Category Archives: Ponderings

What would monkey C do?

Willie Sutton was once asked why he robbed banks? His reply was “Because that’s where the money is”.

When I look at some web initiatives I find myself asking is this a Willie Sutton initiative? That is, are we targetting a mass market? A space where visitors will naturally congregate. Or are we blazing a new trail?

It seems obvious that expectations about visitor numbers, levels of engagement, impact of an initiative need to reflect where in the webcology we are positioning ourselves so why then do I still have discussions with people who expect Facebook levels of traffic for an initiative which is either of specific importance but limited wider attraction or so far off the beaten track as to be invisible?

In the former case, you may well get very intense and active participants as it can be something which the target audience feel passionate about but if the business case said you would get 1000000 hits a day then you are stuffed if you only get 100 people a day visiting the site, even if they are committed users who find it really important and are very vocal supporters of the engagement.

So the key conversation to have is right at the very start. Because while it may be tricky at times to transition a niche site into the mainstream, it is much easier than promising to rule the mainstream and only achieving niche.

An Adventure of Keats and Chapman

I inflicted this on staff in my Department so now it’s your chance, oh Internet.

A virtual prize for the right answer and the first person to name the writer I have so poorly pastiched.

Keats and Chapman had travelled to the Lakes in search of peace and the possibility of artistic inspiration, at least that was Keats’ idea. However the weather had been terrible and the inn where they were staying was notable only for its leaking roof and the vileness of its beer.

The two friends had grown irritable and it seemed that the trip would produce nothing but bad feelings and ill temper. Then one morning the sun came out and the sky was cloudfree for the first time all week. Keats and Chapman set out into the morning for an early walk.

They walked to the nearest lake where they found a rowing boat in the care of a local child. Negotiating feverishly Keats managed to secure the hire of the boat and he and Chapman set out across the water. With only a single pair of oars Chapman found himself doing the rowing. Keats sat in the prow of the boat and watched his friend’s exertions with interest, calling out pieces of advice from time to time and making a range of comments on Chapman’s style of rowing.

‘Can you not row any faster?’ said Keats.

Chapman complained that the boat was heavy, indeed very heavy.

Keats began to look about the boat and rummaging in the bottom of the boat he found a large household brick. Looking around he picked it up and threw it into the lake where it instantly sank.

Chapman was still having trouble with the boat and it soon became apparent that water was leaking into the boat and weighing it down. The flow of water increased and it was with some desperation that the two friends tried to get the boat to shore. The flow of water was such that it was very hard to steer the boat and Chapman’s efforts at rowing seemed doomed to failure. But with one final effort they made land.

Standing on the shore, panting heavily. Keats looked down at the waterlogged boat and with a supreme effort said ‘As ye seep so shall ye row.’

The question is did the waterlevel of the lake go up, down or remain the same after Keats threw the brick in? And why?

Burn Prate

I was talking to someone last night about reputational capital. Reputational capital represents the level of trust or credence a person possesses. It’s a common feature in life – the football manager who is trusted because they have won a cup previously, a politician who has solved a crisis, a detective who has cracked a case all possess reputational capital which they spend buying our trust, our agreement, our complicity.

Reputational capital is hard to earn and easy to dissipate. Those of us who are service providers will know all too well the way in which years of exemplary service count for little if email goes down for 10 minutes.

Reputational capital is part of being a leader, we will buy charisma, vision and energy for a while but at the end we look for delivery, real or spun. There are plenty whose reputational capital has been built on the labours of others and the sheer good fortune of being in the right place at the right time. Such people try desperately to eke out their reputational capital just long enough to get away with it.

Change programmes can burn through reputational capital at a ferocious rate. We all hate change, even if we claim to love it we usually just mean that we don’t mind change when it happens to others or when it is pleasant and we are in control.

Incremental change works both because of the frog boiling effect but also because it keeps the reputational capital pot topped up.

I find myself wondering can I make sure that I do at least one thing each day which adds to my reputational capital? And ensure that I promote it. After all, reputational capital only works if people know your reputation. Which I suppose works both ways …

Long Week Words

The tool shapes the hand.

A posh way of saying that if the only tool you have is a hammer then every problem looks like a nail.

I am writing this on a Nokia N800, a little internet tablet, kind of like a Linux based iPhone but without the phone bit just wifi, Skype and Gizmo, Firefox and access to a large repository of free software.

The thing I have found most interesting about using such a device is how it shapes my approach to the internet. The internet is no longer something remote, locked away behind a computer that will take ages to boot, but it is now immediate, personal, readable!

I am not a big fan of the ebook concept, it threatens to leave the past mutable and the present controlled, but as I type these words and my brain nods sagely I can feel my paws twitch as they dream of an infinite library.

Bad Mark! No qualia for you!

Something about dentists inspires existential thoughts. As I sat in the chair this morning I pondered on some of the deep questions.

For instance, why can’t we breathe through our ears? I mean the “Ear, Nose and Throat” department at the hospital is an obvious manifestation of their interconnectedness so why can’t I breathe through my ears? Is it the eardrums? The lack of suck from the lungs? The fact that it would interfere with hearing? Or just the possibility of your glasses falling off when you sneezed?

As various machina buzzed, clicked and whirled about me I wondered also about the total bandwidth of a human being.

We have 5 main senses plus about half a dozen other senses – kinaesthetic, pressure, temperature, pain to name some of them. Is it possible to overload the senses? I know people lazily refer to something as a sensory overload – “everybody nu rave!” – but can we actually overload them?

Not just in the sense of say not consciously seeing something, there are lots of experiments and the odd Derren Brown episode to show that but rather drowning out the sensation entirely?

Even if we can’t do that could we drown an unpleasant sensation from conscious regard? Pain is a priority interrupt and takes precedence over all other sensory inputs but could we pump enough down the other channels to obscure pain?

Or will they have to keep shooting me with a tranquilliser dart to get me through the dentist’s door?