.oO Tailwind

Pandora shuts down for the UK

Originally uploaded by Snowbadger

Booo.

Finally legalese has won out and shut down Pandora for users outside the US.

I loved Pandora, it put me onto new things and I bought new music.

Such innovation is being stifled by bureaucracy. it’s such a downer. So short-sighted. The middle man wasn’t getting his buck.

But now, he can’t get my buck.

All this digital stuff is funny isn’t it? My ‘digital friend’ @Charliegower is more up-to-date with my moods, locations and general activity than my real-life, long term buddy Nick Foster (who’s not plugged in enough to have the Twitteresque ‘@’ prefix on his monicker).

Charlie and I have only met once, we share a mutual friend in Nick, but we’ve hardly met really. Yet somehow, some reason we’re connected on all the usual social properties, Last.fm, Facebook, Flickr, Plaxo, Linked In, Twitter, Plazes, Dopplr etc etc

Twitter in particular interests me at the moment because of what it’s doing to relationships I have with people. The ambient familiarity is an extra layer that I think is only beneficial. It ‘warms the cockles’ as they say to know that:

@drpig (Will Bloor) is making homemade pasta

@brackers (Andy Braxton) is engaged!

@casablance (Phil Whitehouse) is struggling to install his BT Vision box

@melb (Melissa Bezar) is off to another posh London restaurant

@charliegower (Charlie Gower) is (again) procrastinating by going swimming

@gavinedwardsuk (Gavin Edwards) is on the train to Sheffield, again

@stephenbarber (Stephen Barber) is picking up his guitar (which is what he should do more often)

As we all know, Twitter is a broadcast medium where users can announce ‘what they are doing’ via sms, instant messenger or the web. It’s predominantly utilised as a ‘I’m doing…’, ‘I’m feeling…’, ‘I’m thinking…’ medium.

I’ve also used it in a practical means when trying to navigate New York looking for a top-drawer deli for breakfast, but it’s mostly used like Facebook Status, informing your ‘followers’ of what you are are doing.

Personally, I protect my updates a i don’t want people I don’t know seeing that I’m ‘out of my house’ or I’m ‘away on business’. Scamsters could mine a lot of information from active tweeters.

It stands to reason, that people ‘Tweet’ when they are doing something interesting or when they are killing downtime in a bus queue or on a train (see my post on living an ‘ALt-Tab’ existence), so you get a skewed view, but it makes entertaining reading nonetheless.

Of course, you would never say ‘Just listening to some Mariah Carey’ (Gavin Edwards) or ‘Having a poo’ or ‘Just had a row with the other half’.

No. That’s too much. You have to filter.

It’s interesting that people whom I work with are the ones I engage a lot with via Twitter. None of my ‘friends’ use it, of course I consider many of my colleagues and ex-colleagues friends, but I also Twitter with clients, friends friends, and as a result I feel like there’s something there, known between us that in some way, sustains or affects the personal relationship. Not in all cases, of course.

Phil WHitehouse wrote Ten Commandments of Twitter, which I wholly disagree with. the only rule should be ‘there are no rules’. Although I HATE people who follow but don’t Tweet. Lurkers. Blurgggh!

So, to wrap up, I could meet @Charliegower down the pub and have a rip-roaring evening of conversation, feeling like I already know him. I know his work situatiion, his exercise habits, his music taste, hi ideas and via Plazes or Dopplr, his location.

That’s all bonkers. But if you keep it real by only using such technologies with real people you are likely to meet, I think it’s quite a nice relationship enhancing tool.

Fancy a beer?
Continue reading ‘My Twitter Chums Know More’

Articles on innovation theory, culture an management practices have been written ad infinitum. Many books weigh down my bookshelf and my mind.

So I’m not about to write a lengthy blog post on innovation or mistake embracing culture. I just want to point out a nice anecdotal story about a man who didn’t know the rules that I read via Viewers Like You, via a friend’s blog that’s about changing the status quo and achieving results no-one thought possible.

Cue ‘Voice Over Man‘

“In a world where men race men in a death defying race, one man fights the norm… to do things his.. own.. way”

Okay, I’ll stop.

In 1983, Cliff Young, a 61 year old sheep farmer from Australia, entered one of the world’s most gruelling ultra races wearing galoshes and boots. Up against trained, elite ultra athletes he competes in the race over 875 km and 5 days, sets a record and wins the heart of Australians everywhere.

All because he didn’t know the rules.

He competed with ‘less’ knowledge than his competitors and as a result saw the challenge very differently indeed. His unique angle ultimately won him the race and changed the practice of ultra running forever.

It’s time for a ‘think outside the box’ quote.

Pah.

A while ago I suggested to some colleagues that we should revisit a bunch of failed .com ideas from circa 98-02 purely on the basis that many were good but we didn’t have the skills, technology or appetite for them.

‘1973: Sorry, Out of Gas‘ has been curated by Mirko Zardini for the CCA (Canadian Centre for Architecture) to study architectural innovation spurred on by the oil crisis in 1973 where prices ballooned triggering a bit of a fracas across the globe.

Many of the ideas were probably ahead of their time, but are now very relevant and downright sensible. Okay, some aren’t.

The ideas don’t just concern energy efficiency and the environment they concern societal ideas, models and lifestyle. The exhibition looks at Sun, Earth, Wind and Integrated Systems.

It’s an interesting idea, looking back to look forward, it makes me wonder how many great inventions, cures, thoughts, ideas etc have been lost because they weren’t incubated correctly.

Maybe we need a worldwide ‘idea bin’.

What great ideas have you forgotten about?

I know that I never ever read those emails you get from the websites you subscribe to. Mostly because a) there are too many and b) they are often useless.

Who does?

Anyway, I’m not exactly sure when this feature appeared, probably ages ago, but Flickr now allows you to see the activity on your pictures above and beyond how many ‘comments’, ‘favourites’ and ‘views’ you have had.

Here’s a screen grab from mine today:

I think seeing this kind of information makes a site particularly addictive, it certainly works on blogs. I know because WordPress offer a similar deal for free and they’ve done it for a long time. It keeps me going back every day to see how my blog is performing.

I must say, that my activity on Flickr has increased a lot since I started getting feedback from other users. It’s rewarding you see, it feels like you’re getting something back for your efforts. I feel the same about blogging. Many read but few engage, add comments or send email.

It makes writing a blog quite a lonely thing.

However on Flickr, I’m now submitting photos to groups more and more and getting a lot more interest in my images. I’ve used it a while but it’s only now I’m really using beyond a tool for backing up and sharing with family.

Now that I have a stats package I can monitor interest in more detail and I think I’ll now add Flickr to my ‘must visit every day’ website list.

These kind of metrics are valuable to individuals who put effort into a site. From a site owner point of view the level of engagement of an individual user is measured by their content, activity and good citizenship within the network> In return this is often rewarded. However from a user point of view, you rarely get feedback so it’s very rewarding to be able to see level of engagement on your content too.

Nice move Flickr. Thanks.

JOSH DION BANDOriginally uploaded by yeyo1

Whilst in New York I had the pleasure of one of those serendipitous moments when going out on a Thursday night.We jumped in a cab in Times Square, and whilst being with two American colleagues, we were none the wiser as to where we should go for a decent, non-toursity night out. Even though we were tipped to hit Greenwich Village for a few bars.

We said “take us to the decent bars” and the cabbie, all polite and trusting like, suggested we go down to Bleeker. When we got there we strayed into a bar called ‘The Bitter End‘.

For a $5 cover charge we could grab a stage side table and enjoy one or two beers. There was a band on who were okay (Stratespherous) and then a second that were really very good (Fools for April) an the third (The Josh Dion Band Official site MySpace site) were really really awesome.

This very energetic American, rocky, soulful, bluesy live group made my trip.We were on our way out after Fools for April as we wanted to see more of Bleeker, but when I saw the next band carrying in a Fender Rhodes. If you don’t know what one is (!) remember the opening to the TV show Taxi?.Anyway, I’m a fan of any band that has one. Then I noticed their bassist had a very similar bass guitar to me and I was staying. He was gooooood btw.

They set-up in an interesting way, with a drums at the front and as soon as they started energy and soul were the name of the day. They belted out what appears to be a set that’s done the rounds as you can buy a live album with something very similar to what I heard.No matter. they had the now full crowd of The Bitter End head-nodding, foot-tapping and jumping.

As it turns out, The Bitter End has somewhat of a pedigree when it comes to live music. Apparently a recognised hang-out for record industry types and new emerging bands, people to have played there include Stevie Wonder, Gil Scott-Heron, Curtis Mayfiled, Joan Baez, Jonie Mitchell and a few other names you may have heard of.It made me think that you couldn’t do this in London.

London is a place that requires not only inside knowledge, but clear planning. you couldn’t walk into a place like this, off the street and only pay $5 and see such quality bands.The Josh Dion Band are well worth checking out as they now have a residency, every Thursday at The Bitter End. I think they start at 9pm.

When I head back to NYC I’m making sure I’m there to see them. I only hope they come to London at some point.Thanks for making my trip guys.Anyone in New York on a Thursday - go check them out. Seriously. Go check them out.New York 1, London 0.

Happy New Year. Belatedly.

I’ve been struggling to get back to work since the holiday ended. Okay I took an extra week, but on my return I had to fly off to New York City for a pitch. Slightly glam? Yes. Tiring? Definitely.

Quick post today as I wanted to share my pictures of New York from a recent business trip. Even though it was a flying visit, what a city!

See my pictures on Flickr.

I was expecting lots of hustle, bustle and aggrevation. But instead I found polite, calm, easy going folks. What a difference to London. I can’t understand why people say these cities are alike.

I was told I’d hear ‘Hey! I’m walking here!” a lot, but nope. Not once.

The main thing that I noticed were the clean streets. Hardly any litter and no gum. It wasn’t smelly like London can be and was generally a very pleasant place indeed. I can’t wait to go back, preferably with Mrs Snowbadger and do some serious shopping.

Whilst there I had to rely on SMS to get me about as my company hadn’t sorted the necessary roaming facilities with Orange! Pah! Therefore no GPS Blackberry for me.

Anyway, using Twitter I could send SMSs and say

“On the corner of 55th and 7th. Need breakfast. Ideas?”

and I’d get a flurry of direct Twitter messages from my Twitterchums.

It certainly is an interesting medium.

Near on-demand advice from trusted sources in response to one single message.

If I had unprotected ‘Tweets’ I’m sure my network would be wider and I would have gotten some more ideas of how to spend my 24 hours, but as it stands a protected network means I get trusted recommendations and am not being talked into some sex dungeon for a New York based Twitter-stalker to kidnap a Snowbadger.

In a funny way it’s like taking you Twitterchums with you. Some might think it anoying, but if they do they can always switch updates off. I’m sure some have ;).