I earnt a pound today for an old (working) monitor that I sold on eBay. It was worth much more than that, and I really didn't care if I got the pound or not.
In fact I didn't want the buyer to collect it as I knew I could relist it and it would go for more.
But she turned up today with her shiny pound in hand and I gave her the monitor.
Then I remembered the chap featured on BBC breakfast some months ago who started with a pound and traded up to other items such as a mountain bike and eventually a piece of land in Bulgaria.
I'd recently started following @robinppalmer on twitter, who is the PR officer for The Blue Lamp Foundation this was started by PC David Rathband the police officer injured by Raoul Moat.
So I started to put all three of these things together.
Could I trade up the pound that I earnt today to something bigger and give the money to The Blue Lamp Foundation?
Could I?
I would certainly try.... I'm starting today.
rich.wootten@googlemail.com
Sunday, 13 March 2011
Sunday, 6 March 2011
A Digital history
I'm interested in history, moreover I'm fascinated by how civilisations forget things that are always around us, for example why have we forgotten what Stonehenge was built for or why we have to guess at Roman ruins.
We have a natural tendency to collectively forget that which is mundane around us, for example the broken axe which the caveman throws out is now in a museum.
As we live in a digital world what will future generations find interesting with us?
We think we are lucky that everything seems to be recorded digitally and therefore preserved. But is it?
At The British Institute for Learning and Development we are about to launch a new website. But what of our old one, it'll be lost for ever. That is a small part of our collective history, gone for ever.
And what of companies who close, people who die, what happens when we stop paying our web hosts? What happens to those websites. Some companies only have a web presence and no shop front, what will we know of them in the future.
In years to come what will they find of the 21st century? Will USB keys with random documents on them be our digital legacy?
We press forward with our digital technology but the future generations will have to piece together our history the same as we do, but rather than searching for hand tools it'll be USB keys and Hard drives that will be searched for.
We have a natural tendency to collectively forget that which is mundane around us, for example the broken axe which the caveman throws out is now in a museum.
As we live in a digital world what will future generations find interesting with us?
We think we are lucky that everything seems to be recorded digitally and therefore preserved. But is it?
At The British Institute for Learning and Development we are about to launch a new website. But what of our old one, it'll be lost for ever. That is a small part of our collective history, gone for ever.
And what of companies who close, people who die, what happens when we stop paying our web hosts? What happens to those websites. Some companies only have a web presence and no shop front, what will we know of them in the future.
In years to come what will they find of the 21st century? Will USB keys with random documents on them be our digital legacy?
We press forward with our digital technology but the future generations will have to piece together our history the same as we do, but rather than searching for hand tools it'll be USB keys and Hard drives that will be searched for.
Friday, 4 March 2011
Social networking the new community
Is social networking new?
No I don't think so, but the way we connect is that new? Again no.
We've been networking for many years, what is networking? It's connecting with other people based on the recommendation of a trusted person.
Companies used this years ago, before the term networking was even thought of in this sense. Lets look at Avon, the cosmetics company. They spread their business by recommendation of those who were trusted.
So now we have Social Networking on social media platforms. Today I spent time on twitter connecting with individuals and companies that I thought would be interesting. How did I do that? By looking at my current network and seeing who they are connected with. So recommendation of trusted people?
In a connected world are we doing any thing so differently to those in the 60s, connecting together to buy Avon products?
We like to think we are better than our parents, we are doing thinks for the first time, that we are stepping out and doing things differently, but we aren't.
The harder we try to be different the more similar we become, we've all heard people complain about the old boys network, but no one moans when Billy recommends Jimmy the plumber in the local pub.
The only thing we have that is different is the tools we use, this makes us more efficient if we use them right.
No I don't think so, but the way we connect is that new? Again no.
We've been networking for many years, what is networking? It's connecting with other people based on the recommendation of a trusted person.
Companies used this years ago, before the term networking was even thought of in this sense. Lets look at Avon, the cosmetics company. They spread their business by recommendation of those who were trusted.
So now we have Social Networking on social media platforms. Today I spent time on twitter connecting with individuals and companies that I thought would be interesting. How did I do that? By looking at my current network and seeing who they are connected with. So recommendation of trusted people?
In a connected world are we doing any thing so differently to those in the 60s, connecting together to buy Avon products?
We like to think we are better than our parents, we are doing thinks for the first time, that we are stepping out and doing things differently, but we aren't.
The harder we try to be different the more similar we become, we've all heard people complain about the old boys network, but no one moans when Billy recommends Jimmy the plumber in the local pub.
The only thing we have that is different is the tools we use, this makes us more efficient if we use them right.
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