Category Archives: Main Page

People 2.0

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Great to pick up the web 2.0 strategies 2008 award for Best New Web 2.0 Initiative on behalf of IT Counts with Carolyn Harrington.

Nice to meet up with Alex Ang again from RSS experts VWI Media, who told me he has recently partnered with WordFrame, the software which powers IT Counts. Other leading WordFrame sites include Social Media Today, a community for social media professionals.

Interesting to talk to Roderick Parks from Trampoline Systems and see how their software analyses emails and creates automatic profiles within the enterprise. An example of their software with a Trampoline visualisations video from rebecca kemp on Vimeo.:

Great to shake Euan Semple’s hand (liked the joke about Scottish beer drinkers).

All got me thinking about Enterprise 2.0, and the big Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston this week, with videos and podcasts now available.

 

The award blending in nicely in the foyer of our east London flat.

PS: 5 August Techcrunch UK mention of Trampoline and social networks for public sector workers.

Millennium Products

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Back in 1999 I worked on a project called Millennium Products based at the Design Council (page includes link to PDF with all submissions) which was launched by Tony Blair in 1997.

Great team to work with I should say first and foremost, as there’s no such recognition on the Design Council’s site. And a nice logo, now only really seen on some black cabs in London for a new cab design. I remember one top engineering product who’s concise prize submission admitted, “it ain’t beautiful but it works” which still makes me smile.

To attain Millennium Products status, products and services had to:

  • Open up new opportunities
  • Challenge existing conventions
  • Be environmentally responsible
  • Demonstrate the application of new or existing technology
  • Solve a key problem
  • Show clear user benefits.

It was some job to go through all the entries, edit to word length, consult, and produce to time. But it sounds like all the hard work was worth it:

“Millennium Products exhibitions toured the world, attracting 300,000 visitors at locations in four continents, and they formed the basis of custom-built showcases in more than 30 embassies, high commissions and Government buildings, while the Foreign Secretary’s office featured its own display for visiting dignitaries.

“The initiative attained a high level of awareness, securing media coverage worth the equivalent of £13million in advertising spend in the UK alone, where there were nearly 5,000 articles in national papers, regional papers and trade magazines.”