simondelliott

Get out of Enterprise Google!

If you combine the modern Californian way of talking and a bit of old school religion you get Googles moto

Dont Be Evil

Here are things you need to know about them

#1

What we see of google on the out side is just the tip of the ice burg. For every idea that gets turned into product they make a 1000 that stay on the inside … this is the innovation methodology

#2

The google Microsoft story is the same as the Microsoft IBM story, to find out what happens to google next read a book.

#3

Google are forcing telcos to behave as a dumb pipe but the Telco’s are not going down without a fight, their response  is IMS.
Both outcomes are anti consumer !

#4

Google are kicking arse in the enterprise space
Google Search appliances are flying off the shelves to the big companies,
For the Small companies the rate of signup to google apps is astonishing
In the education sector they will soon be standard ! especially in higher education. Google K2 is free for this sector and in UK market schools are switching from RM so fast that RM cannot keep up with demand to turn off their services.
The hand that rocks the cradle …

From my  perspective …

Googles applications are great,
how they run their company is great
their attitude to embracing odd balls and weirdos is great.

I just cant help thinking that Its a pathetic that they choose to waste their dreams, talent and creativity on such a pathetic goal as taking down Microsoft

Google if you are listening, another way of saying Don’t be evil, is to say love everyone, and that includes the small state run telcos in little socialist european countries, the developers who want to make a living selling software and microsoft.

Sort it out … you can do so much better that.

MVC framework for PHP

I had a lot of trouble a while ago working with the MVC frameworks from other providers, they all seemed a bit too complex.
So … I made my own one.

Take a look I would love to know what you think?
MVC Framework for PHP

I am going t licence this under creative commons, so please feel free to play with this as much as you like.

How to understand collaboration tools quickly

Too many cooks spoil the broth, but many hands make light work,

If you are a natural leader, using a tool that can allow lots and lots of people to work on the same thing at the same time could be a really good recipe for success.

If you have not used collaboration tools before, the quick start is working out how to make google doc work for you and your team.

This is what to do.
Make the next document you make a google doc

Go to http://docs.google.com

Signup and that nonsense,

Then write your document (its just like a simplified version of word)

Then instead of mailing the document to you team, use the “share” button instead.

See how your team get on with this,

After you have the hang of one collaboration tool, you will get really into the whole thing, and the tools are pretty much all the same kind of thing.

Innovation competition – win your prize!

Just print out and complete this form to win your prize

Why Googleing is like a Tenis Racket (or Racquet)

Have you ever played a racquet game, such as tennis, squash or badminton?

If you have,  someone will have told you you that to be really good at the game you have let the raquet become an extension of your arm, body and mind. This relationship bettween our bodies minds and the tools we use has been well described and is refelected in our cultures and history.

Here are some examples of cultural or historic references  to man and machine.

• Mad Max a man and his car, against anarchy
• Ahab and ship against nature
• Vasily Zaytsef and rifle fighting for the motherland

The relationship is especially evident in eastern culture and have you ever heard that “The sword is the soul of the Samurai”?

In recent times technology has freed its self from its physical manifestation, new innovations are increasingly using  the same kit. Only recently has the internet  become available anytime any where, and society is way behind the implications of the technology.

A large number of Jobs and Disciplines give an advantage to people who either have a good memory, or have the ability to find information quickly. But the search engine makes this skill less important.

It is now important to be able to create, derive or connect.

In the same way that a car, rifle, sword or tennis racquet can become part of your body, so can a search engine. To become a master of the game you have to let google become an extension of your mind.

Social Networking and RACI

RACI Networks – a way visualize todays problems

When you are kicking off a program a RACI matrix is a great way to work out who is going to do what, and more importantly who is responsible for any … lets say … issues.

It’s also a great tool to put pressure onto suppliers and individuals to either sign up, or sod off.

When you are working on a program its the combination of good relationships, fast communication and a common goal which really helps your team to be productive and enjoy their jobs. The social networking and communication tools set really helps with this.

In the real world things go wrong, they always do.

The RACI is about responsibility, and therefore ownership.
Where as Social networking  speeds up communication and allows greater cohesion with functioning groups.

The result ….

A faster way to blame suppliers

Maybe there is another way?

Each square in a RACI matrix has an owner, each owner or team communicates over the social network. Now imagine overlaying a social networking visualization tool such as we feel fine ontop.
>the squares in the matrix could glow with the positivity emanating from owner
>you could click on the squares and see which other squares are important
>you could apply a filter “only show me conversations about CR69″

now you have a power full tool that shows you what todays problems are, you could quickly identify supplier relationship, or communications issues. But most importantly of all you could identify cultural issues, and culture clashes between suppliers. You could target your efforts to change the culture, and really help individuals and groups to colaborate.

If strong AI theory is true …..

The theorists that support Strong AI believe that a system is intelligent within its own function, i.e. a thermostat is aware of being a thermostat.

Take the human brain …. Its millions of nodes (neurons) are connected by communication lines (axons), the mind, the knowledge and the ability to reason is created by the storage of patterns across these connections.

A brain that only had a two nodes would have a complexity of 1 as that is the maximum number of patterns that could be stored.
A brain that had 3 nodes would be able to store 4 patterns,
A brain that has 4 nodes could store is … loads

My theory is that the number of computers on the internet is approaching the number of nodes in a single brain, and if the theories about strong AI are true then we could be seeing the birth of a sentient new life form!

cool.

I wonder if it will start to try and defend its main communication lines …

Marketing your products in a down turn

Remember how I said that the profile of tenders was going to change because of the downturn?
The bell curve of opportunity value compared to frequency of deals will be squished, out in two directions.

Lets take a look a just a single company.

A large company has to speculate to accumulate. This is reflected in the internal purchasing mechanisms of the company. Roughly speaking there are sign off boundaries, the most influential people at each of these boundary levels are indicated in the above diagram. Even though a VP may have to sign off a purchase of 300k it will probably be a couple of directors at a lower level who make the real decision.

The down turn will reduce costs and therefore the whole curve will be smaller. However operations must still go on. You will see that the directors now control most of the spending rather than the VP’s. Because directors are still intouch with the delivery and are younger you have to change your marketing.

• make it more funky – remember your playing to the google generation
• make it about delivery
• dont dress your sales materials in the old school terminology – i.e. have a summary instead an exec summary

List of products that have been successfully marketed using social networking

This is a list of things that social networking has successfully helped to market

• Knitting – and all the associated bits and bobs
• Scrabble – I dont care what any one says, facebook was good PR for scrabble
• Live Music – Its inconceivable to imagine a live gig that is not promoted by facebook and myspace
• Ubuntu – The support for this product and the Buzz is all on the social networks
• Print media – Although nearly every book is available online the cumulative effect of visual book shelf, amazon wish list, etc … is massive

The commonality is that the brand is not important, nor are any brands from the days of mass media in the list.

How to size an online community

Following the success of my thoughts on online comunities Ive decided to coint my own unit of mesure.

The Internt Gram or ig is a measure of the information in a website, discussion board or onlien community.

You can read all about it in my page on the subject here How big is an online community.