Open Business: Three-page focus in Cambridge Business Magazine

From the April 2014 issue of 

Cambridge Business Magazine

Cambridge Business Magazine published a three-page interview with me about The 10 Principles of Open Business in its April 2014 issue out now.
The print version is subscription only but anyone can view, download or save the e-magazine version here.
The article starts on p58. It's flash so no use for apple devices I'm afraid.

Social media strategy guns for hire

Image of Adriana Lukas

Good friend of mine Adriana Lukas is experimenting with auctioning off her social media strategy talents on eBay. Now there's a thought.
Perhaps a brave way to discover your market value - assuming of course the market finds you?
If you're in the market for two hours of Adriana (teamed up with Chris Heuer)... bid here.

And while I'm pointing places, if you're in the Cambridgeshire area (which is where I make my home) a couple of upcoming events: Vero Pepperell is planning a Cambridge geek night on June 3. More here. Hoping I'll make it!

And Amplified East is on this afternoon (2pm-6pm) courtesy of Rebecca Caroe.

Are you socially minded?

Socially Minded is a new group blog from people with a mind for social media, living and/or working in and around Cambridge, UK.
We figure it should make for a great collection of thoughts (fed, as it is from this blog (I live in Huntingdon, Cambs), Communities Dominate Brands (Alan Moore lives in a village near Cambridge), Dan Thornton's (resident in Peterborough), Rebecca Caroe's (another Cambridgeshire village resident) and host Matt Brazil (from Cambourne).
We come from backgrounds in pr, marketing, futurology, advertising, publishing, consulting, communities, editorial and more.
Socially Minded creates an online intersection for us - a place to aggregate and share.

Hope you'll share in the discoveries.

There are, of course, many, many group blogs. What I like about this, what makes it a little different, is that it brings together people both digitally and physically.
Though we're not being entirely exclusive about the Cambridgeshire thing, it does provide a focus - a hub for further possibilities.
An interesting space to explore.

You the channel

Microsoft Research was kind enough to invite Bauer Consumer Media (the company I work for) behind the doors of its Cambridge (UK) facility today.
I was joined by our Head of Technology Gus Swan and, along for the fun of it, Communities Dominate Brands' Alan Moore.
My very sincere thanks to Natasa Milic-Frayling for putting together a sparkling agenda and group of brilliant people which sparked some fascinating conversation.
Microsoft Research is the blue sky arm - where new stuff gets toyed with - often ideas that are years from being turned into a product, if they'll ever see the light of day.
And for that reason I'm not going to repeat the bulk of what we were shown.
However, one thing Natasa demo'd is in the public domain and I think it's very interesting indeed: WeConnect.co.uk.

Early in the afternoon we discussed Reed's Law (Group Forming Network Theory) and the idea that navigation and real-time discovery of people who share the same purpose is the thing that unlocks the potential of Reed's Law.

The problem that needs solving is: how do I find people who want to achieve the same as I do right now?

One limitation to overcome (and a pretty significant one at that) is the fact that the tools which enable this kind of connection, social networks, even social mediums like twitter, are still, no matter what their scale, silos.

The long term and monumental win is in a platform-agnostic solution. It is where we are the platforms. We, the nodes, connect through the internet as a whole, not a small subsection of it.

Which is why I find WeConnect.co.uk so interesting.

At this stage it's a series of platform-agnostic personal broadcast channels. I take a picture in Venice - I can share it with you on your mobile, or to my online picture gallery, or directly to your desktop; one-too-one or one-to-many. The connections are between us (via Internet Explorer in this case). The device we use simply realises that connection. There is no social network or medium involved.

Natasa and co are thinking about adding some of the kind of commenting we come to expect of social networks, but know that this will also bring complex design issues.

As it stands it's a brave first step.

Imagine an internet in which there are only blogs and those blogs exist nowhere other than at the point at which they are realised, or rendered, on a device. Imagine a place without platforms or silos, instead a place where groups attract through the implicit and explicit data each of these blogs exhibit. In real time. To and from any enabled device.

(nb, these are my imaginings, not those of microsoft, at least not on this occasion!)

A few steps to go then, but I like the direction WeConnect points.

Visiting Microsoft Research in Cambridge today

I'm getting through the doors at Microsoft Research in Cambridge this afternoon. I've no idea how much of what we get to see and talk about I'll be allowed to share, but whatever the case I daresay we'll have some interesting conversations and an exchange of ideas that can only add value all round.
I took a quick look at their site this morning.
Among the focus on 'being human' and nature's inspiration for the machine I noticed something that didn't seem particularly organic.
Under 'Careers at Microsoft Research' there are just two buttons: 'Interns' and 'Post Docs'.
In the context of 'blue sky thinking' that just struck me as a little odd...