Modern Communicator

What a week!

So, the British Council Reachout event came to a close.  I've never blogged so much in my life!

It's been a real ride. Before the groups could even begin to make headway on any form of ICT project, they really had to build some understanding of one another. With such fundamental differences between participants from NENA (Near East North Africa) countries and the UK, it was essential.

With an aim of sustaining and building a network to break down negative  stereotypes between Arab and UK cultures, the event posed an enormous challenge in itself.

The event was worth holding, if simply to solidify existing relationships. However, those present didn't need convincing. With Arab / Western relations appearing to deteriorate further every day, how do societies work towards greater cultural understanding? My guess is that any step in the right direction has to involve direct interaction, one on one. This could be achieved through both face to face talking and social internet technologies.  Maybe we (global citizens) need to learn to laugh more about our problems? People say humour isn't always cross cultural, I think it is, and is one of the great levellers!

ICT's in development projects?

It's the first day of blogging for the British Council in Tunisia. Lots of great interaction between the participants who are 16 - 30 years old.

One of the challenges i'm seeing is that there's a slight tendancy to get excited about the technologies, but are they faesible in developing countries? Even if they are, i'm struck by the sensitivity of using them.

Believe it or not, the MP3 player / recorders we brought along for all participants were actually confiscated by customs. Interestingly, their main gripe turned out to be whether they had FM radios built in. Additionally, we've been warned about what we're saying in public with participants. One of the event co-ordinators even feels we're being monitored by the authorities!

Thought of the day: 

'Change comes painfully slow for those who want it'!

These are my thoughts and are not the views held by The British Council!

British Council - Reachout Event (Tunisia)

If you are a participant in next week's 'Reachout' event held between 28 - 30 March in Tunisia, please direct your browsers to this link.

The blog you are viewing currently is unrelated to the event.

I'll look forward to seeing you all in Tunisia! Feel free to ask questions in advance!

The First Podcast: Mergers and Acquisitions

In a previous posting, I mentioned the formation of a series of podcasts around the theme of Organisational Communications.

Today we have the first programme.

The first looks at communications challenges arising from Mergers and Acquisitions. I hope you'll find it interesting as joining us for the discussion was experience from the commercial, public sector, and international organisation perspectives.

Present were:

Euan Semple, former Director of Knowledge Management at the BBC, now social media consultant.

David Paul, Managing Director of B2B communication specialists, Imarco Frontline.

David Galipeau, Head of Web Communications, UNAIDS. (Joined us from Geneva using Skype).

and myself, from Activ-Media.

To subscribe: Right click on this link, copy shortcut, and paste into your feed aggregator.

To download:  Broadband version or Dialup version.

To simply listen: Click on either track in the playlist below, depending on your internet connection:

If you have ideas for future programmes and would like to participate, drop a comment on this posting.

Mobile workforce communications challenges?

Earlier this week, we were approached with a challenge. Namely, how to enable rapid communication between a CEO and his work force. Many of the staff work in the field, without ready access to fast internet communication links.

One of the senior managers had heard of 'podcasting' and suggested it as a mechanism for consideration. We gave it some thought and adapted the principle of using audio into a workable solution for rapid dissemination of the CEO's message.

Rather than simply being a one way process, I came across a novel 'voice to text' technology called Spinvox. It facilitates people being able to call into a pre-determined number, then deliver the transposed message in text format to an email account. Right now, just investigating how the written feedback might be text mined to draw out the broad themes.

It's an exciting overall concept and one I believe could be applied in other circumstances. Click on the thumbnail to see the overall model.

The Simpsons Credits: Animation to Video!

Strictly speaking, this has little to do with what I normally blog about. However, it's a nifty, humourous little clip showing what would happen if 'The Simpsons' credits would be if 'real life'. It just caught my attention.

Click the play icon to start it. See below:

Why is there a water shortage?

Had an unusual reqest this week from a client.

They were looking for an animation sequence designed to explain why there's a water shortage in their area. These quirky jobs are always interesting! It'll go live on their web site next week. The sequence selected features below:

A wiki with real developing world potential!

Last night I attended the 'WikiWed', kindly hosted by PWC in Farringdon.

Amongst those present, it was fascinating to learn about the work that Jeremy Ruston is doing with his Tiddlywiki project. It's a beautifully simple to use collaborative working tool (with great navigation) and completely open source to boot.

What really blew me away was that the whole wiki runs off one html file and can save changes into the file itself. This opens up enormous possibilities for rural areas in developing countries who lack connectivity but want to extend their internet (currently community radio) to new levels. Imagine the scenario.... NGO's working in developing nations could potentially equip villages with computers discarded from the western world. Power could be supplied from a bicycle powered generator, and each machine comes equipped with a USB stick.

One of the great beauties with Jeremy's project is that the WIKI software (when online) will 'self update' when supplied with data, from say the USB stick.

Whilst there may not be full internet access across developing regions, there are almost certainly hubs. In theory, this facilitates a sort of 'asynchronous' internet community tool, which synchronises all the latest changes when the USB stick is plugged into any internet connected computer.

There's a lot of potential in this!!

Getting prepared for the first podcast. Using Skype for remote participants!

Just came back from our recording studio, having carried out a test to see whether Skype would deliver good audio quality from remote participants.

Absolutely brilliant! Both the engineer and I could barely tell the difference between voice recorded in the studio and that coming in from Skype.

Why bother at all? Well, Activ-Media are about to initiate a series of podcasts examining organisational communications challenges and possible routes to solutions. In order to attract really good participants, we need to offer the scope for some people to participate remotely.

The first recording will be a 20 - 30 minute discussion around the subject of change management / mergers and acquisitions. This will take place on March 13th, so hopefully there'll be content going up soon after that.

With luck, we're aiming to bring together Euan Semple, David Galipeau (Head of Web Communications, UNAIDS), David Paul (MD of Imarco Frontline Ltd), with myself acting as facilitator. David Galipeau will join us on Skype from Geneva. It promises to be a fascinating discussion.

Over the coming months, we'll introduce lots of new subject matter around the organisational communications field. Feel free to make suggestions. Maybe you'd like to participate as well?

What if Microsoft made the iPoD?

Great posting (probably password protected) by Robert Loch on the Soflow network today! It's a great take on what might happen if Microsoft marketed the iPOD instead of Apple.

The video paints a humourous picture of complexity (Microsoft) versus simplicity (Apple) in marketing styles.

If you can't see the first frame below, get the Google Video Player. It's worth having anyway!

On the off chance you can't see the video below in your browser, just go direct.

Check it out!