A post about nothing.

Hmm how bazaar I’m writing another post in the same week and one of more than two in the same month. Work has been crazy in that I have spent a lot of time at customer sites doing installations or training resellers how to better gather the customers requirements and tailor the evaluation process to meet those requirements. We also had our Telepresence setup completed this week, however it is already booked out for weeks. Also we only got a TP1000, however we are supposedly upgrading it in the near future to a TP3000. On the subject of Cisco I heard and read some interesting things we have in the pipeline.

A lot of speculation has been in the IT industry for years about how Microsoft Office is dead or dying and that the Windows era of desktop dominance has an expiry date. This is due to the network being the platform and the desktop OS does not need to provide anywhere near the resources and features we use now due to it being able to be virtualised at an application layer and delivered on demand. Well as you know I work at Cisco and Cisco is certainly not renowned for writing desktop operating systems or desktop environments, but I would watch this space. If you look at some of their acquisitions and look who would benefit the most if the network was the platform then it wouldn’t take to much of a leap to see where Cisco might be going to play one day.

Anyway all this work has slowed down my world domination plans through building an iPhone application development shop.

While I’m talking about the iPhone let me bring you up to date on all the rumors I have heard of late in regards to the famous device:

1. Apple will announce the 3G version at the Apple Developer Conference in June.
2. Telstra wont allow the iPhone on their network and that Optus is already in talks with Apple.
3. Apple are going to release the iPhone in Australia in the last week of June and its not going to be bound to a carrier.

As you can see speculation is rife, I personally like number 3, however don’t see this being true.

On the home front my nearly 2 year old son still isn’t walking on his own. My wife is not happy about it and wishes he would hurry up. I never walked until 2 years and 3 months, so hes got until August to walk and beat me. Personally I think hes smart as people carry him and he has all his life to walk, so whats the rush?

Well thats enough rambling from me, I might go and stir a good friend of mine who works for Microsoft about that crappy WinMobile OS he suggested should be on the iPhone.

There’s gold in them there hills.

The sea of change in how we communicate from a hardware perspective to the application and services perspective is accelerating. This point in our evolution as a species must surely resemble other times when many aspects of our discoveries and attitudes converged and we emerged with new energy and purpose. The pages of history are being written every second of the day, and it would seem that what we know and cherish now is being committed to history at a far great pace than we have ever witnessed before.

The ability for us to communicate with anyone in the world in real time at minimal expense has surely got to be game changing. This age were we can discover, research and to be informed regarding anything that happens publicly on the planet brings new frontiers and washes away old methodologies and business models. The wheels of innovation are running flat out as a new gold rush era is once again upon us.

Most of us are still grasping with how to channel and utilise the tools of the new world. Tools like Twitter on the surface seem so benign and useless to many, however if you stop standing so close to the glass and step back, you can see the whole picture more clearly. The power of a communication network that anyone can join, place information into and is always on has got to be simply one of the most powerful tools we are yet to appreciate or understand.

At an unprecedented rate of change we are discovering that the global village when connected can truly become a powerfully society. The opportunity for someone with an idea and passion to pursue it has not been more right than it is now. Utilising technology to communicate and collaborate in our new found village presents anyone with the stage and the reach to execute their dream. Look at how technology is transforming the music industry. As much as the old music industry tries desperately to cling to old business models, the new age of innovators is providing the momentum to muscle out those that cant adapt to this inevitable change.

The newspaper industry is another that if the dinosaurs don’t adapt and look at the new landscape as it is slowly revealed they too will become fossils in the history books that my grand children will read. Our way of life, our values, the things we treasure and respect are constantly being redefined, however at a rate never witnessed before in history. The permanently connected village encourages the accelerating rate of change. If you don’t keep up you will be swept aside.

The days of empire building and old school monopolies are sliding into history, and rushing full throttle at us is a new generation of business that bends and sways to the demands of the community. These new entities are building communities and taking heed of the noise they generate. Truly this is a skill that is being rapidly learned by any organisation that wants to be relevant in this new age. If you are not able to morph to what the community wants they have an abundance of choice and you will be relegated to obsolete almost immediately.

Its an exciting time if you have ambitions to contribute as the ease at which you can contribute has never been more simpler than now. As the next generation finishes school and starts to enter the work force the rate of change will double again. The adoption of technology will drive the new age and further evolve the landscape into the next era.

Theres gold in them there hills I tell you, can you see the large golden nuggets waiting to be harvested?

Jason Nation, building a brand.

Jason Calacanis needs no introduction because you can know nearly everything you want about him as quickly as you can digest it. Google Jason Calacanis or visit his blog or the human powered search Mahalo, Jason’s latest gig.

Jason is an Internet celebrity that has a brand that is always on. It broadcasts to all those that want to listen, live or on demand 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 362 days a year and even 363 days a year. When Jason is conscious and connected you can often catch him speaking either via twitter, his blog, various Internet talk shows, conferences and any other method the Internet provides us. The brands of Jason and the throngs of other early adopters is growing.

At times Jason can exercise the power of his brand by using his influence to nudge his audience in a particular direction. Considering how small the world is when its connected the power of ones brand can have real influence down to an economic level.

This will scale in that instead of being restricted to your immediate surroundings, if you have something to offer then when connected, the world is your audience. You no longer need to be geographically restricted any more. Obviously depending on what you have to offer will directly bare as to how much more value you will get from the network. Regardless, having a global audience to reach out too is infinitely more beneficial than not.

The next generation who will be the first generation that is permanently connected to the network will accelerate change as our communities reach into a global village. Building a brand and commoditising your time as sell-able chunks of equity allows you to monetize the level of influence you exert on the network with your brand.

Tie this back to the previous post I made in “The Enterprise is Dead” and you can see the flow on effects of a global village. Free yourself of the shackles and start building your brand, embrace the wave of change as you cant stop it from happening.

The Enterprise is dead.

The gatekeepers to innovation and creativity are slowly loosing control as the network provides the vehicle for individuals to be heard. Today the uber geeks are establishing their brands and defining at a micro and macro level the tools and rules the more main stream members of the population will eventually adopt.

One of the very clear examples of this funnily enough came about when Apple announced the AppStore for the iPhone. Prior to Apples announcement if I wanted to develop, distribute, market and collect payment for an application I would have to invest more than time and effort. I would possibly need to employ other people to handle the distribution and commercials to collecting payment and providing support for my application.

Some of those functions are not to hard if you follow that sort of thing. Payment gateways and hosting to distribute your application can be a barrier to entry for many developers. Well that all goes away with Apples AppStore model. As a developer all I need to worry about is my application. I need to code the application, think about how I’m going to support it and more than likely set up a blog to provide updates and possibly some simple marketing. The AppStore will take care of the commercials while I sit back and watch the money role in.

Ok so the above example is rather simple and in reality wont be quite as simple as I have defined it, but you get the picture. Take this example and look around and you start to see many examples (publishing of the written word, music and video) of were we as individuals no longer need to seek venture capital or mortgage the house a second time to get started. We are able to develop our own brand and start to build a loyal following as the value we provide become obvious to others.

The network is becoming a platform that things of interest and value can quickly bubble to the surface and get their time in the sun. No longer is the decision of what somethings worth controlled by a few, but now by the masses. The convergence of the network and our daily lives and how we are always on will be irresistible. My oldest child is about to turn 5. She uses a mouse and keyboard more efficiently than my parents and has a natural knack to using a PC. When she finally gets to an age that she can carry a mobile device I’m sure one of the options will be, will you have the device surgically implanted for the life of the contract? Convergence will take on a completely new meaning for generation ON.

Integration of technology and shrinking of the planet we know of as Earth are at break neck speed now, as the next generation starts to finish school the pace is only going to increase and the adoption cycles are only going to get smaller. The time has dawned were our concentric circles of influence are reaching to all corners of the pond in the same day we create the ripples.

Enterprises are not going to go away, however they are going to shrink as we can do more with less and the power of automation slides the mundane into the abyss.

Are you building your brand or looking into the void?

This cracked me up.

Source: http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyimages/910.gif