Category Archive for ‘nzwc’ at diversity.net.nz

Archive for the 'nzwc' Category

National’s plans for FTTH

Published by Ben Kepes on April 23, 2008 in Economic Development, Efficiency, IT, New Zealand, Society, Strategy and nzwc. 1 Comment

Everyone will by now have seen National’s plans unveiled yesterday for a $1.5b investment in FTTH. John Key’s announcement is below;

Lots of commentary about this already, Rod is pretty positive as it reasonably neatly dovetails with the work the NZI has done (and which Rod was involved in).

Now ubiquitous broadband is a good thing, I’d personally love it. But being a good thing, and being the cure for our economic ills are two very different things. John Key claims FTTH is the productivity unleasher that will move us up the OECD economic rankings - he gives the examples of almost free local toll calls, cheap international calls, movies on-demand and telecommuting. Only one of those things is closely linked to productivity and there is no empirical evidence that a move to a telecommuting enabled world would in fact boost productivity.

I’m not pouring cold water on the idea - I applaud National’s vision and courage - I only hope that the analysis into true return is done such that decision can be made that actually help New Zealand win.

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Google Docs … so what - the ONE reason why you should care

Published by Mike Riversdale on April 17, 2008 in Efficiency, SaaS, Web x.0 and nzwc. 0 Comments

(cross posting from Mike Riversdale: Enterprise 2.0 New Zealand style blog)

Google Apps … on-line word processing … a slightly interesting “battle” between Google and Microsoft … !? … who, apart from those with shares or have their status/job entangled to one or the other, gives a stuff really ?

If this was about who can make pretty words on a computer then I wouldn’t even bother you with it. The writing of words into something that can then be printed or even, heavens above, retrieved later to be changed and then printed again isn’t the point.

I use a gazzillion ‘editors’ for doing just that - a list of those I can remember in 30 seconds:

GMail (home) / Outlook (clients) email editor for creating my emails
Google Calendar (home) / Outlook (clients) editor for editing the description of my events
Blogger editor for creating my blog posts just like this
Text Editor on my Ubuntu machine for editing little text files I need
Notepad on any Windows machine for editing little text files I need
Profile editors around the web to update the my “about Mike”
Microsoft Word when I have to write a document
Google Docs when I have to write a document
OpenOffice when I have to write a document
… there’s bound to be many MANY others

And they all, basically, do the job.
They let me type in words, I can format those words, I can place the words in different parts of the page/screen and I can add niceties to those words (pictures, headers/footers … blah blah blah)

And they all will let me do it … really, the creation of “nice words” is easy to do with any of them.

So what!
What is the big deal about Google Docs?

The big deal is that Google Docs isn’t about “me”.
Fundamentally and by the very nature of being on the web it is about “me” + “you”.

All of the above examples of editing talk about me doing it - I edit using, I format and I place on the screen. At some point (not always) there is the need to include at least on another person in the words being created.

How many times have you written something that is for your eyes only?
In those cases I am willing to bet it makes no difference how flash the editor is, you just want to jot something down - I’m thinking of the on-line equivalent of the serviette, the back of the fag packet or the corner of a newspaper page. Anything will do - in my case that usually what I use Ubuntu Text Editor for - something quick, easy and does the job of writing the words.

Mostly however the reason the words are written down is so that the words can be shared with someone else, maybe even just one other. Even if that one other person is merely going to receive the words, read them and never return to the document again there is the need to get the words to them.

It is no longer about “me” but about “us”.

Documents (PC-based I’m thinking) are fundamentally about “one person”.
The document you edit looks lovingly into your eyes proclaiming ever lasting love just for you. If someone else tries to muscle in on this close(d) relationship they will get told to go away, I am with someone else - usually with a message like this:

Of course the words inside the document want to be loved by all and to love all. They force the document to dump one person and love another in a serial monogamy type of way. The document that was only for you will quite easily tell you to go away as they are now in a one-on-one relationship with someone else.

This issue - words love all / documents love one at a time - is a fundamental issue that many have tried to solve using any number of clever means. We’ve had software attempting to mediate the differences - every electronic document management (EDMS) system you’ve battled against lives this category. We’ve had consultants claiming to solve it via changes in work practices - ‘workflow” and the bottlenecks they employ.

The most common way employed by everyone ever is … copy the document.
The words love this - they can love more and more people. More words can join them as they spread around the network - you can put in your words, I can add my words, Stevens from Accounts can remove the words he doesn’t want - the words are out there, they love to be free and are loving all.

But once set free they’re bloody near impossible to reign back in, for a start where the frig are they - out there in the wilds of the electronic world running free is all well and good until some poor sod has to try and reign them in.

Many an organisation I have worked with has had the need of a dedicated “poor sod” to chase down the words of many, the coral them into one area and stick them all back into one document again. Normally this is done only to then send it all back out again and start the loop once more.

Google Docs?

Google Docs doesn’t live in the ‘document’ world. Oh it has similar naming conventions, it uses all the jargon that we’re used to and it pretends to be a document … but it’s not because it comes from the ‘words’ world view. It knows that the words you’re gonna edit are, 99.9% of the time, going to want to be loved by many more that you. And being on the Web they know that the world of connected people at your fingertips is massive. Not only is there the list of attractive people in your contacts list but there is everyone with an internet connection!

Google Docs lives to share the words:

knows that words want to be shared and that’s why you’ve typed them.
its world view knows/understands its connected environment
its capabilities are built to use this environment

Whilst I don’t think Google Docs lets the words share the love quite easily enough. For instance what if I want to share only one paragraph with the world or want to allow a bunch of people edit one page but not the rest etc etc. But Google Docs has taken the biggest step, from here on in it’s refining.

A quick word about wikis.
Wikis live by understanding the the connectivity of their environment and the innate desire of words to love all and be loved by all. In the future will there be no difference between a Google Doc and a wiki page … in fact, it may be so close already it’s just a matter of semantics and opinion.

Is only Google Docs that get this. No, it’s not just Google Docs that are taking these fundamental steps, replace “Google Docs” with “Zoho Writer and I’m equally as happy with this post. Again, you could also replace everything with “wiki” and get an even finer example of my point.

And so, if you still think that using an editor (whatever type it is … but I bet it’s Microsoft Word) is all about “you” and no-one else then take a moment to ask yourself these 3 questions:

Who do I want to see those words I just saved and can they, right now?
Who will change those words I’ve typed (even if it’s verbally/by email and you do the donkey work of re-editing)?
What do I do to share my words and is it as easy as I want?

Enjoyed this, three other articles you might like to read:

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Digital Strategy…

Published by Ben Kepes on April 14, 2008 in Collaboration, New Zealand, Society, Strategy and nzwc. 2 Comments

Calling all Kiwis (or those with an interest in New Zealand in the digital world). Communications and Information Technology Minister David Cunliffe is calling feedback on the Draft Digital Strategy 2.0 which was released for public comment today.

What do readers think? Hollow platitudes or a visionary document? Substantial paradigm change or same old same old?

It’s a good opportunity for the kiwi digerati to contribute - carpe diem!

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No One solution

Published by The Unreasonablemen on April 9, 2008 in Economic Development, IT, New Zealand, Society, Strategy and nzwc. 2 Comments

Last week I wrote the post “Isn’t the answer mobile?” which created a great deal of interest, commentary & thought provoking questions. Thanks to those who commented, some of what you wrote provides the basis for this post, as well as comments on Rod Drury’s blog post about FibreCo.

I guess the best starting point is to say last weeks post should have been titled “Isn’t PART of the answer mobile”. It’s clear from both these posts that mobile technology alone won’t suffice, but equally importantly neither will fibre. The FibreCo idea is audacious, and the vision both compelling and energising (which I suspect is the major goal behind it), however it does have a few weaknesses. I’m not here to throw stones at it, because I love that at least someone has provided some constructive solutions to our fast internet conundrum, what follows is my own attempt at conceiving some more.

In my opinion FTTP (key being P not H) (editors note - FTTP is Fibre to the Premises, as oposed to fibre to the Home) is only needed by a small (but hopefully growing) group of businesses. Not everyone needs a raging torrent of internet access, just like not everyone needs Mac trucks, PDA’s, high definition printers or computers at all. Hand in hand with this, I must also admit that I’m not sold on the 1:1 causality that goes with the belief that ubiquitous fast, cheap internet access will drive economic benefits. I don’t see massive queues of ‘weightless businesses” just waiting for fibre, I also don’t see all the other fundamentals (like wages, taxes and support) being addressed to drive the weightless economy. Maybe it’s chicken & egg, but I’m not convinced. Simon Arnold also asks if you need ubiquity in his comment on Rod’s blog”

But if you go back and look at the source of the benefits being claimed by NZI that make up the $2.7-4.4 billion per year (see here) most are able to be captured with much lower than the 75% penertration they are justifying the need for public investment off. I do think a bit of hard nosed analysis of marginal cost of provision versus marginal benefit is warranted.

Secondly, if you do need that kind of data throughput, you should take Bwooce’s advice …

If you want fast internet access for your business, site your business appropriately. ….. Just as you may choose to live next to an airport, you may choose to live in an area with crap internet coverage

If I may extrapolate this out a little, you may want to even have the position that if fast, large bandwidth internet access is important to you, you should pay for fibre to be connected. The great news is that Telecom’s cabinetisation program will make this more affordable. The way I read it (& again-not an engineer!) Telecom will be laying a lot of ducts & the distance to the Cabinet is going to be a lot shorter… so it should be that the cost of getting Fibre installed will decrease. This position should hold true if you are a business or consumer who wants IP TV.

Having just said Fibre is just one of the solutions it’s fair to say that I also believe that ADSL broadband has a role in our future. For some it is more than adequate. Again, as Bwooce says 24 mbps is plenty for email, internet, video conferencing etc. By that, it addresses the NZI’s ‘Telepresence’ and ‘Remote working’ economic benefits. (as a sidepoint even Cisco’s full monty Telepresence system only requires 15 mbps & that’s way more demanding than a web-cam type approach!) For digital media and other data intensive sectors is ADSL going to be enough? No, see point 1, buy fibre…

Mobile….I caught up with some folks about my previous mobile theory. According to them (the royal them) there area bunch of things you can do on a cell site like sectors, carriers & polarisation which all work to decrease contention, optimise spectrum use and generally make the experience better for the consumer & more economic for the carrier.

Despite popular opinion, ISP economics is important, if they can deliver services cheaper (and make an operating margin), then generally the price to customers will be cheaper, but it’s not all about price. Again, according to ‘them’, doing all these things could allow you to deliver speeds of up to 1 Mbps (maybe more). This speed would definitely improve if high demand users went to fibre. I know 1 Mbps ain’t fantastic against global benchmarks, but again for some it would be a great leap forward and more than suffice. I’m thinking of people on dialup (and there are still nearly 700 000 of those) or old plans (256kbps for instance, again plenty of those). Tom Chignall of Vodafone commented on Rod’s blog

We don’t need a fibre vision - we need a broadband vision which connects the people of this country to each other and to the outside world.…. Our view is that wireless has a major role to play…., The technology is in place today to deliver as good an experience as I get over my Telecom service (resold thro ugh Vodafone!)in Auckland’s central suburbs. Wireless speeds are doubling very soon and we have Telecom and NZ Comms entering the fray with similar technologies.”

I agree with Tom’s major points , we need a vision that connects NZ to the world in the most appropriate way for them. I think this vision means when you buy a fast internet plan, you are going to have to make some choices based on your particular needs. If you are one of those companies or people feeling massively restrained by ADSL (financially, gaming wise, IP TV wise) then you are in one camp. If you get on the internet to ‘get the email’ like my mum, dial or mobile technology might be fine for you. The reality is though, whatever you choose, you should be aware that you are going to pay for it ….. there are no free rides. To me this is the crux of the issue for NZ . Just look at the links above, price isn’t the impediment (we’re cheaper than the OECD average), fast speeds are available, so why so many dial and low speed plans? No need for them?

For all those who did comment and weren’t referenced, your input did help, again many thanks.

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Onlne document collaboration presentation…

Published by Ben Kepes on April 7, 2008 in Collaboration, IT, SaaS, Web x.0 and nzwc. 1 Comment

A plug here for Diversity contributor Mike Riversdale who is running a 75 minute workshop around the use of online document collaboration (using Google Docs as the example) at the conference, “Engage Your Community“:

Using Blogs, YouTube and other Cool Tools to achieve your group’s goals

The conference details:

Waikato 2020 Communications Trust, a voluntary organisation dedicated to helping the community benefit from computer technologies, will hold a one-day conference, Engage Your Community: Using Blogs, YouTube and Other Cool Tools to Achieve Your Group’s Goals, on Tuesday, April 22, 2008.

The conference, to be held in the Waikato Management School of the University of Waikato, Hamilton, will include a series of practical workshops led by experts and community group leaders who are currently using these tools.

Sign-up online …

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Isn’t the answer mobile?

Published by The Unreasonablemen on April 1, 2008 in IT, New Zealand, Society, Strategy and nzwc. 11 Comments

Before I start, let me just say I’m not an engineer, so if I get some of the technical bits wrong, forgive me. But I genuinely think I’ve got the ramifications correct!

There’s been a fair amount of debate about how NZ gets better faster broadband. This isn’t a simple proposition and much of it has been made even more complex because of politicalisation, poor press leading to general acceptance that Telecom New Zealand is ‘bad’ (just look at the sensationalist title to this), ignorance and a real clouding of issues.

So lets separate out the issues. Jim Donovan provides a nice synopsis of the issues as Rod Drury sees them. In my opinion there are a lot of issues tied up even in this.

Firstly can we accept the fact that Telecom is a public company and as such will try its best to make a profit for its shareholders, (which incidentally includes just about everyone in NZ with a managed fund, the point being you are doing yourselves out of your retirement dosh!). The implications of this are that they are legally obliged to invest their shareholders money to get the best return possible…which may not always be what people think is ‘good’ for the country as a whole.

Having multiple international trade routes is different from national data speeds. It’s a damn good idea and should just happen ala Google.

Next, lets address national data speeds. There’s a lot of apples with pears comparisons with other nations out there. These nations don’t have our population levels or distribution, so doing this isn’t that valuable. Benchmarks are good, but how about making them meaningful (as opposed to a political weapon).

Lets look at broadband. Everyone is talking about fast ‘broadband’, but what they really mean is fast internet connectivity - give me the webpage I want faster, upload my stuff faster…. Semantic, but important difference.

Broadband in common use means an ADSL connection. ADSL is effectively compressed data travelling down the same copper as you use for a phone line. Broadband in other countries means other things like cable, Fibre and other technologies. The whole broadband thing became quite topical when the government noticed that people might be pointing the finger at them for our slow movement down the OECD averages for income and wealth. They also noted that the countries moving up that list had higher penetration of faster internet technologies than us and viola, it became an election issue.

If we take a stick to Telecom, make them the bad guy people won’t point at us anymore. This conveniently neglected other things like company tax, RnD, incentives and funding for start ups, tax breaks for international tech companies etc. Anyways, the end result was that in a knee jerk reaction to get the monkey off its back Telecom agreed to invest in its fixed line business to the tune of $1.4bn. The point of this investment is to shorten the loop between the point where the core network (fibre) stops and the copper (last 2km - the bit to your home) starts. This shortening reduces the distance impact and will provide greater speeds (10mbps) to the home and …. no one will be happy with the result. It still won’t be fast enough (here for religious screaming from the left, here for business impact).

This type of disappointment will mean more Telecom bashing, closely followed by the realisation that the loop distance needs to be reduced to about 800m. That means more cabinets (I’m told 3 times as many, and another $700mill). And get this, this additional investment will only give data speeds of up to 20mbps… more disappointment !!! Which gets you to the point where you realise you need Fibre to the home. I heard that the last time Telecom looked at that it was going to cost circa $10bn to deliver. So that’s just not going to happen (as Paul Reynolds has already said).

Or, you try a different approach.

Think about the world we live in, most people have telephones they carry around with them, notebook sales outstrip desktops, pda’s, ipods, WiFi in the home… its all about untethering the cable…or simply being mobile. Why then are we trying to solve the issue with redundant technology when the requirement is just for fast internet speeds.

Here’s my hypothesis. The network you think of as mobile, isn’t really mobile. It’s a fixed backhaul network with cell towers attached at the end to deliver the last mile. If you think about it, its identical to your home WiFi network and we love those!

Why then don’t we leverage the fibre to the cabinet programme, turn all those cabinets into a cell site and start thinking about fast mobile data technologies like LTE. I know its not a ratified standard (others are though and they are quite quick!), but it is already demo’d as doing 150mbps. That’s 15 times what cabinetisation is going to deliver to the home…. Isn’t it about fast internet, not copper or fibre. I know there is a pricing issue, but scale will bring that down….

Thoughts?

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When bureaucracy goes wrong…

Published by Ben Kepes on March 28, 2008 in Economic Development, Governance, IT, New Zealand, New business, Society, Strategy and nzwc. 2 Comments

I’ve written in the past about the good things that New Zealand Trade & Enterprise, the Government’s enterprise development body, does for New Zealand business. They have a large variety of programmes, all aimed at helping New Zealand business excel on an international level.

I was pretty disappointed to read a post yesterday that told a sad story. Seems that VortexDNA managed to get NZTE funding to cover some development costs - until now all good.

Things turned to custard however when Vortex, in a gesture of appreciation for the good work the developer had done for them, decided to award him some stock.

NZTE decided that this was a breach of their terms and conditions and duly asked for the grant money to be refunded.

I can see why NZTE has these sorts of rules - they don’t want to be seen as a gravy train that funds individuals investments in startups - but a degree of flexibility would be nice -to make matters worse it would seem that Vortex has been placed on a high risk register for any future application.

An unfortunate turn of events.

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3 quick lessons to keep you up to play with Enterprise 2.0

Published by Mike Riversdale on March 26, 2008 in Web x.0 and nzwc. 0 Comments

(cross posting from Mike Riversdale: Enterprise 2.0 New Zealand style blog)

Basic

A great list of “Web 2.0″ definitions from Miraz that we people that live on the Web use all the time but may confuse and intimidate those that don’t know. As Miraz ably demonstrates, most of the words are actually very easy to understand once someone takes the time to explain them:

The Internet is abuzz with a whole new vocabulary: memes and tags, posts and mashups, LOLcats, tweets and RSS. Friends, characters, flag, subscribe and interesting have a whole new meaning. This article helps you find your way in the new Web 2.0 world.

My particular favourites are:

LOLcats - pictures of cats, with humorous captions, written to a certain style. LOL is short for ‘Lots of Laughs’. Example: www.lolcats.com/view/55.

tags - Words that help describe something. A photo might be titled ‘Solace in the wind’, but have tags such as: wellington, waterfront, sculpture, statue, and so on.

Web 2.0 - Websites and services that make it easy for people to connect with one another by rating items, marking favourites, sharing, commenting and so on.

Read the complete list - and add more in the comments if you think something’s missing

Intermediate

Google Apps (applications) - what is it and what can you do with it/them. Watch this 2 minute video from Google*

Advanced

Microformats University: 100+ Articles and Resources by Jessica Hupp is a brilliant set of links to learn all about microformats and prepare for the soon to explode “semantic web”. As Jessica explains:

Microformats are small formatting pieces designed to make your data easier to read by both users and software. Although their use is not widespread, it’s important that every web developer becomes familiar with them, as they’re sure to be an integral part of the web’s future. Because of this, there are a number of articles and resources out there devoted to microformats. We’ve compiled more than 100 of the best here.

Includes links for:

Introduction
Implementation
Articles & Presentations
Tools
Tutorials
Cheat Sheets
Code
Information Sources

Further reading about microformats and the “semantic web”:

* for some great Microsoft Office 2007 advert placement

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5 reasons why 92% of New Zealander’s don’t use RSS

Published by Mike Riversdale on March 19, 2008 in Business, IT, New Zealand, Web x.0 and nzwc. 0 Comments

(cross posting from Mike Riversdale: Enterprise 2.0 New Zealand style blog)

A massive 92% of Kiwi’s have no idea how (or choose not) use the RSS technology as reported by Russell Brown* Why is that?

(If you’re unfamiliar with the term RSS check out the excellent RSS in Plain English video)

I commented on the NZ State Services Commission blog where Jo reminded me of this amazingly high statistic:

I know, 92% have no idea … and whilst I still a little unbelieving at how high that seems from my experience introducing this “stuff” into organisations I am no longer stunned by it.

Mind you, the “young ‘uns” might not be able to tell you what RSS is but they probably use it in Facebook and the like. Maybe it’s a technology that (like TCP/IP) doesn’t need to be known but just works.

Having said that. I bet close to 90% wouldn’t know what “reader”, “subscribe” or the wee orange logo are referring to. Good thing is, hardly anyone hates it when they discover it … all growth ahead!

The clients I work with are generally not bleeding edge but they are slightly more forward thinking than a lot - as it should be, otherwise why engage with me. They have heard of Wikipedia, they do know something about blogs and they have most certainly looked at Facebook and have some understanding about the ’social graph’.

When I initially engage with clients I try and gauge where they are on the continuum with one method being to throw the acronym “RSS” at them. Having performed this a few times now I am no longer surprised by the “92%” reported - New Zealand business are still driven by three main applications:

Email + Calendar
Word / number processing
“business specific apps”

(note - I tend to work within “knowledge based” organisations industry’s)

And so it seems that within New Zealand 2007 wasn’t the year of RSS take-up.

But why is that? Especially because, as I said, I work within “knowledge based” industrys and therefore one would expect a higher percentage of workers to have (their chosen) information coming to them and not have to re-invent the wheel all the time by re-doing Google searches.

Before I outline my thoughts on the New Zealand situation you should know that I don’t actually think “RSS” are three letters real people ever care about (as I mentioned in the SSC comment). RSS is a technology, it is geek and it’s not of the real world. However, the ability to “subscribe” is part of Joe Blogs’ world, the ability to “receive updates” is, the ability ‘track changes” is …

… forget the annoying acronym.

What’s important is what you can do with RSS.

source: Surprising RSS usage stats: 50 million-plus users don’t know what RSS is - Debbie Weil, Feb 2006

The “92% of New Zealanders don’t use RSS” may also reflect a version of what Yahoo! discovered in October 2005 (pdf | Google html version):

The real story, however, is the much larger population of “Unaware RSS users” who
consume RSS syndicated content on personalized start pages (e.g., My Yahoo!, My
MSN). 27% of online users consume third-party content on these pages without knowing that RSS is the enabling technology.

My thoughts on the New Zealand situation (in no particular order).

1: Home broadband and wider WiFi is still uncommon
Huh? What has this to do with RSS Mike?

If you do not have a permanent and pervasive connection to the Internet then the behaviour is to “pop in and get out”. This can lead to using the Internet as one would use a research library - have a specific need to be satisfied, get in, get the answer and get out. If one was to visit such a library and they were to offer a radio that would broadcast a special station answering just your queries you’d probably look at them strangely and ask how they knew what to broadcast exactly when you needed.

With a pervasive connection however there is no “popping in” - you are surrounded by the library and would quickly start to appreciate the ability to tune your own radio to the station broadcasting only the sorts of information you want.

RSS is your radio station with the sort of content you want.

2: Organisations are surrounded by impenetrable walls
The majority of New Zealand organisations still operate within the “inside/outside” world view.
There is “inside” the organisation and there is everyone else “outside”. All the information that I need to do my job should exist inside the organisation … and for company specific info it probably does. But it’s the “all” part of the sentence - a large majority of the work we all done has already been done somewhere else and has been shared either by individuals or by those company’s that have a far more permeable wall around their information.

With the information to do my job exists within the wall why subscribe to RSS feeds outside of it - that’s just playing on the bosses time, surely!!?

3: Client software isn’t widely installed
Most people go to work, fire up the PC given to them and there’s nothing on there that would have a clue about RSS. Without the technology to read the feeds there’s no point in teasing people with Utopian views of never having to send emails again and all the information you’ll ever want will come to you just in time.

But then why bother installing software if there are no feeds to subscribe to …

4: Organisations aren’t feeding their staff
Ok, 3 and 4 go hand-in-hand.
As organisations slowly move towards both an Enterprise 2.0** approach (to “knowledge work) and updates company specific applications the amount of information will increase as will the ability to subscribe.

The challenge will then be how to staff know the feeds available to them AND how easy will it be for the staff to subscribe?

A case in hand - Microsoft’s Sharepoint 2007 (MOSS) is an excellent source of RSS feeds and nearly everything can be subscribed to (top work!). However the feeds are generally hidden away on menus AND getting RSS feeds into readers is left entirely in the hands of the user with no Feedburner approach to choosing the reader.

5: Myths and downright lies
Some I have heard from IT staff, users and the like:

RSS feeds are huge and will kill our network
You can only have one feed at a time
Subscribing to feeds outside of the workplace isn’t technically possible
(the IT Department was horrified to learn this as they were actually advocating RSS over using the InBox)
RSS history will overload our storage capacity
You have to use a web based reader as RSS is all about web sites
Reading RSS is just playing

I think the final comment comes from a deeper, “The Web eh, it’s just a hobby, surely” which I touched upon in my Webstock presentation.

And so, in summary - RSS is a technology that, like “HTML”, real people won’t ever care about. Once the way of “being on the Internet” becomes more comfortable for staff and organisations RSS will be supported, made available and used - this is happening but slower than other parts of the world.

* part of Russell’s Webstock 08 talk and reporting from the ??? report.
** Enterprise 2.0 is the application of the Web 2.0 technology and mindset within an organisation. - more …

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NetGuide web awards

Published by Ben Kepes on March 17, 2008 in Blogging, New Zealand and nzwc. 0 Comments

It’s that time of year again - voting for the NetGuide web awards has opened.

If you have a favourite ISP, e-commerce site or even Blog click here to vote.

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Archive for the 'nzwc' Category

National’s plans for FTTH

Google Docs … so what - the ONE reason why you should care

Digital Strategy…

No One solution

Onlne document collaboration presentation…

Isn’t the answer mobile?

When bureaucracy goes wrong…

3 quick lessons to keep you up to play with Enterprise 2.0

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Intermediate

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5 reasons why 92% of New Zealander’s don’t use RSS

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