Time for a revolution in the music industry

A while back I introduced Flo Radio to you as a technique for producing environmental sound to enhance team productivity.  The idea was to use Pandora’s streaming radio site, which allows you to set up “stations” that learn from the listeners preferences. 

Being based in the UK, this morning I received an email from Tim Westergren of Pandora stating that they were about to start blocking transmission to us:

“It continues to astound me and the rest of the team here that the industry is not working more constructively to support the growth of services that introduce listeners to new music and that are totally supportive of paying fair royalties to the creators of music. I don't often say such things, but the course being charted by the labels and publishers and their representative organizations is nothing short of disastrous for artists whom they purport to represent - and by that I mean both well known and indie artists. The only consequence of failing to support companies like Pandora that are attempting to build a sustainable radio business for the future will be the continued explosion of piracy, the continued constriction of opportunities for working musicians, and a worsening drought of new music for fans. As a former working musician myself, I find it very troubling.

“We have been told to sign these totally unworkable license rates or switch off, non-negotiable...so that is what we are doing. Streaming illegally is just not in our DNA, and we have to take the threats of legal action seriously. Lest you think this is solely an international problem, you should know that we are also fighting for our survival here in the US, in the face of a crushing increase in web radio royalty rates, which if left unchanged, would mean the end of Pandora.

“We know what an epicenter of musical creativity and fan support the UK has always been, which makes the prospect of not being able to launch there and having to block our first listeners all the more upsetting for us.”

My opinion:  The music industry, in fact the whole entertainment industry, is like a deer frozen in the headlights of an on-coming truck.  They will shortly become road-kill unless they think through the implications of commodity-priced high-bandwidth communications, pervasive computing, and the virtualisation of content.

— Philip Greenwood

Tags: Flo, Radio

“Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge”

This quote is from Charles Dickens, and it relates to my favourite ‘find’ of the week, a study in which psychology catches up with Mr Dickens’ intuition.

I’m talking about the Dunning-Kruger effect, the phenomenon wherein people who have little knowledge think that they know more than others who have much more knowledge.

…and you know, the more I thought about it, the more I realized how interesting a problem it is for organizations. Unless a problem domain is explored within a team, there will always be a sub-optimized crossover point at which the more knowledgeable / skilled people in a group are  overwhelmed by the more ignorant / confident contingent.

I’ve also got a suspicion that there is some kind of link to the confidence / competence profiles of American presidents in there as well…  :o)

Have a great weekend!

—Jason Bates

Tags:  Dunning-Kruger, Ignorance, Project+Leadership
wikitags : [[wiki:beaufortes:cognitive_error]]

Linklaters launch a wiki initiative

I noticed yesterday, on Scott Vine’s Information Overlord, that Linklaters (esteemed law firm, and member of the magic circle) is launching a wiki initiative that they’ve called “linkpedia”.

In The Lawyer, Linklaters chief knowledge officer comments:-

“the purpose of Linkpedia is to organise and share the knowledge held across the firm on a platform that staff are familiar with. The overall strategy is to see how the firm can use the technologies available in the public domain within the corporate law firm environment"

Now I’m hoping that it’s a success, but a couple of things worry me. Firstly there is “empty wiki syndrome”, and the problems associated with using a “dirty wiki” in a high pressure corporate environment that relies on getting things right first time, and maximizing the sale of billable hours.

But the quote from the CKO worried me a little too…

“The overall strategy is to see how the firm can use the technologies available in the public domain within the corporate law firm environment”

To me, it smacks of a world view in which wiki’s are like SAP, something you plug in, and get a legal wikipedia out the other end. It’s a cold lifeless definition of the strategy, and although wiki’s can be used like that, it doesn’t allude to the secrets that make some wiki’s great, while others languish empty.

the secret to creating a great wiki is unsurprisingly about community and quest, it’s about  having something that draws people together to collaborate on an endeavour that is larger than themselves. A wiki shouldn’t be classified as a technological tool … (hey isn’t almost every key business tool a technological tool?) A wiki is a community facilitation tool.

What if the CKO had said this…

“The overall strategy is to grow THE legal reference work for British law. This internal resource which will grow case by case, and have input from the best legal minds in our firm, will become our key knowledge resource over the next 50 years”

Now I understand that Linklaters have the ability to reward people financially for their contribution to the internal knowledge resource, but is this ‘encouraged’ contribution really going to get the kind of whole company response that creating “THE legal reference work for Linklaters and British law” might?

The lessons from Wikipedia aren’t all about the technology used.

– Jason Bates

edit : 02-07-07
I understand from someone who knows more about the initiative than I do, that Linkpedia is more of an interactive extension of their intranet, than having a go at creating THE legal wikipedia. That's interesting... they have the community internally, and I've always thought it very cool when company's create 'Rough Guides' - things you really need to know about day to day living in an organization. Hopefully they will pitch the wiki in a way that really captures the organizations imagination. JB>

Tags:  Linklaters, Wiki, quest

Do The Impossible & Solve The Insoluble

My Google home-page quotes of the day made me smile today.

We are continually faced with a series of great opportunities
brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems. 
- John W. Gardner

It's kind of fun to do the impossible.
- Walt Disney

– Jason Bates

Tags: impossible, insoluble

Seth talks about "The vibe"

Seth Godin (marketing / business guru and author) posted a small note on his blog last week about “The vibe”.

‘Engagement’ is another word that many are using for the same phenomena. In fact this concept however it’s packaged seems to be getting some real traction with our corporate clients at the moment.

Project management methodologies don’t touch it, and most corporate handbooks won’t go anywhere near it. (Even Seth acknowledges that it sounds ‘flaky’)

But when you walk into a team, a company, a project that has ‘the vibe’, you can smell and taste it. The world of business has changed, and those that are ‘engaging’ their employees and have ‘the vibe’ are kicking the ass of the rest of the grey wage slaves out there… don’t believe me, take a look at the hard facts.

— Jason Bates

Tags: Seth+Godin, Project+Leadership, vibe, engagement

The Clearest message

An interesting quote from a US pastor on “church leadership”, Via The Leadership Now blog.

"Here's an incredibly important principle. You cannot communicate complicated information to large groups of people. As you increase the number of people, you have to decrease the complexity of the information. Congregational rule, when you're trying to make a complicated decision, works against the principle. So consequently, the guy with the microphone and the clearest message always wins. The most persuasive person in the room is going to win. Whether right or wrong."

How right he is. Recently I’ve been working with a senior exec. in a large multinational on his communications strategy for a large programme of work. When I first met him I asked him what the key messages he wanted to put over to his staff were.

After the first 10 minutes of his answer I knew that we had a way to go…

It did actually get a lot easier when I explained that his messages should be consistent course corrections rather than an explanation of the art of navigation. As with large oil tankers, you can’t steer small turns on a large programme, you have to keep things big and simple, know where you are and where you want to go.

–– Jason Bates

Tags:  "leadership+now", "church+leadership", communications, project+management

How to Add Impact to your Presentation

Avoid Powerpoint…

The Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation.

I particularly liked the inclusion of the speaker notes on the last page.

My thanks to David Gurteen for pointing this out.

— Philip Greenwood

Tags:  Gettysbury+Address, Powerpoint, Presentation, Abraham+Lincoln

Amen!

“Quality is only 2^nd to Honesty.”

For the full visual effect, click here.

Dealing with the Doomed Project

Yesterday I was asked this question by a member of the Project Leadership Network – it’s such a good question I wanted to share it with everyone:

“When you work for a software consultancy SOMETIMES there isn't much choice over which project you take-up. Sometime we get so-called 'doomed' projects wherein the customer has tried his level best and when the deadline was right in his face, decided to cry for help to a software vendor. In such situations, what are the things we need to do to safeguard against failure of the Project?”

Here are my thoughts – I’m sure that there are many other prespectives too, so please feel free to comment:

When projects are managed too tightly

Errol Flynn, the swash-buckling actor, was once asked about the correct way to hold a sword. Flynn replied:

“one should imagine holding a small bird rather than a sword. If you hold too tightly the bird dies and the life is lost. If you hold too loosely, the bird escapes and flies away, and you’re left with nothing”

Whether it’s a sword or a project, when you want to keep control, holding too tightly is tempting… and you know, the world is littered with failing projects that have had all of the life squeezed out of them.

– Jason Bates

Tags:  project+management, project+leadership, Errol+Flynn