Category: Uncategorized

Stop, children, what’s that sound?

…. There’s something happening here.
What it is ain’t exactly clear.
There’s a man with a gun over there,
Telling me I got to beware.
I think it’s time we stop, children, what’s that sound?
Everybody look what’s going down

Stephen Stills, For What It’s Worth 

We live in interesting times.

A couple of nonfiction writers (Baigent and Leigh) sue a writer of fiction (Dan Brown), apparently about copyright. Weird that one of the antagonists in the fiction book is called Sir Leigh Teabing (an anagram of Baigent).

Apple Corp and Apple Inc go to court fighting about something to do with their names. And play a Coldplay song to prove some point or the other. I guess I should be glad that they didn’t ask Chris Martin what his daughter’s called, since it could be argued she has some connection with music.

And eBay. And RIM. And Chinese manufacturers suing US ones. And more and more patents being taken out everywhere, just at the point that even legal eagles seem to be agreeing that the system is wrong. Defensive patents. Frivolous patents. Expensive battles.
Everybody look what’s going down.

Smile, it confuses people

My posts are going to be somewhat more sporadic than usual for the next few weeks; I’m in India on holiday with my family.

Which gives me the chance to catch up on stuff I’ve been meaning to do.

Like listen to Sandi Thom. An amazing story. Stuff internet dreams are made of. Here are the highlights:

  • Travelling up and down the country playing to crowds of 200 or less
  • Gigs barely paid for food and shelter and transport
  • Encouraged by the success of the Arctic Monkeys, Sandi and friends decided to use the Web instead of travelling
  • Planned and executed a 3-week set of concerts webcast from home, called Twenty-one Nights from Tooting, just last month
  • 70 fans on day 1, growing to over 70,000 in a fortnight and over 200,000 nightly since.
  • All culminating in a £1m contract signed with RCA/Sony BMG; even the contract signing was broadcast live on the Web.
  • First album (called Smile, It Confuses People) due June.

What I’ve heard so far, I like.

Crazy: More disaggregation of marketing

A band called Gnarls Barkley (which looks like the kind of letters one picks up at Scrabble…) has a number one in the UK charts today, with a song called Crazy. Full story here.

It doesn’t matter that I haven’t heard of it. My children have. (And, believe it or not, my wife as well). What matters is the following:

  • 1. It is the first download-only track to make number 1 in the UK
  • 2. Two weeks ago it topped iTunes.
  • 3. It has reversed a recent trend (maybe the last 10 years) where the biggest selling week for a single was week 1, driven by aggressive (and expensive) marketing.
  • 4. Just two years ago, CD singles outstripped downloads by a factor of about 30:1. This year download singles are outstripping CDs by 3:1.

So. Cheaper to produce and deliver and market. More sustainable chart position as well. It is only a matter of time before CDs (and DVDs) are given free with downloads to act as your “back-up” copy, and you have tiered payments for the digital version. Single-use. Multiple copies allowed provided no commercial use. Sampling allowed. Anything allowed.

And guess what? The “anything allowed” version will sell at around today’s “hardcopy” version.

Cartograms

Check out WorldMapper, which I found out about as a result of Dina Mehta’s post on the subject.

Now if only I could choose what I fed into Worldmapper. And not care about what I need to use to see the output. One step at a time.

So let me get this right. I find out about something happening in Sheffield, maybe two hundred miles from me, because I read Dina’s blog (and she’s based in Mumbai) and I only came across her because of something Halley Suitt posted a while ago. And I haven’t met Halley for three years. Networks.

For Your Eyes Only

Excerpts from a hundred-year-old pamphlet that came recently into my possession:

First, the cover page:

  • Confidential
  • [This pamphlet, when a British unit leaving the Indian establishment is relieved, will be dealt with in accordance with paragraph 710, Army Regulations, India, Volume II.]
  • MEMORANDUM ON THE SUBJECT OF SOCIAL AND OFFICIAL INTERCOURSE BETWEEN EUROPEAN OFFICERS AND INDIANS

Whatever paragraph 710 was, I can be sure that it was not designed to allow the pamphlet to fall into my hands. I am glad someone failed in their duty a century ago.

Here are a few more excerpts showing why I am glad it wasn’t destroyed:

  • It is essential that an officer in civil employment should be able to converse freely in their own language with the classes of Indians with whom he comes into contact, as this will add greatly to the interest of his life in India, to his efficiency as a servant of Government and to the confidence with which he is regarded by the people[…..] Next to a knowledge of the language, tact and sympathy are the most important qualifications for a successful career in India.
  • A sympathetic officer, who will listen to and can himself understand the people’s representations and takes a kindly interest in their welfare, will soon acquire an influence that can never be acquired by an officer who, though more capable, either cannot understand the people or will not extend his sympathy to them.
  • When touring it is a good plan to hold informal conferences at halting places and to listen to any verbal requests the people may have to make. They are much less prone to exaggerate their complaints and much more likely to adhere to the truth, when they are speaking in the presence of a large concourse of their neighbours, than when, tutored by a petition-writer, they appear in a Court or office […..]
  • It must be borne in mind that there are many matters which the generality of Indians do not view from the same standpoint as Europeans. Their social laws and their code of morals differ in many respects from those in vogue in the British Isles.
  • He should be shy of making promises, but, if he makes one, he should always perform it.
  • Almost every case of apparent rudeness is unintentional and due either to ignorance or diffidence.

It’s not what is said in this pamphlet that amazes me. It is the fact that it was said at all in something which, to all intents and purposes, is a mini-induction course for new British arrivals in India. The entire pamphlet, just 32 pages wrong, is probably worthwhile reading for any mid-ranking multinational exec moving to a new culture.

Soft hands.