17th January 2015
1) Facebook launches Facebook at Work. I rather liked the observation from @davepell, that there is already a popular social network that people use a lot at work – and it’s called Facebook.
“The product puts Facebook head-to-head with the likes of Microsoft’s Yammer, Slack, Convo, Socialcast, and a huge number of others who are trying to tackle the “enterprise social network” space”
Zuck was in the press a lot at the turn of the year, with his commitment to read a book every fortnight in 2015 and in the process setting up the world’s biggest ever book club . I was somewhat quizzical about his claims in my post here.
…and it turns out that it hasn’t quite come to pass as hoped . Like many of the book clubs I’ve taken part in, looks like not many people have turned upand the interactions have also been rather ‘off brief’ –
“Among the 137 ‘questions’ that followed: several requests for a pirated PDF of the book, a conspiracy theory involving Saudi social media and the price of oil and a photo of a Maltese wearing a frilly dress, along with many more on-topic, but still fairly stupid, questions”.
2) So, Google Glass has not taken off, as Google halts production. From the BBC – “The technology blogger Robert Scoble said he could not now imagine living a day without the product, and was even photographed wearing it in the shower. But he and others soon tired of Glass, complaining that it was not evolving in the ways that had been promised. There were also concerns about privacy and safety, with some bars and restaurants banning the use of the smart glasses on their premises”.
3) Amazon continues to surprise with it’s success in building a dominant and connected chain that invents, creates and distributes content. The most recent evidence of this , being the Golden Globe that the Amazon produced Transparent won last week.
They are also making waves by linking up with Woody Allen to direct a series. Some are calling it inspired and some idiotic.
A recent survey suggests that 71% of people think that the world is going to the dogs. Are things actually that bad, or is it a psychological trick of the mind?
5) Accenture’s Design and Digital Trends for 2015. Some bon mots for your next meeting or presentation . Alternatively you might see it as an extended excercise in bull***t . You decide.
6) Nice piece from The Guardian – What the collapse of ancient capitals can teach us about the cities of today “(The City of) Angkor was flourishing in the late 13th century…… a little over a century later, it was all but abandoned. Researchers are beginning to see similarities in how these ancient low-density cities failed – and this is of particular interest today because, even as our cities grow in extent and population, their densities are falling”…. Meanwhile “the Greater Angkor Project added a significant new possibility: extreme climate instability”.
7) The recent events in Paris have seen ‘free speech’ defended from numerous quarters. But there is confusion about how extensive this right should be. As Salman Rushdie says here Freedom of speech can only be absolute.
8) Interesting rise in the popularity of personal branding – Andy Murray joins Federer and Nadal with a new personal logo. Don’t imagine this was cheap.
Apparently it is “simple and striking, with heraldic cues that echo his dominance on the court.” Mmmm……
9) Think its cold in Blighty at the moment? Well here is what it is like living in the coldest town on Earth It got down to -24 degrees Fahrenheit in Oymyakon, Russia, over the weekend.
10) We’ve all done it – but maybe not as disappointingly as this – 8 disastrous ‘reply to all’ work emails The Barack Obama one is very funny, but I don’t think it’s real…..