Great idea from Nokia:

They are working with director, Spike Lee to make a series of short films comprised of video captured by regular folk on their mobile phone.  Nokia intend to create the world’s first social film. People will be asked to film content on their mobiles (which need not be Nokia devices) and submit them for consideration. The end result will be a film in three acts around the theme of humanity.

I love the idea that power is in the hands of people now.   All you need to be a filmmaker now is a mobile phone. Nokia claims that by 2012, “one out of every four consumers will create, edit or share entertainment with friends, instead of getting it from traditional media outlets like television or movie studios.”

Pundits and corporate spokespeople have been making claims like this for a very long time, and despite my most profound yearnings big-media is still around. I’m not fully convinced that the mobiles of 2012 will be able to replicate the cinema experience, nevertheless the trend is clearly in Nokia’s favor.

This is where most brands seem to be going.  There are 3 elements to this strategy.  First, to get real people to be part of the brand story and inspire user generated content.  Secondly, rather then tell and sell (the old advertising model), to inspire people to tell their story demonstrating the capabilities products (like the Sony foam ad).    The third element is not a new one: to get people to be part of the distribution of their story. This is clearly in line with Nokia’s strategy to be much more than a phone, more of the swiss army life for the information society.

As Spike Lee states, all films will be made like this in 5 years.  Technology has made this possible.  What an exciting time to work in the technology space.

Last week I attended a change management course which was taught by Richard Jolly. When we talked about personal change, we discussed how the BlackBerry and other technologies transformed how we work and live.

On the one hand the BlackBerry means that boundaries between work and home life are removed. Earlier work was clearly contained by the physical space of the office. You had to work in the office and were kicked out when the offices were closed. This has changed, however. Now we can be always on and we expect other people to be always on too. If your boss sends you an email on a Sunday you better have an answer when you meet him or her the following morning or even better for your corporate brownie points, reply straightaway. Replying instantly to an email is seen as a great achievement and celebrated in society. However this constantly on phenomenon leads to that people burn out easier and work takes over all aspects of life. This all contributes to what is called hurry sickness. Hurry sickness is the feeling that everything has to be done instantly and that it cannot wait a couple of seconds.

There is the other side to it. The liberating aspect of technology. You can now answer emails while playing golf and pretend to be at work. Working mothers often celebrate that their life has become now more integrated when they are able to have a BlackBerry. They can type emails from home or while on the tube. Yes, a BlackBerry allows you to use your time more efficiently. Especially when your time is limited.

In reality, life is probably not as black and white but has many shades of grey. You have to work hard to not allow technology to take over your life.

Switch off your BlackBerry and give yourself some time! There must be times when you are just not available. Some of the most successful business people I know regularly take time for themselves when they are just not available and this time is non-negotiable. This times saves them from burn out, allows them to recharge their batteries and makes them more focused and productive when they work.

If you manage people you need to think about what kind of example you set them. If you send emails on a Sunday, your employees will work for you then. It might be wise to write emails off line and send them on a Monday morning and most things can wait.

Decelerate your life and still use the benefits of technology!

I am suffering from geek envy. I have a Blackberry Pearl. I used to love it. I still love it to some degree although lately I am falling out of love with it.

Its great for reading my emails. It is good for texting. It takes OK photos. But its devoid of fun. Its a corporate device. It has very limited multimedia player functions. I can’t listen to podcasts on it. I can’t watch videos from YouTube on it. It has no instant messenger. I see my husband’s one-year old Nokia N95 which does all of these things and more, and I am suffering from geek envy.

He shows me videos of our son on his phone. He shows me nostalgic 80′s pop videos (sadly i remember dancing around my living room to Bros). He chats to me on instant messenger while he is on the move.

But I tell him, the N95 is not sleek and sophisticated like my piano black Pearl. It looks out of place in the office – it’s just a bit plastiky. Unfortunately this argument will seem redundant in a few months. The N96 (the upgrade from the N95) keeps Nokia’s technical lead but borrows some of the iPhone’s good looks.

Its already set mobi-geeks into quite a frenzy. And got the Mobile World Congress buzzing. This tiny box of tricks seems to support every current standard of communication, entertainment & media on the market today.

Clearly Nokia are trying to out iPhone the iPhone. The first thing they fixed is it’s appearance. I’m not complaining about the N95′s looks (well I am actually as its boxy and chunky) – on the other hand the N96 is a great deal prettier. It has an impressive 16GB internal memory – that’s the same as the current generation of iPhones, however unlike the iPhone it supports removable memory which effectively allows users to double their storage of music and movies. Check it out on YouTube.

It’s also got something called DVB-H – a standard that allows users to receive live television, I’m not convinced that anybody wll actually bother with this one.

As an earlier post on Lady Geek highlighted, most people use their mobile phones to stay in touch with family and friends while at work. Instead of letting work into their private life, people seem to bring their private life to work. Many of the problems people face at work are related to that they cannot express part of their personality at work and have to be someone they do not want to be. This is particularly an issue for women.

Blackberry needs to realise that the boundaries between home and work life are blurred. Women want a fluid device that is not just a ‘tool’ as many previous research studies claim. Women want technology to be fun. They want something that will make them smile, stay connected and that they can play with during meetings. Women don’t only want technology for the boardroom, they want technology to enhance their life. With the iphone and N96 as strong contenders for the female pound, Blackberry needs to take themselves a little less seriously.

Academic research has always assumed that mobile devices lead to an overflow from work into private life. In consequence life becomes more like work and is frenetically planned. However recent research by Professor Judy Wajcman and colleagues has shown that this is not the case. In this Australian study they explored how people use their mobile phones. What their found was astonishing: most people used their mobile phones to stay in touch with family and friends while at work. Instead of letting work into their private life, people seem to bring their private life to work. Many of the problems people face at work are related to that they cannot express part of their personality at work and have to be someone they do not want to be. This is particularly an issue for women. Technology – be it a mobile phone or Facebook – might change that and might make the boundaries between work and life more fluid.

From research we know that engineers and designers tend to use themselves as the ideal for which they create new technologies. That means that we often end up with technology that is designed by engineers and with engineers in mind. While a small proportion of technically-versed men (and women) might find this technology easy to use, most people probably won’t. My research on gender and technology has shown that women prefer to use technology that is intuitive to use and does not require you to study the manual for hours. In fact, many men would prefer this as well.

Creating technology that is more intuitive to use is an important step in making technology more accessible to all. While the graphical user interface and the mouse as input device was popularised in the 1990s, not much has changed since then. Until recently. Apple’s new iPhone and iPod touch use a multi-touch technology to make the technology more intuitive to navigate. And what could be more intuitive than using your fingers. Last week I attended a presentation by Steve Ballmer, Microsofts’ CEO. He presented a new piece of technology which included a multi-touch screen similar to the one of the iPhone. The Microsoft Surface is a table PC that is operated by touch alone. It syncs with other devices such as mobile phone and digital cameras through simply putting them on the surface. These new touch technologies make it more intuitive to operate technology. In fact they provide tools to integrate technology much more into everyday life. Then technology is no longer designed for engineers by engineers but by engineers for people.

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070530-what-lurks-below-microsofts-surface-a-qa-with-microsoft.html

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/iphone-review.ars

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/The-iPod-meets-the-iPhone-a-review-of-the-iPod-touch.ars