Harbinger

Time for Conferences 2.0

2007-12-16T20:52:00.000+01:00

Current conferences have not changed their formats much in the last 20 years, they are still mostly about one-way communication. They look like television in the 80s: a guy telling you what is happening and showing you slides or videos about it. Your role as a delegate is to sit still, perhaps take some notes and hope that the speaker will disclose something you do not know already.
These types of events could still be fun and useful socially, but it is a very inefficient way to communicate, inspire and create real learning. And it is totally out of synch with all other forms of modern media in the internet age, where it is about two-way communication and the users are active participants in creating experiences together with the publishers.

Conferences 1.0
They way most conferences today are organized:

The web site is used only for listing the program and signing up the delegates.
As soon as the conference starts, the web site is dead.
In better 1.0 conferences the web site links to the presenter's slide shows a week or two after the conference, unfortunately there are just a few that still have the time then.
There are no speaker videos on the web site, for fear that it will make people enjoy them at home instead of paying to be at the conference. (But the TED conference made a huge success when they dared oppose this wisdom and started publishing all the speeches online)
They drag on for 2-3 days with a stiff dinner or drinks "party" sponsored by a company that you barely know about and where delegates hang out with their friends.
They are huge, with thousands of delegates, making it very hard to make contact with new people.

Conferences 2.0
My vision of conferences that are more engaging and immersive for both the delegates and the speakers:

They are small, a few hundred people. In this case, smaller is more productive.
They use online tools to let delegates present themselves and their interests and search for other people to meet at the conference.
They are concentrated to one day and evening where everything is designed to catalyze business networking
There are multiple screens around the stage and the rooms, showing the speakers as well as the back channels
Lend all delegates a wireless laptop for feedback and input
(you think this is expensive? look at the €260 Asus Eee mini-laptop!)
They use online back channels, (services like Twitter, Jaiku), as well as blogs and discussion forums that are open from long before the conference
The conference web site is the central collection place both before, during and after the conference for inspiring information, links to the speaker sites, blogs, back channels etc.
Everything that happens during the conference is on the web site, (including all the speaker videos), since:
1. it will inspire many more to come the next time to experience the immersive networking and participation of the physical event.
2. it is a useful tool for the delegates to use when they summarize and report back their experiences after the event.
They encourage the delegates to blog during the conference, and linking to all the blogs on the conference web site.

LeWeb3

2007-12-16T14:20:00.000+01:00

The LeWeb3 was one of the most professionally produced conference I have attended in several ways.
The video projection was the best I have seen and the audio was top notch with very engaging musical intros.
I also liked the schedule with lots of time for networking in the coffe and lunch breaks. The lunch offering was a totally staggering buffet of french gourmet cuisine at it best. A two hour lunch break with hundreds of small dishes makes it easy to relax and network!

Most of the speakers were very inspiring and I liked the mix of key notes and panel discussions. But the conference format was still 1.0, (OK, more like 1.4) it is now time at least for internet conferences to live like they preach and move to 2.0! (See my separate blog about this.)

Some of my notes from LeWeb3:

Hans Rosling
his presentations at TED have made him world famous, don't miss them!
"Storytelling works! There are 10 000 watchers for every clicker"
"Just putting facts on the internet does not work, storytelling does!"

Panel: The Internet's impact on design
This was a somewhat confused panel discussion, as it consisted of very different types of peope that did not know anything about each other.
Rafi Haladjan, the creator of the smart online rabbit Nabaztag (rabbit in Armenian). This rabbit is much more interesting than it looks, since it is a good example of an important trend: EVERYTHING will be internet-connected, not just computers and mobiles. The moderator missed this trend and Rafi should have demoed the rabbit. (I have just ordered one to get the feeling)

Panel: Monetization in the Web 2.0 world
A trio of entrereneurs presented their models, it showed just how difficult it is to come up with ways to earn real revenue.
A successful blogger mentioned that he made $25 last month from Adsense ads on his blog...
Another entrepreneur reported having bought a Facebook ad campaign with 1 million impressions that generated just 3 (three) clicks.
My conclusion: Nobody knows what will be the keys to monetization, but ads as the only revenue model is not working now and probably not in the future either, as the competition for ad dollars increase tremendously.

Panel: making things personal: investing
Morten Lund, Danish entrepreneur and investor
"I believe in revenue and profit" (applause from the audience).
"I don't invest in porn and entrepreneurs that are assholes"
"I go for stupid things that make real money online like nails, eye glasses, socks"

Another investor gave the tip: "Don't invest in companies selling to big companies, since big companies never buy anything! They have like 18 month selling cycles..."

Why Enterprise 2.0... isn't
JP Rangaswami from British Telecom Design was very inspiring:
" I don't worry about Google's policy of letting their employees use 20% of their time for their own projects.
I worry about the other 80%! Why do they still have the punch-clock thinking?
At my office, we focus on the output rather than the input!. What do I care when or where my people are doing their work?"

Evolving entrepreneurship
Martin Varsavsky came on stage with the message that there are indeed investement opportunities also in Europe, and that our 22 languages can be turned into something good. He also mentioned that 17% of Googles total revenue comes from the UK market alone!
His blog is a must fo everyone interested in internet-related entreprenership and international business.

The Future of TV
This is my own favourite topic, excellently moderated by Jeff Pulver, http://pulver.com/ a very energetic and typical American (Hawaii shirt and all)
"TV got the idea of Web 2.0 first and they have corrupted it! Using audience phone-ins and user-generated content such as American Idol..."
Also in the panel was the experienced blogger Robert Scoble, his videoblog at http://www.podtech.net/scobleshow/

Other interesting video services that were mentioned:
Asterpix, a new, highly interesting video site reviving the old concept of "Hypervideo", (interactive video). There are clickable areas in the video that lead to notes and links. You can also see annotations in a list and use them to navigate inside a video clip. Very smart!
http://www.blogtv.com/
http://www.kyte.tv/
http://dotsub.com/

Janus Friis (co-founder of Kazaa, Skype and Joost) made one his his rare appearances. Being an unusually shy Dane, he gave an inspiring, laid back and personal tale of the serendipity of his entreprenurship, from Kazaa to Skype to Skype. He and Niclas have disrupted the music industrcy and the telephony industry and they are now re-inventing television, not a bad feat! See also his blog

Also interesting is the fact that they have invented nothing new, they "just" saw that nobody was using the existing technologies to make really simple solutions and then market them. When Skype was launched, it had been possible for years to talk via MSN chat, but Microsoft had not realized that this possibility could be used to replace telephony.
But Joost is a more complex service, since it depends on offering good content and therefore deals with hundreds of programme rights holders around the world. But the biggest obstacle to overcome before Joost is a Skype-like success will probably be to make people more active in their viewing habits. Coach-potatoes are more common today than the stats show, even among the young!

Also, there is a link missing that can enable us to watch Joost on our big-screen TV in company of our friends and relatives. I see two ways for this:
1. come up with a simple Joost set-top box that connects to the TV (or have Apple integrate Joost in a smarter Apple TV model)
2. Integrate Joost into the digital cable TV offering from the triple-play operators.

The only mishap at LeWeb3 was the strange ending. The last two sesssions was somewhat disconnected from the conference topic and the speakers suddenly found themselves alone on the stage. One of the speakers that I wanted to hear, (David Weinberger) was inexplicably dropped from appearing on stage. All this caused the energy in the room to drop at the end and people left the conference with a feeling of anti-climax.
A grande finale session with uplifting foresights into the future was sorely missed!

Hubbub conference format

2007-11-25T13:19:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I moderated the Hubbub '07 conference in Stockholm, a very energizing experience. The organizers, young college students from Singapore, studying in Sweden in the Nustart programme, impressed me much with their talent and energy. They managed to gather a very interesting mix of speakers, ranging from young startup entrepreneurs with interesting internet services to experienced high-profile serial entrepreneurs like Hjalmar Winblad.

Hjalmar gave a very interesting view of how the telcos worldwide are milking us all for 700 Billion USD for simple stuff like voice and SMS services, and encouraged us to use our consumer power to break their strong-hold by using IP-telephony such as his own Rebtel etc.

We used a very effient communication system during Hubbub that I think should be used at more conferences: on the Hubbub Live site there were backchannels for everybody in the audience and around the world to use during the conference. Jaiku for commenting and asking questions, Flickr group for posting pics etc.

The backstage group of students edited the video feeds and fed me the most interesting qustions coming in via Jaiku to my laptop (through Skype). So I got great questions and feedback up on the stage and did not have to read through the whole Jaiku channel, very efficient!

I found that the questions posted to Jaiku (from both the audience in the room and elsewhere) where often better than the verbal question from the audience. When you have to stand up in front of a crowd and ask a question into a microphone it is not easy to formulate a clear, short question. So this system is smart for both the audience and me as a moderator.

2007-11-22T22:02:00.000+01:00

I am moderating a fun conference on Saturday, Hubbub 2007. The theme time is about Convergence on the Fixed to Mobile landscape (FMC), "Where Web, Voice and IP TV meet".

You can register here for the conference. It is free of charge and promises to be fun-filled & inspiring with insightful speakers. The event is on Saturday 24th November at KTH from 13:00 - 17:00.

Or follow the event live from wherever you are by clicking here

Presentation skills Do's & Don'ts

2007-11-15T20:22:00.000+01:00

Updated Dec 16:
I have been to five international conferences lately; The Future of Web Apps in London in October, and in November Beyond the Printed Word in Dublin and SIME and Hubbub in Stockholm and LeWeb3 in Paris

The first two had a conventional setup with a moderator who introduced the speakers, and then let the speakers talk for 20-40 minutes, most of them using Powerpoint to illustrate their talks. I found that the majority of the speakers had interesting things to communicate, but the way they performed their presentation effectively eliminated most of the value for me in the audience.

SIME used a different method, relying on a moderator that held discussions with 1-4 invited speakers on stage. I find this approach much better, as it tends to focus on the issues and not on the speakers and the history of their companies etc. But it of course puts a lot of responsibility on the moderator who must be able to distil the value out of each speaker, but Ola Ahlvarson did a great job of this at SIME. The only thing I missed was visuals, displaying the websites etc as they are discussed. Using a combination of voice, pictures, video and text is always preferable.

Hubub was a super-low budget but high-value conference, run by a talented group of college students, see my separate blog.

Since so many conferences suffer from these problems I felt that I must share my thoughts on how to hone your presentation skills.
Comments are welcome and please help me add to this list!

The importance of presentation skills
It is very sad that so many influential, bright minded presenters with a deep expertise in their fields lose their audiences due to their poor presentation skills.
It is also question of respect for the audience. People pay a lot of money and travel from far away to attend conferences, so their time should not be wasted. Both the organizers and the presenters need to do everything they can to add value to the delegates

For the professional speaker

Do's

Think carefully before the event: what does this audience want to hear?
Hint: they are not interested in hearing how great you or your company are, they want to learn new things that can make THEM more successful.
Start by urging the audience not to take notes, say that you will post you presentation online immediately afterwards.
Keep an eye contact with the audience, and move around the stage. Use a remote clicker to control your presentation. Remember that 70% of your communication is in your body language!
Speak slowly to increase the understanding and respect for what you are saying.
Be visual, use pictures and videos that illustrate your points. Read my lips: less text, more visuals!
Avoid monotony by using variation and surprises in your slide styles during your presentation.
Engage the audience! Ask questions and have them put their hands up. But don't insult them with silly game play.
Focus on 1,2 or maybe 3 things that you want to talk about. Explain the problems you are working with and then tell and visualise the solutions in several ways.
Construct your presentation based on classic drama:
Start with a Set-up, then Present the problem(s), then proceed to the Confrontation and finally the Resolution. This has worked for thousands of years!
Hire a speaker coach that helps you trim you body language and voice.
Use a spell checker on all your slides. Takes a minute, improves your image.
If you present in another language than your native, consult a language tutor to improve your pronuncation as much as possible. Getting your message out is about being understood and respected.
Test your presentation on other people beforehand and videotape yourself. Listen to their feedback and watch yourself: would you understand and appreciate your presentation?
End by slowing a slide with your contact details and the link to your presentation on an internet service like Slideshare. Post it there together with an edited speaker script. Make sure that all the links to web sites that you have mentioned are active.

Don'ts

Don't read word by word from your script. You will sound like a robot and miss the all-important eye contact with the audience.
Don't try to cram a 45-minute presentation into a 25-minute time slot by speaking at machine gun pace. You might just as well stay at home.
Don't read from text bullets in Powerpoint. If you have to use text bullets, keep them very shirt and very few per slide, then first let the audience read it and then, on your own words, expand on the subject.
Don't use complete sentences in your slides. Your voice should tell the story and the slides support it.
Don't start immedialtey to talk on top of your slides. Let the audience interpret the slide for a while, then add your comments.
Don't use hard-to-read fonts or garish backgrounds that obscures the text.
Don't use cute or unusual photos that are not illustrating exactly what you are talking about. It distracts the audience, nobody will hear what you are saying.
Don't use texts that fly into the slide or ANY other disturbing transitions. You're not running an amusement park, the interesting stuff should be in you content, not in your fireworks.
Don't waste you audience's time by presenting the history and organization of your organisation. Unless it is essential in order to understand your presentation, which is very seldom.
Don't mention tips like "be sure to check out the website www.fancynewstuff.com, it has great features" without displaying a slide with both a picture of the web site and the URL in big letters + a sign noting that the URL will be in your posted presentation.
Don't hide behind the computer or speaker stand. Make sure the audience sees you and maintain eye contact with them

For the ambitious seminar organiser:

Do's

Be fanatic about keeping the time schedule. First of all, don't delay the start because there are many people still arriving at the door on the official starting time. Start on the official second! This is paying respect to all the people that made the effort to be there in time, instead of letting the latecomers make everybody suffer.
And make sure that each speaker understands the time frame given, so that they don't try to run their usual 40-minute speech in their 20 minute time frame!
Try to have more on-stage discussions/conversations and fewer stand-alone speakers.
Use runners that hands out microphones to the audience, time is crucial.
Use back channels that enables both the audience in the hall and the internet visitors in the outside world share their questions and comments. Let the backstage people extract the best questions and send them immediately to the moderator using an IM client. These questions are often better than the questions from the audience in the room, since it is easier to formulate in writing than standing up with a microphone.
Videotape and/or write a blog from all the speeches and put them on the conference web site with a searchable index of content.
Use name badges that can be easily read from 2 meters in low light conditions. Put large national flags in colour on the badges so that you also can see the nationality of the delegate.
Offer free wireless internet all over the conference.
Offer electrical outlets for as many seats as possible.

Don'ts

Don't allow the audience to ask more than one question at the time. Neither the speaker nor the audience can remember two questions.
Don't allow the audience to pose long-winding comments or questions that are more about presenting themselves. This steals the show from everyone else.
Don't allow one person to pose more than two questions per session, and not more than one at a time.
Don't use badges on a long string to hang around the neck. They hang too low and often sho the blank backside, and they get hidden under the jacket, (if you must use them, print the name on both sides).

Web apps rule!

2007-09-28T15:17:00.000+02:00

Next week I am attending an interesting conference in London: The Future of Web Apps, http://www.futureofwebapps.com/

For me, web apps have quickly become a standard tool for most of my work the last two years, and I strongly believe that this is only the beginning.

After having used Google Docs, (I started with Writely long before they were acquired by Google), Remember the Milk (superior to-do list manager), Netvibes, and now lately Sixty (promising Swedish start-up, bulletin board online) I can no longer imagine going back to using local apps and local files.
Why?
- No more application updates
- No viruses in the files
- No backup problems
- No shuffling files with USB sticks
- No wondering "Is this the latest version of this file, or has my colleague changed anything?
- No more agony about having accidentally erased an important part of a document

and, most important:
- totally awesome for group work since several users can edit a document simultaneously
- easy to add or remove users with access to my documents

So I am surprised that not more people have realized this and started to use for example Google Docs. Today the also added presentations, so now you can do word processing, spreadsheets and slide presentations in the same web app, and export the files to Word, Excel or PowerPoint if you need.

But my hope is that The Future of Web Apps will be about the next step, there are many big opportunities in this area!

Podcasting 2.0, please!

2007-07-19T18:14:00.000+02:00

I have written before that I think radio has a great future, since it is now available in many more flexible forms than just tuning in to the airwaves. We no longer have to follow time tables and dial between stations, and radio is easy to consume while doing other things, such as commuting, jogging etc.

This summer I have downloaded a lot of podcasts to my Nokia N95 smartphone. It has a very easy to use podcasting application that lets me search for and download both audio and video podcasts using the 3G network.
But I strongly feel that podcasts could become much more appealing if the existing technology was used more creatively;

The big drawback with podcasts compared to text is that you have to play through the clip to know if it is interesting. You cannot just glance at it and then go someplace else if it bores you.
I can browse through 60-second clips on YouTube if I feel like killing some time. But I mostly find it boring to listen to or watch a 5 minute segment anywhere, unless I know it is about something of key interest to me.

What is the difference between a regular radio and a mobile phone with radio capabilities or and MP3 player? The display! So why not use it?

I get lists of podcasts from different publishers. They are mostly named just with a date and show name. No hint on content, participants or who the publisher is.

I want:

Text information for every media file: Headlines, who is participating, when was it published? Also there should always be a description of the publisher.
Tags describing the clip content, with interactive tag clouds.
A clickable text menu listing the program ”chapters”, so that I can jump directly to for example the news item I want.

And why are so many video podcast shows just a talking head? What’s the point? It just adds megabytes of useless video to my downloads and looks like television did in its infancy! If the resources for producing a professional video program are not available it is way better to work with audio and texts/still pictures.

And please, standardize file formats and controls. Now I get error messages like ”This file type is not playable on this device”, but often they still work. Other times I download a huge clip and then find that it fore some unexplained reason will not play at all.
And the controls are different depending on what media player I happen to be using. Imagine if the pedals and steering wheels did not work the same in all cars!

Scenario #3: Radio Revival

2006-08-11T21:00:00.000+02:00

Personal radio in your mobile

Executive summary:
Radio breaks free of channels and time tables and adapts itself to your preferences, anytime, anywhere. The combination of wireless broadband, personal data bases and vast media libraries lets you enjoy radio the way you want it.

- - - - - - - The scenario - - - - - -

The rain drizzles down on this very grey Monday morning as Anna boards the bus for her daily 30-minute commute.

“I wonder how long I would stand this without my daily radio theatre”, she ponders while she takes a seat and whips out her mobile and wireless headphones. She selects a new drama in the radio theatre menu.

Her profile is set to 25 minute-episodes to fit her commute time and seconds later she is immersed in a much more exciting world of adventure. As she leaves the bus she almost longs for the ride back, in order to learn what will happen next.

Meanwhile, her husband Mike is sitting in his car just outside the city, swearing at the heavy traffic. He is facing a 3 hour drive to an important supplier and cannot find any music station on the radio that he likes. “Why don’t I try a book instead”, he mutters and selects the Audio Books menu on his mobile which is sitting in its dashboard cradle. As he browses the different categories he notes that there are language courses too.

“OK, this is my chance of updating my Spanish. I will take an hour of Spanish lessons, after that I will enjoy that new Tom Clancy thriller everybody’s talking about.”

Their son Bobby is just coming home from his summer job delivering newspapers. His earplugs are still booming with a medieval war drama as he lies down on the lawn to experience the battle climax, with massive sound effects and big trumpet fanfares.

He then starts with his next assignment: mowing the lawn. To kill the next boring half-hour with the mower, he switches his mobile to his favourite music forum. An alert pops up on the display: “New single by Jupiter in your Mix”.

Bobby has opted for receiving promos and ads, since he doesn’t want to pay for the shows. The Mix music show is auto-composed daily according to his personal music preferences, with news, songs and interviews with his favourite artists.

Humming and mowing, Bobby decides to buy a download of the new single and pay a bit extra to also send it to his girlfriend, all with two clicks on the mobile.

/Henrik Ahlen :-)

“You may never know what results come of your action,
but if you do nothing there will be no result”
- Mahatma Gandhi

Scenario #2: The Gym 2.0

2006-07-13T12:08:00.000+02:00

Interactive support for personal motivation

Executive summary:
Fitness centers need to take their customer service to a new level and attract many new members. A skilled personal trainer can be very efficient in motivating members to continue their training and providing essential instructions on how to operate the training machines and set personal goals. But to hire a personal trainer regularly is too expensive for most people.

The Virtual Personal Trainer is a feasible and cost-efficient solution to this, offering most of the same services and helping with the daily motivation. A “real” personal trainer can monitor many more members that are their VPTs and sell individual coaching a couple of times per year. This scenario is based on existing technology.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Robert’s mobile beeps about an incoming SMS from his Virtual Personal Trainer:

“Message from your VPT: Your last training session was 7 days ago. Hope to see you today, come and get your strength back!”

Robert has worked long hours lately, skipping his sessions at the gym. He feels tired, so the thought of going there now makes him think of many other things he needs to do. But he knows by now that he will be energized if he gets it done, so he heads to the gym anyway.

Arriving at his gym, the electronic tag in his membership card is detected at the door, pulling up Robert’s profile page on the receptionist’s monitor. The receptionist glances at the monitor and then smiles at Robert.

“Hello Robert, it’s been a while, have you been away from town?”
“No, just too much work”, Robert replies, heading for the check-in panel.

At the panel his personal training goals and statistics are displayed. His Virtual Personal Trainer greets him: “Great to see you Robert, today we will work on your triceps and legs, here is today’s program for you”.

A printout appears, with pictures of all the exercises and data from his last session. His personal goals and progress so far are clearly shown in charts.

Robert gets changed and puts on his headband with a built-in wireless headset. He can now train to his favourite music, selected by his profile that he updates on his Virtual Personal Training web site. This profile also includes visualisations of his personal goals, with photos of Robert’s body today and in 1 year, along with his medical data.

At the triceps machine, Robert is greeted by his VPT appearing on a monitor. The music in his headset is replaced with the voice of the VPT: “Hello Robert, time for your triceps. I have set the seat height and the weights for you. The last time you did 12 reps, so try to beat that today!

Robert pulls the handles and works hard, listening to advice from his VPT. “Too fast Robert, slow down!” “All the way down, please!” “That was 9, just 3 to go!” “Great Robert, that was 11, now just do 2 more and you will have broken your personal record, come on!”

At the end of the session Robert feels relaxed and confident again. His VPT gives him a sum-up: “You are doing well Robert! You have increased your triceps strength with 12% and your leg strength with 9% the last month.

I have now updated your web site with your stats, and emailed you some useful nutrition tips that will help you reach your goals. See you again on Thursday!”

Henrik Ahlen :-)

”Strength of mind is exercise, not rest.”
- Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

Scenario #1: The New News

2006-07-04T19:40:00.000+02:00

The news I want, when and where I want it.

Executive summary:
Today’s news services are about one-way centralized channel control, “one size fits all” and constant repetitions.

“The New News” is based on a personal news profile that tracks my actions and is updated automatically. It is stored in a central database which only I and my media players have access to. This means that I am exposed to news only once wherever I watch or hear them, based on my interests, location and the time of day.

This is no distant future scenario, most of the technology needed for this already exists. But the existing media players tend to stick to their old models as long as possible, and there are of course also copyright and privacy issues.

- - - - - - The scenario - - - - - - -

Sven takes one last glimpse at his mobile before leaving the office.

The display offers some news headlines:

“My business news for Feb 21, 2007. A-list:3, B-list:6”
“Stockholm traffic: Heavy”
“My weather”

He taps the business news and finds three A-list stories, short headlines of importance to his business. He taps them and selects to hear the in-depth versions while he glimpses through the B-list news text headlines. Sven marks one of them for later reading and then taps the traffic report.

A Stockholm map appears with highlighted traffic flows. He taps the button “Best home route” to get an optimized itinerary to his home, based on today’s road conditions.

As Sven is approaching his home, the mobile, sensing that it is in the car, reads out the local news for his neighbourhood and collect some offers from the local merchants.

Relaxing at home, Sven watches some sports on the television. When the game is over, he calls up the news. He also updates his news profile, adding Barcelona as a location since he will soon go there on his vacation. This means that he will be notified of events and things to do in Barcelona based on his interests, and when he gets there he will be presented the local news.

Sven then decides to see the video version of the business B-list news he saw earlier. It turns out to be important to his firm, so he takes out his mobile and emails it to his colleague. He is then also assured that his profile is automatically updated so that similar stories will be put on the A list.

Sven is interested in computer games and the environment, so he is presented with the latest news in these fields. One story about an upcoming Playstation game catches his interest, so he asks for an expanded version and is presented with a log list of other stories about the game, as well as blogs and forum discussions that he can choose to subscribe to.

He has paid a small fee to avoid direct commercials, instead relevant commercials are collected for him to see when he wants. The fee is reduced for every commercial that he chooses to see, so he goes through most of them when he has the time.

“It’s great to be in control", he thinks. “Just think of when I had to sit through a whole half-hour news show with mostly stuff of no interest to me. Not to mention the radio, with the same news blaring every half hour. And no more tampon ads for me either, thank God”

Henrik :-)

“The future belongs to those who prepare for it today. “
- Malcolm X

Scenarios!

2006-07-03T16:08:00.000+02:00

I have dabbled with this blog for some time now, writing tidbits about new products that I like etc. But everybody else is doing that, so now it is time to focus.

I am shifting to English. Swedish is a beautiful and clever language, but somehow it is lacking the global spread that I seek…

My focus here will be on writing very short scenarios. I like scenarios, they trigger my mind.

A scenario is a description of a situation and how the user interacts in it. It could be set in the future for in the present. Scenarios are often used for participatory design activities, since they generally do not require any specialist knowledge.

The gap is now wider than ever between the vast possibilities offered by today’s technology and our ability to use it to develop new and out-of-the box products and services. Just look at how most of us use the very powerful networked computers we now have: we mostly type texts and send emails.

My heart is in media, the creation and distribution of it, so many scenarios will describe new ways of enjoying media. Every new medium has always imitated the previous; the first movies where filmed theatre plays, TV started as illustrated radio, internet has up to now mostly been a digital newspaper or one-to-many message medium.

I attended my first interactive media conference in 1988, invited by Apple Computer to San Jose, California. The buzz there was about the digitalization of media and the upcoming merger of television, IT, print publishing and telecom. Well, a lot has happened since then and it is certainly taking off now, but nobody knows what will be the next “killer app” and who will succeed. I suspect that the old, big players in publishing will have a hard time breaking out of their old boxes, since so many of the old truths about media now need to be reconsidered.

So stay tuned, I hope to create some discussion and make new connections, comments are welcome!

Henrik :-)

”Television is a medium because it is neither rare nor well done.”
- Ernie Kovacs

Lärande & Scenarios

2006-04-18T20:05:00.000+02:00

Efter en tids dvala har jag nu bestämt mig för att aktivera mitt bloggande igen. Jag kommer att fokusera på korta scenarios, dvs berättelser som simulerar verkliga och personliga situationer. Scenarios är ett bra verktyg för att trigga kreativitet och debatt eftersom läsaren lättare kan relatera till ämnet om det sätts i ett sammanhang.

Återkommer under sommaren med en närmare presentation av mina tankar kring scenarios. Tills dess kommer här ett retrospektiv, en framtidsvision som jag skrev 2001 om "Individen i lärsamhället år 2011". Det är en önskebild av hur lärandet sker i Sverige år 2011 som jag drog på en hearing med IT-kommissionen i Rosenbad.
Visionen kan läsas på: http://alfabravo.com/artiklar.htm#Individen

Hur känns dessa tankar idag? Hur långt har vi kommit vidare med det livslånga lärandet som det talats om så länge?

Musiktipsartjänst

2005-11-06T09:13:00.000+01:00

Pandora är en kusligt bra musiktjänst på internet.

Man talar om vilka låtar eller artister man gillar, och Pandora spelar upp dom och andra låtar i samma stil. Man upptäcker masor av superbra musik som man inte hade hittat annars!

Pandora gratis i 10 timmar, sedan rimliga $36/år. Jag är helt fascinerad!

"Want to find music that is similar to your personal tastes? The Music Genome Project might just have the answer, in the form of a subscription service called Pandora, http://www.pandora.com.

Input a song or artist name, and Pandora will build you a personalized "radio station" of songs that are similar in syncopation, tonality, vocals, etc. It's uncanny how accurate the selections are."

The Long Tail & MS Media Center

2005-09-19T17:17:00.000+02:00

En mycket intressant företeelse som jag läste om första gången för ett år sedan i denna artikel i amerikanska tidskriften Wired: "The Long Tail"

Artikeln pekar på helt nya konsumtionsmönster som dyker upp nu när Amazon m fl erbjuder nästa obegränsat stort urval av nya och gamla skivor, böcker och andra former av media som kan distribueras helt eller delvis digitalt. Detta öppnar för helt nya typer av affärsidéer!

Några citat ur artikeln:

Make everything available.
In the Long Tail economy it's more expensive to evaluate than to release. Just do it!
You can compete with free.
Hits still matter.

Jag hittade en blogg som handlar om The Long Tail, där man i detta inlägg nyligen tog upp ett annat av mina favoritämnen: digitala TV-system för hemmen där man kan spela in och distribuera TV-program på smartare sätt, t ex med hjälp av Microsofts Media Center PC eller DVR, (Digital Video Recorder).
Läs kommentarerna så inser du att detta är ännu en smula komplext, men att hela TV-mediet håller på att förändras i grunden.

Är det någon som testat Media Center PC i Sverige?

Befria dig från TV-tablåerna!

2005-08-11T12:08:00.000+02:00

Det skrivs fortfarande insändare om att TV-program sänds på fel tidpunkter; ”Jag ska upp tidigt så jag kan ej se UR som sänds vid midnatt”. VHS har funnits i 30 år, men folk orkar inte leta fram band och programmera inspelningar.

Men en mycket smartare lösning har funnits i åratal i bla USA och England: boxar med hårddisk som kan spela in och av TV-program, de kallas för PVR (Personal Video Recorder) eller DVR (Digital Video Recorder). Finns inget svenskt uttryck ännu, förutom otympliga ”hårdiskinspelare”.

Vad kan en PVR? Allt som en VHS-video kan, fast med mycket bättre bild- och ljudkvalitet och en rad andra finesser:

Den kan spela in och av samtidigt, vilket gör att man kan pausa en direktsändning. Om telefonen ringer trycker man på paus så påbörjas inspelning. När man kommer fortsätter man att titta från den tidpunkt man pausade. Samtidigt fortsätter inspelningen tills det aktuella programmet är slut så att man kan se hela programmet.
Man behöver inte leta fram ett tomt videoband när det kommer ett intressant tv-program. Hårddisken har en kapacitet på minst 40 tim TV-tid, mycket mera än DVD.
Man kan spola förbi reklamen. Om man spelar in ett program så börjar man helt enkelt att titta en kvart eller så efter att det börjat, och när reklamen kommer så snabbspolar man förbi den.
Detta är en rysare för TV-bolagen som lever på reklam, men de kommer så klart att hitta andra sätt att sända reklam.

Varför marknadsförs inte dessa i Sverige? Jag har bara sett en enda artikel i svensk massmedia, i gårdagens SvD Näringsliv. I artikeln säger chefen för TV5 ”Tv är ett passivt medium. Jag tror att de flesta personer tycker om att någon annan komponerar deras tablå.”

Men vill vi verkligen det? Jämför med musikbranschen, där iTunes blivit en stor succé till stor del därför att folk gillar att inte behöva köpa en hel CD utan kan köpa låtarna styckvis och enkelt skapa sina egna spellistor. Här tror jag att det finns stora möjligheter för den aktör som förstår att utnyttja denna trend. Men branschen verkar sticka huvudet i sanden för att slippa se hotet. Än mindre ser dom de nya revolutionerande affärsmöjligheterna!

Den ledande PVR-boxen i USA heter TiVo som kom år 1999 och anses ha revolutionerat TV-tittandet. Där säger man inte att man har spelat in ett TV-program, man säger att ”I Tivoed it” för att markera att det är så mycket mera. Med TiVo kan man med en knapptryckning spela in en hel tv-serie utan att behöva hålla reda på när avsnitten sänds. Man kan även spela in alla program med en viss skådespelare, eller alla program om hundar etc.

TiVo har börjat med egen reklam som anpassas till tittaren och laddas ner till hårddisken och experimenterar även med reklamskyltar som bara visas medan man snabbspolar (!).

Nu är det hög tid för mig att köpa mig en egen PVR!

Bortom musklicket

2005-08-10T17:56:00.000+02:00

Gränssnittsutvecklingen vad gäller hur vi navigerar och styr våra datorer, varför går den så långsamt?
Alla metaforer är ju forfarande från 1900-talet: skrivbord, papeprskorgar, pärmar, arkiv, tabbade innehållsförteckningar,
och inte minst själva musklicket som är en slags tryckknapp à la elektrisk strömbrytare.

En intressant och rolig sajt som har en navigation helt utan klick! http://www.dontclick.it/

Den är gjord av en tysk student som examensarbete i Communication Design. Visar bla exempel på hur man kan aktivera en knapp på flera olika sätt utan att klicka på den. Det känns rörigt och ovant, och nästan omöjligt att låta bli att klicka. Det är även väldigt lätt att gå vilse när man råkar röra muspekaren över bilden.

Detta är självklart inte nödvändigtvis ”bättre” än våra vanliga gränssnitt med musklick etc, men det känns viktigt att experimentera förutsättningslöst med nya sätt att navigera som verkligen utnyttjar de möjligheter som datorn ger och inte bara är kopior av gamla världens verktyg.

Hur ska TV-kanalerna tjäna pengar?

2005-07-08T13:03:00.000+02:00

TV-reklamintäkterna sjunker stadigt på grund av att YV-spel och internet, men i USA även för den ökande användningen av hårddisk-inspelare som gör det enkelt att snabbspola förbi reklamen.

Det är för mig en gåta att detta inte slagit i Sverige ännu, alla jag känner som har t ex TiVo säger att det är helt fantastiskt befriande.

Men vad ska då TV-kanalerna tjäna pengar på? Jo, mera interaktion med publiken såklart. Tävlingar och omröstningar där publiken skickar in betal-SMS är redan stort, men det är ju egentligen ett mycket primitivt sätt att kommunicera med tittarna. Man ska läsa en lista med olika SMS-telnummer för olika alternativ och manuellt knappa in dessa på sin mobil. I de flesta fall får man ingen återkoppling alls, möjligen ett svars-SMS. Allt är bara text.

Jag tror att mobilt internet kommer att ta över, allt flera mobiler har det redan idag, det funkar med alla tv-apparater och möjliggör många nya funktioner som kan göras mycket enkla att sköta, här är ett axplock:

Grafiskt gränsnitt, jag kan t ex få upp bilder på alla artister jag vill rösta på, och bara peka på en av dom.
Ljud: spela upp ljudeffekter och musiksnuttar.
Tvåvägs-kommunikation: TV-kanalen kan direkt visa mig rätt svar, eller inbjuda mig att köpa en produkt som det samtidigt görs reklam för etc.
Enkelt att lägga till interaktiva funktioner som att skicka in mail eller koppla upp samtal direkt till programledaren.

Snacka IRL med kafégästerna!

2005-07-07T11:10:00.000+02:00

Tre studenter på Berkely i USA har utvecklat PlaceSite, ett system för att minska "zombie-effekten" (att man inte kommunicerar med de människor som är runtomkring, utan är mentalt nån annanstans) och öka den sociala kontakten mellan besökare på internet-caféer.

Systemet är föredömligt enkelt och intuitivt: När man slår på sin dator inne på ett café som har trådlöst nät, så kommer man automatiskt till en startsida där man ser bilder och korta presentationer av de andra gästerna som befinner sig där just för tillfället. Det är alltså bara de som är inom räckhåll för caféets trådlösa nät som ser denna sida, och nya gäster kan enkelt lägga upp information om sig själva. Tanken är att stimulera folk till att ta kontakt och tala med varandra IRL (In Real Life), och inte bara sitta och stirra på sina datorskärmar.

Klart föredömligt tycker jag, och ett strålande exempel på att datorer inte, som många hävdar, alienerar folk utan tvärtom är ett suveränt verktyg för att öka den social kontakten.

Podradio smarta index

2005-07-07T10:51:00.000+02:00

Tjatar lite om iTunes här, men de har en del smarta gränssnittslösningar. Som jag nämnde tidigare har de nu integrerat podradio i programvaran. Enligt uppgift har de fått över en miljon nerladdningar av podradioavsnitt redan första dagarna. Jag testade deras "iTunes New Music Tuesday" ett veckomagasin som på 8 minuter går igenom den senaste musiken. När man lyssnar kommer det upp en knapp bredvid som visar detta index, med bilder på de skivor som nämns, och man kan då hoppa direkt till det man vill höra om.

Detta känns omedelbart som att "Varför är inte alla radioprogram så här?" Dvs navigerbara via ett visuellt gränssnitt.

Enda jag inte fattar är varför Apple inte lagt till en funktion att man kan köpa just den låten som det berättas om genom att klicka på bilden, vore ju smidigt.

Radio 2: Podradio, en försmak?

2005-06-29T18:47:00.000+02:00

Apple har just släppt en uppdatering av sin musikprogramvara iTunes som integrerar podcasting-funktionen, dvs möjligheten att prenumerera på ljudfiler från t ex Sveriges Radio som kallar det "podradio" och nu lägger ut flera av sina program, bl a Sommar-programmen.

Apple har som vanligt gjort ett bra jobb med att göra det enkelt att använda, och man kan nu även provlyssna och prenumerera gratis på mängder av podcasts via deras iTunes Music Store.
Klart smidigare än att behöva installera särskilda podcast-program.

Men det är fortfarande en bra bit kvar innan detta blir användbart för allmänheten, det är ju en del meckande med länkar och dialogrutor etc. Jag är övertygad om att vi inom 2 år kommer att skratta åt att vi höll på med "podcasting".

Det är ju bara en försmak på hur man kommer att befria etermedierna från den nuvarande kanalstrukturen och låta oss lyssna inte bara när vi vill på allt vi vill, och få smart hjälp med att hitta i det stora utbudet.

Och med smart hjälp menar jag då inte att jag rattar in en kanal som spelar den sortens musik som jag gillar, utan att jag har min egen dynamiske "Agent" som letar fram programförslag till mig för radio och tv utifrån t ex följande kriterier:

- Var är jag? (t ex om jag åker buss till jobbet 24 minuter varje dag så kan jag abonnera på inslag som är kortare än 24 minuter)
- Vad har jag lyssnat mycket på på sistone?
- Vad har jag inte hört på länge?
- Vilket humör är jag på?
- Vad är klockan, vilken veckodag är det?
- Vilka nya program/musik/filmer är det troligt att jag gillar baserat på vad jag lyssnat på tidigare?
- Vad spelar mina kompisar? (eller mina idoler, iTunes har redan "Celebrity Playlists")

Ett problem med ljudfiler är att det är svårt att söka igenom dom snabbt, långrandigt att lyssna igenom en 45 minuters podcast för att hitta nåt intressant. Nu finns dock en ny sökmotor på Internet som indexerar även podcasts: Podscope
Den är enkel: skriv in ett sökord så listar den alla podcasts där ordet sägs, och du kan spela upp just den snutten där ordet nämns. Tack till Infontology för tipset!

Internet-kollaboration, hot eller möjlighet?

2005-06-20T16:44:00.000+02:00

Jag har glatt mig åt att interaktiviteten och användarnas aktiva medverkan ökar på Internet, och funderar på vilka möjligheter och hot detta skapar för företagen.

Business Week har publicerat en intressant artikel om detta, "The Power of Us" där man tar upp intressanta exempel på hur både nya och gamla företag utnyttjar dubbelriktad dialog via Internet till att skapa mervärde för kunderna och få in utvecklingsidéer mm.

Några citat ur artikeln:

"For the first time in human history, mass cooperation across time and space is suddenly economical."

"We are seeing the emergence of an economy of the people, by the people, for the people."

"If companies can open themselves up to contributions from enthusiastic customers and partners, that should help them create products and services faster, with fewer duds -- and at far lower cost, with far less risk."

Det sista citatet sammanfattar det jag predikar; att man med fördel kan och bör involvera kunderna i utvecklingsarbetet om man har smarta system som gör det enkelt för alla och som ger lämpliga incitatment. Exempel på effektiva verktyg för detta är t ex bloggar och förslagsforum på webben, jag är involverad i utvecklingen av ett nytt system som låter kunder helt enkelt ringa in synpunkter och automatiskt få återkoppling och belöning.

I artikeln nämns också att en grupp av människor är under rätt omständigheter ofta smartare än den smartaste gruppmedlemmen. Detta förklaras på ett bra sätt i boken "The Wisdom of Crowds" av James Surowiecki. Rekommenderad läsning som kan leda till nya bättre sätt att organisera företag.

Radio del 1 - Återuppståndelsen!

2005-06-15T11:42:00.000+02:00

Radio är ett gammalt medium som slumrat länge, men som nu verkar återuppstå med hjälp av flera nya teknik-lösningar. Så här kommer del 1 i en serie betraktelser av den nya tidens radio:

Radio är ljud, och det har nu kommit en rad nya smarta sätt att lyssna på ljud. Vi lyssnar inte längre på musik i soffan framför stereohögtalare. Har du märkt att det inte går att köpa en vanlig steroanläggning längre?

Nu lyssnar vi på musik på väg till jobbet i våra iPods eller mobiler, och vi har all världens radiokanaler i våra datorer via internet, smartare och enklare att lyssna på än nånsin. Podcasting är en helt ny sorts personlig radio som t o m Sveriges Radio och BBC börjat använda.

I USA har man kommit ännu längre med den tekniska utvecklingen. De har undvikit den digitala DAB-radion som verakr vara en återvändsgränd i Sverige, och där satsar man iställlet på digital satellitradio. De har två stora aktörer, XM och Sirius, som båda erbjuder ca 120 kanaler med digital kvalitet utan reklam för ca $12 i månaden, samt små smidiga mottagare för bilar som man kan köra över hela USA med utan att behöva ställa om radiofrekvensen!

I USA har man även utvecklat HD-radio, ett smart sätt att sända ut både analog vanlig radio och digital radio på samma frekvens. Resultatet blir att man kan lyssna både med vanliga radioapparater och nya digitala, som t ex denna från Boston Acoustics:

Jag ser en rad affärsmöjligheter i allt detta, återkommer i ämnet!

Hur tänker bilverkstäder?

2005-06-14T13:19:00.000+02:00

Varför har bilbranschen fortfarande inte utvecklat nån känsla för kundservice?

Lämnade nyss min bil på service, och ingen del av min upplevelse av detta som kund kändes bra:
Ringer för att beställa tid, hamnar i tröttsamt telefonsystem: tag 1 för Citroen, 2 för Rover, 3 för Peugeot, tag 1 för beg bilar 2 för nya bilar, 3 för service... osv
Efter alla dessa val svarar ingen! Upprepar detta 4 gånger under 3 dagar, kommer till slut fram och får då höra att det är 6 veckors väntetid på en vanlig service!

Kommer med bilen, tas emot av vänlig kundmottagare som frågar om jag vill ha service typ A eller B? Vad är skillnaden frågar jag då? Hon "vet tyvärr inte riktigt", men eftersom bilen har gått 3000 mil så rekommenderar hon typ A. Jag ber dom att även fixa en lös list på framdörren som nån kört på, "om det går att göra billigt".
Visst säger hon och skriver in detta på arbetsrorderpapperet.

De ringer upp mig och meddelar att bilen är klar. När jag hämtar den får jag en faktura på 3.780 kr, men ingen specifikation på vad de har gjort. Jag frågar om listen gick att fixa? Hon vet ej men läser ett "OK" efter raden om listen på arbetsordern, "så då har dom nog fixat den också".

Kommer ut, listen är inte fixad. Kör därifrån, märker att växellådan går lite mjukare, så nånting har dom iallafall gjort för 3.780 kr. Men jag känner mig inte väl behandlad som kund.

Jag tänker då på några enkla saker som vilken verkstad som helst skulle kunna införa i morgon:

1. Låt kunderna boka själva via webben (finns några som gör detta redan, klart smidigt att slippa telefonköer)

2. Skicka ett SMS istället när bilen är klar, med uppgifter direkt från mekanikern om vad de har gjort. Då slipper jag även att svara.

3. Viktigast: Skapa en personlig kontakt med mekanikern! Varför inte låta honom lämna ut bilen pesonligen? Alternativt att han talar in vad han har gjort med den i en telefon, och detta meddelande skickas direkt till mig via email eller telefon. (jag är engagerad i ett sånt system, DirectMemo)

4. Det känns mycket bättre att betala 3.780 kr om jag vet vilken nytta det gjort för min bil, och hur mycket arbete som ligger bakom. Så varför får jag inte detaljerad information med bilder och förklaringar av vad man gör under servicearbetet och hur detta förbättrar min bils kondition? Man kan ju enkelt skapa mallar som skrivs ut eller mailas till kunden.

Kort sagt: varför är det så svårt att sätta sig i kundens situation och skapa en service som utgår ifrån kundens behov och sätt att tänka?

Med modern kommunikationsteknik finns det inga ekonomiska eller arbetsmässiga hinder kvar heller för att genomföra en revolution inom kundservice inom alla branscher!

Varför ska företag blogga?

2005-06-08T19:57:00.000+02:00

Bisonblog har ett intressant inlägg om användningsområden för företagsbloggar
som utgår från en lista från Apsis med 15 anledningar för ett företag att använda bloggar.

Jag håller helt med att man tänker för lite på interna användningsområden, ser t ex dessa:

1. Internutbildning: låt personalen utbilda varandra via nischade bloggar inom olika områden. Exempelvis en butikskedja som låter personalen lägga upp kundservicehistorier på sitt intranät, där man t ex kan utbyta erfarenheter av hur man hanterar besväriga kunder.

2. Förslagslådan: låt personalen lämna och kommentera varandras förbättrningsförslag etc.

2. Intranätet: bloggar kan göra intranätet mera levande, genom att man att låta alla anställda enkelt bidra, och öppnar för dialog snararare än kommunikation uppifrån, vilket ju är en anledning till att många intranät inte engagerar de anställda.

SJ, kundvård och koder

2005-06-01T19:02:00.000+02:00

Tog en dagstur med SJ till Västerås idag för att träffa en duktig forskare som utvecklat en smart teknik för fysiologiska tester.

Bokade resan på SJs hemsida, omständligt med en massa bläddrande i rullgardinsmenyer, och varför kan man inte se priserna för alla typer av biljetter på en gång? Nåväl, priset var rimligt. Som svar på bokningen fick jag koden XLM2255I.
Sedan tvingas jag alltså ta med mig denna kod till Cetnralen, och mata in den i deras automat. Försöker 2 gånger, men får bara svaret "Koden ogiltig". Svär en ramsa och får en tanke: "dom kan väl inte vara så korkade så att de blandar siffror och bokstäver i koden?" Jodå, det kunde dom, sista tecknet är såklart inte siffran 1 utan stora I. Detta syns ju inte i min mobil dit jag klistrat in koden från SJs hemsida för att vara säker på att jag får det rätt, eftersom typsnittet i mobilen inte skiljer mellan siffran 1 och bokstaven I...

Men detta är ju inte huvudproblemet, varför överhuvud taget tvinga kunderna att komma ihåg koder? På biograferna räcker det med att dra kreditkortet som man bokat med, klart smartare.

Ännu smartare vore väl om man fick ett SMS som är själva biljetten, och slopa hela pappershanteringen? Detta funkar på spårvagnarna i Helsingfors. Konduktörer som klipper hål med tång känns ju väldigt mycket 60-tal...
Fast det var en trevlig tjej som var konduktör, hon spred glad stämning ombord, så inget ont som inte har nåt gott med sig.