Do we need words anymore?

Earlier this week I was in a large office in Central London and I found myself listening to the things that were going on around me. There wasn't much talking, but there was an awful lot of tap-tapping as people punched out emails, composed Word documents on their computers, or entered data into web forms and applications. A huge volume of written content was being created just on that floor. Multiply that by the number of floors in that building; by the number of buildings in London; by the number of cities around the world and you'll end up with an (almost) incalculable number of words. Most of that content will be available to us via the web.

I've read reminders that Moore's Law does not and cannot apply to the human brain. Human beings are beginning to suffer from information saturation. And what about people in developing countries who cannot read or write. They don't have this skill, but they are increasingly getting access to the technology allowing them to connect to content. What use are all those words to them?

Is the answer video? We can assimilate knowledge video messages much faster than we can through the written word, and it allows an additional dimension to the message - facial expression, body language and so on. The barrier to entry has really dropped with the growing popularity of YouTube and other video sharing sites. Creating content is also easy with the wide availability of video capture capability on mobile phones and portable mini cameras such as the Creative Vado. With all these tools it may even be quicker to create video than writing the same content as words.

Hmmmm.

The longest reboot - EVER!

Last Friday, as I plugged in the mouse to the USB port on my 5-year old Toshiba notebook computer, there was a small spark, followed by darkness. No display, no hard drive whirring, no fans buzzing. Nothing. I tried all sorts of things to bring it back to life, but nothing worked. Even though the power light was on, there was clearly no-one at home. So, I packed it up, unplugged everything rerady to take it to a repair shop and left it on the table. There followed some web searches, a trip to PC World and so on and by Sunday morning I had a fresh new Toshiba laptop. By Sunday might all the applications had been re-loaded and I was feeling quite satisfied that the house laptop had been restored with only a couple of days loss of data.

Then, without warning or being touched, the fans on the old 'broken laptop' came on. I opened the lid and sure enough it started to boot. And it has worked ever since. So well done Toshiba for building a piece of kit that seems to be able to heal itself! Even if 48 hours does seem an awful long time to re-boot.

Enterprise 1.0 won’t let go easily

I spend much of my time talking to people about Enterprise 2.0. Indeed yesterday I was the chief ‘provocateur’ on a virtual round table organised by Career Innovation, facilitated by Jonathan Winter, the CI founder. With colleagues from organisations like Boeing, Marriott, and Allen & Overy we spent an interesting 90 minutes discussing the impact of social media in the workplace, and how that might take business to the state known as Enterprise 2.0. It was a stimulating discussion. Thinking about it afterwards though, I wonder how much is hyperbole, and how much is real. Our business language is full of words like ‘innovation’ and ‘revolutionary change’. But do those things ever really happen? I doubt it, and if they do, it’s in rare cases. Very rare cases. The fact is Enterprise 1.0 cultures have been built up (and been successful) over many generations. In big organisations particularly, the culture stems from the vary roots of the bureaucracy. Changing it is never going to be possible in a hurry. Even when there’s a ‘survive or die’ crisis. Revolution is not possible; it’s always going to be evolution. And the same will be true of the transition from Enterprise 1.0 to Enterprise 2.0. It’ll be a long slow process, requiring a huge amount of perseverance, some luck, and some real long term visionary thinking.

An example to get you thinking. There’s much talk of Generation Y (those born with a mouse in their hand) stimulating major changes to the way businesses work. Indeed, I have myself stood up at conferences and suggested the same. GenY people don’t use email. Email is Enterprise 1.0. They use social networks, text messages, instant messenger etc. to organise their lives. And, so the argument goes, they’ll want to do the same when they arrive in the workplace, and this will change the way we do business. Forever. But will it? Or will the organisation grind them down first? Especially as email is the infrastructure on which business is actually run. The Gen Y people might find they have to use email just to get things done at all. So revolutionary change is unlikely.

I hope I’m wrong as these are exciting times, but as we come down from the peak of inflated expectations, those of us involved in deployment activities need to put on our pragmatic hats, be realistic about the prospects, and try and speed up the evolution rather than trying to stimulate the revolution.

Tiger Tales

The Tiger is not a happy beast at the moment. Since the new Megajolt system was installed it has not been running well. That may be coincidence, or it may be related. I’m not sure and will be investigating further over the winter. On the rolling road the car was re-mapped and the twin Weber 45s tuned. The dyno read-out showed power at 173bhp, up by 5bhp since the Megajolt installation. However, the car is very reluctant to start and when it does, it only runs on three cylinders until it is fully warm. There’s a spark, and there’s fuel, so it’s a bit of a mystery. I suspect either the timing is a little out – perhaps the trigger wheel sensor has moved slightly, or maybe there’s a sticking valve which only comes loose when the head warms up.

I took my Dad with me on the last track day. It was his first time driving on a race track. I think he found it daunting, but nevertheless, he drove quite a few laps and seemed to enjoy it. We shared a garage with a Holden Monaro (read Vauxhall VXR8) which is a real monster car, and shared the track with many interesting cars, including a whole set of race prepared Beetles testing for their race series. Once warmed up, the Tiger ran well for most of the day – until the alternator packed in (again) towards the end of the afternoon. This was expected (I had a spare with me), and certainly didn’t spoil the enjoyment.

So, that’s it for 2008. The car goes into storage now until the Spring and will be tucked away in a Carcoon through the worst of the weather, only being brought out when I feel like tackling the jobs that need doing.

Rain Man

Transferring Rain Man to the stage was always going to be a challenge. Not because it’s difficult to stage, but because it has to compete against one of the best films ever made. I’m not a fan of Tom Cruise, but unquestionably his performance in Rain Man (the movie) was one of his best. Nevertheless, Josh Hartnett (playing the Cruise role) has a Hollywood reputation and so I rolled up at the Apollo in Shaftesbury Avenue expecting to be challenged with a new interpretation of the Barry Morrow story. I was disappointed. Not because Harnett has no stage presence (he doesn’t), but simply because it was a straight facsimile of the film. I was expecting a contemporary interpretation of a twenty year old film, whereas I got a replay with the only changes being reference to modern day current affairs (Osama Bin Laden) and TV (Judge Judy).

Hartnett’s performance lacked gravitas, his projection was poor and his acting somewhat wooden. There was nothing like the veiled nastiness Cruise exuded in the film, Hartnett was far more overt. By contrast, Adam Godley, playing the autistic savant Raymond was excellent. Sad, yet sprinkled with humour and warmth. Also, the stage set was very well done, not distracting from the character development and interplay. The production seemed to move from scene to scene without really building the relationship between the brothers, and it wasn’t until towards the end that is started to sense any emotion.

All in all, a pleasant enough evening, but my expectations were not met. Which I guess just goes to prove how great the original film was. Cruise and Hoffman are on my list to watch again at the weekend.

Quantum of Solace

What happened to James Bond? The latest Bond epic is a huge disappointment. Where was the smug humour? What happened to the unreal action? And how come Bond films have suddenly decided to do way with a story line?

I’m afraid this just doesn’t live up to the legacy of earlier Bond movies. Make no mistake, Daniel Craig plays the part well – he’s moody and edgy – it just doesn’t bear any resemblance to what Bond should be. The special effects are great, but the additional realism, rather than enhancing the experience, has lined Bond up in a long line of ‘action’ movies. Indistinguishable from the rest.

What a shame!