Ged Carroll

Blog

  • Smart home is stuck + more ideas

    The smart home is stuck – Recode – interesting analysis on the nascent smartphone market. Will we move beyond Nest, Hue light bulbs and IP security cameras? Will consumers see utility in the modern smartphone and be ready for the upgrade cycle. Or will smart home is stuck morph into just a fad like 3D TV sets? More on the web of no web here as the internet meets the real world in ways that make the technology invisible and integral to everyday life.

    New Chinese online payment rules take HK e-shoppers by surprise | HKEJ Insight – looks like controlling capital flight measures. It represents a serious cramp in Alipay and WeChat Pay opportunities. There also must be come work around as these services are expanding abroad to meet the needs of high spending Chinese travellers.

    Xiaomi opens stores | Shanghai Daily – interesting pivot in distribution channels. Previously Xiaomi was famous for popularising flash sales online of its handsets a bit like Drop.com do now. Its model now looks closer to that pursued by the likes of Huawei and Apple in China. It will also be interesting if Xiaomi uses these stores to sell its range of home appliances alongside handsets

    Why a staggering number of Americans have stopped using the Internet the way they used to – The Washington Post – Nearly one in two Internet users say privacy and security concerns have now stopped them from doing basic things online — such as posting to social networks, expressing opinions in forums or even buying things from websites, according to a new government survey released Friday (paywall). All of which belies the influence that social platforms seem to have in shaping popular opinion and building grass roots groups. There is obviously a missing piece between consumer behaviour and this research. I am not quite too sure what it is though.

  • On Writing

    This post was prompted by reading A Time To Write by Wadds, open it in a new tab on your browser and give it a read.
    Cover on my old book
    Given Wadds’ post I thought I would reflect briefly on my own process.

    Why I write?

    Wadds describes his writing as a kind of mindfulness.  For me writing serves a number of purposes:

    • It cements things in my memory, a bit like revision at school
    • It helps me work out ideas and my stance on them
    • Its a good platform for experiments. I started off my blogging to work out how it could help clients that I couldn’t get media coverage for. This was back before social media was a thing. At the moment I am using this blog  as part of an experiment on LinkedIn Pulse as a source of traffic. More on that when I have a decent set of data
    • Occasionally decent conversations spark of these posts, some of my good friends are online
    • There is a more talented fighter than I, also called Ged Carroll. I like to have a clear differentiator from him
    • My blog is also a marketing calling card, I have got jobs from it over the years.

    Wadds talks about why people don’t write, he describes it as effort and bravery. I suspect its a bit more complex. Yes life does get in the way for many people, but many of my friends have their own creative outlets: painting, photography, the art of social conversation, mastering video games to name but three.  For me writing extends out of curiosity, it is a natural progression – otherwise ideas would vanish into the ether.

    In terms of bravery, Wadds talks about the willingness to share private or personal subjects. I generally don’t, the reason is quite simple. Growing up in an Irish household, my time was predominantly spent in the UK during The Troubles, I grew up with the idea of the pervasive, invasive surveillance state. I grew up with a personal perception of what could be called ‘operational security’ (Op-Sec). The future has finally caught up.

    Workflow

    You can break my workflow down into four sections:

    • Ideation.  Ideas broadly come from reading something or the world around me. If it is something on the world around me, I will make some bullets in the notes application of my iPhone.  If it is a talk I will have likely recorded it using Olympus’ free dictation app for the iPhone. If it is from reading a book, I am likely to put post-it notes on the relevant pages with some notes and then flick back through this as I write a post. I have aversion to writing on the books themselves. I have found that I don’t get much out of reading on a Kindle, so only use that for leisure reading now. If  I am inspired by something I have seen, there will be a picture on Flickr, which also serves as the image hosting platform for this blog. I have about 46 GB of images in my Flickr account – it would take a major tectonic event to persuade me to move to another platform like 500px. I have a Twitter account with a set of lists that provide inspiration and use Newsblur as an RSS reader as well. Newsblur is invaluable. I am currently trying Breaking News, an app recommended by Richard Edelman and occasionally dip into Apple’s own News app. When I have online content that has spurred a writing idea I will notate it in my bookmark service pinboard.in
    • Writing. My writing method varies based on two criteria; the regularity of the post and the length of the post. If you’ve read my blog for a length of time you will see that there are repeating themes. Every two days is a collection of interesting links from around the web. These posts are based on content that I bookmark. There is a post on Friday for interesting creative or useful things, again this pretty much writes itself based on my bookmarks as I ingest the web. At the moment I am publishing slides of data that I have collected on a monthly basis, I usually write a bit of analysis on the some of the data that I have surfaced. This just flows out easily. For short irregular posts they are often a stream of consciousness with minimal editing directly into WordPress. Longer posts are often mind-mapped onto engineering squared paper and then written into Hemingway
    • Editing. Unlike Wadds, I don’t have an editor. I use Hemingway app as a machine-based editor. My fact-checking happens before words are committed to the posts in my reading around
    • Syndication. I syndicate my content using plumbing that I have put int place using IFTTT and WordPress’ own JetPack plug-in. When I syndicate to Medium and LinkedIn this is done manually.

    Wadds’ talks about mindfulness in writing. I don’t necessarily think that its the same for me.  That feeling of being in the zone is something I get more from DJ’ing ironically, or focusing on a mundane task. Writing is more about making fleeting ideas permanent. It is also written with at least half an eye on my work.

    More information
    Olympus Dictation app
    Flickr
    Newsblur
    Twitter lists
    pinboard.in
    Breaking News app
    IFTTT
    JetPack
    Medium

  • Monster internet surveillance + more

    Britain to pay billions for monster internet surveillance network | DuncanCampbell.org – lets park the moral dilemma this represents for a moment, would other countries come to the UK for expertise in terms of how to implement this locally? What countries would they be? What would the optics be on it? Who are the contractors that are likely to benefit from this work in the UK? More on security related issues here.

    I think it will be pretty hard to make lemonade out of these lemons. The business opportunity probably won’t scale to get a ‘space race’ type benefit, the likely client countries may pose problems in terms of optics. After Snowden, you can count out the EU territories. An obvious contractor to benefit would likely be Huawei (mix of telecoms and enterprise tech, fast growing player in enterprise storage) – who wouldn’t need British expertise to sell this monster internet surveillance solution abroad

    Let’s Talk About Amazon Reviews: How We Spot the Fakes | The Wirecutter – Although many reviews on Amazon are legitimate, more and more sketchy companies are turning to compensated Amazon reviews to inflate star ratings and to drum up purchases

    jenny odell • living a designed life – interesting essay on the rendered spaces used by developers in their sales pitches

    Samsung 837 – JWT Intelligence – really interesting retail space

    Italian Crime Series Gomorrah Kills Pornhub Traffic – Pornhub Insights – the power of mainstream media played out online, I am sure there would be a similar dip for something like Game of Thrones or the FA Cup Final in the US and UK respectively

    WPP Mobile New technology service from Maxus makes marketing as easy as Pie – gives WPP a bigger arbitrage opportunity but if you were a large client wouldn’t you be demanding similar implementation times?

    MSN Ceases Chinese Operations | ChnaTechNews – and that’s the last of the western portals when went there leaving the market

    CK Hutchison mulls legal challenge as EC thwarts its UK ambitions | TotalTele.com – not terribly surprising. UK Government’s big mistake was allowing BT to acquire a cellular operator again

    Misused English Words and Expressions in EU Publications – European Court of Auditors – Secretariat General Translation Directorate – fascinating document that explains why English speakers may feel exasperated at times with their EU counterparts

    Xiaomi faces existential crisis | Techinasia – if it loses the Chinese middle classes, it loses the opportunity to sell its eco-system of smart home products to them

  • The helmsman + more things

    Sailing the Seas Depends on The Helmsman

    Sailing The Seas Depends On The Helmsman – There has been a minor drama playing out amongst westerners who analyse China. A theatre group put on a performance in the symbolic heart of the Chinese Communist Party. Sailing The Seas Depends On The Helmsman – is a Cultural Revolution era song which eulogises Mao Zedong’s leadership.

    The Helmsman or Great Helmsman was one of the many labels Mao picked up as leader of China.  This series of concerts were seen as a celebration of the Cultural Revolution and elevated President Xi to a similar ‘cult of personality’ within China. Some considered it to be a subtle way to sabotage Mr Xi. Either way it took pull to allow the group to perform in the Great Hall of the People. The scale of the presentation was spectacular and it’s quite a catchy tune – as you can see in the video created by the South China Morning Post.

    Morgan special projects

    I am not the fan of car designs that I was as a child and have never been a fan of Morgans. But there is a lot to admire in Morgan Motor’s Special Project team. The video outlines the process they went through in building a bespoke car for a customer.  Ask pretty much any other car manufacturer to do this and the money would literally be astronomical.

    It is ironic in a day of 3D printing and CNC machines that they use old school techniques that my Dad would have learned as an apprentice to create a special one-off car. There is also an interesting mix of materials in the design and the marine plywood-based seats caught my eye.  The designer gave careful thought to how the car would age.

    Objective See

    Objective-See – handy ransomware blocker for OSX (macOS), ideal for these troubled times when 2/3rds of UK business have come under some form of a hack.

    Everyday objects

    A blogger who goes by the name of ‘The Electronic Mercenary’ has set up a great YouTube channel where they x-ray everyday objects or components for your enjoyment.

    Check it out.

    I don’t often have much time for Samsung, their product advertising usually lacks subtlety and creative chops – you are not charmed by their marketing. Instead you are bludgeoned into submission with a media plan that has more in common with a Katyusha rocket system than persuasion. Occasionally they do some stunning emotive corporate marketing, this is the latest example. Separated Korean families unite in heartfelt Samsung spot | Marketing Interactive

  • Digitas teams with Facebook + more

    DigitasLBi Teams With Facebook To Launch Live-Streamed Morning Show 05/09/2016 – interesting agency as brand. I wonder if we’ll see ‘NBC teams with Facebook’ any time soon?

    Objective-See – handy ransomware blocker for OSX. The Mac has become a major target for hackers and crackers now.

    Japan moves to protect ‘copyrights’ of AI creations | Japan Times – prescient move by Japanese government – it is only a matter of time before other countries have to find ways of dealing with creator / owner issues (paywall)

    Amazon launching YouTube competitor Amazon Video Direct – Business Insider – threat to Facebook Video as well. Things are about to get interesting. It contrasts with Facebook’s move into original content with DigitasLBI

    (2) Tom Stocky – My team is responsible for Trending Topics, and I… – found no evidence that contractors had affected conservative content. It’s probably true, but that won’t stop the doubt seeded in the minds of conservative supporters

    Ten Years — The Year of the Looking Glass — Medium – Reflections on working over the past ten years at Facebook

    Free Microsoft Windows 10 upgrade campaign hasn’t been blowout success – Business Insider – it depends how you consider success

    The Vintage Watch Boom | Intelligence | BoF – part of this is also down to Swiss watch makers treating the industry like fast fashion rather than heirloom designs

    WeChat Campaign Spotlight: Montblanc Gives Chinese Fans a Digital History Lesson | Jing Daily – smaller more discrete items like pens and wallets still do well in gift giving – more on luxury related items here.

    Huawei V8 leaked also gets a dual camera design – Gizchina.com – Honor device looks like it would cannibalise sales

    Why the Home Wars Aren’t the Phone Wars — The Information – not a zero sum game (paywall)

    JD.com sees 47% rise in Q1 revenue | Shanghai Daily – I wonder how much is due to WeChat integration?