Convergence Conversation

Some interesting comments on the NGA question from David Cameron and the Conservative party today. In a speech on the economy and its various problems Cameron said this about the importance of broadband to the UK and what, if elected, he would do about it:

 'Fibre optic broadband is changing the way people work and do business, and it has the potential to completely transform our economy. It could open up new markets for our creative industries, promote innovation, create new, family-friendly jobs as people can work from home - and help reduce carbon emissions. But in Britain we have some of the slowest broadband speeds in the developed world and when it comes to investing in next generation broadband networks, like fibre optics to the home, we're doing very badly compared to countries like Germany, Japan and America.'

You could squabble over a couple of these pronouncemnet but there's nothing too contentious there. More...

Just as Lord Voldemort is euphemistically referred to as “He Who Must Not Be Named”, so the same treatment is applied to the word “recession.” The “R” word is, quite frankly, a dirty word. It strikes such fear into the heart of business, that companies would much rather use another word in its stead. Here are a few:

Downturn.

Slump.

Bottom out.

Realignment.

Bagel.

(Bagel is my personal favourite, it’s what Josh Lyman from the US show The West Wing insists on describing it.)

Of course it doesn’t matter what you call it. You can call a spade a “digging facilitation device”, but everyone knows it’s a spade so why pretend otherwise? Instead of wasting time thinking of names to call a recession, time should be spent on the most important question; how do you get out of one?

In my days working at an advertising agency, the answer of course lay in spending money on advertising. More...

Let’s start with a quick exercise.

If I say a well-known phrase I want you to think of the first thing that springs to mind. Ready?

Social networks.

Now, what came to mind?

I imagine a lot of you were suddenly presented with the disarming image of spotty youths furiously typing away, openly sharing their deepest personal insecurities with one another, using spurious “text speak”, the only language apart from Welsh to be completely devoid of vowels...a different language, indeed a different world, to a lot of us here in the business world. Social networking is just something those “youngsters” do isn’t it?

I know that’s the view I had a few years ago, whilst creating highly targeted, relevant, beautifully creative pieces of mailed communication (which my girlfriend called junk mail) for a large communications agency. More...

Ben Piper of Strategy Analytics has derided Internet connectivity in the US, describing it as "outpaced by other developed nations in terms of broadband deployment, penetration, availability and affordability". He appears to be gifted in framing his assertions by raising the spectre of the Russian Sputnik initiative in 1957 which spurred the US to engage proactively in the space race.

In his report's accompanying press release, Ben is quoted as saying: "Through inertia, complacency and false security, the United States was late out of the broadband starting gate, and has barely begun the game of catch up.... More...