Archive for March, 2008

Ever been challenged by new technology? Well, this should make you feel better….

My source* tells me that the scroll gradually disappeared in favour of the codex between the second and fourth centuries. It was the Romans who first started to sewing together wax tablets for legal documents, gradually replacing the boards with parchment and thereby creating the objects that were the pre-cursor to the modern day book. The Christians really took to the codex, partly because it was cheaper than scrolls, more durable and allowed for numbered pages and a contents list which helped with accuracy when making copies, all important in a new religion.

*Ideas: A history from fire to Freud by Peter Watson

The following forms part of the book I am co-authoring with Silvia Cambie on New Trends in International Public Relations. This follows on from the sections on the Commercialization of the Web and Computers Get Personal, which I have also posted on this blog and my social media blog ZenGuide.co.uk.

The text is a verbatim section from the book and the links are set out at the bottom of this post as footnotes rather than embedded links. The text is copyrighted and all rights are reserved.

Connection speed is the other significant factor in the online revolution. Connecting to the internet from the mid-1990s to around 2003 was generally via a dial-up modem and a telephone line. Connection speed was slow and the cost meant that most people used it for email primarily and only surfed during off-peak periods. For the average user, sustained video and audio interaction was practically impossible.

And then along came broadband.

The broadband story is similar across the globe, with the amount of take-up by consumers being directly linked to availability and cost. In 2002, broadband connection in the UK promising 40 times the connection speed of regular dial-up cost £55 a month, plus an additional set up fee and the cost of a broadband modem. By 2007, it was down to around £18 a month and became available nationally. By 2005, broadband connections outstripped dial-up and by 2007, 60% of UK households had broadband[i].

Across the European Union. 25% of all households were connected to the internet via broadband by 2006[ii]. In Asia (excluding Japan), a survey of internet usage in 2006 revealed that “broadband access continues to have a major impact on consumers lives” with the highest broadband usage being in Korea, closely followed by Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Th iland and China[iii].

In 2007, Hong Kong came top in a survey of the best cities in Asia for getting a broadband connection due to robust competition and web-enabled mobile phones[iv]. In India, the home broadband market is growing while internet café access is slowing, with 23 million home users accessing the internet via broadband during 2007[v]. In South Africa, business leaders and communicators there have indicated to us that the lack of cheap, universal broadband is a factor in the slow growth of online engagement.

When considering your web strategy across borders, it is crucial to assess the range and cost of internet connectivity not just for businesses but for personal users. But there are also other factors which are likely to be relevant, such as language and literacy. Take India, for example. We think of it as a country where English is universally spoken. It is often referred to as the Silicon Valley of the East, especially with tech-savvy, internationally well-known entrepreneurs like Sabeer Bhatia[vi] returning home to develop internet-based businesses over there. As we mentioned, growing personal affluence is enabling 23 million Indians to purchase computers for the home. But dig a little deeper and there are other factors in play that will be relevant for your communications strategy there. There are still just over 18 million internet café users, indicating that cost remains an issue. Also, for every Sabeer Bhatia, out of India’s of over 1 billion people, only 52 % are literate. And for those who can read, there is little online content available in India’s many local languages[vii].

It may be that you are only aiming to reach the population who can read and write English in their own homes, as they will be the most affluent and attractive target demographic. If so, then your web strategy may not look all that different from one for any other affluent, literate, English speaking market. But if you are aiming to reach those beyond that group, you may need to think beyond English or even text-based content – and perhaps beyond online communications to mobile outreach or you may have to stick to good old-fashioned travelling roadshows[viii].

In general across the globe, however, cheap, universal broadband has been a significant factor in evolving our relationship with the internet from the specialised domain of geeks to an always open window in our households that lets us reach out to the world out there. As we will see, in particular, there is a close correlation between the growth of broadband in the Asia-Pacific and the rise of social media engagement in that region, with a number of countries such as South Korea, China, Singapore and Malaysia topping the charts of worldwide blog readers and blog creators[ix].

Photo: thanks to Edward B. from flickr.com (CCL)

We’ve been re-watching that old series from the 1990s, Northern Exposure, where an urbane, young New York doctor finds himself stuck in small-town Alaska. It’s a classic fish-out-of-water story but with many twists and turns along the way as our expectations of the town and local people are confounded by surprises and moments of magic realism. I loved it when it first came out and I’ve been delighted to see that it has stood the test of time very well and still has us laughing out loud.

The one refrain of the hapless young protagonist, Joel Fleischman, is that he is the perfect catch for any girl in New York - he is a Jewish doctor from a good university and in his prime - and here he is stuck in the sticks where there are no women who appreciate his qualities. What is it about doctors that make them such a desired species in Jewish culture?

It’s like Chinese families - they have the same awe for doctors, too. Most sons get pushed into being doctors - and many daughters too. In my family, both my grandfathers were doctors and a number of uncles and aunts on both sides are doctors. There are lawyers, engineers, professors, too - but the pinnacle of ambition is being a doctor. What’s that all about?

I was under huge pressure to study medicine, notwithstanding that bodily fluids and signs of pain make me weak and wobbly. At school, we had to do an experiment about amino acids or something and the biology teacher and lab assistant had prepared for us beakers full of their saliva. I almost threw up on the spot. No way was I going to survive medical school - yet, for a time, I kidded myself - and my extended family - that I would study hard and get the science grades necessary to do a medical degree.

Well, that lasted all of five minutes.

I ended up reading English Lit before going to law school.

I am respected for being a lawyer, and a writer. But it’s not the same kind of awe that is reserved for doctors. For the Chinese, and also the Jewish community, having a doctor in the family is the ultimate achievement, it seems to me. It’s as much about the quality of the family as it is about the individual’s personal achievement - there is that sense of reflected glory that comes with being able to say, “My son is a doctor, you know.” And I have a sense it’s similar for Asian communities - I’m reminded of the Asian comedy sketch show Goodness Gracious Me where the two elderly Asian women sit and compete about their sons’ achievements. It seems to me these three communities value doctors much more highly than Anglo-Saxon communities. Why is that?

Is it about the healing magic? The money? The brains that it takes to get through medical school?

What’s your take on this cultural phenomenon?

Photo: thanks to happysnappr from flickr.com (CCL)

Is Jim flirting with Paul?

Following my post about the Commercialization of the Web on my social media blog ZenGuide.co.uk, which forms part of the book I am co-authoring with Silvia Cambie on New Trends in International Public Relations, here is the section from the book that outlines the rise of the personal computer. What fascinates me about the history of the Personal Computer (PC) is how it developed from a military machine to something that most of us need to function in the modern world today - and how that evolution has changed society and human culture across the world.

The text is a verbatim section from the book and the links are set out at the bottom of this post as footnotes rather than embedded links. The text is copyrighted and all rights are reserved.

Computers Get Personal

The evolution of technology is a mega-trend today that no business can ignore. A brief tour of the evolution of computers illustrates the importance of keeping your eye on technological developments.

In 1948, IBM´s Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator, which was to calculate the position of the moon for the 1969 Apollo mission to the moon, took up floor space of 25 feet by 40 feet. In 1951, the computer for the US Census Bureau was one of the early commercial computers and it took up 943 cubic feet, selling at US $1million each plus US $185,000 for a high speed printer. By 1968, the cost of a computer was down to US $8,000 with Data General Corp’s Nova which was the size of small writing bureau.[i]

In 1975, the MITS Altair 8800 could be bought by computer hobbyists from Popular Electronics magazine for US $395 as a kit or US $495 pre-assembled[ii]. The next year, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs created Apple 1, which sold at just over US $600[iii]. In 1981, Radio Shack’s TRS-82 Model III retailed for US $699. By now, computers were housed in boxes that could be used on a normal office desk and had the shape and set up that we are familiar with today. There is a screen and keyboard and a joystick for navigation. Software came via cassette tape, which was beginning to be replaced by the floppy drive. The data appeared as text or figures and there were no graphics. While available for consumer purchase, it was still the math and science geeks who were the main market demographic for these personal computers.

In 1984, the first Apple Macintosh appeared, with a graphical interface – ie the data could be accessed by activating icons on the screen and navigation was by way of a device called a “mouse”[iv]. At around the same time, Microsoft released the first version of Windows, its own graphical interface sitting on top of MS-DOS, the text-based version of Microsoft software used by most computer manufacturing companies at that time, including IBM and Compaq[v].

By the mid-1990s, you were also getting more bang for your buck when it came to computer processing chips with Intel unveiling its Pentium chip at under US $1,000[vi]. While business and industry had been using computers for decades, plummeting costs, greater processing power and increased ease of use meant that for the first time, it made sense for the public to buy a computer for personal use. People were becoming used to computers from their work environment. It was a natural transition to getting a computer for home use. PCs, as personal computers soon came to be called, were also fun – computer games loaded by CD-ROM became a serious contender to TV-based consoles in 1994[vii]. With PCs arriving in many homes bundled with Internet Explorer for access to the internet, Outlook Express for email and a host of other useful (eg Calendar, Paint and CD-ROMs packed with dictionaries and encyclopedias) and not-so-useful applications (eg Minesweeper and Solitaire games), our personal relationship with our home computers as a source of productivity, fun, information and communication truly began.

In 1995, there were 50 million personal computers sold globally.[viii] By 2000, computer sales in China alone were growing faster than any market in the world, with 4.1 million PCs bought in that one country during the second quarter[ix]. Now in the first decade of the 21^st century, there are over 257 million personal computers sold worldwide[x] and sales are likely to increase over the next few years, in particular of laptops and other mobile computing equipment as affordability, performance and wireless access improve. Gartner, the IT consultants, calculate that emerging markets made up 70% of the growth in overall computer sales and projected that laptop sales during 2008 would grow by 11%. They are confident that a looming global recession would not slow sales[xi]. Experts elsewhere in the industry also seem to agree that mobile computing will bring the next wave of growth for the sector. Loren Loverde, the Director of data firm IDC’s PC Tracker, says, “It will be increasingly important for PC vendors to have a strong portable offering to stay competitive as the market continues its rapid shift to mobile computing.”[xii]

It took 30 years for computers to evolve from military and government use via business and industry to become affordable for a limited geek market, with prices dropping from US $1,000,000 to stabilise around US $700. But from the 1970s onwards, major developments in processing power, size and ease of use surged ahead in leaps and bounds. And with each technological leap and bound, we adapted the way we communicate, relate and work. Even as some businesses are only now thinking about getting their first website (and there are quite a few of those still around), the market is already surging ahead towards online social media and mobile communications. For anyone engaged in business nowadays, it is critical to keep one eye on the latest technological and communications advances if you don’t want to be left behind.

I’m pleased to report that my article about Blogging for the Finance Sector is being included as a chapter in The Handbook of Internal Communication, edited by Marc Wright of simply-communicate.com, which will be published by Gower on 6 June 2008.

The article is a case study of THFC Space, the online discussion space which I created and currently edit in my day job at The Housing Finance Corporation. The site uses blogging software (Wordpress) and is members only space for senior housing finance professionals to discuss finance related issues relevant to the social housing sector. Wordpress is well-suited to being styled and designed as an online magazine with the opportunity for reader comments while allowing multi-media items to be uploaded easily.

Do check out the article and if you know of any other finance related blogs, please add a comment here with a link.

While not a great opera fan, I’ve always enjoyed Mozart for the jolly tunes. It never occurred to me you could combine those hummable arias with African drums and tribal dancing and end up with a toe-tapping, cross-cultural take on an old Classic. Until I saw the South African township version of The Magic Flute - Impempe Yomlingo.

The main story remains of a young knight/ warrior Tamina on the quest to rescue Pamina, the daughter of the Queen of the Night, accompanied by comic sidekick Papagena, the bird catcher. When he finds her in the control of Sarastro, he must go through three trials of initiation. It turns out that Sarastro’s not a tyrant but a wise old man and it is the Queen of the Night who is of a much meaner spirit. (Opera plots are all rather ludicrous and this one is no different so I don’t plan to go into the story in any more detail than this - for those who want to find out more, click on the embedded link for synopsis of: the Magic Flute story ) However, the costumes, language, music and instruments have all been transposed to Africa - with African tribal dress as well as modern black icons like Afro hair and kaftans; Xhosa (the clicking language) and English; African drums, wooden xylophones, whistling, voiced harmonies and hand clapping rhythms creating the sites and sounds of an African woodland.

The singing was still operatic in style, though for purists a bit raw round the edges in some cases. The Queen of the Night was spectacular - and very scary! What I enjoyed the most were the moments when the well-known tunes from 18th century Austria loosed into African harmonies and women would start ululating, the ensemble would break into tribal dancing and the drums and clapping would reverberate through the theatre.

What is impressive is that the cast are all from the township of Khayelitsha in Cape Town, with no formal operatic training.

This production is from the same team who created U-Carmen eKhayelitsha, a modern reworking of Bizet’s Carmen set in modern Khayelitsha. I was absolutely enthralled by U-Carmen, the updated setting bringing out the dangerous passions at work in the opera as well as the descent of Don Jose from upright citizen into the inferno of gangs and bar (or shebeen) fights. The Magic Flute was a great opportunity to see the team live but for me was less riveting than U-Carmen - the fault for which I place squarely at Mozart’s feet: in terms of plot, Bizet’s tale of lust and murder wins hands-down any day over Wolfie’s pantomime fable. But still, I came out of the theatre humming along and tapping my toes and that’s all I needed for a wintry Monday evening!

The opera is currently at the Duke of York’s theatre in London until 12 April 2008. If it ever tours to your part of the world, go see it!

Photo credits:
Magic Flute thanks to Official London Theatre
Khayelitsha thanks to elyob from flickr.com

You remember the scene in The Sound of Music when Julie Andrews makes clothes for the von Trapp kids using the old curtains? Well, here is a whole new way to think about re-cycling …

Thanks to loudmouthman for first tweeting about this video

I didn’t manage to post anything earlier this week because I was struck down by a bout of mini-flu. It wasn’t as bad and debilitating as the virus that had me knocked out for a couple of weeks in November but it was enough to confine me to my sick bed for a couple of days.

I’m not very good at being ill. I get frustrated and fed up and bored. When I’m sleeping it’s fine, of course, cos then I don’t notice a thing - and sleep is the best thing for you when you’re ill. But it’s those times in between when you’ve slept too much but you’re still not well enough to walk around or do anything useful.

Back in the old days (5 years ago?), I would have been languishing in front of the telly, turning my brain to mush with day time TV. But these days, it’s podcasts that help me make it through the dreaded influenza. If you choose the good ones, you can be educated, entertained and amused - all without leaving your bed.

Here are just a handful of the podcasts that have kept me sane during the last few days:

The Spirit of Things - Australian radio’s spiritual discussion podcast, whose presenter Rachel Kohn has the most sooting voice I’ve ever heard.

This American Life - an award winning US series that takes a literary look at true stories about ordinary people. Their episode about Testosterone had me laughing out loud - especially, the story about the woman who took a double dose of the hormone and began to lust after sports cars and to understand physics as well as what happened when the radio station team had themselves tested to see who had the most testosterone.

The Politics of Culture - another intelligent and in-depth US program looking at “the intersection where the world of politics and culture meet and sometimes collide”. I really enjoyed the interview with the author of the book “Starbucked” - did you know that Starbucks in the US deliberately built stores on the right hand side of the road as you commute from the suburbs to the city to make it easier for commuters to stop and buy a coffee?

The BBC World Service also has many great documentary podcasts but they are generally very earnest and keen to tell you all the troubles of the world. So, when I am feeling fragile, it’s not the best time to listen to documentaries that begin “I was nine years old when the soldiers came to the village and killed everyone…” or “Every year, 10,000 women die of [insert terrible disease]….” - or anything that refers to “Iraq”, “Jihad”, “Israel”, “political prisoners”, “genocide”, “famine”, “war” etc etc etc! That sort of thing would just make me even iller!

What are your favourite podcasts? Do you listen to different types of podcasts for different activities? Please add a comment and let me know.

A few weeks ago, I showed a hilarious music video about F***ing Matt Damon by Sarah Silverman. Today’s video is the reply to Sarah by her long-time partner Jimmy Kimmel about him and Ben Affleck.

The main attraction of this second video is spotting the big stars who all wanted to be part of this viral video phenomenon.

I saw Robin Williams, Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz and Harrison Ford. Did you recognise anyone else belting their hearts out?