Category: User Innovation

Top 10 – 2008 Posts

A Trip to Hadrian's WallThis is my second, and last Top 10 for a little while, I promise.

I had a few minutes so thought I would put this together:

  1. My Tools: Mindjet MindManager Pro – clearly a very interesting tool for people. Personally, I’m seeing mind-maps all over the place.
  2. Lotus Notes Tabs – My Usability Problem – I’ve since had a template update and it’s a lot better
  3. “Multitasking is dumbing us down and driving us crazy” – this one gets a lot of attention, people are clearly starting to become concerned about it as an issue
  4. My Tools: Twitter & Twhirl – twitter had to get in the top 10 somewhere
  5. The Cost and the Value of Virtual Meetings – I’m starting to evolve my thinking on this, we need to think more holistically about the end-user experience of collaboration.
  6. My Tools: BlackBerry 8800 – mobile technology is getting hotter and hotter.
  7. I need a new bag – and still do. Other things have taken priority on the Chastney family finances.
  8. More iTunes bloat – I think that they started to listen in 2008, but it’s still not great.
  9. The Power of the List – a list with a reference to lists.
  10. iTunes Update – Interesting Selection of Font – it looks like I wrote a lot about iTunes, I didn’t really.
  11. I don’t blog enough! Do you? – yes I know that this is number 11, but it has the same number of visits as number 10.

This isn’t my all-time list, just my Top 10 for the 2008 posts.

English Language Innovation

Grandma in GrizedaleThere are times when the English language is one of the most frustrating things in my life – they tend to be the times when I am thinking about spellings with a dyslexic son. At other times I love the ever changes nature of the lexicon that we use.

The Post Office (of all people) has just released a report titled: Are you 404 when it comes to tech chat?

I’m not normally a huge fan of these things because they age so quickly, once its been published it’s already out of date. This one seems to be reasonable though, it’s interesting because it picks up on localised abbreviations too, the ones in the report relate to the London Oyster Card.

I’ve spent all of my working life in the IT language sub-culture, it’s interesting to see how this language is leaking into day-to-day common language.

This came to my attention recently as an example of what I mean, it uses a whole set of words and phrases that 10 years ago none of us had heard of, or if we had they probably had a different meaning. Today we understand all of the meanings:

George Carlin – Modern Man

For me it’s a great example of user innovation – people who use the language innovate it all of the time. The need for people to innovate is very strong, something those of us in IT do well to remember.

Over and out to all of you Code 18’s

Being Inquisitive

Jimmy, Grandad and Grandma go to CornwallHow inquisitive are you?

Today’s quote to think about: “If you tell the average man there are 278,805,732,168 stars in the universe, he will believe you. But if a sign says Wet Paint he has to make a personnel investigation.”

I used to work in a restaurant and the same thing applied, if you told people the plates were hot, they would always have to touch them just to find out.

But how often are we completely the other way around? How many times do we take something as fact just because the person telling us spoke with authority? I have played a game a few times where I have embellished a truth and told it to a few people as fact. I’ve then sat back and waited to see how long it would take for the embellishment to come back to me. It normally only take a few days.

I’ve been in many problem solving situations where we would have fixed things a lot earlier if we hadn’t taken as fact the things that people told us.

Can a techie have business acumen?

Jimmy and Grandma have a day outI’m a techie I don’t mind admitting it – actually I’m quite proud of it. I can do things with technology that others marvel at.

I was recently in a meeting when someone who didn’t know I was in the room made the statement “well it must be a technical discussion you are wanting to have if you’ve invited Graham along”. There was a little bit of embarrassment when it was pointed out who the person sitting opposite them was. This person doesn’t know me so they were making a judgement on the basis of my role, but the role clearly said to them techie and the inference was not business.

There have been other situations myself and others have been in which highlight the same issue. Someone I speak to quite regularly was saying recently that one of the comments made to them in a recent interview was that they were “too techie”. Again the inference was not business.

The job that I do today requires a good deal of technical ability, but its primary purpose isn’t a technology leadership one, it’s a business understanding one. The premise of my role is that the gulf between business people and techie people is so great that they require an interpreter. In other words techies don’t speak the same language as business people.

Because my background is primarily a techie one I tend to be treated with a warm welcome by the technologists, but treated with a certain amount of suspicion by the business people.

It’s almost like some people think there is a one dimensional sliding scale with highly technical on one side and high business on the other. As a techie am I really incapable of thinking as a business person? Perhaps this goes all the way back to school where people were encouraged into the arts bucket or the sciences bucket.

Are these just age old prejudices with a new dimension? Or, do these definitions reveal some real issues? I’m not sure. What I do know, though, is that the need for edge people, or multi-dimensional people is growing all of the time, the innovators, the people who work beyond the process.

One of the reasons I’ve been thinking about the brain so much was the realisation that it will be the people who have a strong right-side of the brain who will be the most valuable ones in the coming economy.

Right-brained people are strongly creative, something that transcends arts, sciences, technical or even business. I think that is will be this characteristic that will become dominant, not the field in which you choose to exercise your creativity; Einstein was creative, Monet was creative, Tim Berners-Lee is creative, Warren Buffett is creative. Or perhaps you don’t like the word creative because that sounds too arty, then how about word innovative; Malcolm Gladwell is innovative, Ted Hoff is innovative, Stephen Hawkins is innovative, Yann Arthus-Bertrand is innovative.

Anyway enough of my musing it’s time for me to go and be innovative in a cross functional, multi dimensional, business focussed, technically challenging, problem solving, situation.

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PowerPoint: Video White Screen of complete nothingness

A Trip to Hadrian's WallI came across a “feature” of PowerPoint today.

I added a video to a presentation and played it – but all I got was a lovely white screen of nothingness.

So I started Windows Media Player – and it the video was full of lots of lovely sound and motion.

Perhaps it’s a problem with this particular MPEG file, I thought. So converted it the file to WMV. After several minutes of waiting for the transcoding to take place I was amazed to get the same white screen of nothingness.

I tried it one a newer version of PowerPoint (2007), but still the same white screen of nothingness.

After a little searching around the internet using the google I came across the answer. I must admit to being somewhat stunned that I could get caught out by a problem that I thought had been mostly eradicated.

And the answer: the path to the file is too long

Yes, really.

It’s apparently been around forever, perhaps I’m the last to find out?

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That's obvious – isn't it?

One of the lessons that I am learning in my meaningful conversations is that the obvious isn’t perhaps so obvious.

Today I noticed these instructions on my deodorant. They’re obvious – aren’t they?

We all have a wealth of experience that defines how we see things, influences how we interact with things, defines our perspective and gives us the framework for what we regard as obvious.

I’ve been using spray cans most of my life, so of course it’s obvious what to do.

I’ve been driving in the UK for nearly 20 years, so of course it’s obvious that I drive on the left.

I’ve been to airports hundreds of times, so of course it’s obvious what I can, and can’t put into my hand luggage.

The amazing thing is, there are hundreds of things that are obvious to me, that are not obvious to anyone other than me.

Having discussions with people changes my framework of obviousness. It sometimes extends the things I regard as obvious and sometimes it makes me realise that I’m one of the few people that think something is obvious.

It’s only common sense after all .

Word of the day: Maven

Grandma in GrizedaleI like knew words and occasionally write something about them. This one is a new one to me, and quite new in word lifespan terms too.

The definitions seem to wander about a bit as is often the case with relatively knew terms.

Here’s one definition:

Maven

n.   A person who has special knowledge or experience; an expert.
[Yiddish meyvn, from Hebrew m?bîn, active participle of h?bîn, to understand, derived stem of bîn, to discern; see byn in Semitic roots.]

Although I think prefer this one:

A maven (also mavin) is a trusted expert in a particular field, who seeks to pass knowledge on to others.

It’s the “who seeks to pass knowledge on to others” that I like, especially as it’s a tipping-point idea. A maven/mavin isn’t just an expert, they are one who seeks to connect and to pass on.

I’m sure that many of us can think of many people are like that, I’m sure that we can think of just as many experts who are the opposite. I suppose I’m more likely to be maven than not. I’d rather people made use of the knowledge that I had, it’s normally not that much use to me otherwise.

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My Tools: Word – CTRL+Shift+N

Jimmy, Grandad and Grandma go to CornwallCTRL+Shift+N does something incredibly simple – it sets the style of the selected text to “Normal”. As simple as that.

It’s a key combination that I like to use every day, but seems to be one that other people don’t use much at all. How do I know other people don’t use it – templates.

Nearly every template I see has the “Normal” style configured as something different to the main style of the document. One of the first things I do is to make them the same.

I suspect that this suggests another thing – people don’t use keyboard shortcuts, which certainly means that they are working very inefficiently.

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Here’s to the crazy ones

Anyone feel a little crazy today – I must admit I am.

I’m sure that most of us can think of someone who this video really applies to. Make the most of them they are real treasures.

Yes, I know, no posting for weeks and then three in a day. Perhaps my muse has come back.

Need some creative juice?

"Yep…grow a few creatives, put ‘em in the press…presto! Creative juice".

If only it were this simple, enjoy:

Seth Goblin: "You need to increase your value"

Jimmy and GrandadSometimes someone says something in such a succinct way that it resonates.

Today it’s Seth Goblin:

Your sales force and your customers may scream that you need to lower your price.

It’s not true.

You need to increase your value. If people don’t want to pay, it’s because you’re not delivering enough value for the money you’re charging.

You’re not selling a commodity unless you want to.

IT service delivery has become a commodity sell; so much so that the only focus is cost reduction.

The huge opportunity is this – no end-user really wants to buy their IT as a commodity, it’s only their organisation that wants to buy it that way. End-users want loads more value than the value they are getting today. They need to innovate, and we need to help them to do it. we either help them, or they do it without us.

The death of the "classical geeks"

A quote from ReadWriteWeb:

Today, there still may be plenty of businesses employing ‘classic geeks’ in their I.T. Department, but that’s about to change. Don’t misunderstand – the world will always need a good engineer, but the I.T. leaders of tomorrow – the ones guiding the business in the use of their computer resources, the ones working with the CEOs to execute the vision and direction via information technology – they will no longer be what we think of as the classic ‘computer geek.’ You know the type – the stereotypical introvert, who’s more comfortable behind the glow of computer screen than interacting with the rest of the human race. The one who likes to speak in acronyms that only he or she understands. The ones who know how to do everything from a command prompt. These folks will be a dying breed…at least around the office. Instead, tomorrow’s computer ‘geek’ will be a true member of the business team as opposed to the mysterious man behind the curtain who you only notice when something goes wrong.

Instead, tomorrow’s computer “geek” will be a true member of the business team as opposed to the mysterious man behind the curtain who you only notice when something goes wrong. So what does the “new geek” need to know to run tomorrow’s I.T. Department? An entirely new skill set, as it turns out.

It then goes on to talk about the shift to “Enterprise 2.0”, “Cloud Services”, “The Mobile Workforce” and “A Self Provisioning User Base”. I’m not sure that the titles are as important as recognising the general shift away from in-house provisioned and in-house constrained services to services that are leveraged globally and have few constraints.

I speak to many I.T. people, because I’m an I.T. person and very few of them see that there is a change lurking just over the other side of that hill over there. A change that isn’t going to swoop down in a huge rampage, but is going to work under the radar and change their lives without them even knowing it. The ones who choose to go with it and to become valuable to their customers within the business will thrive, those who hide behind existing policies and standards will have their value steadily eroded until their value is difficult to see.

Change shouldn’t bring fear, we are used to it, we do it every day, we just need to recognise it and embrace it. As I.T. people we can, at least, see that the change is there. Business people, in general, have no idea about the change that is coming their way. Security organisations, as an example, will have massive changes to make, the old rules will no longer be valid. I know of organisations where there has been a huge backlash against the security organisation when they have insisted on locking down Internet provided Instant Messaging. There view was that it was an unnecessary security risk, the business’s view was that it was essential to operations, user innovation had overtaken them. It’s just one example of many of the things that are going to occur.

It’s just one small example of the mind-set change that will need to take place. Organisations that don’t change will themselves find it difficult to survive, those that go with the changes will thrive.

Today is Monday, it’s the start of a new week, perhaps now is as good a time as any to start embracing some change.