Jeremiah Owyang, Senior Analyst at Forrester Research in Social Computing charts the start of the US-based social media layoffs. By no coincidence it’s beginning in the UK too, so I hear. Then again, anecdotally speaking, it’s not all doom and gloom either. My tech elder brother Andrew is flying down to London soon to raise venture capital for a new online tutoring venture for example.
Allister Heath in City AM warns PM Gordon Brown not to use the nationalisation of the banks to over-inflate the housing market once again: “The government is on much weaker ground with its attempt to revive lending to consumers and homeowners by fiat.” But he’s missing the obvious (oops!). The Chancellor is over-joyed at the ability to ’persuade’ the nationalised banks to lend again.
He sees it as being dealt a winning card; it will allow him both to stave off recession by re-inflating the housing market and consumer consumption, and so win the votes that matter for the next General Election — a stroke of incredible luck & genius to boot? Only time will tell.
There’s been a few changes at Medicexchange from the days of 2007 when I happily typed out articles on combining gaming and medical imaging technology to save lives. CEO Adam Boyse and OD Eugene Nicholson have left for bigger and better things, with Adam now CEO at Webopius; and my former content buddy Camila Artoni tells me she’s now living in the US of A. Calan’s still working hard on My Life of Travel too, which is cool.
Interesting blog post on ways work is changing, behaviour b4 tech I say..
For years, books and articles and blogs on productivity have been showing us how to be more productive: crank out the tasks, multi-task, work faster, be organized.
In short, they’ve taught us to be a good part of a corporation that wants more out of us. But that’s old-school productivity, or Productivity 1.0.
Today let’s take a look at Productivity 2.0: a new set of rules have changed everything for the workers of the world. Don’t crank out tasks — learn to work with a deeper focus. Don’t plan and hold meetings and form committees — just launch the software or product or service and keep improving it. Don’t spend time organizing — you’ve got more important things to worry about. (More in zenhabits)
Since AOL was kind enough to send this to me in error I thought I’d share it with the world:
Dear AOL Journals user,
As we wrote in an e-mail on Sept. 30, AOL® Journals will permanently shut down on Oct. 31. It’s never an easy decision to shut down a feature, especially one like AOL Journals that some of our members have used for a long time. But with a decline in Journals usage, we have to look carefully at all of AOL’s features to make sure we’re providing as much value to our members as possible.
Though we know this might be an inconvenience, the good news is that we’ve partnered with Blogger.com to provide a smooth transition for your journal. Blogger is a free service from Google that makes it easy to share your thoughts with friends and the world. Blogger supports most of the features you’ve come to expect from AOL Journals, and it’s easy to get started. If you wish to transfer your journal to Blogger, they will move your posts, comments and photos to your new blog on their service. When you’re ready, go to this link to get started.
Remember, it’s very important to save your Journals content before Oct. 31. If you choose not to move to Blogger, you’ll need to save your information manually (for example, by copying and pasting its contents into a word processor).
Again, we appreciate your patience and understanding as we make this transition, and we hope you enjoy using Blogger.com.
Sincerely,
The AOL Journals Team
Instructions for the pefect online community strategy review:
First read recent Economist piece titled ‘Facebook for suits’.
Then consider the risks involved in setting up an online community (many will fail).
Finally, reflect on why community/social networking sites are missing their mark (mark to market, pun intended).
AIG’s complexity blamed for fall: “The complexity and international spread of AIG’s operations impeded regulatory oversight of the derivatives unit that helped bring down the insurer, according to former executives, analysts and regulators.” (FT report)
Hmm, complexity? Maybe they should have invested in a product such as Datawatch’s Monarch software which is designed to transform report output files and other data sources into live data on your PC. Currently it is used by around 500,000 professionals worldwide and now on its 9th version.
News just in for Darwin lovers..
The Development Office is delighted to announce that on 12th February 2009 Christ’s will host a unique fundraising gala dinner to mark not only Charles Darwin’s birthday, but also the birth of College’s exciting collaboration with the Galapagos Conservation Trust. This event will undoubtedly be the highlight of the Bicentenary celebrations for both organisations.
There will be a full programme of activities throughout the afternoon and evening, including a discussion led by Sir David Attenborough and Andrew Marr, tours of the refurbishment of Darwin’s student set in College and a lavish black tie dinner in Hall.
Places are strictly limited. We are hoping to raise around £500,000 to establish a Charles Darwin and Galapagos Islands Trust to promote scholarship linked to present-day aspects of the work originally undertaken by Charles Darwin (Christ’s 1827-31, 1836-37).
Further information is available from Alex Cullen: ac597@cam.ac.uk
For: Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer: “We’ll need a new operating system. Just as we have an operating system for the PC, for the phone and for the server, we need a new operating system that runs in the internet. I bet we’ll call it Windows something. We’re going to announce it in four weeks. We might even have a trademark by then. So, for today I’ll call it Windows Cloud. And Windows Cloud will be a place where you can run arbitrary applications up in the internet that runs .Net.”
Against: Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation, has warned that cloud computing is mainly “hype” and companies risk losing control of their data if they buy into such systems. “It’s just as bad as using a proprietary program. Do your own computing on your own computer with your copy of a freedom-respecting program. If you use a proprietary program, or somebody else’s web server, you’re defenceless.”
+ IBM: a series of cloud initiatives, including Bluehouse.
“To demonstrate world-class expertise, avoid quickly written, shallow postings. Instead, invest your time in thorough, value-added content that attracts paying customers.” Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, July 9, 2007
PS: So this is an example of a blog that has not invested a great deal of time and trouble;-)