i'm blogging

[blogging hype on]
This is a video I simply had to blog about! It shows how essential blogging is becoming in this hip Web 2.0 based economy and that this simply has to be done to be recognised as part of the service based internet community. Phil seems to be offline, maybe he should have blogged more often! Blogging itself is the key to enhance your service portfolio and to continue to be up to date, do not miss a day in the blogosphere or you could miss the latest trend.
[blogging hype off]

Funny post of the day

How To Properly Place New Employees:
1. Put 400 bricks in a closed room.
2. Put your new hires in the room and close the door.
3. Leave them alone and come back after 6 hours.
4. Then analyze the situation:

• If they are counting the bricks, put them in the Accounting Department.
• If they are recounting them, put them in Auditing.
• If they have messed up the whole place with the bricks, put them in Engineering.
• If they are arranging the bricks in some strange order, put them in Planning.
• If they are throwing the bricks at each other, put them in Operations.
• If they are sleeping, put them in Security.
• If they have broken the bricks into pieces, put them in Information Technology.
• If they are sitting idle, put them in Human Resources.
• If they say they have tried different combinations, they are looking for more, yet not a brick has been moved, put them in Sales.
• If they have already left for the day, put them in Marketing.
• If they are staring out of the window, put them in Strategic Planning.
• If they are talking to each other, and not a single brick has been moved, congratulate them and put them in Senior Management.
• Finally, if they have surrounded themselves with bricks in such a way that they can neither be seen nor heard from, put them in Government.

[http://answers.yahoo.com]

Barcamp Hamburg

Am Wochenende war ein Ausflug zum Barcamp in Hamburg angesagt.
Nach einer Nacht im Zug bin ich am Morgen direkt zur Location; gerade pünktlich zur Sessiongestaltung.
Bei den Themen gab es ein breites Spektrum wie z.B. Erfahrungen beim Outsourcing von Softwareentwicklung (verwandt.de), Berichte und aktuelle Herausforderungen beim Podcast.de Portal, Launch einer Event-Orga Site (wevent.org) oder generell Businessmodelle im sog. Web2.0.

Unmengen von Bildern gibt es bei der Flickr Gruppe.
Trotz der fachlich interessanten Vorträge ist doch das eigentlich besondere an einer solchen Veranstaltung vor allem die Teilnehmer und die Themen. Das wurde auch schon in anderen Blogs erwähnt, einen sehr gelungenen Videozusammenschnitt für die Barcamps Frankfurt und Hamburg hat Chilly the Hit erstellt.


Link: sevenload.com

Einen Dank an die Sponsoren!

Strassenschilder

Strassenschilder

Rösti

Rösti

Grüezi

Grüezi

Gassen

Gassen

Sommerliche Temperaturen

Sommerliche Temperaturen

Zürich Hbf

Zürich Hbf

Hammering Man - Basel

Hammering Man - Basel

What a surprise to see a sculpture in Basel which I knew from Frankfurt, The Hammering Man.

Night of the museums, Frankfurt.

Night of the museums, Frankfurt.

The submitted picture, a photo of a band performing the last song of a gig.

24hours

24hours

Tomorrow: Photoblogging-day

Preparing for the weekend

Preparing for the weekend

Sending out a message

[via vowe]

Sommer Sonne Sonnenschein

Sommer Sonne Sonnenschein

Der Sonnenschirm ist aufgeklappt und endlich Gelegenheit das Sommer T-Shirt anzuziehen; die ersten beschweren sich bereits über die Hitze, Papperlapapp kann man da nur sagen. Schnell noch eine Runde gebloggt dann geht´s raus an die frische Luft 8-)

Lesser posts (?)

The next days there is much to do and finish so posts will get less unless the results are ready.

Weinberger on Web 2.0

[via elektrischer-reporter]

Globalization: Did You Know?

[via Basman] [originally done and commented at the fischbowl]

Ludwigsburg

DSC00750

A walk around between two meetings.

Sehr schön. Very nice.

Moby [via Neukunden-Magnet]

Social Web Breakfasting

Web 2.0 und Bloggertreffen bei Croissants und Kaffee war heute morgen in Frankfurt angesagt. Thema war der Einsatz externer Blogger als Unterstützung in der Unternehmenskommunikation. Der Pro-Blogger Oliver Gassner hält einen Vortrag wie er für Kunden bloggt und was es evtl. zu beachten gilt. Die Frage ob sowas funktionieren kann steht nicht an. Eine Einbettung des Themas in die schon bisherigen Möglichkeiten des klassischen Marketings findet leider nicht statt, so dass es zwar inhaltliche Fragen zu dem Thema gibt, die jedoch eher an der Oberfläche bleiben. Spannend sind dann doch eher die Gespräche in den kleinen Runden mit den anderen Teilnehmern, wo das Thema deutlich kontroverser und inhaltlich angemessener aus unterschiedlicher Blickwinkeln beleuchtet wird. Auf die Frage "Bloggen Sie?" die Antwort "Nein, für sowas habe ich keine Zeit." zu erhalten hat mich überrascht. Öfter finden sich Vertreter kleinerer Unternehmen die anfangen sich mit dem Medium zu beschäftigen und dabei merken, dass schwer ist die Frage nach dem Warum & Wie für alle Beteiligten zufriedenstellend zu beantworten. Ob das Thema bei einer Agentur oder bei einem Mediumspezialisten am Besten aufgehoben ist, ist selbst ein Diskussionspunkt. Ich denke gerade kleine Firmen sollten die Möglichkeit eines direkten Dialogs nicht outsourcen, sondern selber mit dem Medium am und mit den Kunden lernen.
Die Veranstaltung war dank der Unterschiedlichkeit der Gäste ein Erfolg.
Ach ja, keiner redet über Second Life :)

Location specific presentation

Location specific presentation

Phänomenal!

Wenn das mal kein Phänomen ist; jetzt habe ich doch tatsächlich nach all den Jahren surfens im englischsprachigen Raum die lokale Blogszene entdeckt!
Als angeblicher "Spontaner Idealist" finde ich diesen Artikel und das Video dazu klasse.
Spontan habe ich mich deswegen zum Social Web Breakfast angemeldet, hoffentlich sind nicht nur technik-afine Gäste da sondern auch Vertreter von Kunden, für die ist sowas nämlich eher gedacht und hilfreich. Die Ankündigung liest sich jedenfalls interessant.
Ansonsten gibt´s die Woche viel zu tun; updates folgen.

On Content

"No, I don´t want you to make a photo right now." she told me after the dinner in a restaurant I usually would recommend visiting due to it´s nice atmosphere, the food and the very friendly employees.

Which made me think on how blogs may be like restaurants in the way that what is presented is as important as how. Which leads to the question what could be added to the already so vastly amount of statements/conversations going on.

When browsing today I surfed through this one which lead to this one with a presentation on the topic and also I found this all having a connection to here again in a wider context.

So it could be e.g. a list of links, adding content to the conversation or a personal statement.
Finally it´s the sites content which makes it interesting to the readers who puts in their time and interest to read it and come back. And also that the content presented is said in a way that is acceptable to the readers even when no consesus is reached, which enriches the conversation by providing different point of views.

Nothing new; but why do so many write? Just to write or also to be read?
And why do we like to have conversations? Just to talk or to technically exchange information?

A major part what makes human communication remarkable is obviously in the non technical part which is expected to be meaningful for the participants. So for my part I have choosen this essay like approach and not a conversational one which gives me more freedom in form and content than a theme oriented one.

"It´s 99% luck."

An interesting article I recommend reading is today from David Maister whose blog I regularly read: http://davidmaister.com/articles/4/103/
He writes about personal styles of employees and he muses on whether those preferences, which he compares to animal stlyes are flexible or not. Imho I think that strongly depends on the background, experiences and vision people follow. The most interesting part of the article is that neither of the styles receives a "label" putting some sort of judgement on it but is described to clarify which decisions have to be made when dealing with human resources.

Browsing through some old entries I found an update with an interview of Warren Buffet Darren Johnson did, where he describes the concept of "circle of competence" and the importance to stay in it.
In my area this has been a mixture of software development and project marketing, with effort being put on survival against outsourcing trends. Now I am following the trend and you can find my profile here.
[via darrenjohnson]

We need to rethink a.k.a. Web 2.0

[via vowe]

Web 2.0? 3.0 will be even better!

In the last week I had various discussions on how people use the tools and gadgets available today and as expected SMS, IM and even mobile phones and Ipods are handled differently by different persons who are more or less the same age. I think the main social impact Web usage has will be seen in a few years as extensive due to the possibilities offered to the participants. I am often stating that the web makes real what the phone has promissed but could not fulfill; making it easier to connect their participants. Many years ago e.g. calling family members in Mexico was expensive and exchanging letters took weeks. Now the pictures of the kids of my cousin came via webcam, giving a call to someone far away is very affordable and my mother started kind of blogging (after having been "motivated" by me).
My favorite communication method is still the personal dialogue when possible, but the web substitute just gives additional possibilities which are personally sometimes very important.

Due to some minor issues I spend the whole Friday without my mobile. The greatest surprise was that just walking around the city without any device was a quite "relaxing" experience.
Connectivity and availability, or better the luxury to be not always accessible may become also a kind of tool to manage.

It´s not just a small world after all, it will even become smaller for those able and willing to communicate.

Birthday 2007

Birthday 2007

This year I celebrated my birthday with some friends and although it means that another year is over it also is a new life year beginning.
Best regards to those I met and have been a part of it.

"In the colorful reflection we have what is life "
J.W. v. Goethe

iPhone, my opinion.

A lot is on the web about iPhone so I will keep this short.

Sure, every function available was formerly available either on a PDA (it reminds me of my old Sony Clie) or on a phone itself but this is a new product and as such looks impressive.

Announcing a product which is not existent has been an old strategy of Microsoft many years ago to prevent customers to invest in non-Microsoft products. Apple made the phone and shows it, so this is not Vaporware.
So what is remarkable? The fact that so much was done at the same time.

1. Apple entered a new market, apparently mobile phones.
2. They used their own Operating System to do this (instead of deciding to use Palm or Symbian).
3. They say it´s the best Ipod ever made (improved and kind of merged an existing product)
4. And the customer interface is completely new, which means that the look and feel of the telephony functions were reinvented. Something the other participants are years of experience ahead which should theoratically give them an advantage on usability issues or customer feedback (new feature here: selective voicemail playback).

As far as I have read software development is is going to be resctrictive and is expected to include some sort of certification process.
Market availability is in six months and then we´ll see how the other manufacturers and or platform providers will pimp up their products to catch up.
My opinion so far; Apple changed the mobile phone market by adding a category of it´s own; traditional smartphones and Windows Mobile devices have 6 months to improve quality and think of new features to impress customers.
Until then look at this:

Apple representant showing features of the device:
http://gracefulflavor.net/2007/01/13/best-demo-of-iphone-yet-phil-schiller-on-cbs-news/

Steve Ballmer criticising the iPhone :)
http://gracefulflavor.net/2007/01/20/ballmer-hyperventilates-mocking-the-iphone/

No comment on pink Zune.
Initially found via graceflavour.net

Whoppering IT infrastructure?

Cem Basman posted today an analisis of requirements on how to create an IT Outsourcing business for small and medium businesses.
So what could reasonably be outsourced for SMB, and how?

1) IT Infrastructure
2) Business Applications
3) Accounting
4) Advertising
5) CRM/VRM
6) Administration
7) Software development

I think mainly IT infrastructure and generic workflows for every company or industry specific workflows.
Since IT is said to be no longer a differential I think that this only is true in the sense of basic services that are just expected to be functional and where cost is really an issue.
What could specifically be provided?

-IT Infrastructure
eMail
Domain & Web Site
Filesystem
Telephony
WebConferencing
Workgroup functions(calendar, task tracking, milestones)
-Business Applications
Calculations
Documents
-Accounting
Accounting
Banking (Invoices, Payments)
-Advertising
Online advertising
Newsletter management
Community building tools
Plug In for third party service provider (Call Center & Mailings)
-CRM/VRM
Client & vendor data management.
-Administration
Workflow engine for defining business processes.
Web Applications Framework for rapidly creating Web Applications.
-Software Development
Centralised outsourcing software development where necessary.

-What is the benefit for new clients?
The startup time is drastically reduced. The cost should be low. The client is free to focus on tasks which generate or are expected to generate income.

-Why could existing companies use this?
Migration of their IT to reduce costs and enhance the service quality at the same time.

-How could an ecosystem be created on such a basis?
By franchising migration services to map existing infrastructure and processes to the available tools and services (standardisation)?
By offering a framework where highly specialised service providers could participate and provide "building blocks" (market creation)?
By offering a local service directory where physical goods and services are provided based on the defined interfaces?
By offering defined interfaces and ensuring the functionality of those interfaces?

Anything more that makes sense?

First post 2007!

So this is the first post this year after a fabulous week in London.
Sunday is always good for reading, writing and a little napping :)

Links noticed so far:
Seth Godin quotes an article form the Guardian on How to be remarkable. I prefer to post the link to the original article because what´s most important is what is said after the obligatory 10 bullets. Read yourself.

The second one is also from Seth but handles another topic. Tactic & Strategy but maybe it´s just about thinking or life planning. Mainly it says that it depends more on doing the right thing than on doing something right. What is which is as always in the eye of the beholder.
A good book on thinking and success bought this week: Tactics by Edward de Bono.

The third one:
ITU Report on digital.life.
A lot has been written on wikis, social networks, IM and other technical solutions on how to communicate or collaborate. My parents still don´t have internet access and my mother rejects to start blogging from a distance, which I consider a plausible alternative to start it, so still some miles to go.

Mass media this week: iPhone, therefore I am.