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For months and months colleagues in the new media industry have been banging on about the latest BIG NEW THING just round the corner waiting to pounce and take over our collective consciousness (Twitter was the last one remember). This time it is Google Wave. This was previewed last year in a presentation now famous in Geekdom by the incredibly gifted development team also responsible for no less than Google Maps!

Google call it a ‘personal communication and collaboration tool’. A sort of mix of Facebook, Twitter, Email and Google docs, but with most of the action happening in real-time. Imagine seeing people’s tweets, emails and updates as they write and then being able to join in. (This takes time to explain so if you are interested here is one of the better talk-throughs).

Well its not quite here yet, the beta is not due until later this year. Yet there is already considerable polorisation of opinions about its value, ranging from a ‘this is the future’ Twitter-Killer ready to replace your email through to an ‘expression of the very worst that the social web has to offer’.

At present only a select few are testing Wave and most of these are computer technicians. I know quite a few of these and their comments tend to be quite similar, “I am finding it all very complex to use - but when I get my head around it I think it will be awesome. However the flow of information can be overwhelming”.

Now that quote is from a very talented technical director for a media company. I see him most days immersed in a wall of green code - you know, one of those guys in Hollywood movies that switch off power-stations from their laptops. This is the crux of the problem I have with the Wave - if HE of all people finds it complicated and overwhelming, then heaven help the rest of us!

A core foundation stone of Web 2.0 is that the tools are comparatively easy for ordinary digital consumers to learn and manage information - RSS , easy to use widgets, simple task flows. This platform shows a great deal of promise - and Google do say that it is definitely a work in progress - but if they don’t hugely simplify the user experience to fit closer to how human consciousness works with information and people, it will end up as just a highly innovative concept that got half-way towards a really game changing meta-application.

Remember, Google took over the web partly though the hyper-minimalist simplicity of the likes of the Google home page and more recently Google maps which are a dream to use, so I have some confidence that they have the insight and skills to get this right.

Today Orange announced that it had broken O2’s exclusive deal to sell the iPhone in the UK. While O2 have known this was coming for a long time, and have built a very solid association with the Apple brand over the 2 years of its preferential contract, this could not have come at a worse time. Why…?

Over the last few months - and more intensely over the last few weeks - O2’s data network has come in for some serious criticism on the blogosphere, especially from iPhone users. The moaning can be summed up as “We have the world’s greatest mobile data device; on the UK’s worst 3G data network!”. My own anecdotal evidence and Ofcom’s data coverage maps [667Kb PDF] back this up. Have a look, Orange’s coverage is much better.

When this gets out into the mainstream press, together with some of the reports of system ‘meltdowns’,  it could drive much of O2’s more informed business to Orange.

What have O2 got up their sleeve to fight back? Well, being a long term user of O2 and having worked as a consultant with them for a while (and therefore seen ‘inside the machine’) I can vouch for their truly exceptional levels of award winning customer service and genuine care. I know it’s not perfect but compared to the competition it is still way ahead. This is partly due to the decision early on to keep call centres based in the UK and not follow the outsource/offshore lemmings over the cliff to the frustrating service and language difficulties many experience using these facilities.

So what will hold the most value for the next tranche of iPhone buyers - not necessarily the early adopters this time? Exceptional customer service or superior coverage and network stability? I would like both, but being a geek would chose the better network every time. What about you?

Update 29/09/09: Now Vodafone are in emergency talks with Apple and have just announced that it too will sell iPhones - but not till next year after the crucial Christmas period.

With much of the focus on Twitter recently I think it is important not to lose sight of some of the less instant but hugely valuable thinking behind ‘communities of practice’. If Twitter is the ‘fast running and shallow’ these communities are at the other end of the spectrum - they develop slow… but deep.

Communities of Practice (CoP) are typically described as “a group of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and… deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis.” This stuff is vital for anyone who is interested in working out the puzzle of how we can harness the latent knowledge and creativity of our organisations. ‘Cultivating Communities of Practice’ is a manager’s version of the academic predecessor from Etienne Wenger. Probably the best read available for those keen to know the deep magic and success factors of social communities of practice. I consider it a must for those involved in digital engagement.

Strangely, even though written at the turn of the millennium with the Internet revolution in full swing - albeit pre-Web 2.0 - it does not include nor case study online social networks or virtual communities. Luckily Wenger’s attention has since turned to online social systems and together with Nancy White (who really does get the difference between the new 2.0 communities and the old ‘gated’ style) is about to launch ‘Digital Habitats‘.

Very soon the government will be producing its full ‘Digital Britain‘ report - its aim to help the UK be at the forefront of the global digital economy — “At a minimum this report seeks to bring both focus and stimulus to this sector”.

In January it produced the interim, which while helpful seemed mainly concerned with technical infrastructure and broadband speeds. Yes, there was talk of Britain’s world-class game designers, content providers and new media innovators — but in comparison to all the ‘pipe talk’ it was all quite woolly and vague  — almost as if they didn’t quite understand what they were talking about. Quite scary!

To concentrate on infrastructure is about as much use as a trying to generate a housing boom by focussing on the productivity of brick manufacturers. Yes we can alway use more bandwidth, but that battle is almost won with UK connectivity having been transformed over the last five years. And with clever technology we are increasingly able to do more with less.

This report, especially in these difficult times, should be honing in on how to further support British innovation to build world class competitive digital business in new media, TV, music, and advertising - the creative industries.

Anthony Lilley who as Chair of the UK digital content forum puts it bluntly: “Should we be the most innovative nation, should we be creating the most saleable content and services, or do we just want nice pipes?”

This issue is vital for the public sector also. With the huge cuts in spending expected over the next few years, digital innovation is one obvious route to driving costs down and creating spectacular gains in reach, productivity, engagement and democratic participation.

More hopefully, the Communications, Technology and Broadcast Minister Lord Stephen Carter who authored the interim says that the full report will contain much more balance. Let us hope so, this is a vital publication that should not be allowed to become a damp squib.

No, I am not talking about the exceptional TV series finally being screened nationally in the UK. I am referring to the relaunch of Wired UK magazine this week which has suddenly returned from the dead after 10 years. (Left: The first 1995 edition)

People I talk to either too young to remember, or were not caught up in the early days of the dot-com bubble, think it bizarre that a magazine originally birthed alongside the Internet and covering all things ‘cyberculture’ should emerge - let alone re-emerge - as a PAPER publication!

Despite being a member of what I guess is their target audience, I find the U.S. based version of Wired really quite dense (it really does require commitment). However it managed to escape the technology bust by digging deep into the original spirit of the brand and focused on innovation, culture change and globalisation. This has enabled them to outlast industry competitors such as The Red Herring, Business 2.0, and New Media Magazine.

But why this, why now?

Some people are saying it is brave to launch in the middle of the downturn, while others say this is a safe bet as digital is forecast to continue growing despite the crunch.

Either way it will be interesting to see how it fares and particularly if it can capture the post credit crunch zeitgeist hopes for a new green and hi-tech world. It is quite bizarre that the last edition in 1999 had a front page feature named ‘Bankers behaving badly’!

What do you think? A welcome return of a lost friend or 10 years too late?

I had numerous people email me this news item about Second Life this morning. It is one of the frequent articles talking down or trivialising Second Life, the online virtual world. Maybe it is because 3D worlds are more obviously connected in people’s minds to gaming environments, but it seems to take more than its fair share of criticism from people who really don’t ‘get’ it.

I find the best way to understand the value of metaverses like Second Life - and what works and doesn’t work - is little different from the social web as a whole. Once you have got over the WOW factor of developing your own avatar and the ability to walk, fly or teleport to an almost infinite number of environments. If by then you have not engaged in any meaningful dialogue, relationship building, or found another source of self expression, connection or ongoing interest, then like thousands of others you will probably end up thinking ‘what is the point of this?’

However if you have participated and become an active member of the community with the extra dynamics that a 3D virtual world provide (for example proximity and simulation) then your experience will be completely different.

As a tax payer, I am glad that government departments are experimenting with comparatively very low cost systems to investigate if there is value - financial or otherwise - in engaging with these large scale communities. I remember the very early days of the Internet and have seen how what seems extraordinary and exotic today, can become commonplace and essential tomorrow. If they don’t investigate emerging platforms we will soon be moaning about why the public sector has again fallen so far behind the technological curve when it comes to the dramatic gains in productivity, efficiency and capability experienced by increasingly web savvy consumers.

Second Life requires a powerful PC with an advanced graphics card and decent broadband connection. It is not easy compared to the likes of Facebook - Second Life has a notoriously steep learning curve, especially to master the valuable physical and community building tools. There is still some considerable way to go yet.

But despite this the 3D web is coming whether we like it or not, and the smart people are learning early lessons on Second Life in anticipation of other more accessible and usable alternatives already in development.

Double click to go full-screen.

This neat little piece from Jive is for the launch of their new edition of Clearspace now named Jive SBS (Social Business Software) and is certainly putting the cat amongst the enterprise 2.0 pigeons! This is one of the first enterprise level systems that has a truly credible suite of usable social media tools with an engine integrating them all together. There are many other options emerging on to the market but for me Jive SBS is clearly in the lead with full marks for digital engagement tools - a very powerful offering.

A high percentage of large scale organisations across the world have their electronic communications systems entwined with either Microsoft, IBM or Oracle. Despite this, Jive software has already been adopted by 15% of Fortune 500 companies - and this before the recent update.

Due to legacy systems there will still be a strong preference - especially from IT departments - for using Microsoft’s Sharepoint 2007 (MOSS) platform. Sharepoint has some powerful and highly configurable Web 2.0 tools to add to what is still essentially software based on a document management model.

However, Jive SBS is corporate software for the Facebook generation where software is a commodity and the challenge for implementation has people, community, engagement, collaboration and personal choice centre stage - not the technology.

Just as we started to get used to iTunes being the Grand Central Station for the majority of digital music purchases for the foreseeable future, barging uninvited into Apple’s party comes a quite stunning application called Spotify.

Spotify offers free and legal access to a huge library of music. All you need to do is create an account and download the player, available for both PCs and Macs - even the iPhone. There are other tools provided such as the ability to collaborate when creating playlists, and importantly for business they are now adding podcasts, but it is its simplicy that counts.

I have been using the application as I work on my laptop for a few weeks and find its ease of use truly compelling - it really does have an (original) Google like usability.

A sociologist once explained to me that friendship and community have natural ‘limitations’ relating to scale. Due to both the natural capacity of human beings and pure mathematical implications of the increased complexity of our lives by adding even say just one person to a few close friends or relations.

If I remember correctly the approximate boundaries were: family intimacy – two to six; group – maximum of 12, and community or village – up to 120. While you can’t apply it as a strict formula, I’ve often found it a helpful guide.

For example, when doing multi-disciplinary design workshops I try to limit participants to 12. Beyond that number the natural pressure to form sub-groups increases dramatically and the coherence of the meeting starts to degrade.

The next step up is around 120 people. This is the realm of ‘village’ or ‘community’, where you could class those people as close acquaintances. That means know their face, remember their name and have made some kind of connection or conversation with them. Beyond 120 it is hard to keep up even this level of relationship, again simply because of the limitations of our memory, time and attention.

Recently the research emerged again in an article in the Economist, this time being applied to online social networks. They even quote the 120 figure - saying that on Facebook members with more friends than this are just ‘broadcasting’ themselves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you ever wanted a better example of the case for pocket-able video to convey practical but complex information and insight, quickly and efficiently, look no further than the heat of the dying moments of the Cup Final on Sunday.

At full-time and with a penalty shoot-out imminent, Ben Foster the Manchester United goalkeeper instead of grouping together with the rest of the team for a morale boost - was seen walking to the back of his net and plugging in his iPod! My immediate reaction was to assume he was going to listen to some hard-core heavy metal or such like to ‘wind himself up’ for the shoot-out.

However it transpires that Ben was watching videos of how the other side took their penalties! (Presumably it was an iPod Touch or and iPhone - anyone know?). One of the backroom staff had put a video pack together for this very eventuality. Foster said. “It’s an amazing tool to have, it means you can brush up straightaway”. Manchester United won the shoot out 4-1.

UPDATE March 10th: Matt Dickinson reports in The Times today…
“The use of iPods as training tools by Manchester United does not extend only to penalty shoot-outs. The players are offered bespoke highlight clips, cut for them by in-house staff, that can be downloaded straight to MP3 players or laptops and taken home for perusal after a game.”

This innovative, albeit obvious, use of mobile media for learning raises great possibilities for parallel situations. Think - modern apprenticeships, engineering, health and safety, medical surgery etc?

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