Introduction In response to the growing trend of ridiculous disclaimers and terms and conditions attached by some companies to their outgoing email, TiGra Networks has instigated this email policy for all mail being delivered to our email domains. If...
Twitter: #googlewave #TiGra #electricdreams
Now that Google Wave is out of beta and open to all, I’m seeing a lot of comments in the Twitterverse along the lines of ‘So what? What are you supposed to do with it?’ Google has a few ideas of their own, as shown in the screen clipping (right) taken from the Wave start page.
I’ve been using Google Wave personally to organise and manage meetings with a team of developers in the USA and UK. I use Microsoft Office LiveMeeting for the audio, video and content and I use Google Wave to set up the agenda and take minutes and notes during the meeting. Combining different mediums like this is both powerful and effective. If you’ve never run a meeting that way, you should give it a go. The advantages are:
- The agenda is easily created and distributed ahead of time.
- Meeting participants can add/edit agenda items.
- Everyone in the meeting can contribute to the notes and minutes in real time during the meeting.
- Everyone can instantly see what’s being written, what is being minuted and what action points are being assigned. No need to review and accept the minutes in the next meeting – because they were created collectively.
- The meeting’s wave forms a permanent shared record of the meeting – no follow-up emails to send afterwards.
- Those who can’t attend the meeting can drop content into the wave before, during or after the meeting.
This combination of LiveMeeting + Google Wave has worked very well for me. There are other uses for Wave, though. There’s an interesting concept video showing how it can be used to great effect for customer support.
One of the drawbacks of a tool like Google Wave is that everyone has to be on it. Initially, during the beta, it was quite difficult to get everyone on your team signed up and participating. Typically, a lot of emails had to be sent just organizing the Wave logins. Wait – isn’t wave all about eliminating email? Well, yeah… Google have addressed that now. It’s now possible to add any email recipient to a Wave. The email recipient receives a copy of the wave along with an invitation to view the whole wave online. This does require the user to create a Wave ID but it’s a very ‘viral’ way of getting people involved.
One important discovery I made when trying out Wave was that it needs real-time notification. Unlike email, if you’re not logged into the Wave web site, you don’t know if anything is happening. The addition of a notification gadget was what made Google Wave a viable service for me. If you’ve tried Wave and given up on it, try installing this little gadget and give it another go, I’ll bet it will make a huge difference.
Having a bit of fun with my guitar, my computer and Audacity today. Here’s what I came up with. It’s very tongue-in-cheek, enjoy!
In reply to: Do Givers Gain? - Windows Live
Nice article, Richard. I have also read The Go Giver and was also a member of a BNI chapter for about a year. For me, the biggest take-away from the book was this: “50/50 is a losing proposition. It’s not friendship, it’s accounting". For me (it may be different for others) everything else in the book flows from that simple kernel of wisdom.
The questions that Richard asks are interesting and far reaching. I believe the answer is firmly “yes”. Givers DO gain. Not necessarily right away, not necessarily in a way that can be converted to cash and not necessarily every time. “Givers Gain” is a long term strategy and a way of life, not a way to make a fast buck.
The people who don’t “get it” are the same people who will justify their questionable actions by saying “Nothing personal, it’s just business”. For me, business IS personal, it is an extension of my personality. As a one-man-business that is perhaps easier for me to say than a multi-person business, but I suspect the most successful businesses are those that manage to hold on to their personal values and treat their staff with the same respect as their clients.
I have mixed feelings about BNI. It does provoke the “marmite” reaction when discussed and is certainly not for everyone, but I do believe it can and does work. The key is in recruiting the right people, who are open minded and prepared to “have a go”. This attitude is regrettably quite rare in the UK, I think we are much more prone to being cynical and reserved than our American counterparts and perhaps that’s why BNI seems like ‘American claptrap’ to some. The chapter I was in had limited success because the people turned up every week, went through the motions then forgot all about BNI until the next meeting. With BNI, you have to realise that you are not buying a service – you are buying into a philosophy. If you don’t try to live by that philosophy, it is not going to work for you. The weakness of the BNI philosophy, if not done correctly, is that it teaches you to expect something in return. That aspect of BNI should flow naturally and in a chapter that isn't really working, it does seem forced and unnatural. With the right people, it works and it works well. The bottom line is, I would join again.
Recently I’ve installed a new weather station on top of my house. I’ve done it partly because my inner geek wants to know everything about everything, partly because I need it for some software development I’m doing.
I’ve always suspected that the weather was really interesting, now I’m sure of it. Perhaps this innate fascination with the weather is part of being British, but whatever the reason, I’m loving all the data and statistics that my weather station gives me (some of which you can see in the screen shot). What is fascinating me right now is the forecast you can see at the bottom, which is actually truncated. The full version reads:
Mostly cloudy and colder. Precipitation possible heavy at times and ending within 12 hours. Windy with possible wind shift to W, NW or N.
That's an impressive level of insight from a one-location snapshot. The Met Office has sensors all over the world and a massive super-computer and I get less detail from them. This forecast is done by a little microprocessor hanging on my wall using a small cluster of sensors on my roof, yet it gives me a detailed forecast that’s accurate for my location. That’s extremely cool!
In case you’re interested, it is a Davis Vantage Pro 2 (left) with Integrated Sensor Suite (right, not my actual installation). The sensor suite has a tipping bucket rain guage (under the black cover), humidity, pressure and temperature sensors inside the white radiation shield, plus wind speed and direction measured by the anemometer and wind vane. The little white pos on the side has photovoltaic cells (solar panels) for power and all the data is transmitted wirelessly every 2 seconds back to the console, which is indoors wired up to my computer.
The console provides more readings including indoor temperature and humidity and calculates a plethora of derived readings and statistics from the raw data. So for example, I can see the Wind Chill Factor and the Dew Point and how heavily it is raining in mm/hour. The console has quite useful graphing capabilities built in, too, and the amazingly detailed forecast, it even shows the Moon phase, useful for an astronomer such as myself. All in all, a very impressive little system
But there’s more! It’s also a data logger, buffering up data until it is downloaded into the PC. That data can then be used to generate all manner of reports and charts, fed into national monitoring systems, exported to Excel or to published to a web site like this one.
You heard it here first. Dr. Who eat your heart out. Every night around midnight, for a few seconds, Outlook 2010 lets me see into the future. Here’s the proof:
I never would have predicted a Conservative / Liberal Democrat alliance. Does that mean we are a Con-Dem-Nation? Well, what interesting times we live in – a Liberal Democrat as deputy prime minister! I feel positive about the outcome and I think we have a golden opportunity now for a new era in politics, with more openness, more cooperation and putting the needs of the country before party political agendas. The new coalition government has required compromise on all sides, many people from all the parties have grown in stature over the last few days. Let’s help them refloat this sinking country and rebuild our trust in politicians.
Oh, and I hope Mr. Clegg remembers his pledge to repeal the Digital Economy bill.
This is the voting position taken from the BBC web site as at 12:45am, Friday 7th May 2010. Not all counts had been declared, there were still 25 to go.
Look at the number of seats vs. percentage of the popular vote:
| Party | Votes | % Popular Vote | Seats (out of 650) | % seats |
| Conservative | 10,303,669 | 36.1% | 294 | 45.2% |
| Labour | 8,357,095 | 29.3% | 252 | 38.8% |
| Liberal Democrat | 6,529,180 | 22.9% | 53 | 8.2% |
The disproportionate allocation of seats compared to the popular vote is why the Liberal Democrats want to change the electoral system, which is unfairly stacked against them. The Conservatives win with the support of only 36.1% of those voting, far less than half the country. At least now that we almost certainly have a hung parliament, the other two parties are able to defeat them in the house.
Many people in the UK feel disengaged from the political process, now more than at any time I can remember. For those people, it is tempting to think that their vote makes no difference, that is is just not worth bothering to turn up.
But they are so wrong. Particularly this year, they are so very wrong. You MUST vote this year on May 6th, even if you feel like there’s no point. Here’s why.
There is a pungent whiff of change in the air this year, I can almost taste it. Those who feel that it is a waste of time voting are fed up with the same old unchanging ping-pong from tory to labour. This year, you should turn out and vote Liberal Democrat. Because this year, something is happening that has never happened in my lifetime. The third party is rising and there is a very real chance that they could sweep to power.
Drawing on experience from Canadian elections, one writer explains the science of how surprise election results happen and how minority parties sweep to power. Conditions in the UK are ripe for this to happen and it is more likely than you may think. Talk is of a ‘hung parliament’ but the Liberal Democrats can win this election, but only if people like you vote for them. Never since 1947 has it been so important to turn out and vote.
Those who are feeling disengaged and disenfranchised should turn out to vote this year, vote for the Liberal Democrats and help to change our political process. We need to stop any one party seizing absolute power based on a minority vote, as is usual in the UK. A new, fairer system is needed that allows the majority view to win, even if it is not the view of the Prime Minister or his party. This could stop a party from forcing through things like the Iraq war or the Lisbon Treaty unless they could win support from the other parties. We need a modern constitution properly written down all in one place and we need a bill of rights that protects our liberty from a bullish, irrational government like the labour party has become and like the tories were at the end of the Thatcher era. Most of all, though, we need a fairer, more democratic political process. This is the promise of the Liberal Democrats.
So, if you think voting is a waste of time, then YOUR vote is probably more important than ever. If you don’t know which way to vote, then vote for real change. Remember: if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got!
Labour and Conservative will have you believe that a vote for the Liberal Democrats is a wasted vote. Well, I wonder why they want you to think that? Take a look at the TwitVote map. Seems like a lot of yellow to me. NOW what looks like a wasted vote?
Skidaddle on over there and cast your vote now.
My quote of the week comes from Charles Kennedy on BBC’s “This Week in Politics”…
“My moment of the week has come. I’ve been uncharacteristically quiet and timid; here is the Liberal Democrat, indeed the former leader of the clan, sitting in the middle of a general election debate. You’re all going hammer and tongs about hung parliaments and Proportional Representation, and I can just sit back and I don’t have to do anything!”.
The other parties are being forced to face up to the possibility that the UK population is really angry with the failing first-past-the-post system – angry enough to vote them out. There is a whiff of change in the air! I really feel like we are on the edge of a new era in UK politics.
The gloves are off between Google and Microsoft, with Google announcing availability of a tool to migrate from Exchange Server to Google Apps.
The problem is, Google Apps is a ‘cloud service’. Lately, I’ve been badly let down by some cloud services, so personally, I don’t feel like I completely trust them yet. Not until I can take my data off the cloud and put it on my own server any time I need to. Many cloud services today don’t let you do that. Either you can’t get your data at all, or it’s in a format that is not immediately usable.
I’m not saying the cloud is all bad; I myself am involved in a venture (www.livecrm.biz) that provides hosted CRM solutions. Our service is different, though. Should you wish it, we will give you a copy of your CRM database on a DVD or hard drive, you can upload it to your own server running the exact same software and carry on running. We don’t lock you in, I’ll even help you install your on-premise sever if that’s what you need. So tell me, how do I get my data out of Google? How do I then load that data onto my own server and continue running? I don’t have an answer to that, and that worries me.
I worry about cloud services vanishing and leaving me high and dry. I worry about my data being indexed and analyzed and used to spam me. I worry about being forced to upgrade my software when it suits the service provider, not when it suits me. I worry about being locked in. I worry about privacy and data security. Maybe I am a control freak, but I worry about these things.
So, borrowing from the words of my esteemed MVP colleague Wayne Small, be careful that The Cloud isn't a thunder storm. Thanks but no thanks, Google; I’ll keep my exchange server right here where I can point to it and say “That’s my data”.
Take a break from the hustle and bustle of business, take time to appreciate the wonder of the natural world. An astronomical rarity occurs on the evening of 15th April. About 20:25, after sunset, look to the western horizon and you’ll be able to see the new Moon, and a little higher in the sky, the planet Venus appearing like a very bright star, but clearly visible well before dark. Sandwiched between them, slightly nearer to the Moon, will be the planet Mercury.
Venus is very bright because its orbit is taking it behind the sun, so it’s phase is almost full, reflecting more of the Sun’s light back towards us. Through a good pair of binoculars or a small telescope, you should be able to make out the disc of the planet, differentiating it from a star, which would always appear as a pinpoint.
Mercury, it is estimated, has only been observed by around 1% of the population of The Earth. It is a difficult object to see because it is so close to the Sun and is nearly always lost in the glare of daylight. Right now though, Mercury is almost at maximum elongation (appearing furthest away from the Sun, as viewed from Earth). So, here is your chance not only to do something that very few people take the time to see, but to also see it in a rare triple conjunction.
As the night sky darkens, the objects will become more distinct, but they will also get lower in the sky. If you have a perfect horizon, then the Moon sets about 21:30, followed soon after by Mercury. Venus will set around 22:00 (10pm).
The weather forecast is good, so try to look out for this rare spectacle. Screen shots courtesy of Stellarium.
WARNING: Never look directly at the Sun. Never, never, NEVER point binoculars or telescopes at the Sun – you may damage your equipment and you risk instant blindness!
So, it begins.
Here is our opportunity to change our country for the better. Time to nail colours to the mast, to vote on who we want to lead the country, to lead us out of recession.
I firmly believe that we need more than just a change of leadership, though. Never have so many people been disengaged from politics and disenfranchised by the political process. What we desperately need in this country is reform of the political process itself.
We’ve had 15 years of Tory control, followed by 15 years of Labour control. They’ve both failed us. Under the Tories, I bought my house in 1989 and lived with negative equity for 15 years, while my father’s small business failed and left him with crippling debts. Under labour, we’ve seen horrendous erosion of our liberty in the name of ‘anti-terrorism’ and things like the recently passed Digital Economy bill, a massive amount of unnecessary, poorly considered knee-jerk legislation. They’ve led us into recession, bailing out the irresponsible banks with our money while failing to protect our interests as individuals and businesses and leaving us with a crippling national debt that our children and grandchildren will probably still be paying for.
I’ve had enough. If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you always got.
A vote for Labour or Conservative is a wasted vote. This election, I’m voting for real change. Change to the electoral system itself. Without that fundamental paradigm shift, it doesn't matter who gets into power because the system itself is broken. In our ‘first past the post’ system, a party can seize power if only a quarter of the population votes for them. So, even though they won the election, they represent only a minority view, yet that gives them the power to run the country and implement policies essentially against the wishes of 75% of the population. There is not enough accountability in this system. We simply have too little influence over what happens.
To date, only one party offers any realistic hope of constitutional reform: the Liberal Democrats. The Lib Dems will open up government, introduce a formal Constitution with a Bill of Rights to protect people from the actions of an irrational government. The sort of government that would imprison you for 90 days on suspicion of terrorism. The sort of government that would cut off your internet connection if the music industry THINKS you MIGHT be guilty of copyright infringement. The Lib Dems would move government bureaucracy out of London, saving money and distributing wealth and jobs more fairly around the UK. They would upgrade the Welsh Assembly giving it equal status to that of the Scottish Parliament.
Only when we make this brave step towards electoral reform will we be able to rebuild our country and recover from the disastrous consequences of 15 years under Labour. There are many things wrong with Britain, but electoral reform is the key log in the log jam.
As for dealing with the recession, Vince Cable (Lib Dem treasury spokesman) has consistently demonstrated a firm grasp of impending problems, has consistently demonstrated an ability to make the right decisions early, without dithering. I trust him more than anyone else to lead us out of the recession.
Labour and Conservative want you to believe that a vote for Lib Dems is a wasted vote. In fact, the opposite is true. A vote for Labour or Conservative simply maintains the status quo, the same old corrupt politicians and the same old broken system. Please don’t let them trick you into ‘tactical voting’. Vote for who you want to win, vote for the best policies, vote for reform.
Labour’s Digital Economy bill is strangling creativity and criminalizing internet users. They don’t understand the new digital ecosystem and they don’t understand that the game is changing; has already changed.
Quoting Tom Beardshaw:
In the most ludicrous pantomime of democracy last night, two hours were spent debating and passing the Digital Economy Bill - legislation aimed at tackling the hugely complicated issue of filesharing and copyright.
[…]
For us in the UK, we have just woken up in a new reality - when the bill becomes law - in about a year and half's time, large corporations will have the power to disconnect you from the internet if they THINK you have been breaching copyright. Important parts of the new information economy like Wikileaks can be blocked by the UK government because they are sharing information that is copyrighted... even if it is revealing corruption and abuse at the highest levels of power.
Tom’s article links to a TED talk given by Laurence Lessing, a professor who specialises in copyright and the digital economy. Thought provoking stuff, mandatory viewing for anyone in digital media or IT. One of the most thought provoking parts of the talk has this to say:
We live in this weird time, a kind of ‘age of prohibitions’. Many of us live life constantly against the law; ordinary people live life against the law and that’s what we are doing to our kids. They live life knowing they live it against the law. That realisation is extraordinarily corrosive, extraordinarily corrupting and in a democracy, we ought to be able to do better, at least for them, if not for ‘opening for business’.
The whole concept of copyright is long overdue for re-examination. What constitutes ‘fair use’ today is very different than what it was 20, 10, 5 years ago. Information is no longer power, information is being democratized by the internet. The digital revolution is exactly that – a revolution, where power is being taken back by the people. Businesses, especially in the creative industries, have to understand that. And when I say “have to understand” I mean they literally have no choice, because it will happen to them whether they understand it or not. Governments, when they legislate against this revolution, set themselves up for a fall. This web site (http://whatdebill.org/) is a great example of how democracy is reinventing and reasserting itself in spite of the government.
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