PC World customer service stinks

I just wanted to buy a Flip Ultra video camera. All someone had to do was open the locked cupboard and hand me one. I didn't need a demo. I didn't need to look at it. I didn't need to spend hours discussing it. In fact the time it took the sales 'assistant' to tell me I'd have to wait at least half an hour before he could serve me was less than the time it would have taken him to hand me the camera. None of the other people standing around chatting could help me either. Extraordinary!

So, out of ten, PC World, Sevenoaks Way, Orpington, Kent gets zero points and I'll be buying the camera elsewhere.

On track at Brands Hatch

A lucky escape

I was out riding on my road bike the other day. It's an Orbea bike - a replica of those used by the Euskaltel Euskadi team from the Basque country - so it's pretty good quality. However, close to the end of a 80km ride on Saturday one side of the handle bars sheered off completely just as I was pulling away from the lights. Unfortunately it went through the front fork and buckled the wheel, but luckily I managed to stay on and not fall off (I was in traffic). A very lucky escape! It had felt as though that side of the handlebars had 'gone soft' for about an hour, so I guess the lesson I learned is that if it feels like there's something wrong, there probably is!

Pointless signs

Following on from my post a couple of months ago about the number of lines we have on our roads, my eye was drawn to this road sign warning me that there were traffic lights 11 yards ahead. In fact the sign was so big it almost blocked the view of the lights it was telling me about. Somebody in that council has too much time on their hands!

Voices

In a world where everybody has a voice, those people working in corporate and employee communications face challenging times as they struggle to get their voices, or the voices of the people they write for, heard above the hub-hub. This is being brought into sharp focus on intranet news sites. More progressive organisations already allow comment on stories, or for people to submit their own stories. Up to now this ‘user generated content’ has generally been kept separate from the corporately provided news. And where an external view of company news is brought into the site, this is also kept separate.

I think this will have to change. Commenting on corporate stories; external views on the same stories; even the ordinary people providing their own interpretation of a news story are all going to be legitimate content on internal company news sites. All of that content will need to be aggregated around the story itself, not be consigned to a series of contributor-based ghettos, as it forms the context for the conversations which are so important. Conversations are a component of engagement. Corporate voices are not.

Great Capital Run

Last Sunday I lined up – along with my wife, my teenage children, and a couple of friends – ready to take part in the Great Capital Run. None of the others had ever done anything like this before. We were helping to raise money for Capital Radio’s Help A London Child appeal. The weather was fine, the crowd enthusiastic and the event well organised. I managed an uneventful time of 52 minutes – not great, but not bad considering the large number of runners (12,000) trying to negotiate the fairly narrow roads and paths around Hyde Park. A very worthwhile event, and a good day out.

The Participation Gap

I’ve been persisting with Facebook, and my initial scepticism is beginning to fade as my network has grown. I’ve also noticed I’m using it differently than I initially set out to do. I started off by trying to connect with all the people I’ve ever known, focussing predominantly on those from the more distant past. And I did connect with them. However, those connections have faded (probably for the same reasons we’re not real life friends anymore) and the day to day value I derive comes from interactions with people I still have a relationship with and who I see on a reasonably regular basis.

A couple of observations though. Firstly, despite living a highly ‘blended’ life, I use Facebook almost exclusively for non-work related things. I think that’s been driven by a couple of factors – the fact that any work-related stuff would be open to my entire network, which would be inappropriate, and secondly that very few of my work colleagues have connected with me on Facebook, possibly because they themselves only use it for personal things. Clearly this is (potentially) a flaw in my blending theory which I need to think about some more. My second observation, is that not all my friends and contacts use Facebook, or any other kind of social networking site for that matter. Which means my Facebook activity only represents part of my life network. Some of those missing are from a different generation, but many are not. They simply have different priorities and a different mindset. Whatever the reason, they are missing. This is the participation gap.

As with many technologies, there’ll always be some ‘never adopters’, or ULAs - ‘ultra late adopters’, or those excluded for other social reasons – and this inevitably means the value I get from the network will not reach full potential. Will this gap eventually close, as it did with TV? Or will the network keep migrating to new platforms before the ULAs have a chance to catch up? Does it even matter? I guess we need to wait and see.

Tiger on Track

Yesterday I took the Tiger for its first track outing. An evening track day at my local circuit – Brands Hatch. The event was on the short Indy circuit, which at 1.2 miles packs in the legendary Paddock Hill bend, plus the hairpin at Druids and the long right-hander, Clearways. Unlike many modern motor racing tracks, Brands Hatch has been built around the contours of a natural amphitheatre, and one of the reasons Paddock Hill bend is such a test is because it turns into a very steep down hill before bottoming out into the charge back up to Druids. It’s quite an experience. I have driven the course a few times before, but this was the first time in my own car.

I wasn’t sure what to expect. What would the other drivers be like? Would the car behave? Would I be embarrassingly slow? The event was well organised by MSV people – registration was quick and easy and then the car was noise tested. The new silencer came out at 97dB. Spot on. All the drivers then assembled for a briefing, which covered track safety rules as well as driving technique. It quickly became clear that we were a mix of experienced drivers and rookie track drivers. Looking round the pit garages, there was a wide range of machinery as well. Several 7-type cars like mine, a few full-on race cars that had been trailered to the event, as well as some road going saloons, such as BMW and Toyota. There was also some exotica on show such as an Arial Atom, Ferrari and Noble. Top car was a AC Cobra replica which the owner had just completed after a 4 years build. Stunning car, and a brave owner for taking it on the track.

After a couple of mandatory sighting laps behind the safety car, we were then let out on the track. The first few laps I used to warm the car up. In particular, the brakes and tyres don’t reach proper operating temperature until they’re hot. I soon realised that the Tiger is quick. Very quick. I was a little nervous about speed round the corners as I was running on road tyres (still waiting for the new wheels and track tyres to arrive), however, the handling was impeccable and after half an hour or so I really started to get a feel for the car. That made all the difference. For the first few laps I was being overtaken. However, after I’d got some idea of how the car handled, I started overtaking back. Realistically, only the other 7-type cars and a Fisher Fury could stick with it round corners, although some of the larger cars had more power down the straight. Timing wasn’t permitted so I don’t know what the lap times were. However, I don’t think we went below 60mph anywhere except Druids and on the start/finish straight (according to my passenger) we reached 115mph. And it’s only a short straight at Brands Hatch before you arrive at the fearsome Paddock Hill so I’m pretty pleased with that.

About an hour in, the car started to misfire when the throttles were fully open, which seemed odd. So we pulled in to the pits and discovered that one of the socks (air filters) which cover the carburetta trumpets had started to disintegrate and had been sucked through the engine. The socks were quickly removed and we carried on without any misfire. Unfortunately, towards the end of the evening a red light on the dashboard flickered on. The car had stopped charging. I suspected the alternator as these are notorious for failing on Tigers. Two reasons. Firstly it is located very close to one of the exhaust manifold down pipes, which means it gets very hot. And secondly, they are often running at over the maximum revs they were designed for, which inevitably takes its toll. Realistically, that meant the end of the evening as I couldn’t risk not having enough battery power to get me home. There was a plus side though, as on driving out of the circuit I realised that the fuel tank was completely empty. There would have nothing more embarrassing than running out of fuel and having to be recovered from the circuit. The alternator problem coincided with a Subara Impreza deciding to visit the gravel trap at Clearways, which resulted in the circuit being closed whilst it was recovered. All in all, I think we only lost about 15 minutes of track time.

The car made it home without any problems, and seems none the worse for being driven so hard. It used hardly any oil, and apart from the alternator problem and a small damp patch on one of the hoses which needs investigating, it lived up to – in fact exceeded – my expectations.

Now, all I need to do is book the next track day.

The permeable firewall

Richard Dennison talks in a recent post about how to create the right balance between recreating content and social media services on an intranet which already exists on the internet, and just integrating tools from the internet into the toolkit for employees.

I commented that the permeable firewall will not be a technology application in future, it’ll be the way organise these things in our heads. Commentators keep going on about work life balance. Business people keep saying a good work life balance is healthier both for the individual and for the business. And as I’ve posted before, these things are driving an increasingly blended existence. Different tools to do the same things in a blended world makes no sense. I predict most people will use a single tool to interact with those networks. Twitter is a good early example in the micro blogging space. I only use Twitter, but I am selective as to which of my networks I tweet to. Sometimes it’s everyone, mostly it’s a sub network. I know it’s a question of what we’re comfortable with, but our comfort zone is heavily influenced by the rules and behavioural norms set by the culture of the organisation we affiliate to and so on. Those things are changing. They are being changed by technology. They are being changed by the new generations arriving in the workplace. We are changing them.

It’s going to be a challenge. And there’s going to be conflict. Security and firewall people won’t like it. Power brokers won’t like it. But it’s going to happen.

Track Day

The first track day with the Tiger has arrived. Signing on at Brands Hatch at 4.00pm this afternoon. The car has been cleaned, all fluids checked, new exhaust fitted and aeroscreen fitted. The track tyres haven't arrived yet, so i guess I'll be doing this one on road tyres. I've also got my fingers crossed that the rain stays away. The plan is not thrash the car too hard today, but to use it more as a testing session so the car can be fettled for a full day in August.

The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age of the Understatement

I heard these guys on the Jonathan Ross show the other night and thought I’d try the album. Interesting. Has elements of Sixties retro in the orchestration, and the boys voices on several of the tracks are resonant of the mainstream groups from that era. I’m a fan of British pop from the Sixties, and maybe because of that, I think this is a good album and well worth listening through. The songs are belted out – not in the same league as The Proclaimers, but then who is?

Tiger Update

The Tiger is now prepped and ready for its first track day. The oil and filter have been changed – it now has Valvoline Racing Oil - and there are new socks on the carburetta trumpets. I’ve also finished making the aeroscreen, which is just as well as I broke the windscreen trying to remove it. Doh! Tomorrow morning the new (quieter) and re-packable exhaust is being made and fitted, which will hopefully make me legal for the evening track day at Brands Hatch later this week which I shall be using as a test session to work out further needs to be done.

London Bikeathon

On Sunday I cycled the 52 mile ‘challenge route’ of the London Bikeathon. Overall, there were many thousands of people taking part in the event in aid of Leukaemia research riding different routes and distances from 13 miles upwards, with what looked like a thousand or so brave souls taking on the long 52 mile ‘challenge’ route. We started out in bright weather from the Royal Chelsea Hospital and made out way West along the Thames, taking in Richmond Park – including a herd of red deer – before looping back to the hospital and heading eastwards out as far as the Thames Barrier park. From there it was an easy ride back to finish once again at the Royal Hospital.

This event was as much fun as the London to Brighton bike ride – the participants were definitely less hard core on this ride – and the ride was well marshalled and sign posted. The cycling was also considerably easier than London to Brighton and much easier than the Surry Hills ride it day – which had a hill at the end (from the South Downs to the North Downs) that nearly killed me!

The next event will be the Great Capital Run in Hyde Park next Sunday in aid of Help a London Child. That’s a 10k run, and this time I’m taking the whole family.