How can I refuse?

"I was expecting to hear about the google-blogger acquisition on your site already. I was hoping for a business slant from you as you know a fair bit about this stuff. For some bizarre reason, I'm actually starting to rely on your blog for commentary :) well not that bizarre; what you say is normally pretty insightful, and you do have the inside track in many respects.

C'mon dude, your public awaits!!"

Oh my god I have a public! Cool. I will now stop looking like some nervous starlet, dazed by the snapping of papparazzi flashbulbs and resume my normal posture of controlled ranting and carefully timed dribbling.

The Blogger thing. For those who don't know Google now own Pyra labs, which is the technology that I use to run this website. This was announced at the Live from the Blogosphere event in a typically blogcentric manner. (Pictures), (Words). There is nothing particularly remarkable about the Blogger technology, the core is probably a dozen lines of ASP that takes what I type into a form and turns it into HTML, its not difficult. Of course what Blogger really has is a big idea and if not a business model then at least its a communication model. Big Ideas are ideas that change the way we behave and for a significant number of people Blogger does that. For some blogging is social discourse, it keeps us in touch with friends down the street or over the water. It puts us in touch with likeminded souls or just people in similar situations.

In a way some blogging is like reality TV, but its a reality shot from inside the protagonists head with themselves as a director. Blogs are used for academic debate, as bully pulpits as seeding grounds for ideas. Journalists use them as sources and leads, clued in readers use them to bypass journalism and pretty much everyone uses them to express opinions. They are the number one illustration of the cluetrains contention that markets are conversations. As you can probably tell I like Blogs, they're cool.

Google is also cool, and Google has a mission. "To catalogue and make usable all the worlds information". That ladies and gentlemen is the biggest mission in the history of the modern corporation. Google is staffed by people who want to use technology to improve the condition of mankind. At any rate thats what Raymond Nasr told me, and he works there, and he has an honest face. So is there a tie in between Google and Blogger? I think so.

A while ago Google changed their search algorhythms in a way that seemed to downplay the importance of links from blogs. Bloggers, who'd had all kinds of fun with Googlebombing and other search engine manipulation up till then were disappointed. Google base their rankings on links, which webpages effectively use to vote for each other. Blogs are absolutely stuffed with links, so they're a great source of fresh information. When Google changed their methods they didn't stop looking at Blogs, I suspect they just worked out how to put a more appropriate weight on them.

So I think there is a huge advantage to Google in having direct access to a few hundred thousand individuals who scour the web for fresh interesting content, link to it and then describe it in a way that by and large tells people what it is. No other search engine has a workforce like this.

That however is probably small potatoes compared to whatever Google have come up with. I know they're hugely interested in looking at all the data they have in aggregate, spotting patterns and trying to understand them. Blogger is in some ways probably a huge reservoir of research material and an experimental lab all in one nice shiny package. Google would have been nuts not to buy it, the genius is in the fact that we only think so after they've done it.

Finally, as Ev, the guy behind Blogger put it. Google, Blogger, just look at the names. There's clearly some shared DNA there.

Why isn't Michael Franti more famous?

If this was the 1960's Michael Franti would be a mega star. On a good day he sings like Marvin Gaye and Raps like Chuck D. He writes articulate lyrics that range from tenderness to fury. His last album had a guest appearance from Woody Harrellson and the cover notes featured quotes from Bono. If this was the 60's he'd be up there on a stage with Hendrix at Woodstock. I've played some of his recent stuff to many of my friends and the general response is 'that's damn fine music'.

Back when ICE T and Dr Dre were urging us to try a little cop killing, or maybe just fuck the police Franti brought out HipHoprisy is the Greatest Luxury, with a band called 'The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy'. It was a blistering condemnation of the first iraq war, environmental standards, the american justice system, racism and the entertainment industry. It went nowhere.

Michael Franti's most recent album is a protest against the death penalty. It's called Stay Human, and its a pretty impressive call for tolerance, brotherly love, the legalisation of marujauna (sp?), an end to genetic manipulation and greater spirituality in life. Its also got some of the best soul and disco tunes laid down in the last ten years. It didn't do that well either.

Of course by now you already know why Michael Franti isn't more famous.

"Being kicked in a closed mouth, or smiling with no teeth,
they're both choices yes, but its impossible to eat"

Digression

My last post about homeland security generated a fairly vitriolic response from one classmate. Here is a chunk of my response, which I hope puts what I have to say in context. It is worth pointing out to my American readers that coming to study in Europe will expose you to opinions far more extreme than mine. (I'm mainstream centre-left here, a good 30% of the nation is to my left). Another American colleague tells me he was approached by demonstrators over the weekend asking him to sign a petition in support of the Intfada (he's Jewish). If dealing with this sort of thing (whatever your political views) is likely to send you off the deep end then European life may not be for you. Anyway, on to the explanation of why I feel justified in having a go at http://www.ready.gov , the US governments paranoia production engine.

>>

Like everyone else in this country of my age I have lived with terrorism all my life, including IRA bombing campaigns and threats from ETA when we go on holiday in Spain. The sad truth is that ninety nine days out of a hundred you forget about it, and on the hundredth day you evacuate your school for a bomb scare, or your tube is abandoned or you hear about another shooting on the news.

Like almost every other UK citizen I was horrified to see terrorism reach the America's in the most terrible way possible. Differing responses does not mean indifference.

Sadly I was also then left to witness one of the world's great nations throwing away so many of its virtues - tolerance, understanding and respect for individual freedoms. These are of course not gone, but as the constitution is swept aside, prisoners detained without trial and military tribunals convened one cannot see anything other than the American soul being tarnished. The administrations call for every American family to duct tape themselves into a coccoon is not about protecting them, it is about sustaining public interest in a coming war.

Its at times like this that I'm glad someone at the Washington Post agrees with me. Hell, if I'm as Anti-American as Aaron McGruder I'm down with that.

Even better. Here's a guy whose American Loving credentials are pretty damn impeccable. Apparently he's seen the Elephant - whatever that means. Anyway, read and think.

Under Control?

At times this term has felt like it had completely got away from me, I'm behind on the reading, the Oxford Business Forum demolished any chance of getting serious work done for my New Business Project in the first month of term and ... well it just mounted up a bit.

Now I'm not so sure. I'm just about OK with the reading (should point out I try to read all the compulsary material, a significant minority of the class reads nothing and makes do with the lecture material), the New Business Project is still suffering, but with the Oxford Business Forum out of the way it's the only thing that's likely to eat time. Of course exams are now only three weeks away, so revision has to start soon.

Oh, and my jobhunt really should start. This was meant to be the term I really made an effort sent out the CV's and lined up the interviews. Maybe next month...

Beyond belief

I really, really, really do not understand the American government. So far the only attacks on American soil were pretty hard to avoid for anyone involved. Now however we have this. Don't be afraid, be ready? Judging from this the American nation looks bloody terrified. How about websites describing how not to get shot in school, how to avoid wearing the wrong colors and getting shot in the street, websites giving health and safety advice for nightclubs and....

It just looks like scaremongering to me

Better idea. How about a website for Iraqi civilians telling them how to avoid becoming collateral damage in the event of a US onslaught. Advice about the kind of buildings they should stay away from and how to say 'don't shoot I'm a civilian' in English for when half a dozen scared, nervous and heavily armed US Marines kick in the door to your home unsure as to whether or not yours was the building they were being fired on from.

Guerilla Politics in Action

Over at Bloggerheads Tim's campaign to get Tony Blair to adopt a publically accessible email address may finally be heading for a breakthrough. He started out with a set of reasonable demands, he got his MP to help him then there was a campaign of hostage taking followed by a massacre of the innocents and finally blackmail.

Now it seems that maybe, just maybe we'll be able to email our dear leader sometime soon, thanks to a direct approach to his wife.... (scroll down for the content)

Ajaz Ahmed is a very nice man

Despite the fact that I was running a temperature and wanted to do nothing more than curl up with a hot water bottle I made it to London for the meeting with Ajaz Ahmed. Things started well, he hadn't managed to book a room, which upgraded us from meeting in an office, to meeting in the Meridian Hotel - as a side effect lunch was upgraded too, from sandwiches to some very fine hotel cooking. So we met up, me Lance, Jeremy and Jennifer and we chatted for a couple of hours. Which was very cool indeed.

There is something nice about being able to shoot the breeze with someone you're interested in. Less of the thrity seconds to say something interesting you get at networking events and more of the 'hey what about this' or 'what did you make of xyz'. We talked about what we wanted out of our careers -I apparently should start my own company, Jeremy has a future in the BBC, Jennifer needs to leave big companies for agencies and Lance, I forget what Lance was supposed to do. Still its nice to be told you should start your own firm. Much more of this and I will...

And we got bought books. This turns out to be something of a theme with Ajaz. He buys books for his managers and he buys them for clients. He even buys them for MBA students who turned up for a day of networking. I like this. Books are fantastic, wonderful things. Back at Domino I always wanted to give our clients books for Christmas, but it never happened. What I like most about the whole book giving thing is that it sends a whole bunch of signals about what a company is not. This is not a company that is scared of new ideas, this is not a company with one way of doing things, this is not a company where experience always outweighs learning.

Looking at that list you'd think every company would want to be like that, but very few are. I got myself a copy of the Economist Style Guide which I've been meaning to get hold of for ages. Expect my writing to improve dramatically in the next few weeks as it wends it's way into my head.

Off to London

I'm off to London today, for the first bit of networking to fall out of the Oxford Business Forum. Ajaz Ahmed of AKQA has invited us to spend some time checking out his offices, which should be nice. Always interested to see the insides of other new media companies - especially successful ones.

In other business forum news one of the mentors has come back to us to talk about taking the event global and running it in partnership with other business schools in the states. All well and good, as long as they call it the OXFORD business forum.

Demoralisation sets in

If you're going to set twenty one case studies for a course you should at least make them the kind of thing where people feel they're making progress. The marketing cases have not been like this. Each has been carefully selected to demonstrate how little we know about a specific subject area, but due to the tutors refusal to set questions, rather 'just tell me what you would do' nobody ever has anything close to what is presented as the answer in class.

Now this may not actually make too much difference to our marks since there is no real answer and the aim is just to show us things we wouldn't have noticed otherwise. However it does grind you down. A lot. By now our study group meetings are more about doing enough to satisfy ourselves that we tried than they are about trying to crack the case. Five weeks, over a dozen cases written and submitted by hand, in triplicate to the examination schools, and no feedback, no suggestion of progress, no nothing.

I'm sure on paper this looked like a great plan. Real, practical hands on teaching stuff. But when you come to address it its not there. You look around in class and see the blank faces, the resignation and the dejection. You can't teach people by telling them they missed the point week after week after week. I still think I'm learning from this, but I definately think I'm in the minority now. There are just too many trees, and we're too deep in to them for anyone to see the wood without making a real effort.

I'm sure this is having knock on effects as well. If you work quickly and care little a case takes 2 or 3 hours. So thats 7.5 hours a week, plus the lecture of 3.5 hours, plus the reading (maybe another hour or two and ) plus the two hour study group meeting to discuss the things. Thats thirteen hours if you're not trying. If you are trying each case could take four or five hours and it all spirals out of hand very quickly. I've got a gut feeling that this term the exam results will be down, too many people have been stressed out by this work, too tired and too jaded to work through the problem sets from finance or the next installment of Macroeconomics.

Still, its all part and parcel of the start up approach to business school. You try new things, sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. This one isn't, but as long as the experiments continue I'm sure we'll be fine...

Feedback is good

Just had an email from a successful applicant to Said who reckoned this site was useful - which makes this all worth while. I've also had some feedback from faculty to the effect that they really like the site, and indeed that those aplicants they've seen this year who've admitted reading the thing have tended to be above average.

So, are the people who do research in advance better candidates, or is reading this site good preparation for the interview ? I have no idea, but I think the best thing I can do is give you some insight into what the place is like. The better informed you are when you decide to apply here or accept an offer from here the more use I'm being.

Victory!

Its interesting what counts for a win in football. But a solid performance, a thirteen goal thrashing and our first goal of the season are definately a victory. Hell the fact we had eleven men, got there before the opposition and put in a good warmup counted. We also added our first booking for foul play Jeff 'Chopper' Pittman doing his best to slice a Pembroke forward in half in a manner that suggested the English game has a certain appeal to the American psyche. Indeed Jeroens rugby induced transformation into SBS's very own Jaap Stam has been a thing to behold.



From left to right (back row)

Neil Chazin, (USA), Daniel Maman (USA), Bryan MacMilan (Canada), Martin Lloyd (Geordie Nation / UK), Wenqi 'you'll never beat the Chinese' Lu (China), Mathew Lawrence (USA?), Serguei 'Russian Madman' Evlanchik (Russia),

Front row

Yimin Jiang (China), Jeff 'Chopper' Pittman (USA), Brent 'foul throw' Hablutzel (USA), Jeroen 'Stam' Ariens (Holland), Narek Harutyunyan (Armenia), Neil 'Skipper' Hunter (UK).

Why was it a win? Aside from all the improvements thanks to our previous outings the opposition needed seventeen goals to go through, and as the second half wore on their increasing frustration and desperation gave the game an edge our previous outings have lacked. As they lost their way we kept our heads up, kept battling and while we finished dead on our feet we went home the happier, not least Brent Hablutzel, scorer of the seasons only goal.

The Business Forum

It was big, we did it and it was a success. Art or Science I don't know but the thing went off with scarcely a hitch, attendees had a great time and a whole bunch of serious business folk turned out to talk to us and they too had a great time. There will at some stage be a big long write up of this , complete with pictutres but for now I'm just coming to terms with the fact that its finished.

They told us about this event on day one of the course and those of us who decided then and there to take part have never known what it's like to be at business school without the pressure to put this thing together bearing down on us. The constant worry that we haven't got enough mentors lined up (by January we had six and thought seriously about cancelling, two weeks later we had twelve which vindicated an awful lot of us)

Oh, and I did the closing toast at the evening dinner, raising a glass to next years forum. It's the start of a tradition, and I was in from the beginning. One of those things that makes it worth coming to school in the first place.

Catch Up

Stuff I've forgotten to blog about in the past few weeks includes...

Cambridge Day - we thrashed them at Rugby, they thrashed us at cricket. More worrying was that despite this being an event organised here in Oxford they then thrashed us at 'turning up for a beer' with ninety of the light blues making the trip and winding up in the Kings Arms. How many could we muster - football team, Rugby team and a handful of others - that was it.

Football vs Linacre / Corpus. With SBS fielding a team reducded to nine men this turned into the usual rout, but as the goals rained in I swear you could see us getting better. We played a disciplined offside trap - and had the linesman existed we'd have done a damn sight better. We got in among them and put ourselves about and while we never stood a chance with reduced numbers and an injured goalie we are definantely makling progress....

Oh, talked to the ref. Apparently when he started doing sunday football there were forty referees on the circuit. Now its down to eleven with people dropping out after abuse, assaults and a general lack of support. All that grass roots football the FA says its supporting may not really be there.

Intermission

The Oxford Business Forum is now occupying most of my waking thoughts. In the mean time here is some politics.

* To the tune of "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands"...

If you cannot find Osama, bomb Iraq.
If the markets are a drama, bomb Iraq.
If the terrorists are frisky, Pakistan is looking shifty, North Korea is
too risky, Bomb Iraq.

If we have no allies with us, bomb Iraq.
If we think someone has dissed us, bomb Iraq.
So to hell with the inspections, Let's look tough for the elections,
Close your mind and take directions, Bomb Iraq.

It's "pre-emptive non-aggression", bomb Iraq.
Let's prevent this mass destruction, bomb Iraq.
They've got weapons we can't see, And that's good enough for me 'Cos
it's all the proof I need to Bomb Iraq.

If you never were elected, bomb Iraq.
If your mood is quite dejected, bomb Iraq.
If you think Saddam's gone mad, With the weapons that he had, (And he
tried to kill your dad), Bomb Iraq.

If your corporate fraud is growin', bomb Iraq.
If your ties to it are showin', bomb Iraq.
If your politics are sleazy, And hiding that ain't easy, And your
manhood's getting queasy, Bomb Iraq.

Fall in line and follow orders, bomb Iraq.
For our might knows not our borders, bomb Iraq.
Disagree? We'll call it treason, Let's make war not love this season,
Even if we have no reason, Bomb Iraq.

Now, take yourself over here for the gulf war game.

How hard can it be?

Round the corner is a G&D's icecream parlour. As well as ice cream they do coffee, hot chocolate and pizza bagels - bagels cut in half and used as pizza dough. Over the last few months one of my standard run out of food again fixes has been to go to G&D's for a hot chocolate and pizza bagel.

Now this should be easy, first you make a hot chocolate, then you charge me, then I go and read the paper somewhere while you make the pizza. Then you call me and tell me the pizza is ready and I collect it and take it back to my table. Easy right?

So far this has *never* happened. I've seen all other possible variations though, make pizza, then hot chocoalte, then charge (takes ages), make hot chocoalte, then pizza then charge (at least I get the hot chocolate quickly). Today I got make hot chocolate, charge, make pizza. It was looking good. Till they forgot to turn the microwave on....

Lots of other stuff to write about but I've got to get some work done this evening.

Four degrees and dropping?

I've just been interviewed by the Sunday Times about networking and jobsearch (Hi Kathy if you're reading this) so I guess in a couple of weeks I'll have used up a few more of my fifteen minutes of fame. Although Warhol never explained how long print lasted, maybe thats my whole shebang... Anyway it was an interesting subject because today as I was heading out of lectures I bumped into some friends from OxMediaNet on whose steering committee I sit. Turns out they were running an event in association with Beyond bricks about wireless technology - so I mooched along and got to talk to all the local entrepreneurs doing stuff with wireless technology in Oxfordshire.

I'm going to miss my network when I leave Oxford. After years in media here it's nice to know that I can pick up the phone and get stuff - printing, designing, photographers, camera crews, rumours, gossip and leads. Not to mention a fair few people to go to the pub with and shoot the breeze. The thought of starting again somewhere else... but then again, after this course I'm never going to walk into a city completely cold. I'll always be able to call one of my current contemporaries and say didn't you used to work in New York, Paris, Shanghai or Hong Kong - where's the right place to go when you're taking a client to lunch?, what's the best accounting firm in town? - whatever. In the same way if I ever need a lawyer, accountant or banker they'll be on the end of the phone.

There was a TV documentary recently about the six degrees of separation theory. One theory they tested was trying to connect some random englishman with a mongolian sheep herder. Well, after this course that's easy - there's a Mongolian guy on the course with me. I reckon I can do it in four, easy...

Who am I ?

I've long suspected that technology has been becoming political. Already we've had dissidents arrested, attempts to exploit technology in the face of the law and technologies outlawed in the face of popular support. All this though will look like small fry when identity becomes a digital service.

This is an interesting model around which it could do so. Once again Doc Searls has read the interesting stuff for me.

Hope I have time to read it

Following up a link from Doc Searls who's been collecting bloggers thoughts on the Challenger tradgedy (how do these guys manage to blog so consistently, excellently and still get stuff done?) I found William Gibson's Blog. Much of which is not so much blog as dialogue with his fans and critics. Presumably its part of the promotion for his new book, but I think once he starts blogging Gibson will find it hard to stop, and for my part, while his books may vary in quality his actual writing, the descriptions, the imagery and the clarity of thought is always exceptional.

As a note to this. I've just read two chapters of our finance text book in a little under an hour, and made notes on it. It seems my old speed reading skills are finally picking up after many many years of rustiness. This time last term I'd have taken a couple of hours to read the same amount of material, and probably made worse notes. Learning is a skill, let no one tell you otherwise.

Keeping myself busy

I do not have time to write this blog, but it will all be alright in the end because it always is. Other things I haven't had time to do this term inlcude

Being marketing director for the Oxford Business Forum
Writing for the SBS magazine (2.3 mb PDF, I'm on page 5)

I've been writing up the Dean's seminars this term as well. This week was Hector Sants, CEO Europe for Credit Suisse First Boston. He had a bunch of stuff to say about the future of investment banking, including the really interesting notion that in the future investment bankers will be team players, highly ethical and generally nice guys. He admitted that this is going to be one hell of a culture shift, but in a new environment where reputation, fair dealing and regulation are the norm the industry is going to have to change.

Read my full report on Hector Sants (.doc)
Read the full version of my Silicon valley report

Cynicism Watch

This made me smile, especially the first two poems. After that the satire seems to dry up. Damn funny though.