Modern Communicator

Communicators Meetup: Animoto.com style

Readers of this blog will know that i've been involved with the London Area Communicators Network meetup group, hosted via Melcrum Communications for about 11 months.

On a bored bank holiday Monday, I came across a neat little app called Animoto. It allows you to mash up images and music with a view to producing a montage style video.

I decided to try it, using some photos from the meetup. It took all of ten minutes to produce. Definitely worth a play!

Tags: melcrum animoto communicators+meetup london

 

Noticeboards: The Electronic Alternative

Over the past few months, Cordovan UK have been developing a new product aimed at facilitating more effective communications in large organisations. Despite computer terminals being at an all time high within major organisations, intranet usage often tops out at 5% of staff.

Added to this, many staff in organisations may not have any access to the intranet at all.

• What about those people who work in manufacturing units?
• What about those who spend most of their time 'on the road'?

Not everyone has a laptop and 3G data connection!

Paper noticeboards are notoriously difficult to organise when an organisation has tens, if not hundreds (or thousands) of sites.

Cordovan's answer to this is 'LiveNotice', a simple electronic alternative which can be administered from a single desktop if needed. Check it out. It works by displaying notices via a series of networked LCD screens.

Very shortly, it will be possible for staff to interact directly with the noticeboard through text messaging on mobile phones. Given that 'staff ads' are an inherent part of the screen property, this is likely to be an attractive feature!

Tags: cordovan livenotice noticeboards, electronic

What would happen if Facebook turned into reality?

via Lee Hopkins.

Great video satirising online networking if turned reality.

Tags: facebook satire

Write up from the 'Pecha Kucha' meetup

A few weeks ago, the 'London Area Communicators Group' came together to test the '20 seconds / 20 slides' speaking format known as Pecha Kucha.

Sona Hathi from Melcrum did a write up, which is available here.

Tags: pecha+kucha melcrum communicators+network sona+hathi meetup

Sharing 'Slide knowledge' inside the firewall

Over the past few months, Cordovan have been working hard to help organisations overcome a common challenge. So often, executives are 're-inventing the wheel' by creating PowerPoint presentations that have been done tens if not hundreds of times. So much organisational knowledge sits in staff computers, where it stays, only offering value to the creator.

In answer to this, Cordovan have developed 'Slide Sorter'. Very simply, it makes organisational 'slide knowledge' available to everyone and allows staff to 'pick and mix' their presentations from a central repository. It's all handled through a conventional browser. Once the user has selected their slides, they can export directly from the browser in PPT or PDF formats.

For example, a sales guy who's main involvement is in supplying his/her customers with fleet cars finds that a new client needs help with financing. Another division within his/her company is all about financing. Using 'Slide Sorter', he/she can quickly pull out key slides which talk about how the organisation can assist the client with both fleet cars and financing. This is achieved very quickly and avoids the sales person being hindered by going through hoops to find the initial knowledge they need. Therefore, the opportunity cost is reduced and offers the organisation as a whole to 'cross sell' services more easily.

So much organisational 'intellectual capital' is still held within PowerPoint presentations. Slide sorter is simply a way to free it up a bit within the firewall.

Check out the datasheet and see what you think.

Tags: cordovan intellectual+capital slide+sorter powerpoint corporate

What is Podcasting?

via Neville Hobson.

The guys at Common Craft have done another excellent video explaining podcasting. If you can't see the video below, go direct to their site.

Great style!

Tags: commoncraft nevillehobson podcasting

Backing up mobile phone contacts!

I've been having major problems recently with my Orange SPV M3100 phone. Namely, it's failed twice in the last month. Each time means calling up Orange and requesting a replacement.

It's not the replacement issues that bother me. It's the loss of data each time. If you're like me, and keep hundreds of contacts on your phone, you will have wondered what happens if you loose them!

Bitter experience has taught me that if you take your SIM card and put it in an older handset, you may find many of your contacts wiped. (I think the limit is just under 200 on older Nokia's, for example).

Unfortunately, the SPV M3100 doesn't have any in-built backup options. My previous phone (SPV M1000) allowed you to back up to the Orange Server, to in-built memory, and to an SD card. It's follow-on doesn't have anything. If it goes wrong, you're in the shit!

Nick Saalfeld on the 'True Business' blog makes some nice points about online storage. He's right. Our 'techno' lives mean that our data lives somewhere out there in the great, big, interweb thing.

Thank god though, for a simple, free, open source service called 'myFUNAMBOL'. It's the only service I could find that allows me to back up numbers, calendar, and messages in one place on my particular phone model. I tried it yesterday and it works perfectly. If I could recommend one feature for improvement, i'd ask the creators to install options for exporting data. Sure, you can synchronise with Outlook, but a few alternatives would be great guys!

In short, check it out. I can't recommend it highly enough as a means of preserving your vital contacts database!

Tags: myfunambol; funambol; nick+saalfeld; true+business; orange; spvm3100; spvm1000; data+backup; mobile

Belkin goes Podcasting for CeBIT

A few weeks ago, Belkin asked me (via Cordovan) to produce a series of audio podcasts to demonstrate their range of equipment at the consumer electronics CeBIT show in Germany.

They were audio tours in English and German aimed at describing a range of new and existing products. The theme was 'Belkin technology enhances your home'.

In addition to be offered in RSS feeds through their website , the recordings were made available to stand visitors at the exhibitions on pre-loaded iPOD's.

A nice touch I thought!

Tags: belkin cebit germany 2008 podcasts

Hilary Clinton: Under attack in Bosnia

Via Lee Hopkins.

Can't see it? Click here.

Yeah, not so 'Comms related', I know. But pretty funny I thought.

Tags: hilary+clinton bosnia sniper

'New Communications' workshop on offer

Since running several workshops for clients on both managing online communities / networks and applying 'new communications' to organisational challenges, I decided to standardise it into a 1 day in-house workshop.

Rather than write a bunch of text here, download the PDF.

If it sounds interesting for your organisation, get in touch! Full details in the PDF.

Tags: cordovan, matt+o'neill, communications+workshop