Finger Food (16)

I promise that will stop leaving earlier than weekend.. but this time is about Halloween bank holiday, could you really miss it??!!!? No, exactly!!!

So, there we are, our sticky finger food for the week (an hefty portion, I dare say)!!!!

• Doha round at stalemate …. so much for competition fostering a better and more efficient marketplace…
• Egypt will have its nuclear plants.. in ten-years time if a nice flow of foreign investment will be guaranteed (meanwhile Iran with a full blast blockade of investments is actually building up the Bomb in a blink..) … I leave to you any possible comment on this, and the impact over Middle East balance exercise..
• Whilst we are trying to convince ourselves that we have something Chinese people may actually desire with utmost lush, a survey indicates the opposite.. Chinese brands have got a nice positioning advantage … which is quite understandable, give the strong cultural legacy China does present, given that potentially the entire weaponry of Western consumerism is not at its full potential in China and given that we may really have nothing interesting to add to local products.. it is a bit like trying to make money in Second Life adopting the same strategy you adopt in real-life markets.. it won’t work, ever. In the meanwhile, whilst we keep on talking, China goes for the highest growth rate since 1993: 11+ %…
• Are you considering investing in, say, green certificates, water-related bonds, or in some hot growing country markets?? Wrong!!! Back to ol’ PC manufacturers, as it seems!!! Mind you, putting Apple into the basket is not exactly comparing apples with apples (ops.. joke…): Apple is a system, not an hardware manufacturer, you don’t buy a computer or a portable mp3 player, you make a statement. And what if the statement gets stale??? Would be nice to see whether so-called competitors would benefit or the entire industry would sort of crumble…
• This is a nice article about how gullible we are now compared with the people that followed the H. G. Wells’ hoax… personally I believe we are as naive as we were, we are just a little bit more connected and a touch cynical … apart from that, we still believe that what is coming out of the “box” is real…
• Whereas what is coming out of Germany is definitely real, Saxons are back at full swing with a healthy financial balance and a strong, structural upswing of the economy as a whole… no surprise Sarkozy’s trying to create the Great Mediterranean to balance the once-enemy influential comeback.. love to see a country that, with stronger taxation, a boasted economy could come back from the dead like this.. Italy would have some hope then, too bad for the Italians ruling the country….
• OK, first on the xMas shopping list??? A gPhone, possibly a Linux based version, so that I will finally come around and install Ubuntu on my PC … and that would make the pair with the Fantastic Duo strategy, “a gPhone in every hand” (or was it a PC…???!?) as to extend the reach of gApps … gosh, now the choice is about a “g” and an “i”, the phone bit is more or less irrelevant as a purchase driver…
• The Fox is chasing instead of being chased!! Operation Firefox at full swing, watch out for gigantic stickers, and other guerrilla marketing activities.. you go, boy!!!!! (Tks to Fables, from Bloguerrilla!)
• By the way, we are almost there, matter of few hours.. so, why not having some cyber-Halloween party as well?? SecondLife’s here to help!!! Then, after, you can still blast yourselves with tequila slammers aplenty (after having chosen your outfit according to this timely survey about hot Halloween costumes!!!)….
• A propos of virtual worlds, here is a nice “train of thoughts” (tks Nobody) about anonimity and Second Life, and a superb quote:

Internet does not forget

• That one I would like to extend to each and every activity on the Net, business included: do it right and properly first time, you may not have the possibility of a second shot. So much for being in Internet, doing social networking and making money out of it….
• Do you remember we said China was leveraging Africa as a potential marketplace, and the rest??? Now, this is a confirmation of a nice flow of money into an African shopping frenzy!! After South Africa, is Nigeria (which may als0 be on the list of oil suppliers to China, nice, isnt’ it??) to sell some FinServ institution to the Dragon!!

In the meanwhile, these are the top 50 Web domain in September 07 (courtesy of Compete), Mr Fry published another of his out-of-the-box posts on digital life and experience, India is really trying to tide the knots of its nuclear partnership and technology patrimony, just in case the predictions of an Iranian Oil Ministry representative (“the crude would not hit $100 a barrel”, “oil price bubble will eventually burst because it is fuelled by geopolitics and not shortage.. – ops, quite right – …”) are not all hitting the target. Cisco loves globalisation and opens up a globalisation campus in Bangalore, India (as if you do not know where Bangalore is..), and Chinese companies may adore the support of China Netcom directly into the heart of the City of London to foster European operation.. and Indians are supporting consumer services, in another sort of globalisation trend (person-to-person outsourcing.. for Heaven’s sake…). The World is definitely shrinking, and the Web is the hydraulic press..

UK is moaning about IT skills shortage (as well as energy shortage for this winter…), whilst one of his sons is talking about human limits and the endless possibility of a motivated individual.. nice one, Ben! I would like to close with this, we all need some inspiration, every now and then.. after all, we have our challenges too!!!

See U later!!!

China goes safari… hunting banks..

I believe that most people have noticed that there is a massive economic and geopolitical struggle going on in Asia since quite a long time.. to cut that short (any drill down most than welcome and I would like to discuss it with any of you..), China is today the most powerful threat to USA on Earth, US are building up (or trying to..) a “wall” of cross alliances to limit the energy of the Chinese steamtrain (a revamped friendship with Japan, an attempt to equalize troubles in Korea, missed out badly with Russia..and more..UPDATE: sorry, forgot India in the count!!!!!), and attempting to choke the country in a”war” to control oil pricing (which China is sort of dodging with agreements in Nigeria, Angola, Congo, and South America, plus I believe some rejuvenated interest in nuclear.. want to see that one..) and block some markets …

In an nice turnaround, China is strengthening its presence into the potentially massive African marketplace, via (also…) acquisitions in the financial services sector. ICBC buys into South Africa’s banks enclave… what could be better for China to let some of its cash out to troubled Africa for, say, some rights over the immense wealth the “savannah” actually holds?? Would be possible for China to lead African development and artificially foster the creation or explosion of an easily manageable marketplace, perfect for its less-costly industrial production?? Should check it more carefully, certainly, but nothing happens without a reason, and even more so when considering geopolitical moves…

Thoughts welcome..

Italy, Italians and a country free fall..

I am back from my usual week end off.. Milan is welcoming me with a saddish clouded sky, the Southern wind usually does that, it brings clouds and humidity, it turns everything so sticky, and it seems that the sand in the air, coming from the South Eastern deserts, drives you nuts, everybody is so nervous, tense, on the verge…

That is a perfect condition for what has been broiling for some time here in the Bel Paese.. firstly it was very much Italian.. always discussing, always scorning, always complaining about politics, politicians, the country, the laws, the taxes and everything else you could ever complain about.. it made the conversation at bars and dehors, it added some critical sparkle to otherwise marvellous cobbled stone hallways full of cheers.. and this is the way we would like to consider Italy: a stunning country populated by nice people, with some witty tongues and a ever-present critical attitude towards “the establishment”. It all made such a superb holiday brochure..

Then the truth..

A country that, in a decade of history, has been steadily falling to pieces, sliding down in every possible ranking apart from those regarding the less appealing features of a country: pollution, criminality, scandals, financial debts and a bunch of others, including a poor research and development investment, appalling country infrastructure, a low level Internet distribution and knowledge, somewhat primitive use of IT (regardless what someone may claim, we are talking “country” here…), let alone a ridiculous education system… in a few words, a Janus-like country… blessed by Nature, offended by its own people.

The past years have been peppered by scandals (political, social, economic ones..) that until recently made mostly those glossy pages on magazines, something we used to laugh and dismiss as “usual”… scandals became more and more significant, massive amounts of money paid to bribe politicians, stolen from the healthcare system,vaporized in unpaid taxes, allocated to elitist privileges…nothing new?? Maybe, but the old Italian way got into a virulent metastasis process and started to permeate and pollute every single aspect of Italian life. The entire system got into Defcon 1, at light speed, since its survival has been put in danger.

The fundamental are above and beyond worry: ageing population, low productivity, poor renewal rate in the working population, cumbersome legal canvass, a stellar public debt, and most importantly a totally inexistent awareness of the importance of “excellence”. if you combine this with the fact that, as a stand-up comedian stated, the sentence written in every court “Everybody’s equal under the law” turns out to be a question with “NO” as an answer, the scenario is pretty depressing.

On the Times on Line there was an article regarding the proposed law to tax (and thus control) everything ever produced on the Web, including blogs… Now, despite the fact that seemingly blogs are “out of the scope of the present law” as stated by some deranged, asinine and seriously daft politician (how on Earth you may come out with this sort of absurd law in the first place, this is beyond my understanding.. almost..), the saddest thing is about making the press for those sort of occurrences..

This is the first time I have actually felt … no, I may be wrong.. I was 11 when an Italian politician was killed by some terrorists.. in May Italy is so beautiful, and yet the day Aldo Moro was killed I felt fear in the streets, I heard the silence of otherwise buzzy streets, I almost remember people walking like immediately before a curfew..and I did not like the feeling at all.. these days I feel a louder, more evident fear, but the smell is the same, fear.

Fear that what was once some silly attitude to laugh about is now a gangrene that start to rotten with a foul stench, fear that all the words you hear from TV-interposed politicians are more like those from a sci-fi B-movie, fear that all the movements, people in the “piazza” and those blogging heavily are just the neural reaction of a dead body… people are scared and try to mask with endless queuing for a plasma TV or a tiny stretch of beach, nevermind being strangled by debt, rising housing prices and low salaries ( as stated by an Eurispes study) with a massive social contribution and (incidentally) poor services..

Read the comments to the above Times article.. 70+ comments and lots of them asking for help.. to give Italy some hope, to freed Italy from a strangling class of new Thugs, to distribute some sort of decent future for the younger generations.. someone, quite ironically I love to think, pledged for the UN to send the Blue Helmets… what a saddness.. we need to be conquered to be able to keep going… as it has always been at least for the past 500 years…

There is a nice and quite wise saying, I thought it was Italian but I am beginning to question it, stating “Aiutati che Dio t’aiuta (Help yourself and God will help you)”… I wander when people will stop moaning for the sake of it and begin to take action, but first and foremost how long will take people to understand that life is at stake here, and you cannot leave your life in someone else’s hands..

Finger Food (15)

Earlier than usual, here we are… I will be heading down to Tuscany this eve, have to spent some time there sorting out few issues, including some family business and a round over my bike (far too long since the last proper one!!!), but haven’t forgot to put together some stuff for you all to browse.. there are few jewels and a funny collection of Web 2.0 you may want to look at.. here we go, Finger Food again!!!!!

• Social networks risiko rises the bar.. Microsoft into Facebook, as Google was (is… IMAP on Gmail..) into office application.. retaliation theory at its best? Love to discuss about corporate strategy, pressure points and gyro theory with anyone interested…
• eBay is luring back sellers with.. a 33% price cut, and more to come!! Competition stiffens for all…
• Cisco goes shopping, just in case WiMax turns out to be a real blockbuster..
• Gosh… now is about Twine.. no, hang on a sec.. the Complete Web 2.0 Directory!! This is a Frankenstein site we may begin to love (courtesy of Marketing Routes)!!!! And still I am wandering: is it all this necessary, how critical we have to become? Anyone for Web-overload??
• A new carbon trading facility, to oblige to the phenomena..it is incredible how there will be people able to make money out of a planetary blunder such as this..do we have to expect a price rise for those industries heavily involved into retail markets, such as aviation??
• Meanwhile, China goes over the Moon (in Spanish, since I started to read back some Iberian newspapers..) which incidentally could possibly divert attention from oil to space for a little while.. it would be nice to see how long will it takes for someone to claim we have to foster democracy on Mars..
• China on the moon, Japan and USA into mobile virtual worlds!!! Gemini S’town hits the streets.. I noticed Japanese youngsters were deeply buried into their mobile phone, guess this will be an interesting development, as long as the communication capability is the primary focus .. and you do mind the lamp posts!!!
• And Wii is getting virtual, as VW News states here. Which, incidentally, seems to be the best of two worlds (both virtual, indeed!) to create a powerful customer experience.. at least, on paper! Sometimes, as seen in the past, to combine spikes of market excitement does not yield the expected returns…
• An update on Larry going shopping (the Oracle-BEA drama..): now Mr Ellison got offended and he wants a clear answer back by Sunday..wow, very much like a Jane Austen hearth-breaking stuff…
• China is having its Internet champion, the B2B site Alibaba is skyrocketing and asking for some market hard cash … the hottest IPO of the year…..

Some other interesting occurrences, such as the combination of India and Egypt to improve healthcare, with a seemingly mutual effort, and also India is in nice talks with Iran over some oil pipelines (guess Georgie will try and export democracy nearby New Delhi), Italian luxury lifestyle gets kuodos, Maserati doubled its sales in UAE, whilst China will keep down investments to cool down economy and pollution (nice…despite a stunning +11.5% in the last quarter..), EU still wonders how to deal with Russia in the upcoming summit (and I dare add the upcoming winter season.. gazprom..supply…that thing..), the A380 flies over to Australia, and I am off to Tuscany!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have a nice We you all!!!

UPDATE: finally, Oracle gave up the chase… as it seems!! The lions does not always get the springboks….(as the Rugby World Cup has incidentally demonstrated!!!! )

Twitter, low expectations and “being critical”!!

Again.  Another social phenomena. Twitter is making the press in a more pressing manner than before.

Which I do not mind, but it all seems like adding to that disease I once called “cyber-inadequacy”. You’re not twittering???!?!? How sad could your life be??? Small circle of friends??? No friends whatsoever??? Meanwhile, I am enjoying my lifetime  three friends hanging around the Mediterranean with the newly bought 39-feet Azimuth one of the above decided to get to reward himself, nevermind someone with a weird nick lost somewhere…

Still, it is interesting to notice that someone pointed out as, for this new born communication arena, you may have a sort of a batch approach, a lower expectation level, an on-off style. Something like  I AM NOT ALWAYS CONNECTED!!!!!!!!!!! TO YOU AT LEAST!!!! Which I believe is pretty much a revolutionary and almost blasphemous thought. Nonetheless, I love it!!!

This is the first hint, the initial sparkle, the subtle rise of the “power of disconnection” we spoke in an earlier post, it is about being a “critical” user of technology..

Nice one, we get back some room  for ourselves, not to be shared necessarily with the rest of the Planet, and most interestingly we should not feel guilty about!!!!!

IMF crucifies IT, the source of all evil!!

So much for the evolution of society towards a tech-aware, 2.0, whatever eSociety.. the IMF, in its World Economic Outlook 2007, stated that Information Technology and its ecosystem are the fundamental cause of World’s inequality (here an excerpt..).

There is here an interesting (!!!) theory about globalisation, free trade, financial flows (Foreign Direct Investments) and technology. In short, but you may want to go into deeper details here, PDF version) it is stated that globalisation is, overall, reducing inequality due to a diverse effect combination of free trade (which is a positive impulse to evolution) and a rather not-so-positive FDI (which eliminate some diversities albeit augmenting some turbulence in the countries originating the FDI flows). The reduction in inequality should be better translated into an income rise amongst the (once??!?!? please..) poorer part of the World population, whereas inequality is, whoops, actually rising due to … technology!!

Lots of articles and commentaries have addressed the issue, from Financial Times to The Register, and yet I believe nobody has ultimately pointed out a major factor: technology divide may be a more likely suspect, a better one than tech itself.

FDI flows go to countries that, for a number of reasons, are more attractive than others to investors, and unfortunately this fact cannot fully exploit a real, global organisation of production, wealth, innovation, evolution. China and India are attracting a severely different level of FDI, both in terms of origin (around 60% of Chinese FDI comes from what has being called its “diaspora”, and investments are capital intensive and with – relative – low tech level, 70% of Indian FDI measure comes from Western countries and includes a strong level of technology transfer – courtesy of S. Majumber on The Hindu Business Line on IFM data) and, again, usage: Chinese production vs. Indian services. First point: is the country economic and social development plan that drives inequality within the country, not really the FDI or the technology.

Tech is a first and foremost a fabric, a neural system upon which building up, is an energy source enabling further advances. If this energy is “held in hostage” by a small fraction of any given country, it is not a tech “genetic” fault, isn’t it? Extend this at macro-geographic level and it may still apply.

The actual chasm between deployment and usage of tech resources determines the inadequacy of a given country system to compete in a given “scenario”. What it should be important to notice is the fact that there are multiple scenarios to fit in, and the combination of all scenarios are making up the “global wealth”. Therefore, as far as providing “living energy” for the Planet (since we are talking about globalisation..) is the main task, we all need a China (with less pollution maybe??) and we need an India. We need tech and we need plough. Question is about how to rightly value both.

Capital flows are not actually designed to improve a country systemic wealth, or a macro-geography systemic advance, but generally serve the purpose of few “actors”, and capital moves around to foster any potential mid term return. To ignite technology in a system is the easiest way to foster a mid term return, it is like a steroid cure for the weakest, that seldom conduct to long term gains if the cure is not supported by a targeted and systemic distribution of the new “booster”. Again, it is about the divide and not the tech itself.

Someone, guess it is the FT columnist, argues that on a global scale inequality is certainly shrinking, I am questioning whether this is a statistical statement, which clearly encompass a massive rise of rich limited portions of a country population and a significantly larger grouping still feeding the former with brute manpower….

And on we could go… bottom line is there still are three, if not four “planet Earth” on the same celestial object we all inhabit and whether there are rich or poor nations and people it is not because of technology, which ultimately the human race has developed and still control, but it is about the stronger against the weaker, it is about profit and power, not about bytes and IT services.

Plauto, a latin author of III century B.C, gave us “homo homini lupus”, which Hobbes transformed in a castle of thinking, and Shakespeare, in his Julius Caesar, made Cassius pronouncing “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.”

Have a thought.

Loopt and your whereabouts on display.. why???

I have been reading an article, courtesy of the Italian “Corriere della Sera”, about the advent of GPS based localisation services in USA, nothing new to be honest, and the consequent ramp up within the youngsters.. for a mere $2.99 a month, everybody connected to services from Loopt and Helio Buddy Beacon may actually be seen and found over a GPS-enabled map… OK, fair enough, you do have the possibility (how kind..) to decide who can map you down (try and say “no” to your wife/husband or girl/boyfriend..) but nonetheless other “someone” will always know your whereabouts…

How hard will it be to ask and answer to the question “Where the …. are you???”. Not too long since the power of disconnection will hit the roads..trust me!!!

Hang around and work in Japan!!

Creativity is such an overrated word these days, but sometimes it is more than applicable to everyday’s touch of genius.. This is, roughly, the situation (courtesy of Joy Ito): youngsters in Japan have become some sort of hang-around-and-see-what-happen group, with very little inclination in sorting our their lives and hunt for the proper job, standard life.. the World is mutating so fast, life is a big swirl of occurrences and possibilities and, as the drunken man leaning on a lamp post with his home key in the hand and “if the world is swirling sooo fast, sooner or later my home will pass from here”, they wait and see, doing almost nothing.

So, some businesses may have trouble in finding a decent workforce, or even a workforce altogether… so, the sparkle of genius comes in.. you may know this already, I did not (cannot have a God-like, all-embracing knowledge.. can I???), but here it comes Otetsudai Networks (if you have any Japanese language skill click here)!!!!

The “thingy”, run by Mr Sunagawa, basically puts together demand and offer, nothing new, here but, wait..

Say you need someone to help out your car-wash given the recent sandy rain..you hit ON, in which you put down your request (someone to help washing cars for four hours….), people that are connected (subscribed) to ON will actually see you ads, and will apply to the “position”, if they want, if they need some cash, if they have some spare time, if, if, if…. Now the icing on the cake.. people will be on GPS, thus will see and will let you see the entire picture: where is the job, how far from my position, and for you how many people applied, how far they are and which sort of experience they may have…(in washing cars, yep, you know..). This “referral” is actually applied also to the job advertiser (how good the owner-manager is, the pay, the actual workplace…).

You choose the right chap/lady, and there you are, problem sorted for the car-wash and some cash changes hands, allowing the kiddie to spend it, and having it circulating, and so, and then, and the rest…

Why it is interesting?? Clearly it makes the most of the tech available: mobile networks, GPS, some Web 2.0 features (mashing up sites with location-aware information), the amazing array of mobile devices scattered allover the place (and people living in full symbioses with them..ring any bell, Italy???), but most importantly it is designed after analysing in full details a young tribe that is populating a modern city, the service has leveraged a modification of the social canvass to deliver a win-win solution for all parties involved. Most effective I dare say, and without starting a social debate on temporary jobbing, the condition of the youngest in large urban conglomerates and blah blah, but solving a rather simple equation: problem, solution (in this case good enough..). Add to the recipe some flexible work regulation (I believe..), and above all acceptance of social changes and there you are, a modern city-society problem solving activity. No questioning on whether this is good or bad, and furthermore that is private and not governative (who cares…), if it solves a problem or augment recrudescence, I am just stressing the effectiveness of social and urban tribes analysis. With very little talk on innovation, evolution, case studies, round tables and so forth.. it has been simply done.

Would like to see it happen closer to home..

iPhone, then GooglePhone, now what? The iSkyphone???

Nevertheless, here is another contender!!! Skype wireless phone is going to be launched “by late October” in Europe.. considering that most EU citizens, and most of all Italians are “mobile based” rather than PC-based, I guess this could be a “see-what-happen” kind of situation. The phone will be equipped with a “Skype” button (something along this line..) which should trigger a proprietary application, developed by iSkoot (sounds very much like a viking word, which is all the best for a mobile company..), that will magically connect the little thing with the immense Skype friends’ community everyone’s got these days..

The fact that will be under the “3″ umbrella, as already cited into the BizWeek article, should actually lead to a rather complicated tariffing scheme, like you have to call your favourite number in New Caledonia more than once a day to get a 15% rebate on each and every SMS you send to people more that 250Km away that, ultimately, will build up against your free calls to… ….. ….

Still, it is a nice option, as if we didn’t have aplenty already, into the “mobile experience” slaughter arena…

More to come (I am afraid!!!!)

Finger Food (14)

It is slightly chilly this morning and I cannot recognised the sky, the colour is some strange kind of pale blue, sort of cold, milky.. this has been quite a strange week, I have been working on lots of small things about the Web, since someone is asking about the “2.0″ phenomena (as if all the money in the World would pass through that..), about enterprise security and a small presentation on data challenge within SMBs in Italy..guess this weekend is well deserved.. a birthday party tonight, some friend on the Riviera tomorrow, and that should do…

But, clearly, first comes first.. here we are with something to keep you going for the next couple of days, steaming hot finger food!!!

• Since most of the planet goes mad with chinese products, and considering that, as stated by the most, the Web is a must-have infrastructure to even begin considering a country a developed one, China goes all digital and virtual… now it is just-in-time manufacturing, as if the batch format wasn’t enough to fill up all coronary units across the Western emisphere with once-successful entrepreneurs and business managers..and VWs are always part of the recipe…
• Now that the iPhone is out, the other consumer giants battling into the comms space would like to have such a flashy and nice-to-fiddle-about thingy into their portfolio as well.. Everybody wants a friendly phone!!! They want it so badly to share developments efforts (Motorola and SonyEricsson), allow a PC application to customise the phone GUI at will, it all comes down to have incredibly powerful little PC in everyone’s hands.. yes.. nice..
  
• There it goes, a new sort of “Celebrities Death Match”, feat. MySpace vs. Facebook… and incidentally you come to think about the money Rupert spent for competing.. waaaay toooo much, it seems..
• Ms Mayer, the Google cyborg running Search Products and User Experience (what would you do to give out VP titles these days..) is peeping around via Google Health (heck..) for yours health data, to actually help someone’s to find it, or help you to find yours, or help someone undisclosed to find it.. whatever…
• Considering that Internet, the Web and all its declinations are fundamental pillars for a modern and developed country, the Italian government has thought about a law to tax ALL Internet publications… I would come back to this one only if the approving procedure of the law will go forward, hopefully someone will think through and drop the entire thing before my country get scorned once again at international level..ah, yep, to add to the skills of the Italian rulers: it seems that the crappy (sorry, but sometimes you need to be plain..) official Italy website, Italia.it, could possibly be shut down, due to blatant uselessness..here is the YouTube video (in english…) with the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage boasting the incredible creation.. almost 40 million Euros lost in cyberspace…those are the people ruling out about the Web.. do come along, please..
• In the meanwhile, the real champions go training to improve.. eBay has launched a new, desktop based interface to boost usability and user-friendliness.. eBay Desktop allow you to do the usual whatever directly from desktop, without opening up your favorite browser.. nice add, and using the new AIR technology from Adobe.. haven’t we said we would have seen more from the PDF Master??
•  An update: Radiohead initiative (free DRM, pay-as-you-will new album) is getting an hefty 100k download per day (1.3 million and counting..) and an average price tag of about 5 pounds (British pound..) for those that have paid something, there are nonetheless pretty much the same amount of illegal downloads… the CEO of BigChampagne, an online media measurement company, stated the above is due to the unparalleled ease of using a P2P network..

And more from the Web 2.0 Summit (Twitter cast -was- here..) , with Apple going about an SDK for iPhone, Nokia presented Ovi (mmmm, bad name here in Italy, something like “eggs..”, Rupert that would like to trash NYT via a stronger Wall Street Journal (add interactive feature to that, also?? Buy another social network made for dropouts from the Street??? ah.. strategies…), and there is a nice trojan stealing Skype passwords (Skype Defender.. anyone?), the barrel hits a new high at $87.61 on Oct. 16th, and Flickr goes geotagging..and a study from Dartmore Uni states best contributors to Wikipedia are those anonymous writers (no accounts..) and doing it for free, no ego gainings attached..tks all..

Guess this is all for now, I will go and get another coffee to keep me going and  wish you all a smashing WE, catch you on Monday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A day at SMAU!

Just back from SMAU… right, what the heck is SMAU, for those of you that are not Italian??? Simply, that is (should be..) the largest, most famous and historical ICT exibition / convention in Italy, held in Milan and generally in October. The event went through a roller-coaster, somewhat hard times: it once was the reference for anybody in IT (ICT, later..), it was submerged by schoolboys in desperate quest for the latest gaming/pc/whatever cool gadget from, say, end of ‘90 to mid Naughties, then went a bit downhill and then, supposedly, resurged in the last couple of days.. supposedly, as to avoiding the screaming hordes of hormonal youngsters crazy for bytes and bums (companies’ stands swarmed with hostesses..), SMAU became a business-only game… quite sad indeed, to be honest..

The excitement buzz was lost, no perception of technology riding the tidal wave of innovation, no feeling that ICT was out of the basement and into everyone’s house and life… it is back to be a trite and sparkless affair for boring attempted-pin stripes suit wearers … nevertheless, I went.

Scope was to attend a conference (more a workshop as it turned out to be..) on Web 2.0 business opportunities…

A good two-and-a-half hours blew in the wind of Second Life and geomarketing “a la GoogleMaps”… incredibly boring, to be honest, particularly for a couple of issues:

• the SL part, albeit well documented with infos and numbers from the usual sites, including Second Life Insider and KZero, was poorly organised as to give out some new insights on what is business in/with/via SL (if any.. ) and focused on the end user experience guideline (how to fly, why to fly and some other amenities..).. the only biz remark was about the SL potential to extend relationships and create some sort of improved customer care, supposing your customers are actually in..
• nobody stressed the cultural impact of approaching SL to enhance and empower the organisation, that including training, virtual conferencing, interactive product / feature demonstration, workgrouping and so forth.. in a country (Italy) where it is scarcely adopted even the “remotisation” of a workplace, or at least is not as widespread as it should be, I trust it will be hard to explain your boss “I am actually working..” when interacting with a fish called Wanda …

Plus, there were some other statements and pearls of wisdom which I thought were superfluous for those already within a VW and totally out of place for those who are not yet in (remarks included something along the “people buy stuff for the avatars and not something to take back to real world..” lines).. the approach was either druidic or “we and the Others” kind of patronising tone. A big no-no altogether.

There was a nice notation on all of the above: the absolute high percentage of female attendees in the audience. Now, before you start with pub-style comments, it is interesting to notice how an usually male populated area (girls, IT WAS boooooring !!!) today was sort of 50-50.. you give this a nice explanation, I believe it could be due to information technology being increasingly embedded into everyone’s life, with some cool declination quite recently and, more importantly, it is no longer a technical affair but it could well be placed amongst the “humanistic” topics…. (which I rather..)

The interesting presentation from Microsoft about its Virtual Earth application was somewhat too quietly digested by the attendees, I was expecting a rain of questioning, how that could go against Google Thingy(es) and similar amenities, whilst all went out with a mild clapping of hands, unheard it went in the overall buzz-chatty sound of the hangar-like compound SMAU is in..

Some missing companies: Microsoft itself, nobody from the mobile comms industry apart from RIM and Telecom Italia (partly mobile, ok…), none of the networking giants (Cisco and bros..), PC manufacturers went AWOL apart from IBM and a neighbour such as Lenovo, absolutely nobody from the Web 2.0 industry, whatever that may be… if someone of the above was around, either its stand was real tiny or it was placed nearby the toilet area, which I did not explore at all.. furthermore, gadgets were horrible, I ended up with a c@#p yellow yo-yo… poor me, what a day…

So, end game was not so exciting as I supposed it could be, and that is remarkably sad, considering the wealth of innovation and buzz that is going on today all over the World.. and that is scary, for you need to have a stronger grasp and a better picture of ICT as the main change agent at your disposal today, if you want to have an healthy country system, ready to ramp up. I better go to my feed reader and see what is going on…somewhere else??!?!

MySpace loud voice will be heard above the Sky(pe)!!

The very concept of value got an entirely different meaning since the planetary explosion of the Internet phenomena, insofar “value” was increasingly linked to “users” or, more disgustingly put, “eye balls”. Then came the day in which the old World ruler, Money, claimed back its throne and there it was, the Internet bubble….

Slowly but surely, the old remnants of the Internet started to morph and mesh, evolve, develop into new, unprecedentedly seen permutations and those are called the Web 2.0 days, in which the concept of value, again, moved towards more alluring shores, Community and Social Network (again an elegant permutation of “eye balls” to some). This being the present era, it is quite understandable that champions arise and fall, alliances are made and demolished.. and in this context the once-independent Skype, the ever-so-famous “open communication” platform, was bought by the other ever-so-famous eBay, the everyone’s favorite auction site, in the attempt to breed a super-champion (as if we were talking about Varenne…). The attempt failed.

But persistence is a quality not to be overlooked and there we are, another super-breeding exercise on the run: Skype and MySpace, another ever-so-famous social networking site, are somewhat beginning the preliminaries..

This could make some sense, since both companies are involved in the communication arena with a “social” flair.. minor hiccups are found in the presently not so strong (as before) market positioning of both, once the undisputed rulers today are at the most part of an oligarchy..

Whether the voice capability added (going to be added..) to MySpace will revamp the social site, which has experienced a significant drop in visits, pageviews (-20%!!), and a bunch of other variables (data from Compete, August 07 vs. July07…), and more importantly whether users will like to add another way of communicating (also considering that, as it seems from other Compete analysis, MySpace users tend to stick with the site or eventually to drop off altogether and move away – possibly from the social networking two big contenders, the other one being Facebook?!?!?!) .. is it something like the incoming diatribe between convergence-divergence, in this case meaning “I will use the appropriate communication medium (and intensity) according to the people I am interacting with??”. MySpace’s fundamentals were about profiles, bits of digital life gathered for others to see, and with a sort of near real time communication.. if that has to be enhanced by adding voice to the mix I found it quite debatable. Then again, I trust someone have been playing quite thoroughly with the Web tribes concepts…

PS So, why not adding voice capability to avatars, and the possibility to run a sort of “avatar multi-conference” as to interact with several other “Us”??!??! Endless possibility, but heck, do not beat the drums too early!!!

Wii rules!! Nintendo got up on blue chip ranking!!

Some posts ago, we discussed over the impact of the different gaming experience Wii was bringing in the marketplace.. now that experience translated in a shower of dollar (yen..) for Nintendo. The company, as presented, surpassed the 10 trillion yen mark (how many “zeros” in a trillion!?!?!?!), thus becoming the third in market capitalisation at the Japanese stock exchange, joining the Toyota-Mitsubishi UFJ couple in a elitist club of the “amazingly large companies”…

Now, and considering that those numbers are 80% above Sony’s, as stated, we should appreciate that attention economy, users’ tribes and experience are somewhat fairly fundamental keywords for effective World domination… that provided you are able to discount the “innovation” factor and have build up a nice and smooth self-reinforcing product upgrade strategy.. than, there is something else that comes into play, called “retaliation strategy” which is a factor few managers I have met are able to factor into their cunning plans..

Christmas is approaching, more to come I believe!!!

Second Life wired to your real brain…

.. or, at least, what is left of it after having played for such a long time with all the VWs, MMPORG, videogames and Co’s since you were a toddler.

Still, this is what some Japanese researchers of the Keio University Biomedical Engineering Laboratory are currently perfecting. The entire idea is to “connect” the brain waves produced by the very thought of, say, moving around SL, to a BCI (Brain to Computer Interface) which will make the most of your EEG and will have you fly and hover around sims.

As usual, most of these “strange” applications are designed to allow people with some sort of disabilities to interact with a wider range of possibilities and to, partially, overcome some hurdles they may experience. Yet, this opens up some nice “futurology” exercises to accomplish…

Creative!!! Got it!!

I have finally decided, or better I have been behaving like usual, the impulse buyer in me got hold of my synapses and the credit card and I bought a Creative Zen, 4Gb..

I played with the new baby last eve, and I am pretty happy about it!

The Creative software suite has been extended to include a media “player” to sort out in a number of ways all the songs that are segregated into at least three different directories and over three partitions and two drives…worked out fine (and should clean up my PC…).

Also, dead easy as usual to choose and load the Creative with hundreds of songs, quite easy to combine and sort out playlists, very intuitive particularly if you have already got a Creative player (I have a V plus), same thing apply for the on-board menus and functions.

Nice and captivating interface, simple to navigate and get to the actual media of your interest: player, FM radio, photo, video… this is the most interesting feature or, at least, the one I was sort of interested, as to cope with some tube delays, railways hiccups or simply utter silly fun… the 2,5″ screen does its job perfectly, and the player has also got an internal codec converter which, albeit not at lighting speed, has put over the Creative an original language version of “This is England”, which I will enjoy at a later stage.. I do not go over all the system settig details, equalizer and so forth… all there for you to enjoy..

Altogether, and considering that the entire stuff set me back of about €150, it is a pretty good going! Ah, forgot to mention, the Zen has also got an expansion slot for SD / SDHC cards, which brings up the overall memory capability to a theoretical max of 36Gb (since Toshiba has announced a 32Gb SDHC …. ). However, plenty of room for anything you want!!! Light, handy and sleek, tends to get smudged a little bit, a silicon cover could be a nice add (nice, sort of..) (get the black one…) and would also avoid some of the scratches the player may get whilst into my messenger bag fully packed!

I still have to play a full movie and see whether the declared 5hrs of video playback are actually there or else, nonetheless the first few hours with the Creative are pretty cool!!!!

Virgin Radio and the old “Jump”, Van Halen… have to go..!!!

UPDATE: for those of you that may be interested, here is the review I did on Cnet, together with the other users’ comments!!

Just a little change…

… and try out another blog format.. hope you don’t mind, in case drop me a line!!!!

Ads in a virtual age..

Once upon a time, a world called “Advertising” was shaken by the advent of a new specimen, the “Web Surfer”, which was compromising all the evolutionary theory keeping up the Advertising planet as we knew it… that specimen had an extremely effective mobility, thus allowing for a superior confrontation ability, he/she was incredibly skilled in finding things and confronting them, he did eventually developed a communal conscience, and thus the opinion of his/hers peers was infinitely more valuable than the one provided by the oligarchic powers of Advertising..

Little by little, and with the help of some undercover Technologists, Web Surfers evolved into Avatars… a small and yet very powerful community of so-to-speak super-surfers, able to mutate from a mere purely virtual existence into a simul-physical appearence, albeit byte based. Avatars complicated Advertising a bit more, since the exchange of information and sensation would have improved from a virtual to virtual basis to something slightly closed to that one typical of a mythical world called Real Life, in which people were once made by flesh, oddly enough, and they were able to see each other in person, to speak about oddity!!!, and all events, objects and occurrences were discussed and judged, accepted or scorned via a plethora of concurrent communication methods: words (wow!!!), physical expression, body language, and few more refined tools..

The Advertising rulers, having not the faintest clue about the first batch of the new specimen, the Web Surfer, got completely lost with the advent of this radical evolution of the species… worried about their very existence, scared about a planetary-scale revolution potentially able to depose them once and for all, rulers of Advertising suddenly decided to foster collaboration with the least revolutionary wings of the new species, in a revamped version of the old “if you cannot beat them, join them” motto.

Here we are, then, hybrids such as this new guardians of the Advertising world are set to see the light of dawn any time soon, and the free rides along the Web of those revolutionary Avatars and their predecessors, the Web Surfers, might be gone forever…

Oracle is adding at the shop cart!! and BEA goes in..

I trust Larry went mad at the announcement SAP was putting Business Objects under its belt, so there we are, he proposed Oracle to buy BEA Systems … talk about industry consolidation.. Question is: the Fusion project may end up with too many software atoms to fuse into a coherent new enterprise energy??

More to come I guess…

OK, time to go really… enough is enough!!!!

UPDATE: somebody said “no, tks” to Larry!! Something like Luna Rossa did earlier this summer in Valencia…

Apple iTouch, Creative Zen or Samsung P2???

I spend, roughly, around 2.5hrs/daily with my MP3 player on… public transports to go back and forth from home to work, gym three times a week, couple of hours, office God knows… 1Gb is currently not up to the task, I end up listening to the same stuff simply too often, and I am lazy, do not want to change the entire music collection every couple of days..

So, let’s change the baby, and whilst at it why not some video playback options???

Now, the basics are: min of 4Gb, FM radio as well, a min of 2.5 inch screen, openness to do whatever I want with whatever format (audio/video)..ah, yep, do not want to spend a zillion for something that will be surpassed in six months time..

Apple iTouch, Creative Zen and Samsung P2 are all sort of fitting the bill… what do you reckon???? iTouch has got some flashy features, plus web navigation… Creative has got all in it, plus SD expansion slot and apparently a strong codec conversion software, Samsung is sleek, and has got Bluetooth for file sharing….

Asking to my elite community to give out a vote, pinpoint your favourite, drag me out of uncertainty!!!

Waiting for your inputs, most welcome really!!

UPDATE: Got the Creative!!! And here is an usage update…

Finger Food (13)

I have got here, in front of me, the “How to spend it” weekly magazine from Financial Times, and provided that you have something left to spend, there is a “magnifique” Orient Express revamped that is stirring my attention and longings, particularly in a Friday morning with a nice weather outside, the usual suitcase packed and a burning desire to go, just somewhere else..

And yet, it is time for our Finger Food, so there we are:

• Yesterday it was the card games at the “bar sport” (a typical Italian social institution of some far gone times.. basically a bar dedicated to sports, where you generally used to talk about football, car racing and the like, whilst playing cards and lose baaaadly out with some 70yrs old folks…), the football game with the mates, the Sunday “Serie A” or the car Grand Prix… today is all about PS1-2-3 and the PC… we love our PC more than the other half of our personal moon??? gosh… no wander birth rate is going down..
• To sustain the above, better to support the need of detaching ourselves from the electronic world, even the myth himself sometimes hit the road.. Tim O’Reilly goes travelling!!! I trust he has got his computer with him, though..
• In some of my strategic presentations I do stress the fact that enterprises today should use IT as a sensing system to detect every significant modification and change of status within a given environment (internally and externally to the company..). Now, this is taking the matter a tad too far…
• Since the business environment, with the arrival of those alpha geek stuff called Enterprise 2.0 (in a bash of creativity, I must say…), is getting even messier than before (it was quite enough to deal with Web 2.0…), companies feel like a boost in their intelligence is most needed… and there we are, SAP, the German enterprise software behemoth, goes shopping for (trumpets, please!!) Business Objects, a $6.8 billion bill… again, crunching numbers to death may seem a winning strategy for most companies.. to have such an array of solutions it is like putting a 500bhp engine under your old car… provided that it works, are you able to drive it???? They never learn, do they???
• Google goes mobile… more mobile than today… newly mobile.. whatever, Google bought Jaiku, which is, for the “not in the know” a company that.. they… I mean.. ok, this is it, directly from the source:

Q: What is Jaiku?

A. Jaiku is an activity stream and presence sharing service that works from the Web and mobile phones. Jaiku, Ltd. was founded in February, 2006 by Jyri Engeström and Petteri Koponen from Finland. The service was released on the Web in July 2006. Jaiku is based in Helsinki.

Ahhhhhhhh, sort of Twitter but mobile!!??!?!?!?! Still, nice add to Google and more to come, I believe…

• So much for Web 2.0, it is rather a matter of being part of the 10oGbps Internet2 club!!! You get over the geeky details, I fasten my virtual seat belts…

• Also, get them tighter in preparation for the Next Big Thing in software Intel is hunting down, in its Cool Software voting esercise… cast your preference, and allow a poor developer to become a multi-billionaire!!! as if…
• The Virtual World conference in San Jose is giving out some goodies, such as inDuality, to jump in and out of different VWs in a blink and without having to suffer virtual personality distress (tks to OpenID, as discussed here, tks Woeful for further commenting ..)
• Also, Linden and IBM admitted they are working together to give us a superior and more efficient VW experience, again basing the statement over the idea of an open standard to allow browsing into different VWs.. I am not exactly convinced that the “open standard” concept will have an easy birth and a hassle-free childhood, let’s wait and see…..more here!
• Furthermore, there was this announcement, about HiPiHi (VW leader in China) and Millions of Us (VW agency) partnering to enlarge and boast the Chinese market.. HiPiHi was at IBM’s conference on VW open standards.. all makes sense, and what about factoring in the restrictive approach the Chinese government generally has on Internet-related issue? More to come..

And EU companies are not spending enough in R&D according to a recent study, meanwhile Standard&Poor’s stated the Emerging Markets are outperforming the developed ones (gosh, surprisingly enough, I dare say… ), and MTV will overcast the muezzin in the Arab world (arguably a good thing, let’s hope for a nice..mashup!!), Ballmer admits “Google is the leader” as for search and advertising (wow…), Berlin has been definitely put on the Premier League of EU cities in terms of openness and creativity brushwood (we knew there was something going on there..!! ), plus I would like to initiate a discussion about the power of “divergence” (quoting Dean..) in our byte-based life and in life altogether…why boasting convergence capability when humans are complex and multifaceted??? Let’s start a counter-hype then!!!

Guess this is enough to keep you going, see you all on Monday, and enjoy the weekend, maybe after having a laugh at the “Last year Web history of Mademoiselle Britney Spears“!!

I’ll go trailrunning in the meanwhile….

Cheers!

Wi Fi in the Park, and Milan goes on air..

You all know that I am not staggeringly in love with Milan, which I believe is somewhat living and pretending way above its current status of second-tier European city, however, “render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s” and there we are.. there is, for the not-in-the-know, a lovely park in the middle of the city, Parco Sempione, which should actually be considered as the local version of NY Central Park or London’s Hyde Park (sort of..), and it is packed full with the usual fauna of joggers, mums with going-to-be-famous babies, some execs and other city parks’ paraphernalia. The whole community will enjoy the beauty of Wi Fi connection across the park!! Well, most of the park…

There is a “strategically positioned” antenna over the Torre Branca, sort of in the middle of the park, and some smaller antennas in four other location. The tricky part is the access, which is actually going via a “card” that the WiFi surfer should collect in dedicated “outlets” nearby the antennas (as the Corriere della Sera points out), and the card will guarantee access for three hours to be spent throughout the day. The card is free, seemingly for now…. Ah, forgot, to get the card you have to leave your full name, no nicknames allowed , and an identity document number.

Now, that is particularly ludicrous, even for an over-rated city like Milan. Could you actually think about how to complicate something that should be “free” in the first place a tad more???? Why do I have to give out all those info??? To protect who from what?? Do come along….

The nice thing is that the local “assessore” (someone in charge something, at municipality level) for the urban layout stated “the parks are our top priority” when considering the Wi Fi implementation, and the very chap claims “so that we will allure a larger number of people to go about the park to study and work” as if I rather be stuck in the office if I had not my boss checking for my whereabouts.. rubbish, utter rubbish and sounds very much like “parrot talking”…

And yet the entire plan, which entails the coverage of the urban territory by 2009, via more than 4,000 access points, is a nice step forward to the fuellest coverage to be available by 2015 for the “Expo” to be held in Milan. It is interesting, it is a nice way of pushing forward a city that may have lots to offer to residents and tourists alike, but the feeling is, again, that Milan is playing like it were a much larger and much more important city. And it is playing way too bad!!!

It has already been mentioned a “feasibility study” to be prepared in collaboration with the local Polytechnic, which I trust would lead to proving the project will have massive returns for the parties involved.. when, not too long ago, the city of San Francisco (!!!!) had some trouble justifying its project of Wi Fi cabling… SF, at the very heart of the tech evolution!!!

Guess if that rings any bell ….

In the meanwhile, it has already been stated that the wireless coverage of the city will not be free for surfers, and furthermore there will be a public tender to award the project… that would allow an immediate cash back into some pockets, with very little creative effort.. so, nevermind people would eventually pay for some contents, nevermind the fact that the municipality could use the widespread capability of being in touch with a range of potential “customers” via laptop or, increasingly, mobile devices to push for entertainment offers (info, tickets, discounts, coupons…) that may create a flow of activity and opportunities for a plethora of commercial actors (which would pay, say, for advertising… isn’t that the model of all the top flying Web companies today???)… and you could go a long way along these lines… why on Earth hindering the overall uptake of such a nice opportunity just to make money the easy (potentially) way??? That’s silly… (for the project itself, not for the pockets that may benefit from sheer stupidity..)

So, the overall idea of “virtual streets” in Milan along the old, real ones comes to a price.. for the users to pay… guess most of the people will keep on browsing the nice cafes and shops in the Triangolo della Moda and will be oblivious of Wi Fi.. apart from the typical Milanese posers, but that is another story..

PS By the way, if the municipality wanted to measure the citizens’ satisfaction for such a service, first should have not bother everyone with that data collection via crucis, and secondly, should have potentially launched the project not at the very doorstep of the autumn rainy season and winter cold… talking about stupidity…

CEATEC in Tokyo

I know, I did promise to write about my Japanese trip, but since I have landed back over to Italy, I had sort of lulling the experience, everyday a little bit more, every now and then going back to check few pictures, or an article, or some TV show, or.. something like this, the consumer electronic show CEATEC  in Tokyo (a summa of articles if you follow the link..)!!!

For those of you that have been over to Akihabara, there is no need to explain, for the others… it is, provided you like or love technology, like throwing a toddler into the research and development department of Mattel and Walt Disney combined together!!! A Middle-earth of adventurous bytes, never-seen-before tantalising electronic creatures, cavernous subterrains packed full of treasures and blinding lights of colored cathedrals … an amazing experience, truly remarkable!

You know what?? I love this creative buzz, and I sadly pity those who do not even perceive that something is massively changing… OK, fair enough, it is not all about VWs and electronics, but whilst we are at it…

Our world in 3D

I have already mentioned that, as of today, VWs are a superb 3D communication medium, and as such should be considered. Today, the 3D capabilities of VWs have been (seemingly) extended in a massive and very powerful way. Multiverse Networks, a company based in Mountain View (must be the air in that place…), will deliver a “platform” to create virtual environments  based on Google’s 3D Warehouse and G-Earth captures. The ultimate mashup so far…

The possibilities are endless, I believe. Certainly the entertainment industry and online gaming may produce some nice outcomes, but also the open source community could have a massive go at it and, why not, challenge some of the largest gaming companies on one or two titles, particularly when development will take the form of a “wiki” work, with everyone contributing with own’s ideas and stuff from the media scrap book in drive E: …

Also, that would open up a playground for the tourist industry, allowing anyone to experience a place without necessarily being there (that would be a tremendous interactive brochure, wouldn’t it?)..now, since the tech running in the background is currently set to support just a thousand of concurrent users, that would possibly cater for a premium experience for some “already alive” VWs… and what about a boost to the eCommerce and eBusiness industry??

And more to come..

Now, the overall feeling is… JUST GIVE ME A SEC!!!!!!!!! It is absolutely incredible the pace evolution has taken, and the immense wealth of opportunities, ideas, projects, technology that can be combined to create something that was not even remotely there a month ago. The extreme power of the so-called Web 2.0 is simply this: put together things and allow people to play with it, and put together those new things and allow people to play with it, and put together those new things and allow people to play with it… a creative “nuclear” reaction set to blow the established and know territories away. In which way, form and intensity is yet to be understood, if it ever will.

Yesterday we were pointing out that relying on numbers when working at the edge of chaos may actually prove somewhat useless, or at least partial… 24hrs after that, I repeat that the most important asset you may boast when analysing such a mutating scenario is a superior connection between your right and left brain hemispheres, since our parallel processing capabilities are constantly challenged. Someone could call that “an open mind”..

However, enjoy the show!

Research firms go mad in Second Life…

I left the office reading about the sheer madness created by some numbers crunched a touch too roughly by a renowned market analysis firm, number that were related to the monthly usage of Second Life…

The path to despair left a track, here, here, here… and tons of other articles are hitting the same chord..

Now, I do believe that quite often people use numbers to hide behind and avoid some harsh confrontation on contents, ideas or hypothesis, and numbers are also used to justify events and phenomena that sprouts from the intangible realm (this is a ludicrous attempt in the first place..), let alone those people not able to have the tiniest decent sparkle of genius and thus base all the analysis and answer on a “rock solid” bed of numbers.. cut is short, numbers are not holding the truth of all the things and events under the Sun… or, better, they potentially would, provided that you do analyse and compare ALL the possible numerical scenarios that are applicable to a given problem..

To analyse and come out with strong statements about a market condition, a social event, a complex phenomenon would entail to crunch a ridiculous amount of data… technology, finance, macroeconomic, social, whatever you want.. it is all entwined in a complex ecosystem of relationships, cause and effect, it is all living at the very edge of chaos..

The evolution and impact of Second Life in everyone’s lifestyle is not related to the present relationship between users / usage-nr. of hours spent on line.. it is ALSO related to the combined marketing efforts of “n” companies pushing together to position SL deeper into a larger customer base life experience, thus encompassing an increased user-friendly and more efficient technology, a larger distribution of “access” method (including mobile.. why not..), the availability of a straight-forward relationship between access/experience fee and customer return… and long you could go along these lines.. message is that a complex and highly influenceable system cannot be framed by a single set of numbers (only). Period.

Think about this: this huge flow of information, counter information, j’accuse, excuses, and miles of lines of blogging, including mine, are all stirred because someone somewhere did a major cockup on something related to Second Life.. now, that’s the power of SL, it is already a social hit, it is something so embedded that is almost becoming sacred, or better sacral, go and measure this!!! Maybe the hype is not paralleled with commercial results (not that SL is intended to become a supermarket, this is something companies would like to believe, since all the other channels are bleeding given that the normal market space has been squeezed to death and “whoever had to buy, bought” as a friend of mine used to say..and also since opening up other markets would prove more costly than squeezing some money from an online markeplace someone else did put in place… ) (complex analysis…), but the impact of VWs and SL goes beyond that, it is more like “reality is not the way you used to think it was”, thus opening up for communication, ideas, possibility that the establishment may not entirely perceive or intercept (kind of Huxley came back via bytes..).. it is altogether difficult to predict the outcome of something we do not entirely understand, and since we do not entirely understand it, we tend to frame it into numbers (the thing we do understand) to discover it does not make sense, and thus we trash it all as “foe”… sacred text do not explain the entire world around us, nor do numbers.. and relying on a partial view of reality lead us to wrong, massively wrong conclusion.. Vision, ability to combine and make plausible scenarios, willingness to challenge the standard thinking and a massive helping of curiosity are more than anything quite necessary qualities to display when discussing about “the future”..then, eventually, the numbers…. otherwise we will be very much like the Cardinal Bellarmine against Galileo.. and we, as humans, made that poor display of stupidity once, better not doing it again..

PS About supidity.. it is, however, pretty stupid to analyse a phenomenon using a “month: August” data set, particularly when considering an ecosystem with a large user base located in Europe, since in Europe August is holiday time and, most likely, those numbers are not a good sample, nevermind what they are telling you…

Finger Food (12)

Friday… have to say finally.. pretty strange and sort of hard week, since I am bouncing on projects involving the energy sector, business intelligence and Enterprise 2.0, without mentioning the start up of a work aimed at defining new business models for the extensive use of innovative (evolutionary) IT solution within the tourist industry. Cool…

In the meanwhile, October is at full swing, with nice, coolish mornings and warm days, which is nice altogether, I am still planning to go about a beach (you never know..) whilst it may be more likely to go and look for mushrooms in some nearby woods in Liguria. Which, incidentally, goes pretty well with out weekly helping of Finger Food!!

• Since the launch of Motorola Razr back in 2004, the cell phone industry flew over the wings of design as one of the main competitive differentials: connectivity was a basic set of features (2.5 or 3G, BT, Wi Fi when out…), camera or not (but increasingly above the 2Mb performance point..), internal memory supported by external sticks.. and there they come, the Ultra, the N-Series, the Razr permutations (albeit not all that successful..), the Walkman series, the Pearl and the Chocolate, let alone the iPhone… the only one to be left behind was Palm.. and incidentally it posted the first loss since 2003… now what??? Either the company comes out with a smashing hit in the next season, or it will go fattening up someone’s portfolio (guess, guess…)
• Nevertheless, the mobile and PC industry is navigating “a vista” since, as stated by some of its powerful and highly creative executives, it doesn’t know what people want. That is a claim most of us can actually verbalise referring to girl/boyfriends, sons, wives and husbands, relatives and friends, just because “people are strange” and incidentally all different.. at the very least, they may gather into tribes… but that may be asking too much to analyse… ah, yes, and there is a thing called “systemic approach” to consider.. also.. gosh, that’s becoming real tough..
• By the way, I happen to read some days ago that the map and navigation features over the Nokia phones were sort of appalling.. that article may actually have made it up to Helsinki, and here is the hefty answer to that help cry: $8.1 billion spent by Nokia to acquire Navteq.. not all combinations amongst champions yeld high returns (eBay-Skype…)..
• De-localisation is definitely a factor in the global economy.. services in India, manufacturing in China, and now data centres in Scotland!!! Fair enough about power supply (wind and water aplenty..), I would also add Lagavulin and Oban as a plus for the masses when winter strikes and looking at data streams and continuity KPI may become a touch boring…
• Then, whilst hanging around the Highlands, what about listening to your favourite hornpipes stored on a moss-green new Zune???? OK, moss-green may be slightly odd, yet the toy itself is quite cool (btw, I love the font used in screen menus).. nicely priced… out November 13th, pre-orders on Amazon.com … will die waiting to see whether the exchange rate $ / € is then put on 1:1.. as per the iTouch.. have more details on MS new baby here…
• Tribes are everything for a Web 2.0 environment, the power of referral is fundamental to market to the right cluster at the right time… so, why not catering for the same tribes-based society also when considering mobile services??? Nice idea.. Japan did quite a long ago, MVOs are there to support the idea, so what’s up? Maybe is the idea that people are not all the same, but they gather in groups (tribes), and satisfying their “tribal” needs will translate into solid and sustainable revenue streams, and the long tail is back on swinging…
• Adobe does it right.. and we may expect another player into the desk apps space??? Uncle Bill and the Fantastic Duo should better watch out…

And more.. like nanotubes attached to computer chips will help the cooling process, in a more “prosaic” application of evolutionary nanotech.. and the philosophic discussion I had with few mates and some executives about the position Apple is (unwarily??) taking as the new “colonialist” company in the IT arena (so, where would be the gain in boasting “I am an Apple fan” when it would sound like some time ago proffering your love for Microsoft..)… and USB 3.0 seems on its way, with speeds up to 4.8Gbit/sec, which ultimately means you could transfer an HD movie in about 70 seconds, versus the current 15 minutes (should you really be in a rush..), Japan is going over the Moon, everybody else is following at close quarters, and the space is the next Maldives.. whilst Berlin is hot again with the Web 2.0 Expo (here).. and we are already wasting time, efforts and brain power (as if..) on defining Web 3.0 (pls consider I am still asked to prepare exec presentations at top IT firms about “what the heck is Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 and everything 2.0 …)..

OK, will definitely need a double or triple screen, like those in Wall Street (finally, a dream come true pretty much like the new and final Director’s cut version of Blade Runner) to keep track of it all… I will be off in a matter of hours, and if you do not have the guts to leave your PC home, go and try CSI on SecondLife.. ok, it isOctober 24th, but heck, get the front row sits!!!

Have fun and enjoy your WEnd, catch you on Monday..

Virtual worlds and the gold rush..

Long time ago, my mum bought for an unknown reason a book titled The Sword of Shannara. Admittingly, I had not read any fantasy before that one (no, not even the Lord of the Rings..), but I quite fell for the plot, the adventure, the…everything.. and I thought what an amazing movie that would be, or what a smashing game it could become..

I sometimes believe that quite a lot of our inventions, creations, and to some extent evolutionary endeavors come from the way we grew with our dreams, what we wanted to do and what we liked when we were free to play.. thus I like to think that the current hype and the explosion of the virtual world frenzy could also stem out of other than business opportunities.. it is like traveling in spaces and realms made by our imagination, and more interestingly composed by the dreams of hundreds of thousands of people like us..

The child in us is constantly in charge..

Then, incidentally, dreams are valued for what they are, the food for anyone’s soul, and thus monetise that is quite an easy and most interesting task.. in the recent times the VW environment has gained traction and a wealth of venture capitalists have decided to inject fresh capital into the dream theatre, according to Virtual Worlds Management that amounted to an hefty $1billion.. more on that here..

Given that there is no philanthropy involved, I have to assume the entire operation yields some sort of return (apart from cashing the venture capital by the VW owner..) .. ads??? No way, we have already discussed about the potential fallout of extensive ads campaign into originally-free worlds..eBiz? Perhaps, but not in the immediate future, again for the very reason the VW existed in the first place, connection amongst dreamers, and thus very little inclination in spending frenzy here..(maybe at a later stage..). So, where’s the beef? Lateral return? As in brand equity, standing, fit or anything intangible?? That would actually make some sort of sense, since you may operate in an “intangible” world…

Discussion open, in the meanwhile dream on!!!

UPDATE: and, to put it straight, investments in VW should also leverage something like this Metaverse Market Index, due to be launched at the San Jose convention, October 10th … gosh…

Radiohead’s new work … and it is up to you!!

Today is such a fine morning in Milan, I headed into work quite lighthearted, God knows why, and I was deeply buried into listening Virgin Radio (since my mp3 is just 1Gb and I need all the music I have for this eve’s training session..), and there it was, Karma Police, Radiohead… nice intro to the morning news the band from Oxford is launching a brand new album, due out October 10th…

Nice, but where’s the beef? Quite simply, their new work is absolutely free!! Sort of… actually, Radiohead have decided to leave up to the fans to decide what to pay for the dowload, from nothing to whatever they want!!

Apart from some obvious considerations about the current business model of the music industry, what really strikes me is the lesson the band is giving: music is community, and in a community each member helps the others. Someone is playing music, the others reward him for doing so..

I know, it is not that simple, however I find it socially important, it is a significant shift of paradigm, the value is upon those who enjoy art, and not set beforehand. It actually assumes that people have some sort of social responsibility, a high level of education and respect.

But, most of all, it would be a lesson against restrictions and impositions, and it would be great to know, at the end of it all, how much people have valued (that’ is the trick…value.. very much “social internet”, isn’t it??) the new Radiohead work.. could all end up with a massive blow to DRM theorists and such (by the way, RHead said “no, thanks” to Apple..)???

Dreaming is free, after all…why not..

Facebook and how to spoil a piazza…

It seems that today there are two types of frenzy within the business community, either to conquer the outer space or to get hold of a worldwide renown social site… now it is Facebook that makes the press!!

Both may actually signify that “the World is not enough” (I have to stop watchin’ telly…) and there is a dare need to discover new frontiers .. where to place ads, maybe???!??!?!

The valuation Microsoft is currently placing on each and every couple of eyeballs in FB is around 66$, which is significantly higher to the 11$ paid for MySpace’s eyeballs… it seems that users do not really love to be considered “eyeballs” and thus MySpace performances have been going slightly down, as the Italian “La Repubblica” pinpoints, or at least are shadowed by those of the going-to-be-acquired Facebook (541% growth in UK vs. 20%..). Google, incidentally, is part of the race…

However, point is: would it possibly be that the fame of a social network in the business community may become inversely proportional to its resilience within the Web community itself???

Are we still perceiving that the entrance of a revenue-driven behemoth is hindering freedom altogether???

After all, why on Earth Mark Zuckerberg would like to impose or push anything to his beloved audience?? For no reason whatsoever, insofar that would be a risky move and prone to, well, spoil the fun of it all and slightly piss .. sorry, upset customers.. that is exactly why he is cleverly cashing in and selling the whole thing off to someone that will transform a free space into a massive billboard.. or something along the line..

In the meanwhile, waiting for an easy way to move one’s identity around (see other posts..) we will browse around to find the perfect hangout, that lovely place without ads, silly people showing off fake boobs or six-packs, in an attempt to be the next Web-phenomena, and without tens of thousands of friends we do not know anything about!!