Now the Unions are Quashing Political Freedoms

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1984_apple1.jpgStanding as a list MP candidate for the ACT Party seems rather like an exercise in futility, but does anyone else find it hugely ironic that New Zealand’s most powerful union has reportedly suspended an employee for political activity?

OK, the gentleman in question may have been a bit naive in how he went about it. Records show that he did raise the possibility of his parliamentary candidacy with the union, but there seems to be some confusion over whether or not he had received their permission. But irrespective of this, since when can employers dictate what political beliefs their employees may hold? The union objected to the behaviour simply because it did not align with their own ideology. If the guy had been standing for the Labour Party or Greens, you can guarantee nobody in the union management would have been the least bit concerned.

I have a huge amount of respect for Andrew Little and what he has achieved with EPMU by dragging it out of the dark ages and making it relevant again. I went to school with him way back when. He’s a very smart guy, so I’m surprised he dropped the ball on this one by playing into the hands of his critics. Unions have an important role in civil society but it is not their role to restrict political freedoms.

Anyhoo…at least the EPMU story is a welcome diversion from the tedium surrounding the Winston show. The scary part about Slick Winnie is that his geriatric fanbase demographic grows bigger every year. Despite his many indiscretions, he is likely to remain a thorn in the side of future governments for some time yet. The guy gets way too much airtime and yet contributes very little of real value. Consequently, in this election year, the rabid media are neglecting to challenge politicians on the REAL issues such as crime, education, health and economic growth.

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Entrepreneurs Epilogue

ideegeo continues to make progress as we build developer capacity and deal with all the administrative issues that go with a brand new business. It’s my role to look after the admin stuff so that the developers can get on with what they are good at doing. At present we need to find a balance between consulting and product development, but we always expected this would be the case to begin with.

Consequently, we currently have some developer bandwidth available to help out with web-based enterprise application development and implementation. The skill set includes experience in Perl, PHP, Python and Ruby plus we are exploring Erlang which we think is the next big thing in web-based application development.

We specialise in transactional environments requiring high volume and low latency. Experience operating in MySQL and other commonly deployed databases is a given of course. Our lead tech guy has held CTO roles in large technology organisations offshore and already has an impressive CV of New Zealand projects under his belt, including trouble-shooting legacy software.

If we can help out on a project, drop me a message: paul (at] ideegeo {dot] com

Do World Cities Have an Entrepreneurial Advantage?

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According to media reports, a recent study by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) names Auckland as the OECD’s most entrepreneurial city. With all due respect, I beg to differ.

I could not find any recent reports by GEM specifically identifying Auckland as the most entrepreneurial OECD city, however I did locate a July 2008 paper exploring the hypothesis, proposed by the work of Prof. Richard Florida and others, that “world cities” attract creative people and enterprises and are hence more entrepreneurial.  Whilst I respect the idea that “creative class” and creative cities engender more entrepreneurial dynamism, I’m concerned by one or two shortcomings in the GEM methodology that seem to cloud some of the conclusions in the recent paper.

Firstly the GEM research questions subjects about their perceptions of entrepreneurial behaviours and opportunities and gives these values overly significant weighting, as opposed to assessing and reporting on actual levels of entrepreneurial activity. Furthermore it is assumed that regions with large numbers of aspirant or early stage entrepreneurs equates to economic success, when this is not neccessarily the case. An area with established and profitable businesses may be more economically successful than a region with many start-ups. The study is also a wee bit vague on defining exactly what a “world city” is. Finally, the research excludes a number of cities where high value technology entrepreneurship thrives such as Wellington, Adelaide, San Francisco and Taipei, for example.

Notwithstanding these shortcomings, it is a shame that the GEM research has not received funding in New Zealand over the last three years. The data is useful as a benchmarking tool and the methodology should be made more widely available so that excluded cities could make their own comparisons. It is unfortunate that no New Zealand data is available beyond 2005, hence we cannot be sure of what the current position might be. What we do know however, looking at the data up until 2005, is that when we include non-OECD cities, Auckland ranks similarly to Santiago, Buenos Aires and Bangkok in terms of “early stage entrepreneurial activity”.  Is that really the company we want to keep? In other words, high levels of entrepreneurial activity do not neccessarily equate to high economic returns. But there’s worse news.

When we consider the data on prevalence rates of entrepreneurial activity by city versus national figures, Auckland actually demonstrates levels less than that of New Zealand as a whole -at least according to the research.

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

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birdsnest.jpgDissident Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei, employed by a Western firm to design the iconic “Birdsnest” Olympic stadium in Beijing, exclaims that he now hates the stadium because it symbolises China’s relentless march toward modernism. He says that the carnival atmosphere of the games masks what is really going on in the world’s most populated nation and has called upon others to boycott the games in protest.

There’s no doubt that the 2008 Olympiad will be the biggest and most impressive live stage show in history and China quite rightly wants to put on a good performance for its coming out parade. But lingering concerns remain that the games hoop-la is simply a facade beyond which there lies an overbearing state machine that has made little real progress on human rights and environmental issues since it secured rights to hold the the games. I have already read several media reports of foreign journalists being shadowed by plain clothes police who then used standover tactics to dissuade ordinary citizens from being interviewed.

Games officials are ecstatic that by removing a million vehicles from Beijing’s roads and shutting down dozens of factories, they have reduced the airborne particulate matter concentration to a mere three times that of recommended World Health Organisation  standards. They also proudly advise foreign journalists that there will be no blocking of Internet websites from within the Games media centre. But the irony of such concessions is probably lost on the more affluent members of the local populace who can afford to attend and are completely absorbed in nationalistic fervour.

And who are we to criticise anyway? Where else on the planet could such an economic transformation have taken place so rapidly? When the Chinese take on a project, they really commit! Our plodding Reserve Bank gnomes would send interest rates through the roof if New Zealand enjoyed even a miserable 4% GDP growth. But growth rates twice that are ensuring that China is rapidly making up for the previous half century of disengagement.

I could also name a few Western nations that haven’t exactly been shining examples of democratic freedom themselves lately. Bush’s swansong swipe at China’s human rights record was enormously hypocritical when you consider America’s appalling disregard for its poor and homeless, its record on air bombings of civilians and the suspension of civil rights for terror detainees.

The dragon is awakening and there is no question that China will rise to become the most powerful economic and military force we’ve ever seen. The recently signed free trade agreement between China and New Zealand may well be largely symbolic, but symbolism and relationship both mean a great deal to the Chinese. Furthermore, it is only through trade and dialogue that small nations can hope to influence change.

Maori Lexicon Spins Off Pod of Projects

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orcaEnglish has prevailed as both the accepted language of commerce and as a dominant language on the Internet.  But vast numbers of non-English speaking web users are demanding that the Internet become truly internationalised. That presents an opportunity for innovators able to span cultural divides with enabling technologies.

 My mate Dave Moskowitz always has a few interesting web based projects on the boil whenever we chat. So I was pleased to hear that the online Maori dictionary  for speakers of Te Reo has finally come to fruition after much hard work. The project also complements the excellent English-Maori online dictionary and language resource kete provided by Te Whanake.

Significantly, the collaborative open source tool set used to develop the lexicography is now to be deployed in other settings globally. Apart from projects involving translation of Hawaiian and Burmese Karen into English there is an intriguing local project involving research and preservation of Maori legal documents dating from the 19th Century. No doubt there will be a steady stream of enquiries once word circulates about this unique platform. The timing could not have been better, with the recent launch of the Maori version of Google.

As the Internet becomes more and more pervasive, there is a risk of imposing a dull monoculture on its users, particularly on indigenous peoples. And with the increasing affluence of non-English speaking regions such as the Middle East and Asia, the demand for translation tools and non-English web content must surely grow exponentially. Platforms developed in multicultural New Zealand are well positioned to take advantage of this growth and to encourage diversity on the Web.

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Entrepreneur’s Epilogue

It was a defining moment last week when ideegeo took up residency and became a foundation member at Altspace in downtown Wellington. Not a moment too soon. There has been a surge of progress, with our European partner company suddenly in a position to provide a steady stream of consultancy work. More importantly my CTO and his long-suffering (but very understanding) lady were getting heartily sick of us running the business out of their spare bedroom.

Altspace is a shared workspace for start-up companies and independent contractors, providing a communal office site complete with power, Internet and furnishings plus access to a kitchenette and toilets. Being centrally located it is handy for both casual day trippers and long term users who need a base for business. Altspace director Steven Heath will be on hand at the Geeks, Games and Gadgets ’08 expo to talk about the venue which he also hopes to make available to local I.T. user groups.

I will miss the view out the bedroom window however. On our first day of working together there was a pod of Orca playing in the shallows of the South Coast right below us. I took that as a good omen.

It’s Life Jim, But Not As We Know It!

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“Fire when ready”It’s not enough that we’ve had to suffer appalling weather lately. But now my week is going from bad to worse, and it’s only Tuesday!

My tribbles began when I found out at the weekend that my walking buddy has finally acquired herself a Betazoid boyfriend, which means I won’t be hearing from her for the next six weeks whilst she boldly embarks on an intergalactic lust quest with the new beau. Alas, shared coffees at Chaffers Marina and brisk walks around Oriental Bay quadrant will soon become a distant memory.

My grief was then compounded by the realisation that my poorly researched piece on “almost free software” may have caused some offence to software purists in the audience; when in fact I was attempting to acknowledge the important contributions made by both the Free Software movement and the Open Source community. Next time I shall stick to a topic I actually know something about. One good thing came out of it though. I received strict instructions on the correct etiquette to use when in the presence of the eminent Mr Stallman, when he favours us with a lecture and challenges us with his views on software copyright next month. Suitably armed, I should be able to keep my foot out of my mouth for a change. Puts a completely new spin on the term “software royalty”, doesn’t it?

Speaking of feet, to top it all off I discovered that my toes had succumbed to a dose of some unpleasant cling-ons that had obviously been lurking in the public showers at work last time I visited. It’s life Jim, but not as we know it! There was one piece of good news however. My enterprising little son has promised to save his pocket money up and buy me the new Star Trek fanzine and DVD for my birthday, bless his heart. Both Star Trek and the Free Software movement have sought to influence thinking and to bring about social change with advocacy, although through the use of different media. The Ferengi with their obsession on acquisition and profit would certainly not approve of this comparison however. Trekkies do have a few characteristics in common with Stallman followers…but let’s not go there.

Have a good week and in the words of an ancient Gorn proverb –  “may your three toes remain warm and dry”.

Almost Free Software – Have Your Cake and Eat It Too

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The debate over whether or not software should be made freely available has been around for a long time. Can we afford such idealism? Perhaps there is a middle ground.

There are two different threads when we talk about “free software”. The first involves releasing actual code for public use; the second discussion is about providing free access to an application but without giving away the code. The latter is obviously a lot more manageable these days because of the SaaS model. But why would you bother? If you have to pay for employees, premises and some hosting, you better make sure there is some revenue coming in.

On the other hand, the fact that I can even publish this article here today is a direct result of the “crowd sourcing” approach that has spilled over from the open source community into the development of social media. Also, I’m sure we can all think of plenty of businesses which gave away their software and then built a lucrative consulting revenue stream around it. So there are clearly some tangible benefits to encouraging the open source philosophical movement to flourish and grow.

There was a great discussion thread about the (non)monetisation of Web 2.0 over on Diversity recently. Giving your product away, before you can figure out how to make money out of it, is the quickest way to destroy value in any business argues Ben. I agree. Using venture capital to prop up an ultimately unsustainable business model with over-inflated valuations is an abomination only one step removed from pyramid selling. But, maybe it’s how you go about giving away your software that matters.

We have a couple of products in the pipeline at ideegeo but with two completely different marketing and monetisation strategies planned. The first is a mobile application targetted at a niche audience which we will sell for quite a low margin through an online store. I will be overjoyed if we break even on the time spent developing it. However, it will raise our profile and demonstrate capability. The second product will be given away completely for free through our own website. The hook is that we get paid a small amount every time someone actually uses it (which is often). The clients will happily pay because the application demonstrably drives more business their way. If the application needs improvement, we will also get very rapid feedback.

My point is that the Internet has completely revolutionalised both software development and marketing. If you develop “almost free” software and then make it available to a very large number of users at only a very modest cost, everybody wins.

Next month Unlimited Potential are proudly hosting Richard Stallman as special guest speaker in the lead up to the Geeks, Games and Gadgets ’08 event.

Stallman founded the GNU Project an open source software development project that contributed substantively to the genesis of the Linux operating system. At times controversial, the title of “open source guru” seems quite aptly applied in the context of Stallman’s thought leadership. Social media and especially Wikipedia had not even been conceived of at the time of this 1996 interview, but it illustrates his visionary abilities.

Whatever your position on open source or the debate around competing public licensing systems, this seminar is likely to be a thought provoking one. Registration is highly recommended for what will no doubt be a popular session.

Can Business Get Its Head Around Social Media?

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Developer meeting held in SmallworldsFrom virtual worlds to dating sites to online gaming, there’s no denying that people are spending more time than ever before engaged in digital social media of some form or other. It comes as no surprise then to learn that, in the first half of 2008 alone, venture capital firms invested US $345 million in virtual worlds or related enterprises. As more sophisticated business models emerge around virtual economies, it has become clear that there is now real money to be made online.

In a world where travel costs are spiralling ever upwards, more and more people are opting to stay at home for entertainment. Does it mean that shopping malls, movie theatres and public bars are sunset industries, to be replaced by bits and bytes residing on a remote server? Perhaps not just yet, but rarely a day goes by that we don’t hear about the launch of a new web community, social mash-up or cool online game of some sort. 

Unfortunately research suggests that about 75% of these communities will never even achieve 1000 users. We set up ION almost six years ago and only recently celebrated our millenial sign-up. In any event there must be a limit to the proliferation of online social networks because once users become uber connected there is far less incentive to keep signing up to new networks. As network density increases, the advantage gained by the user decreases.

So when even Bill Gates gives up on his Facebook account, it really makes you question how much value large corporates see in social networks and virtual worlds. Some people continue to question whether or not virtual spaces will ever become meaningful in an enterprise setting. Although businesses have been using applications such as Sharepoint and Lotus Notes as knowledge management tools for years, corporates are still struggling to make the quantum leap into virtual communities and interactive game type environments as forms of collaborative business tools.

On the other hand corporate dinosaurs are belatedly waking up to the power of social media as a marketing tool. This videocast from the Harvard Business School offers advice to large companies about managing the change processes around implementing social media strategies. Now – I’m pretty sure I don’t need to belong to a web community for kitty litter or some other weird or random social network. I would however join a business network or film club that had an online community component for example. Whatever spins your wheels, I suppose.

New Zealand has a couple of promising virtual world ventures of its own. Smallworlds launched recently with a high quality browser based world for young adults that leverages advances in Flash based functionality and graphics. Socialise was an early entrant with a dating and friendship focus. Socialise is a regional community that has secured advertising sponsorship as a revenue stream, whilst Smallworlds is pitched at a global audience and intends to establish a virtual economy within the site.

Smallworlds users create and populate their own individual home spaces, which raises the question of identity portability. If players participate in several communities, plus own a Facebook or MySpace page, how can they manage their global identity? For dedicated social networkers with multiple sites to share and manage, aggregating all those links at one web address would seem to make sense. That’s a problem that we hope to address in a creative way very soon at ideegeo.

Global Market for Mobile Digital Innovation Booming

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Will the iPhone create a mobility revolution of Epic proportions?Reports of an emerging mobile advertising revenue market globally worth $US 150 billion by 2011 seem outlandish until you realise that the number of mobile social networking users is predicted to grow to almost a billion worldwide. Now with the launch of the much anticipated iPhone, user expectations of application mobility have been raised further, so providers of mobile applications will be searching for new and creative ways to drive revenue models to support those aspirations.

New Zealand undoubtedly has a chance to position itself as a global leader in mobile applications development. We already have pockets of creativity emerging. Zodal in Christchurch has arisen as both a market leader and industry evangelist on the mobile games and marketing front. In Wellington, Instinct Entertainment and Run the Red are successfully pursuing  their own particular niches and ideegeo is developing an Internet domain asset management tool that will have an iPhone interface. Open Cloud also grew up in the ICT Capital and, after a successful VC fund raising effort, is off to conquer the world with its acclaimed application server platform for provisioning Java based telco services. With mobile devices becoming even more ubiquitous than computers, it seems like we should be doing all we can to promote businesses like these as part of “transformative” efforts to improve the breadth of the economy.

On that note the next Unlimited Potential event is the annual “Geeks, Games and Gadgets” (GGG) showcase to be held in Wellington on 13th August. Because we are into promoting homegrown innovation, we’d love to have New Zealand mobile developers front up to demo and talk about their applications, especially games or edutainment. GGG ’08 will be bigger, brighter and marketed to a much wider audience than ever before. There will also be some surprise guests and lots of giveaways from our friends.

If you would like to share your clever games and gadgets, or position as an event sponsor, please get in touch as soon as possible. Post a reply on this blog article or use paul [at) up (dot] org [dot] nz.

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Events Epilogue

The roaring success of last week’s  Start-Up.co.nz / Silicon Welly launch event underlines my comments about how Unlimited Potential is rapidly emerging as the event manager of choice within the Wellington technology networking scene. Building social capital within knowledge sharing communities is something I am personally very passionate about because of the natural multiplier effects of networks that especially assist new or smaller ventures to grow.

The underlying reason for these effects is explained by research suggesting the importance of social networks in supporting entrepreneurship and innovation through facilitating capital flows, enhancing technology transfer and sourcing talent. In particular, networks assist with the settlement and retention of skilled migrants. At a time when New Zealand’s ICT businesses are constrained by a shortage of human resources, networks have a critical role to play. On that point….watch this space for further developments.

Speaking of social events, I was roped into helping run the bar at the aforementioned Unlimited Potential event last week and noticed that Epic Beer was the most popular drink in the house. We gave away several dozen within minutes. Thanks Epic for your support! Kind of appropriate when you consider the entrepreneurial story of Epic brewer Luke Nicholas and how he is developing the brand through Web 2.0 marketing techniques. We smell success in the wind.

UPstarts Enliven Capital ICT Scene

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Unlimited PotentialAfter a period of quiescence, Wellington’s technology and business networking event scene is now undergoing somewhat of a renaissance.

On Thursday evening this week Unlimited Potential are throwing a launch party for Start-Up magazine and Silicon Welly whilst throughout July and August 7X7 are offering a thought provoking weekly think-fest on “economic transformation”. But wait there’s more!

Also in the pipeline @UP is the annual Geeks, Games and Gadgets technology showcase in August, Software Freedom Day in September for Open Sourcers, and a possible Town and Gown collaboration with Victoria University ICT researchers. With UP taking over managing the ICT Capital membership base it brings this collective community to over 1500 ICT sector professionals, business owners and technology managers.

After the wild successes of XMediaLab and  Webstock it is clear that Wellington is now emerging as a “go to” destination for technology and innovation related events in New Zealand. People are talking more and more about the value of community. Sponsors, opinion-makers and governmental agencies are now realising there is tremendous value in leveraging the interest groups that grow up around such events and Unlimited Potential is rapidly positioning as the event manager of choice for this sector.

In 2002 when GeniusNet set up the first virtual community for innovators and entrepreneurs, we did not have the resources to run live events as well. Back then, people struggled with the concept and of course the term “social network” was not widely in use in a web context. But our research found that the best ideas arise from the creativity found where community boundaries overlap. You can’t build a collaborative community by email, webforum or teleconference alone however. Trust is the bandwidth for the exchange of knowledge and one generally needs to meet people face-to-face to build that trust.

Virtual communities and social networking platforms do facilitate engagement to a certain extent, but real live meetings build much deeper foundations of trust. Jobs are located, deals transacted and relationships forged ultimately because people met together in person, eyeballed each other and learned trust. I know  this for a fact, because right now I’m developing a very cool business with some smart guys I originally met online. How Web 2.0 is that?!

Why ICT Underpins Innovation

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GITRA recent global report on information technology places New Zealand about the middle of the pack in terms of “network readiness”. But the index only accounts for part of the story about why the country is struggling to remain competitive through innovation.

The information technology report from INSEAD university and the World Economic Forum offers some very clear indications around what New Zealand has to achieve in order to boost innovation and raise competitiveness. The annual report ranks all countries in terms of ICT readiness by assessing a basket of factors that influence business, government and individuals. Quality of phone, broadband and server infrastructure, regulatory environment, quality of science education, R&D spend by firms and availability of venture capital are amongst the variables assessed to establish a “network readiness index” (NRI).

High network readiness alone does not guarantee success however. In fact highly competitive nations such as Finland, Israel and Taiwan rank slightly below New Zealand on the network readiness index. But if we consider a bunch of other factors that allude to innovative capacity, it paints a much different picture. Innovation factors (IF) include quality of scientific institutions, extent of university-industry collaboration, availability of scientists and engineers, number of patents issued per capita. These factors tell us whether or not a nation has the capacity to innovate through novel research, which is a far stronger value proposition than simple imitation. The fact that New Zealand ranks about the same as Zimbabwe is probably reason for some concern.

What we do know is that countries which rank highly on both counts, tend to be innovation powerhouses with rapidly improving GDP per capita. By this we mean nations such as Denmark, South Korea, India, Singapore and Malaysia. Unsurprisingly, all of these countries embarked some time ago on aggressive improvements to their ICT infrastructure. So exactly why does ICT appear to underpin innovation?

There are at least five good reasons why a sound ICT environment supports innovation processes:

  • Knowledge identification eg. market research, locating human resources, accessing science research, knowledge sharing platforms.
  • Developing creative capacity eg. computer aided design and 3D graphics.
  • Enhancing exploration eg. simulation and prototyping.
  • Shortening the design-test cycle eg. making failure inexpensive.
  • Improving capacity for commercialisation management eg. knowledge management, Web 2.0 e-marketing, virtual collaboration.
  • Empowering customer feedback into the design process.

The human genome project is a good example of a piece of innovation work that, a decade ago, could not have even been imagined anywhere in the world. Could such a project be done in New Zealand today? Although we now have a high speed research network and at least one homegrown firm offering suitable enabling software technology, it hasn’t happened because we are still struggling with a number of the innovation factors mentioned above. R&D spend is low, collaboration seems problematic rather the accepted norm and the education system is failing to inspire a new generation of scientists and engineers.

This shows that, as an enabler of innovation, we cannot consider ICT in isolation. There has been much debate over the need to rollout better broadband across New Zealand. But the economic case for substantial publicly funded investment in the project has yet to be properly made. Most people grasp that more and better ICT would be a good thing, but few are clear on exactly why. We need to benchmark ourselves more fully in order to better articulate the need.