The Obvious?

The new divide: the workforce gap

This new divide – which apparently widens daily – is between the old workforce and the new. I am not talking here, necessarily, about age. What I am talking about is the difficulty that a certain segment of the workforce is having grasping the rapid shifts in the way that business is done, mostly because of new collaboration and social media tools.

Bankervision

Great article with which I agree and on two points particularly. It is not about age but about mindset and the gap is certainly there and increasing.

In fact I was thinking the other day that that is where I see my work lying - helping to bridge that gap. This has meant that I am spending less time at the bleeding edge and going to less geek conferences but I do seem to be able to make the gap seem smaller to people and even get some of them excited about crossing it!

"...stop reading this."

The iPhone is a digital experience in the literal sense of the word. The user’s digits roam, stroke, tweak, tweeze, pinch, probe, slide, swipe and tap across the glass screen forging a relationship with the device that is like no other.

But I don’t want to ‘forge a relationship’, I just want to get the job done,” you say? Well then, you know what? Don’t buy one. And stop reading this. You’re only doing so in the first place to lend fuel to your snorts and puffs of rage.

.....

The rest of the world can mock as much as it likes. If you’re going to have a phone/video player/slideshow/music centre/web browser/camera in your pocket, is it so wrong to want one that makes you grin from ear to ear?

Stephen Fry on the iPhone

"time to think again, you are responsible of your own truth"

Laurent Haug on choices about video on the web. From the moment there is no technical solution, the problem has to be handled by the receivers of the information, i.e. you and me. We need to stop being fascinated by this kind of incidents, creating a hunger for coverage and therefore for more “reward” (in a very sick way of course) for those who create this kind of incidents. Again, and from a social perspective, this might be a blessing in disguise. Social media are forcing citizens to use their filters again! We will finally stop believing everything that comes from the media, and start questioning things we took for granted. If the NYT says it it must be true. No no, time to think again, you are responsible of your own truth.

And I thought climbing mountains was exciting

via Ben Hammersley

iPhone

Yep I bought one last night and here are a few first thoughts:

1. It is gorgeous - even the packaging is a delight.

2. Signing up for O2 is a doddle through iTunes.

3. It's my first video iPod and the screen is truly amazing.

4. The interface is so nice and wifi so easy that I am even using at around the house instead of my laptop

5. The camera has better colour than my N73 even if lower res and at least it doesn't take half an hour for the camera to warm up!.

6. Loading photos is bliss as iPhoto syncs as soon as you dock the phone.

7. It knows that my home number is used by both my wife and I so when I get a call it says it is from Penny OR Euan - neat.

9. I have had 3G for a year and the absence of it really doesn't feel bad - partly because the interface for things like mail is soooo much better to use.

10. Yes I had to pay for the phone and we are used to getting them bundled but it definitely feels worth the money and I reckon the data plan from O2 will work out cheaper than what I was paying with Three.

My blogroll is back

A while ago I removed my blogroll from The Obvious? because it had been getting out of date and managing it was too much of a pain. However I had been feeling that not having one missed out one of the key elements of networking that makes blogs work.

Well it's back, thanks to Google and their policy of allowing their staff to spend 20% of their time mucking about!

The bottom line

A converation at a workshop yesterday and a comment on a previous post just triggered this thought:

Management is becoming about noticing and enabling rather than driving and controlling.

Get yourselves a big melting pot of different social tools that engender different conversations and expressions of intent from your staff, watch like a hawk, spot the cool stuff, fan the flames and then protect the baby shoots from your spoilers.

Such sweet agony

That moment when a Mac OS installer says "Time remaining: About a minute"

Vote for Leo

TWiT is up for a Best Podcast award at The Weblog Awards. Personally I'd rate Leo Laporte's other show Macbreak Weekly even higher but they are my two favourite podcasts and have lightened many a grim journey.