Bit of a tech tragedy at the weekend – and a bit of an embarrassing one. My trusty Nokia n8 was sitting on my desk, peacefully minding it’s own business, when a 25Kg studio monitor fell off of the wall and landed on it.
To the n8′s credit, there wasn’t a scratch on it, and it seemed to still be working fine… But when I switched it on the next day, it was clear that the screen had taken the brunt of the non-accoustic ballistic attack!
I’m always bemused by people being bemused by me having an n8. Why that and not something else? The top 8 reasons it has been my handset of choice:
1) Amazing coverage (the sheer joy of making calls while iPhone users battle with voice mail and standing on tip toes to make a phone call…
2) Great Twitter client – Gravity is still the most powerful twitter client I’ve used. Easy to upload photos (see point 8), and manage lists and following across the dozen or so Twitter accounts I help to look after.
3) Skype – great over wifi, Skype keeps me in touch when I’m on the road. And it integrates wonderfully.
4) FM transmitter – hop in the car and listen to my tunes, without battling with wires. Benjamin FM ;).
5) Battery life – my experience with Android and iOS handsets has consisted mainly of desperately hopping from one power socket to another from 4 hours into the day. With the n8 I go on trips overseas and don’t even need to take a power lead. Win!
6) USB master socket – plugging in a memory stick or a USB keyboard is much more straight forward than pairing bluetooth keyboards and ejecting memory cards. It’s a surprisingly neat feature.
7) HDMI output – yes, I know lots of handsets have this now, but the n8 was my first experience of quite how useful this is – even in the business world, were I seem to be doing most presentations via an HDMI equipped large screen these days.
8) The camera – you must have heard how good the camera is by now? :)
So there you go. I’m missing the n8 :(. What next? I’m not sure. I had a bit of a soft spot for the lemonade green n8 I saw at the launch. The e7 looks like an interesting variation (I have a bit of a fetish for built in keyboards – like the n900). And, of course, the n9 has been announced… Tough choices!
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Nisha Pillai (@island_nisha – do say hello to her if you are on Twitter) asked me what advice I’d give to someone new to Twitter. Here are my thoughts, as I await my next cup of coffee.
1. Give it a try.
[for those of you not on Twitter already, it is free and quick to set up. If you are nervous, you can protect your tweets and use a pseudonym - although if you really do have something to hide, you might want to stay away. It is a very public platform]
Twitter takes quite a bit of perseverance. The first time I used it, I gave up after a day or two. I’m glad I came back.
It took about 6 months for Twitter to really start to ‘work’ for me, in terms of understanding it, and feeling confident in interacting with people. Press in. Keep trying it. Experiment. Talk to people who seem to get a lot out of it. Find people that you know, that you would like to hear from. Figure out what works for you. You don’t have to be Stephen Fry or the boy/girl next door. I see dozens of different ways that Twitter works for people. As long as the way you are using it isn’t needlessly annoying people, it’s probably ok!
2. Don’t try and read everything.
Seriously, your head will explode! It’s not an inbox, it is one giant, global, watercooler discussion. Stop in, grab a glass, then head back to work ;).
3. Follow people you find interesting/enjoy.
Twitter will give you some suggestions of people to follow and add some to get you started. Feel free to unfollow them! Unfollow them all if you want!
Use the search facility via the Twitter website (it’s right there on the home page) to find people talking about things you are interested in. Search, look. Click through to a person. If they look like someone you’d like to hear from follow them. You can always unfollow them later – it’s just like slipping away from the conversation – they are unlikely to take offence (and don’t be offended if they don’t even notice! It’s not a personal slight).
Lists can also be a way to get started – lists are lists of people, created by other people. When you follow a list, you follow everyone on that list. It is a quick way to find a group of people talking about a particular topic and get started.
4. Say Hello!
If you are feeling particularly bold, send them a (non-creepy!) message, perhaps say why you followed them. For example, typing: “@BenjaminEllis How many basses do you have!? I heard from @caalie it was too many!” – will create a message that I (and anyone who follows you who also follows me) will see. @caalie will see it too, and she’ll probably agree. Again, don’t be offended if the person doesn’t answer. They might not be feeling talkative, they might be busy, or they might just not be sure who you are yet!
If you have something to contribute to a conversation you see, join in. Generally people on Twitter will be pleased to meet you – It is why most users are on the platform after all. It is about meeting new people, and keeping in contact with people you don’t see enough off.
5 Listen. Lots.
Twitter isn’t about the numbers. Being followed by 4,000 people doesn’t prove anything or necessarily enhance your experience. Even though Twitter has got me on to the BBC 6 O’Clock News, national radio, US Radio, and into books published around the world, actually the most valuable thing it has done for me is in enabling me to meet new people, and to get to know them.
You get out of Twitter what you put it, and that doesn’t just mean talking. It means listening too. Many a time I succumb to the temptation to say something, when I should just listen. Some of the people I most enjoy interacting with on Twitter say very little. But they listen lots, and they share what is important, and are they with an encouraging word when it is needed.
Thanks to pummelvision, here is my 2010 – 2,500 photos turned into one four minute 34 second video:
The big event of the year was, of course, South by South West – The largest digital festival on the planet. Once again, a great set of British Businesses set off to Austin, Texas, on the Digital Mission, to network, learn and share. Many familiar faces in the opening minute of the video. Oh, and I got to see Fenech Solar, before then even released their first album. They are slightly massive now!
Yes, there’s a photo of me holding a snake in there. That was at Teen Tech – a brilliant event pulled together by Maggie Philbin, encouraging young folks to get involved in science and technology. Would love to see more businesses involved.
Then there’s Tom Watson (blog) and Cory Doctorow (blog) at the protest against the Digital Economy Bill (now act…) – that was an eye opening bit of parliamentary process at the end of the last government. And the Twestivals (I attened both Farnham and Reading this year) – and of course speaking at Digital Surrey.
Quite a few events at Gum Tree and eBay’s offices this year – thank you for supporting the community guys! Speaking of community, TVSMC has settled into a steady circular of events in the Thames Valley and beyond, with the wonderful Lloyd Davis (who also came ot SXSWi), and electric dress maker Debbie Davis dropping in.
All sorts of other things. Lots of speaking engagements (which I loved!), Gigs (great to have the bass out again), TEDx, RSA events. The two stand-out events of the year in the UK for me were Herb Kim’s Thinking Digital conference in the North East, and Scott and Drew’s Like Minds in Exeter. Two amazing, and very different, experiences.
Social Media in the Business space has gone from strength to strength. Speaking at Dell’s Social Media huddle event caused me to reflect on how much things have matured. Collecting not one, but two awards for Redcatco’s work with TheBlueBallRoom and DHL was a major highlight of the year. Meanwhile SocialOptic’s first service, Milestone Planner, has flourished, starting the year in Beta, and ending the year with customers across 3 continents, a phenomenal growth curve, and sharing the stage with Google, Microsoft and IBM. Not bad!
“I believe — really believe — in the stirring words of the Maker Manifesto: if you can’t open it, you don’t own it. Screws not glue. The original Apple ][+ came with schematics for the circuit boards, and birthed a generation of hardware and software hackers who upended the world for the better. If you wanted your kid to grow up to be a confident, entrepreneurial, and firmly in the camp that believes that you should forever be rearranging the world to make it better, you bought her an Apple ][+."
As it happens, my parents bought me a video Genie (a TRS-80 clone) as my first computer, but that included schematics too. It wasn't long before I was designing and building my own software and peripherals, and even making a bit of a living from some of them. Computing wasn't a passive experience, it was an active, engaging, creative one. I don't see my kids doing that as much today. Sure, they play with Scratch, but it really doesn't feel like the same thing. It has something about it of the cut and paste mentality that has become so prevalent these days [boy I'm sounding like a grumpy old man - did I mention I've noticed I have more grey hair recently?].
To me the iPad is “Infantalizing hardware” as Cory puts it. In fact, around the same time I read “The Real iPad Review“, which gives a 3 year old’s view of the iPad (via the child’s dad - Adam Kmiec ). It says this:
“Is the iPad a killer device? Is it a game changing device? Will you love it? The simple answer is YES…so long as you have the mindset of a 3 year old. Harsh? Yes. But, it’s the truth.”
Yes, that is harsh. I mean no disrespect to the dear friends who have rushed out and bought one, but it is slightly distressing watching them going jab-jab-point-shiny-shiny. Adam also points out the hardware short comings that kill the iPad for me:
“No USB, no camera, no replaceable battery, no ability to create content and heck no cleaning cloth. I could deal with all of these shortcomings and flaws if the price was something like $349.99 (in line with iPod Touch), but not at $499.99 (minimum). At $349.99 it would be a nice affordable stretch and step up from an iPod and complimentary to a laptop. But, at $499.99 I just don’t see how a current iPhone or MacBook user will find value in a device that does less than both of those devices.”
The lack of cleaning cloth is definitely a killer. What where Apple thinking?!? More seriously, the other features are a big issue… You see, my Windows Tablet PC has all of these features, and more, and it cost me a fraction of that price. Does it have the app store? No. Can I play angry birds with a multi-touch interface? No. Can I write my own apps on it (in a multitude of development environments)? Yes. Can I create my own rich content with it? Yes. Of course some have converted the iPad into a maker’s device, but there are other cheaper iPad alternatives out there. By the end of the summer there will be a veritable ocean of touch-screen web tablets.
I love Maker things. I love Dan’s Internet catapult. I love the devices people make with Arduino kits. I love the creative ideas of the kids at Teentech. I’m not a fan of things that make us passive consumers of information. I like creating things and planning things with people. Not everyone agreed with Cory, of course, and I’m coming from a slightly different angle. I don’t think we all need to be coders and soldering-iron-wielding-pcb-making geeks, but I do hope we can be a generation that doesn’t just consume, but that engages and creates!
The ultimate cure for jetlag? Well, spending the day with 300 teenagers, obviously. On Friday I joined Maggie Philbin, the afore mentioned teenagers, and a dedicated team of grown ups at The Madejski Stadium in Reading, Berkshire, for Teentech 2010. The number of children studying science and maths has been in decline for many years in the UK, prompting government intervention. Less that 60,000 students sat Maths ‘A’ level in the UK last year. That’s in the whole country. There are signs of improvement, but as someone who is a technologist and engineer by education, it is distressing to hear them described as “Vulnerable Subjects” in education reports. Just down the road, Reading University closed its Physics department this year. Continue Reading…
Day 2 should have been easier, so should day 3. Really it should. I was mostly out and about and away from the computer, but it was still tricky to avoid Google products. Forgive me, for I have fallen slightly – I had to show someone Google Analytics. I got straight back on track afterwards, but my wonderful customer needed some stats for their website, and like many folks with a web site out there, they use it. Continue Reading…
