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Robin was on the phone today with Rick our fave plumber. She was asking his advice about water filters. The dogs started to bark and his truck drove up to our front door!
Now that's service - he also did not try and sell us anything but showed Robin how to make the most informed decision - that's trust!
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See you there at 224 Queen Street
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Secretary Gates made this statement in a recent speech:
It is just plain embarrassing that al-Qaeda is better at communicating its message on the internet than America. As one foreign diplomat asked a couple of years ago, “How has one man in a cave managed to out-communicate the world’s greatest communication society?” Speed, agility, and cultural relevance are not terms that come readily to mind when discussing U.S. strategic communications (My post at Fast Forward)
I am starting to see something here. War has been the agency that accelerates the development of key new technology.
In the 1860's the civil war put the train on the map. Post the war, an enormous track laying boom exploded around the world. The military made the train the backbone of the industrial approach to war.
The same with flight. In Europe, the military saw the potential of flight immediately. But the US did not - that is why Rickenbaker flew a Spad.
The Wright Company in particular and American airplane companies in general continue to lose their technological edge to the Europeans. This is due in part to the U.S. Government’s failure to support the fledgling airplane industry. While the governments of England, France, and Germany are buying hundreds of airplanes for their armed forces and supporting aviation research, the United States is spending roughly the same amount of money Bulgaria. (First to Fly)
By 1918, the future of flight was assured. There were no doubters - and like the adoption of the train, this new way of connecting people has transformed our world.
So back to social software. As impressive as Facebook is, as impressive the growth of blogging - this is all personal. Organizational life and how we all live has not been changed yet. There is immense resistance in the key institutions of our time to its introduction. Leaders in business, education, healthcare etc all fear the outcome of adoption.
The big money is all based in an advertising model. If you can form a large group, you get rewarded. But the true potential of the tool set is not being invested in.
The true potential of social software is that it allows many to many to meet in real time at low to no cost. This means that you can see what is really going on - the business intelligence aspects are immense and transform research as it is conducted today. It enables you to get your message out in a real time and precise way - will transform marketing. Most of all it enables people to have very different relationships. Large, central capital based organizations are no longer needed. So everything that we do now such as how we educate, provide healthcare, provide services will be radically transformed.
Our large institutions can no longer do anything properly. The military is no exception. It is too big, too slow, too ponderous, too expensive. It cannot deal with war as it is waged today. The military are themselves full of resistance to the kind of change that social software implies.
BUT, people in the military who are losing the war of public opinion - who know now that Human Terrain is the new battlefield - are weighing the idea of loss of control with losing the war. My bet is that they will seek to win the war. This is what Gates is starting to say.
The greatest irony is that their enemy is showing them how to do this. Here is a CNN report on why NATO is now getting behind a Social Software approach to war.
CNN interviews a NATO Official in Afghanistan who echoes the Secretary and insists that we better get good at this or risk losing the real war - which is all political.
The strategy aims to counter years of propaganda video posted on the Internet showing Taliban attacks on NATO forces which fighters use to claim that NATO’s position in the Afghan war is deteriorating.
“The Taliban, who are literally cave-dwellers, are doing better than we are on a key battleground — and that’s video,” said NATO spokesman James Appathurai. “They deploy with videographers. We don’t. They have DVDs out in an hour, we don’t.”
Wielding video cameras like weapons, fighters quickly upload images of their attacks and create a valuable morale booster for their supporters.
Now, after much internal debate, NATO has begun declassifying and posting top secret combat video on YouTube and other Web platforms to try and beat the Taliban at its own game.
“We’re, in a sense, winning the tactical battles, but we’re not focusing enough on the strategic battle, which is public opinion,” said Appathurai.
The link to the excellent report and video is here.
In 1918, America could see for itself the power of flight. The nation adopted it like no other.
So here is my prediction. The first institution that will really invest in developing Social Software to radically improve how it delivers will be parts of the military. As with the train in the civil war and WWI, as with flight in WWI and WWII, how we deploy, how we fight and what victory is will be redefined.
The greatest irony will be is that the lesson for this change will have been taught by Al Qaeda.
This will not be an all or nothing adoption. Even in the 1920. and 1930's Billy Mitchell fought an uphill battle with his superiors about the value of aviation. But the wedge was in.
The first flight was in 1903. By 1945, aviation was the new dominant military power. By 1975 aviation had captured the civilian world.
I think that history will look back at Facebook and smile.
Well done Mark - but look at what this technology really did!
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You can now follow and interact with ABC reporters as they cover the elction.
I have a full report on Fast Forward.
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I am loving the loving Dave - he is surely on the path for are not our current views about male female correct relationships the same power and property based views that we misapply to all organizations?
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Britain: Budget Airline’s Profit Soars
The budget airline EasyJet said full-year profit was up 62 percent as passenger numbers grew 13 percent. The company reported a net profit of £152.3 million ($313 million) in the year ended Sept. 30, compared with £94.1 million ($193 million) in the previous 12 months. Revenue rose 22 percent, to £1.8 billion, ($3.7 billion). Passenger numbers were up 13 percent to 37.2 million, but the load factor — the percentage of occupied seats — was 83.7 percent, compared with 84.8 percent in the previous year, reflecting expansion of the company’s network. (From the NYT)
This is changing the culture of Europe - Polish Nannies go home on weekends, Ad execs live in Spain, people can live anywhere. Now there are other concerns - the environment etc - but it also allows many to work form home in much nicer circumstances or for people to work away but get home. It's not all black or white
What if oil workers could go home easily? What if executives could live on PEI?
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How can we save more money and do better for the world - does it hurt a lot to take action?
Well I am finding out. We sold our Honda CRV when it came off lease and now only have one car - the ugly but amazing Echo. We live 5 KM out of town. So how is it going?
It's fine!
If Robin needs the car for long periods, I go to the Commons in town for the day - like today. If I have to go on a trip to say Halifax, I rent. I spent the day in Amherst earlier this week and the rental was $44.00 plus $25 of gas. We were paying $400 a month on the CRV plus gas plus insurance plus maintenance - say about $650. I normally do this type of travel for business so either my client pays or I write it off as an expense.
I reckon we are saving about $500 a month or $6,000 after tax a year. The give up in convenience is very small so far.
The only other key issue is "Image". How do you feel when driving an Echo? I have reached the age and stage where I don't care about how others may think - and I feel good. I am doing the best I can.
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Chet Richards - the holder of the Flame for John Boyd and the host of DNI - is now blogging. Welcome Chet
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We are having are open house next week 4 - 7 Thursday 29th to show you the renovations.
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In Anbar, the US Marines have killed 50 Iraqis and wounded 140 in a 9 month period. No one is calling them murderers. The problem is that you CANNOT let suspicious people close to you - whether they be women or children. (Wired) As I posted earlier today, the Canadian just shot at 2 "civilians" in a car in Kandahar. Today 2 Canadians were killed by an IED.
What do some people think that it is like to drive in Iraq and Kandahar? Do they really think that it is like driving around at home?
Imagine you in the car - how are you feeling? What do you feel as the white Toyota approaches you? When you also have intelligence that there are 3 of them driving around today with bombs - how do you feel?
The State Department has a high-tech solution to keeping its security contractors from killing any more Iraqi civilians unnecessarily: Give the mercs laser dazzlers and helmet cameras.
U.S. officials also tell ABC News that "the State Department plans to double the number of its diplomatic security agents to 90 so that one of its agents can accompany every convoy guarded by Blackwater and other private security contractors."
This isn't the first time the dazzlers -- which temporarily blind its targets, with pulses of green laser light -- have been pitched as life-savers for non-combatants in Iraq. (Better to fire light flashes than warning shots, the theory goes.) In May 2005, the Marines in Anbar province issued an "urgent" request for the dazzlers, which they said would cut down on civilian casualties. By February of this year, the Marines claimed that "close to 50 innocent Iraqis were killed and nearly 140 were wounded in Anbar between March and December by Marines who did not have the dazzlers as an alternative to lethal force."
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