Thoughts from Tech Talks 5

This afternoon was the fifth Tech Talks event in Bristol, run by local web hosting company SpiderGroup. These events have an opportunity for networking followed by three 20 minute talks from experts on various aspects of business and technology.

Today's three speakers were Richard Caddick of CXPartners, talking about user experience in design, NetMentor Peter Brill, talking about how content is king, and Steve Allpress of Nvidia and formerly Icera, telling us the story of building a microchip company and selling it.

Fascinating speakers as always, here are some key points I noted down that I thought I'd share.

• Designing for people is hard, and so you need to research and understand people and their behaviours to do it well. Richard mentioned a project for TheTrainLine, where they watched people trying to find the booking references hidden in their email printouts as they collected tickets at a mainline station, leading to the booking reference being moved to the top.
• We all know that content is king, but it can be difficult finding the interesting stories in what we see as mundane. So Peter told us we need to think like a journalist and sniff out the answers to the non-obvious questions. 
• Peter also talked about repurposing content, so look forward to seeing my blog posts re-hashed as forum posts elsewhere!
• Steve told the fascinating (and occasionally technical) story of creating a startup which shook up the world of 3G chip manufacturing by doing everything better, faster and smaller. But the most fascinating thing was the insight into building a company which is dependent on round after round of VC funding - your end purpose is to build something that someone else will eventually want to buy, as they achieved with their sale to Nvidia.

All in all an interesting afternoon, certainly for a biz-tech geek like me. And a great quote from chief Spider James Cook at the end: "A lot of business people don't realise that business is essentially process driven".

Thoughts from TechTalks 4

This week, I went along to the fourth TechTalks event, hosted in Bristol by SpiderGroup, a local cloud solutions company. The event combines business networking with talks on how changes in technology are affecting the way we live and do business, and are well worth going along to even if you aren't technical.

Two of the speakers presented very contrasting views on the impact technology is having on society. Javier Marti (@javiermarti) focused on the ability of technology to allow us to share information anywhere with anyone and to access and analyse massive amounts of data. This, he argued, makes the world a more free and open place - this is also the view of the likes of Mark Zuckerberg and one I agree with.

Vipul Patel (@socialspaice) meanwhile concentrated on the demands that technology is placing on the planet's resources. He pointed out that each kilogram of tech product produces 8.5kg of (mostly toxic) waste, that 5 million people were killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo in a war over control of valuable minerals essential to the tech industry (not to mention the use of rape as a weapon of war), that we use 35% more resources each year than the planet can actually provide. This is with only half our population having access to the latest gadgets!

Both of these presenters were right, and it was fascinating that none of the questions at the end were directed to Vipul Patel, but mostly to the (also fascinating) talk given on the story of Xero by MD Gary Turner (@garyturner). Is this because the audience didn't want to address the uncomfortable issues Vipul raised?

Certainly, our consumer-driven society has led to technology manufacturers adopting a two year (or less) product lifespan, and we are driven to be constantly upgrading to the latest and best version of everything. Part of the blame must lie with our own behaviour, but when mobile phones begin to break down after 18 months and our providers offer us a free upgrade is it any wonder we don't think about where those raw materials have come from?

Like Javier Marti, I am passionate about the benefits that technology can bring to society. But we need to find a way of bringing about those benefits without increasing harm to the planet, and while using technology as a lever to decrease inequality, not increase it.

Where do we start? Perhaps by forcing manufacturers to design products that last, maybe by requiring 3 or 5 year warranties on tech goods, or preventing mobile phone companies subsidising handset sales. Let's face it, most of us want the latest phone, camera, computer, MP3 player or whatever and with the best will in the world behaviour isn't going to change overnight, so maybe this is where legislation can help.

Anyway, gotta go, need to call my mobile operator about an upgrade...

Tomorrow's World

I just had an interesting morning speaking about mobile technology at the Service Management Expo at the NEC in Birmingham. Not only was it great to connect with a bunch of business people about how to use widely available technology to improve their business, but I also got to hear Maggie Philbin speak.

For those too young to remember, Maggie was a presenter on Tomorrow's World, a science and technology show that I watched avidly as a child in the 80s, and was one of the inspirations for me ending up studying Physics at uni and then working with computers.

It was great to hear not only her stories about showcasing the latest innovations to the country, but also her current work to get teenagers more interested in science and technology, by introducing them to technicians and engineers. The goal is that rather than thinking that X-Factor is their ticket to success, more kids will start to want to know more about the high definition TVs they're watching it on.

This struck a chord with me. We're in the midst of some of the most exciting changes in technology in generations, with impacts on society that we haven't yet figured out. In the UK, we've become too dependent on industries like finance and property, which is why we're in the mess we're in. Unless we can encourage the high-tech industries of the future, in 30 years time we'll be a world backwater harking back to the old days of Empire.

Not only are these changes in technology an opportunity for our teenagers, if only they can be inspired to realise it, but it's also a great opportunity for the nation's small and medium businesses. When I started in the industry in 1998, the software you could get to run a small business was clunky and limited at best. If you wanted powerful software, you needed to be a large corporation with a six figure budget.

This is no longer the case. With a huge range of 'Cloud' software starting at tens of pounds a month, scalable as a business grows, top notch software is within the reach of everyone. As this article describes, the largest proportion of the growth in this area is expected to come from the small business end of the market, and it's my view that SMEs can get a distinct advantage from this if implemented properly. That's to say, by understanding the people, process and information flow issues before committing to anything.

So what does tomorrow's world look like then? More connected and more efficient as far as businesses are concerned, as long as they get it right.

Reflections on Memnet Conference

Yesterday, I shared a Platform with Lee Davies from IfL at the Memnet conference in London. Memnet is a new organisation for those who work in membership organisations, which was started last year and is growing rapidly.

If have worked with IfL (Institute for Learning) on and off for a number of years as a technology consultant, helping them make the right decisions with technology, and Lee (their Deputy Chief Executive) invited me to provide some technical backup to his presentation on social media, and as a networking opportunity to meet other similar organisations.

The day started with Lee (mostly, with interjections from me) talking about how membership organisations can and should harness social media, such as blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Ning to build communities within their membership. What was fascinating for me in researching the subject was how in tune all of this is with the direction the likes of Facebook are taking. Facebook's vision is to make it easy to find content you're interested in through the links your friends and wider social network place on their site, and they have developed a number of tools to make this easy.

What's also fascinating is the shift in mindset this requires within the membership sphere - it's no longer about controlled walled gardens but about having the confidence to provide leadership but let members talk about the subjects that interest them in the way and using the media they want to. This is a massive shift in attitude from providing moderated forums!

The conference went on to talk about how best to select a software provider. This is a subject dear to my heart as I've done a lot of work on requirements analysis, invitation to tenders and vendor selection for organisations like IfL, and obviously I've been on the other side of the fence a lot as well. I agreed with what the speaker said, especially around making sure requirements analysis is done properly!

CPD (that's continuous professional development) was then discussed, and it was fairly clear how few membership bodies really do this well if at all, although most would like to.

Lee finished the day with a joint presentation with Shane Sutherland from Pebble Learning. Pebble are behind 'REfLECT', IfL's shared learning space which they give their members as a tool for storing anything of use really, appropriate parts of which can be submitted as CPD. It's interesting how IfL's approach has been very much around putting CPD in the hands of their members, trusting them to evaluate what is useful and what its value is. This is possibly a unique approach in regulated professions.

The biggest take-out for me from the day was the importance of recording and reflecting on learning experiences of any kind. When I think about all the stuff I've learned over my career, a lot of it just exists in my head and inevitably some of it is locked away so deep I can't remember it any more. IfL's approach, and they are using REfLECT as a tool for this, is that if you record what you learnt it not only gives you the opportunity to reflect on it, increasing its value, but you also have a record of it. This can be referred back to in the future, but also shared with others, commented on and developed into a real resource.

Could this be an interesting extra use for blogging and social media?