John V. Willshire. Chief Innovation Officer at PHD. Knows where his towel is.
Author Archive: feedingthepuppy
Wear your heart on your window
feedingthepuppy | April 27, 2011
How to make a statement about who you are, and what you believe...
...stick it on a big, dangerous, important looking neon sign in your window...
Nice one, Lush folks.
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Time lagged value of social networks
feedingthepuppy | April 26, 2011
From ReadWriteWeb:
Anyone rushing to save their Friendster data? Anyone who just can't live without those photos, that conversation, the witty description of your hobbies or list of favourite books.
No? Nobody? Didn't think so. What seemed so valuable, so important at the time just seems so unimportant now. Maybe that's a way to help value social networks... a time lagged effect on everything everybody puts up there. A photo now is worth a cent, in a month it's half that, in a year a tenth... Tally everything up, and a social network is worth more if there's more up-to-date activity on there. Anyway, the Friendster news reminds us that the most valuable thing a social network can have is short-term relevance for people.Click on a star to rate
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Left to our own devices
feedingthepuppy | April 26, 2011
We've just moved house, to a little rural idyll in Sussex. Not content with changing the geography of my commute, I thought I'd try and change the productivity of it too.
Previously, I'd carry my MacBook Pro and a USB dongle up and down the London-Brighton schlep. The pros were I'd get a lot of work done, in the very traditional sense of things I'd do sitting at a desk. And I'd have all the files I could ever want on it with me. The cons... It's blooming heavy. So, despite the cries of "it's a consumption device", I'm seeing just how productive I can be on an iPad 2 as an alternative...
With dropbox, I can still have access to all my files, obviously. But I won't do so much of the 'heavy-lifting' document work... PowerPoint in particular. Though on the first few plays, Keynote for iPad is splendid, so I've saved lots of pictures onto the iPad to see just what can be created from scratch.
Going back to the "consumption device" point, I've set up Flipboard for my Google Reader feeds, Instagram, Twitter and The Guardian, just so I start reading stuff again. It's strange, I think, that we often forget to classify "reading stuff" as being productive. I've also got the Kindle app for books, and the TED & RSA apps for videos. Plenty of new inspiration to be had from all that. Finally, I can still blog on the move (though I wish Blogsy would hurry up and support Posterous...), write down long form thoughts and ideas (iA Writer), organise myself (well, as much as I ever do) with Evernote, and so on. I actually like typing on the iPad, which I know some people hate, because my typing isn't that good but predictive text and corrections make me faster. I'll update on how I'm getting on in a week or so. But I'd love to hear any thoughts on apps you love (or have heard good things about) for the iPad as a work device. At Gulltaggen, Kevin Kelly talked about moving to a future where we carry no devices. For now, I'll content myself with lighter, better ones.Click on a star to rate
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The Communis Manifesto
feedingthepuppy | April 19, 2011
A few folks have been asking for this lately, my IPA thesis from '08, so I thought I'd post it up here (rather than Scribd, which some people had some trouble with)...
...and that means I can test the Posterous 'send us a file and we'll turn it into a post' functionality at the same time too. It's about how companies need to view themselves as communities to survive.
I'd love to know what you think, three years on... I have a fair idea what I'd change, but y'know, I'm a bit close to it now.
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Rocks & Water – creating a fluid company
feedingthepuppy | April 19, 2011
There's a joke that may be based on a true story, or may not. But it goes like this...
There was a philosophy professor once who would stand in front of his class with a large bell jar and a box of rocks. He’d carefully place all the rocks in the jar, right to the top, and ask the class how full it was. Completely full, they’d agree. Then he’d produce a box of pebbles, and pour it in on top, so the pebbles filled the spaces between the rocks. How full is it now, he’d ask. Well, full now, replied the class. The he’d repeat the trick with sand, so it filled up all the space in between.The professor said “The moral is this: in life, the rocks are the important things; your partner, kids, health. The pebbles are your holidays, your job, the hobbies you love. And everything else is just sand, it’s inconsequential. But if you fill your life up with sand first, there’s no room for the important things.Then one student stands up, and produces a can of lager from his bag opens it, and proceeds to pour it in on top of the rocks, pebbles and sand.“Look professor” says the student, “no matter how full you think your life is, there’s always room for a beer or two…
It's not that funny, I know.
But I like taking the principle about the rocks, and thinking about the way companies are constructed (from personal experience, it applies to agencies, but I think it's probably true of most type of businesses).
The larger an organisation gets, the more the way people work together is bound by structure and rigidity; job roles are defined very precisely, very carefully, so that nothing gets forgotten, nobody drops a ball on something.
And pretty soon, the company is full... there's no more capital available to recruit more people.
But the jar is full of rocks...
Everyone does what they're meant to be doing, sure. But the roles have been so well defined and described that they know exactly what they should be doing... so anything that falls outwith that, well, it's 'not my job'.
Seth Godin talked about this years ago...
Basically, why things got through organisations that were very clearly broken... it was nobody's job to fix them.
So when people look at their own organisations and wonder "why don't we do this, or that...?" it's because it's nobody's job to do that stuff....
Here's the kicker though... you shouldn't then try and define it as somebody's job.
Because in doing so, all you'll do is create another rock, or make an existing rock a slightly different shape.
In times that change as fast as these, i don't think any company can survive by proscribing every role of every person to the nth degree.
A company needs more people who act 'as water'... fluid people who will naturally fill the gaps between rocks, who will rush in to any vacant space with the enthusiasm and ferocity of the filling the gaps on a rocky shore...
Of course, that's hard for companies to countenance sometimes. How can you justify someone who doesn't have a rock-shaped job description...?
Well, remember it's not always up to them. If you think you could or should be more like water... then be more like water. Just get on with it. Ask to redefine your role. Stop doing the bits that are futile or wrong, and tell other people why you've stopped, and what you're going to do instead... make the first move, don't wait around forever assuming someone will ask you to.
Don't be another rock. Be water.
(I used this for the opening of my Gulltaggen talk last week, and realised that without any VO on the slides, it may make even less sense than my usual stuff...)
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A media future by Kevin Kelly… and James
feedingthepuppy | April 18, 2011
One of the most exciting things about being invited to speak at Gulltaggen was that the following day, Kevin Kelly was speaking. He's senior maverick at Wired magazine, which he co-founded in 1993. I've been a fan of his work for a good few years, especially the 1,000 fans idea for a future model for music artists. His blog, The Technium, is a constant source of inspiration to a lot of the planning & strategy community I know.
Anyway, not only did I get to hear his talk, but on the last morning Helen, James and myself enjoyed a lovely breakfast with him in the hotel too.
I'm now thinking this meeting has affected James more than we might have thought at first... because everything I see in the way he's using technology and media is reminiscent of something in the talk.
For instance, Kevin described the direction screen technology is moving; the intuitive nature of touch-screen devices means we will begin to expect everything to have that function built in; it's such a natural way to control technology, why WOULDN'T something be designed to take advantage of it?
That expectation we will develop will drive a future where everything will be a screen, a surface to interact with that recognises you. And eventually, we won't carry devices that are screens... we'll be using whatever object is to hand that has a screen as part of it.
Which is a big thought to get your head around.
But then, the day after we get home, James walked over to the TV and tried to control the ball in the FA Cup semi-final in the same way that he does in Flick Kick football on the iPhone (where a simple finger movement directs the ball where you want it to be)...
It's made me think a lot about the medium-long-term relationship between screens and our industry. Another key point from the talk was that "wherever attention flows, money follows, and attention is flowing towards screens". But no-one said that this is traditional advertising money.
If we presume we're heading for a future where the once-passive viewer can change things on the screen with a wave, a shout, a raised eyebrow or a subtle smile ("screens that read us as we read them" as Kevin put it), then we can start to piece together a timeline for how quckly things might change.
Firstly, it will be a wonderful thing to experience for my generation and older. A novelty at first, and something we learn to add in to our media world. But it will be expected by James and his generation. Why wouldn't a screen act like that?
Think back to the way that in the early eighties, it was 'the kids who showed dad how to set the video'. In families, it was the younger generation who changed the way the whole house consumed media. By the end of the decade, the film industry had shifted to a new, very profitable model of selling films to people all over again after release.
Once again, the technology will be in the hands of children, and it will shape the way the whole family, and the bulk of society interacts with that big screen in the corner.
Given the speed with which technology is advancing, it's arguable that change will come about faster too.
But I feel that it'll still take time for the younger generation to change the older generations habits.
So conservatively, let's say that in seven years time the "television" as we know it will be a fundamentally different beast for the vast majority of households. Wholly particpative, interactive, responsive.
Secondly, that brings us to the big advertising question; what makes us even think people will tolerate advertising in the middle of a participative experience they control? Look at gaming now; how many ad breaks crop up in the middle of XBox games? Do you pause between levels on your iphone game for a 30 second 'word from our sponsors'..?
Nope.
We (agencies, clients, media owners) have got seven short years in which to understand, practice and build new models of marketing before there aren't any "television advertising spots" to buy as a last resort.
Every day, the interruption model of advertising lumbers towards extinction, and every day you fail to prepare for it is a day wasted.
Every day, we should ask ourselves this; what's the seven year plan?
Anyway, it was a delight to meet Kevin Kelly, who's not only a genius, but a very lovely guy too.
They say you should never meet your heroes. They're wrong. They should have picked better heroes.
more Gulltaggen-inspired posts to follow...
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The Creation & Cultivation of Ideas
feedingthepuppy | April 13, 2011
My presentation slides from Gulltaggen 2011 today...
...as always, the caveats apply; it might not make complete sense without a VO, you'll undoubtedly have seen some of this stuff before if you read this blog regularly, and your home may be at risk of repossession should you fail to keep up with repayments...
(Thank you, lovely Gulltaggen people...)
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Two idle caffeine observations from Oslo
feedingthepuppy | April 12, 2011
I've seen a couple of interesting caffeine related things in Oslo so far... in between trying to find a beer that costs less than the monthly financing on a brand new family saloon car, that is.
Firstly, good news; the Norwegians seem to take their coffee very seriously.
There's one of coffee chain in particular, Kaffebrenneriet, that's simply superb... there's about 18 branches across Oslo. Imagine Monmouth Coffee in London as a city wide chain as prevalent as Starbucks. Yes, I know, how wonderful would that be?
Anyway, there isn't a Starbucks over here. It's no wonder really.
Secondly, the slightly troubling news; a sight I never thought I'd see again... cans of the energy drink Battery...
You've never heard of it, have you? And neither should you have. Way back in the mists of time (well, the year 2000), the market research agency I was a grad in was hired to test out Battery in the UK market.
Which meant we did lots of blind taste tests in the upstairs of pubs and the like. And by and large, everyone hated it. It really was pretty fierce stuff. Invented in Finland to make the homebrew vodka taste posh and sophisticated or something.
They'd sent us crates and crates of the stuff, which we didn't get through at the hall tests (nobody wanted to take it away). We offered to send it back, but it would cost too much in shipping, apparently. So for six months, we got wired on the stuff.
I drank five in one afternoon once. I didn't sleep for three days.
So as far as I know, it has never gained a foothold in the UK. But it seems that other markets have taken to it...
Who'd try and build a global brand, eh?
Anyway, between the Norwegians very much want to stay awake it seems.
I've bought some of the coffee to bring home. The cans of Battery can stay right here, thank you very much...
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