Are you ready to “vine”

Posted on May 5, 2013     Leave a Comment

We all live in the age of social media and I’ve adopted pretty much everything going. I remember doing my a-levels and MySpace was the big thing. My space was founded in 2003 and I loved it. At the same time we had other sites such as Bebo which although I had an account never really “took off” – at least not in my world.

MySpace was the first site that I actively communicated with my friends via an online medium – but when I took my gap year back in 2004 I didn’t consider using it as a way to keep in touch with people. It was more about bands and music – it wasn’t what I would consider social.

Then in 2007 something happened that revolutionised online socialising – I found Facebook! It was new, innovative and different and for the firs 18 months I was logged on 24/7 finding friends and updating my status every 5 minutes. It was cool and everyone was doing it!

It took me a little while to find Twitter and get to grips with it; but like FaceBook it did change the way I communicated online. When I connected FaceBook to Twitter I felt like my online life was complete.

Now there have been copy cats, I’m not a fan of Google plus and I don’t buy into these websites that are trying to be “FaceBook” but I am ready for more innovation.

In recent months Pinterest has caught my attention and in some ways I’m finding that I use this more than FaceBook especially in a work context. It feels creative and I like that. A couple of weeks ago I found myself on Pinterest and I came across a link to “vine” which was founded in June 2012 and has recently been bought by Twitter. Vine allows users to create 6 second video clips that loop and then embed in them in social networking sites such as Pinterest, FaceBook and Twitter.

My question is given all of the other social networking sites out there, and the fact that I already spend so much time sharing my life online – is there room for a service such as vine? Or could Vine actually change the way I use Pinterest in the same way that Twitter changed the way I use FaceBook.

One thing is for certain any good social networking site needs a verb to describe the activity. I currently Tweet on Twitter, Pin on Pinterest , Share or Like on FaceBook …… How will we describe “To Vine” if it does indeed become the new “in way” to communicate. Any Ideas?

ITV Re-Brand

Posted on January 14, 2013     Leave a Comment

So today ITV are launching their new brand across all ITV channels and sub regions.

Information from ITV

In todays recession hit society how important is brand awareness? ITV clearly want to create more of an association between the programmes that they make and the corporate entity who makes them – but we all knew Coronation Street was made by ITV already. Didn’t we?

Some times the idea of re-branding simply freshens up an image or creates a revitalised buzz around the product. It could be argues that such benefits are short lived because once the brand establishes itself everyone stop talking about it.

In 2011 a very successfully campaign was ran by TV channel G.O.L.D that explained that the channels acronym stood for “Go On Laugh Daily” creating an immediate association between the brand and comedy.

Many brands choose to establish themselves and never change – largely because they become so iconic that a change would do damage the companies reputation. I couldn’t imagine Nike changing the infamous “tick” or McDonalds loosing the Golden Arches.

Could it therefore be argued that the executives of ITV feel that they don’t currently have a strong enough brand image? If this is the case do you think that this latest branding exercise achieves ITV’s project goals?

Online and in flight

Posted on October 26, 2012     Leave a Comment

Following my thoughts on data access in Europe I am now flying home from Italy and I’ve started to contemplate Internet access in the air.

Remember the days when you walked into a hospital and were told to switch off your mobile phone? Then one day this seemed to stop being important – someone realised that mobile phones didn’t effect hospital equipment ….. or maybe technology advanced.

It was also once impossible to get wifi on a train. Then suddenly it’s common place particularly on virgin trains and I find it immensely useful particularly when travelling for work.

Planes are one place where the still insist that you switch off electronic devices, or at least switch them to flight only mode – is there a serious risk to the aeroplane if someone makes a telephone call mid flight or uses the Internet over a cellular network? (Answers on a postcard please)

It occurs to me that this is one place where a wifi hotspot could make a fortune. Airlines have a captive audience often for several hours and I know that I would pay extra for the privilege if it were available.

I guess in posting this I’m looking for more information from someone who is in the know re: the possibility of wifi in the air. Science fiction? In the pipeline? Or someway off?

Data access in Europe

Posted on October 23, 2012     1 Comment

This week I’ve taken a holiday to Sorrento in southern Italy. Naturally I couldn’t come away without bringing some technology with me – I have my iPhone, iPad and (in the hotel room) my laptop has come along for the ride.

Something which I’m finding slightly frustrating is that the SIM card in my iPad doesn’t work while I’m abroad, yet despite being on the same network the SIM card in my mobile phone works just fine. I knew this before I travelled having checked with O2 but sitting here in the picturesque Amalfi I’m wondering why.

Having said that my iPhone works fine, it does but my provider places certain restrictions on usage. O2 send me frequent text messages to remind me that I can use up to 25 mb per day for £1.99. I enquired about the cost of going over this allowance and was told that if I did regularly I would be charged £0.65 per mb.

In a normal month I use an average of 1.5 gb worth of data which is around 50mb per day, it therefore occurs to me that a 50% reduction in data usage when I’m using my mobile phone more (particularly navigation, and the Internet to research places I’m visiting) means that I’m not getting what I want out of my provider. Coupled with the fact that my iPad sim doesn’t work abroad I’m actually feeling very disconnected.

I suppose you could argue that I’m on holiday and therefore should be relaxing and revelling in this apparent connectivity restriction; on many levels I agree with you, but it still leaves me asking the question why is it such a problem to use as much data as I want to in 2012? Surely this problem is just going to get worse in years to come as more and more people connect multiple devices to the Internet. Is it because operator costs increase by providing access abroad? Or is there some other reason?

According to Ofcom there is some other reason. A 2012 ruling has regulated charges that mobile operators can impose for providing these services and the maximum charges are on a decreasing sliding scale over the next 2 years. By summer 2014 operators will be able to charge a maximum of 20 cents per mb for using data abroad.

My experience in 2012 tells me that one way operators are getting around these price limitations is by simply capping the amount of data their customers are allowed to use when abroad or in the case of the iPad simply not supporting data access. Surely this cannot be a sustainable model? I can’t see my data usage decreasing over time …… One solution would be to buy a local sim card when I go abroad but again this seems tiresome …..

Have you had data access issues in Europe? How did you solve your issues? Also if you’re a mobile operator how do you see the future developing for data access abroad?

Does technology help the unorganised man?

Posted on October 8, 2012     Leave a Comment

As MD at Footsqueek I spend a fair degree of my time working in schools, meeting head teachers and promoting products.

I was in a school earlier to today and had a meeting with a head teacher. As the conversation progressed we started talking around organisation and she openly admitted that she is quite a disorganised person, she went on to say that she was getting an iPad which would “sort her out”.

It occurs to me that this particular head teacher is going to depend on technology to “become organised” but my question is, is it not the person that needs to be organised enough to use the technology?

To give an example – my diary is on my iPad, and my iPhone synced through Microsoft exchange. I need to be organised enough to put appointments in the diary otherwise the technology won’t help me to remember what meetings I have. Surely a disorganised person wouldn’t put the information on the iPad diary just as they would forget to put it in the physical diary?

How organised are you?

Working on the move

Posted on October 6, 2012     Leave a Comment

In recent years its become much easier for people to work on the move no matter what their location. This was brought home to me when I was in Dublin recently and I received a text message from a client. With relative ease I was able to connect to a wifi network, logon to his system and make changes all without impacting upon the purpose of my overseas visit.

The Internet has opened up a world in which people expect an immediate response. This is obviously a good thing because it means that things advance quicker but it also means people are less tolerant to delay.

Before the advent of e-mail communication it was common place for a worker to send a memo via internal or external post, which might take a day or two to arrive – naturally the response may also take a day or two meaning that a relatively simple communication could span over a week or more. In today’s Internet world that interaction could be completed within minutes arguably making employees time much more productive.

It also means that people expect response within a much quicker timescale. If I send an e-mail and haven’t received a response within 24 hours I usually start to think about chasing the receipient. If its a known person I often chase if I haven’t heard back within a few hours. Does this mean that technology is making us more impatient as a society? Or are we becoming more efficient?

Regardless of your standpoint I personally believe its important now and again for us all to take stock and to become incommunicado. Switch off your iPhone / iPad, don’t respond to e-mails for a few days – nothing is ever so important that it can’t wait … Or is it?

To my mind switching off is the only way to take time out and truly recharge your batteries. If like me you’ve been known to wake up in the middle of the night and answer an e-mail or two while in bed I believe this is particularly important – does anyone else find themselves rarely switching work off? Answering e-mails on the couch? On holiday? Assuming the answer is yes I guess the key question is what long term effect that is going to have on our mental capacity. Can work become a drug like addiction?

What does it mean to be technology native?

Posted on October 4, 2012     Leave a Comment

When I did my IT GCSE I remember having a great deal of discussion about technology immigrants versus Technology natives. At the time we were all told that as 16 year olds in 2002 we were technology natives because we had grown up with technology. Our teacher on the other hand was a technology immigrant.

Since 2000 we have seen tremendous technological change, we’ve seen the introduction of social networking, developments of technology such as iPhone, iPad, and a cultural shift in the way technology assists in the workplace.

All of this has happened since I have “grown up” so does that mean that I am still a technology native? Or as new technology emerges that I start to adopt am I slowly starting to fit more into the category of technology immigrant.

At risk of opening up a huge can of worms could it be suggested that there is no such thing as a true technology native? I’m sure when the calculator first started to appear in schools the children of the day could have been referred to as technology natives ….. But as technology has moved on I’m sure those individuals would not consider that they have grown up with technology; much more that technology has developed around them as they have got older.

The truth of the matter is that as each new piece of technology emerges we all migrate towards it making us all technology immigrants. Only when technology stops developing will the next generation be true natives and I don’t see technology ceasing to move forward in the imminent future.

That said as technology advances people do become more comfortable adopting it. I for example am much more comfortable using technology than my mum. This suggests that the as technology advances the learning curve to start using it is easier for those who have grown up in the digital age – I wonder if technology will ever advance to such a level that I find it difficult to adopt? I’m sure my mum never had difficulty using a calculator in school so why is it that she is scared of the iPad?

Responding to customer feedback

Posted on October 2, 2012     Leave a Comment

Some of the regular readers of this blog will know that I recently had a bad experience shopping at Audi Cheshire Oaks. I thought it only fair to Audi to update readers on action taken since I blogged about the experience.

First of all well done Audi – I was contacted via twitter, they apologised and asked for my contact details and promised to look into it – so far so good – definitely on the right track to making me happy.

They even followed through – I had a phone call from the sales man that I spoke to in the showroom who was vey apologetic and wanted to put things rights. Slightly frustrated that I had to explain to him what I wanted a quote for (again) having told him all of the details 10 days earlier during my visit to the showroom – but I guess you can’t expect everything to be perfect.
The difference this time is that he followed it up by actually sending me the quote – It seems third time really is lucky – Certainly more proactive …..

So after all of that am I going to do a deal with the company? In honesty probably not – at least not from Audi Cheshire Oaks ….. To my mind if this is the service you get prior to making a purchase then I dread to think what the after sales service will be like but it is comforting to know that Audi as a company do take complaints seriously and do seem to act upon them – that means that I’m definitely not put off Audi as a company – to my mind that is successful damage limitation for which the company must be commended.

Anyone else had any good or bad experiences?