this concept evolves. Must talk to teacher friends.. Incidentally I was both delighted and amused to be quoted in Charlie’s open work in progress We-think. Shame he referred to me as Frank. Nevermind

The difficult second post

I wrote a blog once before, shortly after my previous work passion Getfrank, a digital design agency was absorbed by friends and competitors, Cogapp. I stopped doing that blog after a trip to the mountains in Spain. On my return I discovered I’d run out of server space and couldn’t be bothered with doing it all via Blogger online.

This time round I’ve chosen WordPress and I am doing it all online. Motivations being that WordPress seems like a good thing, created by a good guy and for some reason, it’s a little bit lefter in the field than say Movable Type, who I would otherwise have used.

Doing a blog at all seems like a necessity. Strange to say as a freeranger, although I’ve been considering it almost daily for the best part of two years. I guess the real motivation boils down to the need to get my thoughts, observations and experiences into a place where I, primarily can dump the contents of my brain. Might seem bloody obvious, but for years I’ve used Filemaker, Stickies, Post-its on the wall, Stickybrain, untold notebooks, mobile-phone notes, backs of receipts and often wondered why it couldn’t be in an easier to access place. I’ve toyed with using Flickr as a blog of sorts which it is for infrequent snapshots of family life.

As I’ve moved on in work and life, the need to share my ideas has reached a point where I must do this. Partly I’m frustrated by my own modesty and I’m gradually coming to terms with who I am and what I’ve achieved and offer. So I suppose it’s straight-forward really.. I’ll puke it out (using a favourite phase from a former colleague) and if anyone’s listening, great.

Resolved.

I started the year with no new year’s resolutions other than to argue the case for liberty in the face of the impending smoking ban in the UK.

Since monday however, I’ve managed to do a few things which could constitute laudable new year’s resolutions. So far I’ve joined a health club and used the pool, sauna and steam room (in one lunch-break), made a packed lunch twice, added filters to roll-ups, worn a shirt to work and got to work at broadly the same time as everyone else. Not bad!

Oh and of course, I’ve started writing a blog after my dear wife encouraged me to do it for the sake of not having to hear so many of my latest observations on whatever tickles my fancy. “It’ll be therapeutic for you..” said Sarah in the Open House pub earlier this evening “and for christ sake, just get on with it”. Ok.

So there we are, I’m off the mark.