TomorrowToday’s Top 10 most read blog entries at the end of 2009

TomorrowToday’s blog has been up and running since September 2004. We have over 1750 posts on our blog, filed under 35 different categories. We’ve not done this before, but here are TomorrowToday’s most read blog posts as of 31 December 2009:

10.) Time Magazine – the future of work
9.) How’s this for the latest craze
8.) Tell me and I will forget show me and I may remember involve me and I will understand
7.) Navigating This Differently Connected World – exploring the impact of social software on business today
6.) ‘Weeping’ by Josh Groban, errr actually Bright Blue
5.) The Talent Reboot
4.) Good to Great to Gone
3.) Back to the Future – Rethinking Strategy
2.) Detailed Introduction to Generational Theory
1.) ‘After Shock’ – the five trends disrupting business in the next 5 years

So there they are. If there was a writing award in TomorrowToday it would certainly go to Graeme Codrington (based in the UK for now, and traveller of the world) for the most written and the most read. Correlation between the two? Me thinks so.

In a Web 2.0 world, business has it’s head buried firmly in the sand

I’m curious. Curious about business’ lack of engagement with Twitter  / FaceBook / Tumblr / Google and everything else Web 2.0. I would have thought that any communication channel getting the sort of traction, focus, attention and subscription that these channels are getting, would have business engaging like a love struck teenager who’d just discovered their perfect partner?

But it’s not so. So not so. So far, the majority of my experience and observation is that business has been an extremely poor performer in these spaces. Take a look at these points from Jeffbulla’s Blog:

1. 73 percent of Fortune 100 companies registered a total of 540 Twitter accounts.
2. About three-quarters (76 percent) of those accounts did not post tweets very often.
3. More than half (52 percent) were not actively engaged (This was measured by engagement metrics such as numbers of links, hashtags, references and retweets.)

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Newspapers and Blogs. A great conversation

It’s not often I get sent a read like this one. And I follow a truck load of ‘reads’ everyday. Twitter, RSS, e-mail links, etc, etc. There is a lot of stuff that flows through my browser (is anyone else frustrated by Flash and Safari with the new Snow Leopard upgrade?).

The article I’m referring to (Let’s get sentimental; the readers deserve it) can be found on Marketingweb. It’s written by Gill Moodie:

Gill Moodie spent 14 years as a salaried hack in print media in South Africa and the UK before escaping to the blogosphere and freelance journalism. She is the publisher of Grubstreet in between unpacking and packing the infernal dishwasher and bringing up a four-year-old with attitude.

I suppose in all web 2.0 fairness I should take the time to credit Mel Stevens for sending it on, via e-mail (she’s barely a Tweeter or a FB’er). Thanks.

Back to the article. It’s an overview of the conversation between, primarily, Peter Bruce (Business Day editor) and Matthew Buckland (20FourLabs) and their good natured exploration of the future of newspapers in the midst of a web 2.0 onslaught. It brings in Barack Obama’s recent comments, along with a host of other great thoughts and comments from other great thinkers in this space.

Now, here’s why I love newspapers. Most of this excellent debate came from people schooled in the rigours of newsrooms. I, as a blogger for instance, may delight in thumbing my nose to traditional media but I can only do so because I was knocked into shape and learned how to be fair, accurate and (sometimes) thoughtful because I worked at newspapers, including at OMG’s (Peter Bruce).

I can’t do justice to her great article. Definitely worth going ‘there’ for a read. Certainly you’ll leave with at least one thought.

12 ideas that’ll have you thinking a little differently

I picked this link up off of Twitter (@tomorrowtodayza if you’d like to follow us). It’s from Wired and it’s a list of 12 counter-cultural ideas from various ‘experts’ in a variety of fields. If anything else it’ll certainly have you thinking differently for a little while. Had me!

Warning: The ideas expressed here may be dangerous. For this year’s list, we walked right past the usual suspects and went looking for trouble. We wanted radicals, heretics, agitators—big thinkers with controversial, game-changing propositions. We found a prison reformer who wants to empty jails, an economist who thinks foreign aid hurts more than it helps, and a military theorist who believes the US should launch preemptive cyberattacks, right now. Then there’s secretary of defense robert gates, who wants to win wars, not just prep for them. Risky? Sure. But this is no time to play it safe.

Mom’s are big

Every now and then I discover thoughts from marketing experts exploring the value of women between 35-55 and in this example mom’s. Their research and observations remind the marketplace of the value of the people who match the criteria of these segments, and how over-looked they are from a marketing and communication perspective. They either have incredible spending power, or massive decision rights in their world, or are inhabiting a particular channel that isn’t effectively communicating to them.

The Israeli Diamond Industry web site has an article around social media and mothers titled, ‘Mothers use FaceBook, Twitter, Blogs more than average adults’, and again suggests the retail world is missing a trick if they’re not using these platforms to speak to them.

“Retailers who aren’t engaging customers through social media could be missing the boat. Twitter, Facebook and blogs are becoming increasingly popular with moms as they search for coupons or deals and keep in touch with loved ones. The web provides efficient, convenient ways for brands to stay in front of their most loyal shoppers and attract new ones.”

I am always left wondering if these segments have been overlooked for so long is it because there isn’t an effective way to single them out, or is it because companies aren’t wired to see them. Reminds me of that quote that goes something like this, “Do we look at what we see, or do we see what we look at?”

Viva Themes – They rock

It’s often really easy to moan about bad service and poor customer facing performance. But when good things happen I often make the note, but never ‘post it’.

As many will know we’re currently embarking on a re-branding exercise. No easy feat for a small business. At times like this you wish you had a team of people dedicated to the task. It happens on the fly and isn’t ever completely done, as you spend the next few weeks tweaking and changing.

We use Wordpress as a backend for the sites we keep. And so step one was finding Wordpress themes that would do what we needed and then work with the look and feel we had decided on. For those of you who know, there are literally thousands of themes available, so many hours were spent just working through what was available.

We have a blog (connectioneconomy.com) and 3 websites (tomorrowtoday.uk.com / tomorrowtoday.co.za / tomorrowtoday.biz)

For the blog we chose ‘Massive News’ from Press75. And for the websites we chose ‘Revival’ from Viva Themes.

Because our team’s main focus is researching future trends around people and business, our web development skills aren’t nearly close to what we wish for (although we don’t think we’re too shabby on the bell curve distribution). I’m glad we chose ‘Revival’ from Viva Themes.

Moving websites isn’t ever as easy or as simple as you imagine when you start out. So having Mike at Viva Themes respond to us within 24 hours every time we called for help was a massive win. He was also to the point and ‘easy to use’. It never felt like we were being a pain, and he always gave clear and simple instructions. So simple even I was able to follow.

We’re almost done (whatever that means) tweaking and changing, and things are looking pretty much like we wanted them. The UK team have the next task of moving across to Revival, but we have the SA sites looking and feeling like theirs.

Our next goal is a commerce site for our resources. We’re a little while off that at the moment, so I’ll wait for then before I put out any more info : )

Guy Kawasaki on how he Tweets

Anyone who follows @guykawasaki on Twitter assumes the man never sleeps. We’re all certain that Tweeting isn’t his main job, but he never seems to stop tweeting. So how does he do it?

Click over to ‘How to Change the World‘ for an interview with Guy, that I certainly enjoyed reading. Well actually it looks like it’s an interview with Guy by Guy?

Clearly he’s doesn’t mess around : )

“Yes, four people contribute to my tweets: Annie Colbert, Gina Ruiz, Noelle Chun, and Neenz Faleafine. This is why you will see the initials “AC, “GR,” “NC,” and “LF” at the end of some tweets. If there are no initials, then it’s me.“

Keeping it Simple

Reading Gillian Tett’s excellent book, ‘Fool’s Gold: How unrestrained greed corrupted a dream, shattered global markets and unleashed a catastrophe’ (Little, Brown 2009 – buy it now at Amazon.co.uk or Kalahari.net) reminded me of a memorable saying of the legendary Liverpool Football Club manager, Bill Shankly.

Shanks, commenting on the Beautiful Game once said, “It is a simple game made complicated by those who ought to know better”. I suspect that wisdom reflects much of the corporate jungle that we have created. Beyond the financial practices of murkey credit derivatives there is the complex HR web that is understandable to only a select few. I recall being asked to sit-in on a review process of a large SA blue-chip company as they unveiled their ‘Talent Management Programme’. The programme had been the careful design of a specially designated group and was the culmination of over a year’s endevour. As the graphs, flow charts, spiral graphs and every manner of powerpoint graphic unfolded so the comprehension (amongst the other HR practitioners present) evaporated. It was madness, incomprehensible madness. But of course to question, critique and point out the obvious would have been akin to career suicide. Not being constrained by such concerns, I of course did question, ask and critique. Naturally I have not been invited back.

The point is we continue to make simple things complicated. This is especially true when it comes to the central issue of people within our organisation. Quantum Mechanics teaches us that, when it comes to the very essence, the very construct of our universe, ‘relationships is all there is’. Trust is the foundation, the currency, of all relationships and it was ultimately the breakdown of trust that, according to Gillian Tett led to the current economic crisis we have now. Simple things made complicated. Simple things allowed to be obscured behind elaborate processes, policies, systems and structures. Just who are we kidding? It is time to get back to the ’simple things’. It is time to realise that to make organisations work well, we don’t need the elaborate, the complex…we need to understand and do the simple things well.    

Is Google making us Stupid?

For those of you with the time (and it needs some time) take a read of this article from The Atlantic. It’s a great read, written by Nicholas Carr, taking us on a short-ish journey of the impact of technology. From the written word to the internet and it’s impact on our thinking.

Never has a communications system played so many roles in our lives—or exerted such broad influence over our thoughts—as the Internet does today. Yet, for all that’s been written about the Net, there’s been little consideration of how, exactly, it’s reprogramming us. The Net’s intellectual ethic remains obscure.

I must be honest and say that I struggled to read it without jumping to another ‘thing’ to get done on my computer. I was alerted to the article by a friend who said, “I’ve just read a really interesting article entitled ‘Is Google making us stupid?’ and I thought you might enjoy it. Warning – it’s fairly long, but once you start reading it you kind of feel morally obliged to finish it, lest you add credence to the basic thesis of the article that we cannot sustain focused concentration for more than a few paragraphs.” Still I fell into the trap : )

Still, their (Google) easy assumption that we’d all “be better off” if our brains were supplemented, or even replaced, by an artificial intelligence is unsettling. It suggests a belief that intelligence is the output of a mechanical process, a series of discrete steps that can be isolated, measured, and optimized. In Google’s world, the world we enter when we go online, there’s little place for the fuzziness of contemplation. Ambiguity is not an opening for insight but a bug to be fixed. The human brain is just an outdated computer that needs a faster processor and a bigger hard drive.

Getting a generation out of debt

The Fast Company magazine of Dec 2007 ran a story that combines some of my favourite topics: young generations, technology and personal finance. It was called “Easy Money”. Read the full story here.

Here is a summary:

Americans under 35 spend 16% more than they earn, on average. College graduates leave school with an average of $20,000 in student loans and almost $3,000 in credit-card debt. This demographic, in sum, is sorely in need of an easy-to-use solution to their ample money woes. “There’s this dull throbbing sense of guilt that we should be doing something, but where do we start?” says recent Stanford grad Ramit Sethi, who draws more than 150,000 readers a month to his blog Iwillteachyoutoberich.com.

In the past six months, a slew of free online services has popped up to answer this question, offering widgets for budgeting, automatic bill pay, mobile alerts, and social networking. All are fighting to be the anti-Quicken. Although Intuit’s venerable personal-finance software commands 70% of the market, its $30 to $100 price tag, hundreds of features, and required hour or two a week of data entry are unlikely to appeal to a generation raised on Halo and diagnosed with ADD. Sure enough, Quicken’s 15 million users have an average age of 47. If personal finance for most folks is like personal hygiene–an unpleasant chore motivated by necessity–Quicken is Old Spice.

Meanwhile, the Axe Bodyspray of personal finance–cool, fresh, and even sexy–is an upstart named Mint. Its unique features, wrapped in an exceedingly clean and appealing design, are winning tech-industry plaudits and brisk traffic. …It signed up more than 40,000 users in the two weeks after launch. So has Mint cracked the code on getting Generation Debt to buckle down and take responsibility for its finances?

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Greenopolis

I was sent this PR release today. I signed up immediately – looks like fun!

People band together online to date, discuss politics or lose weight. Now a US website called Greenopolis has created a community whose members help each other live in a more earth-friendly manner. After registering on Greenopolis, which is still in beta, visitors complete an online survey that analyses their daily activities to determine how ‘green’ their lifestyle is. Based on the survey findings users receive a coloured badge, which shows other members just how much of a friend to the earth they really are. Orange badge holders need to clean up their environmental act, and solid green badge holders are on the right track.

By participating on the site, users are awarded points, which are displayed for other members to see (sometimes, peer pressure can be used for good). More points—and corresponding changes in badge colour—show that they’re becoming more environmentally responsible. Plus, when the site officially debuts, points can be used to receive discounts on sustainable products. Greenopolis founders also want to make the badges portable, so that members can post them on their blogs and social network pages.

“There’s a problem with Facebook”

At least, that’s what my favourite Talk Radio station (Radio 702) said during their half hourly news reports throughout today. As a regular facebook user (see my profile here, and challenge me to Rock, Paper, Scissors here, if you have nerves of steel), I was intrigued. Read the story here (not sure how long their archives last, so I have copied it in full below).

Now the story itself is a fairly newsworthy one – especially at this time of year, when final year High School students are writing final exams, and some are trying to find illegal shortcuts to success. BUT, to headline the piece, and add commentary to it, indicating that this is a Facebook problem is ridiculous. And that’s what the news readers did this morning.

What a load of rubbish!! This is such typical media hype. The type that breeds dangerous attitudes in parents, and really does more harm than good.

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A camera for the blogger generation

Face_it, Beam_it, Blog_it! This is the phrase used to launch Fuji’s latest camera, the Z10fd, which will be focussed on the 13- to 26-year-old demographic – a generation they call “Generation Z”. They have realised that this group uses cameras for social networking, blogging and interactions.

The Fujifilm Z10fd is a 7.2 megapixel digital camera with a a Fujinon 3x optical Zoom lens and 2.5” LCD screen. It offers Face Detection, infrared sharing of photos and a special Blog Mode – which quickly resizes any image into VGA or QVGA sizes. “Fujifilm recognized that today’s younger generation wants to be connected with their friends at all times and that there wasn’t a digital camera manufacturer that really addressed this.” said David Troy, Senior Product Manager, Consumer Digital Cameras, Electronic Imaging Division, FUJIFILM U.S.A., Inc. Fujifilm’s acclaimed Face Detection technology seeks out faces in the darkness of a party to give perfectly focused and exposed pictures every time. An ISO 1600 option means pictures can be taken in the poor light of parties or gigs, with no need for flash, so preserving the atmosphere and producing much more flattering portraits.

It will be available in 5 different colours – Wave Blue, Wasabi Green, Hot Pink, Sunset Orange, and Midnight Black.

The Fujifilm Z10fd will debut in late September for $199.95.

Further catering to the Internet-savvy generation, the F10fd has a corresponding destination website – offZhook.com – where users can submit photos for competition and download displays. This site launches on 1 August.

Phenomenonal, You

I write a regular column for the Intelligence magazine in South Africa. Its the Back Page column, and is meant to be fun, irreverent, interesting. (I have secret ambitions to emulate the back page of the Fortune magazine).

I thought you might be interested in a recent contribution about Web 2.0 and interactive websites.

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Campaigning on the Internet

This report from The Economist, 15 March 2007 (may need subscription):

Of slips and video clips
Candidates for 2008 are racing to master a new medium

DURING the presidential campaign of 1800, partisans harnessed high-speed technology to spread their message. Like today, that message was often scurrilous. Unlike today, the technology they harnessed needed real harnesses. When Thomas Jefferson’s enemies wanted to distribute pamphlets accusing him of atheism and adultery, or to spread a premature report of his death, they used horses, which could outrun even the most rapid rebuttal.

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Role of the Media

I heard a comment on the Daily Show a while back (I think they were reviewing ‘Time Magazine’s Person of the Year’). Something about main-stream media turning its back on its responsibility and hence the rise of citizen media in the form of blogs and podcasts, etc.

Here’s the Onion’s version of such a comment, based on the New York Time’s ‘Most e-mailed list‘. It’s a list of which articles are most e-mailed by readers.

The dog certainly has a larger grip on it’s tail. One wonders where this swing is going to turn again?

Cancelling an event

I’ve been promoting something to my friends which I’ve been looking forward to for some time now – Graeme’s “Mind the Gap” presentation on Feb 8th at Kyalami. I’ve seen the presentation (about how the different generations behave and think) a few times, but what I’m really looking forward to this time around is the live actors playing each generation. This has huge potential for laughs and insights – which is why I’ve asked my parents to come along too – and almost have enough people to book out a table.

But late this afternoon I received a frantic sms from Graeme – “urgent website change: see email” – and to my disappointment I see that the event has been postponed until “some time in the next few months.” I’ve posted the cancellation notice online and now will have to contact all of the people I convinced to come and say, “Sorry guys…” It’s a little embarrassing, not only for me but also for TomorrowToday.biz. I suppose not as embarrassing as trying to pull together something which is essentially “live theatre” and failing to do so in front of a crowd (I’ve heard the venue holds 500 people). I don’t know who made the decision to can it, but I’m sure it wasn’t easy. Here’s the announcement: … Continue Reading

How not to apply for a job

This is too good to be true… It was reported in London newspapers last week, and is just unbelievable. It’s an anti-talent story. The story of a young web designer looking for a job in Dubai. He applies by email, and gets a favourable response. And, then… well, its hard to describe, but the guy has a complete mental breakdown.

The reason I’m giving you this link is to show you how powerful blogging is, how important understanding the Connection Economy can be, and how NOT to get ahead in advertising. It’s worth reading the whole thing through. My best is the last line: Congratulations, you’re famous. Read this great story here.

Be a Reporter for CNN (or not!)

Blogs were the front runners of a new phenomenon that has swept the world over the last 3 years or so. It now has a name: Web 2.0. Other words used to describe this new approach to online activity include: interactivity, citizen reporting, social networks, folksonomies, wikis, blogs, vlogs, and so on.Major news networks were wuick to jump onto the concept (if not making the most use of the software) and began inviting viewers to send in photos and videos in addition to comments and questions. Pictures of the Boxing Tsunami in Asia, and the London Underground bombings cemented “citizen reporting” as a mainstream phenomenon. But, I wonder if the future will see some further changes. Most people in the world know how valuable those images and videos are to the news media. How long will it be before people stop wanting to send in their reports for free?

I’d suggest that 2007 might see that change. News media will be overwhelmed this year by stupid reports, and underwhelmed by serious and usable ones. And they’ll have to do better than CNN’s iReport, which says that in exchange for sending in your reports, you will get… wait for it… the chance to tell your friends, “I report for CNN”. Wowwww!

Actually, I can’t say it better than Jon Stewart of the Daily Show did. This was originally available at YouTube, but has since been removed – so right click here to download an FLV file of the video (you need an FLV viewer to play it). 6.8Mb download.

We keep asking, ‘how big is blogging?’

This question has been around about as long as blogging has. Is blogging just another fad, another fringe happening, and does it have the momentum to make it into the realm of main stream? Of course anecdotes abound to illustrate just how much gravitas it has. Perhaps it’ll be a case of ’slowly slowly catch the monkey’ as these seemingly light-weight anecdotes band together to create the kind of splash blogging enthusiasts have always predicted?

Here’s another of those stories. This one isn’t as light weight as others, and one wonders if this is just Microsoft spin, or whether they really would re-consider their China policy over the persecution of bloggers?

Traditional media using Citizens

 They breaking story around the 1 people arrested in London this morning had me all over BBC’s web site. What was interesting that i’ve not seen before was a bit at the end of the main article asking for people’s experiences around delayed flights and even for photos.

After 911 and the London Bombing last year there was publicity around the use of ‘Citizen Media‘, as people sent their stories and pics (their initiative) to ‘Traditional Media’. But here for my first time I see a formal request.

Have you been affected by the new security measures, seen disruption at an airport or witnessed any police raids? Please use the form below to tell us about your experiences

You can send your pictures to us by emailing them to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or by MMS: 07725 100 100

A Delicious Fetish

Joshua Schachter once sent me an email. At the time, I had no idea who he was – his response had come from a request I’d sent to the del.icio.us ‘support team’. Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site, I needed some help figuring out how to use it (being new to the concept) and support@del.icio.us seemed a good place to start.

His email was dated 11 October 2005. Not two months later, on 9 December, Joshua announced on his personal blog that Yahoo! had snatched up his fledgling Web 2.0 startup as part of their extreme 2.0 makeover. Nobody is really sure what was paid, but considering the bulk of the rumours estimated the price at USD30 million, give or take ten percent, Joshua did ok.

I’m not sure what it is about del.icio.us. It certainly isn’t pretty. In fact, it’s arguably one of the ugliest darn sites on the web. It might be the name – the name is downright smart, using the .us domain to complete a sublimely catchy Web 2.0-ish lilt. At least I got excited about that. Perhaps it’s all the extensions and plug-ins the del.icio.us community has created to integrate functionality into popular web browsers and blogging platforms. Then again, it might just be that I have found del.icio.us to be the least flashy, most functional, most valuable, most sustainable Web 2.0 application (and information resource) on the internet.

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Crime Doesn’t Pay. Or Does It?

Let me begin by saying that I have never been a victim of violent crime in 25 years of living in South Africa.

A Golf I once owned did get broken into overnight. My childhood home in Johannesburg was invaded and goods were stolen, once. My brother was held up at knifepoint on a sidewalk. I know people that have been hijacked at gunpoint. That said, I do not claim to identify with people who have been subjected to devastating acts of violence, assault, abuse and discrimination, and admit up front my bias towards a country and a nation I love, celebrate and feel privileged to be a part of.

There are many who wouldn’t agree. Neil Watson, a South African citizen, feels so strongly about what he believes is an understated and out-of-control crime reality in South Africa that he’s started up a website to rally support from like-minded compatriots. Crime Expo South Africa is a blog that, according to the site, “aim(s) to provide victims of violent crime, as well as friends and families of the slaughtered, with an opportunity to collectively register their anger and provide the world with a preview of violent South Africa…” and “provide(s) an opportunity to the murdered to raise from their graves and haunt those who let them down!”

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BMW: Blogging Meets Wheels

How lame is that title? You come up with a better one…

Exciting news in my inbox yesterday – Jonathan Cherry of Cherryflava.com and more recently, the Cherryflava Media Company, has secured a deal with BMW to support the launch of the new Z4 Coupe with a blogging campaign. Kudo’s to Jon!

The press release:

A first in South Africa – BMW have taken the leap into the world of blogs by advertising the launch of their new Z4 coupe on one.

The newly-formed Cherryflava Media Company, South Africa’s first blog media publisher, together with newly established brand activation company, Thirty Four, announced Friday that BMW South Africa has included Cherryflava’s flagship title, Cherryflava.com, in their online advertising campaign for the new BMW Z4 Coupe.

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Catch the moment – Thanks for the opportunity Vicky

Rumour has it that one of our BOOMER sales people enjoyed the opening music of our newest presentation, PRIME TIME.

Caught this moment in the middle of our sales team meeting this past week.

Watch this space. This presentation is going to have the BOOMERS ROCKING.

Dutch Cabinet want to abolish the compulsory retirement age of 65 for civil servants

This article was shared with me today and was extracted from IPE.com, Investments and Pensions, Europe. The Dutch are always known for their progressive thinking on key issues relating to society. They must be feeling the pain and now have decided to address the issue. This could be the start of other governments addressing this issue that will have major impacts on society at large.

- The Dutch cabinet want to abolish the compulsory retirement age of 65 for civil servants, in order to encourage employees to working longer, it said. The decision is part of a package to stimulate all workers older than 55 to keep active as long as possible. The cabinet will actively inform employers, employees and companys personnel departments on the legal possibilities of carrying on working. At the moment, there are hardly any legal restrictions for non-civil servants to continuing a career beyond 65, if both the worker and his employer share this wish, the ministry of Social Affairs indicated. However, there are many cultural obstructions, e.g. a negative image, because many people think over 65s shouldnt work. The cabinet also said it will investigate if the compulsory salary pay-out during two years of illness for workers can be limited for over 65s. This is a response to the oft-cited objection to the obligation by employers. The announced information campaign will focus on the legal position of workers of over 65. Both employers and workers must think of different conditions, and a more tailor-made contract, the ministry explained. The governments efforts to increase labour participation should however prioritise the age group of 55 to 65, the cabinet stressed. This partly as a stimulus for over 65s to keep on working. For the next five years a growing labour participation of the age group of 60 to 64 is crucial, it added. The cabinet said there is no indication that increased numbers of over 65s will substantially compete with younger employees. It also stated that it is opposed to individuals deciding at which age their state pension AOW now at 65 will start. According to the cabinet, an increasing number of elderly wish to continue working after 65. In 2004, 83,000 over 65s mainly self-employed workers, migrants and women returners – were working beyond their official retirement age. The Netherlands is one of the EU countries with the highest labour participation of men under 60. The official retirement age is 65, but the effective retirement age is 61 on average.

Scoble’s on the move

To be honest this post is all about beating my colleague Mike Stopforth to the punch : ) I see that one of his icons, Robert Scoble, rated as the world’s most famous corporate blogger, is leaving Microsoft to join a recently formed Internet Media Start-Up.

The world’s most famous corporate blogger, Robert Scoble, credited with helping to break down a siege mentality at his employer, Microsoft, confirmed on Sunday that he is leaving to join a recently formed Silicon Valley Internet media start-up.

For a full article click here

Posts on this Blog that include Scoble are – Microsoft, Mini-Microsoft and the Talent Exodus and The Feedster Top 500 – blogs of the month

Technorati Tags: Robert Scoble, Mike Stopforth, Microsoft

The Bead4Need Race Against Time

I recently presented at an SABMiller Management Development Programme. One of the groups on the programme have taken the bull by the horns and are leveraging social software and viral marketing for maximum reach on a pretty exciting project. Their objective is to raise USD $10,000 before June 16th by auctioning off 3 unique beaded artworks.

This from their website:

The Bead4Need Team is a group of young dynamic business leaders in the corporate environment that want to make a difference in the lives of many Southern Africans. Ian, Navin, Fenias, Roger, AK and Gerrit are in a similar struggle, a race against the sun, against time.

The Bead4Need Race against Time has one simple objective, “To raise $10,000 before 16 June 2006�. Every last cent of this money will be channelled into The CIDA City Campus that aspires to making a sustainable difference in the lives of the disenfranchised people in Southern Africa.

What’s in it for the Bead4Need Team you may well ask? It’s simple, they are a team in an Apprentice Challenge as part of their Leadership Development Experience. The team wants to be the top of their class and realised that just making money is not what it’s all about. They have a golden opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of many less fortunate than themselves and they want to invite you to be part of this success.

Really great news is that SAB has agreed to double any funds that the group raise through this initiative. I think it’s a great idea, only because CIDA benefits (in other words, this is not about lining SAB’s pockets). So, check out the site, visit eBay and make a bid. Help us spread the word and lets watch this grow.

Mark Cuban – Blogging vs Traditional (Mainstream) Media

Mark Cuban, charismatic owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, is an extremely popular blogger and web personality.

Mark spends a lot of time commenting on the impact of emering social (or consumer-generated) media on mainstream media, and recently wrote an excellent entry on the relationship (or divide) between blogs and what we understand as ‘traditional media’.

Here are some of his key points:

In traditional media, you are first defined by your medium – “There is a cost vs time vs interest vs access series of constraints that determines who your audience is, how
you reach them and what they expect of you. Over time, that has evolved our media into very defined roles”, says Cuban. However, blogs cost nothing to create. Blogging is personal. It is a tonal factor that most distinctively divides the two media: “Traditional media
has become almost exclusively corporate while blogging remains almost exclusively personal”.

Another key factor to blogging is the varying roles one author can take – and the subsequent diverse audiences it attracts. I can identify with Mark on this one. I write very differently for my MoneyWeb blog, my Citizen Op-Ed and my other blogs, but all the content invariably gets posted here. So you as the reader are offered a pastiche of journalistic flavours from conversational-informal to print-formal.

One last great quote from the man:

“Traditional media goes to work, bloggers live their work.”

Google’s Product Plethora

Ever clicked on the ‘more’ link just above and to the right of Google’s search box?

It’s got to be the Web’s best kept secret. Behind the discreet little hyperlink lies Google’s veritable goldmine of products, services and offerings. Some of them you’ll be familiar with – Adsense, Gmail and Google Earth are terms you may have stumbled across in recent times.

But did you know the mighty search machine also offers a Financial portal, web-based Calendar, Book search, Video directory, and that there’s even a Health portal on the horizon? Let me offer you a glimpse into some of the nifty tools Google has hidden behind the ‘more’ link.

Gmail – Google’s webmail service. Competitor to Hotmail and Yahoo! mail, Gmail offers over 2 GB of storage space, a smooth Ajax-powered interface, integrated IM and Talk (Instant Messaging) service, virus scanning, free POP access (unique to Gmail – allows you to receive Gmail in Outlook), mobile compatibility, an address book, spam filtering, and the list goes on. Signing up for a free Google account also opens up the option of a Google Personalized homepage – another great feature. Read more about Gmail here.

Calendar – Google’s calendar service. Recently launched and fully integrated with Gmail, Calendar offers the following features (taken from the overview page):

Calendar Sharing – set up a calendar for your company action cricket team, and share it with the whole roster. Or share with friends and family so you can view each other’s schedules side by side. Invitations – create event invitations, send them to friends, and keep track of people’s responses and comments, all in one place. Your friends can receive your invitation and post responses even if they don’t use Google Calendar themselves. Gmail Integration – add your friend’s Super 14 braai to your calendar without ever leaving your Gmail inbox. Gmail now recognizes events mentioned in emails. Search – find the exact date of the same braai (you knew it was sometime this summer) using Google powerful search technology. Or, search public calendars to discover new events you’re interested in and add them to your own calendar. Mobile Access – receive event reminders and notifications on your mobile phone. Read more about Google Calendar here.

If you hadn’t figured it out yet, Gmail + Calendar = Outlook online. And it’s free. And it’s web-based, so you access your personal information from any mobile, connected device, anywhere in the world, anytime. While we’re talking about an online office suite, it’s worth mentioning that Google purchased Writely earlier this year, a web-based word processor that rivals MS Word in functionality and performance.

As increased broadband connectivity, albeit slow in coming, improves our access to the Web, it is becoming more and more feasible to shift your entire personal desktop online. For free.

Moving on…

If you’re into tracking the online buzz to make sure you’re at the cutting edge of new developments in your industry, around your brand or even mentions of your own name, use the following powerful tools:

Alerts – once again free with a Google account, Alerts allows you to enter a search term once-off, and have updated results sent to you via email when they appear on the Web. I have alerts for my client’s company names, my favourite search topics (youth markets, as an example), and more. If you find you regularly check Google for the same or similar search terms, set up an Alert and have the results delivered to you instead. Nifty!

Blog Search – If you’re still in the dark with regards to blogs and blogging I’ve written muchos info here. Blog Search will help you keep track of what is being said in blogs worldwide.

Trends – still in Labs (development) phase, Google Trends allows you to compare search term results graphically. The search will highlight news results corresponding to the graph and normalise results by region and city, if necessary. As an experiment, try running a search for ‘Nedbank, ABSA’ and peruse the results. To quote Steve Rubel, PR expert and A-list blogger: “This tool is a must-bookmark for every PR person and marketer worldwide. Search is so important to how brands are perceived. As I noted earlier today, it’s critical to understand how people are searching for you and your competitors. The news volume tool is an awesome value add for PR measurement.” And it’s free.

There are stacks of other value-added services hidden behind Google’s discreetly placed ‘more’ link. My advice – take some time out to explore the possibilities and try out some of the products. You’ll soon be Googleized.